Leinier Dominguez has pulled out of the Chessable Sunway Sitges Chess Festival 2023 at halfway, explaining, “I’ve come to a point where I’m simply risking too much if I continue.”
www.chess.com
"It’s not just Dominguez who has struggled, however. Second-seed GM
Kirill Alekseenko, who played the 2020-1 Candidates, has lost two games and dropped 13 rating points. One game was to 29-year-old Australian IM
James Morris. The other was to 16-year-old Turkish IM-elect
Adar Tarhan, who opened with
1.a3!? against a player who outrated him by 225 rating points"
"Firouzja will play two classical games each against GMs
Alexandre Dgebuadze (2439),
Andrei Shchekachev (2506), and
Sergey Fedorchuk (2546), in that order. The 20-year-old will need to score very heavily against the veterans, but the former 2800-star is clearly capable, and he will know if he can afford a draw going into the final game".
@ORRFForever The kid who played 1. a3 against a 2021 Candidate won! Chess has become crazy. I know Dominguez had to play outside the country and had limited choices but playing against such low rated opponents was dumb. He got .1 point for a win and lost 4.2 points for a draw. Firouzja organizing and playing against 3 low rated French friends at the last second is complete BS.