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ON THIS DAY IN 1871, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, It has been well remarked that of all the great inventions of this century, that of the telegraph is the greatest, because it is the simplest. It is the nearest approach man has made to the simplicity and majesty of the works of the Deity. It subordinates one of the great forces of nature to the will and uses of man, and enables the insignificant beings, incapable of traveling by their own strength more than forty miles a day, or by any mechanical aid over five hundred miles a day, to instantaneously hold converse while separated by half the globes circumference.

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ON THIS DAY IN 1887, the Eagle reported, LONDON The Queens Jubilee is the all pervading topic and preparations for celebrating the event in befitting manner engross the attention of all classes of Londoners. The fortunate ones who own or hold as tenants space looking to the street along the route proposed for Her Majestys procession to Westminster Abbey are making the most of the opportunity, which comes but once in a lifetime, and are charging enormous prices for the privilege of standing room where a view of the pageant can be obtained. In many instances these rapacious landlords some of them Irishmen, whose denunciations of the Bodyke evictions interlard the conversation necessary to conclude their hard bargains have compelled their tenants of an hour to hire entire floors, extending perhaps 100 feet or more back from the street, in order to secure the exclusive right to look out the front windows, and as great a sum as 300 has been exacted and paid for that privilege. For the Queens garden party at Buckingham Palace, 6,500 invitations have been issued, and it would not exaggerate the number to state that 65,000 persons would have been disappointed in not receiving the royal command to be present on that occasion.

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ON THIS DAY IN 1919, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, Sir Barton is unquestionably the best three-year-old colt since the days of Colin. By his victory in the Belmont stakes at the closing day at Belmont Park yesterday he won $11,950, which brought his total winnings of the season up to $64,950. He has now four straight triumphs to his credit, the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, the Withers and the Belmont stakes.

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ON THIS DAY IN 1927, the Eagle reported, WASHINGTON, JUNE 11 In a plain blue suit, and not in the uniform which had been sent to him at sea, Col. Charles A. Lindbergh, bronzed, serene and modest, today set foot on his native soil to receive the applause of an admiring government and people. Making a characteristic jerky salute now and then, and smiling occasionally, this young man of remarkable poise, and even more remarkable good taste, arrived in Washington at noon, drove down Pennsylvania Ave. with his mother and received from the hands of the President of the United States the Distinguished Flying Cross all without one moment of embarrassment, one moment of pose or one moment of ostentation. He came into harbor, far up the sluggish Potomac, with artillery flashing and booming, with huge squadrons of aircraft maneuvering overhead, with bands playing, flags streaming and cheers rising from thousands of throats, acclaimed as no sovereign or president has ever been acclaimed, but he remains, as far as anybody can see, the same Charles Lindbergh who took off from New York on May 21 on his memorable nonstop flight to Paris. The adulation of the world has not spoiled him. He remains himself.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Its a Small World (After All) composer Richard M. Sherman, who was born in 1928; broadcaster and Basketball Hall of Famer Marv Albert, who was born in 1941; Sesame Street star Sonia Manzano, who was born in 1950; thirtysomething star Timothy Busfield, who was born in 1957; The Kids in the Hall star Scott Thompson, who was born in 1959; psychologist and cultural critic Jordan Peterson, who was born in 1962; former N.J. Nets shooting guard Kerry Kittles, who was born in 1974; former N.Y. Yankees outfielder and 2009 World Series MVP Hideki Matsui, who was born in 1974; 2004 NBA Sixth Man of the Year Antawn Jamison, who was born in 1976; former NFL tight end and Super Bowl champion Dallas Clark, who was born in 1979; and actress and supermodel Adriana Lima, who was born in 1981.

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DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER: The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was dedicated in Cooperstown, N.Y., on this day in 1939. More than 200 individuals have been honored for their contributions to the game by induction in the hall. The first players chosen for membership were Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson. Relics and memorabilia from the history of baseball are housed at this shrine of Americas national sport.

