The stratification, with maybe little tension at the end on who qualifies and who narrowly misses out, is unusual for this series. It may be due to the composition of the field: if we consider the teenagers to be a bit underrated, only Rapport not qualifying (at this stage) might be surprising - he is "pretty good" in rapid, but I think he has little experience playing such Internet events.
Pairing sequence is coincidentally peculiar: almost everyone has to face three of the most established players in consecutive rounds - Carlsen, Duda and Mamedyarov in this order, the fourth one would be Giri. Abdusattorov still has to do it in rounds 11-13, it could only affect his pole position? For Gukesh, it's next in rounds 9-11, he could be out of the top8 afterwards? Erigaisi currently has 1.5/2 against the trio, Mamedyarov next. Keymer has 2/3 - could have been 3/3 as he had missed several wins against Carlsen. In general, he seemed to be in pretty good shape before/but for his surprise loss with white against Aditya Mittal in round 8. Rapport already failed the test (0/3).
Another peculiarity is that almost everyone has to face four of the five Indians in consecutive rounds - Erigaisi, Vidit, Gukesh and Harikrishna. The fifth one is Aditya Mittal, Abdusattorov isn't from India.
Finally: I always attributed "it's tough to make predictions ..." to Mark Twain, another suggested source is Niels Bohr. Another one (of several more) is Yogi Berra, I haven't heard of him before. Attribution of the quote depends on personal awareness (and preference)? On top of the Google search for the quote Yogi Berra is called "a baseball-playing philosopher", Wikipedia (in English and also in German) calls him a baseball player known for "Yogiisms". I like to quote the Dutch "football (soccer) philosopher" Johan Cruyff who said - among other things - "Every advantage has its disadvantage" (or the other way around, the quote exists both ways).
The stratification, with maybe little tension at the end on who qualifies and who narrowly misses out, is unusual for this series. It may be due to the composition of the field: if we consider the teenagers to be a bit underrated, only Rapport not qualifying (at this stage) might be surprising - he is "pretty good" in rapid, but I think he has little experience playing such Internet events.
Pairing sequence is coincidentally peculiar: almost everyone has to face three of the most established players in consecutive rounds - Carlsen, Duda and Mamedyarov in this order, the fourth one would be Giri. Abdusattorov still has to do it in rounds 11-13, it could only affect his pole position? For Gukesh, it's next in rounds 9-11, he could be out of the top8 afterwards? Erigaisi currently has 1.5/2 against the trio, Mamedyarov next. Keymer has 2/3 - could have been 3/3 as he had missed several wins against Carlsen. In general, he seemed to be in pretty good shape before/but for his surprise loss with white against Aditya Mittal in round 8. Rapport already failed the test (0/3).
Another peculiarity is that almost everyone has to face four of the five Indians in consecutive rounds - Erigaisi, Vidit, Gukesh and Harikrishna. The fifth one is Aditya Mittal, Abdusattorov isn't from India.
Finally: I always attributed "it's tough to make predictions ..." to Mark Twain, another suggested source is Niels Bohr. Another one (of several more) is Yogi Berra, I haven't heard of him before. Attribution of the quote depends on personal awareness (and preference)? On top of the Google search for the quote Yogi Berra is called "a baseball-playing philosopher", Wikipedia (in English and also in German) calls him a baseball player known for "Yogiisms". I like to quote the Dutch "football (soccer) philosopher" Johan Cruyff who said - among other things - "Every advantage has its disadvantage" (or the other way around, the quote exists both ways).