Chess.com Global Championship

Earlier this year I wrote a post titled It's Not an April Fool's Joke (April 2022). It was about two events that were announced around the same time:-

• 'The $1,000,000 Chess.com World Championship'
• 'The Lichess World Championship'

I asked and answered,

Are these real World Chess Championships? In my opinion, no, they aren't, but I'm just one voice in the court of public opinion that decides such matters. I think they're more like site championships. I'll come back to the subject if public opinion eventually disagrees with me.

The Chess.com event quickly changed its name:-

• 2022-04-21 ... 2022-11-07 Chess.com Global Championship 2022: All The Information

The results are scattered across many Chess.com pages:-

• 2022-05-02 ... 2022-10-17 [CGC] Results (chess.com) • Qualifier Results; Play-in Results; All the players who qualified
  
  
• Results & Standings - [CGC] Knockout 2022 (ditto; see 'Results' tab) • Round 1 to 3; Quarterfinals; Semifinals; Finals
  
  
• 2022-10-16 ... 2022-11-08 [CGC] Finals 2022 (ditto)

That 'All The Information' page informed,

GM Wesley So won the inaugural Chess.com Global Championship in November 2022. This event was the first Chess.com championship with a cycle open to all of our verified players. Players competed in official Chess.com verified events for their share of the $1,000,000 prize fund and the Chess.com Global Champion title.

As for the Lichess version, Announcing the Lichess World Championship (lichess.org/forum), it looks like it was intended as a joke. Lichess can sometimes become very strange.

2022-23 Women's Candidates, Pool A

I had planned to follow up the recent post, 2022-23 Women's Candidates, Kickoff (October 2022), by updating my page on the World Chess Championship (Women) : 2022-23 Candidates Tournament (m-w.com). 'Pool A' ended a few days ago.

Unfortunately, circumstances intervened and I ran out of time. Instead of updating the page, I'll add a summary of Mark Crowther's most recent report.

Thanks, Mark. I'll add my own work to my page when 'Pool B' finishes.

Smartchess Interviews Karpov

Yesterday's post on my main blog, November 1972 & 1997 'On the Cover' (November 2022), was partially based on the November 1997 issue of Chess Life. I ended the post saying,

An article by Rachel Landry featured an interview with then FIDE World Champion Anatoly Karpov, plus his relationship with GM Ron Henley and Smartchess Online. Is this worth a follow-up?

Indeed it is worth a follow-up. Karpov gave his side of two hot topics from the second half of 1997. The first topic involved a reunification match that was never held. For background, see FIDE/PCA Chronology (m-w.com; Feb 1993 - Oct 1996).

RL: There have been many rumors circulating about a World Championship rematch in Compiegne, France. Carol Stroe, the proposed organizer for this event, said in a press release that you and Garry Kasparov were close to signing a formal accord. Mr. Kasparov's publicity agent fervently denies these rumors. Were you approached about such a match?

AK: Yes, but no agreement was signed.

RL: What is the true likelihood of a World Championship rematch between you and Kasparov?

AK: It is possible but not in October, and as I said before, nothing is definite until an agreement is signed and a prize fund is agreed upon.

The second topic involved the introduction of the much-criticized knockout matches to determine the title of FIDE World Champion.

RL: Will you be playing in the FIDE World Championship Knockout matches?

AK: Yes. I'm playing in the final as defending champion.

RL.: A letter signed by sixteen grandmasters was delivered by Vladimir Kramnik to the 68th FIDE Congress in Moldava. This letter conveyed these players' concerns about seeding arrangements in the upcoming FIDE World Championship Knockout. Can you shed any light on what took place in Moldava with regards to this letter?

AK: I heard Kramnik would be there with the letter. Kramnik read the letter to the assembly, and gave his point of view. Later, I addressed the assembly. Subsequently there was a vote by the FIDE Congress to uphold the original arrangements under which the Championships were organized: that is if Kasparov and myself were playing, then we would both be seeded into the semifinals; whereas if one us was not participating then the other would be seeded automatically into the final. Indeed, the original papers I signed regarding my participation were based on this exact arrangement, and Kramnik amicably agreed that he would abide by FIDE's decision. Incidentally, I met the former President of the New Jersey State Chess Federation, E. Steven Doyle, in Moldava, and we discussed a number of interesting things.

