Message sent to the FIDE President (Modernisation Working Commission):
Dear FIDE President,
The possible new formats already suggested for the Candidates
Tournament has some known issues.
For example: a double round robin tournament with 8 players has some drawbacks (unmotivated players in the last rounds, possible pre-arranged games, etc.) and a system with longer matches seems to be good (e.g. 6-6-8), but it has potencial organizational problems,
because it is necessary two events, at least, to cope with it.
I think, however, that there is a third possible format that can unite the two previous systems in a single event.
This new system should works as follow:
Stage One: Tournament
The 8 candidate players are subdivided in two tournament groups of 4 players, each playing 6 games (each group of 4 players playing a double round robin).
Stage Two: Candidates Final Match
The two winners from previous phase (one player of each group), play a final match of 8 games.
This system minimizes the problems related with the pure tournament system and mini-matches system, with the advantage that it can be done in a single event, since the total number of “classical” games will be 14 (6+8), with a few days separating the two stages.
Thank you.
All the best,
Prof. Kariston Pereira, Ph.D.
Santa Catarina State University
Joinville – Brazil
Interesting idea.
This is just another minimalist idea to determine a very major issue, namely who is going to challenge the champion of the world. All these minimalist ideas weaken the prestige of chess and of the world championship. Let’s go back to matches where at all levels (quarter-final, semi-final, final) of candidates matches, the player to reach 6 points first wins, and if a tie with 6-6, then first player to win a regularly-timed game wins the match. It worked in the Fischer era, and it can work now.
If this is not the perfect system, this is at least the inspiration for those who are well paid to think how to keep chess alive.