A pleading for Fischer’s ideas - say “Yes” to Chess960

“Tatort Mainz” – the feverish search for competition, sports, suspense,...

by Hans - Walter Schmitt

Report on CCM2 “Duel of World Champions”

“Experts are playing for experts”, with breakneck speed, the two world champions Ponomariov and Anand are playing the 21 opening moves of the Najdorf variation in the Sicilian Defense. The time used so far is 16 seconds on one side, 21 seconds on the other side – one observer in the tournament hall sighs protestingly “The organiser should make them play slower in the opening – there’s no chance of enjoying the game”. Despite grandmasters Yussupov’s and Lobron’s commentary via headphone, despite a video screen 4 times 5 meters in size as in a cinema, despite the directly visible players on stage, the ordinary chessplayer sitting comfortably in his chair understands nothing at all.

Not until the speed of the ongoing game on stage decreases, because the players obviously begin to think; anxiously moving on their chairs, resting their heads on hands they start to show emotions and the commentators become understandable, now finally the understanding, the suspense begins, the urge arises to communicate oneself to a friend – unfortunately still forbidden in chess! Correctly predicting moves leads to great satisfaction, taking sides with one player, feelings of joy, pleasure or suffering evolve depending on the development of the game or on personal orientation, every sense is in full activity – seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling and in an allegorical way even tasting – tight suspense, respectful admiration combined with pleasant understanding sets free lots of adrenaline – chess is experienced in the paradise of breathtaking combinations and thousands of possibilities. Well-being as in a nice dream, experiencing as if being in trance till a long, insistent, even cautioning “Ssshhh” by the arbiter abruptly ends this trip. During Anand’s double knight sacrifice in the eighth game, the first murmur wasn’t disturbing at all, the louder groaning for the next sacrifice was even inspiring and not few who like Anand or feared for Ponomariov got moist hands and were still shaking like a leaf after the game. Amazed, admiring, questioning the correctness of the sacrifice – the exciting world of chess “Tatort Mainz”.

Why shouldn’t the audience be allowed to follow the events on stage emotionally, to discuss with a neighbour, to embrace each other, to acoustically express joy, to rail, clamour or even to cry silently? Why must chess be so serious, so level-headed, so scientifical, so sterile and thus so unattractive for observers – can’t it just be an exciting game with a high attractiveness and this not just for a few selected experts, but for millions of chess enthusiasts?

Chess960 (Fischer Random Chess) would reduce the speed of the first phase of the game, in this way maybe fascinating even more spectators and would offer even more pleasure. Can the players, Anand and Ponomariov be expected to wear headphones, too – or should the players, as in the world championship final between Anand and Kasparov in New York 1995 be shut in a soundproof cabin? Should the organiser show computer-evaluations with proposed variations on the big video screen, so that spectators can - in addition to the commentators - form their own judgment about the important questions of the game : “What’s the current position like? Who’s winning?” The amount of service for live-observers in the tournament-hall is definitely not exhausted yet, while the quasi-live-observer in the internet already experiences more in this aspect, but has to do without the atmosphere in the tournament-hall.

Subjective observations and experiences after 30 years of chess

Why do so many avid chessplayers leave the community of chess after finishing their education resp. studies or when setting up a family? Why does the interest in their own game or in public worldwide events in this sport vanish abruptly in this period of life? Don’t people responsible for chess have enough to offer for people with little spare time? Why are rating-systems only based on slowly played games with at least four hours and at most seven hours of thinking time? Lots of existential questions.

Though basically it is worth finding out, what causes and effects are related to these questions, it should not be the main concern to find a general thesis, but to use experience, conclusions and tendencies for the good of chess. In the nature of a human’s progress, it is logical that he competes with others physically and intellectually. While it is possible as a child, pupil, student or collegian to invest enough time for their passion of chess, it gets more and more difficult in professional life or after setting up a family to compete with others who have enough time to spare and to feel content with it. As a privately and professionately successful person, a chessplayer is driven by his own ambition not only to be successful in life but also over the chessboard and this with as high a rating as possible. The rating chart reaches from 700 for beginners up to 2830 for Gary Kasparov, the world’s highest rated player. Somewhere in between, a player has to find his place with as high a rating as possible, preferrably not only in the national ratings but in the international Elo-system, which starts only at 2000!

