Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
NICK BARNETT CHESS
THE ISLE OF MAN is hosting the next tournament which will determine a challenger for Magnus Carlsen in the World Chess Championship in 2020. The current tournament is a Grand Swiss which, for the uninitiated, pairs like-rated players in the first round and like-scores from then on. It allows for large number of players to compete without being knocked out but it sometimes yields unexpected results.
It is an 11-round Swiss-system tournament, with 154 players invited, including 100 qualifying by rating.
But this tournament has an interesting discussion point: namely that Carlsen himself is one of the competitors!
The rules may allow it: ‘The top finisher in the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2019 (who does not qualify by one of the stated methods, and is not Carlsen), but it still intrigues. Carlsen was asked: ‘Do you feel you shouldn’t be allowed in tournaments where you can qualify for playing yourself?’ He replied: ‘Yeah, I think it’s pretty obvious that I shouldn’t, but I don’t have any morals, so it’s OK!’. Caruana, who has already won the right to be a candidates contender, was asked a similar question and said: ‘Well, someone has to ruin them!’
The tournament ends on the October 21st and can be followed on Chess.com, one of the sponsors.
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ANOTHER discussion taking place has to do with Carlsen’s progress towards an 2900 rating. Although he achieves it in a performance rating, his FIDE rating is currently 2876. (Caruana stands at 2812 .)
Tarjei J. Svensen (@TarjeiJS) also follows Carlsen’s progress on classical games without a loss: This is his chart as of Wednesday the 16th: Ding: 100 games, Carlsen: 96 games, Tal: 95 games, Kramnik: 82 games, Wang Yue: 82 games, So: 67 games, Vachier-Lagrave: 67 games, Capablanca: 62 games.
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FOR THOSE interested in the role of chess in society, art, science, education and sport The Global Chess Festival in Budapest recently, included a conference which brought together speakers from across the world. Organised by
Judit Polgar. GM Judit Polgar is the strongest female chess player of all time. At a classical rating of 2735, Judit was ranked № 8 chess player in the world in 2005. At present she is Honorary FIDE Vice-President with a focus on chess development all over the world, including promoting chess in schools, popularization of the game and improving the level of tournament organization.
One of the speakers she managed to attract was Professor Ken Rogoff. He is an American economist and chess Grandmaster. He talked about how chess helped him in his career.
Other programs can be found at www.globalchessfestival.com.
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