2016 Candidates Moscow 10-29 March

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Dylan McClain
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Re: 2016 Candidates Moscow 10-29 March

Post by Dylan McClain » Fri Mar 11, 2016 1:34 am

Berlin Rapid and Blitz Championships happened last October. Moscow is now. Go find the Web sites yourself. New York is November and has already been announced. Have you been living under a rock?

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Paolo Casaschi
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Re: 2016 Candidates Moscow 10-29 March

Post by Paolo Casaschi » Fri Mar 11, 2016 1:37 am

Dylan McClain wrote:BMW was one of the sponsors of the launch party tonight. When was the last time BMW got involved with chess as a sponsor?
Does BMW realize that the behavior of Agon is making really angry a good amount of the usual viewer of chess events? Not to mention the chess press? Which sponsor would want their name associated with that?

Roger de Coverly
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Re: 2016 Candidates Moscow 10-29 March

Post by Roger de Coverly » Fri Mar 11, 2016 1:42 am

Dylan McClain wrote: They know the audience for these events is in the tens of millions.
Have you got the servers set up to cope with that level of demand?

Setting conditions that are likely to discourage the most interested of the potential audience from using the site is an strategy that seems likely to fail. Agon only hold the license for the world chess championships by permission of FIDE. To the extent that FIDE is required to pay any attention to national memberships, seriously annoying them has to be a bad idea.

Geoff Chandler
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Re: 2016 Candidates Moscow 10-29 March

Post by Geoff Chandler » Fri Mar 11, 2016 3:56 am

Good for Agon.

About time someone stepped in and took control of these live broadcasts.
It makes perfect financial sense for just one site only to broadcast live.

So how about giving the players a cut of the profits, it's them that are the stars doing the creating.

Of course nobody has mentioned the players, they are only worried about
the fact that they..........wait for it.........cannot discuss the live games!

That's a laugh and a half.

I've seen you lot discussing live games.....

"Ng6 looks good" (what game, no move number and no diagram.)

"Aronian is wearing the same shirt as yesterday."

"I played that opening in a league match and beat David Smith in 1974."

"Fritz say +0.46 a quarter of a pawn up...." blah blah forgetful blah.

They will have a chatter box on the official site go there if you feel the need to discuss
the game and share your pearls of wisdom with the rest of the cranks and their computers.

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JustinHorton
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Re: 2016 Candidates Moscow 10-29 March

Post by JustinHorton » Fri Mar 11, 2016 7:08 am

Dylan McClain wrote:. We also just received a legal opinion from one of the top law professors in England -- he agrees with us.
What's his name?
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

lostontime.blogspot.com

Ray Sayers

Re: 2016 Candidates Moscow 10-29 March

Post by Ray Sayers » Fri Mar 11, 2016 7:27 am

Lionel Hutz? It doesn't really matter.
I would say, it is a bit pointless threatening individuals with lawsuits; how do you prove someone revealed the moves to another website? If you want to be really sophisticated, Joe watches the site, phones Dave who uploads the moves.
More likely, Agon goes after the websites who broadcast those moves - you can at least identify those. But then you have a whole other set of arguments there.
It will be interesting to see what actually happens today.
In response to Geoff - yes, a lot of the chat in chess websites is crass and inane. But a lot isn't. And what they bring is a sense of community. Fans at a football match don't have conversations like 'oh that was a technically well executed pass' - they whinge about their job, the price of petrol, why the number 7 is an overpriced diving git and of course, questioning the parentage of the referee. So it's better to see the chat there in those terms!

Richard Bates
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Re: 2016 Candidates Moscow 10-29 March

Post by Richard Bates » Fri Mar 11, 2016 7:47 am

Probably a similar line to the previous two posts, but I must admit I find it vaguely amusing (regardless of the merits of the argument viz other (generally commercial) websites seeking to offer live transmission of the moves, particularly those offering a directly competing product in the additional form of video, live commentary etc etc) that someone in AGON who is claiming to be seeking exclusive capture of a claimed audience of tens of millions should be concerning themselves with justifying themselves (and I think indeed seeking control over!) a non commercial forum such as this, clearly not offering competing product, with a global reach of perhaps tens of hundreds! And a real-time reach of perhaps tens of tens :)

In relation to the argument itself if the global audience is really as Agon and allegedly the sponsors believe, and which would likely dwarf the regular committed audience for live broadcasts on the main chess websites, then I would suspect that the effect of exclusivity is actually somewhat exaggerated because the vast majority of viewers would inevitably migrate to the official site anyway and the determinant of success would stand and fall on the quality of the product that that site is projecting, especially as it is offered for free. And since the budget for the official broadcast should be far in excess of that for other chess websites, there is no real excuse for not offering a superior product.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: 2016 Candidates Moscow 10-29 March

Post by Roger de Coverly » Fri Mar 11, 2016 7:49 am

Ray Sayers wrote: Fans at a football match don't have conversations like 'oh that was a technically well executed pass' - they whinge about their job, the price of petrol, why the number 7 is an overpriced diving git and of course, questioning the parentage of the referee.
They are also able to discuss without legal challenge, how many goals had been scored and who scored them, these being facts. Similarly if a player moves his Queens Bishop pawn two squares forward, that also is a reportable fact.

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Carl Hibbard
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Re: 2016 Candidates Moscow 10-29 March

Post by Carl Hibbard » Fri Mar 11, 2016 7:57 am

Has somebody as big as say Chessbase passed comment on this one yet?
Cheers
Carl Hibbard

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: 2016 Candidates Moscow 10-29 March

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Fri Mar 11, 2016 7:58 am


Jonathan Bryant
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Re: 2016 Candidates Moscow 10-29 March

Post by Jonathan Bryant » Fri Mar 11, 2016 8:02 am

Ray Sayers wrote: ... yes, a lot of the chat in chess websites is crass and inane. But a lot isn't.
A lot and a bit, I’d say.

It’s not just "crass and inane" though. As Fanou Lefebvre pointed out in Dear Magnus - http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.c ... aying.html -

realtime chat on chess sites is the one place in chess where virulent sexism and outright misogyny is commonplace. Forcing people to go to the 'official chat' to experience this doesn’t strike me as a tremendously clever way to popularise chess.
Last edited by Jonathan Bryant on Fri Mar 11, 2016 8:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

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JustinHorton
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Re: 2016 Candidates Moscow 10-29 March

Post by JustinHorton » Fri Mar 11, 2016 8:06 am

Carl Hibbard wrote:Has somebody as big as say Chessbase passed comment on this one yet?
There's a very good and useful post by Chessbomb that I recommend people read.
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

lostontime.blogspot.com

Richard Bates
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Re: 2016 Candidates Moscow 10-29 March

Post by Richard Bates » Fri Mar 11, 2016 8:13 am

I quite like the view of the columnist on WorldChess.

http://worldchess.com/2016/03/11/win-au ... n-embargo/

LawrenceCooper
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Re: 2016 Candidates Moscow 10-29 March

Post by LawrenceCooper » Fri Mar 11, 2016 8:35 am


Ray Sayers

Re: 2016 Candidates Moscow 10-29 March

Post by Ray Sayers » Fri Mar 11, 2016 8:38 am

I will visit the Agon site because I would like to see the video and audio feed. As the above article referred to by Richard states, Agon deserve to own these. What if the Agon site fails? Then is everyone busted as far as transmitting the moves is concerned?