First of all, jcaleb, rudeness and obvious lack of communication skills will get you nowhere. If you are used to this level of addressing others, I can only feel sorry for you.

Yet this is not the only reason why I fell sorry for you and others of this kind. You should not put a great man like Karpov in the same sentence with Mr. Karjakin and Mr. Svidler, because in the entire course of his career Karpov never made similar mistakes. Not even similar to Mr. Kramnik, for instance, who blundered a one-move mate with Fritz in a serious tournament game.

The leading GMs today know much more about chess theory, than their great predecessors. That's why these guys should definitely be ashamed of their disgraceful performances. And all of you who keep defending them. This shows an absolute need to change this silly system, involving rapid and blitz games to decide the winner. Try to solve some chess studies; at least we won't laugh to your errors.

To slika ,

You must not blame Karjakin and Svidler, it's a very long tournament and they are exhausted. Look at Pavel, he got tired and blundered too, even when he was playing such a high level for most of the rounds before being defeated.

It's a sport. The chessworld needs such tournaments every once in a while. It's unpredictable and fun.

This tournament is not the only qualifier for being in the candidates. It's just one of the qualifiers. Most of the people who got in the candidates already are in the top 10 rating list - so can't complain with that. It's not like we are rolling dice to see who gets qualified.

Dude, svidler and karjakin are not computers. Are you even a rathd player? Do you play at a club or tournaments? Seems you have no knowledge about anything so Just shut up and keep your opinions to yourself.

In a world championship math, Karpov only needs a draw in the final game to win the title, but he lost. So karpov is stupid too and needs to be punished? Is Karpov a lesser player than Keres, Smyslov, Benkö, Timman and Nunn? Karpov will crush all these players in their prime. So shut up and go away.

Look, ex0, you are completely missing the point. Yes, I'm blaiming Mr. Karjakin and Mr. Svidler for their lowsy play at the very end, because they deserve to be reprimanded for that. On the other hand, why do you mention first round losers? They all played decent chess, Svidler himself performed extraordinary well vs. Giri, for example. But both Mr. K and Mr. S were awful at the end and, I repeat, blew everything.

This did not come because of the so-called nervous breakdown, fatigue etc. (as if people who work hard all over the world do not suffer much worse, in terrible conditions), but because of their lack of chess culture. This lack came on the light in the most critical moment. Instead of playing blitz, these folks should try their skills in solving chess studies. This would contribute to chess culture and we shouldn't be loughing at their stake, as we do now. And that's exactly why I feel ashamed of being a chess player.

I expressed my opinion, corroborated it with sound arguments, and instead of receiving some counter-arguments, I have become a target of personal attack (as if I said anything against other people integrity; I attack their play and that's it). This is most regrettable, but, after all, if the so-called leading GMs show such lack of chess culture, what can we say about their humble worshipers? Go and enjoy your undeserved bucks and glory... and play blitz, you may become famous. On the dark side.

Why are you putting the blame on Svidler/Karjakin? Because they were the best players in this 'farce'? Why not blame the first round losers since they also participated, but they were even more 'disgraceful' for losing/blundering so early?

You are blaming players and calling them disgraceful for blundering at the end of a grueling tourney? Are you a chess player? No, are you even of sound mind? If you want perfection and blunder free 'play', go watch a computer tournament. Humans get tired/nervous etc and blunder. Get over it. For me that's the 'fun' part of the game.. the psychological + physical side of chess, which computers do not have.

Chess has become a great game, enjoying the World reputation, thanks to serious efforts of generations who dedicated their life to serious chess, not to blitz. Lasker and Capa, Fischer and Tal distinguished themselves in blitz too (while Botvinnik never played blitz), but they have become chess immortals due to their achievements in classical chess. Nobody would have paid any attention to their games if they had persisted to play blitz. The argument that nobody cares about chess studies may come only from people who do not have a rudimentary chess culture.

We cannot expect that chess will ever become so popular (and well paid) like football, basketball etc, even athletic. But it is our joined responsibility to cherish the game, to contribute to the chess culture in general. An absolute beginner can do so by seriously studying, a leading GM should do so by seriously creating. In Baku we were witnesses of creating a farce. So, thanks for nothing, Mr. Karjakin and Mr. Svidler.

