*Global Chess League comes to London October 2024*

[IM Jack Rudd]

Looking at what this means for an individual pairing within the match, and focusing only on the difference between the two players' scores:

One player wins both games: worth +7 for their team
One player wins with black, the other game is a draw: worth +4 for their team
One player wins with white, the other game is a draw: worth +3 for their team
Both games are draws or each player wins once: worth 0, whatever happens

If you compare with traditional scoring, and multiply by 3½ to keep things on the same scale, it amounts to much the same thing: +7, +3½, +3½ and 0 respectively. It'll probably play out very similarly to a normal match with a "most wins with black" tie-break.

[MJMcCready]

The coverage of the venue is impressive. The whole thing seems quite a spectacle. Prize fund is very generous.

[Peter Hornsby]

GJ.jpg (227 KiB) Viewed 1454 times

A lovely photo with me and Gawain Jones- fortunately not showing what happened on the board

[Bob Kane]

Well done Peter , nice event!

[Peter Hornsby]

You can follow the action live here, Hammersmith Sharks currently in the lead:

https://www.chess.com/play/arena/3705645

[LawrenceCooper]

You can follow the action live here, Hammersmith Sharks currently in the lead:

https://www.chess.com/play/arena/3705645

Is there any way of knowing who the players are? I know that a few have names on their accounts but other than that I mean.

[Graham Borrowdale]

This event doesn’t seem to have generated much interest on here, considering many of the world’s top players are in London. I shelled out the £15 to go on Friday, and it was an interesting experience, to say the least. More film set than chess tournament, and felt very Americanised. Spectator facilities were very limited, I couldn’t actually follow the games that well from the auditorium, because they were only displayed 3 to a screen, and unless you went online you couldn’t see the latest scores displayed. A couple of games were decided by flagging, because of the no increment time control. The commentators kept telling us this excitement is what the fans want - not sure about that claim, but it certainly seems to interest sponsors.
I am not a big cricket fan, but it feels like the T20 vs test matches.

[Ian Thompson]

A couple of games were decided by flagging, because of the no increment time control.

One of them from this position where Black is reported to have decided not to take the Queen because he thought White would lose on time before he could mate Black.

[Event "Global Chess League"] [Date "2024.10.04"] [Result "0-1"] [FEN "5Q2/6B1/8/4K3/5nk1/8/8/8 b - - 0 79"] {[#]} 79... Ng6+ 80. Ke4 Nh4 0-1

Is that what people want to see?

[Nick Burrows]

Is that what people want to see?

From the perspective of the player, it's the right thing to do to win the game for the team. It demonstrates that the problem lies with the rules. This is the exact reason that no increment has all but disappeared from chess. It's good to be reminded why it doesn't work. Some people may find the drama "exciting", but it's clearly unsatisfactory.

[MJMcCready]

Most, if not all, are more than glad to see the back of flagging. Doesn't appear to be well received anymore.

[LawrenceCooper]

In Sarin-Dardha white claimed a draw with three seconds left on his clock and in a winning position which was awarded by the arbiter.
https://www.chess.com/events/2024-tech- ... dha_Daniel
So there is a mechanism in place should players choose to use it. I must admit, though, I've not enjoyed the games decided solely by time. One suggestion, from Levon Aronian, was for increment to be added after move 60.

[Paul Cooksey]

I did consider visiting today but the replacement bus service rather than the flagging put me off. On the whole I'm not too disappointed given Graham's report.

I am a bit frustrated with the format. I try to be open minded about new events, even if they are not for me. The new 360 tour for example. But if what you want is flagging a queen down, any two of us would suffice. Seems a waste of the talents of Magnus and Ali Reza.

[LawrenceCooper]

I did consider visiting today but the replacement bus service rather than the flagging put me off. On the whole I'm not too disappointed given Graham's report.

I am a bit frustrated with the format. I try to be open minded about new events, even if they are not for me. The new 360 tour for example. But if what you want is flagging a queen down, any two of us would suffice. Seems a waste of the talents of Magnus and Ali Reza.

I did enjoy the Magnus-Hikaru game today, but mainly because it was a hard fought complicated struggle ending in perpetual. Even though time shortage was apparent the game reached some sort of logical conclusion.

[LawrenceCooper]

In Sarin-Dardha white claimed a draw with three seconds left on his clock and in a winning position which was awarded by the arbiter.
https://www.chess.com/events/2024-tech- ... dha_Daniel
So there is a mechanism in place should players choose to use it. I must admit, though, I've not enjoyed the games decided solely by time. One suggestion, from Levon Aronian, was for increment to be added after move 60.

https://x.com/ChessbaseIndia/status/1842934598755618842

[Roger de Coverly]

So there is a mechanism in place should players choose to use it. I must admit, though, I've not enjoyed the games decided solely by time. One suggestion, from Levon Aronian, was for increment to be added after move 60.

Presumably they've got an "unable to win by normal means" clause somewhere in the ruleset.

As well as Lev's suggestion, you could also switch to an increment when one player was down to the last two minutes