Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren draw in Game 14. So the scores are
level at 7-7, which means tie-breaks - played over the Rapid format -
take place tomorrow.

The question is why 14 games? Playing an even number leaves a draw
possible, whereas an odd number couldn't lead to that eventuality. So
why not just play 15 'classical' games instead? Now, a speed chess game
will decide The World Chess Championship.

On Sat, 29 Apr 2023 21:00:27 -0000 (UTC), "Blueshirt"
<blueshirt@indigo.news> wrote:

>Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren draw in Game 14. So the scores are
>level at 7-7, which means tie-breaks - played over the Rapid format -
>take place tomorrow.
>
>The question is why 14 games? Playing an even number leaves a draw
>possible, whereas an odd number couldn't lead to that eventuality.

???? Of course it could. If it were 15 games, they could have all
been draws. Or 7 wins, 7 losses, and one draw. Or something
in-between.

A match needs to be an even number of games, so each players gets the
same number of whites.

>So
>why not just play 15 'classical' games instead? Now, a speed chess game
>will decide The World Chess Championship.

On Sat, 29 Apr 2023 15:55:36 -0700, Ken Blake <Ken@invalid.news.com>
wrote:

>On Sat, 29 Apr 2023 21:00:27 -0000 (UTC), "Blueshirt"
><blueshirt@indigo.news> wrote:
>
>>Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren draw in Game 14. So the scores are
>>level at 7-7, which means tie-breaks - played over the Rapid format -
>>take place tomorrow.
>>
>>The question is why 14 games? Playing an even number leaves a draw
>>possible, whereas an odd number couldn't lead to that eventuality.
>
>
>???? Of course it could. If it were 15 games, they could have all
>been draws. Or 7 wins, 7 losses, and one draw. Or something
>in-between.
>
>A match needs to be an even number of games, so each players gets the
>same number of whites.
>
>
>>So
>>why not just play 15 'classical' games instead? Now, a speed chess game
>>will decide The World Chess Championship.

True though in the old days matches were won by the first player to
win X number of games where X was some number between 6 and 10 with
draws not counting. In post WW2 times it was felt that made matches
too long and thus for many years the match was 24 games with the champ
retaining his title at 12-12. Which is how Botvinnik stayed world
champion from 1948 - 1962 without ever winning a match as champion -
draws vs Bronstein and Smyslov followed by a loss to Smyslov (and
winning the return match) and then again to Tal before FIDE finally
getting fed up and scrapping the right to a return match.

Petrosian beat Spassky in 1966 (for the first time since Alekhine
beating Bogolyubov 3 decades early where a champion actually won a
match) before he lost to Spassky who then lost to Fischer who handed
his crown to Karpov and you know the rest....

I agree settling the world championship by speed games or sudden death
finishes (often with one player having one minute more than the other
with draw odds) is a very bad thing and almost anything is better than
that particularly given the work required to get the world
championship in the first place.

When I get a new Informant I often check the crosstables at the back
of the book and am often shocked by the variation in scoring systems
various organizers have used for events including the various grand
prix type series.

On Saturday, April 29, 2023 at 3:00:29 PM UTC-6, Blueshirt wrote:

> The question is why 14 games? Playing an even number leaves a draw
> possible, whereas an odd number couldn't lead to that eventuality.

That would only be true if the result of an individual game of Chess
could only be a win or a loss, with no draws possible. This is not the
case.

John Savard

On Saturday, April 29, 2023 at 4:55:38 PM UTC-6, Ken Blake wrote:

> A match needs to be an even number of games, so each players gets the
> same number of whites.

Indeed.

On my web page, I had proposed a variant of Chess where players
play chess variants chosen randomly. Clearly, to make it fair, each
variant would need to be played in two games. And the number
of times each player is the first to play a variant as White needs to
be equal for the two players.

I had some difficulty, at first, figuring out how to arrange this.

But then I saw there was a simple solution, if I allowed myself to
be more flexible.

One player would have WBBWWBBWWBB... and the other player
would have BWWBBWWBBWW.... and then, as long as the number
of games was divisible by four, one could select a variant, play
it for two consecutive games, and then repeat, and each of the
things that need to be equal would be equal.

John Savard