The World Championship Predictions

Gelfand is far stronger than some here give him credit, but he will need some real ideas to unseat Anand, who seems to wear the crown of WC lighter than anyone since Spassky. Often it seems the weight of being champion is enough for a determined challenger to unseat them. Not so far with Anand.

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Originally posted by elady
Hey friends u forgot something: Gelfand was in top 10 during last 15, may be 20 years. He has sixth rating in the world before the world cup. Chuki, Svidler, Pono, Kamsky, Grischuk , Shirov, Radja, Gashimov, Polgar, Karjakin, Mamedyarov and more than 100 another very strong GM-s tried to win the cup and get the last ticket to the candidates matches. Gelfand ca view Gelfand has a better chances and i guess (and hope) he'll become next World Champion.

hmm

it was a knockout...very few games played between the guys...some top players not participating(see Carlsen)...which means high randomness.

Take top 10 rated players, add Gelfand and Anand and make a DRR. Would you put any buck on the 2 candidates ?

Another option: take top 16, make a knockout with 14 games in each match. Would you put any buck on the 2 candidates?(actually here the situation changes, I might consider to bet something on them, I think they are stronger in matches. But they would not be my favorites for sure)

Do you enjoy having a WCh that struggles to finish on 0(not even +2) in the top tournaments ? Or that just recently lost against a guy rated about 100(Tiviakov)? Would you imagine Kasparov or Fischer wearing the crown in a similar style ?

I consider the match starting today(Aronian-Kramnik) stronger than the World Championship final. I might not be right, but still...I would like to have a strong final...and to have no comparison rights...I should not even dare to compare the matches.
Anyone would have dared to say during Kasparov-Kramnik/Fischer-Spassky/Kasparov-Karpov/Anand-Kramnik, etc matches that maybe some other chess match going on is stronger ?

Originally posted by vipiu
hmm

it was a knockout...very few games played between the guys...some top players not participating(see Carlsen)...which means high randomness.

Take top 10 rated players, add Gelfand and Anand and make a DRR. Would you put any buck on the 2 candidates ?

Another option: take top 16, make a knockout with 14 games in each match. Would you put any buck on ...[text shortened]... parov-Karpov/Anand-Kramnik, etc matches that maybe some other chess match going on is stronger ?

If veteran like Gelfand is able to win tiresome marathons like World cup, it`s witness of high class whatever some "experts" may say.

Originally posted by vipiu
[b]hmm

it was a knockout...

...and we'll see another knockout 😀

Originally posted by Pacifique
If veteran like Gelfand is able to win tiresome marathons like World cup, it`s witness of high class whatever some "experts" may say.

"high class" I agree.
I just have the feeling that a WCh should have more than this...he should have that hate, that desire/passion, that will...to play sharp openings, to aim to kill in every single game, every single opponent(to play KID, Sicilian as black, KG as white sometimes, to play wild openings/moves sometimes like Nh3/Na3/pawn sack for nothing visible to us mortals like in that Karpov-Kasparov game 0-1 that someone presented recently in this forum)

Originally posted by vipiu
"high class" I agree.
I just have the feeling that a WCh should have more than this...he should have that hate, that desire/passion, that will...to play sharp openings, to aim to kill in every single game, every single opponent(to play KID, Sicilian as black, KG as white sometimes, to play wild openings/moves sometimes like Nh3/Na3/pawn sack for nothing visib ...[text shortened]... s mortals like in that Karpov-Kasparov game 0-1 that someone presented recently in this forum)

Don`t judge Gelfand if you know nothing about him. Gelfand plays sharp openings as Black like Sicilian, Slav etc. He has played many sharp & spectacular games like these ones

Originally posted by Pacifique
Don`t judge Gelfand if you know nothing about him. Gelfand plays sharp openings as Black like Sicilian, Slav etc. He has played many sharp & spectacular games like these ones

[pgn][Event "European Club Cup"] [Site "Rogaska Slatina SLO"] [Date "2011.09.27"] [EventDate "2011.09.25"] [Round "3"] [Result "1-0"] [White "Boris Gelfand"] [Black "Baadur Jobava" ...[text shortened]... 2 36.Bb1 Qc4 37.Qg2 a3 38.Ba2 Qc6 39.Rg3 Rb8 0-1[/pgn]

hey, being a chess player gives me the right to say my opinion about the finalists...and even I do not know too much about chess in general compared with some of you(I have never seen the first game that you show there) but I know for example(without searching for internet or anything) that the second game was his important win (probably against Mamedyarov I think from the last knockout when he qualified), a recent game for sure which I saw relayed live on the internet.
I also know that he enjoys too much Petroff and that he is too classical for this game, following too much the principles...

Originally posted by vipiu
hey, being a chess player gives me the right to say my opinion about the finalists...and even I do not know too much about chess in general compared with some of you(I have never seen the first game that you show there) but I know for example(without searching for internet or anything) that the second game was his important win (probably against Mamedyarov I t ...[text shortened]... oo much Petroff and that he is too classical for this game, following too much the principles...

Being a chess player gives me the right to state what I think about players stating their opinion about things they don`t know.

If you looked at Gelfand`s chessgames.com profile you would have no problems to find the first game. Also you would see that Gelfand has played Sicilian much more often (541 game) than Petroff (122 games).

I bet you haven`t looked at Gelfand`s Petroff games too.
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?page=1&pid=13847&playercomp=black&eco=C42-C43&title=Boris%20Gelfand%20playing%20the%20Petrov%20as%20Black&eresult=

Originally posted by vipiu
(I have never seen the first game that you show there) ...

It was his first game after winning the candidates matches

I agree with Pacifique on all counts.

Gelfand has been preparing for this for a long time, I would expect him to bring something theoretically interesting with White and absolutely squish play with Black unless he gets behind in the match.

Originally posted by nimzo5
I agree with Pacifique on all counts.

Gelfand has been preparing for this for a long time, I would expect him to bring something theoretically interesting with White and absolutely squish play with Black unless he gets behind in the match.

He barely managed to beat Sasha Grischuk , I followed the candidates live online, hes
awesome, but Anand is the special one.

Anand has done nothing for Chess since being world champion and only cares about himself - at least Karpov and Kasparov did something...

Originally posted by plopzilla
Anand has done nothing for Chess since being world champion and only cares about himself - at least Karpov and Kasparov did something...

Could you elaborate your point? What exactly was done by Karpov & Kasparov and wasn`t done by Anand?

Originally posted by plopzilla
Anand has done nothing for Chess since being world champion and only cares about himself - at least Karpov and Kasparov did something...

You might like to ask what has he done for chess in India? Indeed, I was in Glasgow,
at the KFC and the young girl serving me was Indian, as i was getting my meal i asked
if she played chess, oh yes she beamed, i am from the same state as Viswanathan
Anand!