by scribe | Sep 19, 2015 | current news, ruminations, tournaments
The playoffs for round three of the 2015 FIDE World Cup have just ended, with Hikaru Nakamura winning an Armageddon game as Black against Ian Nepomniachtchi to advance. The big surprise of the day was Dmitry Andreikin, the #27 seed, beating #6 Vladimir Kramnik in a...
by scribe | Sep 18, 2015 | current news, endings, games, positions, tournaments
Before round three of the FIDE World Cup began, I wrote that one of the interesting matches would be Eljanov-Grischuk, because Eljanov so far had been the “irresistible force” (he had gone 4-0 to that point), while Grischuk had been the “immovable...
by scribe | Sep 16, 2015 | current news, endings, people, tournaments
If I had been alive at the right time, I would undoubtedly have predicted Napoleon to win the Battle of Waterloo. Robert E. Lee to win at Gettysburg. Edison’s direct current to win over Tesla’s alternating current. The dinosaurs to prevail over the...
by scribe | Sep 14, 2015 | current news, endings, people, tournaments
A couple days ago I asked, “What happened to Lawrence Trent and Susan Polgar?” For me, their witty and exciting commentary was one of the most enjoyable things about the 2013 World Cup. I missed that sparkle and that sense of excitement in this...
by scribe | Sep 13, 2015 | current news, tournaments
As I write this, the first round of the FIDE World Cup is still not quite over. One out of 64 matches has gone to the Armageddon tiebreaker — the match between #85 Mateusz Bartel of Poland and #44 Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia. But the other 63 matches have...
by scribe | Sep 12, 2015 | current news, tournaments
The second day of the World Cup was a pretty bad day for the Americans and a pretty good day for favorites. The top six seeds all advanced to the second round, so the highest-seeded player who has not yet punched his ticket to round two is #7 Alexander Grischuk, who...
