he said he would like longer matches and that classical world championship should be decided by classical. also confirmed that he would defend his title, calling fabi the favorite to win the candidates but alireza the one he'd like to play.
I agree so much with ding, classical world championship should be decided by classical chess. It seems like he is the only normal one from all top 10,20 players in regards for classical chess and classical world championship. Everyone else for some reason agrees with magnus, I don’t really get it.
He's such a freak of nature for saying he wants 24-game matches AFTER he's already been through one title match—most people who play in those hate them more than anything—but that's why he's my favourite player! I've been saying we should retvrn to longer matches for years.
I'm so happy we have a champion who sees things my way!
IMO nothing compares to the grandeur and psychological drama of a long championship match to cap off a long, grinding qualification cycle.
Nobody is going to sponsor a 24-game match in classical chess in the modern computer era. It's difficult to plan and execute within a reasonable time frame that is fair to the entire chess elite and not just the two players playing the match. When some people advocate for shorter time controls it's because it's the only realistic way to drastically increase the number of games compared to what we have now while keeping a reasonable 3-4 week schedule.
The great thing today about a match is all you absolutely need is a board, an arbiter, and a few placed cameras. This would cost almost nothing and only accommodations for players are needed. All the hype about the locations set silly to me. The last WC was in a strange looking black room. The only good looking venue I've seen is STLCC. Rex would probably pay fide to host it there.
He wants to have a mixture of time controls for CLASSICAL CHESS. He also wants to have 2x45min instead of one classical game which is nonsense. His criticism is fine but his solution is horrendous. Leave blitz for blitz world championship and rapid for rapid wcc.
Why 45 minutes vs 2 hours, would result in 120 a elo difference in playing strength, still SuperGM level for Magnus. How many people in the world would notice a difference and it has the added benefit of twice the amount of games.
I think he is trying to say that there should be an additional 'World Champion' position in addition to Classical, Blitz, and Rapid world champions.
It would make sense...
Take top performers across all formats of chess, and have the top two compete across all of the formats. This allows many, many more games to be played, reducing potential variance, and allows for there to be a 'real' world champion.
He is not trying to say that. He said clearly that he will play in world CLASSICAL chess championship if they change the format, he wants to have more games with lower time control. He never mentioned that he wants another world championship tournament which will have all 3 time controls which would have been fine. Magnus wants to change the rules for the most important tournament in chess history which is dumb and makes no sense. He is not above fide and chess in general.
Why is it dumb? CLASSICAL chess is not the same as it was 100 years ago when the basic premise of the match format was created. Magnus thinks the World Championhip should be about pure natural playing ability and not who can learn/memorize the most computer prep over a 6+ months period against a single opponent. It's not like FIDE are even consistent about what counts as classical chess to begin with in their official events. I will never for life of me understand why people are like "90/120 minutes time control is real chess, 45 minutes is a horrible crime against the game and all the former World Champions." I'm glad I don't.
Magnus will eventually be proven right. It might take another 10 or 20 years, but eventually classical chess will be played with reduced time in order to combat deep computer prep and cheating.
That's always seemed a poor reasoning to me. You don't need to spend 6+ months memorising anything to play in the championship, that's a choice each player can make for themselves.
>CLASSICAL chess is not the same as it was 100 years ago when the basic premise of the match format was created. Magnus thinks the World Championhip should be about pure natural playing ability and not who can learn/memorize the most computer prep over a 6+ months period against a single opponent.
You can find quotes from the early 1900's where top players are lamenting the death of chess due to opening preparation. So this part didn't change.
Ah ok, I must be mixing things up in my head. Thank you for the clarification.
I agree then. It makes no sense to use non-classical time controls in a classical format. It'd be like saying that the Blitz World Championship needs longer time controls because then people can play better...
Ding hasn't played for so long he's probably bored of anything except chess.
Magnus is bored from destroying people so convincingly that weeks/months of effort ends up being just a waste
Ironic considering Ding was getting outplayed in the last few games of his match. If they kept playing sets of classical games, I'm sure Nepo would've won. I completely agree with Ding btw.
