I've made a video expanding my thoughts about Ding vs Gukesh and responding to comments about it from this video here: ua-cam.com/video/myoR-o-Uxic/v-deo.html
I don't understand this belittlement of Gukesh. He won the candidates competing against Fabi, Hikaru and Nepo. He's just as good as them in classical chess. He may not be as good in shorter time formats, but Fabiano was like that too in the beginning. Why do people like you want to take away from others' achievements? If Magnus doesn't want to defend his title what's the point of whining about it? If someone other than Magnus was "a better player" than the WC and the challenger they should've proven that in the candidates or WC event.
I'm sorry if it comes across like that but I'm not trying to say that M Gukesh isn't a world class player, I just don't think he's top 2 in the world level. I totally get your viewpoint but surely you have to agree that this year's world championship match isn't quite the same calibre as Magnus vs Nepo or Magnus vs Fabi
@@ChessCenturion We need to wait on Gukesh. Fact is he won the candidates and presumably isn't close to peak yet. He may well develop into a dominant player but is making huge progress ahead of time, similar to the likes of Alcaraz in tennis a year or two back. He might show something special as soon as the upcoming WC match.
@@ChessCenturionthe guys you think are in that "top 2" couldn't beat Gukesh lol. People like to disrespect Ding but he beat Nepo who y'all would rather have in the finals rn over Gukesh.
@@ChessCenturion The chess world champion and the best player in the world have not always been the same person. Karpov was world champion for 11 years because Bobby Fischer did not defend his title. Most consider Fischer to be far better than Karpov. Yet Karpov is still considered an all time great. Gukesh just won one of the toughest Candidates tournaments ever with an incredible performance. Even after blundering late against Pragg (draw) and Firouzja (loss), he earned a +4 score and ended up a point ahead of Ian, Hikaru, and Fabi. Ding disposed of Ian in the last world championship match, and has always been underrated because he does play as frequently as the rest of the top 20 players. They may or may not be the next Magnus Carlson... But potentially being the next Anatoly Karpov is something we should appreciate.
Fair point Joseph, I'm not trying to say they're not great players but like with Karpov, there's a sense of illegitimaticy about his inheritance of the title but his subsequent defences are of course proper if you get what I mean
As in other sports, we can't always get the people we want in the final. Magnus, for all his achievements, chose not to defend his title. A World Champion doesn't have to be the best in the world. Ding/Gukesh will provide us hopefully with a good final, irrespective of not being in the top 3. To say it's not a "proper" World Championship is belittling Ding/Gukesh, which I'm sure you didn't intend.It's what we have so let's enjoy the calibre of the finalists! On your other "rants", I agree with you. I've recently subscribed to your channel as well as a couple of others, owing to taking up chess again after a long break. Your videos are informative and well presented, and I enjoy watching them. Keep up the good work. I self taught myself chess through books and being a member of chess clubs. Long may chess stay a game rather than a "science". 😊 👍
Same here, self taught has it's pros and cons but is more enjoyable imo. I get what you're saying about the world championship, not trying to belittle anyone but I just don't feel that excited tbh, great to have you here mate!
I agree with mostly everything you said except for the Gukesh Ding situation. I feel like it is better for the chess world to see new chess figures they haven't seen often at the world championship. Gukesh V Ding will attract so many different types of people all around the world to watch, India, China, etc. because of the excitement of having a 17 year old kid face off against China's number 1 chess player. If it were magnus, people, including me, would actually be more bored and probably not even watch the match because they already can sense the outcome. Also everybody already knows magnus, Gukesh and Ding are not as popular and talked about so it be cool for the chess world to see relatively new talents facing off at the highest level. But that's just my opinion, i understand yours! Also, great video!
I do see your point but I just don't feel the same level of excitement or tension with this wc compared to that of previous years, maybe it's just me though 🤷♂️
I predict Gukesh will be World champion, Garry kadparov will make an incredible Comeback in the Candidates 2026 and best Gukesh in a tight Match to again become the 2026 WC od chess.
My chess teacher, with whom I've had a couple of lessons (he holds the title of FM), also teaches a lot of kids. He mentioned that children who prepare with books instead of engines tend to perform far better in tournaments. He thinks that engine preparation does not provide ideas in the middle game, and many kids are simply lost in memorizing moves.
I can totally see that being the case, it's all well and good being +0.6 out of the opening but converting that into an advantage through the middlegame is a different story
If Gukesh wins, he will become the youngest official world champion of all time and he's not European. That's exciting if only for the novelty. He also seems to be made of sterner stuff than Nepo (for sure), and Fabi (in most instances) in that he doesn't crack under pressure, lose last-round games, and comes back from losses with victories rather than draws.
