Spoiler Alert: In case people want to see where the players sit after Leg 1 of the Grand Prix based on points here is a list as well as the second leg groups. note: player with same amount of points listed in no particular order 1. 13pts - Hikaru Nakamura(USA) 2. 10pts - Levon Aronian(USA) 3. 7pts - Richard Rapport(HUN) 3. 7pts - Leinier Dominguez Perez(USA) 5. 4pts - Andrey Esipenko(RUS) 5. 4pts - Radoslaw Wojtaszek(POL) 5. 4pts - Wesley So(USA) 5. 4pts - Daniil Dubov(RUS) - tied for 2nd in pool 5. 4pts - Vidit Gujrathi (IND) - tied for 2nd in pool 10. 2pts - Alexander Grischuk(RUS) 10. 2pts - Vladimir Fedoseev(RUS) 10. 2pts - Pentala Harikrishna(IND) 13. 0pts - Etienne Bacrot(FRA) 13. 0pts - Grigoriy Oparin(RUS) 13. 0pts - Vincent Kymer(GER) 13. 0pts - Alexei Shirov(ESP) Not Yet Played: - Dmitry Andreikin(RUS) - Sam Shankland(USA) - Anish Giri(NED) - Nikita Vitiugov(RUS) - Amin Tabatabaei(IRN) - Shakhriyar Mamedyarov(AZE) - Maxime Vahier-Lagrave(FRA) - Yu Yangyi(CHN) - Alexandr Predke(RUS) Playing in Second Leg in Belgrade 2/28 - 3/14: Group A: Alexander Grischuk(RUS), Dmitry Andreikin(RUS), Sam Shankland(USA), Etienne Bacrot(FRA) Group B: Anish Giri(NED), Nikita Vitiugov(RUS), Pentala Harikrishna(IND), Amin Tabatabaei(IRN) Group C: Richard Rapport(HUN), Vidit Gujrathi (IND), Vladimir Fedoseev(RUS), Alexei Shirov(ESP) Group D: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov(AZE), Maxime Vahier-Lagrave(FRA), Yu Yangyi(CHN), Alexandr Predke(RUS) Playing in Third Leg in Berlin 3/21 - 4/4: Anish Giri(NED), Wesley So(USA), Levon Aronian(USA), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov(AZE), Maxime Vahier-Lagrave(FRA), Leinier Dominguez Perez(USA), Hikaru Nakamura(USA), Nikita Vitiugov(RUS), Dmitry Andreikin(RUS), Daniil Dubov(RUS), Yu Yangyi(CHN), Sam Shankland(USA), Alexandr Predke(RUS), Grigoriy Oparin(RUS), Vincent Kymer(GER), Amin Tabatabaei(IRN)
Actually Dubov and Gujrathi have 3 points each, since the rules say the points and prize money are to be shared equally in case of a tie. Since 2nd place in group gets 4 points, and 3rd place get 2 points, they shared equally these 6 points.
I just want to add some thoughts on how winning the first tournament gives Hikaru a huge edge: Suppose in the third leg Hikaru gets 1st place in pool, which is 100% plausible given his performance just now. He adds up to 20 points. One way to add 20 points is to get 2 second-places. But the rules state the first tie-break factor is tournament first-places, so Hikaru is on top. So to get to the next tie-break factor, a player has at least to win one tournament and get 1st place in pool. Even if he gets 2nd place in pool (which at this point is expected), he adds 17 points. Getting a second place and a 1st place in pool gets 17 points, but loses to the first tie-break factor, as above. So either a player wins one tournament and gets 2nd place in pool or better, or gets two second places or better.
"That's a live camera so we're gonna see if he wakes up in the middle of this." Levy: *Proceeds to scream the start of the recap* Doggo: "Bruh, you just said you were gonna use your inside voice SMH"
Damn this guy has been carrying whole chess industry..He's like a teacher we did not deserve but we needed.Such depth analysis with a great sense of humour. Great job , Benjamin , and thanks for all the content, we really appreciate it.
same goes for every player who has played chess. there are a ridiculous number of possible chess games, the odds of someone only ever following other people's games are infinitely low
About the rules, what may not be clear, each player plays in at most two Grand Prix (Anish didn’t play in this one, but will play the other two). And then, indeed, most points win.