All of us have learned how to play chess by studying classical games. This silly quest for sponsors and trying to indulge them with continuous play of rapid and blitz games definitely does not make chess more attractive. Things may have been easier for professional chess players in Eastern Europe to earn their living after the Second WW, but one should consult personal experiences of Fischer and Larsen, for example, who managed to live like professional chess players without any material help from their Governments.

Mr. Karjakin and Mr. Svidler are, unfortunately, among the leading players of the World today. It is possible that other GMs on their places would have made similar errors (it's enough to see how Topalov lost his match vs. Kramnik). However, in this case Mr. Karjakin and Mr. Svidler are personally responsible for this comedy/tragedy of errors and they should be punished because of damaging the chess culture. People get an impetus to study when they see beautiful things, works of art. This was a havoc.

> outcome through solving chess studies
And for how many people in the world it would be fun?

Chess is sponsored by a few (on some cases dictator-like) people and countries, as they want to have at least some "good looking" international presence. But apart from those... chess should strive to become self-sustainable. To have a lot of fun tournaments. Almost nobody comes to actually watch chess in-person, but there is some internet presence, that hopefully can grow. This was probably the most fun tournament in quite a while! Yes, maybe they should have given them another day off - as the guys were too tired.

That Karpov/Kasparov... at that time I was at school in USSR and was still playing chess a bit. But it got ridiculous - with all the draws... everybody just stopped paying attention, it became an anecdote...

Watching this farce in Chessbase, for the first time in my life I felt ashamed of being a chess player. Instead of being praised for his 'great efforts' and collecting a large sum of money, Mr Silka, should be punished for his disgraceful chat...blah, blah, circus.

Disgraceful play? Why? Because they made a few blunders in blitz? Ok, you can blame FIDE and stuff for including blitz, but you shouldn't be calling players like Svidler or Karjakin disgraceful, or rather, their play.. especially after such a grueling tournament. Even Carlsen/Naka/Grischuk etc could/would be making blunders in the final blitz game.

While i support your position in general and prefer classical to blitz to decide who gets to be part of the candidates, i think you're at a 10 when you need to be like a 4 or something. Tone it down a notch dude. I for one can enjoy such a tournament on it's own merits, i just don't tihnk that it should be what determines a candidate.

However, with that said, blitz/rapid etc is becoming more important and IIRC, it can also decide the world championship match nowadays too? It's no surprise that the top players in the world are also the top blitz/rapid players. Like Carlsen/Naka/Anand/Grischuk etc. So i don't mind the requirement that the world champion also should be one of the best at those time controls also, but yeah. Classical championship should be just that, and blitz/rapid championship should be just that. They should be separate and not combined under one umbrella.

Watching this farce in Baku, for the first time in my life I felt ashamed of being a chess player. Instead of being praised for their 'great efforts' and collecting a large sum of money, Mr. Karjakin and Mr. Svidler should both be punished for their disgraceful play.

The claim that even the greatest players of the World are just ordinary humans and that 'errare humanum est', is just unacceptable in these conditions: ordinary people can only dream of facilities these 'leading GMs' so undeservedly enjoy. They may have at their disposal leading experts from various fields: physical trainers, psychiatrists, cooks, purely chess trainers, coaches and sparing partners. And what did they offer us in exchange? Circus.

Finally, it's time for FIDE to stop this farce, to end with this obviously pernicious practice of playing rapid and blitz games to get the winner of the most prestigious matches and tournaments. The level of the play in general has significantly deteriorated since this practice was introduced. If result between two players is even, and they are not capable to win a game under normal time-limits (see, for example, the notorious first match Karpov-Kasparov from 1984/85), then the final outcome should be decided through solving chess studies.

Once upon the time there were great minds like Keres, Smyslov, Benkö, Timman and Nunn (in order of precedence), all of whom excelled both as practical players and as leading chess composers and solvers of chess studies. These people have uncomparably more contributed to the understanding of chess and to the development of chess culture in general, than the leading GMs of the poor present time. There is no doubt that people like Mr. Karjakin and Mr. Svidler know chess theory much better than their aforementioned predecessors, but they will be remembered for this farsical play in Baku.

But it's not only their responsibility, from this point of view they are indeed just ordinary humans, who highly enjoy in their undeserved reputation and various commodities. It is FIDE that must act and find a much more suitable way to determine the winner in matches and tournaments. Rapid and blitz have never been and will never be a serious chess.