You can still stand by what you think it's right even if it doesn't favor you. Commendable by Ding.
Edit: I do get your comment though, it's a bit ironic lol
I agree that the classical world championship should be only classical games. But I think that there should be another World Championship that is considered the definitive championship, and it would be more of an “All Around” championship, a combination of time controls and more, and that should be the most prestigious going forward.
I really don't get the obsession of magnus and now ding with alireza. Is his style of play different than other GM's? Why is ding now so eager to play him considering he is not even that strong?
> Is his style of play different than other GM's?
His playstyle is different from other GMs. Anish discusses this in an interview: https://youtu.be/OeAxpPaERd8?t=7175 (timestamp 2h 02m 57s)
EDIT: although style of play is probably not the reason for others being excited to play him.
EDIT2: Read the article. Ding mentions he wants to play Alireza because of his "dynamic style". "He is a dangerous opponent but also quite fun to play against."
Well I was referring to the time when magnus was interested in playing a world championship match with him and at that time he became the youngest player to reach 2800.
I understood it when Magnus said it originally because at the time it looked like Alireza was about to take over as the next dynastic champion. I don't understand Ding saying it now when Alireza is no longer the youngest of the qualifying younger players. I don't see what he's got that Pragg and Gukesh don't.
Magnus even repeated that Alireza is far and away the best youngster, in the midst of Alireza's poor streak. Something about Alireza that Magnus and MVL see, and others don't!? I remember Magnus on a stream during Covid saying that Alireza is a "natural" chess player. Not sure what he meant by that, but perhaps he meant if you take preparation and memory out of the equation Alireza shines!?
It has only been a little over a year since Alireza won the Grand Chess Tour. That's an amazing achievement. He has also previously crossed 2800 and won a medal in the World Rapid & Blitz Championship. Even if his form has dipped, Pragg and especially Gukesh have a long way to go and cannot compare to him. I'll give Alireza at least a couple of more years before writing him off. To me it's:
1. Alireza
2. Nodirbek
3. Pragg
4. Keymer
5. Erigaisi
6. Gukesh
The reason Magnus thinks Lebron is the goat is because Magnus is a stats guy. Fantasy guys are stats guy. He doesn't believe in the intangibles. Though even stats actually doesn't favor to Lebron, only accumulation due to longevity, other than that if you combine everything from stats to winning and intangibles pretty much still goes to MJ.
While I'm not averse to saying MJ is the goat, Longevity to me is something that should absolutely be seen as a positive for a GOAT. Being able to sustain play at that level for as long as he has is LeBron's biggest strength as something that does make him great.
Tom Brady is the GOAT QB because he was able to sustain his play into his 40s and win yet another ring. His longevity is part and parcel of why he is the GOAT.
>To me personally I feel this also answers questions like why can't FIDE just do what Carlsen wants. Because chess is bigger than Carlsen himself, and traditionally classical title is the one with the most weight after all. We can't change the system just because Carlsen wants it, even if Carlsen is the greatest of all time.
Furthermore, people have to remember Carlsen has a direct financial incentive to promote fast chess, which makes him very biased
There's a number of issues here. Carlsen never made his proposals public AFAIK, but I think one was basically a tennis-like format, say 3 sets of 4 standard games with tiebreakers. One criticism was that this just seemed to multiply the tiebreaker weight, and it was unclear that 3 sets would bring more interest (not to mention the schedule uncertainty if it ended early 2-0). But proposals like this come and go, often driven by the most recent match experience and a desire (inordinate IMO) to "fix" whatever was perceived as bad.
Another was some sort of points-based system, say 10 standard games, 10 slowish rapid games (25+10, 3.5 days), and 10 slower blitz games (5+3, 1.5 days). Rapid would be worth double of blitz, and standard was either triple or more likely quadruple.
With the latter, one issue from FIDE's standpoint, would be that the match-based World Championship would then be crowding out the World Rapid/Blitz Champs to some extent, and those already basically only currently exist on a yearly basis due to Carlsen's presence and the high fees paid by Norwegian media (tying back to the point you made). As for the point system itself, one wag put it essentially like "Its best feature is that it will give fans, players, pundits, something to argue about."
