Hello and welcome to Chessdom.com’s coverage and live updates from the 2018 Berlin Candidates. In this minute by minute live we will follow the events from the first day of the qualification tournament that will determine the challenger for Magnus Carlsen in this year’s 2018 World Chess Championship.
Scroll down for the live updates and news in chronological order and follow the links below for more live coverage. The Candidates begin March 10th at 16:00 CET
Live: Candidates Chess 2018 live with analysis / Live with chat / Live on your Android mobile phone / Live updates on Twitter
March 9th, 19:30 CET There are multiple predictions by experts about the outcome of the Candidates. Some believe in Kramnik’s experience, some in the youth of Wesley So and Ding Liren.
The online coefficients by Bwin give Aronian as leader with 3,5, followed by Kramnik with 3,9 , Caruana with 5,25 , Karjakin with 6,0 , Ding Liren with 8,0 , Mamedyarov with 8,50 , and Grischuk with 9,0. Another online company, MarathonBet, shows Aronian as favorite with 4,75 , followed by Karjakin with 5,50 , Caruana and Kramnik with 6,0 , Wesley So and Mamedyarov with 6,5, and Ding Liren and Grischuk with 11,0.
An analysis based on the current ELO of the participants by the senior writer & puzzle editor Oliver Roeder on his twitter account puts Mamedyarov as favorite with 23% chances to win
Analysis by Oliver Roeder
March 9th, 19:15 CET A few words about the venue of the Candidates 2018. The tournament will take place in Kuelhaus, a 5000 square meters building, with 5 floors. The playing hall will be on the first floor where players will seat on the four sides on a cube, each board isolated from direct view from the other boards. There are not many places for spectators, there are different audience sectors with live screens on other floors in the Kuelhaus venue. The fourth floor is dedicated to press conferences. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster starting today (http://www.ticketmaster.de/artist/fide-world-chess-candidates-tournament...). General tickets cost from €20 to €40 a day, Tournament passes go for €170.
Graphical representation of the venue by the official website worldchess.com
March 9th, 19:00 CET A press conference was held this afternoon by the organizers of the 2018 Berlin Candidates. Ilya Merenzon, CEO of Agon, expressed his belief that chess has commercially changed since the World Chess Championship in New York. He also added that he hope the Candidates in Berlin will be “really exciting for chess lovers here [Berlin] and for people who watch it online”. Vladimir Kramnik was also at the press conference and said that he played so many times in Germany and Berlin that it is like his second home. On the question why he was the wild card of the event, Kramnik responded with a sense of humor, “I got a wildcard because of my advertising of the defense named after the city of Berlin.”
The FIDE Deputy Georgios Makropoulos was happy that chess is perfect fit for online coverage and that it is going on in the right direction to provide a top quality product for the audience and for the sponsors.
March 9th, 18:00 CET In less than 24h the Candidates in Berlin will start. Pairings have been know for quite a while now and the players have had sufficient time to prepare for the first round. An all Russian derby will see Kramnik and Grischuk face on board 1. The other Russian player, Sergey Karjakin, will have white against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Levon Aronian will play against the Chinese representative Ding Liren. Another “local derby” will have American players Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So on the last board. This last game is probably the match-up of the day, as Wesley So held Caruana to a draw in a worse position at the last US championship and later went on to win the title. Replay the game here
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