English Chess Forum

Alistair Campbell wrote:Legally, I’m not sure what is to stop me viewing a sporting event from a conveniently placed hill or kitchen window overlooking the arena, from tweeting comments from an event I have paid to enter, from broadcasting via Periscope (whatever that is) or for discussing events on an internet forum from freely available information.

There's a well-known example at Wrigley Field, where the Chicago Cubs play their home baseball matches. It's the oldest baseball stadium still going in MLB, and so it has quirks in it you wouldn't associate with modern grounds, such as ivy on the outfield wall, and also houses that overlook the stadium and allow the people who live there to look in.

The Cubs have tried to stop this through legal means unsuccessfully for years.

Andrew Murray-Watson wrote:
There is also an open letter from Ilya Merenzon, Agon CEO, on this subject at https://worldchess.com/2016/10/17/an-op ... st-policy/

Ah yes

JustinHorton wrote: Ah

With Agon attempting to ban discussion of the games whilst they are in progress, how are the "hundreds of millions" whose preferred language is not supported by the Agon commentary supposed to follow the match?

There's certainly an audience for top class chess and it can be large enough to crash inadequately resourced websites. A more realistic method of counting it is long overdue. Basing it on the answers to a question asking "when did you last play chess" in a limited number of countries and extrapolating that to the world isn't a reliable method.

Can't imagine we will see Andrew back to try and defend the indefensible ...

Complete sham of a scheme designed to shut down competition to their product - which they provide no evidence will be any better than the shambles during the candidates ...

Paul

It would be a shame if we found ourselves hoping that future events are held in Russia, whose courts are easier to ignore if you don't have to live there.

Peter Doggers (Chess.com) comments on Agon's broadcast policy. "The widget is directly related to the turmoil during the Candidates' Tournament in March. Back then, Agon surprised the chess world by announcing that the games would be shown exclusively on its website and that any website that would transmit the games live, would face legal action.Three major chess websites that decided to ignore Agon's threats (chessbomb.com, chess24.com and chessgames.com) are being sued. Agon is seeking 20 million rubles (€288.275 or $317,000) in damages from each of the sites. "The next hearing for Chess24 is later this month and for Chessgames and Chessbomb the hearings are January and February respectively," Agon's Director of Communications Andrew Murray-Watson told Chess.com."

https://www.chess.com/news/agon-launche ... paign=news

Paul Dargan wrote: Complete sham of a scheme designed to shut down competition to their product - which they provide no evidence will be any better than the shambles during the candidates ...

What, if any, is the practical difference between their widget and a plain link?

There is something of a contrast between their approach and that of Grand Chess Tour and other organisers of tournaments and matches involving the world's top players. They are all marketing the same basic product, namely chess at the highest human level.

If Agon's product is good enough people will buy it. If it is not they will not. Trying to prevent any competition with this heavy-handed attitude will not persuade me to buy it, in fact it has completely put me off, to the extent that I will probably boycott their site and go back to the time-honoured method of looking at the moves of the games after they have finished.
I suspect I am typical in this.

I'm just impressed by the PR genius that thinks it's a clever idea to organise a world championship and ensure that media coverage of your event is dominated by the theme of the organisers being bullies and bastards.

No problem stumping up for a cinema ticket ... provided I get to watch the film of MY choice. This is how it normally works at the cinema.

Unfortunately, there are some analysts and commentators out there who instantly send me to sleep and I have a horrible feeling they would be the ones that Agon would use.

Like Graham B, I am far more likely to take a passive interest, than watch some monopolized broadcast that is riding on the success of others and denying them fair competition.

Andrew Murray-Watson wrote:... I hope that the below announcement will be well received.

Well I think an objective observer would conclude that it hasn’t been - on here at least.

Aside from anything to do with the proposed world championship model, I fear that the Good Will Towards Agon boats are still smouldering after the threats of legal action and Dylan McClain turning up and behaving like a pillock earlier in the year.

Andrew Murray-Watson wrote:I pronounce it "A-gone" as opposed to "Ah-gone"

'Ah-gone' never occurred to me as a pronunciation, possibly because Argon is a noble gas, whereas Agon is mainly hot air.

Personally I've always thought there was a silent 'y' at the end.

Has anyone spotted Andrew, or even Dylan visiting the site recently?

Even their email confirmation required to comment on the Worldchess page is buggy - so heaven help the app. The only practical advantage I can see is that is might distribute some traffic away from their own precarious site (for which they should probably be paying chess.com not the other way round)

Paul

Roger de Coverly wrote:What, if any, is the practical difference between their widget and a plain link?

A widget is something you can display within your own website. For example, chess24 provides something you could call a widget to this website:
http://www.hoogeveenchess.nl/nl/live/matches
The actual live games are from chess24, but the surrounding website is from the tournament organizers that can display anything they want, in this case links to more information and sponsors, but it could be their own chat and comments and so on.

Any site can transmit the moves to the game all they need is a simple 'trick'.

The transmission will look like this:

Carlsen - Karjakin. Game One, New York 2016.

Moves one.

'Morphy at the Opera.'

Move 2

'White followed Morphy game' but Black played what Curt von Bardeleben played v Steinitz in Hasting 1895.

Get the idea?

What ever moves Carlsen and Karjakin play will be have been played before.

As the game goes on you will get a 'new' position.
but you can use that move and move number from another game.

If Carlsen play 19. h5 even though it is a completely different
position you can transmit a diagram from a non-copyright game.

Spielmann v Hoenlinger, Vienna 1935.

1n2k3/p1pqppp1/1p1p1n2/3N2pP/1PB3b1/2P1PN2/1P1P1PP1/2BQK2R w K - 0 1

adding that Spielmann has just played 19.h5.

The viewer, who has been following the clues since move one
will have in front on them the exact position from the game in New York.

All the transmitting sites needs is a 5 million game database which most of us have
and look for the same move played in a different position.

Sorted!