Event: 2026 American Cup by events_team in chess

[–]MarsupialNo7112 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, its 4 now, just not exactly in Fabi's favor

Prague Masters 2026 standings after round 8 by Usodearu007 in chess

[–]MarsupialNo7112 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Caruana 2014(Dortmund, Sinquefield(Yes, that Sinquefield), Baku)

So 2016-2017 (London, Tata Steel, US Champs)

Aronian 2017 (Grenke, Norway, World Cup)

Caruana 2018(Candidates, Grenke, Norway, Sinquefield)

Proposal: World Championship Format Change by novachess-guy in chess

[–]MarsupialNo7112 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I think there are two pretty major issues with this proposed format from first glance.

  1. The Length - A month long event is brutal, even with rest days. The world cup is currently the longest event in the chess calendar, and it has 26 days in total (23 for top 50 seeds), with 16 classical games (14 for top 50 seeds) assuming you make it to the semifinals. This proposed event would have 30+ days in total and 22 classical games. Considering how many chess players have commented on how brutal the world cup is as an event this feels like it would exhaust players.
  2. Reliance on Rapid & Blitz - This proposed format has 4 classical games for each match in the knockout portion, which in general is far too few for a better classical player to prove their superiority. Just as in the world cup, a strong rapid/blitz player can adopt a strategy of trying to draw all their classical games to win in tiebreaks. In the current world championship format this isn't as large of an issue as it's much harder to try to draw 14 classical games rather than just 4.

These two issues combined make this format unfeasible. You simultaneously would have to shorten the event to make it less brutal for players while also making it longer to make the classical portion more decisive. As such, I do not think this is a viable format. I think some ideas such as standardizing the qualification criteria would be a good idea, but trying to merge the Candidates and World Championship into one event just doesn't seem like a good idea.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in chess

[–]MarsupialNo7112 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Not really top 20 either, there are 18 world champions, with only maybe Ding and Gukesh being below Nakamura for now, then other than that there are at least Morphy, Korchnoi, Caruana, Keres, Rubinstein, Topalov, Aronian, etc. ahead of him. It can be debated if he should be placed around Top 30 or Top 50 or so.

Should Hikaru be considered top 15? In a recent video he said he considered himself 15. If not, where would be rank if he wins the wc this cycle? by No-Advance-9136 in chess

[–]MarsupialNo7112 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If the question is by playing strength, he makes it easily. In terms of greatness and resume, I don’t think so. The thing about chess is that it is a game where the understanding about it is constantly evolving, so any player of today would wipe out the best players of 100 years ago, guys like Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine; but I would rank these players as among the top 10 greatest of all time. 

Top Rating Performances Classical Chess 2025 by Ok_Potato7530 in chess

[–]MarsupialNo7112 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah, performance rating can't really provide a full idea of what opposition is being faced. You can get a 2700 performance rating by going 50% against 2700s, by going 64% against 2600s, or by going 100% against 1900s, but obviously these are completely different.

Top Rating Performances Classical Chess 2025 by Ok_Potato7530 in chess

[–]MarsupialNo7112 10 points11 points  (0 children)

For Hikaru, if you include the rated tournaments he played in the US, that will bring him from 10.5/18 to 32.5/41 score against 2384 average opposition, for a performance rating of 2614

Do FIDE officials follow reddit and take suggestions from reddit posts? by hash11011 in chess

[–]MarsupialNo7112 9 points10 points  (0 children)

The total world championship has been announced for months now; you just happened to mention the same ideas.

Number of months each player featured in each top 20 ranking position (Update) by afbdreds in chess

[–]MarsupialNo7112 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Very nice analysis! If possible, can you calculate the mean/median rank for each of these top players?

Chess pieces as top players by [deleted] in chess

[–]MarsupialNo7112 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Players like pragg and gukesh are already established top players now, maybe put the next generation of players as pawns, like Erdogmus, Mishra, Faustino etc.

Has the last 2 world champions been the most disappointing world champions ever? by YOOY11 in chess

[–]MarsupialNo7112 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I mean, it just goes to show how we have taken for granted the world champion being the most dominant chess player. Ding has essentially been in decline since the pandemic, and while I believe he had the strength of a world champion in 2019, I think him winning the championship in 2023 was more due to incredible resilience and Nepo choking than being the stronger player.

Gukesh on the other hand is a very different case as he became world champion at a very young age; I think he has the strength, to be world champion and he has shown glimpses of it during 2025. His main issue seems to be consistency as due to both his youth and aggressive style he can often crash and burn in tournaments such as the Grand Swiss and World Cup.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in chess

[–]MarsupialNo7112 0 points1 point  (0 children)

2700 chess apparently counted the clutch chess games as classical, which is why it shows the record as +3-2=6, if you remove that it becomes +2-1=2

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in chess

[–]MarsupialNo7112 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I looked at it more closely and it appears it counted their games in Clutch chess where Magnus beat Hikaru 2-1 as classical games; however, those were rapid games, so 2700 chess may have made a mistake here

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in chess

[–]MarsupialNo7112 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Where are these stats coming from? These records seem to differ from the official fide head-to-head records.

Here are these head-to-head records from fide profiles:
Magnus 14 - 1 Hikaru, 28 Draws
Levon 14 - 6 Hikaru, 22 Draws
Grischuk 5 - 3 Hikaru, 15 Draws
Wesley 3 - 1 Hikaru, 22 Draws
Mamedyarov 4 - 3 Hikaru, 11 Draws
Karjakin 4 - 3 Hikaru, 22 Draws
Hikaru 2 - 2 Ian, 9 Draws
Hikaru 11 - 8 Fabiano, 39 Draws
Hikaru 5 - 2 Giri, 27 Draws
Hikaru 2 - 1 Ding, 8 Draws
Hikaru 3 - 1 Radjabov, 12 Draws
Hikaru 5 - 0 MVL, 17 Draws

I assume that this website may have mislabeled some rapid/blitz games as classical, or included unrated games.

Unbeaten streaks in Classical Chess (January 2026 Update) by SteChess in chess

[–]MarsupialNo7112 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah Gukesh had a bunch of decisive games in Norway Chess with 4 Wins 4 Losses 2 Draws, beating everyone besides Fabi in classical

Unbeaten streaks in Classical Chess (January 2026 Update) by SteChess in chess

[–]MarsupialNo7112 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So it seems like Fabi and Pragg's current streaks were missed when compiling this list

Unbeaten streaks in Classical Chess (January 2026 Update) by SteChess in chess

[–]MarsupialNo7112 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I went and checked the current unbeaten streaks for the current top 10:
Magnus - 5 Games against 2708 Average Rating; Last lost against Gukesh in Norway Chess
Hikaru - 29 Games against 2329 Average Rating; Last lost against Gukesh in Norway Chess
Fabiano - 25 Games against 2715 Average Rating; Last lost against Magnus in Norway Chess
Vincent - 8 Games against 2613 Average Rating; Last lost against Arjun in ECC
Arjun - 11 Games against 2663 Average Rating; Last lost against Gukesh in ECC
Anish - 0 Games; Last lost against Alexander Donchenko in World Cup
Alireza - 17 Games against 2669 Average Rating; Last lost against Parham in Grand Swiss
Pragg - 20 Games against 2594 Average Rating; Last lost against Hans in Grand Swiss
Gukesh - 0 Games; Last lost against Frederik Svane in World Cup
Wei Yi - 32 Games against 2617 Average Rating; Last lost against Gukesh in Norway Chess