@@kekwe7341 no, he didn’t, while explaining the rules, he didn’t mention this little fact. Not a big deal, but that’s just why I added this comment to clarify (and tbh, from other online sources, this isn’t very clear either, perhaps it’s something ‘well known’ in the community, just not with us amateurs ;).
I was rooting for Rapport, he's my fav player, but nothing against Hikaru, he deserved the win and he deserves the Candidates. Can you Imagine Firouzja vs Nakamura in classical at the Candidates?
How about Firouzja vs Nakamura in the world championship? This can happen if Nakamura wins the candidates with Firouzja in 2nd place. Then since Firouzja is not the world chess challenger, Magnus will resign his title and Nakamura and Firouzja will fight in the world championship match.
Not really time off lol he took the time to become the number 1 bullet player in the world, And bullet basically prioritises people knowing more prep then their opponent so it’s also not surprising that Hikaru’s had insane prep compare to most of his opponents
@@MUIDYLANICE I think you got in the wrong way around. Hikaru more often than not gets himself in slightly worse positions after the opening but wins with extremely precise and fast play. Bullet and blitz probably helped with that.
@@jeezwew5025 ah yes he only had 23 moves of prep for one of his matches, No opening prep at alllll The dude sacrifices material pretty often, That’s something that happens in chess, it doesn’t mean that he’s worse off, Also Hikaru may be fast but no one comes up with 17 moves checkmates in 5 seconds and still has tome to play it out
@@MUIDYLANICE Jeez Wew is correct - playing bullet and blitz online has kept him sharp and able to defend worse positions quickly and accurately between moves 30-40 before the time control. Bullet is not about prep, in fact in bullet, Hikaru plays b3/g6 systems to avoid main-lines. That game against Grischuk with good prep was an anomaly, he was outprepared a few times with black but he was gritty and resourceful and held a draw every time.
@@MUIDYLANICE wdym to become the no.1 bullet player in the world? You seem new to chess. Hikaru has been the no.1 bullet player for 15 years. He's actually much worse now than he was when he was young. Check out his ICC binges on RU-vid
Hikaru's talent is surely his intuition. He sometimes has said that he miscalculates, but he does not have to calculate that much when he feels his position is getting better and better.
I don’t think we can underestimate the achievement by Hikaru. Comes back to classic chess after nearly 3 years and just wins the whole tournament, that’s incredible.
We can though. He plays chess everyday for hours at a time for the past 3 years, and besides there is a pandemic stopping all the big chess tournaments from happening. The other players havnt been playing OTB chess either. It is a nice accomplishment by Hikaru but its not something to blow out of proportion and start asking if Hikaru should be the next challenger.
I always believed in Hikaru. He is the single hardest opponent to defeat, save for Magnus. Incredibly difficult to take down for good. So many times, a super GM had a better position against him but was unable to convert. His 2736 rating was very misleading.
OK let's see where all those armchair experts that were everywhere a month back saying Hikaru was washed up for classical and can't hack it against the top guys anymore lol. Where y'all at now? (And yes I realise these final two games were rapid but he got to his playoff by playing very well in the numerous classical games against tough opponents leading up to it).
I mean Hikaru is a beast, but let's be honest, he's really good at fast time controls, so I would say he has an advantage in tie break situations. Like in the previous recap Levy said "It's going to rapid games." And I went, "oh cool so Hikaru won."
@@MistaOppritunity Yep, he has an advantage in tiebreaks. But how did he get to the tiebreak? By achieving a better score in classical than all the other GMs in his section, and then holding down the world number 6 to draws in the final round. If his classical game wasn't world class he would have never made it to within a country mile of the tiebreak.
-Youngest American grandmaster in history, beating Fischer by three months -Was world #2 at one point -chess newbs: does this RU-vid streamer really deserve a spot?
