Paris Grand Chess Tour

[LawrenceCooper]

A draw for Nakamura with Topalov is sufficient for a lead of 1.5 with three rounds to play after Carlsen loses to Giri.

[Tim Harding]

Hikaru has won with two rounds to spare after Magnus lost to Topalov.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Carlsen seems to have been much worse or quite lost in just about every game today, and so can have no complaints about finishing second at all. The latest win v Fressinet was particularly farcical.

[Mike Truran]

All good knockabout stuff, and highly entertaining. Professionally presented as well.

The future of chess as a spectator sport?

[PeterFarr]

All good knockabout stuff, and highly entertaining. Professionally presented as well.

The future of chess as a spectator sport?

I find the blitz games just too quick to follow; no time to get into viewing a game properly. The rapidplay is better for an online spectator, or maybe that's just age showing. But yes great fun overall and well organised.

[Matt Mackenzie]

What on earth happened to Vlad today??

[NickFaulks]

The future of chess as a spectator sport?

I sincerely hope not. If it's too fast for even the players to work out what's going on, how am I supposed to? You barely have time to assimilate where the pieces are before they've moved.

Having said that, it's fun once a year.

[Tim Harding]

I sincerely hope not. If it's too fast for even the players to work out what's going on, how am I supposed to? You barely have time to assimilate where the pieces are before they've moved.

Having said that, it's fun once a year.

Too bad; there's another one starting next Friday in Leuven, Belgium.
Chess24 will have GM Jan Gustafsson there to do English commentary at the venue with, I think he said, Anna Rudolf. So they should be more in control on the technical side. No Peter Svidler, though.

Unless something has changed since the participants were announced, nine of the ten will be the same, but Vishy Anand will be there instead of Fressinet.

https://www.chess.com/news/grand-chess- ... pants-2088

I agree that blitz is far too fast for a spectator sport. At most two games can be followed, whereas the leisurely rapid rate of 25 minutes + 10 seconds worked quite well, I thought.

[NickFaulks]

whereas the leisurely rapid rate of 25 minutes + 10 seconds worked quite well, I thought.

Yes, I liked that, although for any real attempt to understand the games I still find classical better.

For my own enjoyment as a spectator, I think I would like the starting times of the games to be staggered by, say, fifteen minutes. I can see that this might not be ideal for the players.

[David Sedgwick]

Unless something has changed since the participants [in Brussels-Leuven] were announced, nine of the ten will be the same, but Vishy Anand will be there instead of Fressinet.

Nothing has changed and what you say is correct.

The Rapidplay pairings in Brussels-Leuven will be the reverse of those in Paris (with Anand replacing Fressinet, of course).

[David Sedgwick]

For my own enjoyment as a spectator, I think I would like the starting times of the games to be staggered by, say, fifteen minutes. I can see that this might not be ideal for the players.

Nor for the live audience, the arbiters, the live board operators, the TV production company and almost anyone else you care to name.

[NickFaulks]

If I'm right, then it would suit the live audience as well at the bigger one following online. They wouldn't have five or six boards with the early moves being blitzed out all at once and five or six time scrambles all at once, with some soggy patches in between. Ditto the TV production company, whose interests should be those of their audience. The arbiters will just have to do what is asked of them and, in any case, I don't see why it it vital to them that all time scrambles should take place at once.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

You could stagger the broadcasts, or put together a proper highlights package. The actual play should take place simultaneously. Do arbiters really want all games reaching a time scramble at the same time? Surely there are enough arbiters anyway for all the games.

I saw Malcolm Pein on the stage in Paris (it looked very like the Olympia stage in London!). I couldn't see who the arbiters were, as the camera didn't show them or at least I wasn't watching when they did. David, were you there? Same set-up in Brussels, with Malcolm et al. there as well?

[JustinHorton]

You could stagger the broadcasts, or put together a proper highlights package. The actual play should take place simultaneously. Do arbiters really want all games reaching a time scramble at the same time? Surely there are enough arbiters anyway for all the games.

Doesn't the last of these points cancel out the one that came before?

[NickFaulks]

Doesn't the last of these points cancel out the one that came before?

I was merely questioning whether arbiters would be inconvenienced by not having all time scrambles synchronised.