In this context, everybody quickly finds out that natural talent, creativity, inspiration, calculating power and precision combined with speed are no longer enough to make real progress and that he’s caught in the trap of time. Opening theory becomes top-notch and the source of a possible progress. The study of modern theory with databases, opening books and instructing videos in an autodidactic way consumes ever more time and often even the double amount of time per game. If on top of that, special preparation for a known opponent is needed, it will take the triple amount of time, at least if someone wants to improve his rating. Based on the fact that opening libraries get bigger all the time, professionals and amateurs succeed in winning games without having to make a move of their own. The known opening theory is played from memory, at certain points improved by computer preparation, a truly impressive performance by the brain. The deciding question for people with little spare time is if it is worth the effort to compete with people with lots of spare time. The number of people with enough spare time gets continually bigger, on top of pensioners and adults who study ever longer, there are people neglected by the job market – and all this in context with a higher expectancy of life.

What happens to chessplayers who have to subdivide their time differently after having set up a family or having started a time-consuming job? They stop playing chess because with abandoning only one thing, they gain an enormous amount of time which they can spend on other, more important aspects of life. Furthermore, it is not beneficial for their image or even psychologically unacceptable not to present themselves successful in their favorite hobby. Most often, they are defeated easily by people with enough spare time, just because they have the time to continue studying more and more theory. Thus, they are not found in the club-structure of today anymore. The organised chess, especially chess played in clubs, generally has nothing to offer for socially successful people with not enough leisure time.

Therefore, the specialisation on a slow, overburdened with theory style of chess should be amended with more diverting, more oriented on basic chess knowledge offers. The Chess960 variation propagated by Fischer with its random draw of the pieces’ starting positions directly before the game can decrease the influence of opening theory and in this way let components like creativity, basic knowledge of chess and the power of improvisation come to the fore, which gives equal chances for people with less time for preparation. For this group of people, chess can become more attractive again. Moreover, by adding disciplines like “rapid” and “blitz” and giving people the chance to improve ratings there, the contentment will further increase. When on top of that it becomes clear that this professionally successful group of people control marketing and sponsoring and that they are candidates for being contributors, donators or financial patrons for this most noble of hobbies, the offers for people with less spare time with Chess960 and shorter time controls can also be seen in different aspects. Generally, chess doesn’t only assist the progress of children and young adults, but it is proven to conserve mental briskness in old age. Furthermore, working people with families could add resources to clubs like experience, creativity, finances and eloquism.

Organizational and mental blockades

The overcoming of mental and practical barriers is most often achieved by intensively dealing with an unsatisfactory situation or even when existence is in highest danger. Thinking and acting systematically from the analysis of the current situation to the realizaton of one’s vision often fails in the beginning because of the subjective impression of excessive demand, convenience, protection of acquired possession and hostility towards reforms. These attributes are the fiercest enemies when dealing with innovation, prosperity, market-orientation, customer service and long-term strategy, but camouflaged with tradition and credibility.

Chess must adapt to the changing requirements in a continuing process without losing the characteristics, the charm, the fascination or the essential of the typical game! Exactly this must happen symmetrically in the responsible organisations and in the heads of the accountable persons in charge. The lack of marketing people, proficiently and solidly working managers, visionaries in chess and strategic long-term investors cannot be the only reason for the downturn of the relevance of chess in our global community. It often seems as if the insistence in the isolation of chess, even the backwards longing for “old and familiar”, the general diminishment of the market – from Fide to the smallest club – is not just fate or coincidence, but has a method.