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COLD WAR COMMAND: President Ronald Reagan gave his Tear Down this Wall speech on this day in 1987. Standing at the Brandenburg Gate and the Berlin Wall, Reagan challenged Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev to give more than lip service to liberalization in the Eastern Bloc. General Secretary Gorbachev, he said, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! The wall finally came down in 1989.

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Special thanks to Chases Calendar of Events and Brooklyn Public Library.

Quotable:

No generation can escape history.

President George H.W. Bush, who was born on this day in 1924

June 13 |Brooklyn Eagle History

June 11 |Brooklyn Eagle History

June 10 |Brooklyn Eagle History

June 9 |Brooklyn Eagle History

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June 12: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY - Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Michael Jordan was one of the most dominant players on the NBA court, fearing nobody, but there was one person who used to stay in the back of his head.

The Bulls legend has compiled an incredible list of stories from his playing days in the NBA, from elite level trash talking, to incredible tales of how wildly competitive he was, to of course, his general basketball dominance.

All these things combined have given Jordan his GOAT status. His accolades, championships, and struggles are all remembered side by side with the stories of how he reached there.

The Bulls legend has accomplished what NBA players dream of doing in his career. Six championships, six Finals MVPs, five NBA MVPs, an obvious Hall of Fame induction, and much more has cemented Jordans legacy as the greatest NBA player of all time.

So, why was his career so confusing? Well, he retired thrice in his career, to give you some context. If that sounds weird to you, thats because it is. His first retirement was by far the most surprising as it came only nine years into his career, and he had just started to win at the highest level, coming off of his first threepeat.

Also Read: Draymond Green is an unbelievable player and a key piece to winning titles: Kyle Kuzma fires back at Chris Webber unfairly comparing Warriors star to Wes Welker

On the court, Jordan used to bully his opponents. His trash taling game was always on point, and he would put fear in the hearts of whoever he was playing.

It was very rare that youd find someone whod intimidate Jordan. However, Jordans North Carolina teammate Buzz Peterson noted that there was one person whod terrify Jordan.

There is one guy that I always thought, and I know to this day I dont know if Michael wont admit or not, but I swear that he had a little bit of fear of and it wasnt a basketball player. It was a football player by the name of Lawrence Taylor. LT, phenomenal athlete, Peterson recalled to The Athletic in 2020.

Taylor is perhaps the greatest NFL defensive player of all time. He stood at a massive 63, 237 pounds, destroying offensive linemen on the daily during his playing days. Sometimes, hed even play basketball, and hed take it right to Jordan, challenging him at times.

[Taylor] Could guard east to west, as quick as anybody, could jump, big hands, strong and was a bit crazy, Peterson explained. So Michael, in the back of his mind said, S**t, I better be careful with this guy. And LT always wanted to guard him.

Also Read: Reggie Miller and Cheryl Miller used to hustle pickup games for $10 to afford Happy Meals!: How NBAs decorated shooter and WNBA legend used to scam kids out of their lunch money for McDonalds

More here:
"Michael Jordan in the back of his mind said 'Sh*t I better be careful of Lawrence Taylor'": The only player... - The Sportsrush

When the Taliban marched into Kabul on August 15, 2021, marking the end of forty years of conflict, I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, I thought, the bloodshed has ended. With the entire country now decisively in the hands of one central power for the first time since that brief period in the early 2000s, the international community would be in a position to support the new authorities in providing stable governance for the people of Afghanistan.

But that didnt happen. Instead, Western militaries immediately airlifted the vast majority of Kabuls middle class out of the countryless a brain drain than a cerebral durchfalland deprived Afghanistan of vital economic stakeholders. The situation was compounded by the wholesale shuttering of Western embassies which sent a strong message to the Taliban that the international community (and here I refer primarily to Western governments, as a number of international aid organizations remained in the country) was turning its back on Afghanistan once again. The World Bank immediately cut its funding to the healthcare sector, which rapidly began to collapse, and it was left to international aid agencies to fill the void, supporting hospitals and paying salaries to medical staff. As a final farewell, the United States slammed further sanctions on the Taliban and seized $10 billion of Afghanistans assets.

