In 2018 I was at a Candidates tournament as a reporter for the first and only time. The challenger for the then reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen was determined in the “Kühlhaus am Gleisdreieck” in Berlin-Kreuzberg, a venue with industrial exposed concrete charm that was soon nicknamed “The Bunker”. On the front of the bunker, the company “World Chess”, which organized the tournament on behalf of FIDE, had a huge banner hung as an advertising measure that read: “Entering this building might substantially increase your IQ. Chess does that to humans.”
After a wild tournament with a high percentage – not only of intelligence, but also of decisive games, Fabiano Caruana prevailed in the end. But Wladimir Kramnik got off to the best start, completely changing his style for the last chance to qualify for a World Cup match again and playing ruthlessly to win with both colors in every game.
At first it went well, but then Kramnik suffered defeat after defeat. That didn’t stop the former world champion from repeatedly claiming in the press conferences after the end of his games that he was actually completely on the winning side and had only lost due to inexplicable mistakes.
