30 December 2020

C01-C29 IZ/KO/QP Cosmetic Changes

While working on the last three posts...

...I noted a number of areas for further modifications. Although none of these were particularly urgent, I tackled a few of them for this current post:-

More to follow...

23 December 2020

C01-C29 IZ/KO to QP

The title of last week's post, C15-C29 QP for IZ/KO, used enough codes to put it on the AAP most wanted list, where AAP stands for the Assault on Acronyms Program. Let's break those codes down:-
C15-C29:
World Championship cycles 15 through 29 • This is my own numbering system for keeping track of the often overlapping cycles.
QP:
Qualification Paths • How the various players qualified to play in the cycle
IZ:
Interzonal
KO:
Knockout • The FIDE format for World Championships and World Cups since C17

Putting it all together, the post 'C15-C29 QP for IZ/KO' linked the QP page for each referenced cycle to the corresponding IZ/KO page. The earlier cycles, C01-C14, had already been done. At the end of the post, I wrote,

The next step will be to link the IZ/KO/WCup pages back to the corresponding QP page.

Since I had already prepared this in the earlier post Qualification Paths for IZ/KO Events (December 2020; 'To facilitate the crosslink action, I developed a table of pages that need to be changed.'), the task to link the IZ++ pages was relatively straightforward. There were 38 such pages.

While I was working on those two previous posts and this current post, I had the opportunity to review all of the 29 QP pages as a matched set, and all of the 38 IZ++ pages as another matched set. (C09-C14 had two or three Interzonals each.) I identified a number of discrepancies that I'll tackle in another post.

16 December 2020

C15-C29 QP for IZ/KO

Continuing with last weeks's post, Qualification Paths for IZ/KO Events, where I documented the first step of a multi-step action:-
Crosslink (in both directions) the IZ/KO/WCup pages with the corresponding QP page for faster navigation between them. [...] To facilitate the crosslink action, I developed a table of pages that need to be changed.

For this current post, I linked the 'QP' pages (Qualification Paths) to the corresponding IZ/KO/WCup pages. As I noted in the previous post,

Zonal Qualifiers (QP) for C01 through C14 already have a link to the corresponding Interzonal(s).

For the other cycles, here are links to the first and the last QP pages for those cycles:-

The next step will be to link the IZ/KO/WCup pages back to the corresponding QP page.

09 December 2020

Qualification Paths for IZ/KO Events

In a recent post, 2019 World Cup - Qualified Players (November 2020), I closed one outstanding action, but left another:-
As for that second action stemming from the '2020 Candidates', to crosslink pages, I'll tackle it another time.

More specifically:-

Crosslink (in both directions) the IZ/KO/WCup pages with the corresponding QP page for faster navigation between them.

The acronym 'QP' stands for 'Qualification Paths'. To facilitate the crosslink action, I developed a table of pages that need to be changed.

Cycle
QP
Timespan Format Event
C01 1949-51 IZ Saltsjobaden
C02 1952-54 IZ Saltsjobaden
C03 1955-57 IZ Goteborg
C04 1958-60 IZ Portoroz
C05 1961-63 IZ Stockholm
C06 1964-66 IZ Amsterdam
C07 1967-69 IZ Sousse
C08 1970-72 IZ Palma de Mallorca
C09 1973-75 IZ Leningrad
IZ Petropolis
C10 1976-78 IZ Biel
IZ Manila
C11 1979-81 IZ Riga
IZ Rio de Janeiro
C12 1982-84 IZ Las Palmas
IZ Moscow
IZ Toluca
C13 1985-87 IZ Biel
IZ Taxco
IZ Tunis
C14 1988-90 IZ Subotica
IZ Szirak
IZ Zagreb
C15 1991-93 IZ Manila
C16 1994-96 IZ Biel
C17 1997-98 WCC Groningen
C18 1998-99 WCC FIDE Las Vegas (Khalifman 1st)
C19 2000 WCC FIDE India/Iran (Anand 1st)
C20 2001-02 WCC FIDE Moscow (Ponomariov 1st)
C21 2002-04 WCC FIDE Tripoli (Kasimdzhanov 1st)
C22 2005-07 WCup Khanty-Mansiysk (2005)
C23 2007-10 WCup Khanty-Mansiysk (2007)
C24 2008-12 WCup Khanty-Mansiysk (2009)
C25 2011-13 WCup Khanty-Mansiysk (2011)
C26 2012-14 WCup Tromso (2013)
C27 2014-16 WCup Baku (2015)
C28 2017-18 WCup Tbilisi (2017)
C29 2019-20 WCup Khanty-Mansiysk (2019)
PCA
1994-95 -- Groningen

Legend: Codes used in 'Format'.

  • IZ = Interzonal
  • WCC = World Championship in KO format
  • WCup = World Cup in KO format

NB:
(1) Zonal Qualifiers (QP) for C01 through C14 already have a link to the corresponding Interzonal(s).
(2) The last event in the list, '1993 Groningen PCA Qualifying Tournament', could use a note on how the players were selected.

02 December 2020

Karpov on the Rock

Earlier this year, for a featured monthly video on my main blog, I chose Retro Engine Chess (February 2020). There was another good choice, but it had already so many views and comments that I decided not to use it. It popped up on my radar again this past week, and it's too good to ignore a second time.


"I wanted to defeat Bobby" | GM Anatoly Karpov Interview (20:20) • '[Published on] Jan 29, 2020'

The GibChess description said,

A candid interview with former World Champion Anatoly Karpov. The Russian GM shares stories and reflections on his chess career with Tania Sachdev. Special thanks to Chess Base India.

For a transcript of the video, see Karpov on Fischer, Korchnoi, Kasparov and the chess world today (chessbase.com). For a related Youtube video, this one from GBC News and with far fewer views, see Former Official Chess World Champion Anatoly Karpov on the Rock. Its description said,

Former Official Chess World Champion Anatoly Karpov is visiting the Rock as part of the Gibraltar International Chess Festival. Considered one of the greatest players in history, he's the third longest world champion, behind Magnus Carlsen and Garry Kasparov. Christine Vasquez took the opportunity of gaining an insight into current developments in Russian politics but first asked Mr Karpov how he felt to be on the Rock supporting the Chess festival.

Change 'third longest world champion' to 'third longest world champion in post-WWII times' and I'll say no more, even though Carlsen hasn't (yet) caught up with Karpov.