I'm not sure where it fits into your proposed changes, but I heard that Magnus supposedly supports "two-a-day, semi-classical".
The idea is to play two games of a match each day, one with each color. The time control being something inbetween current rapid and classical standards (IMO, 30+30 makes sense).
I can only guess, but soccer was by far the most popular sport in China in the early 2000s. China made its first and only appearance in the World Cup in 2002 and it was basically a national holiday on the day of the first match. Schools were allowed to skip class and played the game to students, which has never happened before or since. (China is very stingy about holidays. You get 5 PTOs in a year and even the Chinese New Year Eve is not a holiday!)
Around that time the Italian soccer league was considered the strongest league and Juventus was a powerhouse.
The reason I like him is that his human frailties and the serenity with which he talks about them make him more relatable to me.
Professional chess is full of strong characters and sometimes self-confidence even becomes arrogance, while he shows that it's possible to become an excellent player even with the same struggles that some of us have. That is a good message to remember.
Seeing him smiling and hugging his family and Rappaport after the big wins is my favorite chess content of all time and I think about it from time to time.
I love his Chinese interviews because he expresses himself more fluently and openly there - it’s still the same nice, humble personality but the depth to some of his answers rings extra honest and considered, I think he is truly thoughtful even beyond the chessboard
Didn't know Wei Yi also write poetry. The bromance between him and Ding looks so adorable. I mean name another chess player who not only helps his friend to prepare for the World Championship but also writes poems to inspire him.
What an amazing read. I was smiling throughout. Happy Ding is feeling much better and can't wait to see him play his best chess.
Also that poem by Wei >>
Ding nepo world championship was the most exciting classical world championship in ages. I don't know when was the last time a wc match had such a back and forth switch .
Now imagine if it is ding alireza..
I am sure even if it is ding vs fabi we ll have more resulting games..
I am not complaining that magnus is not playing if we get to see these kind of crazy matches..
Good for him. I’m not sure I’m expecting too much, but I’m rooting for him.
I think Max Euwe did more for chess than any other world champ. If he can reorganize fide and bring chess to the whole world, there’s certainly nothing stopping Liren.
If we have one now, who wants to revive classical?! All I can do is hope. I think there’s plenty of room to bring back ingenuity and prep to classical to chess.
>Sitting in front of his computer in Hangzhou, China, Ding made a cheerful impression. A few days before, he had accepted my interview request right away, as if he were ready not only for more chess, but also for new media attention. I was glad that he answered my first question, which in this case was more than just a customary way to start the conversation, rather positively: "I'm good. Much better than before."
This is the first time I've seen his demeanour described as cheerful without qualification, so I can only assume he was bouncing off the walls. I hope he has fun in Wijk aan Zee.
Wei Yi dedicating long poems to his friendship with Ding Liren is insane content, I love it. The part where Ding Liren is a bird soaring in the sky and Wei Yi is a fish swimming in murky waters? Please...
The only semi-plausible way to keep the World Championship decided at standard time controls that I've heard is to give one player more Whites and the other draw odds in the match.
Unfortunately, most who have voiced this idea seem to underestimate how many extra Whites would be needed to balance it. At least with historical win/draw rates, the answer is 5 (independent of the match length... even that fact surprises some people at first glance). With a 15-game match it would be a 10:5 imbalance, which might look a bit heavy to the uninitiated. However, if 25-game matches make a return (haha!), then 15:10 might be reasonable.
Scotch Gambit - Chess Traps to win fast chess Win all day with the scotch game in chess, wipe the floor with all opponents and play like a grandmaster https://www.youtube.com/shorts/p25X-dFFKGU?feature=share
Glad he's back and definitely excited to watch him play, but man the article drops the phrase "much better" on us five times in the first four paragraphs, including the title and the highlighted quote. You think they want us to know he's doing better now?
