The contenders
By Bobby Ang
THE NEXT World Chess Championship is scheduled to be held from Nov. 5-25, 2014. It will pit the current world champion, Magnus Carlsen, against the winner of the 2014 Candidates Tournament which will take place in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, from March 12-30, 2014. This will be a double round robin competition between eight players:
1. Viswanathan Anand — loser of the world chess championship 2013 match.
2. Vladimir Kramnik — 2013 World Cup winner
3. Dmitry Andreikin — 2013 World Cup runner-up
4. Veselin Topalov — 2012-2013 FIDE Grand Prix winner
5. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov — 2012-2013 FIDE Grand Prix runner-up
6. Levon Aronian — by rating
7. Sergey Karjakin — by rating
8. Peter Svidler — organizer’s wild card
This early I can say that the favorite to win the Candidates tournament is either Levon Aronian or Vladimir Kramnik.
Why Levon Aronian? Well, because he is the second highest rated player in the world. I will show you his win from the recently concluded World Team Championship where he shows merciless form against the American leader Hikaru Nakamura. This is power play at its finest — deep opening preparation to get a small advantage and then dynamically pushing it very forcefully to cash in.
Full article here.
Why not Nakamura? Karjakin is 12th in rating and Nakamura is 3rd. That makes no sense.
Aronian has chances, but somehow he’s not at his best in world championship tournaments or matches. I think his nerves don’t hold until then end.