Daniel King introduces the candidates

by ChessBase
3/3/2020 – The Candidates Tournament 2020 will begin on March 17th and surely is one of the highlights of the chess year 2020. Until April 3rd, eight of the best players in the world will fight for the right to challenge Magnus Carlsen for the world title. To get into the mood for the tournament which will take place in Yekaterinburg, the fourth-largest city in Russia, Daniel King introduces all eight participants in his Power Play Show on YouTube. So far King has made portraits of four candidates, four more will follow, each with an introduction to the player and typical and beautiful games.
Grandmaster Daniel King presents ten exemplary attacking performances. At key moments he stops and asks you to play a move. King then gives feedback on the most plausible continuations. It’s the next best thing to having your own personal trainer!

Who will challenge Magnus Carlsen?

Daniel KingDaniel King will be part of the commentary team of grandmasters at the Candidates Tournament.

Nominal favorites for the 2020 Candidates Tournament are Fabiano Caruana and Ding Liren, the only two participants with an Elo rating of over 2800 points. If Elo rating were 100 percent reliable as a predictor for the outcome of such events, Caruana and Carlsen — who in 2018 played for the World Championship in London — would meet once again next December, in Dubai. With a current Elo rating of 2842, Caruana is 37 points ahead of Ding, who is the number two seed in Yekaterinburg with a rating of 2805.

The eight participants of the Candidates Tournament

FIDE Elo ratings and world rank as of March 2020.

# Name FED Elo  World Rank
1 Fabiano Caruana Vereinigte StaatenUSA 2842 2
2 Teimour Radjabov AserbaidschanAZE 2765 9
3 Ding Liren Volksrepublik ChinaCHN 2805 3
4 Wang Hao Volksrepublik ChinaCHN 2762 12
5 Alexander Grischuk RusslandRUS 2777 4
6 Ian Nepomniachtchi RusslandRUS 2774 5
7 Anish Giri NiederlandeNED 2763 11
8 Kirill Alekseenko RusslandRUS 2698 39

Source: Wikipedia

Daniel Kings Candidates 2020 Preview

So far, Daniel King has taken a look at the play and chances of four of the eight candidates — Kirill Alekseenko, Wang Hao, Anish Giri and Teimour Radjabov — but in the two weeks to come he will also take a close look at the other four candidates.

Kirill Alekseenko

Wang Hao

Anish Giri

Teimour Radjabov

Update: After publication of this video, Radjabov withdrew.

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WillScarlett WillScarlett 3/6/2020 04:36
Caissa has heard my plea, but , with the whimsy and capriciousness of a goddess, has chosen to make Radjabov rather than Alekseenko step aside. Amor Fati .
Raymond Labelle Raymond Labelle 3/6/2020 02:10
Daniel will also have to prepare an introduction to MVL... but it is sad that Radjabov withdrew.
Magic_Knight Magic_Knight 3/6/2020 05:43
@WillScarlett - no one crying here! I'm loving it this knock-out format. Can't wait for the upcoming candidates because I wouldn't have it any other way LOL!!!
WillScarlett WillScarlett 3/5/2020 03:54
@Magic_Knight - I see no compelling reason to have a rhyme-less and reason free wildcard player in an important tournament, especially when so doing excludes someone who is , by virtue of rating and recent performance, a more reasonable entrant. So bottom line: quit crying about the sanctity of wildcard selections. Is this a new manifestation of today's latest social fad, "inclusivity" for it's own sake. I'll take meritocracy .
Gerald C Gerald C 3/4/2020 05:30
I don't understand how Alekseenko could qualify, even through a wildcard. The Russians have a lot of top class players (Karjakin, Svidler ...) far better than Alekseenko who is going to get torn to pieces by the 7 top players.
Magic_Knight Magic_Knight 3/4/2020 04:31
@WillScarlett - if MVL was included as the wildcard based on virtue of his #8 world ranking, then this would not be a "wildcard" position....it would simply be a position based on rating. But a wildcard position is exactly that --> no rhyme nor reason, just an unpredictable player to be included. So bottom line: quit crying about MVL!
chessgod0 chessgod0 3/4/2020 04:06
In the future, the minimum rating for the wildcard ought to be raised from 2700 to 2740. Problem solved.
Phillidor Phillidor 3/4/2020 12:12
Alekseenko deserved his spot. MVL would deserve it too. So would some other players. But such is the nature of wild-card, there's spot for only one. Some say wild-cards should be abandoned in future. Not sure about that... Should there be a special committe of experts deciding on the last player to be qualified? Should there be another Grand tournament? Don't know - but I know one thing for sure. Alekseenko deserved it, no matter how well he will perform.
EyeM EyeM 3/3/2020 08:19
Great stuff, Daniel! I enjoyed the game and your analysis.
WillScarlett WillScarlett 3/3/2020 07:33
Yes, a worthy array of talented potential Challenger aspirants ... except for dark horse Alekseenko.
Looking at the column headed "World Ranking (March 2020) " one feels disappointed if not cheated that
number 8, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave isn't on the chart. If the "weakest" Russian astounds us all and wins this
tournament I will nevertheless still maintain that MVL ought to have been included .
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