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This looks like a game between a man who came ready to do his very best and a man who did not.

"in and out like a fiddler's elbow". With Daniel you don't learn about chess only, but also about the beauty of the English language! ❤

@vojtechhorny7150

2 ай бұрын

All my English is from Daniel's clips!

2800 and grabs a pawn no 1500 would be foolish enough to even consider lol

@tatsuyasigh1906

2 ай бұрын

Agree. Clearly on tilt. Like one of those blitz games I play after losing 8 of last 10 games and just go through the motion, no calculation whatsoever

5:50 “My goodness, that queen is in and out like a fiddler’s elbow!” A fantastic analysis of a brutal victory for white, demonstrating both strategic clarity and tactical acumen to secure the full point.

You called it...TILT. Alireza has left the building(and the tournament). Qxf2 was just amateur. If you hid the names of the players and asked me to guess the elo of black, there's no way I would think it's a master. He really has struggled off and on the past couple years. Which is crazy because he's only 20 and has hit 2800, having incredible results in the past. Then you look at a guy like Gukesh, who is 17 and matching Nepo in performance. What a difference. They used to sell "Alireza is the future" tee-shirts on chess24. Is he? Sadly, I'm a little pessimistic now. Pragg, Dommaraju, Arjun, Nodirbek don't care about the future. They're fighting in the present. They're not going to wait for Alireza to find his form. At least on the positive side of things, six out of eight are within a point of the lead. Very close, approaching the halfway mark. Look forward to the rest of the coverage. Thanks!

@tatsuyasigh1906

2 ай бұрын

It's the mindset that makes the difference isn't it. If Alireza's just gonna throw another Candidates away as soon as his chance of winning it is gone then I'm afraid he might never make it

@maferreira1984

2 ай бұрын

Thing is Alireza's style is bound to fail in tournaments like this, by design. The Candidates is about "boring chess" at its finest: everyone engine-prepped to the teeth, playing solid/conservative with "safety first" protocols and ready to strike at full force when (and only if) the opponent makes a slight mistake and/or gambles out of an equalish position. So, unless FIDE gives in to Magnus and makes some huge changes in WCC cycle format, Firouzja will remain just an "interesting", streaky SGM with some glimpses of genius level play at top tournaments. As of now, the best he can aim at is staying Mamedyarov/Rapport/Ivanchuk-inconsistent, but he better watch out not to become Jobava-inconsistent.

@lashabezhanishvili9034

2 ай бұрын

@@maferreira1984 I don't think this is just opening preparation problem. Gukesh's opening preparation has been mediocre at best, yet he is +2. And we have seen lot of fighting games as well. Alireza just does not play well even after computer preparation has ended. When did Alireza win super tournament? Has he ever done it? So just because someone believes Alireza is the best after Magnus, we should dump all other players and just give them a match for title? So which format should we have to make it more comfortable for Alireza? Magnus will destroy Alireza in a match, like 5:0 at least if Alireza maintains this form.

@maferreira1984

2 ай бұрын

@@lashabezhanishvili9034 he won St. Louis rapid & blitz (with 4 rounds to spare) and Sinquefield Cup in 2022 (almost got 960 for the triple crown -- runner up in tiebreaks). And he's played very well at Norway (#2 in 2020 and 2021), could have tied for #1 in Tata 2021, but the last round controversy set him astray in a winning position against Radek. Thing is he's not just a patzer making random moves on a whim (except in this game against Vidit and his white game against Nepo last Candidates, but those were clearly out of pure tilt). If you watch his interviews and postgame analyses you see that whenever he goes for a dubious line he normaly has seen/calculated the top move/variation but has found it "boring" and chosen "interesting continuations" and messy positions with winning chances that can (and often do) backfire and blow in his face. His drawing rate is one of the (if not the) lowest amongst the top SGMs and he usually wins many games, sometimes with brilliancies -- but he loses a lot as well (oftentimes in straight up ass whoopings). So yes, he's probably in his worst form since 2020ish and all that maneuvering to enter the Candidates just to embarrass himself as he is doing (again!) was pretty lame, but it's not like he's a bad player. About the format, I have no idea what Magnus' proposals were. All I said is the current cycle setting doesn't benefit Alireza's approach to chess. Whether or not there is some format that could suit him, no one knows. As to his chances in a match against Magnus and "dumping other players", that's you beating a strawman, cause those topics have not been brought up in the conversation at all.

@tatsuyasigh1906

2 ай бұрын

@@maferreira1984 Alireza did get very playable positions out of the opening, and he just got outplayed (by Fabi, Nepo, Hikaru, even Rapport). THEN he started playing weird chess like today and lost right after the opening. Blaming his style won't do, Pragg has been taking huge risks, and he's doing just fine

alireza won farmers tournament to qualify in candidates for this???

