WIM Kagramanov will face #5 seed in Turkey

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  • WIM Kagramanov will face #5 seed in Turkey

    Toronto WIM Dina Kagramanov, the current Canadian women's champion, will face #5 seed GM Nina Dragnidze of Georgia in her first-round match at the 2010 Women's World Chess Championship, which will begin in early December in Turkey. The first-round format calls for a two-game match, and if tied, then quicker time controls will be used until a winner is produced.

    Dina will concede a hefty rating advantage of over 400 points to her very strong opponent, who is rated 2551.

    Good luck and good skill, Dina!! :) :)

    Current Women's World Champion GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, who won the last championship in 2008, is playing in this year's championship, and is seeded #1 as title-holder. The highest-rated player in the event is Indian GM Humpy Koneru, rated 2600 and seeded #2.

    I find it very interesting that the current women's champion must play in the tournament, in order to defend her title. Oh, if it were only so simple for the men's World Chess Championship!!

    None of the three Polgar sisters (GM Judit, GM Susan, IM Sofia) are playing this time in Turkey.

    For a full preview of the event, and all the pairings, see chessbase.com's lead story of today.

  • #2
    Women's World Championship Devalued

    Hi Frank:

    I think FIDE has devalued the Women's World Chess Championship, by forcing the champion to play in the cycle, and by putting her into a 2-game lottery knockout system.

    If the World Champion gets to play a Challenger in a match ( who is arrived at by some preliminary cycle ), then why should not the Women's Champion be accorded the same status?

    Bob

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    • #3
      Re: WIM Kagramanov will face #5 seed in Turkey

      Bob:

      I wanted to highlight the fact that the defending women's world chess champion is playing in the 2010 event. I think this is great, and I hope that men's championships in chess will be decided in such a manner in the future, instead of the endless squabbling between FIDE and top chess players over formats and conditions for deciding the world championship.

      Just because men's chess currently doesn't require this of its champion, and historically hasn't required it, doesn't mean that this will always be the case, or always should be the case.

      Think how much simpler men's world championship chess would be, if the current champion had to play in a championship tournament every couple of years, against all worthy potential challengers, in order to defend his title.

      The world championship (except for 1948, which had a special circumstance, due to the death of Alexander Alekhine while he was champion) has historically been a match-play format. That doesn't mean it always should be decided this way, or always will be decided this way.

      Become champion and don't want to play in the championship next time!? Fine, we will have a new champion. That's OK with me.

      Be a super-strong woman player, such as Judit Polgar, and don't want to play in the women's world championship, even though she would likely have won it at some point in the last 20 years!? Fine, Judit hasn't yet played in the championship, and hasn't yet been women's world champion. I think she could win this title if she chose to enter the event. However, Judit is certainly the strongest woman player of all time; few if any people would dispute that.

      Look at other sports. Tennis, a head-to-head sport, as is chess, doesn't crown a world champion. It has its four Grand Slam events, which date back into the 1800s, and a tournament points system, to produce rankings, which are then used in seeding tournaments and determining match-ups, around the world. Golf, an individual sport where players challenge a common golf course during competition, doesn't crown a world champion. Golf also has its four major championships, historically significant for recognizing the best players, and a world ranking system which keeps track of world-wide performances, much the same way chess ratings do so for chess. Golf has introduced several so-called 'World Golf Championship' events which are played annually; the golf world jury is still out on their stature several years after they were started. Curling, a team sport with four players per team, has an annual world championship, but doesn't allow its current world champion to keep that title without defending it in that tournament each year, and even requires the champion rink to enter its own national championship to requalify for the worlds, and only THEN defend its world crown, if it makes it that far.

      The world has changed a great deal since the first world chess champion was recognized. My main point is, after all of this change, why should chess have a world championship system which, in effect, dates back to the 1800s!?

      That said, I do like world championship chess matches, to be sure. They are often highly dramatic, and have sometimes brought chess to world media attention, such as in 1972, when the Fischer vs Spassky match had Cold War connotations and implications. But the struggle for the championship has also brought out dark moments, such as collusion in the 1953 and 1962 Candidates' tournaments, and perhaps in other events as well. Are world titles won by players such as Smyslov and Petrosian really legitimate, in circumstances such as this!?

      Cheers,
      Frank

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