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🏆 Grand Chess Tour Paris Rapid (2016)

  PARTICIPANTS (sorted by highest achieved rating; click on name to see player's games)
Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Wesley So, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Vladimir Kramnik, Hikaru Nakamura, Veselin Topalov, Anish Giri, Laurent Fressinet

Chessgames.com Chess Event Description
Grand Chess Tour Paris Rapid (2016)

The first leg of the four-tournament 2016 Grand Chess Tour was held in Paris, France, from June 9 to June 12. The tournament consisted of a two-day rapid round-robin and a two-day blitz double-round-robin; in the combined standings, the results of the rapid games counted double (2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss) while blitz games counted normally. In case of a tie for first place, a tie-break match would decide the winner.

The rapid games were played on June 9 (5 rounds) and June 10 (4 rounds); the time control was 25 minutes per player with a 10-second increment per move.

Blitz games and combined final results: Grand Chess Tour Paris Blitz (2016)

Next Grand Chess Tour (see http://grandchesstour.org/2016-pari... for standings) leg: YourNextMove Rapid (2016) (rapid stage at Leuven, Belgium).

 page 1 of 2; games 1-25 of 45  PGN Download
Game  ResultMoves YearEvent/LocaleOpening
1. Fressinet vs Vachier-Lagrave  ½-½442016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidD85 Grunfeld
2. Fressinet vs Topalov  ½-½452016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidD58 Queen's Gambit Declined, Tartakower (Makagonov-Bondarevsky) Syst
3. Giri vs Kramnik  ½-½442016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidA14 English
4. So vs Caruana  ½-½432016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidC65 Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defense
5. Vachier-Lagrave vs Aronian  ½-½562016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidC65 Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defense
6. Carlsen vs Nakamura ½-½352016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidE21 Nimzo-Indian, Three Knights
7. Topalov vs Giri 1-0442016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidC28 Vienna Game
8. Aronian vs So 0-1522016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidD15 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav
9. Nakamura vs Fressinet 1-0542016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidD31 Queen's Gambit Declined
10. Kramnik vs Vachier-Lagrave 0-1622016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidA04 Reti Opening
11. Caruana vs Carlsen 0-1482016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidC78 Ruy Lopez
12. Topalov vs Kramnik 0-1312016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidC65 Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defense
13. Carlsen vs Aronian 1-0682016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidC65 Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defense
14. Fressinet vs Caruana  1-0782016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidD78 Neo-Grunfeld, 6.O-O c6
15. Giri vs Nakamura  ½-½352016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidA14 English
16. Carlsen vs So 0-1582016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidC65 Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defense
17. Nakamura vs Kramnik  ½-½372016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidD35 Queen's Gambit Declined
18. Topalov vs Caruana 0-1292016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidC45 Scotch Game
19. Giri vs Aronian  ½-½362016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidD37 Queen's Gambit Declined
20. Kramnik vs So  ½-½562016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidD78 Neo-Grunfeld, 6.O-O c6
21. Caruana vs Giri  ½-½452016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidC80 Ruy Lopez, Open
22. Vachier-Lagrave vs Carlsen 0-1262016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidC78 Ruy Lopez
23. Nakamura vs Topalov 1-0832016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidA29 English, Four Knights, Kingside Fianchetto
24. Aronian vs Fressinet 1-0492016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidA20 English
25. So vs Vachier-Lagrave 0-1522016Grand Chess Tour Paris RapidD83 Grunfeld, Grunfeld Gambit
 page 1 of 2; games 1-25 of 45  PGN Download
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2)  

Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 5 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Jun-11-16  Atking: <thegoodanarchist> Is there an explanation of the number 3! Karjakin' absence at this Tournament?
Jun-11-16  Jambow: <fisayo123: Caruana is actually a very good rapid player. I'm not sure what these two kibitzers above are talking about. Topalov on the other hand is just past it and shouldn't be here. China's number 1 should be here.>

He is currently ranked number 14 Rapid, yes that is still good, but if you include Caruana's blitz rankings he is not a top tier player at the faster time controls. Topalov more so and Ding would have been perhaps more competitive?

No matter I expect Caruana to fair poorly in blitz, if not then good for him. He is a great player one of very few who could possibly challenge Magnus. However if they played a match and the tie breaks were blitz his odds go way down.

Caruana had some great rapid results but I think he will not attain them again. He calculates deep and burns out a bit.

Ding is world live #3 in blitz and that is the second leg so maybe???

