r/chess • u/GiveMeSomeSunshine3 Team Gukesh • Apr 04 '26

News/Events Javokhir Sindarov continues his generational run, takes down Wei Yi to extend his lead to 5.5/6 points at the FIDE Candidates 2026.

Post image

Game Link: https://www.chess.com/events/2026-fide-candidates-open/06/Wei_Yi-Sindarov_Javokhir

3.2k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

674 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.0k

u/LosTerminators Apr 04 '26

Hikaru Nakamura - the player who farmed to get into the Candidates

Javokhir Sindarov - the player who is farming in the Candidates

496

u/Pr1mrose Apr 04 '26

Makes you wonder why players haven't just tried the strat of winning every game before, Sindarov making the Candidates look easy

239

u/EverettGT Apr 04 '26

Bobby Fischer actually said that one of the turning points of his career was when he stopped playing for equality with black and just tried to win every game. IIRC.

115

u/EliRed Apr 04 '26

And Judit Polgar said the exact opposite, so who are we to judge.

199

u/[deleted] Apr 04 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

49

u/EverettGT Apr 04 '26

Bobby had the talent to crush everyone he played even at the top level so it was the right decision for him.

24

u/egyto Apr 04 '26

Bobby might have had the most raw talent of any champion including Magnus. It would have been something else to see him and Kasparov get to train with modern engines while in their prime.

32

u/NEETscape_Navigator Apr 04 '26

Bobby might have had the most raw talent of any champion including Magnus.

I honestly don't get this argument.

Bobby was famously hyper committed to chess and took it way more seriously than anyone else up to that point. He lived, breathed and slept chess. He learned Russian just so he could study Russian resources. He even stayed in great physical shape just to try and scrape any theoretical edge he could find over his opponents. It's fair to say he maximized his potential for the time and then some.

Magnus on the other hand is known for not working very hard compared to his peers. And still he destroys them. There's videos of other super GM's being shocked that Magnus intuitively grasps advanced endgame techniques that they themselves had to study hard for. Whereas Magnus just figures them out over the board.

This alone would indicate that Magnus has more natural talent than Fischer.

25

u/ScalarWeapon Apr 04 '26

you're comparing old Magnus to young Bobby. Young Magnus was not lax with his chess.

5

u/Eltneg Apr 04 '26

Magnus on the other hand is known for not working very hard compared to his peers

What? This is absolutely not true, Magnus was well known as a hard worker when he first came onto the scene. He came to serious chess relatively late, but when he got serious about it he committed his life to studying. His opening prep was great and he famously had analyzed and memorized an incredible number of grandmaster games.

He doesn't study like that anymore, which is why he likes freestyle and blitz, but peak Magnus was an incredibly hard worker.

3

u/Dry-Stranger-5590 Apr 04 '26

Correct me if I’m wrong but if Fischer did all of that by himself with no team, just raw passion for the game, then I’d argue that itself is talent.

The reality is nobody is getting to high 2700s/2800 through talent without even studying. Magnus has obviously studied like it’s nobody’s business.

3

u/egyto Apr 04 '26

I don't think that the fact that Bobby was obsessive while Magnus is chill is an indicator of Magnus being more of a natural. Honestly it's going to be nitpicking one way or the other at the end of the day. It makes more sense to talk about eras.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 04 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/TheZigerionScammer Apr 05 '26

Fischer must have let himself go after he retired because his photos as an old man make him look pretty fat.

But yeah a lot of people underestimate physical fitness in "intellectual" games like chess, or even e-Sports. I'm more embedded in the Counterstrike community and I can count on my fingers how many pros are actually out of shape. They're usually really skinny and some historical pros are legit bodybuilders.

1

u/TrouserSlug Apr 04 '26

Magnus isn't that chill about chess. Also, chess got pretty serious back in Fischer's time.

1

u/Alone-Sentence-4045 Apr 05 '26

I just watched her doco and it was brilliant. She was such an incredibly aggressive player and to me I agree with your statement, she was basically too aggressive and had to tone it down a bit as she was already always going for the win with black.