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I am starting a dedicated thread so that arbiters, organizers and players can weigh in together on this "hottest new thing."
The key sentence:
"If random pairings make it a bit harder for norm seekers - tough. The world has enough titled players anyway, and this would compensate for the rating inflation that has made the gaining of titles too easy."
Originally posted by Wayne Komer
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Isle of Man International 2017
The Man Behind the Random Pairing Idea is Unmasked
Moving on from random Norwegians to random pairings: yesterday evening the top eight players lined up on stage at the tournament hall to draw the names of their opponents from a tombola machine. But before describing the fun of the draw, let's first consider what was behind the move to a random pairing for round one. I can reveal here, exclusively, that it started some months ago with a conversation between tournament director Alan Ormsby and... let's just call him Mr Y for now.
During this telephone discussion, Mr Y expressed his dissatisfaction with certain aspects of Swiss tournaments. He found round one of traditional Swiss tournaments particularly tedious, with a long litany of mismatches and only the very occasional newsworthy David success against Goliath. Why, he asked rhetorically, was it axiomatic that the top players should be kept apart until the latter stages of a tournament? He empathised with chess scribblers and promoters who had to try and make reports of early rounds of Swisses interesting with so little useful material to work from. Why were pairings so slanted in favour of higher rated players anyway? It was no longer necessary to add sweeteners to attract strong players these days since the prize list was sufficient inducement in itself. Why were pairing regulations so complicated? He expressed the view that the regulations should be sufficiently simple so that they could be explained to the man in the street in five minutes. Alternation of colours - yes, of course - pairing with someone on the same or similar score - yes - but why all the other palaver? If random pairings make it a bit harder for norm seekers - tough. The world has enough titled players anyway, and this would compensate for the rating inflation that has made the gaining of titles too easy.
On and on Mr Y pontificated in his usual long-winded way. Only he usually does this in writing... and some of you might be starting to wonder whether Mr Y reminds you of the current writer. Well, I suppose it is time to come clean. I shall now out myself as Mr Y. Yes, I was responsible for the initial idea. Alan Ormsby thought it sounded interesting and took it away to discuss and work through with arbiters and officials. I rather thought that would be the last I heard of it - in reality I was only sounding off, like the grumpy old man I am turning into - but a few weeks later Alan phoned me back to say that they had checked it over and decided it was a runner. The implementation has been shorn of some of my wilder ideas, which is probably just as well. But if anyone wants a scapegoat for the random pairing idea I guess that will have to be me. I shall ascend to the verbal guillotine of Twitter with as much dignity as I can muster. "It's a far, far better thing I do...," etc, etc.
Round 1 Draw
First man to the tombola machine was number one seed Magnus Carlsen. His first job was to decide the colour of the top board pairing and he duly drew a white queen from the bag. (Thereafter the boards alternated colour for the leading players so no further colour draw was required.) Then he drew out the name of an Icelandic player, Bardur orn Birkisson, rated 2167. Master of ceremonies Mike Klein referred to him as "a fellow Scandinavian" but the world champion swiftly corrected him: "Iceland is not Scandinavia." Nice pairing for Magnus - I think he now owes me a tenner for my random pairings suggestion, just as he does the arbiter for that illicit coach journey (oops! I think I just blurted out the second Mr X's identity).
Next up was Vladimir Kramnik, who already knew he was going to be Black in the first round.
Vlad's face registers surprise - "Caruana..."
"... Fabiano!" Vlad Kramnik's surprise turns to amusement as he finds he is playing the number three seed.
Vlad Kramnik read out the name as it was given (surname first) on the slip of paper: "Caruana Fabiano!" and suddenly his faced was wreathed in smiles. Fabiano Caruana also grinned at the news. At least one person in the auditorium - namely me - was greatly relieved at their good-humoured reaction at being paired with the highest rated player remaining in the draw. Generally the players seemed to have reacted quite well to the random pairing idea. We shall have to see how they feel after the game. I might need a safe house. Any offers?
Vishy is paired with an IM from the USA. Arbiter Matthew Carr writes the name down, while Mike Klein asks the questions.