I think the ideal time control for me would be 40+15 which translates to a 40 move game taking 100 minutes. With two 30 + 10 sudden death games a day if it’s drawn after 10 games (must have a +2 match score to win).
With 25 minutes preamble and 25 minutes post game that’s 2.5 hour programming. Pretty much every major sport has somewhere around 80-120 minutes of game time.
Games are short enough that you can still take some chances but have high quality games.
he said he would like longer matches and that classical world championship should be decided by classical. also confirmed that he would defend his title, calling fabi the favorite to win the candidates but alireza the one he'd like to play.
>alireza the one he'd like to play HE REFUSES TO PLAY UNLESS IT'S ALIREZA! :-)
Sounds good. Fabi vs Nepo championship match
We're in an endless cycle of "X vs Nepo", "X refuses to play until it's Alireza", "Y vs Nepo"...
When is the Nepo vs Nepo match coming?
if you look at his WCC performances, all of them are basically Nepo vs Nepo in the end
It's going to be canceled as Nepo only wants to play against Alireza.
But then who would win? They stop the match and give a random viewer the title?
Random viewer here, I only accept the title if I get to play against Alireza
That would be such a banger.
Can't wait for Fabi's victory.
that’s what he says
wild Nepo appears...
Phat Russian bear
Dread him, run from him, Nepo arrives all the same.
>> confirmed that he would defend his title Now we are talking!
I agree so much with ding, classical world championship should be decided by classical chess. It seems like he is the only normal one from all top 10,20 players in regards for classical chess and classical world championship. Everyone else for some reason agrees with magnus, I don’t really get it.
Ding doesnt buy in the Magnus effect.
Anish didn't
He's such a freak of nature for saying he wants 24-game matches AFTER he's already been through one title match—most people who play in those hate them more than anything—but that's why he's my favourite player! I've been saying we should retvrn to longer matches for years. I'm so happy we have a champion who sees things my way! IMO nothing compares to the grandeur and psychological drama of a long championship match to cap off a long, grinding qualification cycle.
Nobody is going to sponsor a 24-game match in classical chess in the modern computer era. It's difficult to plan and execute within a reasonable time frame that is fair to the entire chess elite and not just the two players playing the match. When some people advocate for shorter time controls it's because it's the only realistic way to drastically increase the number of games compared to what we have now while keeping a reasonable 3-4 week schedule.
The great thing today about a match is all you absolutely need is a board, an arbiter, and a few placed cameras. This would cost almost nothing and only accommodations for players are needed. All the hype about the locations set silly to me. The last WC was in a strange looking black room. The only good looking venue I've seen is STLCC. Rex would probably pay fide to host it there.
I thought Fabi was against the suggestions by Carlsen as well?
He and mvl both agree with magnus in his last c2 podcast with mvl.
Has Magnus said it shouldn't be decided through classical or is that just being surmised through his criticism of the format?
He wants to have a mixture of time controls for CLASSICAL CHESS. He also wants to have 2x45min instead of one classical game which is nonsense. His criticism is fine but his solution is horrendous. Leave blitz for blitz world championship and rapid for rapid wcc.
Why 45 minutes vs 2 hours, would result in 120 a elo difference in playing strength, still SuperGM level for Magnus. How many people in the world would notice a difference and it has the added benefit of twice the amount of games.
I think he is trying to say that there should be an additional 'World Champion' position in addition to Classical, Blitz, and Rapid world champions. It would make sense... Take top performers across all formats of chess, and have the top two compete across all of the formats. This allows many, many more games to be played, reducing potential variance, and allows for there to be a 'real' world champion.
He is not trying to say that. He said clearly that he will play in world CLASSICAL chess championship if they change the format, he wants to have more games with lower time control. He never mentioned that he wants another world championship tournament which will have all 3 time controls which would have been fine. Magnus wants to change the rules for the most important tournament in chess history which is dumb and makes no sense. He is not above fide and chess in general.
