So now we've come down to the quarter finals of the World Cup, I guess I ought to stick my neck out and make some predictions. Unfortunately, I'm a Libran who likes sitting on the fence. Fortunately, I think all that astrology business is a load of tosh and I'll go with what I feel.
Before sticking my neck out, I must say that I think the pairings for the quarter finals are excellent, and although some of the top players have gone in the previous rounds, that doesn't really diminish the quality of the final 8 who are all excellent players. Ok, enough rambling. I'm going with Kamsky to beat Tomashevsky, even though Tomashevsky has already knocked out some much fancied players including top seed Aronian. I'll also go with Svidler to beat Andreikin. Svidler has probably not played his best so far in this tournament (Andreikin's win against Karjakin in the first rapid game yesterday was pretty impressive), but he seems to get better as tournaments progress. I think Caruana will beat Vachier-Legrave, though the Frenchman has proven he is no push over. However, I think Caruana is playing the strongest chess of all so far. Kramnik-Korobov is for me the hardest one to pick. Kramnik is of course awesome, but Korobov is an incredibly strong player and the way he has made it through to this stage has been relatively comfortable. Also, I think I remember someone like Grischuk saying earlier this year (actually, maybe it was Ponomariov) that he thought Korobov was worth a top ten spot, and was probably the most under rated player in the top 100. Hmm, errr, oooh....here we go, I'll stick my neck out as far as it will go, and I'm going with the upset of Korobov beating Kramnik!
As it happens, I'll be more than happy with any of the players going through as long as the games live up to expectations. I'm going to see the first hour of the games tonight before having to bed (damned time zones!) and I'll see how comfortable I am then. I warn you now, I'm usually pretty bad at predictions :D
Update:
Just under an hour into the games and there isn't much to tell between any of the games, as far as I can see. The most interesting game so far has been Vachier-Legrave-Caruana, where white sacrificed a pawn for some piece pressure on the queen side. As all my predictions are playing black today, I'd be more than happy with 4 draws tonight. However, there's a long way to go.
If you haven't been keeping up I suggest you go back and watch the commentary Round 4 Game 2 of the Tiebreaks on the main site. Vachier-Lagrave, Nakamura and Ivanchuck all turn up and start analysing with Polgar it's quite interesting and funny to hear them duel it out 'blindfold' for each position. Nakamura can't stop laughing at Ivanchuck whose eating and walking around and scratching his belly. You get more of a sense of them as people rather than their media personalities.
ReplyDeleteI've seen very little commentary so far, mainly because I've been going to bed as the games have been starting and then having not much time afterwards to catch up because of work. I will make an effort to see some of the recordings.
ReplyDeleteAt the Noble Park Masters and Challengers yesterday, in between moves, there always was an indepth discussion outside about who was going to win the World Cup. There were many differing points of view with no real general concensus. As a non chess player I was intrigued with the whole discussion.
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