The main reason the other World Championships were proper World Chess Championships was because Magnus was playing. Magnus is the greatest chess player in the world and perhaps of all time; him not playing means we know the victor of any other match will not be a true world champion. Other than that, Ding was the #2 or #3 player in the world from 2018-19; absolute top class in that time period. That Ding was not only comparable with Nepo and Fabi then but he outclassed them head-to-head and even defeated Carlsen in brilliant fashion in the 2019 Sinquefield Cup. Shame what's happened to him since then although I would add that Ding has publicly come forward and said he was clinically treated for depression and sleep loss following the WCC. He's since stated that he's feeling better now and starting playing again, but his rust and lack of energy and preparation shows
To be fair even though magnus does play obscure openings, one of magnus' best strengths is his memory, and I think he kinda paved the way for players which have insane memories and knowledge of theory at a young age as opposed to the bobby fischer and mikhal tal types
What happened with Hans was bogus. The cheating in his past is a serious issue. I'd have no problem with him being perma banned from Ccom or events, as long as those were established consequences for everyone. The problem I have is that all of the backlash was only triggered by him beating Magnus and Magnus being upset. It had nothing to do with actual evidence of cheating in the Sinquefield Cup. Consequences aren't supposed to revolve around catering to the whim and ego of one player. Magnus knew everything going into that game. If the past cheating was a serious enough issue then Magnus should've refused to play from the start, not cried foul only because he lost. If Hans had lost nothing would've happened at the Cup.
I agree with everything you said except for your views on the championship, If Ding was so bad Nepo shoulda won and if Gukesh is not 'worthy' of the finals then the other mf in the candidates shoulda played better. Seems like a skill issue to me. Y'ALL JUST WANT THE NAME AND NOT THE CHESS.
Well, China and India are now the best in the world. Europe and the west is in total decadence (economic, political, social, etc... decadence) that's why it doesn't feel good WCC for us. Gukesh is the best in the world, he won the candidates like the best that he is. Ding was lucky, because Nepo has never been psychologically ready to win the WCC. Magnus is not as good as people think, he only won all his WCC by the skin of his teeth, and he knows that, so he quits for poker before his image is stained by the shameful display risking losing vs newcomers. Everything is perfect the way it is, the problem is us, we have to admit new reality and some people just can't assimilate it. Well, sorry, but if we stop being decadent and promote chess in Europe, then we might be on the top again. But I doubt that will ever happen again, given the nowadays tendency. So far we have been enjoying the chess inertia from the past, specially the old Soviet countries. But THAT'S OVER, that was just the inertia, an illusion. Now it's time for the new best countries in the world to shine and take over the world in any aspect, including chess.
Hikaru is 2 faced. He said many times that Levy will never make gm but now he capitalizes on that in every recap he makes. It's a joke and Im sure hikaru has his streaming face and his real face.
This is a complete non issue. There's nothing illogical or underhanded about believing a player probably isn't good enough to attain GM, but support them in their effort to do so. Hikaru is being honest - there's no joke here.
i dont like the drama content creators make, i just watch chess videos to see people play chess and to learn how to play good, thats why i challenged you to a game because i believe that you get good by playing good people
@@ChessCenturion what deterrence ? I'd like very clear and laid out procedures how you think cheating should be handled in chess, and stopped. Ultimately, it won't and we'll enter an era where it'll be so hard to tell who is cheating, and those who are will exceed expectations. You say cheating is clearly a problem, and I'll tell you in the end...there's gonna be no way to tell who will be cheating OTB and online, or just in general these days...goodluck. You said it yourself, "How can you tell if they're cheating or not ?" and you value in person chess more, but it's breaching out into the in-person chess always. People cheated in actual chess before online chess.
@@ChessCenturion The only deterrence for cheating I have seen is just people having value in playing a game, you value chess so much that cheating isn't a question, you just wouldn't do that as you place value in the game. These cheaters do not have that same value. The only way to deter them, in my mind, is for them to place value in the game itself. I cant picture that as realistic however lol
I've made a video expanding my thoughts about Ding vs Gukesh and responding to comments about it from this video here: ua-cam.com/video/myoR-o-Uxic/v-deo.html
I don't understand this belittlement of Gukesh. He won the candidates competing against Fabi, Hikaru and Nepo. He's just as good as them in classical chess. He may not be as good in shorter time formats, but Fabiano was like that too in the beginning. Why do people like you want to take away from others' achievements?
If Magnus doesn't want to defend his title what's the point of whining about it? If someone other than Magnus was "a better player" than the WC and the challenger they should've proven that in the candidates or WC event.
I'm sorry if it comes across like that but I'm not trying to say that M
Gukesh isn't a world class player, I just don't think he's top 2 in the world level. I totally get your viewpoint but surely you have to agree that this year's world championship match isn't quite the same calibre as Magnus vs Nepo or Magnus vs Fabi
@@ChessCenturion We need to wait on Gukesh. Fact is he won the candidates and presumably isn't close to peak yet. He may well develop into a dominant player but is making huge progress ahead of time, similar to the likes of Alcaraz in tennis a year or two back. He might show something special as soon as the upcoming WC match.
