Paragua in Candidates Matches

Chessbase wonders if we can imagine Filipino GM Mark Paragua in the candidates matches. What a stupid question? Of course we can, and one day, he will be there.

In this article for Chessbase, renowned statistician Jeff Sonas lays out his alternative method of determining the 16 candidates. In a nutshell:

[I]t would be more sporting, and more interesting, if qualification were based, not upon the rating list, but upon a performance rating measure covering a specific time range. For instance, we could calculate each player’s performance across a particular calendar year, and allow some number of top players from each yearly performance list to qualify for the Candidates matches. So perhaps it could have been five players from the 2004 performance list, five players from the 2005 performance list, and five players from the 2005 World Cup, rather than the way FIDE did it. This would ensure that qualification is based only upon the players’ success during a single year, and not automatically “inherited” from success in previous years via a stagnant rating system.

Later this month Paragua will commence his European campaign in Russia. Let's hope that the cold weather does not affect him too much. We wish him all success!