Ideal format for World Championships?

[jeffrei]

This sounded like the sort of thing y'all would have an opinion about.

[jeffrei]

While I can understand that people would like to see those old Candidates matches, I’m surprised they are nostalgic for the old Swiss Interzonals! They seem incredibly boring to me, as they tend to encourage draws and safety-first play by the leaders in the final few rounds, if not throughout the tournament generally. Also, they are very prone to allegations that people are throwing games in the last round to fix it so their compatriots can make the Candidates tournament. Neither of these things are possible in a knockout tournament.

I’d always thought that there was something fundamentally right about the KO system, but that you needed to have a repecharge to enhance the reliability of this system. Therefore I was pleasantly surprised to read that Alexander Khalifman supports more-or-less the same position: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=1741

[Rincewind]

I’d always thought that there was something fundamentally right about the KO system, but that you needed to have a repecharge to enhance the reliability of this system. Therefore I was pleasantly surprised to read that Alexander Khalifman supports more-or-less the same position: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=1741

Khalifman wants to legitimise a Knock-Out system? What a surprise. Perhaps I'm just being cynical.

[jeffrei]

Khalifman wants to legitimise a Knock-Out system? What a surprise. Perhaps I'm just being cynical.

It's not that simple - the system he advocates isn't really very similar to the FIDE one which Khalifman won in 1999. And of course suggesting that he has a vested interest in KO-type proposals doesn't say anything about the strength of the arguments for/against this particular one. I would be interested in hearing your opinion about that, Barry.

The thing I found surprising was that the idea of a double-elimination knockout already had some currency amongst top players, as opposed to merely being the subject of a few idle daydreams by me!

[Rincewind]

It's not that simple - the system he advocates isn't really very similar to the FIDE one which Khalifman won in 1999. And of course suggesting that he has a vested interest in KO-type proposals doesn't say anything about the strength of the arguments for/against this particular one. I would be interested in hearing your opinion about that, Barry.

The thing I found surprising was that the idea of a double-elimination knockout already had some currency amongst top players, as opposed to merely being the subject of a few idle daydreams by me!

Double elimination system is better but still suffers from the same problems as the single elimination format, just less acutely. Sonas' comment that many top players like the KO format is no reason to use it.

Zonals, Inters, Candidate and Championship had consistently ensured the best players of the day compete and the World Champion had been pretty much unchallenged when that system had sway.

Now days it seems anyone can win the title and FIDE calls them World Champion. Khalifman and Ponomariov would not have been champions under the old system (at least not yet for Pono, he's too young to write off).

[eclectic]

Double elimination system is better but still suffers from the same problems as the single elimination format, just less acutely. Sonas' comment that many top players like the KO format is no reason to use it.

Zonals, Inters, Candidate and Championship had consistently ensured the best players of the day compete and the World Champion had been pretty much unchallenged when that system had sway.

Now days it seems anyone can win the title and FIDE calls them World Champion. Khalifman and Ponomariov would not have been champions under the old system (at least not yet for Pono, he's too young to write off).

No !!!

Let FIDE save money.

Bobby Fischer as World Chess Champion for Life



eclectic

[Rincewind]

Bobby Fischer as World Chess Champion for Life

he old FIDE system dealt with the Bobby Fischer issue. Much more so than the introduction of the KO format dealt with the Garry Kasparov issue.