World Championship Match 2014

[Angus French]

This is scheduled to take place between 6 Nov and 25 Nov.

An announcement on the bidding process to decide the venue was made today and is available here. HT: Mark Crowther (TWIC).

What seems odd is that the deadline for bids is 10 March, the day before the Candidates tournament begins. Bidders won't know the identity of the challenger to Magnus Carlsen.

[Paolo Casaschi]

Following the success of last year's World Championship match in Chennai, FIDE and its commercial partner AGON are searching...

[Paolo Casaschi]

This is scheduled to take place between 6 Nov and 25 Nov.

This is unfortunate. It probably means Carlsen won't make it to the London Chess Classic and the event might be another rapid knock-out instead of a real tournament.

Unless the London Chess Classic dates are moved.

[Sean Hewitt]

The London Chess Classic .... might be another rapid knock-out instead of a real tournament.

The 2013 event looked pretty 'real' to me, but maybe I imagined it.

[Paolo Casaschi]

The London Chess Classic .... might be another rapid knock-out instead of a real tournament.

The 2013 event looked pretty 'real' to me, but maybe I imagined it.

Sure.
But ask yourself for example how many games do you remember from the Linares tournaments or from the the Melody Amber tournaments. I definitely remember a few memorable Linares games (Kasparov wins above all) but I don't remember any Melody Amber games. Maybe it's just me, but a rapid knockout event, as much as enjoyable on the spot does not seem to leave much of a legacy. Of the London Chess Classic rapid games, I remember Kramnik missing a skewer and resigning to Nakamura: you might even get a guilty pleasure from watching that... but is this the Kramnik you want to see next year in London?
Ultimately, do you want the LCC to be listed in chess history books next to Linares or next to Melody Amber?
This just to explain what I mean with a real tournament.

[Paolo Casaschi]

The London Chess Classic .... might be another rapid knock-out instead of a real tournament.

The 2013 event looked pretty 'real' to me, but maybe I imagined it.

Forgot to add the obvious: thanks for organizing the event anyway. Especially the associated festival events that I enjoyed very much in the last few years.

[Graham Borrowdale]

I am not sure I see the connection between the London Classic being a rapid-play or standard-play event, and a World Championship Match. Presumably the London Classic could go ahead as a standard-play event without Carlsen and his challenger, just the same as it could be a rapid-play with their participation? Anyway, November 2014 seems far too early for yet another World Championship Match to me.

[Paolo Casaschi]

I am not sure I see the connection between the London Classic being a rapid-play or standard-play event, and a World Championship Match.

It seems that the decision for a rapidplay last year was driven by Carlsen and Anand declining to play a normal event so close to the end of the world championship and suggesting they might play a shorter rapidplay. Carlsen ultimately declined the rapidplay option as well.

[Alex Holowczak]

The London Chess Classic .... might be another rapid knock-out instead of a real tournament.

The 2013 event looked pretty 'real' to me, but maybe I imagined it.

Sure.
But ask yourself for example how many games do you remember from the Linares tournaments or from the the Melody Amber tournaments. I definitely remember a few memorable Linares games (Kasparov wins above all) but I don't remember any Melody Amber games. Maybe it's just me, but a rapid knockout event, as much as enjoyable on the spot does not seem to leave much of a legacy. Of the London Chess Classic rapid games, I remember Kramnik missing a skewer and resigning to Nakamura: you might even get a guilty pleasure from watching that... but is this the Kramnik you want to see next year in London?
Ultimately, do you want the LCC to be listed in chess history books next to Linares or next to Melody Amber?
This just to explain what I mean with a real tournament.

This seems a rather contradictory statement to me. You're saying that the London tournament didn't have memorable games, like Linares and Melody Amber, and doesn't leave much of a legacy. However, you've named the tournaments here in preference to the many standardplay events. So the events themselves must have left a legacy!

I find chess more exciting to watch if players are moving quickly and playing imperfectly. I like watching playoff day at the World Cup, rather than the longer sessions. Had I have not been on the festival team at London, I'd have been very interested in the event either at home or at the venue. I accept that I may be in the minority, but I think the shorter events have their place.

[Paolo Casaschi]

This seems a rather contradictory statement to me. You're saying that the London tournament didn't have memorable games, like Linares and Melody Amber, and doesn't leave much of a legacy. However, you've named the tournaments here in preference to the many standardplay events. So the events themselves must have left a legacy!

I don't see the contradiction. Linares was a normal event, I don't recall any rapidplay there: an example of normal chess event that left behind a number of games I personally remember. While the Melody Amber rapid events did not leave any single game in my memory. That translates to me with normal chess events leaving a much deeper legacy than rapid events.

