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Re: Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match
Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match
December 3, 2016
Yasser Seirawan has a thoughtful follow-up to his article in ChessBase about improving the format of the world championship match.
It contains two paragraphs of especial interest:
Once again I stress that I’m a critic of the current system. I don’t like it at all. In fact, I find the current cycle to be plainly stupid. Why? Please, take the following grandmasterly challenge, I double-dare you: explain the current system to a good friend who doesn’t play chess. Explain that the Champion, presumably the best chess player in the world, sits outside of a two-year-long cycle of events, biding his time, waiting for a Challenger to emerge. That there is a series of four “Swiss Open” tournaments with hundreds of players, called “Continental Championships”, played at a different time-control, that act as qualifier events for a big-money event called the “World Cup.” That it, in turn, is a 128-player “Knock-out” event featuring different time-controls, as well as tie-breakers that qualify the winners for a “Candidates’ Tournament” which is a “double-round-robin” with a different, slower Classical time-control. The Candidates’ Tournament itself features a field of eight players. Where the runner-up of the previous WC Match is joined by the World Cup qualifiers, some of the highest rated players in the world and a wildcard player chosen by the organizers. Be sure to emphasize such terms as “Swiss Open”, “Knockout Matches”, “Double-Round-Robin”, as well as describing the different time-controls, and toss in an “Armageddon” once or twice to be sure that your friend is listening. Don’t forget that tiebreaks are not used in the Candidates’ tournament. Instead, do mention, please, that tying for first by losing more games than your rival is better than going undefeated, and I guarantee you that you will have thoroughly confused your friend. And quite possibly yourself as well.
________
For myself, I’d consider it a massive improvement if the next World Championship Match were a 15-game contest with the player who is given the extra game with the Black pieces at the drawing of lots ceremony having draw-odds. At every moment in such a match a player would be trailing and would have to fight for the win. Tame draws would favor only the player in the lead. Victory would come only in Classical Games and not through Rapid Chess, Blitz or an Armageddon game. Lest anyone think that I would deny the chess world the thrills of Rapid Chess, I would not. That is why there is a World Rapid Chess Championship which is called by that name. It is coming up soon. Be sure to tune in to that different form of chess. But let us keep the three forms of chess, Classical, Rapid and Blitz, separate from one another.
http://en.chessbase.com/post/yasser-...redux-wcc-2016
Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match
December 3, 2016
Yasser Seirawan has a thoughtful follow-up to his article in ChessBase about improving the format of the world championship match.
It contains two paragraphs of especial interest:
Once again I stress that I’m a critic of the current system. I don’t like it at all. In fact, I find the current cycle to be plainly stupid. Why? Please, take the following grandmasterly challenge, I double-dare you: explain the current system to a good friend who doesn’t play chess. Explain that the Champion, presumably the best chess player in the world, sits outside of a two-year-long cycle of events, biding his time, waiting for a Challenger to emerge. That there is a series of four “Swiss Open” tournaments with hundreds of players, called “Continental Championships”, played at a different time-control, that act as qualifier events for a big-money event called the “World Cup.” That it, in turn, is a 128-player “Knock-out” event featuring different time-controls, as well as tie-breakers that qualify the winners for a “Candidates’ Tournament” which is a “double-round-robin” with a different, slower Classical time-control. The Candidates’ Tournament itself features a field of eight players. Where the runner-up of the previous WC Match is joined by the World Cup qualifiers, some of the highest rated players in the world and a wildcard player chosen by the organizers. Be sure to emphasize such terms as “Swiss Open”, “Knockout Matches”, “Double-Round-Robin”, as well as describing the different time-controls, and toss in an “Armageddon” once or twice to be sure that your friend is listening. Don’t forget that tiebreaks are not used in the Candidates’ tournament. Instead, do mention, please, that tying for first by losing more games than your rival is better than going undefeated, and I guarantee you that you will have thoroughly confused your friend. And quite possibly yourself as well.
________
For myself, I’d consider it a massive improvement if the next World Championship Match were a 15-game contest with the player who is given the extra game with the Black pieces at the drawing of lots ceremony having draw-odds. At every moment in such a match a player would be trailing and would have to fight for the win. Tame draws would favor only the player in the lead. Victory would come only in Classical Games and not through Rapid Chess, Blitz or an Armageddon game. Lest anyone think that I would deny the chess world the thrills of Rapid Chess, I would not. That is why there is a World Rapid Chess Championship which is called by that name. It is coming up soon. Be sure to tune in to that different form of chess. But let us keep the three forms of chess, Classical, Rapid and Blitz, separate from one another.
http://en.chessbase.com/post/yasser-...redux-wcc-2016
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