Gollum Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Anand withdraws from the freestyle chess tournament (co-organized by Carlsen), quite late. Surely after effects of brat MC's outburst against FIDE/Anand in world rapid @rangeelaraja. rangeelaraja 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 On 1/21/2025 at 11:08 PM, Vickydev said: Pragg has started extremely well in Wijk Aan Zee, looking at his 3rd win today. Arjun OTOH has had a shocker so far... was outclassed by Pragg in the last game, today just blundered a piece More impressed by Gukesh. After non-stop schedule post WCC win, arriving so late in the tournament (just 2 hours before start of R1, since he was collecting Khel Ratna the previous day). Went on to beat Giri in opening round, with practically no rest, and certain jet lag. Vickydev and Mariyam 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Somehow Arjun hasn't clicked in Wijk aan Zee, big blot considering the prestige/history/legacy of this tournament. Read that in masters division his record reads 0 wins, 7 losses, 9 draws....shocking record thus far. Really hope an Indian wins this, Pragg, Gukesh, Hari looking good but still long way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mariyam Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 2 hours ago, Gollum said: More impressed by Gukesh. After non-stop schedule post WCC win, arriving so late in the tournament (just 2 hours before start of R1, since he was collecting Khel Ratna the previous day). Went on to beat Giri in opening round, with practically no rest, and certain jet lag. IMHO 5 years form now the primary world champion/challengers will be Gukesh, Pragg, Nodirbek, Firouzja ,Keymer, Arjun, Chidambaram (in this order). Magnus may still be in the top 5 ranks but uninterested in Classical or the world championship. Gollum 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Just now, Mariyam said: IMHO 5 years form now the primary world champion/challengers will be Gukesh, Pragg, Nodirbek, Firouzja ,Keymer, Arjun, Chidambaram (in this order). Magnus may still be in the top 5 ranks but uninterested in Classical or the world championship. Mariyam didi how r uuuu… misssss ur inputs here Mariyam 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muloghonto Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 3 hours ago, Mariyam said: IMHO 5 years form now the primary world champion/challengers will be Gukesh, Pragg, Nodirbek, Firouzja ,Keymer, Arjun, Chidambaram (in this order). Magnus may still be in the top 5 ranks but uninterested in Classical or the world championship. Can't rule out Hikaru or Caruana for the next 5-10 years imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 (edited) 15 minutes ago, Muloghonto said: Can't rule out Hikaru or Caruana for the next 5-10 years imo. In classical, I consider Nepo, MVL, maybe even Giri, So as bigger contenders than Naka. Sure some of them have been in bad form for last couple of years, but even Naka was out of the picture for a good 4-5 years in between. Mamedyarov, Grischuk and Aronian are a bit too old now I guess. Svidler even more so. Duda, Rapport, Wei Yi, Fedoseev are wildcards to keep an eye on. Edited January 23 by Gollum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 (edited) Come to think of it. Despite his reputation, Naka has never won world rapid or blitz titles....forget classical. Ivanchuk, Anand won world rapid when they were 48/49 years old....both beating Carlsen on the way. More than actual chess abilities, Naka has built his reputation due to quick mouse speed and his ability to premove better than others in online speed chess. Edited January 23 by Gollum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Think this thread has served its purpose. Should we lock it and open a dedicated 2025 chess season thread? Because there will be other tournaments without Gukesh's participation. What do others say? New guy and Muloghonto 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vickydev Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 1 hour ago, Gollum said: In classical, I consider Nepo, MVL, maybe even Giri, So as bigger contenders than Naka. Sure some of them have been in bad form for last couple of years, but even Naka was out of the picture for a good 4-5 years in between. Mamedyarov, Grischuk and Aronian are a bit too old now I guess. Svidler even more so. Duda, Rapport, Wei Yi, Fedoseev are wildcards to keep an eye on. There are a couple of Turkish kids to watch out for. They look really interesting, one of them beat Arjun recently. Gollum 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vickydev Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 1 hour ago, Gollum said: Think this thread has served its purpose. Should we lock it and open a dedicated 2025 chess season thread? Because there will be other tournaments without Gukesh's participation. What do others say? Agree. A dedicated thread to track the events for the year Gollum 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kepler37b Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 11 hours ago, Gollum said: But individual sports make enough dough for top 20-30 players, quantum is higher in tennis but still a world number 80 in tennis as well as chess will face similar financial problems unless they diversify (second job outside or within the system like coaching). Team sports like cricket, football, basketball have money more spread out among the players.....even field hockey. Precisely. They need a second career. A second track. I would be very interested to see how the international masters are prodding on in life. Here is the list - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_chess_players#References:~:text=title application-,International Masters,-[edit] From what I found, many of them are in coaching at an hourly rate. Gollum 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rangeelaraja Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 8 hours ago, Gollum said: Anand withdraws from the freestyle chess tournament (co-organized by Carlsen), quite late. Surely after effects of brat MC's outburst against FIDE/Anand in world rapid @rangeelaraja. Great move. MC is the worst possible role model for this great intellectual sport and Anand is the very best in the history of the game ! Indian chess should do nothing to patronize anything that MC does. Muloghonto and Gollum 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 9 hours ago, Vickydev said: There are a couple of Turkish kids to watch out for. They look really interesting, one of them beat Arjun recently. Yeah, Turkey is doing very well in juniors, USA too. Also that Argentine prodigy, Faustino Oro, even looks like mini Caruana !!!!! See a drought in Russian chess though, something I never imagined could happen even 5 years ago. Vickydev 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 @Lord bhai, could you please unpin this thread? Opening a new thread to track chess developments in 2025. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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