We're off and running in the WRChess2023 or Dusseldorf or something Moves Prediction Contest. <juan31> took the early lead with an impossibly good set of predictions. The word on the street is that <juan> was bugging every GM in the tournament, asking to be a paid second. He's on record as stating the seconds can't really do all that much, so he'd be perfectly qualified. While nobody hired him, he did hear enough inside information to take a huge lead in 3 of the 4 Rankers. <Messiah> <Pengo> and <OCF> share the lead in the other Ranker.

In other news, the van Foreest team was thankful <Pengo> didn't predict a win for him even though he's not in the tournament. <Pengo's> record of jinxing players by picking them to win is well known and they wanted no part of that. Meanwhile, <Messiah> decided he was in charge of <lost emperor's> contest and was seen yelling at people that they were too late to enter and that he was in charge and that is the end of the story. A number of people were secretly hoping that <chessmoron> would show up at the last second and see if <Messiah> would have had the nerve to tell someone 7' 6" he couldn't enter the first round in his own contest. Never one to not say something that didn't need to be said, <Pengo> gave an embarrassing speech about how he hoped <chessmoron> was okay and it would be so sad if he missed a round and he sure hoped <cm> would be ready to score and blah blah blah. Apparently <Pengo> was hoping to score some brownie points, but the effort went nowhere.

<Giri-So, 1/2-1/2 in 29 moves.>

Exact, 10 points: []
Under, 7 points: [['Golden Executive', '1/2-1/2', '26']]

2nd Under, 6 points: [['lostemperor', '1/2-1/2', '25']]

3rd Under, 5 points: []
Over, 3 points: []
2nd Over, 2 points: [['OhioChessFan', '1/2-1/2', '40']]

3rd Over, 1 point1: [['chessmoron', '1/2-1/2', '41'], ['juan31', '1/2-1/2', '41'], ['Firouzjias', '1/2-1/2', '41']]

===

<Duda-Nepo, 1/2-1/2 in 39 moves.>

Exact, 10 points: []
Under, 7 points: [['juan31', '1/2-1/2', '38']]
2nd Under, 6 points: [['Messiah', '1/2-1/2', '33']]

3rd Under, 5 points: [['OhioChessFan', '1/2-1/2', '30']]

Over, 3 points: []
2nd Over, 2 points: [['chessmoron', '1/2-1/2', '40']]

3rd Over, 1 point1: [['Firouzjias', '1/2-1/2', '41']]

===

<Abdusattorov-Esipenko, 1-0 in 41 moves.>

Exact, 10 points: []
Under, 7 points: [['OhioChessFan', '1-0', '36']]

2nd Under, 6 points: []
3rd Under, 5 points: []
Over, 3 points: []
2nd Over, 2 points: [['chessmoron', '1-0', '43']]

3rd Over, 1 point1: []

===

<Keymer-Aronian, 1/2-1/2 in 30 moves.>

Exact, 10 points: []
Under, 7 points: []
2nd Under, 6 points: []
3rd Under, 5 points: []
Over, 3 points: [['lostemperor', '1/2-1/2', '40']]

2nd Over, 2 points: [['chessmoron', '1/2-1/2', '42'], ['OhioChessFan', '1/2-1/2', '42'], ['Messiah', '1/2-1/2', '42']]

3rd Over, 1 point1: []

===

<Gukesh-Pragg, 1-0 in 32 moves.>

Perfect # moves predictions for this round goes to:

NONE

Highest scores in the Bonus Ranker: 9 points <OhioChessFan>

Results:

Moves Ranker - Through <Round 2>

Score, UserID, Over, Under, Exact

24, juan31, 0, 2, 1
10, lostemperor, 1, 1, 0
7, Golden Executive, 0, 1, 0
7, Messiah, 0, 1, 0
7, OhioChessFan, 0, 1, 0
3, chessmoron, 1, 0, 0
3, Penguincw, 1, 0, 0
0, Chesschronicle22, 0, 0, 0
0, Firouzjias, 0, 0, 0

===

Bonus Ranker - Through <Round 2>

Score, UserID, 3-Over, 2-Over, 3-Under, 2-Under

15, OhioChessFan, 0, 2, 1, 1
14, Messiah, 0, 1, 0, 2
7, chessmoron, 1, 3, 0, 0
7, lostemperor, 1, 0, 0, 1
6, juan31, 1, 0, 1, 0
6, Penguincw, 0, 0, 0, 1
3, Firouzjias, 3, 0, 0, 0
2, Golden Executive, 0, 1, 0, 0
0, chessmoron, 0, 0, 0, 0

===

Moves+Bonus Ranker - Through <Round 2>

Score, UserID

30, juan31
22, OhioChessFan
21, Messiah
17, lostemperor
10, chessmoron
9, Penguincw
9, Golden Executive
3, Firouzjias

===

Moves Ranker (# of 1st place UNDER/OVER) - Through <Round 2>

Score,UserID

Had Keymer - Aronian draw in 41, good for 2 points. Got the exact on Abd - Esipenko, and a single point for Duda - Nepo, draw in 41. The first 2 will affect some other scoring.