Jun-11-16  Eyal: Regarding Caruana, some people seem to be confusing rapid with blitz; he does have quite consistently bad results in blitz (most recently in the event with Kasparov, Nakamura & So), but as <fisayo123> noted he actually has some very good results in rapid. He won the Zurich Chess Challenge (Rapid) (2014), finished 2nd - half a point behind Carlsen - in the 2014 World Rapid championship (http://www.chess-results.com/tnr137...), and had a very decent result of 8/10 in the London Rapid event of the same year (https://ratings.fide.com/tournament...).

Both rapid & blitz events can be very streaky, in both directions, and if a player is having a really bad day - as Caruana was clearly having yesterday - he can easily lose several games in a row, because there is hardly any time to breath or recover between rounds. In a classical event such a bad day will cost you one game; in a rapid event it can easily turn into 4-5 games and in a blitz event into 10.

Btw, regarding Rapid & Blitz ratings in general, they seem to be less reliable than classical, for several reasons: 1. They're relatively new (from 2012 – with the initial rating being the classical one at the time); 2. There are considerably less rapid/blitz events than classical; 3. In combination with (2), the fluctuations in rapid/blitz ratings are considerably higher, which often gives the most recent event disproportional weight. That's because the k-factor used in rapid/blitz rating calculations is double than the one used for classical (20 instead of 10), so a single event can lead to huge gains or losses; and in blitz events, the effect of that is often combined with the large number of games usually played in each event.

Jun-11-16
Premium Chessgames Member		  SwitchingQuylthulg: A player I'd like to see in a rapid/blitz tournament like this would be Nepo; he's a monster at fast time controls.

But there wasn't much room to put this field together with the specific time controls in mind; eight of the players (Aronian, Caruana, Giri, Kramnik, Nakamura, So, Topalov and MVL) will also play in the other three Grand Chess Tour events, only one of which is rapid/blitz like this; the other two are classical. One of the two wild cards for this particular event was given to Carlsen (I think most people would agree he deserved it...); and that only left one spot, which was given to a strong local GM.

Jun-11-16  Eyal: <But there wasn't much room to put this field together with the specific time controls in mind; eight of the players (Aronian, Caruana, Giri, Kramnik, Nakamura, So, Topalov and MVL) will also play in the other three Grand Chess Tour events, only one of which is rapid/blitz like this; the other two are classical. One of the two wild cards for this particular event was given to Carlsen (I think most people would agree he deserved it...); and that only left one spot, which was given to a strong local GM.>

Yeah - also, those eight* players who participate in the whole tour were invited based on either classical ratings or results in last year's tour; the two rapid/blitz events weren't even part of the original plan, but rather last-moment replacements for Norway Chess after it left the tour.

*Actually nine - if you count Anand, who couldn't be here because of a prior commitment to the Leon Rapid Masters but is playing in all the remaining three events.

Jun-11-16  fisayo123: <thegoodanarchist> Actually, the Grand Chess Tour invites the top 10 players from the January classical chess ratings list, not the rapid or blitz list (even for rapid/blitz events) which is still in its infancy, as <Eyal> pointed out. Besides, Ding Liren is rated world number 4 in blitz and to my memory, hasn't played many rated rapid events, so your point is moot.

Topalov hasn't earned anything. Ding Liren is the top 10 player; the higher rated player right now. If he was playing, I doubt he'll be propping up the field like Vesko is doing here. Vesko embarrassed himself with his comments after the Candidates tournament and continues to embarrass himself here. He's just going to collect all the loot the GCT tour has to offer without earning anything.

Jun-11-16  fisayo123: Which leads to another point of how these invites are handed out.

According to the GCT wiki page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand... (I can't find anything on their official site, so if anyone can confirm this.), the top 10 players on each January FIDE rating list are the one's invited, which makes little sense. If my information is correct, then it's truly an awful way of determining who is playing the best chess over a consistent period.

If you're going to invite only top 10 players, then at least make it a 6 month or 1 year rating average as FIDE does for its Grand Prix events.

I don't know how many are aware of this, but the next FIDE Grand Prix cycle is going to be an 18 player, 9 round-robin event, which is going to be a very interesting spectacle.

It seems FIDE payed some attention to Carlsen's proposal and are trying to give as many players as possible a chance.