The fact that officials are mainly recruited from former chessplayers and most often have an unjustified bad reputation among their colleagues, leads them to administrative organising without any creative commitment, efficiency and esprit. Just imagine how much opposition a supporter of Chess960 would have to anticipate, if he introduced his ideas to colleagues, players or organisers. Most often, this would be turned down because of convenience or lacking competence without any discussion, as well as the realisation of tournaments, activities, all-day schools or the application of trainers in clubs. There’s one other aspect about Chess960 : the situation would be completely new and unknown in the beginning. The theoretical arguments and their practical effects wouldn’t be transparent for everyone immediately, but only after they’ve been tested in practice. So it’s the job of Chess960 supporters to break down first the organisational, then the technical and finally the mental barriers of the ordinary chessplayer. Just as the former world champions Botwinnik and Smyslov refused to give rapid and blitz chess the acknowledgment, which it would have deserved according to the vast majority of common chessplayers, with world champions such as Tal, Fischer or Kasparov, reforms would have been possible even then.

The practical application and the presentation of an idea is an efficient way of loosening barriers. With the contest between Peter Leko (Nr 7 in world’s ranking) and Michael Adams (Nr 4) and the celebrity tournament in 2001 as well as with the first significant Chess960-Open in Mainz with 34 grandmasters, a total of 56 titled players and altogether 131 participants in 2002, it was proven that Fischer’s idea can be realised and that even great joy and enthusiasm comes up among players, but still it is seen very sceptically by most players. In 2003, another step in popularisation and understanding will be taken on stage in the Rheingoldhalle – simultaneously, Anand will play Polgar in normal rapid chess and Leko will face Svidler in rapid Chess960. Spectators, journalists and sponsors can form their own judgment about the presentation of these world class contests.

The technical barrier and the consequence of rules

A brilliant idea, a complete concept, a meticulosly working organisation, a fantastic perspective for the future are often not enough to let a vision become reality. In Fischer Random Chess or Chess960, the pieces’ position on the back-rank are randomly drawn according to the following rules :

1. The king must always be placed between the two rooks.
2. The bishops must be placed on different colours
3. White and black pieces are set up symmetrically

Everything else, like the technical equipment, pieces and board, the pieces’ way of moving and their value, notation and time control are the same as in the chess we all know. Even after castling, the king’s and rook’s positions are identical to familiar chess, but there are 84 different starting squares for king and rook. The main effect and the dynamic of the rules about castling invented by Fischer can be seen here, it is the most significant difference to the older “Shuffle Chess”, where castling was not allowed and where the pieces’ position did not necessarily follow rule 1. In “Shuffle Chess”, there were 2880 different starting positions, in Fischer Chess, there are exactly one third of them, exactly 960. Derived from that, confirmed by worldwide questioning of chess enthusiasts, we have installed the name “Chess960”. Shortly, it shall be called 960 (nine sixty) and in the continuing process of its development, it will surely be called only “Chess” in the future. The questioned grandmaster colleagues didn’t want to play a game carrying the name of a living colleague, and which has nothing in common with Fischer’s ideas except for the castling invention.

Fischer also had the idea of incremental time per move made, which secured the technical presentation in time trouble and which significantly increased fair play by chessplayers at the end of a game. By using an especially for this purpose developed clock by DGT it was no longer possible to make the opponent lose on time in a lost position. The following items were not solved as a technical barrier in 2001 and could only be solved consecutively by the Chess960 community up to today :

1. The random draw must be made neutrally, visibly and incorruptably,
2. The broadcast from board to videoscreen must be possible online,
3. Broadcast to the internet must function online.
4. The presentation of notation and especially of the castling must function properly and must be reproduceable later
5. The evaluation of positions should be possible during the game and later in analysis
6. Archiving and annotation of complete games should be possible, it should also be secured that all notation- and diagram-interfaces to print media can easily be operated.

