How is a match structured?

Saipanne

Hello,

I am writing a short play about a chess game. I'm trying to figure out how an exhibition match between a human and a human operated computer would work. I know there are televised example of this, but I'm looking for an answer to just one question.

I know there's probably a thousand answers to this question, but the main detail I'm looking for is how many games are there in a match?

Is there a game/set/match system, similar to tennis? How would that element typically work, in such an exhibition?

My googling provided no answers, to my surprise. Maybe I don't know what I'm searching for, so I came here.

Thanks.

cdeb

A match can really be defined how you want it.

The World Championship match, for example, is currently the best of 12 games, with colours alternating each game. If it's level after 12 games, then there's blitz games (25 minutes each, give or take) and then rapid games (5 minutes each) to decide - that's what happened the most recent match between Karjakin and Carlsen last month.

But it has previously been the first to six wins - the famous Kasparov v Karpov match of 1984 went 48 games and was then abandoned for medical reasons, with neither player having won six games (lots and lots of draws of course).

When Kasparov played Deep Blue in one of the first man v machine matches, it was 6 matches both times (1996 and 1997).

There's no game/set/match system at all - it's purely games. A better comparison is snooker, where each game is a frame (except there can be draws), and it's then a best of. And like snooker, the number of games/frames can vary, and like snooker, in the olden days, there could be a huge amount of games scheduled (86 in the first, unofficial, world title match, for example)

This list of title matches finals might help.

Saipanne

Thanks, I might be better off watching a few matches to get a feel.

Thanks for your help.