Uhohspaghettio wrote on 12/20/13 at 22:59:17:


Maybe not unethical, but surely it must have reputational concequences? What organizer would invite a player known for using this strategy? I don't mind people playing "boring" chess, since a game can get interesting anyway, and the "boring" player still has to make good moves. This, however, is not even about playing chess.

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I thought about that solution, but it has a drawback: the player using this strategy (let's call him player A, and the opponent player B) may choose to reach the xth move first. Say you draw the line at 10 moves, meaning that when 10 moves have been played in one game, the other game can not reach the exact same position. Now, consider the situation when 9 moves have been played in both games. White is at move in both games, and the positions are identical. Player A is waiting for player B to make the 10th move in player B's White game. When he does, player A deviates from his strategy and suddenly makes a reply with Black, reaching the 10th move. In the other game, player A is playing White, and he copies player B's White move. Now it is suddenly player B who is forced to deviate, and surely that was not the intention of the rule? If Black's 10th move is clearly the strongest in the position, it is actually player B who is punished by this rule.

TalJechin wrote on 12/21/13 at 00:02:26:


Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I think that would work.

just make a rule that the position should not be the same after x moves, problem solved

Keano wrote on 12/20/13 at 14:48:47:


Why is it not? This looks like a relevant issue to me. It will probably never be an issue on a top level, like in the recent Mind Games, since the players would ruin their reputation by doing that. If the Basque system is to be used on lower levels, however, I would consider it relevant.

Another issue is the time controls. Consider a tournament with 2 hours for 40 moves and 1 hour for the rest, meaning that one game can last for 6 hours. Now if you want to implement the Basque system in such a tournament, you have to consider what to do with the time controls:
- If you keep them unchanged, you are practically giving the players much less time for the games.
- If you expand them, the playing sessions will be very long.
On shorter time controls, however, the Basque system sounds fun, and I would like to try it myself.

dfan wrote on 12/18/13 at 16:40:07:


This is a valid question!

TalJechin wrote on 12/18/13 at 18:37:35:


See e.g. http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/san-sebastian-a-unique-format-and-a-gm-blogger...
The name originates from this event. In an interview with one of the organizers on chessbase, see http://en.chessbase.com/post/all-about-basque-interview-with-gm-feliz-izeta you can feel why the emphasis is on the Basque aspect and not the Spanish aspect.

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I think I suggested something like this here a few years ago, to no avail. Has it been tried in Basque country or how come its name?

It would be nice to see it tried at least. Didn't Bronstein and Tal play a match with something like this? Though they may have been using more than two boards iirc - was it four boards?, like a double simulmatch... 

I would be afraid of one player trying to play the same game on both boards to assure an equal total result, but I guess this hasn't been an issue? You would fall behind on the clock, but I would hope that trying to win on time wouldn't be the only way of foiling this tactic.