The technical barriers, partly caused by the hesitation of established commercial chess-software companies are approaching a complete abolition in the meantime. Up to April 2003, there was not a single chess program which was able to use Chess960 castling rules or which could use them in their evaluation of positions correctly. It took the idea of Frankfurt Chess Tigers, DGT and the FreewareGUI Arena almost one year to convince some of the 280 worldwide chess-software developers of the Chess960 idea. In June 2003, actually three programs were published, which implemented the Chess960 rules, namely Betsy (Elo 2200), Chispa (Elo 2350) and The Baron (Elo 2500), one of the world’s leading chess programs, Deep Sjeng (Elo >2600) will follow in June. With the availability of chess-playing engines, the hope is connected that the archiving of games in databases is only a question of time.

Variety instead of Single-mindedness – Network instead of Hierarchy

The pentagon of democratic structures of powers should work again : players, spectators, media, organisers and sponsors all on one level – regionally, nationally and internationally – the faster the better! If that is not possible in the existing hierarchy, there must be competition and a modern world federation must be founded, like the WNCA = World New Chess Association. Nothing would be lost at all, we know position 960-1 all too well and the starting positions 960-2 to 960-960 would be added – variety instead of single-mindedness – network instead of hierarchy!

The hitherto used starting-position of chess could be classified into the groups of hierarchical systems. Likewise, the organisation of the whole chess community with its lack of continually and strategically long-term planned committees resp. the qualification system for the world championship. The idea of Chess960 does not only support the network-like effect of the 960 starting positions, but also the network-like structure of organisation without the influence of nations, continents or other blocks. The variety of Chess960 should not be confined by the equally important main disciplines “normal”, “rapid” and “blitz” either, but other disciplines like “bullet”, “slow”, “advance”, “computer”, “correspondence”, “bughouse”, “consulting”, “handicap” etc. should be attended properly, too. Every Chess960 player should have the possibility to get happy by playing what he prefers without feeling any reproach from the Chess960 community that “slow” is the only true way of chess.

Chess960 diciplines and the rating system

Apart from the variety of tournaments, an architcture of three parts standing on equal footing should be created to ensure the variety of disciplines, in which the main categories “normal”, “rapid” and “blitz” should be “globally obliging” having time controls that guarantee quality and are technically realizable in an easy way. In principal, other time controls should not be excluded but generously integrated into the disciplines. There should be a unified form in all sorts of time control : Basic time (specified in minutes) and incremental time (specified in seconds), the era of “clock-pushers” and “gamblers” should not find any consideration in seriously practised chess-sport anymore. The disciplines “slow” and “bullet” were defined as an endorsement, too, but won’t influence the “All over All” (AoA) rating system yet.

The standardised time controls, which were included in the list of proposals are all valid in the categories “normal, rapid and blitz” and can be used for the rating system, but the basic time controls for normal (60/30), rapid (20/5) and blitz (4/2) should be preferred for reasons of familiarisation and getting accustomed for players and specators. In the following disposition, the given numbers, for example 60/30, mean that each player gets 60 minutes of time at the beginning of the game and additional 30 seconds for every move made.

The significance of the rating system

The Chess960 tournament styles “round robin”, “double or multiple round robin”, “elimination”, “open” and “match” should influence a player’s rating under equal conditions, but different from games played in official world-, continental- or national championships and their qualification tournaments.