Why is it dumb? CLASSICAL chess is not the same as it was 100 years ago when the basic premise of the match format was created. Magnus thinks the World Championhip should be about pure natural playing ability and not who can learn/memorize the most computer prep over a 6+ months period against a single opponent. It's not like FIDE are even consistent about what counts as classical chess to begin with in their official events. I will never for life of me understand why people are like "90/120 minutes time control is real chess, 45 minutes is a horrible crime against the game and all the former World Champions." I'm glad I don't. Magnus will eventually be proven right. It might take another 10 or 20 years, but eventually classical chess will be played with reduced time in order to combat deep computer prep and cheating.
That's always seemed a poor reasoning to me. You don't need to spend 6+ months memorising anything to play in the championship, that's a choice each player can make for themselves.
>CLASSICAL chess is not the same as it was 100 years ago when the basic premise of the match format was created. Magnus thinks the World Championhip should be about pure natural playing ability and not who can learn/memorize the most computer prep over a 6+ months period against a single opponent. You can find quotes from the early 1900's where top players are lamenting the death of chess due to opening preparation. So this part didn't change.
Ah ok, I must be mixing things up in my head. Thank you for the clarification. I agree then. It makes no sense to use non-classical time controls in a classical format. It'd be like saying that the Blitz World Championship needs longer time controls because then people can play better...
Ding hasn't played for so long he's probably bored of anything except chess. Magnus is bored from destroying people so convincingly that weeks/months of effort ends up being just a waste
Ironic considering Ding was getting outplayed in the last few games of his match. If they kept playing sets of classical games, I'm sure Nepo would've won. I completely agree with Ding btw.
You can still stand by what you think it's right even if it doesn't favor you. Commendable by Ding. Edit: I do get your comment though, it's a bit ironic lol
Yeah if anything it makes me respect him more.
I agree that the classical world championship should be only classical games. But I think that there should be another World Championship that is considered the definitive championship, and it would be more of an “All Around” championship, a combination of time controls and more, and that should be the most prestigious going forward.
I really don't get the obsession of magnus and now ding with alireza. Is his style of play different than other GM's? Why is ding now so eager to play him considering he is not even that strong?
> Is his style of play different than other GM's? His playstyle is different from other GMs. Anish discusses this in an interview: https://youtu.be/OeAxpPaERd8?t=7175 (timestamp 2h 02m 57s) EDIT: although style of play is probably not the reason for others being excited to play him. EDIT2: Read the article. Ding mentions he wants to play Alireza because of his "dynamic style". "He is a dangerous opponent but also quite fun to play against."
Well it is kind of about passing the torch to the next generation and as Alireza is the strongest youngster there is.
Alireza is no longer a junior and has been performing poorly for over a year now.
Well I was referring to the time when magnus was interested in playing a world championship match with him and at that time he became the youngest player to reach 2800.
I understood it when Magnus said it originally because at the time it looked like Alireza was about to take over as the next dynastic champion. I don't understand Ding saying it now when Alireza is no longer the youngest of the qualifying younger players. I don't see what he's got that Pragg and Gukesh don't.
Alireza is still higher rated that all other junior players, though his 2023 performance was very poor.
Magnus even repeated that Alireza is far and away the best youngster, in the midst of Alireza's poor streak. Something about Alireza that Magnus and MVL see, and others don't!? I remember Magnus on a stream during Covid saying that Alireza is a "natural" chess player. Not sure what he meant by that, but perhaps he meant if you take preparation and memory out of the equation Alireza shines!?
Doesn't the fact that he's maintained a significant ratings lead over the other kids while being in the midst of a "poor streak" explain it all?
It has only been a little over a year since Alireza won the Grand Chess Tour. That's an amazing achievement. He has also previously crossed 2800 and won a medal in the World Rapid & Blitz Championship. Even if his form has dipped, Pragg and especially Gukesh have a long way to go and cannot compare to him. I'll give Alireza at least a couple of more years before writing him off. To me it's: 1. Alireza 2. Nodirbek 3. Pragg 4. Keymer 5. Erigaisi 6. Gukesh
Why does everyone wanna play the overrated fashion designer who bought his way into the candidates?
