Good read, thanks
Hhhh
They shouldn’t change everything because of Carlsen. For a world championship classical is fair, and if Carlsen doesn’t want to play that’s his choice, but he can’t then claim to be something he’s not. Chess tradition and chess in general shouldn’t be changed because of one persons demands.
For all FIDE's faults I think it would be worse to have a private company organising the World Championships with all the possibilities of favouritism - whether conscious or sub-conscious. In particular I wouldn't trust chess.com to be judge, jury and executioner on allegations of cheating.
I agree the real World Champion should always be decided by classical play, although adding more time at move 40 and 60 may be a bit over the top now. I would have thought 120 minutes plus 30 seconds per move for the game should be enough.
The main problems with the current system are (a) there's only a World Championship once every 2 years, (b) the Champion goes straight through to the final and (c) you have 14 games in a row between the same 2 players.
FIDE realised all of that 20+ years ago when they had the knockout championships but people didn't like that as the best player didn't always win and you got champions like Khalifman and Ponomariov, who've now been airbrushed from history.
However, I think the main problem was the 128 player draw. It would work with 8 players, the reigning champion and 7 qualifiers. Quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final of 4 classical games and play-offs would take 15 days with 2 rest days so less than 3 weeks. This could be played every year and still leave enough time for other events.
I agree the real World Champion should always be decided by classical play, although adding more time at move 40 and 60 may be a bit over the top now. I would have thought 120 minutes plus 30 seconds per move for the game should be enough.
The main problems with the current system are (a) there's only a World Championship once every 2 years, (b) the Champion goes straight through to the final and (c) you have 14 games in a row between the same 2 players.
FIDE realised all of that 20+ years ago when they had the knockout championships but people didn't like that as the best player didn't always win and you got champions like Khalifman and Ponomariov, who've now been airbrushed from history.
However, I think the main problem was the 128 player draw. It would work with 8 players, the reigning champion and 7 qualifiers. Quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final of 4 classical games and play-offs would take 15 days with 2 rest days so less than 3 weeks. This could be played every year and still leave enough time for other events.
Classical Chess, real Chess, must be defended. Rapid and Blitz are fine time variants which already have their own domain.
Whenever I watch the live games on "TV" on lichess I always end up feeling sick either after a completely won position lost on time or a perfectly played game lost because of some mistakes in time trouble. Good for us that real chess is not like that, and while blitz and rapid have their domain, classical chess must always keep it's domain and be regarded as the "real" variant. That's it. And chess was never about the money. If you want to make money out of chess, go work on chess-boxing and try to make that popular. Let's see how far you get.
I used to be a staunch supporter of classical chess and deciding world championship with anything but classical format was blasphemy, but nowadays I tend to agree with Carlsen's position and I think the time control should perhaps lowered significantly even in world championship matches. Maybe even to it approaching slow rapid, like 30+30 or similar. I understand that traditions are important but I hold the view that just because something is a tradition, doesn't necessarily mean it's ideal. If it's not broken, improve it!
@CheckRaiseMate
Thanks for this interesting article.
To be honest, I don't give a damn about the competition between Nepo and Ding. With Carlsen not defending his title, it will be a second-tier World Championship. Potential organizers probably see things the same way, which is why nobody on this side is interested in it. And because Nepo is Russian, of course, an orientation in the western part of the world is out of the question.
Thanks for this interesting article.
To be honest, I don't give a damn about the competition between Nepo and Ding. With Carlsen not defending his title, it will be a second-tier World Championship. Potential organizers probably see things the same way, which is why nobody on this side is interested in it. And because Nepo is Russian, of course, an orientation in the western part of the world is out of the question.
If classical chess is slow, than why many GMs often have seconds in the end of party?