To do justice to the importance of a game played in competition for the highest championship in tournaments or matches, it should influence the rating system with the factor 2. The difference to ordinary open games or games for club championships or specially organized “norm”- tournaments should be noticeable. The great significance of the rating system for most chess players only allows a system which is fair, exact, transparent, unified and obligatory for evaluating a tournament’s participants’ strength and which on top of everything measures what it should measure : a player’s playing strength. In the new rating system for Chess960, it was accounted for that not only the discipline “over four hours playing time = classical time control, at most seven hours, but can be less with 4½, 5, 5½ or 6 hours” influence the rating, but apart from “normal” also the disciplines “rapid” and “blitz”. In the “All over All (AoA)” rating of the Chess960 model, tournaments are evaluated equally methodically, but the three disciplines flow into the rating with different factors : normal=1, rapid=0,25 and blitz=0,05. The most important tournaments with their official games would flow into the rating with the factors mulitplied by 2 : normal=2, rapid=0,5 and blitz=0,1. It is easily understandable that readers, spectators, sponsors and organisers are presented only one new rating so they are not confused by a muddle of numbers, but it is not target-oriented if this number is only evaluated from “slow” chess and thus discriminating other disciplines. Of course it would always be possible to give experts or insiders the individual numbers of each discipline, they are components of the “AoA”-system. The Chess960 rating system can administrate flat world ranking lists for each discipline if necessary and desired. National and regional “subsystems” like INGO, DWZ, TWZ, NWZ and N-Elo shouldn’t come into existence if possible, but if they do, they should not be competing with each other – the system should easily be understandable! The higher the number, the higher the player is placed in the world’s ranking list and the higher is his success.

The “passivity factor” is another criterion, that should influence a player’s rating and his position in the world’s ranking. A minimum amount of activity per year should be defined to prevent players from being too passive without reason. Should a player fall below these guidelines, a penalty will be introduced which will effect the rating at the end of every year. In this way, it should generally be avoided that the world’s ranking list displays a blurred image of actual playing strengths and that players can stay on top without giving minimum proof of accomplishment per year. Analogue to the rating factors in the system, 20 normal- or 80 rapid- or 100 blitz-games or a mixture of those are needed to avoid being penalized. For exmaple, 15 normal- and 20 rapidgames or 10 normal-, 20 rapid- and 100 blitzgames are sufficient to avoid penalties. If a player stays under these minimum requirements, between 1 and max. 20 points would be deducted from rating per year. The current system has the huge disadvantage that a single player can stay on top for too long without playing or a player who stopped playing stays in the ranking list for too long. The most important aspect of a world’s ranking apart from players’ achievements should by all means be to reward “active” players.

The startup phase of the new rating system

One basic question arises when introducing the new Chess960 rating system : How do participants of Chess960 tournaments get a first rating as quickly as possible? There are four sources from which plausible and safe data can be received : 1. The existing Elo or national rating systems are used for entering the Chess960 rating system – after all, the normal starting position of the pieces is one of the 960 possibilities! 2. The existing tables of already played Chess960 tournaments are evaluated retrospectively and chronologically. 3. Beginners without any older ratings will be classified according to criteria from taking tests similar to the German “pawn diploma”(800), “knight diploma”(1000), “rook diploma”(1200), “queen diploma”(1400) and “king diploma”(1600) under surveillance of authorised Chess960 masters. 4. The mathematical approximately correct iteration method for the acquirement of a first Chess960 rating according to the performance in the first games and tournaments against other participants who already have a rating. Starting from a base (about 10000 players) ID-cards should be created for all rated players, which can be used by every tournament organiser and which will be updated with the newest ratings from the central database.

The system of titles and norms

The inflationary progress of ratings in the current system should be avoided, but natural growth analogue to Gauss’ normal distribution should be allowed. After a certain startup phase titles shall be awarded in relation to the total number of participants in the rating system which should be acquired as fairly as possible in regular tournaments. For awarding titles, of which there are several levels, two criteria should find special consideration : 1. The strength of a player reflected by the world ranking list based on “AoA”-rating and 2. A continuing good performance over a course of two year documented and easily to be seen in the “AoA”-rating list.

