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FIDE world chess championship decided in rapid tiebreaks

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Re: FIDE world chess championship decided in rapid tiebreaks

#71

Post by specproc »

ttyyzz wrote: post #35
specproc wrote: post #15

It's been a brilliant tournament, absolutely fantastic to follow. Genuinely gripping, exciting stuff with incredible games and lines. Carlsen did us all a favour by stepping back. I don't think the rest of the pack are too far behind these two, we should be seeing a really dynamic, entertaining fight for the top spot over the coming years.

I'd rather have the best current player in there. I thought this WCC was rather pointless.

Honestly, I think this is just fine. We know Carlsen is the best [1], but as someone who's been casually following for a while now, I found this series of games far more fun to watch. It's great for the game.

A new challenger will appear over time, Carlsen will come out of retirement. We're just part way through a nice big story arc. I'm happy to enjoy entertaining chess.

[1] A friend and I were going over some classics whilst watching the game yesterday. Carlsen was just leagues ahead, such a gorgeous and brutal game. It's like he's wielding nunchaku at the end. https://lichess.org/broadcast/world-chess-championship-2021/...

Re: FIDE world chess championship decided in rapid tiebreaks

#72

Post by jyscao »

matsemann wrote: post #58
mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are they supposed to do, not have a world championship? It's happened before when Fischer refused to defend the title. And yet Karpov got the title without having beaten Fischer, who he probably wouldn't have beaten in a match even if Fischer was nutty bananas at the time. But at least he had played a match to win the candidates tournament at the time. This time around, Ian hadn't won a match, and so the match m…

> What are they supposed to do, not have a world championship? Perhaps change the format. Carlsen stepped down, because it's too much preparation year after year. And with him being the GOAT, everyone was always preparing defensively and hoping for a blunder, making it somewhat "boring" games (quotes, as in draws doesn't have to be boring).

Carlsen is clearly better than his contemporaries, no doubts about it. But calling the GOAT is a stretch.

Re: FIDE world chess championship decided in rapid tiebreaks

#73

Post by jpgvm »

NhanH wrote: post #68
kelipso wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or he was scared of losing after spending months preparing. He'll say whatever makes him look good probably but who knows.

He first voiced his discontent with the format around 13-15 years ago (he was #1 player by elo rating, but not yet the world champion), even skipping a cycle or two as protest. Afterward, he participated anyway and hold the title in fairly dominating fashion 10 years straight. Maybe we should take his words at face value and that he really is fed up with the thing.

Considering how much happier he seems since he decided to forgo defending the title yeah, good chance he just doesn't want it or care about it anymore.

IMO good for him. He won it all and now he is doing new things with his life.

Re: FIDE world chess championship decided in rapid tiebreaks

#74

Post by oldstrangers »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #23
jeremyjh wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just a blunder, but a blunder made too quickly when he had plenty of time. If Nepo won a third straight candidates (he's automatically qualified) that would be an extremely impressive achievement that would be a first in world history I believe.

I wonder if Carlsen will participate. I'm actually rather salty at him for forfeiting the title. If you are a chess champion, you have to defend the title until you lose, or die, whichever happens first. After he had refused to defend the title, it made the title of his successor automatically less worthy. That's bad.

Be mad at FIDE for failing to adapt the match format to something less ridiculous. For years Magnus advocated for changing both the World Championship Cycle and the format of the games (classical, rapid, blitz). FIDE did nothing, as expected.

Currently the World Chess Championship is just a collection of very talented chess players spending months having supercomputers evaluate positions looking for the slightest imaginable edge.

Re: FIDE world chess championship decided in rapid tiebreaks

#75

Post by light_hue_1 »

It's absurd that the classical world chess champion is decided by rapid games.

This keeps happening: 2012, 2016, 2018, 2023.

For over a decade most of the classical world chess champions were decided by their ability to play rapid.

It's time to reform FIDE. The world chess championship is languishing, barely getting any news attention or coverage. Just kill this failed format and play rapid. The games are much more engaging for viewers. We could maybe actually get people to watch chess!

