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Hi Geeker,

I agree that the women's games have been much more open and, as a consequence, a far more enjoyable spectacle.

Brendan, the male Candidates Tourneys tend to be drawfests but this year the number of decisive games has pleasantly surprised me. Largely because Sindarov played "big chess" with some piece sacs in the first half.
It looks like Sindarov is protecting his big lead and happy with draws for now, so it's up to the other players to provide excitement. Unfortunately, Wei Yi and Pragg, from whom I expected entertaining play, seem to be in poor form.

Women tournaments generally have more uncompromising play and decisive results, but the "accuracy" per Stockfish can be lacking 🤣.

I have a feeling many of the players went in with the mindset of "just don't lose" and then hoped others would mess up. Nobody seemed to want to grab the bull by the horns, as it were - except Sindarov:-)

I heard some commentators (can't recall who) say that Naskamura, in particular, has been playing very conservatively, like he's just desperate not to lose, even though this strategy doesn't appear to be serving him well.

Maybe Caruana's setback yesterday has gifted it to Sindarov. But it's all new territory for the youngster; I hope he holds his nerve - he can be forgiven if he now adopts a more solid approach.

The FIDE commentary is a bit too "fast" for me to keep up even though I enjoy Svidler's taste in deadpan understatement. I've settled on the David Howell teams on Chess24.

What is going on with Anish?

Anish has an edge, maybe missed a win earlier but the position is really difficult to evaluate. I don't know what's going to happen, except that the game will continue for a long long time.

Indeed Geeker, and Muzyckuk's eval bar just went from 7.8 to a 4 when, with 5 seconds left, she opted for a check instead of a forced win move!

I feel so bad for her.

You're right Geeker, in the time it took me to write my post, Anish's eval bar went fro 4.3 to 6 - if he can win this after missing the win earlier, that will be amazing.

I was watching that Muzychuk game! What a shame. And of course after I posted, Wei Yi erred and his position is losing.

At least according to the machine...I couldn't find and execute the winning maneuver with 3 minutes on the clock, even with the increment. :-)

OMG, Anish just drew by 3 move repetition and didn't even realise.

What is going on?