The tone for diplomatic interaction between the international community and the new Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan was set.

There has been much debate in recent years over whether the Taliban have really changed. A new term has emerged: Taliban 2.0, representing a kinder, more moderate face to the world. Many Afghans rejected this concept, claiming that the idea that the Taliban had changed was no more than dangerous propaganda. The simple fact is, however, that the Taliban have changed.

In the 1990s, the Taliban banned cameras, music, and televisions. Women were forced to wear the chadari (burqa) and men were compelled to grow long beards and wear turbans. Female education was banned. Criminals were punished according to the Islamic hudood, through amputations of limbs and public executions. The Taliban of 2021 arrived in Kabul with its foot soldiers taking selfies in amusement parks. While a recent edict imposed Islamic hijab on women, it stopped short of mandating the chadari (though, notably, several international media outlets erroneously reported otherwise). Men do not have to grow beards or wear turbans. And although the majority of girls secondary schools are closed, some in the north are open and primary schools and universities are open for female attendance throughout the country. The hudood has not been reintroduced.

In the 1990s, the Taliban was essentially an ethnic Pashtun phenomenon. In 1999, the Taliban massacred the ethnic Hazaras in their heartland of Bamyan. In 2021, however, the Taliban government includes an ethnic Uzbek, Abdul Salam Hanafi, as deputy prime minister. The chief of staff of the armed forces, Qari Fasihuddin, is an ethnic Tajik. Though no Hazara holds high office, a deputy health minister, Muhammad Hassan Ghyasi, is a Hazara, and there are Hazara Taliban on duty in Bamyan.

This is all evidence of a change in the Taliban. Small as these changes may be, they are significant and demonstrateabove all elsethat the Talibans ideology can adapt and evolve. Taliban 2.0 is real.

However, there seems to be a determination in the West to dismiss all of these changes and portray them as nothing more than cosmetic. Composed solely of Taliban, the government is hardly inclusive; the issue of secondary schooling for girls remains unresolved; and the edict on female dress caused international uproar hugely disproportionate to its effect on the ground, where Afghan women already comply with Islamic dress codes on a daily basis.

There is a fundamental problem in the interaction between the international community and the Taliban, amounting to a dialogue de sourdsa dialogue of the deaf. The international community makes demands of the Taliban: inclusive government; respect for womens rights; and the full reopening of girls schools. The Taliban makes requests of the international community: recognition of the Islamic Emirate; official diplomatic relations; and a seat at the United Nations (UN). The Taliban have banned the cultivation of opium poppy whichbearing in mind that 90 percent of the worlds heroin originates in Afghanistanshould be an internationally welcomed move. The policy was greeted by cynicism in the West. Neither party is getting what it wants.

More critically, the failure of what might be termed the internationalized wing of the Talibanpersonified by characters such as the former political leader Mullah Baradar and current Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqito gain any concessions from the West whatsoever is in serious danger of undermining their position. While Taliban 2.0 is real, Taliban 1.0 never went away. The former minister of justice, the one-eyed and one-legged Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, responsible for the enforcement of the hudood during the 1990s, has not been given a seat in the government, despite leading various Taliban commissions throughout the past two decades. Instead, he has been sidelined to the distinctly tame position of vice president of the Afghan Red Crescent Society. Turabi is just one of many waiting in the wings for a position more commensurate with his commitment and experience.

It is an open secret that the Taliban is a conglomerate of different factions and fault lines run horizontally and vertically through the movement. In simple terms, it is ideologically divided between Taliban 1.0 and Taliban 2.0, a fact picked up by the UN 1988 Taliban sanctions committee in its latest report. This largely accounts for the reversal of the decision in March to reopen girls secondary schools. I was personally wrong-footed when I read that the schools were to reopen since I could not see that the Taliban had gained anything from the West in order to predicate such a move. I even began to wonder if my understanding of the Taliban was fundamentally flawed. It was therefore more logical when, given the outraged shock of the international community, the decision was reversed.