@FahimHoq

2 ай бұрын

right, perhaps this is karma for taking Wesley So's place unfairly.

@mcronrn

2 ай бұрын

@@FahimHoq Wesley loves Trump, so his karma is bad anyway… Alireza has offended Caissa with divided affection, and Caissa has turned her cheek

@allykid4720

2 ай бұрын

​Wesley also had an opportunity to play in the tournaments to get his place there, but didn't care, he got what he wanted - not to play in the candidates.

Firouzja was in big trouble after move 11 and utterly lost after move 13... seems unthinkable in this era of deep analysis, during what's supposed to be the most elite tournament of them all.

A wise man once said not to move your pieces more than once in the opening... felt like Firouzja was channelling his inner 6 year old with the crazy queen! The problem for Alireza now is essentially this is now a dead tournament for him. There are 8 rounds left and he's 5 behind the leaders. Likely that +3 or +4 will be the winning score meaning Alireza would have to win every game to win the tournament. Hugely unlikely. So we may see him being quite wild as this tournament progresses.

@maferreira1984

2 ай бұрын

All that maneuvering to get to the Candidates when he's in such poor form, probably his lowest since 2020 or so. It's time to start seriously considering withdrawing, or else he might fall out of top 25 in a blink. He's -3 and tilted by round 6, slippery slope from here.

@MrSupernova111

2 ай бұрын

The problem wasn't the queen moves and 11...Ne5 wasn't an only move. It seems to me that Firouzja mixed up his lines and doubled-down on his error with ...Qxf2.

@jsammo6528

2 ай бұрын

‘5 behind’ wtf are u on? It’s 1.5 to 4 exactly half your weird summation #fool

Coaches teaching kids: don't move your pieces in the opening several times. Especially the queen which is easy to attack. Firouzja: I'm a super GM, I know better. Another super GM: hold my beer.

This game reminds me of the 1971 candidates tournament game between Fischer and Larsen you reviewed a while back where Larsen really pushed things in the Sozin with Qc8 and was almost instantly lost out of the opening. You really gotta stay sharp against the Sozin!

What a catastrophe for Firouzja. He’s really off his form.

Criminal these videos don’t get more views

@woofy9977

2 ай бұрын

I’ve said this for years he’s literally a consummate professional with best analysis - so succinct and elegant. I’ve witnessed Magnus’ entire career for many years thru Daniel’s words

Firouzja should have bought Shankland’s chessable course so he would know to play 7.Bf4 Ne5

This tournament till now shows why alireza shouldn't have qualified thru the rating spot. Yes, he is WC level talent but has not played suficiently in this cycle and when he was motivated to play, he went on to farm lower rated players in random open tournament. Dont get me wrong, he is wildcard of a player but his swinging level of form shows he hasnt played enough tough tournaments where his patience and perseverence are tested. literally his 2021 and 2022 results got him in the 2024 candidates, and this is the biggest flaw with this "current cycle".

As a viola player, might I point out that the elbow shouldn't move that much except when crossing strings....😁

@infernal314

2 ай бұрын

But he did and that's why he lost.

@PowerPlayChess

2 ай бұрын

Fair point, but in Irish sessions the elbow moves a lot!

I hadn't heard that fiddler's elbow met, Danny, Good One !

Wonderful coverage Daniel ty

excellent coverage!

is the Nc7 at 12.33 a cuttlefish then?

Ba7 remembers same move played in a classic by Karpov!

Look, the queen is a strong piece

Looks like Firouzja is ready for some all night online blitz games. If only Magnus was here to contest the tournament. His mere presence is intimidating to other players. Clearly still the worlds best player by a distance. He has yet to play me though (~2000 rated), so he is clearly ducking me lol. Excellent analysis Daniel. Many thanks.

But how come Vidit got off with this a3 move without ending up in the hell? 🙂

It will take a lot of courage for him to finish the tournament Tilted yes 😮. Like to see him win a few games

Ba7 by Vidit was a beauty. Reminds me of a brilliant Karpov game that I have seen somewhere.

Who would've thought Vidit would have far more entertaining games than Hikaru "only here for the content" Nakamura?

Was Alireza up all night playing blitz again? Even I wouldn’t play Qxf2 😆

Oh, here we go again with Alireza not living up to expectations. He's managing to drain the excitement from the tournament just like he did against So. Now, Karam is hot on his heels, showing some promise, at least. Honestly, Wesley So would've outclassed him by a mile if given the chance.

