Drop the Seirwan Prague/Dortmund agreement. I'd bypass the stupid
knockout tournament idea that FIDE is floating around. I'd choose the
matches this way:

GM Judit Polgar vs GM Peter Svidler quarterfinal match with the winner
facing GM Vishy Anand or Kasparov.

GM Peter Leko vs GM Vassily Ivanchuk quaterfinal match with the winner
facing GM Classical World Champion Kramnik.

The winners of the quarterfinal match advance to the semifinal and play
both Anand or Kasparov and Kramnik. Whomever wins their respective
matches reaches the championship round.

Problem solved. Case closed.

And leave out Morozevich?I agree with you that matches would be better than
the knockout format.Personally I would pick Topolov and Shirov over Polgar and
Ivanchuk.At least you are posing a solution.I missed the old days when you had
the Interzonals followed by the Candidates Matches.Much more exciting and
CONSISTENT.They should also do away with the fast time control tie breaks

In article , etj718
@aol.com says...
And leave out Morozevich?I agree with you that matches would be better than
the knockout format.Personally I would pick Topolov and Shirov over Polgar and
Ivanchuk.At least you are posing a solution.I missed the old days when you had
the Interzonals followed by the Candidates Matches.Much more exciting and
CONSISTENT.They should also do away with the fast time control tie breaks



I chose Polgar and Svidler because these two are the most "improved"
chessplayers of 2003/2004. Shirov has calcified as a player. He hasn't
shown any new spark of momentum going his way. Whereas Judit Polgar is
getting stronger by the months. I think she's ready for a title shot.
She's definitely trouble for Vishy Anand, that's one thing I know. But
she has yet to challenge Kramnik as she's never beaten him...yet. I'm
convinced if she gets that title shot and makes it to a round with
Kramnik...she's probably going to unveil new weapons in her opening
repetiore against his vaunted 1.d4 openings and she'll probably surprise
her opponents by using lines she's never tried before. In my opinion,
she's definitely ready for a showdown with Kasparov.

Can you imagine a war between Polgar and Kasparov using ultra sharp
Sicilian lines?! The fireworks from that match alone would be worth the
wait!! GM Judit Polgar is no slouch in the Sicilan Defence. Vishy Anand
even paid her a compliment during their Mainz 2003 match by refusing to
play the Sicilian as Black in the final game. Why? Anand said his
trainer told him to forget using the Sicilian against Judit Polgar in
the final game. If that story is true...this would be a tremendous
tribute to Judit Polgar's incredible fighting spirit. Vishy won that
last game using the Lopez line. I really do believe GM Judit Polgar is
Bobby Fischer's protege. So if Polgar plays Kasparov...we'd be getting
the Fischer Kasparov match we've been denied all these years. And let's
not forget Judit Polgar has been steadily climbing up the ratings
ladder. Currently she's number 8. As in number 8 in the ENTIRE world of
chess. An astounding accomplishment for the ONLY woman in chess history
to go head to head against the men. She's also made history recently
because if I'm not mistaken...Informant has nominated a game she played
in 2003 as the best game of the year. Quite a feat for a woman of Judit
Polgar's skills.

Interesting side note: I recently purchased the newly published chess
book "French Defence: 3 Nd2 by Lev Psakhis, who is Judit Polgar's
trainer. In the back of the book cover, the byline says (and I was
amused to read this) "GrandMaster Lev Psakhis...serves as trainer to
WORLD NUMBER 1 PLAYER Judit Polgar". I wonder what Kasparov would say to
this when he hears about THAT description!

I can see your a big Polgar fan.What she has achieved is remarkable.How about a
Polgar-Morozevich match.I think we would see some fireworks worthy of a Fourth
Of July display.Yes I am a Morozevich fan. a shame he was too ill to play in
the Corus event.But then again his replacement Topolov would not have had the
oppportunity to defeat Anand today.Svidler because these two are the most
"improved"
chessplayers of 2003/2004. Svidler is really good.I have
no problems including him in the mix.I think Ivanchuk has slipped a notch.In an
ideal world I would love to see a tournament with
Kasparov,Kramnik,Anand,Leko,Topolov,Morozevich,Pol gar,Adams..Have the Top 4
play Semi-Final matches and the winners meet for the World Title (yes I left
Ponomariov off the list)Now if only I had several million dollars to sponsor
this.

On 24 Jan 2004 16:04:12 -0600, Alberich
wrote:

Problem solved. Case closed.

I'd like for them to come up with some reasonable system - soon - to
produce a single, undisputed world champion. Of course, probably most
everyone feels that way.