Also, <Golden Executive> got Duda - Nepo draw in 40, good for 2 points.

<juan> is still using his inside information as a wannabe second to good use, as he continues to hold a huge lead in 3 Rankers. <OCF> leads the other ranker.

In other news, <Pengo's> attempt to curry favor with <chessmoron> was an utter failure. <cm> was so embarrassed by <Pengo's> heartfelt bromantic well wishing, he didn't even <bother to count <Pengo's> score at alll that round!> Let that be a lesson to anyone who might be tempted to do something as stupid as <Pengo> did. Meanwhile, the Keymer camp has allegedly put up a reward for anyone who can hand <Messiah> over to them as they've gotten tired of him calling Vincent <Annoyingface>. <Firouzjias>, who is clearly Alireza Firouzja in disguise, was smart enough to not try changing his picks in this contest as he did in <lost emperor>.

Speaking of <lost emperor>, he embarrassed himself, and more importantly, the entire chessgames.com community when he publicly admitted he didn't know who Andrey Esipenko is. He was heard muttering, "Esipenko, center for the Boston Bruins, right?" Meanwhile, security was called to run <CC22> out of the playing arena after he created a disturbance. He was seen grabbing anyone he could and asking, "Hey, do you know the reason a glove box in a car is called a glove box? It's a very interesting story. Like I told my friend <playground player>, it all started when...."

Unfortunately, the rest of his extremely interesting narrative was lost to history as that point security threw him out of the building to a standing ovation.

<Pragg-Keymer, 1-0 in 43 moves.>

Exact, 10 points: []
Under, 7 points: [['Penguincw', '1-0', '40']]
2nd Under, 6 points: []
3rd Under, 5 points: []
Over, 3 points: []
2nd Over, 2 points: [['juan31', '1-0', '55']]
3rd Over, 1 point1: []

===

<Aronian-Abdusattorov, 1-0 in 31 moves.>--No one got it!

===

<Espienko-Duda, 1/2-1/2 in 44 moves.>

Exact, 10 points: []
Under, 7 points: [['lostemperor', '1/2-1/2', '43'], ['Firouzjias', '1/2-1/2', '43']]

2nd Under, 6 points: [['Penguincw', '1/2-1/2', '40'], ['juan31', '1/2-1/2', '40']]

3rd Under, 5 points: [['OhioChessFan', '1/2-1/2', '38']] Over, 3 points: []
2nd Over, 2 points: [['Messiah', '1/2-1/2', '68']]

3rd Over, 1 point1: []

===

<Nepo-Giri, 1/2-1/2 in 37 moves.>

Exact, 10 points: []
Under, 7 points: [['OhioChessFan', '1/2-1/2', '34']]

2nd Under, 6 points: [['lostemperor', '1/2-1/2', '4']]

3rd Under, 5 points: []
Over, 3 points: []
2nd Over, 2 points: [['Chesschronicle22', '1/2-1/2', '38']]

3rd Over, 1 point1: [['Penguincw', '1/2-1/2', '40'], ['Golden Executive', '1/2-1/2', '40']]

===

<So-Gukesh, 1/2-1/2 in 33 moves.>

Exact, 10 points: []
Under, 7 points: [['Messiah', '1/2-1/2', '29']]
2nd Under, 6 points: []
3rd Under, 5 points: []
Over, 3 points: []
2nd Over, 2 points: [['juan31', '1/2-1/2', '39']]

Perfect # moves predictions for this round goes to:

NONE

Highest scores in the Bonus Ranker: 10 points <juan31>

Results:

Moves Ranker - Through <Round 3>

Score, UserID, Over, Under, Exact

24, juan31, 0, 2, 1
20, Penguincw, 1, 1, 1
17, lostemperor, 1, 2, 0
14, Messiah, 0, 2, 0
7, Golden Executive, 0, 1, 0
7, Firouzjias, 0, 1, 0
7, OhioChessFan, 0, 1, 0
3, chessmoron, 1, 0, 0
0, Chesschronicle22, 0, 0, 0

===

Bonus Ranker - Through <Round 3>

Score, UserID, 3-Over, 2-Over, 3-Under, 2-Under

25, OhioChessFan, 1, 1, 2, 2
16, Penguincw, 2, 1, 0, 2
16, juan31, 1, 2, 1, 1
14, Messiah, 0, 1, 0, 2
13, lostemperor, 1, 0, 0, 2
6, chessmoron, 2, 2, 0, 0
5, Golden Executive, 1, 2, 0, 0
4, Firouzjias, 4, 0, 0, 0
2, Chesschronicle22, 0, 1, 0, 0

===

Moves+Bonus Ranker - Through <Round 3>

Score, UserID

40, juan31
36, Penguincw
32, OhioChessFan
30, lostemperor
28, Messiah
12, Golden Executive
11, Firouzjias
9, chessmoron
2, Chesschronicle22

===

Moves Ranker (# of 1st place UNDER/OVER) - Through <Round 3>

Score,UserID

R1: (the 6 pts listed in post #21663)

R2: Keymer - Aronian 1/2-1/2 41 (2 pts), Duda - Nepo 1/2-1/2 41 (1 pt)