@warnaoh

2 ай бұрын

Meh at least Firou tries to win. And before this clown show today all his games were exciting. So is so fking boring...

@user-ni4tv6xq7f

2 ай бұрын

@@warnaoh I guess you didn't watch enough of So's games!

@milankotevski1663

2 ай бұрын

@@warnaoh it's not chess players job to get you excited. This is candidates tournament. The only thing that matters is winning.

@michajabonski8152

2 ай бұрын

So did play in Candidates once. Finished last, with huge minus score.

@davidfranklin5426

2 ай бұрын

“Karam” is hot on his heels? Who’s that?

Always good to see the top of the chess world taking inspiration from my late night bullet matches. My hunch is that the meteoric rise of Firouzja has put such expectations upon him that the pressure is simply too high. Perhaps when the dust settles a bit he will gain the emotional maturity required of a champion. In the mean time there is no clear successor to Carlsen yet. I don't see anyone of the new generation moving away from the pack.

I thought / hoped that Alireza would come back stronger to this candidates than the last one, and I mean mentally stronger. Bit of a disappointment that he can't handle his nerves and burns bridges in such a silly way. He's so much stronger if we look at his chess capabilities but now he's on full tilt and I'm afraid he will throw away more games like that. And this may as well have a large impact on who's going to emerge as winner of the candidates

Not sure why you show this game instead of Pragg's, which seemed more interesting

I don't think the queen moves were the real problems in this game. Black's loss was a direct result of ...Bb7 and especially ...Qxf2. This anti-sozin line that Firouzja played is very rare so its likely that he just mixed up his lines.

I still dream about Nepo taking the world title, I still feel sad for him since his hand shaking last WC, ut feels good to see him up the list For alireza, he is right now nothing near WC material

@mcronrn

2 ай бұрын

Ding will beat him again… Nepo gets to the big stage and cokes at the last step 🤷🏻‍♂️

@infernal314

2 ай бұрын

Being "nothing near WC material" sounds actually like a compliment to me.

Wow. Would you say that Firouzja is sort of the new Aronian?

@michajabonski8152

2 ай бұрын

No way! I can’t imagine Levon stealing someone’s place on Candidates the way Firo did.

what a tilt from Alireza, Qxf2 what was he thinking? Must have been bullet previous night? lol

Lol, Ba7 reminds me a bit of Karpov-Unzicker, 1974

Merci beaucoup GM King! Alireza est vraiment surprenant...comment un joueur ayant un tel classement peut-il prendre une telle raclée?

@PowerPlayChess

2 ай бұрын

C'est dur de perdre un tel match contre Nakamura la veille, il faut une forte mentalité pour s'en remettre. Malheureusement, Alireza n'a pas appris.

Perhaps this is karma for the way Firouja qualified. It is a shame Vidit is not in the lead. Indians call him VD, and we could have headlines like "can anyone catch VD?"

Alireza is enjoying the karma backslash. He shouldn't be in Toronto and he doesn't miss any opportunity to show it.

Danny , is it still statistically possible for Alireza to win this tournament despite his bad results so far?

@dollishillwork

2 ай бұрын

Yes, but very very unlikely. If Ferouzja 17:11 scores plus 5 from his remaining games but that is highly unlikely now.

Despite the madness, expect Alireza to still win a couple of games. He very badly needs one win to get back on the road.

Alireza managed to overtake Anish by entering through the backdoors of the candidates.

Can one call the f2 pawn poisoned ?

@lashabezhanishvili9034

2 ай бұрын

Maybe mined? Poisoned is such a weak word... In poisoned-pawn variation, black has some chances, it's not lost.

@PowerPlayChess

2 ай бұрын

I'm not sure. It had a big 'HazChem' sign on it, so there wasn't any subterfuge. This was a case of self-harm.

@SoulmateParis

2 ай бұрын

@@PowerPlayChess yes, you made that very clear ! Thanks for the thoroughly enjoyable commentary !

It looks like Alireza is playing at 2200!? Something drastically wrong with Alireza for the past 18 months or so. He is extremely talented and needs someone to train him both mentally and from play point of view. It's a real shame 😂

Shocking game from any GM, especially 2700+ GM. So far it's all hype, I don't remember Alireza ever shining in a supertournament... This is probably worst game of the candidates - player out of prep and collapsing after just few moves...

King is the master of idioms. Betonschaft, toys out of the pram, on tilt....🤣

@PowerPlayChess

2 ай бұрын

Betonschach.

