Last week’s poll question was “Do you think the current system should be remodelled entirely?” There was an overwhelming 83% in favour of NOT remodelling the whole thing, despite Jacob’s attempt to trick you by starting the “No” answer with the word “Yes”.
Jacob has one final question re the Candidates, just to get an idea of what small changes you had in mind.
The current system is that 8 play in the Candidates: 2 qualify from the Grand Prix, 2 from the World Cup, 2 on rating, the loser of the last World Championship match, and 1 ‘wildcard’, which means the organizers can invite whoever the local hero is.
So what small changes would you like to make up the 8? One more qualifying on rating, one less from the World Cup? Or one more from the Grand Prix? Leave it alone, it’s fine as it is?
Apologies to those of you who were waiting anxiously for the result of last week’s poll. Perhaps due to the Easter holidays, I forgot all about it.
It’s all ancient history now, but the question was: How do you interpret Nakamura’s “j’adoube”?
As you can see, by a 59-40 margin, the voters went for ‘dodgy’. I voted for ‘heat-of-the-moment slip’. And in my quiz answers I predicted Nakamura would be first to win a game and finish as top American. So it appears I am 0/3 about Nakamura.
It’s results time on our Candidates Quiz. Thanks for all your entries. The correct answers were:
1) Who will win the Candidates tournament? Karjakin
2) What will the winning score be? 8.5
3) Who will score the first win? Anand
4) How many games will reach move 60? 11
5) Which American will finish higher – Caruana or Nakamura? Caruana
6) Which Russian will finish higher – Karjakin or Svidler? Karjakin
7) How many games will Anand win? 4
8) How many games will Giri draw? 14
9) How many games will be the longest winning streak? 2
10) How many games will be the longest losing streak? 2
And our winner is… Read more…
The Nakamura touch-move incident at the Candidates is our poll topic this week. The facts are not in dispute, as the video is clear. Nakamura touched the king, so he had to move it, and he did. It’s the interpretation of his after-the-touch “j’adoube” that’s in question. A heat-of-the-moment slip or something dodgier? You can listen to Nakamura’s side of the story in this video. I believe Aronian is waiting until after the event to give his view.
I will just leave it with 2 options, though no doubt there could be dozens of different levels of alleged dodginess.
Generally my interest in the Candidates, and chess tournaments in general, is in the moves played, not the business or legal issues. But it seems an important business and legal issue is developing in chess, and it affects seeing the moves, so let’s see what readers think about ‘the Agon debate’.
For those who have not followed the story, the quick version is that Agon is the company that’s running the Candidates (and the World Championship) and they are claiming that only they (and their approved partners) have the right to broadcast the moves live. Other chess sites (such as chessdom and chess24) disagree, and are showing the moves despite Agon’s attempted ban. The dispute may end up debated in various courts around the world.
You can read Agon’s view here. And, for an opposing view from one of the chess sites, here is the view of chessdom.
There seem to be too many different aspects in this debate to make it sensible to reduce it to one poll question. There is the legal side: can Agon sue and win? A moral side? And a practical question: will Agon’s approach be successful commercially? And no doubt there are many other ways of looking at it.
And what’s my view and the official Quality Chess view? No comment. I would rather hear what you think. Also, there’s probably some book I should be working on…
Last week’s poll question led to a clear answer: the Candidates events are generally more exciting than World Championship matches.
So it’s good news that the 2016 Candidates starts in Moscow on Friday. Last year we had a quiz about the World Cup. It seemed like fun, so we will have another go for the Candidates.
Same prize as last time: Quality Chess will send a box of 20 books to your home, wherever in the world that may be. 10 of them chosen by you, 10 of them chosen by us. All you have to do is answer the following questions:
Read more…
We are continuing our special offer – if you buy three books or more and live in the normal European Union zone (as defined by UPS – for example, they exclude some islands and remote areas) we will send you an extra book free. Recently the default option on the free book has been Carlsen’s Assault on the Throne but we will change that now to CHESS LESSONS by Vladimir Popov.
But if you already have Chess Lessons, or would prefer a different free book, then send us an email with your order, asking to have it replaced with one of the following titles:
CARLSEN’S ASSAULT ON THE THRONE
POSITIONAL CHESS SACRIFICES
GRANDMASTER VERSUS AMATEUR
GRANDMASTER BATTLE MANUAL
REGGIO EMILIA 2007/2008
TACTIMANIA
SAN LUIS 2005
ATTACKING THE SPANISH
CUTTING EDGE 1: THE OPEN SICILIAN
CUTTING EDGE 2: SICILIAN NAJDORF 6.Be3
We had a great response to our request for help in naming Thomas Luther’s new book in English. There were the serious suggestions that may be worth using another day: Climbing the Chess Ladder (Matt Fletcher), From Pawn to Chess King (Jacob), The Grandmaster Code (Quine Duhem) and many more.
Then the jokers were on form: Thomas the Rank Engine (Tommy Barrett), Waste your Life Achieving a Devalued Title (I hope Depressed Cynic was joking), and one of my personal favourites How Thomaster Chess (Schtroumfechecs).
Others made links between our author Thomas Luther and Martin Luther, one of the major figures in the Protestant Reformation. As I understand it, Thomas is a descendant of Martin, so this makes sense. At first I just took the Martin Luther links as part of the joke category. But one title kept growing on us – Luther’s Chess Reformation. Even ignoring the historical connection, we like it. It’s unusual and it fits the book’s content. So our winner is… Bill. Congratulations Bill and thanks for your help.
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