-------------------------------------
Replace you know what by "j" to email.

"Jud McCranie" wrote in message
...
On 24 Jan 2004 16:04:12 -0600, Alberich
wrote:

Problem solved. Case closed.

I'd like for them to come up with some reasonable system - soon - to
produce a single, undisputed world champion. Of course, probably most
everyone feels that way.


-------------------------------------
Replace you know what by "j" to email.

With Kramnik's approval, Fide could stage a 1shot candidate
match-tournament with the winner facing Ponomariov in a match for the title
Fide Champion with it already stipulated in the contracts that this Champion
must immediately (3 month preperation/rest time perhaps) face Kramnik in a
unifying match.
The candidate match-tournament system could very well be similar to the
one used in 1948 to decide a champion into the hole left by Alekhine's
death, in which Botvinnik won and became World Champ. The top twelve
players in the world, to give most of the top players a fair shot at this
the first time, excluding Pono and Kramnik (pushing the candidacy to #13 and
#14 in the world), each play eachother twice (in contrast to 1948 were
there were 5 players playing each other 5 times), classical time controls.
This would be a major event and attract huge media attention (and hopefully
the capital huge media events normally are able to generate). So according
to the latest list the participants would be Kasparov, Anand, Svidler,
Shirov, Topalov, Morozevich, J. Polgar, Leko, Adams, Grischuk, Ivanchuk, and
Bareev. Imagine this crosstable! 22 rounds with ample rest days playing
one game a day would make this about a month long event.
A reasonable match between the winner of this event and Ponomariov
could be the first player to win 4 games (again of course classical
controls, 1 game a day) be declared champion, with a "sudden death" type
stipulation that if this has not happened after12 games played whoever leads
in wins is the winner. In the event the score is tied after 12 games, play
continues as before but whoever wins the first game from this point is the
winner.
The match between this winner and the World Champion (being for the
first cycle Kramnik) is then exactly the same format, perhaps with the
future change that if the score is tied after twelve games the champion
retains the title, in the ensuing cycles, not this first one, for the sake
of a complete chance at a fresh start.
And then there is one Official Fide World Chess Champion, and every
three years they do it again, with the middle match excluded as being no
longer pertinent...the winner of the candidates match-tournament (hereby
pared down to the top 11 players to make an even "top ten" excluding the
champion, on the assumption he is still rated in the top ten at this point!)
faces the reigning Champion. Therefore the requirement for being included
in the candidates tournament is to keep yourself rated among the best
players in the world at the time the announcements are made of who is a
candidate.
Im sure many will say this is all unrealistic, but it would certainly
be an interesting solution to the problem we now have regarding candidacy
and a championship.

On Sun, 25 Jan 2004 16:39:23 -0500, "gorkov43"
wrote:

And then there is one Official Fide World Chess Champion,

Yes, instead of the current disarray.

Im sure many will say this is all unrealistic, but it would certainly
be an interesting solution to the problem we now have regarding candidacy
and a championship.

It sounds good to me.

-------------------------------------
Replace you know what by "j" to email.

Alberich wrote:

Drop the Seirwan Prague/Dortmund agreement. I'd bypass the stupid
knockout tournament idea that FIDE is floating around. I'd choose the
matches this way:

GM Judit Polgar vs GM Peter Svidler quarterfinal match with the winner
facing GM Vishy Anand or Kasparov.

GM Peter Leko vs GM Vassily Ivanchuk quaterfinal match with the winner
facing GM Classical World Champion Kramnik.

The winners of the quarterfinal match advance to the semifinal and play
both Anand or Kasparov and Kramnik. Whomever wins their respective
matches reaches the championship round.

Problem solved. Case closed.


You forgot to mention that all the games should be playing FishcerRandom
chess... ;-)


A number of questions of course come to mind...

1. What do you mean by "Anand OR Kasparov"? Kasparov, fairly or not,
has already agreed to play a match with the FIDE Champion - are you
proposing that he may not even be a player now? How much credibility in
this "Championship" will there be if arguably the best player in chess
is pushed aside after having signed a contract to play for the title?

2. Why should Leko now have to play Ivanchuck before Kramnik? Leko won
the right to challenge Kramnik for the Braingames/Einstein/Classical (or
whatever else we should call it - and many would argue it to be the
"true") World Championship. And Leko was not even handed a match like
Kasparov was - Leko had to win Dortmond to qualify.