For the awarding of titles we are calculating with approximately 100.000 players. This means that a Chess960 GM (International grandmaster) must at least reach an “AoA” rating to be in the top 100 – with a rating of 2600 for example. This rating must also be preserved over a course of two years with active play, despite the “passivity factor”. Only then will the title be awarded and not with the fulfilling of norms as it is done today. The acquiring of titles below GM is done similarly, only with lower world ranking positions and lower ratings, but the confirmation over a course of two years stays the same. The following criteria are imaginable for IM (International master) top 500, for RM (Regional master) top 2500 and for CM (Candidate master) top 12500. The titles should still be awarded for life-time. One important question remains in this discussion : “Should separate title-systems for men and women be introduced?” A first comment : “In other intellectual disciplines, there is no separation either, as for example for university professors” In addition to that, there is no separation in horse-riding or in motor sports either! There still has to be a discussion about the “pros and cons” though.

Chess960-projects <> World Championship cycle

Mainz, the capital of Rheinland-Pfalz and third oldest town in Germany after Worms and Trier, lying between the airports Frankfurt Rhein-Main International and Franfurt-Hahn in the center of the Rhine area on the estuary of the Main river into the Rhine, would be an ideal location in the first years for the headquarters of the nation-free federation operating worldwide. Mainz can derive a certain claim from having organised the first important Chess960 tournaments and the innovatively prepared activities of the Chess Tigers from the Rhine-Main-Taunus region. The tradition of the 2000-years-old Roman city would fit perfectly to the traditional claims of chess, combined with the requirement to preserve, cultivate and improve chess and to modernise it within a democratic and commercial orientation. In addition to Gutenberg and carnival, a third international pillar with an enthusiastic mayor on top would guarantee prosperity and professionality. The center for Chess960 – which will be called only “chess” in 20 years – with the headquarters of the world federation WNCA “World New Chess Association” and the organisation of the first Chess960 world championship would find its best conditions in Europe in the economically strong Rhine-Main-area, which on top of that has a great infrastructure. The first activities were held in rapid chess, so a first network-like qualification system with fair democratic chances for every single player should be realized in this discipline.

The world championship should be held in three-year- or two-year-cyclea. A three-year-cycle would imply that “rapid” would be the discipline in 2003, “blitz” in 2004 and “normal” in 2005, the same sequence would follow in the successive 3 years. In a two-year-cycle, blitz and rapid would be played in the same year. To avoid conflict with equal partner-organisations and to give everyone the chance to make a schedule, the tournaments within a year should always be at the same time of year : 8 open regional qualification tournaments played over 11-13 rounds in the first half of the year, in August a candidate final with 64 qualifed candidates played in open or elimination style and in December the match for the world championship where the reigning champion faces his challenger. In the starting phase of the cycle, “qualification tourism” should be allowed in the open tournaments to adjust the different levels of development between the regions. The regions could be classified as follows : A = Western Europe, B = Central Europe, C = Eastern Europe, D = Central Asia, E = South Asia, Australia, Oceania, F = Africa, Middle East, G = North and Cenral America, H = South and Central America.

To start the world championship cycle, it was assumed that the Chess960 tournaments in Mainz 2001 and 2002 were the first world championship matches and candidate tournaments. This would imply :

1. Peter Leko is the the current Chess960 world champion in the discipline “rapid”
2. Peter Svidler is the winner of the candidate-finals 2002 and rightful challenger
3. The challenger of the reigning world champion will be determined in the next cycle in a candidate final with 64 players, played in elimination or open style.
4. Which players are qualified for this final of 64?
   a. The top 6 finishers of the regional qualification tournaments
   b. The 8 top ranked players in the quarterly published rating list with deadline 1st of January
   c. The 8 quarter-finalists of the preceding championship cycle resp the dethroned world champion

The proposed number of rounds which can be played on one day still needs closer examination to guarantee organisational realisation of the tournaments’ hosts concerning their financial budget. Here is a summary of the first proposals:

Because of the two-year- or three-year-cycle in the separate disciplines the significance of the status of being world champion would increase, because he gets the right only having to play his challenger, this would bring more continuity to statistics than the inflationary elimination-world championships where the reigning world champion has no special rights anymore and has to play from the beginning. Nevertheless, in case of a drawn match, there will be a tie for the title, the reigning champion doesn’t keep his title automatically in this case.