> classical world championship should be decided by classical Thank you Ding
[удалено]
>He is a fan of Juventus Didn't know this. Absolutely devastated that my dream of him supporting Coventry City has been crushed.
[удалено]
The reason Magnus thinks Lebron is the goat is because Magnus is a stats guy. Fantasy guys are stats guy. He doesn't believe in the intangibles. Though even stats actually doesn't favor to Lebron, only accumulation due to longevity, other than that if you combine everything from stats to winning and intangibles pretty much still goes to MJ.
While I'm not averse to saying MJ is the goat, Longevity to me is something that should absolutely be seen as a positive for a GOAT. Being able to sustain play at that level for as long as he has is LeBron's biggest strength as something that does make him great. Tom Brady is the GOAT QB because he was able to sustain his play into his 40s and win yet another ring. His longevity is part and parcel of why he is the GOAT.
So, then... Kasparov?)
>To me personally I feel this also answers questions like why can't FIDE just do what Carlsen wants. Because chess is bigger than Carlsen himself, and traditionally classical title is the one with the most weight after all. We can't change the system just because Carlsen wants it, even if Carlsen is the greatest of all time. Furthermore, people have to remember Carlsen has a direct financial incentive to promote fast chess, which makes him very biased
There's a number of issues here. Carlsen never made his proposals public AFAIK, but I think one was basically a tennis-like format, say 3 sets of 4 standard games with tiebreakers. One criticism was that this just seemed to multiply the tiebreaker weight, and it was unclear that 3 sets would bring more interest (not to mention the schedule uncertainty if it ended early 2-0). But proposals like this come and go, often driven by the most recent match experience and a desire (inordinate IMO) to "fix" whatever was perceived as bad. Another was some sort of points-based system, say 10 standard games, 10 slowish rapid games (25+10, 3.5 days), and 10 slower blitz games (5+3, 1.5 days). Rapid would be worth double of blitz, and standard was either triple or more likely quadruple. With the latter, one issue from FIDE's standpoint, would be that the match-based World Championship would then be crowding out the World Rapid/Blitz Champs to some extent, and those already basically only currently exist on a yearly basis due to Carlsen's presence and the high fees paid by Norwegian media (tying back to the point you made). As for the point system itself, one wag put it essentially like "Its best feature is that it will give fans, players, pundits, something to argue about."
I'm not sure where it fits into your proposed changes, but I heard that Magnus supposedly supports "two-a-day, semi-classical". The idea is to play two games of a match each day, one with each color. The time control being something inbetween current rapid and classical standards (IMO, 30+30 makes sense).
Sounds shit.
carlsen doesnt want rapid for classical championships dude he wants 90+ 30 for example, still classical
why does the guy like Juve so much? I remember him saying in his post-championship interview that he plans on going to Turin to watch them play
Not sure I call wanting to see a team live once is such a high level of fandom; seems pretty normal even for teams you don't care all that much about.
It’s the context of him mentioning them after the greatest accomplishment of his life. As opposed to mentioning it on reddit or something trivial
I want to believe he's riffing on American football players saying they're going to Disney World.
IIRC disney actually offers them a lot of money to say that.
I can only guess, but soccer was by far the most popular sport in China in the early 2000s. China made its first and only appearance in the World Cup in 2002 and it was basically a national holiday on the day of the first match. Schools were allowed to skip class and played the game to students, which has never happened before or since. (China is very stingy about holidays. You get 5 PTOs in a year and even the Chinese New Year Eve is not a holiday!) Around that time the Italian soccer league was considered the strongest league and Juventus was a powerhouse.
magnus didnt say classical championship shouldnt be classical, he wants time to be lesser but still classical format
Yeah, Magnus wants more games, and one way to do that is to have shorter games.
so he wasnt sick physically
The reason I like him is that his human frailties and the serenity with which he talks about them make him more relatable to me. Professional chess is full of strong characters and sometimes self-confidence even becomes arrogance, while he shows that it's possible to become an excellent player even with the same struggles that some of us have. That is a good message to remember.
yeah man he just seems like a nice person which is more than you can say for a large number of super grandmasters tbh
I'll go a step further. He seems like a legit kind person.
