Anand is new WC

[Laurentiu Grigorescu]

Re: Anand is new WC

If Carlsen would have played, Anand would have played differently.

[Laurentiu Grigorescu]

Re: Anand is new WC

Can anybody comment on the level of the rapid games? Are they any better than the ones played in a local open between two players rated >2400 CFC at the same time rate?
Why Fischer random is not adopted?

[Gordon Ritchie]

Re: Anand is new WC

As Hal pointed out earlier, Anand's "decision" to hold his fire until the tiebreaks cost him roughly $250,000 if my arithmetic is correct. (The split of the roughly $2.5 million purse would have been 60/40 if the classic games decided versus 55/45 in the rapidplay tiebreaks.)

[David Bowers]

Re: Anand is new WC

I for one have mixed feelings. .... But it does seem a pity to have the crown determined by who is the faster player. Still, until someone comes up with a better idea...

you had it right in a recent post of yours, gordon. there is a better idea, but those who put up the prize money want the match to run this way (short time controls, few games) and so the players have to fall in line to access the prize money and the match itself.

the better ideas is a 24 game match with draw odds in favour of the champion and sensible time controls so a player can actually think during the game. alas, sponsors don't want this.

[Emil Smilovici]

Re: Anand is new WC

As Hal pointed out earlier, Anand's "decision" to hold his fire until the tiebreaks cost him roughly $250,000 if my arithmetic is correct. (The split of the roughly $2.5 million purse would have been 60/40 if the classic games decided versus 55/45 in the rapidplay tiebreaks.)

5% of $2.5 millions is $125,000
I don't know if income tax is paid on this.

Congratulations to Anand and all the respect for a very good fight put by Gelfand.

And Thank you to Hal Bond for his updates!

[David Ottosen]

Re: Anand is new WC

I can’t help but think that too many chess fans are standing on the shoulders of computer engines and pundits whose fight it is not, whizzing on the real combatants and forgetting that this is every inch a human contest.

What do engines or pundits have to do with it? No one is sitting here saying "look at these patzers blunder around, obviously they are playing terribly for a WC match". Engines have absolutely nothing to do with why so many people are disappointed with this match.

In fact, I think everyone does realize it's a human match. We just have higher expectations of the humans involved, who are supposed to be contesting the world championship, and are being handsomely rewarded for doing so. I don't think it's at all out of line to expect them to be able to hold up under that pressure for 12 games. They completely failed to do this.

Imagine if in the NHL finals this week, both teams kept 5 guys inside their own blueline, and iced the puck every time they touched it. How well do you think that would go over?

Finally,

(Creed: “Ain’t gonna be no rematch” …. The entire chess world: “Don’t want one!”)

would be more accurate.

[Brad Thomson]

Re: Anand is new WC

To what extent does the fact that players have Houdinis analyzing their repertoires lead to the type of chess we have just witnessed? Is it the case that as soon as one player is out of Houdini book, he assumes the other still might be in Houdini book, and therefore the best recourse is to seek exchanges, simplifications and a draw rather than risk falling into some Houdini trap that the opponent may have discovered? And if this is the case, is it time to move past the standard starting position and play Fischerandom?

[Ben Daswani]

Re: Anand is new WC

..........

[Kerry Liles]

Re: Anand is new WC

To what extent does the fact that players have Houdinis analyzing their repertoires lead to the type of chess we have just witnessed? Is it the case that as soon as one player is out of Houdini book, he assumes the other still might be in Houdini book, and therefore the best recourse is to seek exchanges, simplifications and a draw rather than risk falling into some Houdini trap that the opponent may have discovered? And if this is the case, is it time to move past the standard starting position and play Fischerandom?

To me, Fischerandom is not chess. It may be interesting (personally, I don't find it so) but altering the basic concepts of chess - even in a slight way - simply results in a different game altogether.

I think the short match format almost guarantees there will be a dull match followed by a silly playoff using rapid games or rock, paper, scissors or whatever. At that point it doesn't much matter - the futility of it is clear.

[Jean Hébert]

Re: Anand is new WC

Thanks for another cheap shot Jean. I was as disappointed as anyone with all the draws in the classicals. But the tiebreak games were exciting.

If I was Anand I would retire right now. He has nothing more to prove, having won every championship format presented. Maybe he has lost his edge. It happens to everyone.

