on the end of the world cup, and following people who you know won't succeed

The consequence of forgetting which email you used to sign up to Substack is that you keep sending the login emails to the wrong address. Thankfully, I finally worked out which email I used, so I am here to write about the World Cup!

Well. That was a tournament.

Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu was perhaps the most unlikely finalist in the history of finalists, beating both world #3 and world #2 to reach the coveted position. However, going into a final with Magnus is no small task to accomplish, and it’s hard to say anyone had faith that he’d be able to win. Still, runner-up is a massive achievement and he should be very proud of himself.

But here comes the question—is it fair that Magnus Carlsen, the winner of the World Cup, knocks out great names such as Gukesh Dommaraju and Vincent Keymer, reaches the final, wins the final, and then doesn’t take the coveted Candidates spot that comes with it? I have no qualms with Nijat Abasov receiving the spot instead, however perhaps it would be fairer if they gave those eliminated by Magnus a chance to receive the spot he took away from them. Who wouldn’t want a Keymer, Gukesh D, Tari, Pantsulaia, Ivanchuk, and Abasov round-robin match for the final spot? It might not be practical, but it would be interesting, and would be a tournament that I’d follow with great interest.

While I slept through most of the 11pm-starting rounds, I followed the results of all the rounds of the World Cup, both open and women’s, and often woke up to disappointment. If you’re familiar with me or my Twitter account (@thechessqueer), you’ll know by now who my favourite players are, and I must say, the World Cup brought about disappointment after disappointment for an Esipenko-Abdusattorov-Giri fan. Waking up and seeing Nodirbek’s first-round elimination was possibly the most disappointing experience throughout the entire tournament, even more devastating than Andrey’s tiebreak loss to Gukesh. I went into the tournament knowing my favourites (except Anish! Where is he when you need him?) had little to no chance, but I still cheered for them every step of the way, even though it was disheartening.

My favourite women similarly lacked in success, bar Eline Roebers, who went 7/8 (!!) in her classical games, holding Harika Dronavalli to two draws before her eventual defeat in the tiebreaks. Vaishali Rameshbabu only managed to beat Pauline Guichard before suffering a 2-0 defeat to Mariya Muzychuk, fellow New Zealander Vyanla Punsalan was crushed in the first round by an IM far stronger than her, Candela Francisco suffered against Zhu Jiner, and, much to the disappointment of absolutely everybody, Lei Tingjie was nowhere to be found. By the end, I was rooting for Nurgyul Salimova to win and get the GM title so we could have another woman Grandmaster (not WGM, again), but she couldn’t quite beat Aleksandra Goryachkina in the end.

All in all, a disappointing tournament for me, especially without a Pragg win which would’ve made it all worth it, but I’m sure Magnus fans must’ve enjoyed it.

Peace and love from across the river!