You're guessing wrong. It's a noble, old chess tradtion among Dutchies to slaughter each other in tournaments. I can't refind it right now, but I remember a qualification tournament in the 1980's where one Dutch chessplayer prevented another to qualify, to the joy of an Englishman.
I *might* be wrong in taking a lack of good feeling to be the underlying reason JVF detonated his theoretical bomb in a relatively meaningless (to him) competitive situation, but the statement itself is only wrong if they *are* buddies. Are they?
In any case, they had a memorable joint interview after the game full of friendly kidding https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCXyzkmYWak . And if van Foreest disliked or hated Giri, he wouldn't have made an effort to beat Abdusattorov the next day?
Fact is that van Foreest tried to, and could have (somewhat) ruined Giri's tournament for the third consecutive time. In 2021, it was "in his own interest to win the playoff", but in 2022 they were in similar tournament situations before meeting in round 11: Giri on 6.5/10 half a point behind Carlsen and half a point ahead of Mamedyarov and Rapport, van Foreest on 4.5/10 - then van Foreest beat Giri on the white side of a Saemisch Nimzo-Indian.
Thanks for all your commentary through the tournament!
"I'm guessing ....."
You're guessing wrong. It's a noble, old chess tradtion among Dutchies to slaughter each other in tournaments. I can't refind it right now, but I remember a qualification tournament in the 1980's where one Dutch chessplayer prevented another to qualify, to the joy of an Englishman.
I *might* be wrong in taking a lack of good feeling to be the underlying reason JVF detonated his theoretical bomb in a relatively meaningless (to him) competitive situation, but the statement itself is only wrong if they *are* buddies. Are they?
In any case, they had a memorable joint interview after the game full of friendly kidding https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCXyzkmYWak . And if van Foreest disliked or hated Giri, he wouldn't have made an effort to beat Abdusattorov the next day?
Fact is that van Foreest tried to, and could have (somewhat) ruined Giri's tournament for the third consecutive time. In 2021, it was "in his own interest to win the playoff", but in 2022 they were in similar tournament situations before meeting in round 11: Giri on 6.5/10 half a point behind Carlsen and half a point ahead of Mamedyarov and Rapport, van Foreest on 4.5/10 - then van Foreest beat Giri on the white side of a Saemisch Nimzo-Indian.
“As you’ve no doubt guessed from my very heavy-handed foreshadowing” ... Very funny! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