Carlsen, Caruana and Nakamura were all invited and, according to Dutch sources, declined. For Carlsen it's unclear how much classical chess (if any) he'll still play. Given reason by Caruana and Nakamura for declining was, according to tournament director Jeroen van den Bergh, candidates preparation. I wonder a bit who "replaced" those three players: Firouzja, having a grudge with the organizers, may have been approached/invited only at this stage. And maybe only then they came up with the idea of having a third Dutch player and Ju Wenjun - even more out of place in this field than Hou Yifan was at her time. Donchenko qualified by winning last year's Challenger event (now Niemann is top seed).
"Historically", a bad result in Wijk aan Zee was "needed" to win the candidates. I guess nobody did it on purpose, but Giri has "no such worries". The other one would be Abdusattorov, who came close to winning last year. What does 0/0 for Caruana and Nakamura mean for their chances at the candidates?
BTW Ding Liren did play Superbet Chess Classic directly after becoming world champion - it was a bad idea, he and Nepomniachtchi were struggling. Now I also mentioned the Grand Chess Tour which will generally have the strongest possible field thus largely lacking youngsters. But also for them, if, like last year, Carlsen (for the classical events) and Nakamura aren't interested, nothing they can do about it.
Inviting Ju Wenjun seems strange if she hadn't qualified through the Challenger's event, unless WaZ is going "Hoogoveen".
Obviously 0/0 (as opposed to a "needed" bad result) for Caruana and Nakamura is irrelevant to their chances in the Candidates, except inasmuch as skipping out on an elite classical tournament might find them a bit rusty when they show up to play.
Fixed the Ding bit - I remembered the online rapid event but forgot his poor Superbet performance.
I initially got confused about "Hoogoveen" - I guess you don't mean Hoogovens (initial name of the event when the sponsor was 100% Dutch, before the name changed to Corus and then Tata Steel due to international mergers) but Hoogeveen, a Dutch city where chess events including women were held (initially 4 player double round robins, later matches).
But Wijk aan Zee always also had women on the stage, prior to her "retirement" Hou Yifan at the highest level (less of a misfit than Ju Wenjun, strong enough to potentially qualify via the B group but not forced to do so). And always some women in the Challenger group, this year Harika, Divya Desmukh and local heroine Eline Roebers - 70 to almost 200 points lower-rated than the rest together with Belgian IM Beukema who qualified from the highest amateur group, similar for earlier editions. The gap between amateur top group and playing on the stage became rather big when the grandmaster C group ceased to exist some years ago.
Now tournament director Jeroen van den Bergh was quoted with "there was no space for Niemann in the Masters, as we already had a qualifier (Donchenko), a Dutch wildcard (Warmerdam) and the women world champion". Niemann reportedly didn't mind and expressed his intention to qualify for Tata Steel Masters 2025 (he is rating favorite in the Challenger group).
As to implications of 0/0 for Caruana and Nakamura, I was kidding. Interestingly, Caruana, Firouzja and Gukesh will play Chess960 (locally called "freestyle chess") with a classical time control in Germany in February, together with Carlsen, Ding, Keymer, Abdusattorov and Aronian. It could be good candidates preparation (prepare for the unexpected), or not. It's a new experiment - in general (regarding classical time control) and with respect to candidates shortly after it.
Carlsen, Caruana and Nakamura were all invited and, according to Dutch sources, declined. For Carlsen it's unclear how much classical chess (if any) he'll still play. Given reason by Caruana and Nakamura for declining was, according to tournament director Jeroen van den Bergh, candidates preparation. I wonder a bit who "replaced" those three players: Firouzja, having a grudge with the organizers, may have been approached/invited only at this stage. And maybe only then they came up with the idea of having a third Dutch player and Ju Wenjun - even more out of place in this field than Hou Yifan was at her time. Donchenko qualified by winning last year's Challenger event (now Niemann is top seed).
"Historically", a bad result in Wijk aan Zee was "needed" to win the candidates. I guess nobody did it on purpose, but Giri has "no such worries". The other one would be Abdusattorov, who came close to winning last year. What does 0/0 for Caruana and Nakamura mean for their chances at the candidates?
BTW Ding Liren did play Superbet Chess Classic directly after becoming world champion - it was a bad idea, he and Nepomniachtchi were struggling. Now I also mentioned the Grand Chess Tour which will generally have the strongest possible field thus largely lacking youngsters. But also for them, if, like last year, Carlsen (for the classical events) and Nakamura aren't interested, nothing they can do about it.
Inviting Ju Wenjun seems strange if she hadn't qualified through the Challenger's event, unless WaZ is going "Hoogoveen".
Obviously 0/0 (as opposed to a "needed" bad result) for Caruana and Nakamura is irrelevant to their chances in the Candidates, except inasmuch as skipping out on an elite classical tournament might find them a bit rusty when they show up to play.
Fixed the Ding bit - I remembered the online rapid event but forgot his poor Superbet performance.
I initially got confused about "Hoogoveen" - I guess you don't mean Hoogovens (initial name of the event when the sponsor was 100% Dutch, before the name changed to Corus and then Tata Steel due to international mergers) but Hoogeveen, a Dutch city where chess events including women were held (initially 4 player double round robins, later matches).
But Wijk aan Zee always also had women on the stage, prior to her "retirement" Hou Yifan at the highest level (less of a misfit than Ju Wenjun, strong enough to potentially qualify via the B group but not forced to do so). And always some women in the Challenger group, this year Harika, Divya Desmukh and local heroine Eline Roebers - 70 to almost 200 points lower-rated than the rest together with Belgian IM Beukema who qualified from the highest amateur group, similar for earlier editions. The gap between amateur top group and playing on the stage became rather big when the grandmaster C group ceased to exist some years ago.
Now tournament director Jeroen van den Bergh was quoted with "there was no space for Niemann in the Masters, as we already had a qualifier (Donchenko), a Dutch wildcard (Warmerdam) and the women world champion". Niemann reportedly didn't mind and expressed his intention to qualify for Tata Steel Masters 2025 (he is rating favorite in the Challenger group).
As to implications of 0/0 for Caruana and Nakamura, I was kidding. Interestingly, Caruana, Firouzja and Gukesh will play Chess960 (locally called "freestyle chess") with a classical time control in Germany in February, together with Carlsen, Ding, Keymer, Abdusattorov and Aronian. It could be good candidates preparation (prepare for the unexpected), or not. It's a new experiment - in general (regarding classical time control) and with respect to candidates shortly after it.