Finally my little tour is about to come to an end and I'm making some time to catch up on the chess news. First thing's first. Here we go again: some top GM makes a dramatic action through the familiar letter writing (actually a blog post) and BANG[!], the whole world of chess has gone agog.
It's ridiculous because, quite frankly, it's all over nothing. That is, the stupid pursuit of an archaic idea - the title of world chess champion. It is a remnant of a time when masters were few and when, to prove one's self as the best, you duelled one-on-one. Hence, I just find the whole idea of a match, either as a standalone contest (such as the ones we saw up to the early '90's) or as part of a series (like the ones today), completely nonsensical.
Well, here's news: today there are several hundred grandmasters and some thirty-two of whom are way over a rating of 2700. So many players, many minds, many opinions. No wonder that we can't decide if we should have knockouts, tourneys or matches. And no wonder that the latest we have is the much derided hybrid.
I say, let's not worry about finding "a" or "the" world champion. Let's just stick to who's number one amongst our masters and be done with it!
Magnus Carlsen ought to receive our congratulations. His move to"concentrate on playing several well organised and interesting top level events" is exactly all these top guys really need to do. Who knows, perhaps in so doing, that equally ridiculous concept (and here's the French bit), the Fédération Internationale des Échecs, can at last be demonstrated to be just as archaic and way past its use-by date?
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2 comments:
I'm not sure what your suggesting exactly. Do you want to do away with the whole concept of a world championship match or tournament and just have the #1 rated player as the champion?
Hey! take it easy on the beaujolais before you post. In one swoop you knock and begrudge a lineage of past and future champions.
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