Yo who said he got candidates spot? There's 2 more grand Prix events left. He won this one which gives him 13 points for the overall standings, the no. 1 of the overall standings(of all 3 grand prix events) gets the candidates spot. Not saying he doesn't deserve to be in the candidates, just saying he hasn't won the spot yet. :)
Levy- Let's see if he wakes up in the middle of this Also levy- FIRST GAME Puppy- I was summoned Edit- Thank You Sooooooooooooooo Much For 152 Likes, never got this much likes. Seriously thank you this means a lot to me ❤️🙂🥺
I wonder if Hikaru's speed chess superiority has anything to do with the 2 wins in the rapid. It seemed like Levon was untouchable in classical but in rapid was struggling to hold together draws let alone creating winning chances
i think it was a bit unfortunate. in the first game he lost the endgame in a timescramble and in the second he had to win but hikaru just didnt give him any chance to. That he lost the second was because he had to create some imbalance in a totally balanced position
But Hikaru very much held his own in the classical to get to rapid. I thought Levon would take his advantage in classical but Hikaru played well enough to not let that happen
This game was an absolute roller coaster!!! I am looking forward to see him in the candidates hope he wins! Even if he doesn't, I'm just here for gotham' recaps LMAO...
full-time streamer, part-time classical. it's like he went for a summer job hahah this reminds me of OG's Ana. joined Dota The International twice and won twice.
Something I notice about Hikaru's games, especially in rapid, he is so good at creating static pawn weakness for his opponent. Every game he won today, he did it by preventing the movement of weak pawns and stacking up on them. Really interesting to see.
I just played a Giocco Piano with 0-0 and Re1 like in the Levon game right before watching this, it worked very well! Edit: well not exactly the same but its a nice setup that buys time to see what black commits to
Hey Levy, thanks for making these. The games are played when I'm in the middle of teaching classes, so I can't really watch them live, but your recaps almost make me want to miss the live broadcast. Side questions: are you still doing a video on the oldest living GM that recently turned 100? Dog is cute as hell. Good addition to the family.
Game recap: 0:21 : Ben introduction 9:08 : Ben first What's up to audience 19:30 : Levy asking who's better? Ben gets on his back stretching Anyone else, I've been watching the little cute puppy almost the whole video😂
The Chess family is growing, first Anatoli Chess, then his nephew Garry Chess, then Gotham Chess, son of Garry Chess and now Ben Chess! The dog of Gotham Chess!
I don't even need to watch this video, I know it's going to be good. It is always 100/10 content. The best of the best. I would just like to counteract the negativity of pin of shames. The videos are always good, they are never bad, and the only bad things on this channel are the people saying the videos are bad or saying bad things about Benjamin. Levy, if you read this just know I love your content and you are the best.
@BlueScreen The entire point was that I didn't have to watch it in order to know that it would be good. You would know that if you actually read my comment. Also, I was right, it was great just like always.
Spoiler alert 25:10 I like how the little guy celebrated when Levy said that Hikaru is the champion. So adorable... Also one slight correction. It is not pronounced Bel-grad, but Bel-grade (like grade in school). Either that or Beo-grad as the natives say.
Fuck! I know it's my bad for reading the comments, sorry. But still... Can everyone please agree to mark spoilers and use 4 empty lines to hide them behind the "see more button"
If Alireza does not win the Candidates, and Magnus refuses to defend the title, the most interesting scenario would be Naka wining the Candidates, Alireza second and they play for the title.
That would really be awesome but I dont think Magnus wont defend against Hikaru, Ik he said he would only defend against Alireza but I am sure he will defend against Alireza, Hikaru, Nepo, Levon or Anish😂
Thanks so much for making these man! It would be cool to see you guys collab again someday, but totally respect if your reasons haven't changed and hope you just do whatever makes you the happiest. Thanks again
@@whysoserious4204 both are for sure the most well known player ever besides Fischer and kasparov I think Edit: I think Kasparov is actually the most known chess player ever
With this result and his seemingly newfound zen over the board, I wonder if Hikaru will begin to entertain ideas of competing in "The Candidates" (if he, in fact, qualifies) and a serious run at the World Championship? Also, I heard Levy doesn't always say "please" and "thank you." (C'mon pinned comment!)
I wake up every day to hear levy say "get outta here" in the end of the video. Its always the most satisfying thing after watching what ever he posted that day :)
I might need to watch this again tomorrow.. To be honest i literally remember your carpet color and when your dog moves but not any of moves on the actual game! :D Thank you Levy for these recaps. I like how you go through these recaps so this less than 1000 elo player gets something out of these matches. Peace
Don;'t be afraid to talk loudly while your puppy is asleep! It's actually really good for them to get used to sleeping with loud noises going on so they are less disturbed by them in the future. We do this with our puppy and it really helps, we play music and talk while she sleeps so that she can sleep through the day