Chess960-projects <> national team championships

To support the start of a Chess960 offensive and the associated spread of the market, a German team championship shall be accomplished free of hierarchies. A team should be played with 6 players per team at first and each team shall enlist a minimum of 10 players and a maximum of 25 per season.Games will be played with a time control of 60/30 and two games will be played on one day with switching colours in which at most two players can be substituted per team for the second game. The first German championships will be held in elimination style and played in the typical Saturday/Sunday double-rounds, whereas in the rounds up to the round of last 32, regional aspects will play a higher role than playing strengths. This means that on one weekend, one team out of a pool of four would advance. This qualifying mode will be used for all rounds up to the final four who would meet in Mainz for the finals, within the scope of Chess Classic Mainz 2004, they would play for the first German championships over a course of two days. Teams can be formed in every kind of club, company, school, institute, city and region, nationally or internationally or just players who meet on one evening and form a team – the most important preconditions would be the registration of 10 to 25 players, the paying of a starting fee plus an insurance fee, the responsibilty to organise at least one home game including an organiser and a neutral arbiter. Following the given organisational and technical rules by the Chess960 headquarters is mandatory, especially concerning the point of time when the draw of the pieces’s starting positions is held and the time control. Of course, these conditions will be explained in detail and published before the season together with the schedule. The current state of planning would suggest the following dates during summer months as suitable :

With this flat structure of organisation, new processes can be started most easily and give every team equal chances in the beginning of their new Chess960 dedication. For example, the town of Bad Soden in the Taunus area could start with a team consisting of Anand, Ponomariov, Yussupov, Dautov, Portisch, Lobron, Hort, Reschke, Brendel, Assmann, Niebling etc and become German team champion right away!

Chess960-projects <> simultaneous exhibition over 960 boards

On the occasion of Chess Classic Mainz 2004, an event would be possible in the Rheingoldhalle or on the Rhine’s shores if the weather is fine. This exhibition event would certainly draw lots of attention and would maybe even be included into the Guinness Book of Records. This event could take place on the free day between the two days when the open is played. On one side, 960 enthusiastic children, young adults and adults, on the other side 32 grandmasters each playing 30 opponents. Of course, all 960 starting positions of Chess960 would be played.

Chess960-projects <> technical tournament design

It would be of great use to develop a broadcasting system, which secures transactions and is fully automatic, to replace all manual activities when organising a big open tournament or one of the big elimination turnaments. To put the main concern on cost effectiveness and profitability, it would have to be secured that there’s a minimum of demand. The system’s efficiency and the appendant professional service carried out by standard appliance operators would guarantee high values of disposability for the realisation of tournaments, would increase the professionality in the main and side processes of the tournament and thus see to it that organisers and sponsors are content, a major condition for sponsors. As an example for presenting the effects of costs, a variance comparison for the technical realisation including personnel costs of Chess Classc Mainz 2002 has been made. Chess Classic is a unique, annual event and therefore can’t rely on major synergy effects as a tournament series consisting of 20 events per year could. Especially the tournament’s quality would increase taking into account repeating processes and the constantly needed know-how. This would be like a thread of increasing quality and quantity from internet appearance to tournament accomplishment, from press relations to the performance of the arbiter, from the announcement management to tournament documentation – without losing the traditional or new event’s individual character. After a first overview, the costs for Chess Classic’s technical and organisational realisation could be reduced to at least one third if there were 20 like-minded and cooperating tounament organisers!

A few thoughts about the technical realisation of tournaments without any claim of completeness :

1. A central server manages all data, the required (registrated) player’s information from the world federation as well as arising data (notations of games, results, rating system, controlling, management of pairings and bank transfers)
2. A gateway-server manages the internet presentation and a further gateway-server manages the video-screen and TV presentation
3. Further servers manage board data for 128 tournament participants (equally ranked cascading) in module size, send them to the central computer and retrieve them again after distribution
4. All boards (frontends) are electroncal DGT-boards with digital logging of a game’s data, the result, the logical correctness of the game, digital display of players’ names and connected to the digital game-clock. All boards are connected wirelessly to a server, a cable network is not needed.
5. A check-in machine (similar to booking of flights) is for disposal and replaces manual entry. Most participants just bring their own ID-cards.