The West is placing heavy emphasis on the importance of womens rights and girls education. These issues are used as a stick to beat the Taliban at (seemingly) every meeting they have with international diplomats. The continued emphasis on these two points inflates their importance on the negotiating table. To the Taliban, these issues appear to be High-Value Items for the international community, to be bargained carefully and only in exchange for High-Value Items the Taliban themselves desire. On more than one occasion, international diplomats have accused the Taliban of untrustworthiness and reneging on commitments. The implication is that while the West negotiates in good faith, the Taliban have a hidden agenda. The problem is that the Taliban think the same of the international community. It is no secret that the West would like the Taliban to change and much of the debate around the existence or otherwise of Taliban 2.0 revolves around the limited change that has been seen in the Talibans ideology. But how can the Taliban negotiate with a party whose explicit agenda is to change the nature of their rule? There is a Pashto proverb: Beating a donkey does not make it into a horse. Having fought for twenty years to regain power and once again assert their rule, the Taliban view the international communitys approach as an attempt to transform their stallion into a mule.

By placing such high value on certain issues, the Taliban suspect that the international community has a hidden agenda and that the veil (no pun intended) of womens rights is a Trojan horse for nefarious political intentions. The Taliban fear being outwitted by the very adversary they believe they defeated on the battlefield. There is, therefore, an appalling lack of trust between the parties. Negotiations devoid of any trust are unlikely to succeed.

Through continued and public berating and denunciation of the Taliban, the international community is undermining the very people it needs to empower: the Mullah Baradars and Amir Khan Muttaqis of Taliban 2.0. The unintended consequence of this is, equally, to empower the conservative hardliners of Taliban 1.0. Ultimately, one has to ask: is this the best the international community can do?

Having failed to effect real change for Afghans as a whole, Western governments tend to lapse back into their comfortable rhetoric by claiming that the Taliban havent changed, while maintaining blissful ignorance of their own role in bringing about that self-fulfilling prophecy. When I left Afghanistan in December 2021, I tweeted If you extend a hand to the Taliban, they will meet you half way. If you pressure them, their position will harden. I added that the window of opportunity is closing fast for the international community to effect positive change in the country.

Two weeks ago, the Taliban announced a new national budgetthe first in two decades funded solely by Afghanistan itself. Previous governments relied on international aid for up to 70 percent of the national budget, a vast amount of which notoriously ended up in the mansions and penthouses of Dubai. The ability of Afghanistan to fund itself should be applauded. Instead, the international community denounced the abolishing of the Afghan Human Rights Commission, without considering that Afghanistan, deprived of international aid and with a population on the verge of starvation, cannot afford to sustain the human rights body.

See the rest here:
The West Is Getting Afghanistan Wrong, Again - The National Interest Online

An image is being shared on social media claiming it is a picture of a burqa-clad Qatari news anchor who was expressing her concern over religious freedom in India. This post mentioned the news anchors name as Fatima Sheikh. Lets verify the claim made in the post.

Claim: Photo of a burqa-clad Qatari news anchor expressing concern over religious freedom in India.

Fact: The photo shared in the post shows a picture of Khatereh Ahmadi, an Afghanistan TV anchor working at the TOLO News channel in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Taliban government in Afghanistan had enforced an order mandating all-female TV news anchors in the country to cover their faces while on-air. Following the Taliban orders, on 22 May 2022, Khatereh Ahmadi was seen covering her face while reading the news on the TOLOnews. The image does not show a Qatari news anchor. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.

On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, the same photo was found published by the Associated Press news agency on 22 May 2022. The description of the photo states, TV anchor Khatereh Ahmadi bows her head while wearing a face covering as she reads the news on TOLO NEWS, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, May 22, 2022.

The Taliban government in Afghanistan enforced an order mandating all-female TV news anchors in the country to cover their faces while on-air. Following the Taliban orders, on 22 May 2022, Khatereh Ahmadi was seen covering her face while reading the news on the TOLOnews. Reporting the same, several other news websites have also published articles. A few of them can be seen here and here.