@@ChessCenturionthe guys you think are in that "top 2" couldn't beat Gukesh lol. People like to disrespect Ding but he beat Nepo who y'all would rather have in the finals rn over Gukesh.
@@ChessCenturion The chess world champion and the best player in the world have not always been the same person. Karpov was world champion for 11 years because Bobby Fischer did not defend his title. Most consider Fischer to be far better than Karpov. Yet Karpov is still considered an all time great. Gukesh just won one of the toughest Candidates tournaments ever with an incredible performance. Even after blundering late against Pragg (draw) and Firouzja (loss), he earned a +4 score and ended up a point ahead of Ian, Hikaru, and Fabi. Ding disposed of Ian in the last world championship match, and has always been underrated because he does play as frequently as the rest of the top 20 players. They may or may not be the next Magnus Carlson... But potentially being the next Anatoly Karpov is something we should appreciate.
Fair point Joseph, I'm not trying to say they're not great players but like with Karpov, there's a sense of illegitimaticy about his inheritance of the title but his subsequent defences are of course proper if you get what I mean
As in other sports, we can't always get the people we want in the final. Magnus, for all his achievements, chose not to defend his title. A World Champion doesn't have to be the best in the world. Ding/Gukesh will provide us hopefully with a good final, irrespective of not being in the top 3. To say it's not a "proper" World Championship is belittling Ding/Gukesh, which I'm sure you didn't intend.It's what we have so let's enjoy the calibre of the finalists!
On your other "rants", I agree with you. I've recently subscribed to your channel as well as a couple of others, owing to taking up chess again after a long break. Your videos are informative and well presented, and I enjoy watching them. Keep up the good work. I self taught myself chess through books and being a member of chess clubs. Long may chess stay a game rather than a "science". 😊 👍
Same here, self taught has it's pros and cons but is more enjoyable imo. I get what you're saying about the world championship, not trying to belittle anyone but I just don't feel that excited tbh, great to have you here mate!
@@ChessCenturionnah the world champ or champs should be the best imo.
I agree with mostly everything you said except for the Gukesh Ding situation. I feel like it is better for the chess world to see new chess figures they haven't seen often at the world championship. Gukesh V Ding will attract so many different types of people all around the world to watch, India, China, etc. because of the excitement of having a 17 year old kid face off against China's number 1 chess player. If it were magnus, people, including me, would actually be more bored and probably not even watch the match because they already can sense the outcome. Also everybody already knows magnus, Gukesh and Ding are not as popular and talked about so it be cool for the chess world to see relatively new talents facing off at the highest level. But that's just my opinion, i understand yours! Also, great video!
I do see your point but I just don't feel the same level of excitement or tension with this wc compared to that of previous years, maybe it's just me though 🤷♂️
Hans niemann got screwed over by the chess world
Can't disagree tbf
How many times did he get away with cheating before caught?even if none because he's known for it he'll always have a slight cloud over him imo?
Also Garry Kasparov recently stated that this can hardly be called a world chess championship.
He has a very fair point unfortunately..
I predict Gukesh will be World champion, Garry kadparov will make an incredible Comeback in the Candidates 2026 and best Gukesh in a tight Match to again become the 2026 WC od chess.
What are you smoking Pascal😂
My chess teacher, with whom I've had a couple of lessons (he holds the title of FM), also teaches a lot of kids. He mentioned that children who prepare with books instead of engines tend to perform far better in tournaments. He thinks that engine preparation does not provide ideas in the middle game, and many kids are simply lost in memorizing moves.
I can totally see that being the case, it's all well and good being +0.6 out of the opening but converting that into an advantage through the middlegame is a different story
You made a very good summary of what chess is like nowadays. It's a bit sad.
Thanks man :)
If Gukesh wins, he will become the youngest official world champion of all time and he's not European. That's exciting if only for the novelty. He also seems to be made of sterner stuff than Nepo (for sure), and Fabi (in most instances) in that he doesn't crack under pressure, lose last-round games, and comes back from losses with victories rather than draws.
