There could be a membership for top events like this and then we all could see it. However, that time may have come and gone before our eyes. If FIDE and others want chess to be a sport and with the final goal of making it to the olympics, then this is exactly what needs to be done.
Perhaps it's for the better. Until you reach IM/GM status, there is no need to worry about following the giants. Keep up with your playing, study the tournaments around you, and focus on bite size chess. With success, you'll see some less.
Take baseball for example, MLB was sued because one of the companies that paid to see games only wanted to see local games. As a result, MLB has now a local games package which is cheaper. Perhaps this is for restaurants and such who don't need access to all games.
Added to that, if you want 2 months into the season, the membership cost goes down more. Who needs to follow the first couple months anyway?
With chess you have the added factor that for educational purposes you are not going to benefit that greatly by knowing the moves instantly. It's purely for entertainment purposes and if that's the call, the idea of free access is no longer viable.
Chess.com, chessbase.com, chessdom, chessbomb, etc... should take this as a lesson to incorporate fees for relaying the games and use local sponsoring to help fund paying into the system. In the end, we won't be left out as a chess community.
Ironically, our wish to have free access to a communist broadcast has shown us nothing is nor should be free.
are you stupid. only work on bite sized chess. study the best in the world and yo will get better. that is the only way i no.
At this stage you've probably heard about the controversy of the FIDE Candidates Tournament and Agon´s legal threats agaisnt anyone -big or small, and yes, that includes small websites and personal blogs- who dares to even mention a single move being played .
The debate is not new: it's been long stablished that chess moves cannot be copyrighted and that as soon as a move is played, it becomes "information" or "news", which nobody really owns.
But who or what exactly is Agon?
Here are some enlightening details from the wikipedia:
FIDE has entered into a commercial agreement running from 2012 to at least 2021 with the company Agon Limited in the management of the World Chess Championship and associated events. Agon has "sole and exclusive" organisational rights over the events that fall under the agreement.[37] The first tournament it organized was the London FIDE Grand Prix event in September 2012,[38] followed by the London Candidates Tournament in March 2013,[39] and the Chennai World Chess Championship in November 2013.[40]
Agon subsequently organized the four events in the FIDE Grand Prix 2014-15,[41] the Candidates Tournament in 2014,[42] and the World Chess Championship in 2014.[43]
Agon was also involved in the organisation of the 2015 Rapid and Blitz Championships.[44]
History[edit]
Agon was founded in 2012 by Andrew Paulson as the sole shareholder.[45] On February 20, 2012, an agreement between Agon and FIDE was made, subject to approval by the 2012 FIDE General Assembly.[37] This approval was forthcoming in September 2012.[46]
In October 2014, Agon was sold to its current CEO Ilya Merenzon for the sum of one pound.[38]
FIDE-Agon contract controversy[edit]
In early 2014, a purported agreement between Paulson and FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was leaked, which allegedly indicated that Paulson was simply a front man with Ilyumzhinov the ultimate benefactor of Agon.[47] In response, FIDE's deputy vice president Georgios Makropoulous pointed out that this was a draft document.[48] The FIDE Ethics Commission ruled in September 2015 that Ilyumzhinov did not violate the FIDE Code of Ethics.[49]
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIDE#Commercial_agreement_with_Agon -)
Now, if you visit Agon's website, you can read some bombastic lines such as:
" CHESS IS NOW PLAYED BY MORE PEOPLE THAN EVER BEFORE: AROUND THE WORLD, ONLINE AND OFF, OVER 600 MILLION ADULTS PLAY REGULARLY "
"AGON IS BRINGING THE CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP CYCLE TO SPECTACULAR VENUES IN WORLD CITIES AND TRANSFORMING CHESS INTO A SPECTATOR SPORT USING CUTTING-EDGE DATA VISUALIZATION TECHNOLOGY. "
"WORLD CHESS IS POISED TO EMERGE AS A FORCE IN SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT, BACKED UP BY A STRONG BRAND IDENTITY, ANIMATED BY RECOGNISABLE HEROES IN FRONT OF AN EXISTING ENORMOUS FANBASE, FINANCIALLY SUPPORTED BY “BEST IN CLASS” GLOBAL MARKETING PARTNERS. "
Whether you decide to believe them or not (particularly the one about the "financially supported by best in class global marketing partners") is obviously your decision
, but can FIDE and AGON lecture the rest of the world on chess copyright issues when it is well known that there are websites in Russia which have been ( for several years!) providing direct links to pirated chess software, books and game databases 24 hours a day and neither FIDE nor Agon has done anything to close them down? (and trust me on this, I have spoken to a few, the big publishers have tried to get them closed down, but ended up admiting they can't do anything about it)
Now, don't get me wrong, I think Agon's goal is a valid one, they're trying to protect something they've invested on, and besides, wouldn't it fantasctic for chess if they did manage to attract all those formidable sponsors to chess? no question about it, but the way they're handling this World Championship Candidates Tournament (ever heard of diplomacy and public relations instead of threats, you fools?) and piracy at home can only attract big sponsors from countries like... North Korea!
Meanwhile, I wonder how they're going to handle the "somewhat challenging task"
of keeping their official site up if just 1 out of every thousand of those people who play chess decide to see the games on-line today at the official tournament website. They might actually need to call those websites they threatened to help them divert the traffic! 