The course of a tournament could run as follows in the future : A player signa in via internet and/or at the event’s venue with his ID-card, enters his wish what he wants to play (for example Open A, B or C), account number and bank-code and presses “OK”. Now he just has to read his table-number off the boarding display, find his board, check the board’s display and he can start. The electronic arbiter automatically starts all clocks simultaneously and the first round can begin. After the game, the players must type in the result and both players have to confirm. Within minutes the draw for the next round is made and displayed on the big screen as well as next to the boards. After the final round, results are announced and the prizes are transferred to the winners’ bank accounts – this way, even the boring winning ceremonies could be omitted and everybody could leave the “scene of crime” quickly, as long as prizes don’t include jackets, certificates, trophies or other prizes apart from money.

Compendium and résumé

There are no ideal and perfect systems, neither organisationally nor technically. Even the creation of Earth with man at its peak or the universe which is only partly known to us with all its creatures doesn’t always seem perfectly organised, how can we be content with our game of chess, its development and other circumstances? The following statements seem important : “Winning starts with beginning”, “But it does rotate anyway”, “He who doesn’t keep up to date, will soon be out of date”, “He who arrives late gets punished by life”, “Nothing is more consistent than changes” and many more. So if we want to preserve what is dear to us, we mustn’t forget that changes in the game of chess are something natural and we mustn’t yield to chess personalities who don’t want to change anything anymore out of convincement and convenience. With sense of proportion and determination, everything at its time and everything with democratic freedom : “The show must go on”. In this way, we should just give our delicate plantlet Chess960 and its community a fair chance to develop – and maybe someone can even add a little water or fertilizer, but not too much if the natural surroundings are already good. Finally, the easily understandable theses :

1. The future of Chess960 has begun
2. A normal game should not last longer than 2-3 hours
3. No power to the world champion
4. The spectator is a customer
5. Network instead of hierarchy
6. Variety instead of single-mindedness
7. Chess is entertainment, too
8. The game needs steadily improving organisation

Chess Classic Mainz 2003

Chess Classic Mainz will take place from the 13th to the 17th of August in the Rheingoldhalle in Mainz. With the matches between Viswanathan Anand and Judit Polgar in regular rapid chess and the world championship match between Peter Leko and Peter Svidler in rapid Chess960, entertainment will be guaranteed in the evening hours and the participants of the open tournaments can form their own judgment how the games take effect on single spectators when played simultaneously on stage. In the open tournaments played in the late-morning and afternoon with a joint prize fund of 33.333 € and a total number of 158 prizes, there will be good opportunities for participants to try the new style of chess. The Chess960 open will take place on the 14th and 15th of Augst, the ORDIX open on the 16th and 17th of August. Forming a well-founded judgment with practice is definitely an exciting experience. Vishy Anand said “Chess960 is like exploring a city without a map”. Players who want to take part in a simultaneous exhibition with the Chess960 protagonists Peter Leko and Peter Svidler – the first simultaneous exhibition of this style – will get their chance on the 13th of August after the opening press conference. Ten of the 20 seats in each simultaneous exhibition are raffled on our homepage www.chesstigers.de . For questions and suggestions to this essay or to Chess Classic Mainz 2003, I am gladly available under the following addresses :Frankfurt Chess Tigers Schach-Förder Förderverein 1999 e.V. (FCT) Hans-Walter Schmitt, Alte Ziegelei 5, D-65812 Bad Soden am Taunus, phone & fax: 06196-22726, E-Mail: hans-walter.schmitt@t-online.de. We would also be glad to inform you about the FCT business areas top-tournaments and Chess960 as well as the currently newly arranged areas university and entertainment.