Peter Svidler

Russian GM

“If you talk about the clear outsider — and I don’t think he’ll be too upset if you call him that — it’s Bluebaum. He’s a bit lower down the rating list.

But his play in Wijk aan Zee was very strange — he made a very presentable score. If he had converted every winning position he had, he even might have won the tournament.

He beat very strong players, but he also didn’t win against some of them. He had so many winning positions against the absolute best in the world that you look at it and think: he’s not really such a long shot for the Candidates.

If he plays a similar tournament, but converts his positions a little better, it could be really fun to watch!”