9 responses to “FIDE, and new website, to change the face of chess?”

  1. Interesting. It’s clearly an ambitious website but there’s not much content at the moment. It remains to be seen if it can follow through with worthwhile content.

    As for separate ratings for rapid and blitz, I think that’s long overdue.

  2. Maybe some people will like the content more if a presentation style similar to what they are used to, is adopted, or maybe there is need to see some “action”, i.e. games.

    Rapid and blitz are very interesting genres of chess. Could their promotion result in the demise of normal tournament chess ?

    Seemingly, for decades, FIDE is not to be trusted for doing anything right, this belief being strenghtened by the rule which necessitates being present at the table when a game starts.

  3. Hi MISHANP, I am an avid reader of your works… I have this feeling that the rapid/blitz vs classical chess debate can be compared with something similar in cricket. I am sure you know how the purists in cricket used to think only Test (5 day) matches should be held and they made ominous predictions when One day games were starting to happen. Test matches often produced no results but ODIs (50 over) would almost always decide a winner and was far more thrilling. So, ODI’s cricket became more popular than Test however the cricketrs themselves cosidered Test matches to be pinnacle of cricket. This went on for about 30-40 years and then cricket-mad fans got bored with a game that lasts for whole one day. They shifted their love to Twenty20 (T20) format which is 20 overs per side and it takes only 3-4 hours to decide the result. Nowdays the T20 format is the most popular format of the game (in terms of viewership, revenue etc). However, the players and most knowledgable fans still agree that Test remains the pinnacle of cricket. Luck plays increasingly important role in shorter formats but skill plays bigger role in tests. But then again, with no skill, you can never win a T20 or ODI, and for developing the skill you must play Tests.

    Now, if we replace the formats of cricket game with those of chess e.g. Test with Classical, ODI with Rapid and T20 with Blitz then, there you go! I perfectly agree with the view that market should decide which form of chess they want to see. But market will also ensure that other forms of chess would exist if that is important for the existence of their most beloved form.

  4. I already thought that including the tasteless “World Chess Beauty Contest” on the site was a very bad idea, but I am simply amazed at the questions posed by Oksana Rumyantseva (described as the “sex columnist”) to Ilyumzhinov at the end of the interview.

    This website might indeed change the face of chess, but sadly NOT for the better.

  5. Tkachiev is dreaming his dreams, which is always an interesting thing to watch. Who wants to share in?

  6. Regarding Oksana Rumyantseva’s column: I never associated chess with sleaze before but if that’s what you guys want ok then. By the way, why can’t people figure out why chess isn’t more popular with women?

  7. There is other stuff on the website that any chessplayer will like though; columns by grischuk and aronian, instructive videos and news. I think it’s very promising.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.