On 09 June 2022, a Twitter user named Advisor Zaidu had tweeted this photo with a similar claim that was made in the post. In the bio section of this Twitter handle, it is stated that all the tweets made from the Twitter handle are fake and any resemblance to any person dead or alive is purely coincidental. The photo shared in the post does not show a journalist in Qatar.

To sum it up, an Afghanistan journalists photo is shared as picture of burqa-clad Qatari news anchor expressing her concern over religious freedom in India.

Go here to see the original:
Afghanistan journalist's photo shared as burqa-clad Qatari news anchor expressing concern over religious freedom in India - Factly

It's the biggest question on everybody's mind this month: Who will win the 2022 FIDE Candidates Tournament and challenge World Champion Magnus Carlsen for the crown? There are eight candidates, and each has a chance to play for the highest title in chess.

Whether you're looking to learn more about each player, borrow talking points for your favorite to win, or share your counter-perspective in the comments, I've provided the case for each player, listed in descending order by classical rating.

GM Ding Liren has earned the nickname "King Ding" in Twitch chats and online forums. He is the world number-two with a rating of 2806 and the only player in the field with a current rating over 2800. Judging by his rating and his dominant tournament performances in the last few months, he is one of the big favorites to win.

This will be his third Candidates Tournament, but opponents may point to his last one as a sign of weakness. Although he finished fifth in the last Candidates despite being one of the favorites, letting slip no fewer than four losses, his fans will likely point to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the two Chinese players, Ding and GM Wang Hao, who experienced unique challenges with their preparation.

Fast-forward to 2022. Needing to play 26 games before May, he proved what he was made of by finishing first in every over-the-board tournament he's played in this year: the Hangzhou quadruple round-robin, a six-game match againstGM Wei Yi (currently world number-22), and finally the Second Hangzhou Asian Games Qualifier. With these recent successes and surely the desire to make up for the last Candidates, we can expect to see a motivated-like-never-before Ding.

His performances in the online chess scene have been no less impressive, by the way. Notably, he won the 2022 Chessable Masters after defeating Carlsen in their head-to-head match. Earlier, in 2021, he also showed great fighting spirit by taking the king of the Speed Chess Championship, Nakamura, all the way to the final armageddon game. Although Ding lost in the end, he played one of the greatest matches in SCC history and had chances to win at virtually every turn. After the match, the winner said: "I thought this was the hardest match I'd playedand that includes the match I lost to Magnus, by the way."

I thought this was the hardest match I'd playedand that includes the match I lost to Magnus, by the way.

GM Hikaru Nakamura

Carlsen expressed before the 2021 World Championship that he considered Ding one of his two serious challenges. Ding was undefeated for 100 classical games, a record until Carlsen surpassed it in 2019. And no need to worry about his chances in a playoff; his win over Carlsen in the 2019 Sinquefield Cup to win the entire event should be a dreadful omen to any of his potential opponents.

GM Alireza Firouzja is the youngest player in the field at only age 18 (he will turn 19 on the second day of the Candidates), but don't let this fool youhe is arguably the most talented player in the history of the game and has been focusing on virtually nothing but preparing for this tournament since his qualification in 2021.

The youngest player to ever break 2800 and the world number-three is, at the moment, the greatest representative of the AlphaZero generation. With computers available since his birth, he and his fellow youngsters simply think about the game differently than those who had to learn the game without a silicon assistant.

He is already on pace to possibly outdo Carlsen in the long run, having already achieved the 2800 rating earlier than the current world champion. He's also the second-youngest to reach 2700, behind Wei Yi. Carlsen has spoken highly of Firouzja on several occasions, especially after his 3015-rating performance at the European Team Chess Championship 2021, saying he was "really impressed with his performance in the Grand Swiss and in the European Team Championship.... That motivated me more than anything else."

While there are many games to choose from, the following game from the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss is a display of pure dominance, a precursor to his rise to the world number-two spot.

Indeed, some will remember GM Garry Kasparov predicted that GM Vladimir Kramnik would succeed him. While Carlsen has made no such explicit prediction yet, he has indicated that he looks forward to the challenge of playing the prodigy more than any other contender in this event.