Sorry that you took it as "another" cheap shot. To me an arbiter being paid to sit next to the board is not a good objective judge on how interesting the whole thing was. Probably if I had been in your shoes I would have had a good time too and found it "interesting", if only to watch Anand being a pale shadow of himself. The tie-break games may have been "exciting" in the same way that a go-kart race could be seen as more eventful than a Formula 1 race. It hardly makes up for a month long of utter disappointment.
Anand should not retire now. A true champion does not want to retire on such a poor note. In boxing sometimes you have no choice but retire after a bad defeat, but chess is different. He should imitate Kasparov and wait for his next great victory to do so, if he so wishes.

[Jean Hébert]

Re: Anand is new WC

Can anybody comment on the level of the rapid games? Are they any better than the ones played in a local open between two players rated >2400 CFC at the same time rate?
Why Fischer random is not adopted?

Of course the games were (technically) better. Do you believe that at faster time controls everyone plays the same ?

[Nicolas Haynes]

Re: Anand is new WC

To me, Fischerandom is not chess. It may be interesting (personally, I don't find it so) but altering the basic concepts of chess - even in a slight way - simply results in a different game altogether.

I think the short match format almost guarantees there will be a dull match followed by a silly playoff using rapid games or rock, paper, scissors or whatever. At that point it doesn't much matter - the futility of it is clear.

I don't understand your logic. The deeper you go into a game, the less the position resembles the starting position. The rules of the game never change, regardless of where the pieces on the board happen to be at any particular moment. The only difference between chess and fischer random is in time. Chaos is introduced in the starting position, as opposed to the opening or middle game.

You don't have to play it or enjoy it, but I can assure you that Fischer Random is pretty much chess without the opening preparation, it really is the same game beyond minimizing your ability to rely on millions of games played before yours and on computer aided opening preparation.

I was reading an interview with David Navara in which he said that he would prefer to play Fischer Random to regular chess (http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/a-...ra-part-1-of-2). I believe that Aronian is very good as well. I've never understood the fear of change or chess variants. Since when do the rules of a board game have to be accepted blindly, without any allowance that perhaps you can tweak or improve them?

[Paul Bonham]

Re: Anand is new WC

I don't understand your logic. The deeper you go into a game, the less the position resembles the starting position. The rules of the game never change, regardless of where the pieces on the board happen to be at any particular moment. The only difference between chess and fischer random is in time. Chaos is introduced in the starting position, as opposed to the opening or middle game.

You don't have to play it or enjoy it, but I can assure you that Fischer Random is pretty much chess without the opening preparation, it really is the same game beyond minimizing your ability to rely on millions of games played before yours and on computer aided opening preparation.

I was reading an interview with David Navara in which he said that he would prefer to play Fischer Random to regular chess (http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/a-...ra-part-1-of-2). I believe that Aronian is very good as well. I've never understood the fear of change or chess variants. Since when do the rules of a board game have to be accepted blindly, without any allowance that perhaps you can tweak or improve them?

Very well put, Nicolas. The resistance to much needed chance is what turns a WC match into a drawfest of the dullest proportions. I do believe that at some point, hopefully very near, the top level players themselves, tiring of the computer engine aspect to chess, will enact the change to chess960 (or FischerRandom).

No one need criticize Kerry Liles for preferring the standard rules. Even with his preference, Kerry does recognize the inevitable nature of degeneration at the top (human) levels. But to many such as Kerry, the standard rules are like a comfortable old shoe... comfortable!

Meanwhile, there is even more change coming to chess than chess960. Stay tuned.... hope to have it out before KS finally releases his expose of the CFC.

[David Ottosen]

Re: Anand is new WC

"I don't think it's at all out of line to expect them to be able to hold up under that pressure for 12 games."

well, i'd say it's stupid to expect anything of them. they've made no commitment to you

What about the match sponsors?

[Zeljko Kitich]

Re: Anand is new WC

with absolutely no concern for the image of chess

yes, strangely that reminds me of someone...

it is a wider problem though, I was in a tournament in Fourmies France last weekend, there were about 25 gm/im there, in the last round I played a long game and at some point early on looked up only to see the first board players had left, obvioiusly an agreed grandmaster draw