Media comments on chess

[Richard Bates]

This month's Cricketer magazine has a piece on Peter Svidler.

[Ian Thompson]

This in the Independent yesterday, which tells us that Kirsan Ilyumzhinov "believes aliens will destroy the planet if people do not play enough chess, a game he says they invented."

It also tells us that Andrew Paulson thinks "it would be too early to support either man" (Ilyumzhinov or Kasparov) in the FIDE Presidential election.

[Stewart Reuben]

Andrew is absolutely right, especially as, for all we know, there may be a third candidate.

[Roger de Coverly]

Andrew is absolutely right, especially as, for all we know, there may be a third candidate.

I would have thought he should rule out any notion of the ECF endorsing or voting for the incumbent. Wasn't that what we tried to get him to say on this very forum?

[BrianRobinson]

Interesting piece by Matt Gaffney (US National Master) on the Slate magazine website,

http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sp ... me_to.html

He suggests that the World Championship should be abandoned in favour of a series of majors or grand slam events, as in golf or tennis. I can see the logic but it would lack the gladiatorial drama of the face to face match, which I think is an asset it needs to compete for attention.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Interesting piece by Matt Gaffney (US National Master) on the Slate magazine website,

http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sp ... me_to.html

He suggests that the World Championship should be abandoned in favour of a series of majors or grand slam events, as in golf or tennis. I can see the logic but it would lack the gladiatorial drama of the face to face match, which I think is an asset it needs to compete for attention.

It is an interesting article (by a US National Master), though with some weak bits where the history isn't quite all there (I didn't like the offhand "An unchewed piece of steak did what Bogolyubov could not" in relation to Alekhine, though I did like the description of Kasparov and Short breaking with FIDE: they "told FIDE to go fly a kite" - the article is also harsh on Gelfand). The problem (if there is one) is more with the rating system being used for purposes it wasn't intended for. He is right that it would take a current world champion to force through such a change.

[Stewart Reuben]

FIDE would be crazy to abandon the greatest asset of chess - the World Championship. The status of the World Chess Champion outside chess is enormous.
Of course FIDE did go temporarily(?) insane from 1997 until they reinstated a proper world championship cycle. e.g. annual was nonsense. The mystique of there having been few champions was essential. By the way, Kirsan no longer refers to those from Khalifman to Kasimzhnov. The Women's World Championship, when decided by blitz games as like as not, is also, to be polite, lacking in logic.

[Paolo Casaschi]

FIDE would be crazy to abandon the greatest asset of chess - the World Championship. The status of the World Chess Champion outside chess is enormous.

Completely agree.
The author of the article seems to be a bit out if synch with the chess world, for instance he suggests Linares as one of the proposed grand slam tournaments... unfortunately the Linares tournament collapsed few years ago for lack of funding.

[Matt Fletcher]

Today's xkcd is chess-related - the mouseover text is:

Prediction for Carlsen v. Anand: ... 25. Qb8+ Nxb8 26. Rd8# f6 27. "... dude." Qf5 28. "The game is over, dude." Qxg5 29. Rxe8 0-1 30. "Dude, your move can't be '0-1'. Don't write that down." [Black flips board]

[Matthew Turner]

More on Paulson in today's FT

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/be4f1f74-42eb ... z2jqzu50wQ

Seems to be just a rehash of previous stuff, so nothing particularly informative.

[Roger de Coverly]

Seems to be just a rehash of previous stuff, so nothing particularly informative.

One piece though

Mr Paulson last year paid Fide, the world chess federation, $500,000 for exclusive global rights to commercialise the sport over the next decade.

Has anything actually been paid? As of six months ago, it was still being reported that the amounts were outstanding.

The article also mentions ChessCasting which appears to have disappeared without trace.

It remains a mystery as to how much influence Agon have had on the presentation of world chess. The only two where any influence was obvious have been the London Grand Prix at Simpsons and the London Candidates. All the others give the impression of being presented by FIDE and local organisers. That equally applies to the Anand-Carlsen match.

[Angus French]

I also noticed:

The match in Chennai boasts just one sponsor, the host state of Tamil Nadu, which handed over Rs290m ($4.7m) to cover costs and prizes.

[Roger de Coverly]

I also noticed:

The match in Chennai boasts just one sponsor, the host state of Tamil Nadu, which handed over Rs290m ($4.7m) to cover costs and prizes.

In what appeared to be a compensation deal for India following the award of the Anand-Gelfand match to Moscow, the match was awarded to Chennai without giving alternative bidders an opportunity to make better offers. The decision seemed exclusively that of FIDE or even just of the FIDE President.

A reliance on government based sponsorship was one of the features which AP wanted to change.

[Stewart Reuben]

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlaye ... =242536044

Andrew giving a good interview.

[Ian Kingston]

In a break with recent tradition, BBC News has mentioned the World Championship match before it finishes: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-24879624