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2025 chess season tracker


Gollum

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4 hours ago, rangeelaraja said:

 

Hans Niemann is taking Magnooos to the cleaners directly on X.

 

 

 

Dvorkovich must realize that appeasing this manchild is a futile exercise. Bring down the hammer on these selfish, greedy troublemakers and they will come crawling back, begging for mercy in 2 years time. Nobody is above the game or its parent organization which has to cater to a much wider community. Sutovsky is giving them the correct treatment, hence all the personal attacks on him including leaking private messages by Carlsen's coach PHN. Urge FIDE to go to war against this group of clowns and sycophants. 

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22 hours ago, Vickydev said:

Gukesh seemed fatigued all tournament IMO, especially the last couple of rounds. He had a few lucky breaks too earlier against Nodirbek and Giri iirc

 

Pragg was definitely the superior player in Wijk aan Zee. 

 

About Arjun there were rumours he had the caught the flu that some of the contestants had. Good to see his recovery both on and off the board

Agree bro. Best player won this event.

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9 minutes ago, Gollum said:

I know Gukesh wants to challenge Magnus on his turf but wiser if he breaks away from this tour after the first event. Stick with FIDE and not these snake oil merchants. 


This is loser talk imo, with respect. Gukesh may lose ? Ok. Lose. Lose some more. Whatever. No biggie. Gukesh has to simply have the mindset that he will hunt down magnus or be at least one of the ones to piss on his dead body. Coz he has age advantage and is also an elite player. Its a question of when, not if Gukesh will pance Magnus. Sure, it may be 40+ magnus, but it will then be less than 30 year old Gukesh.
They have to know, that as you said, magnus = pampered and entitled arsehole, so the only play here is to not less losses affect u, same way that Novak did to Roger - hunt him down as he ages, coz you got the age advantage and even if you aint so good, so what, you got age advantage. You will hunt him down. All Gukesh just has to do, is to play a varied schedule, normal schedule and settle in as a chess dude for next 20-30 years as a goal. And if he does, he takes down Hag-nus. Same goes for Pragu, Nodirbek, etc.
As Novak showed the mental angle of it - this is how you take down the uber-champ, if you have age advantage - just dont let losses get to you as you focus on the details and come in clutch as you peak - which in chess terms is still a decade away for Gukesh, Pragu, Nodirbek, etc.

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29 minutes ago, Muloghonto said:


This is loser talk imo, with respect. Gukesh may lose ? Ok. Lose. Lose some more. Whatever. No biggie. Gukesh has to simply have the mindset that he will hunt down magnus or be at least one of the ones to piss on his dead body. Coz he has age advantage and is also an elite player. Its a question of when, not if Gukesh will pance Magnus. Sure, it may be 40+ magnus, but it will then be less than 30 year old Gukesh.
They have to know, that as you said, magnus = pampered and entitled arsehole, so the only play here is to not less losses affect u, same way that Novak did to Roger - hunt him down as he ages, coz you got the age advantage and even if you aint so good, so what, you got age advantage. You will hunt him down. All Gukesh just has to do, is to play a varied schedule, normal schedule and settle in as a chess dude for next 20-30 years as a goal. And if he does, he takes down Hag-nus. Same goes for Pragu, Nodirbek, etc.
As Novak showed the mental angle of it - this is how you take down the uber-champ, if you have age advantage - just dont let losses get to you as you focus on the details and come in clutch as you peak - which in chess terms is still a decade away for Gukesh, Pragu, Nodirbek, etc.

I never said about Gukesh losing. I am confident most of these young kids will hit their peaks in next 5-10 years and displace the previous generation completely, circle of life and all that.

 

I want Gukesh to stay away from the other camp (led by Magnus) which wants to break away from FIDE and shift from classical to rapid/blitz, freestle whatever. You see how being close to MC has corrupted Firouzja. Generational talent and world champ prospect who sunk hard in two back to back candidates, less focused on classical, heck he even skipped the Olympiad (France at full strength is a serious contender) after all that French federation did for him (including helping him qualify to candidates by arranging those last minute games). Magnus is a bad influence on youngsters, he is in it only for himself. Also a coward, unlike Federer/Anand (who took the inevitable beatdowns against younger competitors like men, passed the mantle), fear of losing has made him abandon the WCC cycle. Why is he so hesitant to challenge these kids in classical? Even in Norway chess he needs cushion of Armageddon....Pragg smashed him there in the classical game.

