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Basque System Chess
The World Mind Games were held in Beijing, China between December 12 and 20th, 2013. The contests encompassed five disciplines: chess, bridge, checkers, Go and xiangqi (Chinese chess).
The chess part had a rapid event for two days, a blitz event for three and the Basque System for two days.
There were 16 grandmasters playing – Karjakin, Grischuk, Aronian, Mamedyarov, Dominquez, Ponomariov, Radjabov, Le, Wang Hao, Wang Yue, Nepomniachtchi, Vachier-Lagrave, Kamsky, Leko, Ivanchuk and Giri.
The final rankings in Basque were: Karjakin 8.5, Mamedyarov 6.5, Ponomariov 6.0, Ivanchuk, Kamsky, Grischuk and Wang Yue 5.5.
The schedule for the event was:
Basque Events · 16 male players – 16 female players (separate event for male/female) · two days with five rounds Swiss events; · each player plays two games simultaneously per round with white and black pieces · time control 20 mins each side plus 10 secs increment per game
The games can be downloaded at:
http://sportaccord2013.fide.com/en/c...leview&kid=115
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The Basque System was first used in the San Sebastian Tournament of 2011-12. The rate of play was 2 hrs for all moves + 30 sec increments.
Some of the ideas of the system:
- No one has the advantage of playing the first game with the white pieces
- It is less tiring than playing two games, one after the other, or playing two games in two days
GM Sergey Fedorchuk (Ukraine) said of his experience at the beginning of the San Sebastian Tourney:
I'm participating in such a tournament for the first time. I think it’s a very unique tournament and nothing like this has ever happened before. I felt mixed-up at the beginning of the match. I lost my concentration but later on I found the rhythm. I was lucky to play with not a very strong opponent today because I’m afraid it would be more difficult for me. During the game I was confusing moves, score sheets… I was writing wrong moves, correcting them and of course it distracted me. At least I pushed clocks correctly. I was playing very fast at the beginning thinking that my time will finish very soon but in fact two hours are enough even for two games. I believe it’s just a new type of game, just a different one if we compare it to “normal” chess. Some players can play better rapid chess; some of them play better blitz, so there will be some players who can play better with this format as well. Some poker players open many tables on their computer screen. They play simultaneously everywhere and can control the situation.
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Anish Giri writes a long article on his experiences with the Basque System at the Beijing Tourney:
http://www.anishgiri.nl/html/eng/ani...icles_028.html
“The Basque system turned out to be a lot harder than I thought. My first round opponent, the tricky and devilish Levon Aronian brought me in state of panic right from the start, banging out his moves a-tempo on both boards. At some point I just didn't know what to do, where to look, what to think about, and although Levon kept giving me chances on both boards, I was never really there to even try and take them. The second round I played Peter Leko, who seemed to be as devastated as me by the complexity of this new setting for us, and as if by mutual agreement we quickly drew one game, converting to the rapid format. Unfortunately, by the time we drew my black game I was already worse in my white game, but surprisingly Peter, who was in the great shape, sharing first in rapid, managed to spoil his position and at the end I was even brutal enough to avoid move repetition in a dead equal position. Black didn't play the best way, to say the very least, but still I very much like the geometry at the end”
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Peter Doggers on chess.com wrote:
The (Beijing) tournament was mostly a "happy event" and not really serious. Critics of rapid and blitz chess have a point when they say that here players of the highest level make mistakes that only belong to amateur games. This seems especially the case in the Basque System, where often a player gets into time trouble on both boards and completely spoils two decent positions in just a few seconds.
On Facebook GM Emil Sutovsky started a discussion about this:
“I can not recall a single high-quality game played in either London / Beijing - in fact, the vast majority of them were decided by the inexplicable blunders. The winners are, as always, deserving. But I am talking purely about chess content and chess value. And I also feel that the public was not following the events as closely, as it would be with a classical format. But maybe these are just my feelings? What do you think? Did you like it fast? Was there a real SHOW, which compensated for a real CHESS? Your feedback is important, please cast your opinion.”
http://www.chess.com/news/world-mind...at-basque-1610
[On the above site there is a photo of Aronian and Karjakin playing their first moves at Basque with the two boards, two clocks and an arbiter]
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Forum Comments:
- I would be afraid of one player trying to play the same game on both boards to assure and equal total result, but I guess this hasn’t been an issue..
- I don't see why there should be an ethical or reputation issue about employing that method, as farcical as it may be
- What do you think about this? Does it add anything to chess or is it just another chess format that is fun but shouldn't be taken seriously? Critics say that players at the highest levels make mistakes in time trouble that only belongs to amateur games. But isn't that also the case with normal rapid and blitz? What difference does it make playing two board simultaneously? Does it belong to the same category as blindfold chess which is taken more seriously or do you think it's like another bughouse variant?
- I hate gimmicks, and this one is a Class-A gimmick.