Vishy Anand was the next to step up and found he was paired with Marc Esserman, an IM from the USA. Vishy smiled as he was reminded that Esserman had held him to a draw last year in Gibraltar.
http://iominternationalchess.com
The Man Behind the Random Pairing Idea is Unmasked
Moving on from random Norwegians to random pairings: yesterday evening the top eight players lined up on stage at the tournament hall to draw the names of their opponents from a tombola machine. But before describing the fun of the draw, let's first consider what was behind the move to a random pairing for round one. I can reveal here, exclusively, that it started some months ago with a conversation between tournament director Alan Ormsby and... let's just call him Mr Y for now.
During this telephone discussion, Mr Y expressed his dissatisfaction with certain aspects of Swiss tournaments. He found round one of traditional Swiss tournaments particularly tedious, with a long litany of mismatches and only the very occasional newsworthy David success against Goliath. Why, he asked rhetorically, was it axiomatic that the top players should be kept apart until the latter stages of a tournament? He empathised with chess scribblers and promoters who had to try and make reports of early rounds of Swisses interesting with so little useful material to work from. Why were pairings so slanted in favour of higher rated players anyway? It was no longer necessary to add sweeteners to attract strong players these days since the prize list was sufficient inducement in itself. Why were pairing regulations so complicated? He expressed the view that the regulations should be sufficiently simple so that they could be explained to the man in the street in five minutes. Alternation of colours - yes, of course - pairing with someone on the same or similar score - yes - but why all the other palaver? If random pairings make it a bit harder for norm seekers - tough. The world has enough titled players anyway, and this would compensate for the rating inflation that has made the gaining of titles too easy.
On and on Mr Y pontificated in his usual long-winded way. Only he usually does this in writing... and some of you might be starting to wonder whether Mr Y reminds you of the current writer. Well, I suppose it is time to come clean. I shall now out myself as Mr Y. Yes, I was responsible for the initial idea. Alan Ormsby thought it sounded interesting and took it away to discuss and work through with arbiters and officials. I rather thought that would be the last I heard of it - in reality I was only sounding off, like the grumpy old man I am turning into - but a few weeks later Alan phoned me back to say that they had checked it over and decided it was a runner. The implementation has been shorn of some of my wilder ideas, which is probably just as well. But if anyone wants a scapegoat for the random pairing idea I guess that will have to be me. I shall ascend to the verbal guillotine of Twitter with as much dignity as I can muster. "It's a far, far better thing I do...," etc, etc.
Round 1 Draw
First man to the tombola machine was number one seed Magnus Carlsen. His first job was to decide the colour of the top board pairing and he duly drew a white queen from the bag. (Thereafter the boards alternated colour for the leading players so no further colour draw was required.) Then he drew out the name of an Icelandic player, Bardur orn Birkisson, rated 2167. Master of ceremonies Mike Klein referred to him as "a fellow Scandinavian" but the world champion swiftly corrected him: "Iceland is not Scandinavia." Nice pairing for Magnus - I think he now owes me a tenner for my random pairings suggestion, just as he does the arbiter for that illicit coach journey (oops! I think I just blurted out the second Mr X's identity).
Next up was Vladimir Kramnik, who already knew he was going to be Black in the first round.
Vlad's face registers surprise - "Caruana..."
"... Fabiano!" Vlad Kramnik's surprise turns to amusement as he finds he is playing the number three seed.
Vlad Kramnik read out the name as it was given (surname first) on the slip of paper: "Caruana Fabiano!" and suddenly his faced was wreathed in smiles. Fabiano Caruana also grinned at the news. At least one person in the auditorium - namely me - was greatly relieved at their good-humoured reaction at being paired with the highest rated player remaining in the draw. Generally the players seemed to have reacted quite well to the random pairing idea. We shall have to see how they feel after the game. I might need a safe house. Any offers?
Vishy is paired with an IM from the USA. Arbiter Matthew Carr writes the name down, while Mike Klein asks the questions.
Vishy Anand was the next to step up and found he was paired with Marc Esserman, an IM from the USA. Vishy smiled as he was reminded that Esserman had held him to a draw last year in Gibraltar.
http://iominternationalchess.com
"If random pairings make it a bit harder for norm seekers - tough. The world has enough titled players anyway, and this would compensate for the rating inflation that has made the gaining of titles too easy."
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