Anand vs. Gelfand WCC 2012 started

[JuLieN]

Here's an absolutely fascinating game won by Petrossian against Botvinnik. A very deep masterpiece. No tactics and a lot of pleasure.

[Event "Russia"]
[Site "Match, Moscow (5)"]
[Date "1963.01.06"]
[EventDate "?"]
[Round "?"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Petrosian"]
[Black "Mikhail Botvinnik"]
[ECO "D94"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "95"]

1.c4 g6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.e3 O-O 6.Be2 dxc4 7.Bxc4
c5 8.d5 e6 9.dxe6 Qxd1+ 10.Kxd1 Bxe6 11.Bxe6 fxe6 12.Ke2 Nc6
13.Rd1 Rad8 14.Rxd8 Rxd8 15.Ng5 Re8 16.Nge4 Nxe4 17.Nxe4 b6
18.Rb1 Nb4 19.Bd2 Nd5 20.a4 Rc8 21.b3 Bf8 22.Rc1 Be7 23.b4 c4
24.b5 Kf7 25.Bc3 Ba3 26.Rc2 Nxc3+ 27.Rxc3 Bb4 28.Rc2 Ke7
29.Nd2 c3 30.Ne4 Ba5 31.Kd3 Rd8+ 32.Kc4 Rd1 33.Nxc3 Rh1 34.Ne4
Rxh2 35.Kd4 Kd7 36.g3 Bb4 37.Ke5 Rh5+ 38.Kf6 Be7+ 39.Kg7 e5
40.Rc6 Rh1 41.Kf7 Ra1 42.Re6 Bd8 43.Rd6+ Kc8 44.Ke8 Bc7 45.Rc6
Rd1 46.Ng5 Rd8+ 47.Kf7 Rd7+ 48.Kg8 1-0

[JuLieN]

White received .40 of a point and Black received .60 of a point!??

I like this idea! This and a more motivating money distribution should force both of them to take risks.

EDIT: Kramnik and Aronian had a shorter match (6 games) and managed to pull two decisive games. With style.

Actually, the .6/.4 would be only half motivating, because they would just wait for their turn to draw the game after and even the score. So an improvement could be:
game 1: draw = .5 for both
game 2: draw = .51 for black, .49 for white
game 3: draw = .52 for black, .48 for white
and so on...

So you just can't seat and wait for your turn to draw.

Let's say game 2 and game 3 is a draw, then:
one player gets 0.51 + 0.48 and the other player gets 0.49 + 0.52
both games are draw but the scoring gave one of them an advantage.

(0.51 + 0.48) is not equal to (0.49 + 0.52)

This is exactly the idea. After a draw (except the first one, but we could also start with the first one giving .49-.51) the match's result can't be a draw anymore. So the other player will have to get the edge back (can be achieved by drawing again, btw, but let's bet there will be more fight ).

EDIT: the idea is... currently it doesn't cost anything to any player to agree to a draw. But if the drawing score is different for white and black, then white will be more reluctant to agree for a draw and will try to find some resources to win the game. And the idea to increase Black's drawing reward round after round is to prevent the players from seating while waiting for their turn to draw. Right now they are like happy campers.

[Richard Allbert]

Hi Julien,

Totally agree. I first became interested in chess in the WC 1993 Short - Kasparov. Although Short lost heavily, he certainly didn't play for draws - one game even had a speculative queen sac!

Anand - Kasparov was also good, even Kramnik Kasparov. Draws, but well fought games.

But this current WC is awful. I turned on the coverage a couple of days ago to hear Daniel King say in response to a 'what have I missed question'

"You've not missed anything"

Richard

[Uri Blass]

This is the World Championship. It's not there for your viewing pleasure.

This is the heart of the problem. If there is no viewing pleasure there are no spectators. If there are no spectators there are no sponsors. If there are no sponsors there is no money. If there is no money there is no world championship. So yes, they do have to take viewing pleasure into consideration. And that's the same thing will all sports.

They did in the past, for example with the Sofia rule. So it means they are well aware of the problem. In this thread we just gave more ideas. Do not hesitate to improve them.

There is no danger of no spectators.

People are always interested in world championship matchs
and there are people who explain the ideas of the players.

I also do not think that only wins can be fun for spectators and
understanding what is wrong with lines that the players did not choose can also be fun for the spectators.

[Richard Allbert]

Hi Uri,

Yes, win or draw can be equally interesting, but lots of short draws? Not so much, especially only five moves or so outside previously played game moves.

Richard

[stevenaaus]

They are playing for the world championship... I think this is plenty motivation. The problem is that elite chess *is* a boring game in many regards.

And most people are happy with this - otherwise the much more dynamic chess960 would take off.

[stevenaaus]

I suppose...
I thought Anand navigating his bishop around to c6 was very unadventurous

[Jack Lad]

[d] 2r2rk1/1p3ppp/pb2q3/3R4/8/2B2Q2/PP3PPP/R5K1 b - - 5 21
Looks drawn again - at least we had a slightly different opening this time.

[Strelkaman]

Another boring draw.Too bad for this level.What a pity indeed

[AdminX]

[Event "World Chess Championship Match"]
[Site "Moscow"]
[Date "2012.05.18"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Gelfand, Boris"]
[Black "Anand, Viswanathan"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "D45"]
[WhiteElo "2727"]
[BlackElo "2791"]
[Annotator "Robot 9"]
[PlyCount "43"]
[EventDate "2012.??.??"]
[EventCountry "RUS"]
[TimeControl "40/7200+30:20/3600+30:900+30"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e3 e6 5. Nf3 a6 6. Qc2 c5 7. cxd5 exd5 8. Be2
Be6 9. O-O Nc6 10. Rd1 cxd4 11. Nxd4 Nxd4 12. Rxd4 Bc5 13. Rd1 Qe7 14. Bf3 O-O
15. Nxd5 Bxd5 16. Bxd5 Nxd5 17. Rxd5 Rac8 18. Bd2 Bxe3 19. Bc3 Bb6 20. Qf5 Qe6
21. Qf3 f6 22. h4 *

[d]2r2rk1/1p4pp/pb2qp2/3R4/7P/2B2Q2/PP3PP1/R5K1 b - - 0 22