The World Mind Games were held in Beijing, China between December 12 and 20th, 2013. The contests encompassed five disciplines: chess, bridge, checkers, Go and xiangqi (Chinese chess).
The chess part had a rapid event for two days, a blitz event for three and the Basque System for two days.
There were 16 grandmasters playing – Karjakin, Grischuk, Aronian, Mamedyarov, Dominquez, Ponomariov, Radjabov, Le, Wang Hao, Wang Yue, Nepomniachtchi, Vachier-Lagrave, Kamsky, Leko, Ivanchuk and Giri.
The final rankings in Basque were: Karjakin 8.5, Mamedyarov 6.5, Ponomariov 6.0, Ivanchuk, Kamsky, Grischuk and Wang Yue 5.5.
The schedule for the event was:
Basque Events · 16 male players – 16 female players (separate event for male/female) · two days with five rounds Swiss events; · each player plays two games simultaneously per round with white and black pieces · time control 20 mins each side plus 10 secs increment per game
The games can be downloaded at:
http://sportaccord2013.fide.com/en/c...leview&kid=115
+++++++++++
The Basque System was first used in the San Sebastian Tournament of 2011-12. The rate of play was 2 hrs for all moves + 30 sec increments.
Some of the ideas of the system:
- No one has the advantage of playing the first game with the white pieces
- It is less tiring than playing two games, one after the other, or playing two games in two days
GM Sergey Fedorchuk (Ukraine) said of his experience at the beginning of the San Sebastian Tourney:
I'm participating in such a tournament for the first time. I think it’s a very unique tournament and nothing like this has ever happened before. I felt mixed-up at the beginning of the match. I lost my concentration but later on I found the rhythm. I was lucky to play with not a very strong opponent today because I’m afraid it would be more difficult for me. During the game I was confusing moves, score sheets… I was writing wrong moves, correcting them and of course it distracted me. At least I pushed clocks correctly. I was playing very fast at the beginning thinking that my time will finish very soon but in fact two hours are enough even for two games. I believe it’s just a new type of game, just a different one if we compare it to “normal” chess. Some players can play better rapid chess; some of them play better blitz, so there will be some players who can play better with this format as well. Some poker players open many tables on their computer screen. They play simultaneously everywhere and can control the situation.
+++++++++
Anish Giri writes a long article on his experiences with the Basque System at the Beijing Tourney:
http://www.anishgiri.nl/html/eng/ani...icles_028.html
“The Basque system turned out to be a lot harder than I thought. My first round opponent, the tricky and devilish Levon Aronian brought me in state of panic right from the start, banging out his moves a-tempo on both boards. At some point I just didn't know what to do, where to look, what to think about, and although Levon kept giving me chances on both boards, I was never really there to even try and take them. The second round I played Peter Leko, who seemed to be as devastated as me by the complexity of this new setting for us, and as if by mutual agreement we quickly drew one game, converting to the rapid format. Unfortunately, by the time we drew my black game I was already worse in my white game, but surprisingly Peter, who was in the great shape, sharing first in rapid, managed to spoil his position and at the end I was even brutal enough to avoid move repetition in a dead equal position. Black didn't play the best way, to say the very least, but still I very much like the geometry at the end”
+++++++++++
Peter Doggers on chess.com wrote:
The (Beijing) tournament was mostly a "happy event" and not really serious. Critics of rapid and blitz chess have a point when they say that here players of the highest level make mistakes that only belong to amateur games. This seems especially the case in the Basque System, where often a player gets into time trouble on both boards and completely spoils two decent positions in just a few seconds.
On Facebook GM Emil Sutovsky started a discussion about this:
“I can not recall a single high-quality game played in either London / Beijing - in fact, the vast majority of them were decided by the inexplicable blunders. The winners are, as always, deserving. But I am talking purely about chess content and chess value. And I also feel that the public was not following the events as closely, as it would be with a classical format. But maybe these are just my feelings? What do you think? Did you like it fast? Was there a real SHOW, which compensated for a real CHESS? Your feedback is important, please cast your opinion.”
http://www.chess.com/news/world-mind...at-basque-1610
[On the above site there is a photo of Aronian and Karjakin playing their first moves at Basque with the two boards, two clocks and an arbiter]
++++++++++
Forum Comments:
- I would be afraid of one player trying to play the same game on both boards to assure and equal total result, but I guess this hasn’t been an issue..
- I don't see why there should be an ethical or reputation issue about employing that method, as farcical as it may be
- What do you think about this? Does it add anything to chess or is it just another chess format that is fun but shouldn't be taken seriously? Critics say that players at the highest levels make mistakes in time trouble that only belongs to amateur games. But isn't that also the case with normal rapid and blitz? What difference does it make playing two board simultaneously? Does it belong to the same category as blindfold chess which is taken more seriously or do you think it's like another bughouse variant?
- I hate gimmicks, and this one is a Class-A gimmick.
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