While there is one especially noteworthy player missing from the tournament, the Superbet Classic brings together an exceptionally field featuring world champion Ding Liren, almost-world champion Ian Nepomniachtchi, 2018 almost-world champion Fabiano Caruana, world #4 Alireza Firouzja, former 2800s Wesley So, Anish Giri, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Ding’s main second Richard Rapport, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, and Bogdan Deac. Every player is rated 2700 or more, and more than half of the field has been rated over 2800 at one point in their career. Superbet is a super-tournament.
Play begins Saturday (already today, for many of you) at 3 p.m. local time in Romania (= 8 a.m. ET), and these are the pairings:
Nepomniachtchi - Rapport (a chance for revenge on Ding’s second!)
Ding - Vachier-Lagrave
Firouzja - So
Caruana - Deac
Duda - Giri
Predictions? I don’t think Ding or Nepo will win because of their tiredness, and fashion maven Firouzja has been so inactive that I don’t expect anything from him, either. (He hasn’t played classical chess, or even any sort of in-person chess, since last September.) While there would be something amusing and slightly gauche about Rapport winning, surpassing his boss, I don’t expect him to win, nor Duda and Deac.
Of the rest, I think MVL will do well, and if Caruana starts well I’d pick him as the likeliest to win. If I’m not allowed that hedge, then I’ll say it’s between Giri or So, and I’ll be patriotic and go for So.