World Chess Championships 2012 – Amateur Hour
I’m disappointed.
I’m watching Game 9 from the World Chess Championships between the reigning champion, Vishy Anand from India, and Israeli Grandmaster Boris Gelfand. In fact, I’ve been closely watching all of the games, and commentating on them every now and then for ChessFM. But, to be honest, I’ve been pretty disheartened by what I’ve seen.
I love world championships. There’s something magical about pitting the two best players in the world against each other in a match followed by millions – the highest quality chess in the world, in three weeks of drama, controversy and supreme wit. The rich history of world chess championships over the centuries pays homage to the majesty of the institution. Fischer-Spassky played an important part in the Cold War. Karpov-Kortchnoi was played with the backdrop of the coming collapse of the Soviet Union. Kramnik-Topalov had a bathroom scandal that will live in infamy.
But this year?
I guess it was always going to be difficult for the quality of the chess to be the dominant factor in this match; after all, neither of the competitors are even ranked in the top four, according to the current ratings. The FIDE qualifying system to get to this point has been marred by controversy, and it’s certainly up for debate as to whether Gelfand deserves to be there at all. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve always been a huge Gelfand fan, and I’m certainly glad from a sentimental viewpoint that he’s got his shot at the title. But the fact that every commentator independently has been calling for a Carlsen-Aronian match as a ‘real’ world championship battle says something.
So, there’s that. But at least the players could make things interesting for us. Hard-fought battles, never-say-die attitudes, both players rising to the occasion and playing for the win with every inch of their being, to the entertainment of millions of chess fans the world over. And yet, here we are at round nine, and it finally looks like we’ll have a match going past the first time control. That’s right: not a single of the eight games have made move 40 yet. The first six draws were yawnfests, and one of the games I commentated – a draw in under two hours and less than 20 moves – was absolutely pathetic.
These two players will share over two million Euros. And no matter what your stance on chess as a game or sport, you can’t deny that professional chessplayers, like actors or tennis players, need to respect their fans and their trade. And we’re getting neither of that right now.
The two decisive games finally came about in the last two rounds, but I’m still to be impressed. Gelfand’s loss in 17 moves in Game 8 was amateurish, to say the least. I’m glad to not be seeing the dreaded “1/2-1/2” on the scoreboard, of course, but at least these guys could try to pretend to be world champion candidates.
Both these guys have beaten world champions; Anand’s even won the title. Both these guys are super strong, and super tough competitors. But right now, to put it plainly, they’ve just got to man up.
Oh, it looks like Gelfand’s just blown a win, and we’re heading towards a draw again. I’m shocked.
For those of you like myself who are unaware of the “Topalov-Kramnik bathroom scandal”, more info is available here: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3553
All comments that blame the players for the dullness of the WCChamp match are always bogus comments.
Blame the current rules of chess.
Or blame the prevailing and controlling attitude that any rules changes designed to reduce the oppressively high draw rate are automatically bad rules changes simply because they are rule changes. All rules changes are bad by definition, say most.
The Tyranny of Tradition in chess is the fault of people, and is not caused by inherent limitations of these pieces on this board.
Discard the “Random” from Fischer Random Chess!
And let the grandmasters learn from scratch the as-yet undiscovered clever opening systems from a second stable start position (setup) from chess960-FRC, while they slowly build up “theory” for the second setup. Amateurs around the planet could also contribute a lot this time, via the combination of Fritz plus Fritz’ new “Lets Check” feature: perhaps a class A player would get a thrill from seeing an opening variation he pioneered through Lets Check played later that year by Levon Aronian.
While they slowly build up theory from move-pair 2 to move-pair 4, 5, 6 etc over the first few years of reuse, there would be acres of fertile territory for springing powerful novelty moves (prepared at home) that force the opponent to solve significant problems over the board in real time. When the opponent solves imperfectly, the seed of a decisive positional advantage are sewn.
The overuse of the one traditional setup has delayed most novelty moves to the middle-game phase (in elite chess). Variety delayed is variety denied.
Thanks, GeneM
CastleLong.com
2012/May/24
Those are fair objections, and looking back on the article today, I was probably a bit harsh. I definitely didn’t want to imply that neither deserve to be there; Gelfand earned his way to the challenger’s spot (regardless of my objections to the candidates’ system), and Anand is the reigning champion.
Of course, the primary goal for both players is to win the match, even if that means taking almost no risks. But in this internet age, where attention spans have fallen and information and media rush through to the viewers at a rapid rate, we need to make top level chess exciting to keep our sport popular. Again, I don’t blame the players – it’s the system’s fault.
Regardless…the match has been pretty boring to date, and another 25 move draw today didn’t help (even if the opening was far more interesting). Anyway, here’s hoping for a fighting finish and perhaps some nail-biting tiebreaks!
It certainly has been a little dull, but it is not unprecedented and is almost normal for many draws in these matches.
However, I take exception to a few things :
Firstly, I don’t think it is fair to cast doubt on whether Gelfand should be playing the match. He fairly won a very strong candidates tournament that included Kramnik, Radjabov, Topalov, Kamsky, Grischuk, Aronian (the player who apparently should be playing?). Albeit the most boring tournament I have ever witnessed.
Secondly, I don’t think it matters that Anand is currently ranked 5th. The world championship has a beautiful lineage that has been preserved for over 100 years, where the current champion holds his title until beaten by a challenger. I strongly believe that should be preserved, regardless of whether there are some other players in better form. Also, it is quite common for a player’s form to dip in the 6months-year leading up to a world championship, as the player is often focused in preparation and loses rating points as a result.
Thirdly, stating that people calling for Aronian-Carlsen is nothing more than argumentum ad verecundiam.
Fourthly, calling Gelfand’s loss amateurish is very harsh. I was listening to the analysis of Leko and Nepomniachtchi who were commentating live (without using chess engines), and they both thought Qf6 was a good move and both missed Anand’s Qf2. Svidler also said the following night that he and some other’s had collectively spotted the idea but only when they were moving pieces on a board in a different line, and they were trying out Qf4, Qxh1, Bd3 and then spotted the queen would be trapped if Qf2 instead. Can you honestly say you spotted that Qf6 was a blunder without using an engine?
Finally, I think it absurd that the players should have some obligation to entertain or worry about the ‘fans’. They have to take the approach that gives them the best chance to win, and if people chose to watch, then so be it.