All of this was happening at the same time I was building my WCC site, as I documented earlier this year in The First Quarter Century (September 2022). I researched the 'FIDE/PCA Chronology' partly because I wasn't sure who the *real* World Champion was.

The Karpov interview included many more details related to Smartchess Online, one of the earliest chess web sites. Its first capture in the 'Wayback Machine', dated January 1999, shows the following home page.

Source: http://smartchess.com/ (web.archive.org).

A footnote to the interview mentioned that it first appeared on Smartchess Online in September 1997. I tried to find the original interview via the Wayback Machine, but failed. Smartchess.com appears to have been built using techniques that are incompatible with Wayback assumptions. The period in which Smartchess was active was a controversial time for the World Championship and its association with Karpov might provide valuable background material. I'll try to look at its Wayback records another time.

In the meantime, some other subjects for 'normal' web searches related to Smartchess are GM Ron Henley, Rachel Landry, Paul Hodges, Irina Krush, R&D Publishing, and Hikaru Nakamura. The home page pictured above leads to the 'November - December 1998' issue of Smartchess Online, with the following headlines:-

• '1998 US Championships: SmartChess Online coverage with GM Ron Henley & NM Irina Krush. • Congratulations! SmartChess Online Columnist Irina Krush, 1998 US Women's Chess Champion!'
• 'Press Release: "Krush Challenge" Series. Irina Krush to play a match against GM Walter Browne'
• 'Press Release: SmartChess Online welcomes its new Columnist - NM Hikaru Nakamura'

Krush was 14 years old at the time. Nakamura was 10.

In his interview with Smartchess, Karpov mentioned a couple of video series he was developing for Smartchess's 'WWW Chess Superstore'. I've featured two of these in posts on my main blog:-

• 2012-06-15: Karpov on Fischer • 'Game 6: 1972 World Chess Championship Match - Fischer vs Spassky'
• 2012-08-24: Karpov - Henley on Karpov - Kamsky • 'Karpov's Best Games Vol 4'

How many more of these videos are still available on Youtube? That makes a second topic for follow-up.

2022-23 Women's Candidates, Kickoff

This morning I was surprised to learn that the Women's Candidates Tournament (Pool A) starts in Monte-Carlo (fide.com). In last month's post, Women's Events 2022-23 (September 2022), I mentioned the event without giving dates.

I created a new page World Chess Championship (Women) : 2022-23 Candidates Tournament (m-w.com) and added it to the index page World Chess Championship for Women (ditto). Shown below is the event's logo.

I'll come back to the event after it ends in early November. Pool B, the second of two preliminary events, starts toward the end of November.

While I was researching the event, I noticed that my page on the previous Women's Candidates, 2019 Kazan Candidates Tournament (m-w.com), lacked references to FIDE's site. I added a few important links dating to the time of the tournament.

'Inspired by the Fischer-Spassky Match'

For nearly six months I've been running a Fischer Friday series on my main blog. A month ago it switched from the 1972 Fischer - Spassky Match to the 1992 Fischer - Spassky Rematch. I documented the transition in FS 1972 + 20 = FS 1992 (September 2022) and listed all of the previous posts in the series.

The following video would have fit well into that series, but I decided that this World Championship blog was an even better fit. On top of that it gives me the chance to incorporate the series into this blog, by mention.

John Donaldson Lecture (41:18) • 'Streamed live on Oct 19, 2022'

The clip starts with sound problems, but they don't last long. The description said,

Join us for a lecture as part of 1972 Fischer/Spassky: The Match, Its Origin, and Influence by IM John Donaldson on his unique experience and perspective on the history of Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky before Reykjavik. Emphasis will be placed on their similar experiences and differences growing up under quite different political systems.

IM John Donaldson joined the Tacoma Chess Club in the fall of 1972, inspired by the Fischer-Spassky match. An international master, with two grandmaster norms, Donaldson has captained the U.S. Chess Olympiad team on 14 occasions. He is the author of over 40 books on chess with his most recent effort being Bobby Fischer and His World.