Jun-11-16  Eyal: The January rating list alone was used for the tour of 2015 (at least as far as players who aren't called Karjakin are concerned... - https://ratings.fide.com/toparc.pht...). For 2016 it was initially those who finished as top 3 in the tour standings of last year (Carlsen, Giri, Aronian) + 6 according to an average rating of 2015 as a whole from those who haven't already qualified according to the former criterion - http://grandchesstour.org/2016/rati... (Topalov, Anand, Nakamura, Caruana, Kramnik, So). Then Carlsen was replaced by MVL (who finished 4th in the tour standings after being seriously screwed up by the tiebreaks).
Jun-11-16  fisayo123: <Eyal> Thank you. It seems Topalov got the invite by virtue of what he did last year and nothing that he did (or didn't do) this year. I have nothing against him as a player or a person, but he's past his best by a long way. Hopefully, he doesn't get invited next year.
Jun-11-16  Jambow: No matter great players are here and if you have a fair system in place then so be it. I guess I might have used a players recent combined rapid blitz rating to determine for this particular event. Year long averages might be the most accurate for classical events, but in streaky time controls maybe this is better.

BTW the number of games probably means more than number of events honestly and that brings us back to current elo.

Jun-11-16  thegoodanarchist: < fisayo123: <thegoodanarchist> Actually, the Grand Chess Tour invites the top 10 players from the January classical chess ratings list, not the rapid or blitz list (even for rapid/blitz events) which is still in its infancy, as <Eyal> pointed out. Besides, Ding Liren is rated world number 4 in blitz and to my memory, hasn't played many rated rapid events, so your point is moot.>

My point is that Topa deserves to be here. You go on to say:

<Topalov hasn't earned anything.>

Since we are both offering opinion, if my point is moot then so is yours.

Or are you one of those people who thinks his opinions are correct and other people's opinions are wrong?

Jun-11-16  thegoodanarchist: <Atking: <thegoodanarchist> Is there an explanation of the number 3! Karjakin' absence at this Tournament?>

I don't know.

Jun-11-16  nimh: <That's because the k-factor used in rapid/blitz rating calculations is double than the one used for classical (20 instead of 10), so a single event can lead to huge gains or losses;>

It is wrong to use a bigger K-factor where results are less significant, such as rapid or blitz. By the same token, for example, one should not use the same K-factor value for sumo wrestling and tennis, if one were to compile a reting list for those sports. The former very rarely lasts over a minute, whereas a typical tennis match involves at hours of play and hundreds of points.

How did FIDE arrive at such decision to give a larger value to a shorter TC?

Jun-11-16  fisayo123: <My point is that Topa deserves to be here>

Yes, he deserves to be here with only 1 win in 17 rounds.

Jun-11-16  fisayo123: Incredibly, Nakamura has won 10, drawn 7 and lost exactly ZERO games after 17 rounds.
Jun-11-16  1971: Nakamura in impressive form here. Picking solid plans/sound development and capitalizing on mistakes. He even looks calmer and more balanced than years ago. He was playing like this before the Candidates too when I had him as the favorite.
Jun-11-16  The Rocket: <Incredibly, Nakamura has won 10, drawn 7 and lost exactly ZERO games after 17 rounds.>

And been lost or much worse in most of them....

Jun-11-16  fisayo123: <The Rocket> Which is in a way, just as impressive. His resourcefulness and speed of thought is second to none in quick chess. It's of historical proportions, imo.
Jun-11-16
Premium Chessgames Member		  MissScarlett: <My point is that Topa deserves to be here>

Every circus needs its clown:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgF...

Jun-11-16  fisayo123: And as expected, Nakamura promptly loses to Carlsen (who has barely had any seriously losing positions all tournament).
Jun-11-16
Premium Chessgames Member		  tpstar: <circus clown> It takes a real man to wear lavender!
Jun-11-16  1971: 39. f3?? Clearing the second rank for Black's Rook is like a self mate. It's almost as if Carlsen was allowed to pick the move for him. Just a strange decision. He relaxed in a winning position, can't ever underestimate Carlsen's resourcefulness in finding counter play.
Jun-11-16  The Rocket: Carlsen sacked the pawn right out of the opening for a highly unclear middlegame. Desperate for a win. It's not like Nakamura outplayed him to be up a pawn. Carlsen however outplayed naka in typical technical fashion (although he's beaten him in every way known to man).
Jun-11-16
Premium Chessgames Member		  chancho: Nakamura sitting all pretty until Carlsen grabs him and gives him a giant wedgie.

It must irk Naka to no end to keep getting clobbered by Carlsen.

But let's face it:

Carlsen is great!

Jun-11-16  The Rocket: <Which is in a way, just as impressive. His resourcefulness and speed of thought is second to none in quick chess. It's of historical proportions, imo.>

Hyperbole, much? The other competitors are in terrible, terrible form. Topalov is at the point that he neglected the rules and defeated himself.

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