Of course, if you are subscribed to a chess magazine, you remember that there has been for ten years or so a rapidplay/blindfold event in Monaco sponsored by a billionaire. And I probably looked at those games in the magazines. But those games did not leave any legacy memory for me. The normal games of Kasparov and others in Linares did.

I just compared (one of) the most famous real tournaments and the most famous rapidplay/blindfold event. That's all.

Do I see some kind of double standard here? Kirsan transformed the classical world championship into a knockout circus and was accused of destroying chess (and he was guilty as charged, if you ask me). The LCC degrades from a real chess tournament to a rapidplay extravaganza and the same people that crucified Kirsan think all is good for the LCC? Hopefully LCC will take a step back as FIDE did.

There's nothing wrong with more superficial events (especially if they make possible to keep the LCC festival events alive) but I'd prefer a real tournament.

[David Sedgwick]

Do I see some kind of double standard here? Kirsan transformed the classical world championship into a knockout circus and was accused of destroying chess (and he was guilty as charged, if you ask me). The LCC degrades from a real chess tournament to a rapidplay extravaganza and the same people that crucified Kirsan think all is good for the LCC? Hopefully LCC will take a step back as FIDE did.

There's nothing wrong with more superficial events (especially if they make possible to keep the LCC festival events alive) but I'd prefer a real tournament.

You're not comparing like with like.

The raison d'être of the London Chess Classic is to support the and develop the charity, Chess in Schools and Communities. The format of future events will be whatever is most conducive to pursuing that objective.

[Paolo Casaschi]

The raison d'être of the London Chess Classic is to support the and develop the charity, Chess in Schools and Communities. The format of future events will be whatever is most conducive to pursuing that objective.

You don't even have to go that far. LCC is privately organised event and their owner (Michael?) can do essentially whatever they want with it. Even run a lesser event than a real tournament if that fits better their purposes (and their budget).

I just expressed a personal opinion about the format of the event. I also find it difficult to believe than, everything else being the same (budget, availability of players, charity support and so on), any chess enthusiast would like better a rapid event than a real tournament. For the LCC as for any other top event up to the WCC.

[John McKenna]

Back on topic and bang to rights...

In the Sunday Times: Chess fan's grudge match (Question of Money by Margaret Dibben)

Q.
GN writes: I attended the world chess championships in Madras, India last November, and booked a hotel through... When the match ended a week early, I managed to change my flights, but the hotel said I had to request a refund for accommodation through...
I contacted... as soon as I got home, but it said the hotel had refused a refund... I found this was untrue.The hotel sent the money to... should have forwarded it to my credit card two months ago.
The card had recently suffered fraud attack... issued me with a new one... The bank assured me that, if a credit was made to my old number, it would immediately be transferred to the new... Still no money has arrived.

Ans.
After I contacted... it told you that £434 had belatedly been paid to your credit card in Feb... the money had arrived in the old account and stayed there.
... had also sent you £263 in Jan... Nobody had confirmed this to you...
... told me that your refund was initially delayed because you had approached the hotel instead of... (After I pointed out... it amended its statement to say the first delay was a result of a misunderstanding between an agent and the hotel...) and was then further held up because an agent sent the refund to the wrong dept... The delays were compounded by the bank's mistake... It confirmed that both payments were correct though they totalled far more than you had expected.
... says it has taken steps to make sure the mistake is not repeated. It has sent you £100 to apologise, on top of your £697 refund.

There is an accompanying cartoon, by Dave Chisholm, with - "Hey! Cheque, mate!"

After all that 'GN' may be able to afford to go to the rematch.

[Mick Norris]

This is scheduled to take place between 6 Nov and 25 Nov.

An announcement on the bidding process to decide the venue was made today and is available here. HT: Mark Crowther (TWIC).

What seems odd is that the deadline for bids is 10 March, the day before the Candidates tournament begins. Bidders won't know the identity of the challenger to Magnus Carlsen.

TWIC now saying no bid from Norway and the revised deadline is 48 hours away

[Roger de Coverly]

TWIC now saying no bid from Norway and the revised deadline is 48 hours away

No bids at all according to FIDE.

http://www.fide.com/component/content/a ... -2014.html

There was no proper competition for the 2013 match either
http://www.fide.com/component/content/a ... lease.html

I suppose if you ignore rival bids and award a match to your current favourite, the eventual consequence is that no competitive bids are forthcoming as it's waste of time and money if the outcome is already stitched up.

The Kasparov campaign will no doubt say that it's all Kirsan's fault, whilst the Kirsan campaign will say that classical chess (in the sense of games potentially lasting more than three hours) should be abolished as no-one wants to sponsor it.