Inquitus wrote: » I don't see it tbh, I think the advent of things like the Meltwater "Champions" Rapid Chess Tour is a good thing for chess. Yes the format is rapid, but there are enough matches in all stages of the competition to ensure the randomisation element is minimised. The prize money is good, the format works well for internet streaming and obviously with Covid it has been the saviour of high quality chess. Classical OTB will always remain the pinnacle of the sport, as Wijk an Zee and the recent candidates tournament has shown, and everyone is looking forward to the World Championship match in Dubai at the Expo 2020/21 in Nov/Dec. I think the 2 can live together and bring chess to a new level of popularity, cashing in on the likes of "The Queen's Gambit" et al. At the same time chess streaming is bringing new people to the game and the prevalence of online chess platforms like chess.com and lichess make access to the game for new players easier than ever. I don't see it as a dumbing down of chess, or a lowering of quality, I see it as a positive development bringing chess to a wider audience using a format that really works for the game. It is noteworthy that those who played the most online rapid tournaments in the past 12 months between candidates part 1 and candidates part 2, Giri, Nepo, MVL, were more successful in the resumption of the tournament and those who spent the time mainly in preparation like Caruana, Liren and Hao performed relatively poorly in comparison.
begbysback wrote: » There’s nothing better than watching a top 5/10 player in the world casually battling it out with another, and him speaking his thoughts on the game as he goes along. Twitch is perfect for this, hikaru gets 25k viewers on a regular day. There really is no need to move this to tv as it couldn’t contribute anything extra, it would completely remove the spontaneity, which is the most watchable part. So really it is already very popular online, just not on mainstream tv.
Padre_Pio wrote: » Mainstream TV is dying a death though, everything is moving online to streaming sources. Sky TV customers are falling every year.
sodacat11 wrote: » Dunno about T.V "dying a death", in fact most top actors are now doing t.v series instead of making movies. Some of the stuff I've watched on t.v lately like Line of Duty, The Bridge, Spiral !!, The Tunnel, Babylon/Berlin, Public Enemy, Gomorrah, The Affair has been really top class, the best drama I've ever seen on t.v and better than any movies.
17larsson wrote: » I just got back into chess very recently. The main reason was the online content (youtube videos, daily twitch streams, chess.com, meltwater). I've been completely addicted to it for the last few months. Online courses, playing 30 minute games, 24 hour move games, 960, puzzles etc. All that flashy stuff ultimately led to the pinnacle of watching the candidates tournament. So I don't believe shinier, quicker alternatives of chess take away from the original game, they enhance it and get more people to see it, notice and play it with the peak still being long over the board games. I will be joining a chess club as soon as restrictions are lifted and if I ever get to a decent level (doubtful) I would love to go an OTB tournament because that is what all these alternatives lead to
begbysback wrote: » These are all really designed to be boxsetted, and binge watched. As these now make more money they can entice higher quality actors. Tv programs can be rewatched to some degree, probably because memory fades, but sports, which the end will usually produce a winner, isn’t that rewatchable, we usually don’t forget who won.
sodacat11 wrote: » That's great to hear. You will really enjoy OTB chess when you enter a tournament and the chess crowd are, for the most part, a friendly and welcoming bunch. I have no objection to online chess or coverage of top events. I play literally thousands on blitz games online every year myself and I do watch the occassional tournament online. What I do object to is the messing about with classical chess time controls, blitz and armageddon play offs to decide classical events, no draw rules and any other gimmicky methods to speed things up or get an instant result.
17larsson wrote: » Ok I see, I didn't know there were changes in classical games. With regards this happening in sports in general I'd hope the powers that be see that the attention span of people isn't as bad as they think it is. People (me anyway) enjoy the fact they have ninety minutes away from the hussle of real life to watch a football match or two hours of Formula 1 or whatever. The longer the better is what I say!
After 5 months and 48 games, the match was abandoned in controversial circumstances with Karpov leading 5 wins to 3 (with 40 draws), and replayed in the World Chess Championship 1985. Anatoly Karpov: Garry Kasparov Defending champion: Challenger
begbysback wrote: » Also though there weren’t computers back then I do remember everyone getting a little help from the top rated players at the club when they had an adjournment, I guess this was ok because it was possibly accepted that both sides would, or could do it. But still there would have been a case even back then to try an alternative to adjournments.
sodacat11 wrote: » I was watching snooker today on t.v and they were discussing how to make snooker more popular for the masses, much the same debate that we hear in chess, golf, rugby , cricket and football.
sodacat11 wrote: » World snooker number 1 Trump wants to dispense with the suits and ties when they play, introduce shot clocks, have games with ten reds instead of fifteen etc etc.