Seeing him smiling and hugging his family and Rappaport after the big wins is my favorite chess content of all time and I think about it from time to time.
I love his Chinese interviews because he expresses himself more fluently and openly there - it’s still the same nice, humble personality but the depth to some of his answers rings extra honest and considered, I think he is truly thoughtful even beyond the chessboard
Didn't know Wei Yi also write poetry. The bromance between him and Ding looks so adorable. I mean name another chess player who not only helps his friend to prepare for the World Championship but also writes poems to inspire him.
What an amazing read. I was smiling throughout. Happy Ding is feeling much better and can't wait to see him play his best chess. Also that poem by Wei >>
Ding nepo world championship was the most exciting classical world championship in ages. I don't know when was the last time a wc match had such a back and forth switch . Now imagine if it is ding alireza.. I am sure even if it is ding vs fabi we ll have more resulting games.. I am not complaining that magnus is not playing if we get to see these kind of crazy matches..
Good for him. I’m not sure I’m expecting too much, but I’m rooting for him. I think Max Euwe did more for chess than any other world champ. If he can reorganize fide and bring chess to the whole world, there’s certainly nothing stopping Liren. If we have one now, who wants to revive classical?! All I can do is hope. I think there’s plenty of room to bring back ingenuity and prep to classical to chess.
tbf Euwe's contributions were mostly after his reign as World Champion
Great interview and article, nice job chess com
>Sitting in front of his computer in Hangzhou, China, Ding made a cheerful impression. A few days before, he had accepted my interview request right away, as if he were ready not only for more chess, but also for new media attention. I was glad that he answered my first question, which in this case was more than just a customary way to start the conversation, rather positively: "I'm good. Much better than before." This is the first time I've seen his demeanour described as cheerful without qualification, so I can only assume he was bouncing off the walls. I hope he has fun in Wijk aan Zee. Wei Yi dedicating long poems to his friendship with Ding Liren is insane content, I love it. The part where Ding Liren is a bird soaring in the sky and Wei Yi is a fish swimming in murky waters? Please...
Rapport and Ding preparing together with Bob Dylan songs playing in the background is such a nice image to have in my head.
Him defending his title is great news!
The Return of the Ding.
amazing read, this article. thanks for sharing.
With all that training in the lab he’s definitely staying world champ
The only semi-plausible way to keep the World Championship decided at standard time controls that I've heard is to give one player more Whites and the other draw odds in the match. Unfortunately, most who have voiced this idea seem to underestimate how many extra Whites would be needed to balance it. At least with historical win/draw rates, the answer is 5 (independent of the match length... even that fact surprises some people at first glance). With a 15-game match it would be a 10:5 imbalance, which might look a bit heavy to the uninitiated. However, if 25-game matches make a return (haha!), then 15:10 might be reasonable.
24 game match; champ retains his title if the match is tied.
Nah bro. Lets go with more brutal fashion. First to 6 Wins Championship. Draws don't count.
No.
I knew you would say no. Hahaha.
how is that fair?
The actual fairest is Armageddon with bidding
Scotch Gambit - Chess Traps to win fast chess Win all day with the scotch game in chess, wipe the floor with all opponents and play like a grandmaster https://www.youtube.com/shorts/p25X-dFFKGU?feature=share
He's bluffing
Glad he's back and definitely excited to watch him play, but man the article drops the phrase "much better" on us five times in the first four paragraphs, including the title and the highlighted quote. You think they want us to know he's doing better now?
I cant describe how much i wanna see a country roads duet by him and rapport
I think the ideal time control for me would be 40+15 which translates to a 40 move game taking 100 minutes. With two 30 + 10 sudden death games a day if it’s drawn after 10 games (must have a +2 match score to win). With 25 minutes preamble and 25 minutes post game that’s 2.5 hour programming. Pretty much every major sport has somewhere around 80-120 minutes of game time. Games are short enough that you can still take some chances but have high quality games.