Some may argue that Firouzja's last event is a sour reminder of the prodigy's youth and inexperience. You may look at his seventh-place finish (out of 10) at the Superbet Chess Classic Romania and see weakness, a far cry from his first-place victory at the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss 2021 not long before. Looking at the crosstable, however, shows that he still finished higher than Nepomniachtchi (who won the last Candidates) and Rapport (another contender in this article).

Firouzja actually has the best score against this field of any of the players, 9/16 or 56.25%. Although he has the smallest sample size of games (GM Fabiano Caruana has the most games at 54.5/101 or 53.96%), it raises the point that he can (at least!) hold his own among these elite players.

Further, unlike most of the other players in this article, the French-Iranian super grandmaster has not been participating in almost any eventsonline or over the boardin the leadup to the Candidates. His absence from all chess events likely is due to his Candidates preparation, and we may speculate that he saved that preparation during the event in Romania. If this is the case, then his relatively poor score can be attributed to the fact that he's reserving his most powerful weapons for the Candidates.

Thus, Firouzja has a strong shot at winning the tournament, and I'll also add that even if he does not, he will likely return and win one in the future.

An obvious case can be made for someone who has already won a previous Candidates tournament. After having won the Candidates in 2018, this will be his fourth appearance at this elite event, making him one of the most experienced players in this format. According to many metrics which I describe below, Caruana is one of the clear favorites to win. Considering he would've been the world number-one for the entirety of 2018-2021 if Carlsen weren't around (among other points), the case for this one is a softball.

Surely his opponents will never forget Caruana's 2014 Sinquefield Cup win, where he won seven consecutive games (including against the world champion), a run that hearkened to Fischer's sensational 6-0 match wins about a half-century before. His highest live rating was 2851.3 after this event, a number that nobody but Kasparov and Carlsen has ever been able to approach. He almost overtook Carlsen by rating in 2018, by the way, being rated 2832 and only three points lower than the world champion at the time. No other active player has done this, period.

After breaking into the top 10 at age 19, he's consistently stayed at or around there since, and he has been number two for longer than anyone else in this field. He first achieved it in 2014, but he stayed the world's number-two from 2018 all the way to 2021. The list of major tournaments he's won is larger than anyone else's in this field.

Known for his prolific opening knowledge and innovations, you can expect him to put pressure on his opponents early with either color. Once thought to be "weaker" in rapid, especially after his loss to Carlsen in the 2018 tiebreaks, he has now proven himself to be more than capable in this format in the Rapid Chess Championship online, taking the first two weekends in a row ahead of some of the world's best rapid players, including Nakamuraforeshadowing strong prospects if he needs to play a tiebreaker in this event or even against Carlsen in the future.

In addition, his FIDE blitz rating jumped over 100 points at the Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland this year. This may become relevant if he reaches a playoff situation.

In the last Candidates tournament, Caruana was responsible for a turning point in the event. This stunning win over GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave allowed him to jump into second place, and although in hindsight we know Nepo ended up winning, the 2018 challenger did pose a veritable threat in the second half.

Carlsen has said about the first American to play a world title match since Fischer: "Ive long felt that Caruana has the strength to be almost at my level, but he hasnt been stable enough." If the stars align, the third highest-rated player in history will surely be a force to reckon with.

GM Ian Nepomniachtchi is probably best known these days for having just played Carlsen in the last world championship match. He is also well known for his aggressive style and very quick calculation ability, sometimes winning games with close to all his time left on the clock. For the last challenger, the essential argument is pretty easy: he's done it before and he can do it again.

One weakness that Carlsen and others have brought up in the past is Nepo's stamina in longer events. Indeed, the two-time Russian champion started off his last bid for the world title very well but seemed to run out of energy after game six.

Being split into two halves likely helped him win the last Candidates tournament, admittedly. On the other hand, winning an event of this caliber under any circumstances is a lifetime achievement and a testament to the Nepo's strength.