@Zakdayak

2 ай бұрын

@@PowerPlayChess danke

I thoroughly enjoy the occasionally scattered in German words, though I doubt they're always official chess terms.

@PowerPlayChess

2 ай бұрын

What is an 'official chess term'?

@nederlanditisnederlanditis5529

2 ай бұрын

@@PowerPlayChess E.g. Zugzwang, which can be found in a dictionary, and which I was once educated about. Betonschach is definitely not in the English column.

@PowerPlayChess

2 ай бұрын

@@nederlanditisnederlanditis5529 I don't hold such rigid views on language. It's organic.

😂 fiddler's elbow 😅😅

Alireza is all hype and no substance. Shows he shouldn’t be there and was only at candidates cause he created his own tournament and participated in local pub comp. He needs to mature and stop acting like an entitled little boy

Alireza is not world championship material

@davidblue819

2 ай бұрын

Alireza is still the man who spent the night playing blitz instead of being ready for an important game. Vidit on the other hand is serious and does his best. He can be out-calculated by the top men sometimes but his focus is not in question. The more I see of Vidit the more I think he should be a candidate and he will be again.

@Sough

2 ай бұрын

He's like 21? Way too early to write off

@ursawarrior4873

2 ай бұрын

Its not the age,its the champion attitude and hunger alireza doesnt have that. He thinks he can get away with some tricks which is stupid. ​@@Sough

@milankotevski1663

2 ай бұрын

@@Sough Gukesh is 17, so what's your point!? Alireza is not a kid anymore.

@mcronrn

2 ай бұрын

He has a nice haircut tho, and cool glasses 🤷🏻‍♂️

Firouzja seemed a little out of his depth in the last candidates. I hope he improves here. He is better than his results suggest. Thanks Daniel.

Firouzja's play typifies his extremely unprofessional approach to chess. Hopefully the French chess federation won't be so willing to enable him to artificially inflate his rating next time.

Alireza should give the stolen Candidates spot back to Wesley, walk away and never come back!

Karma is real bro. He qualified for candidates by making a close tournament against weak grandmasters and also beating 1300 players. Yeah, not illegal. But in the eyes of true chess followers, it was just so unethical bro. That's basically a farming. If you want to qualify, prove yourself like a man. Consider the unwritten rules. That's what separates a gentleman. Wesley should have been there.

@FahimHoq

2 ай бұрын

And now that he's playing strong GM again, he's feeling the heat. Definitely not the ideal preparation playing against weaker players to qualify it seems.

@jonathanshepherd5515

2 ай бұрын

I'm not entirely familiar with the situation, but I thought FIDE banned those kinds of rating boosting tournaments countries use to sneak players into the candidates. Did they only do that after Firouja?

@oldoddjobs

2 ай бұрын

The Chartres tournament was indeed contrived to obtain the ratings qualification slot for Firouzja.... but he won enough rating at the Rouen open tournament anyway. If Firouzja had time to concoct one tournament, see its ratings extinguished by FIDE, cancel his participation in the world rapid to play in another tournament (scoring 7/7)... then surely Mr. So can find his way to a chess board? After all, it's so easy to farm Gata Kamsky for ratings ! In truth, So had his eye on the circuit qualification, not the ratings. Firouzja entered a tournament which had been registered in November & earned enough rating points. Maybe real men put their FIDE rating on the line & go out hunting instead of sitting on theirs like an egg, expecting it to hatch a slot at the candidates tournament? I don't know. Let's consult the unwritten rules you mentioned...oh wait

@akahment

2 ай бұрын

@@jonathanshepherd5515 Alireza just did it. He was quite inactive in competitive chess last year (he was busy with other stuff). And Wesley was very promising at that time. Then Alireza just did the thing. I mean it's no brainer to say who deserved the spot. Also, talking about Ding's case, Ding also took Wesley's opportunity by making a tournament just like what Alireza did. The difference was Ding was already world #2 and a real championship contender. But FIDE wants a player that is active. Ding was inactive due to COVID and Chinese were banned from playing abroad. So it's very understandable for Ding. Aside from that, Ding didn't farm against weak players. He was playing against strong grandmasters in China. Ding just deserved the spot. But not the case of Alireza.

I am enjoying your videos. I hope you add the effect of the evaluation bar to your board. Thanks

@PowerPlayChess

2 ай бұрын

Sorry. Won't be doing that. Too much of a distraction for me and you.

@user-ni4tv6xq7f

2 ай бұрын

@@PowerPlayChess Ok.

@infernal314

2 ай бұрын

@@PowerPlayChess Good to hear that.

I'm rooting for Wesley, so keep it up Alireza.

First; great game

In & Out like Flynn😂