sodacat11 wrote: » In football that clown Perez at Real Madrid wants to shorten match times to pander to the short attention spans of young people and we all heard about the disgusting European Super league recently.
sodacat11 wrote: » In golf there is talk of building 6 or12 hole courses instead of 18 because people don't have time any more to play 18. In cricket we now have 20/20 and limited over games, in rugby rugby sevens and so on.
sodacat11 wrote: » In chess we have shorter and shorter time controls, blitz and rapid events , blindfold tournaments, computer assisted games , Fischer random, armageddon tie breaks and numerous deviant versions of chess. Soon all the top players will have nicknames like they do in darts and snooker. At major events bikini clad women will lead the players out to their favourite songs while an announcer on the stage shouts into a microphone "and on board one we have Crusher Carlsen playing Devilish Dubov, board two sees Strangler So play Giri the Grinder". The whole idea in every sport seems to be to jazz everything up in a shallow American way, lots of fanfare and glitter, no build up just instant gratification and to hell with the essence of the games. All that is behind all these changes is marketing, pure and simple. The organisations that run the sports and the few elite players at the top want more and more money so they don't care about traditions or records. I don't see why sports have to be popularised at all. Football, Chess, Snooker, Golf have all survived for a very long time and all attract passionate and devoted practicioners and followers. I don't see why any of them need to be made more sexy just so they can appeal to a more shallow audience who cant appreciate the games for what they already are. It is sad how everything is being cheapened and devalued in the pursuit of commercial gain. Rant over, back to the snooker now.:pac:
begbysback wrote: » Adjournments is an interesting one, I remember having to travel back out to ucd to continue a game after adjournment, I was fairly young at the time, it was the other side of the city, and it was a hopeless position for my opponent, I believe the only reason it wasn’t resigned is that there was a possibility I wouldn’t show up given my age. Also though there weren’t computers back then I do remember everyone getting a little help from the top rated players at the club when they had an adjournment, I guess this was ok because it was possibly accepted that both sides would, or could do it. But still there would have been a case even back then to try an alternative to adjournments.
sodacat11 wrote: » One change that I wouldn't mind seeing in chess is allowing and extra Qside castling option whereby the King goes to B1/B8 and the Rook to C1/C8 This could be written as 0-0-0-0. It would greatly increase the possible variations in chess and would bring about a seismic change in opening theory that would probably take decades to come to terms with. Just an idea.
sodacat11 wrote: » I had tired of watching snooker simply because the players had got too good and rarely missed a pot but this year it was fantastic. Mark Selby puts so much imagination, ingenuity and intensity into every tactical shot he plays that it was like watching chess with balls. (no smart comments please).
sodacat11 wrote: » Golf is also boring if players are firing eagles and birdies in all over the place but when the course and the weather get tough and players are having triple and quadruple bogeys it's a great watch, probably because I can associate better with that kind of golf.
Retd.LoyolaCpt wrote: » If my memory is right, snooker was horribly mismanaged (probably around the same time as we both lost interest) and was almost a goner. I did get more texts about it from people this year so I'll probably get back into it at some stage as I did hear good things.
cdeb wrote: » Is there a correlation between liking snooker and chess btw?
cdeb wrote: » Is there a correlation between liking snooker and chess btw? Maybe snooker is more popular than I thought (I enjoy it and have been to the Barbican in York), but it seems there's quite a few snooker fans in the chess community. Have spotted this in our club as well. Maybe we need our own championships to see if anyone can play!
Retd.LoyolaCpt wrote: » What do you think of Kramnik's idea to just remove castling altogether? I hadn't heard about it but it's a ridiculous idea. If my memory is right, snooker was horribly mismanaged (probably around the same time as we both lost interest) and was almost a goner. I did get more texts about it from people this year so I'll probably get back into it at some stage as I did hear good things. I heard recently that time spent watching any sport is a form of mindfulness and is therefore very good for you. Give me a cold, wet, windy Open in Carnoustie any weekend over DeChambeau shooting 40 under in the PGA/US.
cdeb wrote: » Maybe we need our own championships to see if anyone can play!
sodacat11 wrote: » I heard recently that time spent watching any sport is a form of mindfulness and is therefore very good for you.
Retd.LoyolaCpt wrote: » I’m a Mayo fan so I can confirm that this is B******t. Probably lost more years of my life in the stress of their final losses than to the rest of my vices combined. I’ve also probably lost a few months/years to the stress of tracking every move of our GM hopefuls. I remain confident that we’ll have 5 GMs before Mayo win a Sam, but that’s not saying much.