While his blunders from the 2021 World Chess Championship are still fresh on everyone's mind, a look at the previous Candidates should fill Nepo's fans with hope. The following win against GM Anish Giri displayed the tournament winner's aggressive nature as he gunned for the win with Black coupled with the ability to convert technically difficult endgames.

The way he broke the fortress with queen vs. rook and knight in the following game is the single most standout game in the last Candidates for me.

Russia's number-one player was one of the few players in the world to have a plus score against Carlsen (at least until their 2021 match). Winning the 2002 World Junior Championship, Nepo is the second player to ever win both the Under-12 World Championship and the Candidates tournament (the other being GM Sergey Karjakin).

GM Richard Rapport has been known for many years for his quirky opening choices. While this is his first Candidates, his recent performance at the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix (where he finished second behind Nakamura) instills great hopes for his fans.

Rapport has been a world-class player for a while now, and while the Candidates will surely be an uphill climb for him, he has recently shown the propensity to outplay other strong 2700+ players.

The recently Romanian player is arguably the most creative and unpredictable player in the field, and he'll be impossible to prepare against. We can expect some of the most exciting openings in the event to be in his games, and some careful preparation and a bit of luck can potentially lead to wins over his esteemed opponents.

He recently employed the Alapin Opening against GM Leinier Dominguez at the 2022 Superbet Chess Classic Romania, an opening that this author humbly admits to having never heard of or seen before this game:

While he's seemed a bit unmotivated in very recent interviews, we must also acknowledge that he was just at his peak rating of 2776 (and world number-five) in April, and his rating is still close to that now. He has dropped about 10 points, but if he continues the positive trend we've been observing, we should see the greatest chess he's ever played at this tournament. An in-form ~2770 player is fully capable of winning the Candidates.

In addition, Rapport has a unique thirst for victory that arguably many other players, even in this field, do not have. Fresh in our minds still is his speculative and insanely risky 30.Qe5!! against GM Dmitry Andreikin in the FIDE Grand Prix second leg final playoffs. With this being the best example, among many others, we can expect Rapport to keep fighting in positions where others may take a draw, a quality our reigning world champion himself is renowned for.

GM Hikaru Nakamura needs no introductionwith his illustrious career in both professional chess and streaming, he is one of the most recognizable names in the game. Despite taking a two-year hiatus from over-the-board chess, he has shown no signs of rust, has the fighting spirit it takes to win first in an elite tournament, and is one of the favorites to win a potential rapid tiebreak.

While many know him as a streamer today rather than as a full-time professional player, the youngest American grandmaster since GM Bobby Fischer (at the time, in 2003) was once the world number-two. This was only seven years ago when he stood at a rating of 2816. Not only has he consistently stayed in or around the top 10 since then, but he is currently at number two in the world in both rapid and blitzmind you, he hit number one in both formats earlier this year.

While some may say that rapid and blitz are completely irrelevant to the Candidates, this is not quite the case. Since faster tiebreaks will be introduced to the tournament this year, he will be a huge favorite if he reaches that stage.

Nakamura plays for the win and is unafraid to take risks if it means he may finish first. While there's a long list of tournaments he's finished first in, the most convincing one for my case has to be his first-place finish in the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix, despite being the 10th seed going in. In a tournament where second place is as good as lastif what matters most is the chance at playing for the world titlewe can expect fighting chess from the five-time U.S. champion.

When selecting from Nakamura's oeuvre of provocative openings, queen sacrifices, and spectacular moves, the hardest part was selecting just one game. I went with his third consecutive win from the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix third leg, where he won on demand several days in a rownot only to qualify for the Candidates but to finish first in the entire series.

While the game was ongoing, I will never forget a colleague mentioning that Nakamura's position was on the brink of disaster and that it was highly unlikely he'd find the engine's top move, 27...f5!?, to stay in the game. Somehow I'm still surprised every time this happens, and he not only slipped out of a perilous position but wona storyline regular readers of our articles are familiar with by now.

Nakamura shared in a recent Rapid Chess Championship interview: "I think the fact that its not make-or-break for me the way that it will be for pretty much every other player definitely helps me." He has also stated, on several occasions, the phrase that has become a meme by this point: "I literally don't care." With perhaps less pressure on himself than the others, this mindset already helped Nakamura in the FIDE Grand Prix.

