I thought the KK match and the most recent match both pretty much demonstrated that if the competitors don’t want to lose games, they can play a nearly endless series of draws. And maybe that’s what chess really is–a draw.
There are other factors that come into play when humans play a match. I was watching the film called The Great Chess Game last night on YouTube. Fischer was positing that a match with draws not counting and the winner being the first player to score ten wins would be ideal. Perhaps in a sporting sense that would be true, but it’s likely not economically practical today. I still like 24 games. If tied, the champion keeps the title.
Isn’t 24 games with draw odds pretty much what Fischer was asking for?
No, Fischer was pretty adamant about his 10 wins, draws not counting proposal which stemmed from matches in the 1800’s, like Steinitz-Lasker. His thinking was if he started out poorly, he would be able to play himself into shape and win the 10 necessary victories to clinch the title. No one was interested in such an unlimited match with the precedent being the Alekhine-Capablanca match of 34 games which required 6 wins. Fischer walked, to the delight of the Soviets. By 1978, the Soviets found the Alekhine-Capablanca format acceptable as it appeared to favor Karpov. Irony of ironies, when the Karpov-Kasparov epic match occurred, suddenly the format was a terrible idea and FIDE reverted back to 24 games again. Complaints over the length of the matches continued because organizers did not want to sponsor such long matches. Now we have complaints that the matches are too short.
Good summary and the matches are presently ,much too short, IMO.
I’m not sure even going to 24 games would have made much difference in the latest match, though maybe both players might have been willing to play somewhat more risky positions if they thought they had enough games to recover from a single loss.
But as I understood the expert commentary, both players missed possible winning opportunities.
If a 12 game match basically took a month, a 24 game match would probably have taken nearly two months. That’s a big chunk out of the annual calendar for the players and their support teams.
This match was basically two games then a day off. I know the formats being discussed eliminate a number of rest days. Say four games then a day off. That would serve to keep the footprint closer to a month - especially if it were 18 games.
It would change the match, whether 12, 18 or 24, if a tie ended in the champion retaining the title. If the tiebreaks were were G-90 or G-120 with no delay or increment, that would reduce the prospect of a player sandbagging to get to the tiebreaks.
One day off at the half-way mark regardless of whether the match is 18, 22 or 24 games is more than sufficient. They’re playing only one game per day and are accustomed to playing 9 day tournaments without rest days.
Playing chess at the world class level takes a lot of energy. However, I’ve always thought the days off were at least in part for the media. And the better world-class events often have rest days built in the schedule.
4 game days followed by a rest day, possibly with another rest day at mid event, may be reasonable, though.
Don’t most of the major round robins have a rest day in the middle?
I’m surprised by the earlier question suggesting Fischer wanted 24 games and draw odds. On the contrary, that’s what the champions had before him. But he wanted -0 wins and champion retains title if its 9-9, meaning the challenger had to win 10-8. That’s a much bigger edge.
Mike, they say memory is the 2nd thing to go when you get older, but I forget what the first thing is.
I pointed out to the committee that a rest day on the weekend was perhaps not a good plan as it eliminated a good viewing day as more people might be free ont he weekend.
As an orthodox Jew, Sammy Reshevsky wouldn’t play on the Sabbath, are there any potential World Championship competitors who might have similar religious restrictions?
I’m sure such would be considered. That didn’t appear to be a concern in the last two cycles as they took off some weekend days but played on others with no day of the week being exclusively a rest day.
Fischer also had Sabbath concerns during his career. The schedules of both Fischer and Reshevsky were adjusted for the 1967 Sousse Interzonal.