The lecture is a presentation by Donaldson of photos relating to key events and people in Fischer's career. Three other Youtube videos relate to the lecture:-

• 2022-10-07: Emily Allred on the WCHOF Fischer-Spassky Exhibit | Round 3 • 'World Chess Hall of Fame Curator Emily Allred talks to Cristian Chirila during Round 3 of the 2022 U.S. Chess Championships.'
• 2022-10-13: Shannon Bailey: Inside Fischer-Spassky at the WCHOF | Round 8 • 'World Chess Hall of Fame Chief Curator Shannon Bailey talks to Cristian Chirila during Round 8 of the 2022 U.S. Chess Championships.'
• 2022-10-18: John Donaldson’s Fischer-Spassky Lecture is Must See | Round 11 • 'IM John Donaldson talks to Cristian Chirila during Round 11 of the 2022 U.S. Chess Championships.'

Back to my main blog, we saw IM Donaldson in another recent post, unrelated to Fischer Friday: 2022 CJA Awards - Part 3 (October 2022). Specifically,

Winners of multiple awards • Although the numbers add up to 11 awards, Spanier and Donaldson were named jointly on one award:-

• Honorable Mention; Best Story of the Year; 'The Fischer Project'; John Donaldson (author), Ian Spanier (photographer); Chess Life, July 2021

That one story accounted for five of the ten awards. IM Donaldson had one other award for the same story (Winner 'Best Feature Article - Print') plus one Honorable Mention in 'Best Print Articles' for 'Bobby Fischer's Lost Game Scores' in American Chess Magazine (ACM) #26.

After Fischer's official biographer Frank Brady, Donaldson is undoubtedly the most knowledgeable chess historian on Fischer's career. The Fischer - Spassky match has been a guiding light throughout his own distinguished career.

Missing Labels

A few weeks ago I noticed that a few of the posts on this blog had no labels, aka tags. Of the 746 posts currently on the blog, I identified 16 without labels and added at least one tag to each post. The most recent post to received its first label was Gunsberg - Chigorin - Tarrasch (May 2012), so I've been consistent for over 10 years.

Most of the new labels were in category 'Resources'. The only post where I had to think about a label was The 1st and 2nd GMA World Cups (April 2008). Although the GMA was not officially tied to the World Championship, it was a precursor to later complications surrounding the title. I finally decided to add the post to category 'PCA/WCC/etc.'

The most interesting post to receive its first label was Where's Smyslov? (December 2007). Since the question is still unanswered, I gave it two labels.

2022-23 WGP, Astana

A few weeks ago, in the post Women's Events 2022-23 (September 2022), I wrote,

The 1st leg of the [Women's] Grand Prix [WGP] started this past week. Since [the four] events are for the next cycle, I decided not to record their details myself, but to link to the corresponding Wikipedia page. I documented the decision in the index page for the Women's Championship. (NB: PGN still to be decided.)

The 'to be decided' also applied to images that I would normally use on the page, plus links to resources from Fide.com. See the page for the previous cycle, 2019-2020 FIDE Women's Grand Prix (m-w.com), for an example of the layout. Although I just wrote 'previous cycle', that cycle is in fact still underway, with the Candidates tournament and title match to be played.

The logo for the first leg of the new WGP is shown above. The link to the official site is FIDE Grand prix 2022 (womengrandprix.fide.com; 'Astana, the 1st tournament: September, 17 - 20 [sic; see TWIC below for the correct dates]'). I was disappointed to discover that the Wikipedia pages for the most recent WGP's lack crosstables for the individual events:-

• FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2019–2021 (wikipedia.org)
• FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2022–23 (ditto)

On the page for the 2019–2021 WGP, the Wikipedia section 'Events crosstables' says,

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2021).

In TWIC 1454, Mark Crowther wrote,

The Astana FIDE Women's Grand Prix takes place Sat 17th Sep to Fri 30th Sep 2022. The city in which the event is being held was renamed from Astana to Nur-Sultan in 2019 but yesterday a decree was signed to restore the city to the name of Astana, so I went with that. This is the first of four Women's Grand Prix events as part of the FIDE Women's World Championship cycle, three are next year.

Thank goodness we still have TWIC for PGN and crosstables.