It's alright for you lot but I have to give my readers blood and guts chess, Kings walking to c2 are just not part of it.

I must have drawn or lost dozens of games by not turning a good position into a won ending and going for glory or bust attacks instead. (and no doubt I'll lose dozens more)

If Nepo felt going for the current set up was the way to go then so be it, but it's selfish, he should be thinking of the little guys.

I'll just tell my lot that the my live link broke down (some of you lot back me up) just before the Queens off and leave the rest blank.

(if Nepo somehow wins this then it is probably best I leave it blank as I won't know why till it's a few moves before resignation. :) )

The past two championships with caruana and karjakin demonstrate how close in strength that all are.

Why should rapid chess be the tie break for the classical championship?

I’d rather see them arm wrestle if they can’t break a tie.

It's alright for you lot but I have to give my readers blood and guts chess, Kings walking to c2 are just not part of it.>

Aagaard's Three Questions are helpful for analyzing positions like this:

1) Where are the weaknesses?

2) What is/are the worst piece(s)?

White weaknesses: c3, a drafty King and a lot of open space behind the Kingside Pawns.

Black weaknesses: c7, g7, King is somewhat immobile.

White weak pieces: The Knight outpost looks good, but it has nowhere useful to go.

There are more strong players than there were in the heyday of any of the titans whom you have named; moreover, defensive technique is not solely the province of any one player, not to mention opening and other preparation have broadened immensely in scope since the early days.

In recent years, I have posted on occasion of how the winning percentage of any elite player of this generation will suffer, chiefly due to the changed character of events in modern days. No longer do we routinely see the likes of the Majorca tournament of the 1960s and early 1970s, which featured 20-22 players, including two or three title contenders, several other strong players, a bunch more of international standard, with the field rounded out by some players who really were no stronger than your humble poster. In these conditions, any strong GM will have to rack up a massive plus score to have any hope of winning the event.

Today? A typical round robin at top level is, at most, ten players--Corus, with fourteen, is a dinosaur. I have also noted that the current top circuit is rather like AVRO 1938 repeated several times over per annum, with most of the field being from the first 12-15 players in the current list. This must, perforce, drive winning percentages down. Carlsen has, at times, been slagged for not winning enormous numbers of games in the same fashion as his predecessors.

and, well - that's the way it should be! Long, tough games. Boxers knocking each other to ropes.

How about this. the match should be at least 2 months - maybe plus -. After seven weeks, go down to the 90 min's with 3 sec per move for the last week. Play several a day. Instead of this blitz armegeddon thing. Or, the last day, if that doesn't work, a match with sudden death. 60 m game (30 min's a side), 2 out of three, then play until doomsday until someone wins. [Oh, have some rule such as the first to win 6 games wins automatically.]

Any bets on which form the draw will be in game 6? I haven't seen a draw by insufficient mating material in a while (the Anand match?). What are the odds for:

https://www.redhotpawn.com/chess-bl...

Nice double Rook sac and Bishop sac from Giri which I give credit too and a nice drawing of a gangster in a car, but other than that I would not bother. The game is a non-event.