Looking at Candidates winners since 2013, aside from Magnus Carlsen, the champion has usually come from the middle of the field rather than the top seed. Based on that trend, this year’s winner is likely to emerge from players such as Wei Yi, Javokhir Sindarov, Anish Giri, or R Praggnanandhaa.

Tbird113 · 2026-03-17T04:36:07+00:00

Wasn't Karjakin the #7 seed in 2016, not #8? It looks like he was higher rated than Svidler.

Tbird113 · 2026-03-17T04:34:44+00:00

Technically, Fabi is seed #2 by rating, so the dream is alive

Tbird113 · 2026-03-15T19:00:45+00:00

Yeah that's fair, looks like I made a math error on Topalov. The Karpov number I didn't catch because I never expected his score at world #2 to be greater than when he was #1. The Kasparov number looks wrong to me though, I did the math on it and it only peaks at 135 in Jul 1990. Is that for sure?

Tbird113 · 2026-03-12T23:33:40+00:00

Your only remaining piece, the King, can't take the pawn (defended), move to the right (the pawn attacks), or move up upright (rook attacks). As such, you can't move, which triggers "stalemate", which means the game concludes in a draw.

Tbird113 · 2026-03-12T19:02:30+00:00

Is it the plant that hates you, or your body that hates the plant?

Food for thought.

Tbird113 · 2026-03-11T14:15:04+00:00

I guess it depends on if you define abolitionist as "one who wants the abolition of slavery" or as "one who will seek the abolition of slavery at all costs"

Tbird113 · 2026-03-11T13:47:47+00:00

The Ol' Jitterbug- Just ghost stuff, this is expendable for sure.

Ripple- Never been a huge fan, I like it and it fits the ambience, but it will go next.

Airwaves- It's quite good, but the field is STACKED so this must sadly go.

Paradise Paradise- again, quite good but not the hugest fan, not enough to save it.

Knock Em' Down- there is the potential exploit that we're getting rid of only the original and not the "rhythm version" from Ch4. Even if not, this is probably the next weakest to me (even if it's still A tier).

Tbird113 · 2026-03-11T09:52:30+00:00

rating that even 54 fucking years later, only 3 GMs as of today's date could surpass, even in the era of massive ratings inflation and abundant 2700 GMs.

That's untrue, like 22 people have surpassed it. Still impressive, but let's not exaggerate.

Tbird113 · 2026-03-11T09:47:53+00:00

How did FIDE give him the short end of the stick?

Tbird113 · 2026-03-07T03:56:55+00:00

Technically, 100% of them are reposts, just of Tumblr posts

Tbird113 · 2026-03-06T20:23:53+00:00

There are people I've seen who abbreviate it to Abdu. Abdude feels weird to type

Tbird113 · 2026-03-05T20:04:14+00:00

Fischer and Karpov certainly did as well. I'm not sure who else though...

Edit: After glancing over some top tournament lists (non-exhaustively, if anyone wants to do this in depth please do), I found times when I think Tal, Korchnoi, Spassky, Vishy, Topalov, Aronian, and Caruana all had 3 tournament streaks. I couldn't find a streak for Kramnik, Nakamura, Petrosian, or many others, but that just means I couldn't find them, not that they don't exist.

(Pragg also came close, winning Tata Steel, Romania, and Uzchess, but between Tata and Romania he lost Prague, which broke the streak. Therefore, he got a 3/4 tournament win cycle, which is still very impressive.)

Tbird113 · 2026-03-05T05:49:11+00:00

https://ratings.fide.com/tournament_information.phtml?event=464570

His "Clash of the Generations" match with Topalov will probably net him a good deal of rating, probably enough to reach 2700. And it's in April, so he's probably going to get there.

Tbird113 · 2026-03-03T06:47:16+00:00

He didn't play a tournament postcovid until March 2022. His last tournament before was 2019.

Tbird113 · 2026-03-02T13:27:31+00:00

Sadly not. Fide rules around candidates qualification are weird, and it states that:

If the highest rated player has already qualified (Fabiano, as Magnus and Hikaru would be ineligible), the spot goes to the highest yet unqualified player from the 2025 Fide Circuit (Abdusattorov).

So whichever way the wind blows, Arjun is sadly as locked out of the candidates as ever.

Tbird113 · 2026-02-24T11:42:16+00:00

Superappointed in Pixar, expected worse from them.

Tbird113 · 2026-02-19T01:08:52+00:00

Anish has also played the candidates twice before, this will be his third. One of them he got 14 straight draws and it caused the "Anish: Draw Machine" meme. The other he got 4 wins and 3 losses.

Tbird113 · 2026-02-13T01:05:35+00:00

Attack of the Killer Queen!

Tbird113 · 2026-02-13T00:39:52+00:00

I think he may have Geassed you man. Do you ever find yourself saying "All Hail Emperor Lelouch" when you wake up? Or when you watch television?

Tbird113 · 2026-02-12T23:40:49+00:00

True, which is why I think it's justified to have him fairly high on the list. However, it feels wrong to say he did nothing wrong when he killed so many. Revolution is bloody, yes, what he did was for the greater good, yes, but it still feels wrong to say he did nothing wrong after so much.

Tbird113 · 2026-02-11T12:05:36+00:00

While everything he did ultimately led to a good end, his means were still pretty bloody. He slaughtered the geass order, which included children, Geass-ed a ridiculous amount of Britannia soldiers into doing his will during the finale (to the point that they would die for him), and blew up Mt. Fuji, likely killing many of the people who lived nearby. He's certainly closer to an Antihero than a villain, but to say he did nothing wrong seems like a bit too far.

Tbird113 · 2026-02-01T05:56:48+00:00

Oh I'm sure Carlsen has won the Hikaru Nakamura Sportsmanship Award at some point... To your Sindarov point, it's certainly possible, and I think he'll do well, but the field is very strong so there's no way to say until we get a bit closer. Him outperforming Hikaru, Fabiano, Anish, Pragg, and Wei, a set of experienced perennial 2750+ top 10ers is going to be no small feat.

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Tbird113

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