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Women's Candidates Preview

#11
Really nice to have this detailed analysis on why/why not each of them can win. I think I had never seen this exact format before.

It was surprising to me that many people predicted Vaishali, she's for sure a great player and has a very bright future ahead, but as the post pointed out, I think it's a bit too soon for a win here.

Like you, I would also be very surprised if the winner isn't either Goryachkina or Lei. My pick would be Lei, last cycle she left a great impression and I feel she does a bit better than Goryachkina in spicier positions, which is a big asset. As you said, Goryachkina also has been drawing quite a lot and has recovered a bit but isn't yet back at her best form.

For a very unpredictable win, I would pick Lagno, she's of course pretty good and rarely does too poorly, I think older players often get overlooked too much hehe

It'll be a great watch :) I'm so hyped for it, that browsing YouTube I saw the thumbnail of a c-drama behind-the-scenes video (image was a couple with some media crew behind) and thought: "Oh, Lei has a boyfriend? Nice" XD Thinking it was her arriving at the venue lol
#12
@brianch said in #11:
> I'm so hyped for it, that browsing YouTube I saw the thumbnail of a c-drama behind-the-scenes video (image was a couple with some media crew behind) and thought: "Oh, Lei has a boyfriend? Nice"

Maybe that wasn't so far off as Lei does have a boyfriend, Raymond Song, who was part of her team for her match with Ju Wenjun. According to ChessBase India, Radjabov and Song are again Lei's seconds this time round for the Candidates.
#13
@konwa said in #12:
> Maybe that wasn't so far off as Lei does have a boyfriend, Raymond Song, who was part of her team for her match with Ju Wenjun. According to ChessBase India, Radjabov and Song are again Lei's seconds this time round for the Candidates.

Oh, that's really cool, thanks for the info :)

Now that you mention, I wonder about the other participants' team of seconds, I have no idea with whom a few of them work, I guess we'll have more info in the coming days (perhaps in the next few hours, actually :)