3. I am assuming you are including Svidler based on rating, despite the
fact that he has not won anything to qualify. O.K. I'll accept that as
a possible good argument. Polgar? I hate to sound like a broken record
(what's the 21st century equivalent?), but Polgar has not (yet) proven
she deserves to be handed an opportunity to play for the title. She is
now rated #8 in the world - impressive indeed, but if you want to go on
ratings, then Morozevich, Topalov, and Shirov all deserve a shot ahead
of her. Allowing her in ahead of them gives the appearance that gender
counts for more than rating.

4. Would Kramnik agree to this arrangement? In some sense, now that
Ponomariov is possibly out of the picture, Kramnik is once again the
"one and only" World Champion. He agreed to the Prague Agreement -
would he agree to a change? Since his "title" is not FIDE's property,
will he be willing to have FIDE call the shots? Actually, you don't say
who is setting up these proposed matches? FIDE?


Despite my questioning of this structure, I do think it would be a
better way of determining the champion than what is currently on the
table. On the other hand, it is clear that you can't separate the
politics from this to make it happen. The Prague Agreement at least
appeared to bring all the relevant parties to the table. Any
heavy-handed attempts to unify the title appear doomed to fail -
Kasparov will refuse to bow to FIDE (unless he thinks it's to his
advantage), Kramnik will not allow an organization which does not
currently control his "title" to take it back under conditions
unfavorable to him. The whole issue of attracting sponsorship (which
ultimately leads to the qualifiers earning more money) needs to be
factored in. Then there's the issue with the leadership of FIDE.

Final thought: Perhaps what ultimately comes out of this is that the
chess world discovers that they don't NEED a "world champion". I'd
prefer to see a unified title myself, and an established reasonable
qualifying cycle for future title defenses, but in the end maybe it
doesn't advance the game's popularity.

John

I chose Polgar and Svidler because these two are the most "improved"
chessplayers of 2003/2004. Shirov has calcified as a player. He hasn't
shown any new spark of momentum going his way.

Good reasons to suggest that Polgar and Svidler would do well in a
qualifying cycle, but poor reasons to hand them a shot over higher-rated
players, IMHO.


I'm
convinced if she gets that title shot and makes it to a round with
Kramnik...she's probably going to unveil new weapons in her opening
repetiore against his vaunted 1.d4 openings and she'll probably surprise
her opponents by using lines she's never tried before.

And you believe this because ... ???


In my opinion,
she's definitely ready for a showdown with Kasparov.


As are many players, I would guess.


Can you imagine a war between Polgar and Kasparov using ultra sharp
Sicilian lines?! The fireworks from that match alone would be worth the
wait!!

Well, I'm still waiting for the war between Kasparov and Fischer in the
King's Indian Defense... ;-)

GM Judit Polgar is no slouch in the Sicilan Defence. Vishy Anand
even paid her a compliment during their Mainz 2003 match by refusing to
play the Sicilian as Black in the final game. Why? Anand said his
trainer told him to forget using the Sicilian against Judit Polgar in
the final game. If that story is true...this would be a tremendous
tribute to Judit Polgar's incredible fighting spirit. Vishy won that
last game using the Lopez line.

It could mean that, for a single game, Anand felt that he would be
ill-prepared to meet Polgar in the Sicilian, and that perhaps he felt
Polgar would be ill-prepared to meet HIM in a Ruy Lopez!


I really do believe GM Judit Polgar is
Bobby Fischer's protege. So if Polgar plays Kasparov...we'd be getting
the Fischer Kasparov match we've been denied all these years.

Uh, NO we're not - even if Fischer were to show up to the match as
Polgar's trainer. Using that argument, perhaps we're really seeing a
Fischer Fritz match... ;-)


And let's
not forget Judit Polgar has been steadily climbing up the ratings
ladder. Currently she's number 8. As in number 8 in the ENTIRE world of
chess. An astounding accomplishment for the ONLY woman in chess history
to go head to head against the men. She's also made history recently
because if I'm not mistaken...Informant has nominated a game she played
in 2003 as the best game of the year. Quite a feat for a woman of Judit
Polgar's skills.


Polgar has achieved greatness at chess for sure, and I hope that she
will someday play for the title. However, that hope does not mean that
I feel she should be hand-picked over higher-rated players to play in a
qualifying cycle.


John

On Mon, 26 Jan 2004 10:09:13 -0500, John Swartz
wrote:

Final thought: Perhaps what ultimately comes out of this is that the
chess world discovers that they don't NEED a "world champion".

I think chess should have a world champion - an undisputed one at
that.

-------------------------------------
Replace you know what by "j" to email.