This is a very unfortunate state of affairs for chess. The whole crusted mechanism should be broken up. The total protection of the reigning WC is bad for the sport. As is when the same select few players once again fight it out.
If this trend continues, a world championship might turn into some WWF championship like show.
No former champion has ever won the right to a title match after someone else was the challenger, so Kramnik could make history if he can hold serve.
Wow, interesting point, never thought of this.
This is a very unfortunate state of affairs for chess. The whole crusted mechanism should be broken up. The total protection of the reigning WC is bad for the sport. As is when the same select few players once again fight it out.
If this trend continues, a world championship might turn into some WWF championship like show.
On the contrary, as far as integrity this system is among the best. The challenger must beat the world champion in a set of games to take his title.
At the start, I've said, "hmm, Aronian may go for it!"
But no, both of the Aronian-Carlsen matches are boring draws, and Aronian just couldn't keep up with Carlsen with this strategy, fell behind thanks to Svidler and his devilish home preparations.
Then until this round, boring boring boring, everybody expects Carlsen to win, It was like watching a show of which you know the end...
Then suddenly,
.
.
.
Ivanchuk slaps Carlsen right in the face and wakes him up, reviving the whole excitement! Now, again nothing's for sure! I think the man of the day is Ivanchuk here.
Kramnik vs Aronian was very surprising. I have watched a lot of Aronian games and don't think I've seen him throw away a draw so freely.
Well done to Ivanchuk as well. I want to see Carlsen vs Anand (as I'm sure the majority of people do) but we can't take it away from him at all. To take down Carlsen with black, after flagging in 4 rounds so far, was very surprising for me.
All in all a great day of chess yesterday, in my opinion. Breathed new life into a tournament that some probably thought was a foregone conclusion, and was fun to watch. The next round should be interesting. There is a real fight underway now.
View Round 12 games.
Click here.