Ding Liren completes his comeback and achieves the hopeful second position in Madrid

It was difficult to get the pool of the Candidates tournament right, which ended this Monday in Madrid with another day of emotion and surprises. Not bad if we take into account that the first place was decided: the Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi is once again the official challenger of the world champion. And in case FIDE does not finish convincing Magnus Carlsen for him to play Ding Liren beat the American in the final stretch Hikaru Nakamura . Who knows if the Chinese grandmaster will not end up playing his first World Cup thanks to his comeback. Keep in mind that he came to Spain without a single assistant.

As a venue, the Palacio de Santoña was not the ideal setting, but it has managed to become a welcoming space, as well as beautiful, where the public has integrated very well with the mix of professionals, fans, organizers and volunteers. Surely the most complaining have been the journalists, sometimes with good reason, but Madrid’s experience in organizing a competition of this stature has generally been very positive. On the last day, in addition, the Minister of Culture, Miquel Iceta y Alberto Tome , Deputy Minister of Culture and Sports of the Community of Madrid. It cannot be said that the political support has been spectacular, but the public did not crowd at the door of the palace to ask them for autographs either.

The Spanish public did know how to reward with their applause Nepo’s good level of play, the undisputed winner, despite his fame as a poor fitter, and the struggle of the less fortunate chess players. In the last round, we also experienced three games with a decisive result; it only ended in a draw, predictably, the duel between the winner of the tournament and the Pole Jan-Krzysztof Duda 24, who participated in the collective shipwreck of young people.

Let’s review the final standings before making a brief summary of the performance of all the players:

The domain of Nepomniachtchi (31 years old) has been overwhelming, with five wins and no losses. He took advantage of the mistakes of others and made almost none. Every day someone predicted that he would not be able to hold out, but he proved to be excellently prepared. His has been a walk. He has gained 26 Elo points, after a performance typical of a player with more than 2900. He has risen four places in the world ranking and is now only ahead of Carlen and Ding Liren.

Ding Liren (29): He made up for his two losses, the first like a lamb and the result of jet lag, with four high-level victories. He has gained Elo, although only two points, despite being above the 2800 barrier, where the easiest thing is to suffer from vertigo and fall. He has a few years left among the best in the world and, despite his shyness, if he knows how to surround himself well and be somewhat more ambitious from the beginning, he is a strong candidate to rule world chess in the near future.

Teimour Radjabov (35) – The granddaddy of the tournament came in as a wild card, to make amends for the way he came out of the previous Candidates tournament, and went from low to high. He fought every game and ended up winning three, one more than he lost. He only has particular adverse result against Caruana. He has gained 9 Elo points, with which he returns to the top 15.

Hikaru Nakamura (34): Another veteran who has responded, despite his final defeat. His game is one of the most attractive to the public and his faces to photographers. Some wanted him to win if only because with the number of followers he has he would be the most profitable finalist when looking for sponsors. He won 4 games and lost 3, which is why he also beats everyone in show business. With his performance he has returned to the top 10. Hopefully he will not abandon competitive chess again, because his presence in any tournament is an incentive.

Fabiano Caruana (29): the great disappointment. He came as the undisputed favourite, but fell apart in the second half of the tournament, especially after his fateful game against Nepo, when he didn’t play the line he had prepared with his coach. Something broke in the American team that day. He finished under 50% of the points and felt like something was missing in the decisive moments. If despite everything he has the necessary character, as it seems, due to his age he is in time to play a world championship again.

Alireza Firouzja (19): He finished with a good taste in our mouths thanks to his final victory over Caruana and eluded last place, but he is another of the chess players we expected more from. His crazy night of bullet chess has been sufficiently criticized even by his teammates and can be attributed to a youthful mistake, the result of frustration. Playing a first Candidates with less than 20 years was not an easy experience. It also did him little good that Carlsen singled him out as a possible successor. He has enough talent to play this tournament many times…or just once and become champion. He has lost 15 points and falls from third to fourth in the world, nothing irreversible even in the short term.

Jan-Krzysztof Duda (24): He and Rapport have wandered like banshees through the Santoña Palace. The Pole has lost four games and only won one. His participation in Madrid has come in handy, but he also has the whole race ahead of him.

Richard Rapport (26): The Hungarian is in full transition between federations. He wants to leave the Hungarian, who does not let him go easily, and play under the Romanian flag. Meanwhile, he has played with passion but has not felt comfortable against such qualified opponents. His jackets, his desire to be a different grandmaster and his strength not to dodge questions from the press when things went wrong are valued.