It’s results time on our Candidates Quiz. Thanks for all your entries. The correct answers were:
1) Who will win the Candidates tournament? Karjakin
2) What will the winning score be? 8.5
3) Who will score the first win? Anand
4) How many games will reach move 60? 11
5) Which American will finish higher – Caruana or Nakamura? Caruana
6) Which Russian will finish higher – Karjakin or Svidler? Karjakin
7) How many games will Anand win? 4
8) How many games will Giri draw? 14
9) How many games will be the longest winning streak? 2
10) How many games will be the longest losing streak? 2
And our winner is…
Stefan Sattler of Germany! No need for tiebreaks. Stefan was the only one to score 7 points, while 22 people reached 6 points.
Stefan’s answers were Caruana, 8.5, Anand, 8, Caruana, Karjakin, 4, 10, 2, 2.
Impressive. Even his tiebreak answer that the longest game would be 110 moves is close to the correct 116.
The toughest question was “How many games will Giri draw?” We had over 300 entries, but (unless our eyes are failing us) no one correctly predicted Giri would draw all 14. We did have a young Scot guess 13.
The most vicious competition was in the office, as Jacob, Colin and I all entered. And the winner was… me! My unluckily low 4 was still good enough to see off their 3’s.
Shaw: Giri, 9, Nakamura, 10, Nakamura, Karjakin, 4, 10, 2, 2. Tiebreak: 101
Yes, I thought Giri would win the event unbeaten, with 10 draws, on 9/14. My view is that Giri played great, and was not so far away from winning the whole thing, despite his allegedly hilarious 14/14 draws (do I sound bitter about my mistaken prediction?). Anyway, Giri is my tip to win the next Candidates.
Jacob’s answers: “Nakamura, 8.5, Caruana, 4, Nakamura, Karjakin, 1, 11, 1, 2. In case I win, I withdraw from the event!”
Very noble, Jacob, but no need to withdraw.
Colin McNab: “Caruana, 9.5, Karjakin, 9, Caruana, Svidler, 4, 9, 3, 2. Tiebreak: 113”
3 points for Colin, but he beats Jacob on tiebreak with his “awesome” 113 compared to the correct 116. In fact Jacob failed to give a tiebreak answer, so Colin’s precision was overkill.
The books will soon be on their way to Stefan. Congratulations again to Stefan.
Congratulations to Stefan and John!
John, what was your first price? A copy of “Playing e4”?
@Thomas
Funny. That book will soon exist or we will die trying.
Thanks for reminding me to never bet money on something:) Games with limited luck aspect are the best for me I think:) 3/10 but at least I’ve got the winner right 🙂
@John Shaw
Speaking of which, now that the dust has settled after the Candidates Tournament, whould there be any chance of a real publishing schedule (I mean this time including estimated dates) in the near future? Or has QC perhaps decided to abandon this (i.m.o. good) habit? The uncertainty is unbearable 🙂
@Ray
I think the uncertainty is even bigger when we put dates on things?
We have to some extent abandoned the dates, we go months or season usually and have done so for quite a while. The reason for lack of publishing schedules this year is easy to explain. I wanted the leaflet done. To do this I needed the covers done. Our cover designer was slow. Really slow.
Now it is done and can be found in the left side. In a few weeks, after I have safely moved house, we will have a real publishing schedule, with lots and lots of books on it.
@ Jacob Aagaard
Just to clarify: I don’t mean an exact date, but a month or season. In the last update you gave I think this information was missing (except for Kotronias’ book). Thanks for explaining about the leaflet, and really looking forward to what I can expect this summer 🙂 . And success in moving house!
By the way: I like the 2016 catalogue!
Thanks for the nice quiz
@Philipp
You are very welcome. Sadly it is not within our powers to give prizes to everyone, but I hope that we have been able to show our appreciation with little game.
It was a very nice quiz indeed and made me follow the event with extra interest. Thanks for organising the quiz and making a generous prize available. Congratulations to the winner!
In some sense we readers get all prizes with this blog (free) and the books (not free but very good value for money in my opinion). It is in the power of many to have a nice blog, but few do. Even fewer can start a good publishing company, and even less do. Therefore, my sincere thanks to all the people of Quality Chess, both the ones that post here as those that are more “hidden” in the background. I appreciate what you do quite a lot.
Of the 300 entries, did anyone else pick dark-horse William Gibson to win it all?
Would QC be interested to run these quizzes for supertournaments as well? :))
Maybe not give away 20 books every time, just 2 or 3 or something…