Friday 12 April 2013

An interesting World Championship proposal

With the Anand - Carlsen World Championship match ready to happen, and a venue (almost) confirmed, there has been talk about what should be format of the match. Of course such talk is purely academic, in that the regulations are already in place, but it can still be an interesting exercise.
With the push towards having tie-break systems reward 'winning' play, this proposal from Amit Karmarker takes it to the next level. His suggestion is that the match starts with 12 games, but one player needs to win at least 3 games to be awarded the match. If neither player has 3 wins under their belt (or the match is tied 6-6) then the match is extended by 4 games (with the same time limits). Only if the match is then tied 8-8 do rapidplay tie breaks come into action. So even if a player is ahead after 12 games, but has only won twice, then they have to keep playing.
I'm assuming this idea is based on the belief that it is harder to draw 15 games than it is to draw 11. The downside of the proposal is that a player behind after 9 or 10 games may just dig in until gamed 12, knowing they are guaranteed an extra 4 games. Nonetheless it is an idea worth considering (although not for this match), as I have always been of the opinion that 12 games is too short, 16 games is the bare minimum, and 24 games ideal, for deciding a World Championship match.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Can you give a rundown on your reasoning for 16 or 24 rounds?