Re: FIDE world chess championship decided in rapid tiebreaks

#76

Post by mtlmtlmtlmtl »

School-Cotton wrote: post #51
mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are they supposed to do, not have a world championship? It's happened before when Fischer refused to defend the title. And yet Karpov got the title without having beaten Fischer, who he probably wouldn't have beaten in a match even if Fischer was nutty bananas at the time. But at least he had played a match to win the candidates tournament at the time. This time around, Ian hadn't won a match, and so the match m…

> What are they supposed to do, not have a world championship? Yes, that’s a reasonable proposal. Title matches don’t have to happen on a fixed schedule like the Super Bowl, and in the past, they didn’t. They were ad-hoc and happened whenever a worthy contender raised enough prize money to challenge the current champion, who had a lot of leeway in negotiating the format and venue.

That's not a reasonable proposal. Carlsen made his announcement after the candidates tournament was completed. So what, they just tell the players "hey that title you were playing for? Never mind, because Magnus can't be arsed."

Carlsen could either defend his title, or give it up. He chose to give it up. He didn't choose to keep it indefinitely or demand an opponent of his liking. Even he's not that unsporting.

This isn't the early 20th century anymore when world champions dodged challengers until one they knew they could beat appeared, and hasn't been for a long time.

Re: FIDE world chess championship decided in rapid tiebreaks

#77

Post by somenameforme »

kthejoker2 wrote: post #64
somenameforme wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do wonder if Fabiano Caruana (the commentator in question, world #7) is going to have some introspection following these events, because that pattern occurred several times during his commentary. He came up with endless (and completely valid) ways for both players to 'kill'/simplify/draw the games at various points, but the players chose far more ambitious routes ultimately culminating in the final game where it de…

Fabi's 4th in the world in Blitz, dude can play fast. Carlsen is just a beast.

Their match was played in November 2018. Here are the classical [1] and rapid [2] rating lists from that time. Fabiano was 12 points behind Magnus in classical, and 91 points behind him in rapid. It's all going to be relative. Obviously Fabiano is extremely good at all forms of chess, but all top players (in any sport) are going to have relative strengths/weaknesses when compared against each other.

[1] - https://web.archive.org/web/20181003104802/http://ratings.fi...

[2] - https://web.archive.org/web/20181009092541/https://ratings.f...

Re: FIDE world chess championship decided in rapid tiebreaks

#78

Post by sdwr »

School-Cotton wrote: post #52
Mistletoe wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I watch the Botez sisters and even this kind of grosses me out.

Why? Looks like a few normal young people drinking and having fun, what is wrong with that?

I only saw that few seconds, but there's clearly a painful sexual drama/tragedy going on.

Note magnus's overly blank face, the sunglasses, the spirited (but joyless!) dancing.

Re: FIDE world chess championship decided in rapid tiebreaks

#79

Post by hgsgm »

somenameforme wrote: post #70
ttyyzz wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather have the best current player in there. I thought this WCC was rather pointless.

Long World Championship matches and normal tournaments are two very different beasts. Kramnik [convincingly] defeated Kasparov for the world championship in 2000, yet Kasparov was still the indisputably strongest tournament player in the world, and would remain so for the entirety of Kramnik's 6 year reign. Magnus' recent title defenses, except against Ian, have not been convincing. And against Ian, he was largely gi…

Magnus plays WC for draws to eliminate risk, because he knows he is much better at rapid. He was still unbeatable.

Re: FIDE world chess championship decided in rapid tiebreaks

#80

Post by bee_rider »

ttyyzz wrote: post #35
specproc wrote: post #15

It's been a brilliant tournament, absolutely fantastic to follow. Genuinely gripping, exciting stuff with incredible games and lines. Carlsen did us all a favour by stepping back. I don't think the rest of the pack are too far behind these two, we should be seeing a really dynamic, entertaining fight for the top spot over the coming years.

I'd rather have the best current player in there. I thought this WCC was rather pointless.

The chess engines don’t show up either, it seems the competition is fine with only mortals engaging in it.
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