The idea is simple.  Take the very best players, take them to an undisclosed location with no television, phone, or internet access.  No communication with the outside world, no teams, no family, no seconds, no computers.

Then allow them to draw their opponent out of a hat. 

They will only know the results of their wins and losses, but will not be given information about the results of other games. 

I think this format would make for great chess.

Chess.com should start creating a fund to make this event happen.  We will call it: Chess Tournament PURE 2010

I like that idea.... 

They are already doing that, you just never hear of it.

they are?

I have serious doubts for this PURE tournament, I do not think players (if they are the very top, that is) will be willing to participate. I mean come on "no communication with the outside world"... just reading something like a brochure with that in it would make me say "ok, no thanks".

I never said they can't read brochures...The point would be "Pure Chess".  Chess that isn't bogged down by preparation.  The point of no communication is the same point in Reality Shows. Reality contestants seem to do fine with it.  It's not like it is for the rest of their lives.

The losers get mysteriously murdered by person or persons unknown.

I thought of a new way to discourage draws.

LOL.

Seriously though...don't you think it would make for some great chess?

I'm not convinced. I imagine that most highly talented chess players enjoy the attention that audiences and the media circus provide. Playing behind closed doors would, I believe deincentivise them.

Imagine if chess.com hid all ratings from everybody. At a stroke, the satisfaction of knowing you had beaten a higher rated opponent - or the ignominy of realising you lost to a much lower rated opponent - would disappear - and with it, quite a lot of the appeal.

Oh I think you miss the point entirely.  Everything would be televised after the event.  And it isn't as if Kramnik wouldn't know who Topolov is if they are sitting across from eachother during the match. 

It is a way to make sure the the whole "preparation" aspect of chess is up to the individual playing. 

I think it would make for some inventive games.  Also the fact that no one would know who was winning the tournament, would create less draws hopefully.

This would only work if the prize money for first place was BIG.

I think it would be interesting from the spectators point of view -- to observe the effect of such conditions as compared to how they normally play.  For example they may know the standings, but not if their next opponent is doing very poorly or well.

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Another interesting idea would be a chess.com tourney option where the entrees are randomly paired and partners will only know each other's rating, not name, and so won't have any contact with each other such as through messaging.  These two people "teams" will be paired against each other with control of one color being given to both teammates who will alternate turns to move.  Different styles and plans would add difficulty.  They've done these types of tournaments in real life and the highest rated pairs don't score as well as the pairs whose styles or plans are most similar.

I see what you're biting at here immortalgamer, only at first I thought this thread was a mere folly... I think this idea has really just been hastily thrown out there and what some may imagine to be "pure" chess would not be in any case. 

When I say "pure" chess I'm speaking more to the Romantic Age of Chess.  Not that todays chess doesn't hold it's own purity.  I think that it would be a nice throwback to just simple man vs. man.  It would require a structure like this and I don't see why it wouldn't make for some great games...

... or just make them play blitz?

Well then the quality of the play isn't there...