The last point I'll make is that Nakamura draws strength from his fanbase, and this has been the case long before he became a popular streamer.

I truly believe that Nakamura plays better when he has great supportand when has he had a greater backing than now? Despite some of his blase statements about the Candidates ("I literally don't care"), he delivered gold in the Grand Prix. And with literally over a million people cheering for him now (if judging by the number of followers on YouTube and Twitch), he could not be more motivated.

GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda is the second-youngest player in this Candidates Tournament at age 24, the younger player being Firouzja. But he is not to be underestimated; the young Polish grandmaster qualified for this tournament by defeating Carlsen and then defeating Karjakin in the final of the 2021 World Cup. While he is the last seed in the event by rating, a rapidly improving young player like this one should never be written off, especially when he's been performing well in tournaments leading up to the Candidates.

I could have chosen to feature several games, but how could I not show the game where he ended the world champion's 125-game unbeaten streak (still the record) that spanned nearly three years? We begin with 27...Na7!, after which Duda's pieces flood into Carlsen's position.

Duda has proven himself to be a world-class player in several recent tournaments. He kicked off this year with a superb performance in the World Blitz Chess Championship, reaching the final tiebreak against Vachier-Lagrave. Although the Frenchman won the final encounter, Duda was already within reach of winning a world title.

Next, the 2018 Polish Champion won first place in two elite events this year: the Oslo Esports Cup, in which Carlsen participated, and the Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland. He has become quite the sweetheart in Poland recently and surely his country's support, as well as his mother's, will propel him to continue the momentum forward.

One last point is that Duda fears no one. In a 2020 interview, he was excited to play Carlsen before he made his words come true: "When I beat him, I will feel like, Ok Im at the very, very top." This kind of confidence is seen in very few, and almost no one has the ability to follow through on such a bold statement. Having already shown his capacity to defeat the world's best player, we must wonder: What can't he do?

GM Teimour Radjabov sat out of the 2020-2021 Candidates due to Covid concerns. But as the oldest, most experienced player in the field at the age of 35, hes looking to avenge his previous Candidates absence and punch his ticket to the world title match.

While his name may be less familiar to some than others, he has impressed the chess world in recent years. Notably, he defeated Ding to win the 2019 FIDE World Cup, showing that he is capable of beating anyone in this esteemed field.

A child prodigy, and a grandmaster since age 14, he beat other world champions in his teenage years, including GMs Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, and Ruslan Ponomariov. Having reached a peak rating of 2793, if he performs at the same level as his career-best tournaments, winning the Candidates is certainly possible.

Admittedly, Radjabov has a reputation for being very solid and safe. He's caught a fair share of criticism from Carlsen himself and others on social media for taking a spot from someone else supposedly more deserving.

Judging by the last Candidates tournament, if he manages to draw 11 games and score three wins, he could finish with the same score Nepo did last year. In a tournament this long, a player cannot normally expect to blast through the field the way Fischer did with a 6-0 score in his individual Candidates matches. Stability will win out in this marathon.

He is incredibly hard to beat and also prepares openings that seem innocuous but are surprisingly poisonous. When he is on his A-game, his technical play is as good as anyone else's in this field, and he is able to make the most of tiny advantages against strong opposition.

One last point is that Radjabov might be the best-prepared player of anyone in the field. He never revealed his preparation in the last Candidates, and because he's relatively inactive compared to the rest, he hasn't had to show what he cooked up in 2020. The lines he prepared for the last Candidates may still be valid, and he's had time to improve on them.

Many other candidates in this field have already surprised us simply by qualifying for the event, and surely the Azerbaijani may have a surprise of his own.

I hope you enjoyed my best efforts to make the case for every player in the most important tournament before the next world championship match. Who are you rooting for in the 2022 FIDE Candidates tournament? Let us know in the comments below!

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Who Will Win The Candidates: The Case For Each Player - Chess.com