 

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On 2/3/2025 at 6:01 PM, Gollum said:

Who has the time for that? Need to be practical as well.

They could have played a bunch of rapid games.

 

Why does the tie break have to be blitz?

 

This is as obscure as that the team who hit more boundaries wins the ICC WC rule.

Edited by Mariyam
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3 hours ago, Mariyam said:

They could have played a bunch of rapid games.

 

Why does the tie break have to be blitz?

 

This is as obscure as that the team who hit more boundaries wins the ICC WC rule.

The more I think of it The more I like the chess version of super over tiebreaker: Here is a chess puzzle never made before, the guy who solves it first is winner. 

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On 2/4/2025 at 1:40 AM, Gollum said:

Dvorkovich must realize that appeasing this manchild is a futile exercise. Bring down the hammer on these selfish, greedy troublemakers and they will come crawling back, begging for mercy in 2 years time. Nobody is above the game or its parent organization which has to cater to a much wider community. Sutovsky is giving them the correct treatment, hence all the personal attacks on him including leaking private messages by Carlsen's coach PHN. Urge FIDE to go to war against this group of clowns and sycophants. 

 

 

Chess has always been vulnerable to gangster like behavior from World Champions.  

 

It all started with Fischer who abandoned Chess when his every ask was not met by FIDE in the re-match with Spassky.

 

Then Kasporov, even Kramnik to an extent.

 

I remember practically the entire Chess world queued up in support of Anand when he was facing Topalov on his home turf in 2010.

 

Topalov's manager Silvio Danailov is one of Chess' most notorious thugs. 

 

The Chess world was worried as to what Danailov might do if his ward ( Topalov ) won the 2010 WC.

 

Kasparov, Kramnik, Carlsen...they were trying to "help" Anand.  Have never seen anything like this.

 

So MC's entitled behavior is not unprecedented. It has been common among WCs/ #1 Ranked players.

 

 

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14 minutes ago, rangeelaraja said:

 

 

Chess has always been vulnerable to gangster like behavior from World Champions.  

 

It all started with Fischer who abandoned Chess when his every ask was not met by FIDE in the re-match with Spassky.

 

Then Kasporov, even Kramnik to an extent.

 

I remember practically the entire Chess world queued up in support of Anand when he was facing Topalov on his home turf in 2010.

 

Topalov's manager Silvio Danailov is one of Chess' most notorious thugs. 

 

The Chess world was worried as to what Danailov might do if his ward ( Topalov ) won the 2010 WC.

 

Kasparov, Kramnik, Carlsen...they were trying to "help" Anand.  Have never seen anything like this.

 

So MC's entitled behavior is not unprecedented. It has been common among WCs/ #1 Ranked players.

Even Karpov got his way, those matches against Korchnoi being prime examples. Got his fair share of help from FIDE whether in 1984 Moscow or 1998 Lausanne.

 

Spassky, Anand are two recent world champions (recent in historical context since Steinitz was from 19th century) who were not entitled during their reigns, proper gentlemen. Tal was another nice guy. Don't know much about Smyslov and Petrosian. "Patriarch" Botvinik was another thug who was favored by Soviet authorities, blatantly misused the powers vested in him as premier Soviet Chess figure.

 

You are right about Topalov, Danailov. Latter is the most notorious chess manager I can think of, Topalov winning the Sofia match would have been an unmitigated disaster.

Edited by Gollum
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19 hours ago, Muloghonto said:

The more I think of it The more I like the chess version of super over tiebreaker: Here is a chess puzzle never made before, the guy who solves it first is winner. 

I like this idea.

Shall tweak further.

 

Both the players should be presented with a problem (notice, I don't say puzzle). They have 5 minutes to write down their solution. The solution should cover all possibilities.

 

Who ever is the closest wins, else we repeat this till there is a winner.

