I'll take a guess at speculating what Mariya Muzychuk may use in the match.

I don't think Mariya Muzychuk is going to try to reveal some theoretical novelty in some established opening because its clear Yifan steers games away from theoretical duels. But I do think its possible we might see some openings we've never seen before in championship matches.

For example the Dutch Defence might be seen. Mariya Muzychuk likes this defence as Black so we could see this. I don't think we've seen the Dutch Defence used in modern championship play. Then there's the Benko Gambit which she also uses from time to time. However I don't think she'll use the Benoni as this would be risky considering Black could be forced into a defensive position throughout the game.

As for White...I think Mariya Muzychuk might play the Italian Game to avoid any tricks from Yifan in the Ruy Lopez. However I was impressed Mariya Muzychuk was able to defeat Pogonina when the Breyer variation was used so we might see a Ruy Lopez but as to whether we'll see a Berlin Wall or the Marshall i obviously don't know.

Finally although we don't know what Mariya Muzychuk will play in the match next March the recent Ukranian championship match just completed Chessbase reported that Mariya Muzychuk was able to hold off an opponent 150 elo points higher to a draw.

No, I meant that we don't even know if those "games" are scripts to be released later in order to validate Muzychuk's status as champion without her thinking through any chess. It's true, I'm not worrying about whether the word "arranged" designates a game played before a board with a foreordained result, like an prearranged draw; a game score composed in advance but played out with hands, like (probably) Botvinnik-Chekhover; or a game score composed and not played out, but merely released, like, maybe, this.

Probably the games proceeded normally. My point is just that you can see how bad this development is simply in the way it raises doubt (and I don't mean Cartesian doubt).

What about national championchips where the tournament is run by the national government? Till exemple, what if a country X puts an amount of money to sponsor the tournament to determine who is the champion of their country? I am sure most countries would do this for their national championchips because it would be run by the Ministry of Sport, or something similar ? Then it would have to be public , no?

Countries like Argentina and Russia have their national championchips run by the Ministry of Sport or Mind Sport, as far as I know. As these agencies are part of the government, it is in publik domain.

In Norway, they can see how much their fellow citizens earn and pay in taxes in % (skatt), just as publik as it is for them to see peoples phone numbers in the phone book . Why not chess games too ?

The majority of Chess Tournaments are not 'public.'

They are private affairs, run by organized institutions.  They are not held to the same laws as events in a public commons.

By law in the USA, chess game scores belong to the tournament.

Since when is doing what you can to try to gain an advantage "signs of desperation"? It's the correct decision if they believe it will give her an advantage. 

Competition isn't supposed to be about holding hands and getting along, it's doing what you can to win. In that respect it could be argued that it's the duty of a person to actually keep their games secret if they think that's possible. You need to do every little thing that gives you a better chance, that's the sign of a fine sportperson.  
 

As an 2000 amateur I'm not willing to pay more for game notations. 

If you buy a database you pay for games. I will only pay for commented games, b.e. in books. When participating a tournament and paying the entrance fee I pay for the games of the professionals too. So it's about paying more.

brabo wrote on 12/05/15 at 19:00:35:


I'd like to hear GM Yasser Seirawan's position on this issue because he's played against some of the very names you mentioned. I can understand training games can be kept secret. But this is a public event...the Ukrainian Chess championship. The fact this is a public event and yet a participant like Mariya Muzychuk's games here are being kept secret is something new I think.