Small Projects for 2018

This being the last post of the old year, let's set some goals for the new year. I did this nearly three years ago in Small Projects for 2015 (January 2015), and actually managed to accomplish all of them. Perhaps I haven't needed specific objectives since then because of the blog follow-up list: Posts with label zFLUP. Some of the most prominent small projects on that list can be done in small chunks whenever I have some free time:-

• 2017-02-22: Missing Months
• 2017-06-07: Zonal Qualifiers C01-C12 : Archive.org
• 2017-11-08: C28 Zonal Qualification Paths • 'Two more steps that were done for the previous cycle'

'Small Projects for 2015' included updates for both the World Correspondence and World Computer championships, two topics that I tend to forget. Comparing the last time I looked at the first topic, Correspondence Chess 2016 (May 2016), with the current situation reveals two events in progress, neither of which requires immediate attention:-

• WC29/final: Three unfinished games
• WC30/final: 'The start date was 6/20/2017'

As for the second topic, one event has taken place since I looked at the 22nd World Computer Championship (August 2016). Details are on the home page for the ICGA : International Computer Games Association; see especially the post by David Levy, dated 19 June 2017.

On top of those World Championship subjects, I have two technical problems to address. The first is a replacement for my old FTP package. It ran under my browser, but was deemed obsolete after the browser's last major software update. My ISP's 'File Manager' is adequate for small updates to the site, but is too clunky for large updates. The second is a replacement for my old PGN normalization software, which was forcibly retired last summer. I added two recent events without including the corresponding PGN:-

• 2017 World Cup, Tbilisi (October 2017)
• 2017 Grand Prix, Palma de Mallorca (November 2017)

Updates to the correspondence and computer championships will also require PGN normalization.

World Championship Branding

In last week's post, 2018 World Championship, London, I mentioned a couple of drawings that I had found on the official site, london2018.worldchess.com:-

I couldn't find an official logo on the official site, so I reused two images that appear to have been created for the event. They are somewhat strange, particularly the one on the right, but many things that emanate from Agon are strange.

A few days after I posted that, I leaned that the images were indeed designed for the match: Branding for the 2018 Match Unveiled (worldchess.com):-

Key visual for the 2018 World Chess Championship is controversial and trendy, just like the host city. [...] The 2018 key visual has been developed by Shuka Design and we are very happy to unveil it today.

The 'key visual', the image I had on the left of the '2018 London' post, appears in much larger format in the Worldchess 'Branding' announcement...

...The announcement also mentions,

As organizers of the match we've been busy for over a year working with artists and designers to develop a perfect key visual, the image that will be associated with the 2018 match and which will find its way onto mugs, posters, outdoor displays, venue design, media, broadcasting graphics and more.

As for the image I had on the right -- questioned by one source as Pawn-ographic? (rt.com; 'Chess world divided on "suggestive" Russian-designed logo for World Championships') -- it's already available on a poster: 2018 World Chess Championship 'Sexy' Limited Edition Print (worldchess.store). I imagine it will soon be available on mugs as well.

2018 World Championship, London

I created a new page for next year's World Championship, currently titled 2018 Carlsen - TBA. The page is only a stub with a link to the official site (available a year in advance!) and a link to the announcement of the venue. That Fide.com page said,

FIDE and World Chess announced that the 2018 World Chess Championship Match will take place in London in November 2018. [...] The 12-game Match will see current World Chess Champion, Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, defend his title against a challenger to be decided at the forthcoming FIDE World Chess Candidates Tournament in March.

Why create the new page only a month after creating one for the candidates tournament, 2018 Candidates, Berlin, which will be held in March? Because I expect that there will be some controversy surrounding the London match and I wanted a permanent place to record it. With announcements coming variously from Agonlimited.com, Fide.com, and Worldchess.com, it is difficult to keep track of World Championship news.

I couldn't find an official logo on the official site, so I reused two images that appear to have been created for the event. They are somewhat strange, particularly the one on the right, but many things that emanate from Agon are strange.

According to yesterday's post on my main blog, FIDE's Journalist Commission 2017, an 'official website' should have a domain name like hostcity20xx.fide.com. Using 'london2018.fide.com' produces a message 'can’t connect to the server'.

2017-18 GP

After finishing the previous post, 2017 Grand Prix, Palma de Mallorca, I added the latest Grand Prix series against the names of all 24 players on the World Chess Championship : Index of Players. The chart on the left lists the names of those players along with the number of points they scored over the three events (of four total) in which they competed.

As you might expect, the 24 players were already listed on the 'Index of Players'. For GMs Hammer and Rapport, it was only their second appearance in a World Championship event, and for GM Riazantsev it was his third.

My page on the 2017 Grand Prix shows that GMs Mamedyarov and Grischuk qualified into the forthcoming 2018 Candidates Tournament (congratulations to both!), while the chart on this post shows how close was the race in terms of points scored.

The 2017 GP, the fourth such series of events to be authorized by FIDE, was the first to start after the previous cycle had finished and the first to take place in a single calendar year. For the wrapup post on the Grand Prix for the previous cycle, see 2014-15 GP (June 2015).