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  • The title was changed to 2025 chess season tracker

@Mariyam, @Muloghonto, solving puzzles doesn't always correlate to chess ability. World chess puzzle champions are usually mid 2500s, requires a different skillset I guess, I see mathematicians (chess players with some mathematical background) doing well there, like English GMs John Nunn and Jonathan Mestel. Maybe regular top players haven't given a shot at these championships, who knows? 

 

And won't it favour more tactical minded and calculation based players? Carlsen is famous for playing consistently good moves, top 3-4 engine suggestions but not often the engine's top suggestion.....someone like Nepo or Gukesh may find more engine top moves but sometimes also lose the plot completely. 

 

Edited by Gollum
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3 hours ago, Mariyam said:

I like this idea.

Shall tweak further.

 

Both the players should be presented with a problem (notice, I don't say puzzle). They have 5 minutes to write down their solution. The solution should cover all possibilities.

 

Who ever is the closest wins, else we repeat this till there is a winner.

Someone may have faster handwriting :phehe:

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All things considered I still feel there must be tie breaks. But would prefer rapid first (at least 4 games) and then blitz. Tie breaker should have some semblance to the game we just saw, and should also minimize luck factor. Even tennis has TBs. 

Edited by Gollum
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Continuing with the theme, I also don't like the shoot out system in football and field hockey. In recent years, the Brazil-Croatia result in '22 FIFA WC, both hockey Champions Trophy final games in 2016 and '18 (where India dominated Australia in regular time) were very frustrating and unfair results for me. Argentina also had this terrible, negative strategy to force every game in 1990 FIFA WC to shootouts where they had the best penalty stopping keeper in Goycochea. 

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3 hours ago, Gollum said:

@Mariyam, @Muloghonto, solving puzzles doesn't always correlate to chess ability. World chess puzzle champions are usually mid 2500s, requires a different skillset I guess, I see mathematicians (chess players with some mathematical background) doing well there, like English GMs John Nunn and Jonathan Mestel. Maybe regular top players haven't given a shot at these championships, who knows? 

 

And won't it favour more tactical minded and calculation based players? Carlsen is famous for playing consistently good moves, top 3-4 engine suggestions but not often the engine's top suggestion.....someone like Nepo or Gukesh may find more engine top moves but sometimes also lose the plot completely. 

 

I swear it's a coincidence that I am math MSc who suggested chess puzzles as tie breaker. Desis won't have an advantage at all if we introduce math component. That's crazy talk. 

:phehe::eyedance:

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Watching a bit of Freestyle/Fischer random, not a fan of it tbh. Pawn moves look tricky and can be curtains if done incorrectly. Plus it's difficult to judge, esp without an eval bar.

 

Will be surprised if the viewership numbers are better than regular events, though there are some big names involved

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On 2/8/2025 at 12:18 AM, Vickydev said:

Watching a bit of Freestyle/Fischer random, not a fan of it tbh. Pawn moves look tricky and can be curtains if done incorrectly. Plus it's difficult to judge, esp without an eval bar.

 

Will be surprised if the viewership numbers are better than regular events, though there are some big names involved

World wide chess viewership broadly depends on two factors:

 

  • How far an Indian has progressed in the tournament.
  • Sagar Shah's coverage of the tournament?
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On 2/7/2025 at 2:36 PM, Mariyam said:

I like this idea.

Shall tweak further.

 

Both the players should be presented with a problem (notice, I don't say puzzle). They have 5 minutes to write down their solution. The solution should cover all possibilities.

 

Who ever is the closest wins, else we repeat this till there is a winner.

 

Chessboxing is the simplest way :agree:

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2 hours ago, Mariyam said:

World wide chess viewership broadly depends on two factors:

 

  • How far an Indian has progressed in the tournament.
  • Sagar Shah's coverage of the tournament?

Hey when did the pure unadulterated love for the game stopped being a factor?? :(( Thought that's why they bring in Tania for commentary

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Gukesh eliminated by Caruana. Definitely the young players need a bit of time to make a difference with their superior studying capabilities and preparations in this new format, for now Carlsen and co seem to have a definitive advantage

 

Having said that, it will depend if the format sticks and grows for them to devote their time

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