FIDE World Cup 2021

[Kevin Bonham]

Crushing win by Duda. Looks like Karjakin ran out of batteries for the final.

PGN Viewer

 

Congrats to Garvinator who wins the poll; he also did so last time (in that case tipping only the winner and nobody else!)

[Kevin Bonham]

Duda was undefeated in the tournament, being taken to rapid only by Grischuk and Carlsen.

[MichaelBaron]

Carlsen Rocks!

[Scott Colliver]

Carlsen Rocks!

Yeah, he absolutely crushed Fedoseev, it was not really a contest.

[Kevin Bonham]

Two spectacular wins for Carlsen over Fedoseev in a row.

PGN Viewer

 

[Desmond]

Congrats to Garvinator who wins the poll; he also did so last time (in that case tipping only the winner and nobody else!)

Yes well done Garvin. I don't think I would have picked Duda even if I had 6 goes.

[ER]

Except if Duda wins the tournament, in which case Garvinator wins the poll.

!!!

[Garvinator]

Congrats to Garvinator who wins the poll; he also did so last time (in that case tipping only the winner and nobody else!)

Chesschat Hall of Fame tipping entrant last time. Two wins in a row being the only person to pick the winner both times, what category is that?

[Garvinator]

A few observations regarding this World Cup.

I think the changes to the format have worked well, both the addition of players and changing the Women's Qualification format and having them playing at the same time as the 'Men's' World Cup. This meant that more people were watching their games and taking an interest in their results, than if the events were being played separately.

I think the number of qualification places for Candidates needs work. In the Women's, all the Semi Finalists had already qualified for the Candidates and in the Men's, by the final, the two finalists had qualified and Carlsen was already qualified and his opponent could not make it.

Which at least gave the impression that winning the World Cup was of secondary importance to qualifying to the Candidates. Of course this will always be the case when the World Cup is one path to the Candidates, but when it is stated that if you make it to the Semi Finals, you are through to the Candidates, players are likely to be inclined to start looking for the exit, especially given the small prize money jumps between 1st and 4th.

How to solve this? Award a guaranteed 1st only from the World Cup (if not already qualified - Current World Champion/Runner up) to the Candidates. And then state that the person finishes 2nd in the World Cup will get a spot in the Candidates if there is a spot remaining in the Candidates and they have not already qualified by another means.

Not sure the change of the final from 4 games to 2 games was a success. But given that the rules had stated that everyone had already qualified in both divisions, it did not really matter. Make the format change as I have suggested, and then the conversation becomes relevant again.

[Scott Colliver]

I am not sure the World Cup is a worthy tournament for any qualifiers to the Candidates, if it is it should be only for the winner. Make it a qualification tournament for the Grand Prix series and award extra spots from that.

The women's grand prix being alongside the open tournament does give the women extra coverage but it also means women are a lot less likely to play in the open tournament.

[Desmond]

I am not sure the World Cup is a worthy tournament for any qualifiers to the Candidates, if it is it should be only for the winner. Make it a qualification tournament for the Grand Prix series and award extra spots from that.

I think it's quite reasonable to have 2 spots from the WC. It's a very prestigious and strong tournament, and has the advantage that theoretically anyone can qualify no matter their rating/background etc. The final round did become somewhat an anti-climax, but I don't think this is really a major problem. One could easily imagine if Carlsen had made the final, then the 3rd-4th classification match becomes very critical with a Candidates spot to the winner up for grabs.

The women's grand prix being alongside the open tournament does give the women extra coverage but it also means women are a lot less likely to play in the open tournament.

True but not many, if any, of the women could reasonably expect to progress far beyond Rd1 in the Open really.

[Scott Colliver]

I think it's quite reasonable to have 2 spots from the WC. It's a very prestigious and strong tournament, and has the advantage that theoretically anyone can qualify no matter their rating/background etc. The final round did become somewhat an anti-climax, but I don't think this is really a major problem. One could easily imagine if Carlsen had made the final, then the 3rd-4th classification match becomes very critical with a Candidates spot to the winner up for grabs.

True but not many, if any, of the women could reasonably expect to progress far beyond Rd1 in the Open really.

You are right the women probably would not go too far but it would be good to give them a chance to try.

It might not be unreasonable to give spots in the World Cup to the Women's world champion and runner up even if they are played alongside each other but especially if they are seperate.