It'll definitely be exciting now doubt in terms of the chess being played
its sad how people cheat in chess but to be a GM and cheat is just disgusting
The main reason the other World Championships were proper World Chess Championships was because Magnus was playing. Magnus is the greatest chess player in the world and perhaps of all time; him not playing means we know the victor of any other match will not be a true world champion. Other than that, Ding was the #2 or #3 player in the world from 2018-19; absolute top class in that time period. That Ding was not only comparable with Nepo and Fabi then but he outclassed them head-to-head and even defeated Carlsen in brilliant fashion in the 2019 Sinquefield Cup. Shame what's happened to him since then although I would add that Ding has publicly come forward and said he was clinically treated for depression and sleep loss following the WCC. He's since stated that he's feeling better now and starting playing again, but his rust and lack of energy and preparation shows
I really do hope ding wins and gets back into form but yeah, not having the best chess player playing in the wc does delegitimise it in my eyes
To be fair even though magnus does play obscure openings, one of magnus' best strengths is his memory, and I think he kinda paved the way for players which have insane memories and knowledge of theory at a young age as opposed to the bobby fischer and mikhal tal types
Fair point, at least he plays fun stuff nowadays anyways
What happened with Hans was bogus. The cheating in his past is a serious issue. I'd have no problem with him being perma banned from Ccom or events, as long as those were established consequences for everyone. The problem I have is that all of the backlash was only triggered by him beating Magnus and Magnus being upset. It had nothing to do with actual evidence of cheating in the Sinquefield Cup. Consequences aren't supposed to revolve around catering to the whim and ego of one player. Magnus knew everything going into that game. If the past cheating was a serious enough issue then Magnus should've refused to play from the start, not cried foul only because he lost. If Hans had lost nothing would've happened at the Cup.
Very fair point
Cheating is rampant in every ‘game’ played online right now, cheating in video games is also out of control. It’s sad.
I don't really play any other games but my brothers complain about it all the time tbf
I actually don't root for magnus since he said he wouldn't compete.
I really wish he would compete, it's frustrating
30 mins and no flex, unsubscribed.
:,((
I agree with everything you said except for your views on the championship, If Ding was so bad Nepo shoulda won and if Gukesh is not 'worthy' of the finals then the other mf in the candidates shoulda played better. Seems like a skill issue to me. Y'ALL JUST WANT THE NAME AND NOT THE CHESS.
I see your point, I just believe it's not quire the same calibre as previous years
@@ChessCenturion objectively this is the best we can get since Magnus won't return, the guy who beat Nepo and the guy Nepo and the rest couldn't beat.
Well, China and India are now the best in the world. Europe and the west is in total decadence (economic, political, social, etc... decadence) that's why it doesn't feel good WCC for us.
Gukesh is the best in the world, he won the candidates like the best that he is.
Ding was lucky, because Nepo has never been psychologically ready to win the WCC.
Magnus is not as good as people think, he only won all his WCC by the skin of his teeth, and he knows that, so he quits for poker before his image is stained by the shameful display risking losing vs newcomers.
Everything is perfect the way it is, the problem is us, we have to admit new reality and some people just can't assimilate it.
Well, sorry, but if we stop being decadent and promote chess in Europe, then we might be on the top again. But I doubt that will ever happen again, given the nowadays tendency.
So far we have been enjoying the chess inertia from the past, specially the old Soviet countries. But THAT'S OVER, that was just the inertia, an illusion.
Now it's time for the new best countries in the world to shine and take over the world in any aspect, including chess.
I'll just say I listened... neutral zone...lol
Don't have to agree with me :)
@@ChessCenturion I actually agree with most. There are problems with the World Championship Cycle and there are problems with cheating.
Love me a healthy debate anyways
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Hikaru is 2 faced. He said many times that Levy will never make gm but now he capitalizes on that in every recap he makes. It's a joke and Im sure hikaru has his streaming face and his real face.
All content creators do to an extent but it seems pretty weird
This is a complete non issue. There's nothing illogical or underhanded about believing a player probably isn't good enough to attain GM, but support them in their effort to do so. Hikaru is being honest - there's no joke here.
Lol
I reckon levy can do it tbh
i dont like the drama content creators make, i just watch chess videos to see people play chess and to learn how to play good, thats why i challenged you to a game because i believe that you get good by playing good people
Cheating is a problem in every game, there's not much that can be done about that
I feel like there could be better deterrence tho
@@ChessCenturion what deterrence ? I'd like very clear and laid out procedures how you think cheating should be handled in chess, and stopped. Ultimately, it won't and we'll enter an era where it'll be so hard to tell who is cheating, and those who are will exceed expectations. You say cheating is clearly a problem, and I'll tell you in the end...there's gonna be no way to tell who will be cheating OTB and online, or just in general these days...goodluck. You said it yourself, "How can you tell if they're cheating or not ?" and you value in person chess more, but it's breaching out into the in-person chess always. People cheated in actual chess before online chess.
@@ChessCenturion The only deterrence for cheating I have seen is just people having value in playing a game, you value chess so much that cheating isn't a question, you just wouldn't do that as you place value in the game. These cheaters do not have that same value. The only way to deter them, in my mind, is for them to place value in the game itself. I cant picture that as realistic however lol
And thanks for the clarification/expansion on your thoughts.