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Very Hot Topic (More than 25 Replies) Too many elites only tournaments (Read 21912 times)
an ordinary chessplayer
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Re: Too many elites only tournaments
Reply #7 - 04/19/19 at 12:20:18
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They are just trying to put bread on the table. I think Kramnik's experiment leading up to his retirement pretty conclusively demonstrated that trying to make the game interesting results in a net loss of rating. Life is hard for a chess pro. If the objective is to remain in the top 10 and keep getting the invitations that make it slightly less hard, Spanish and Queen's Gambit, with Italian or Catalan for variety, must seem like perfect openings.
  
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Leon_Trotsky
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Re: Too many elites only tournaments
Reply #6 - 04/18/19 at 21:29:33
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Only way to have semblance of interest for elite tournaments is to make them have opening thematic each round, by randomly having an opening chosen each round to avoid preparation.

Sometimes I really do wonder, do those elite GMs get tired of opening like Berlin Wall and QGD ¿ Or do they sincerely love those openings ¿
  
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MW
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Re: Too many elites only tournaments
Reply #5 - 04/18/19 at 20:29:30
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Must say I don't bother looking at the games in these elite tournaments anymore....there is only so much Berlin Wall  theory/games that one can take...
  
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Leon_Trotsky
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Re: Too many elites only tournaments
Reply #4 - 04/17/19 at 21:00:22
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I would dare say that super GM probably would feel much more uncomfortable playing in big opens compared to closed round robins. In the closed round robin you play the same guys you just played a few months earlier, and you prepared a bunch of lines deep past move 30 with specialised opening analyst GMs whom you hired. And almost everyone has same staid mentality: win with White, draw with Black.

Not to mention the tournament itself looks too high class. Like a golf tournament between royal families with suits and tie and posh playing hall.

A big open you have to face less known players, many of whose games not in databank. You also have to dump the "win with White, draw with Black" strategy and be prepared to win with both colours.

Result is in big opens like Reykjavík you see unexpected result where 2700s mess up against lower rated  Cheesy
  
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Dink Heckler
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Re: Too many elites only tournaments
Reply #3 - 04/17/19 at 19:37:27
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Super GM tournaments have been in crisis for years - compare the interest level now to the golden years of Linares, Wijk, Dortmund etc. Part of it is perhaps overfamiliarity - back in the days, supertournaments were rarer and top players played each other less often, and some of it is that the players torpedoed their economic interest by serving up a load of crap. The last few years have actually been better (focus moving away from testing each other's hyperpreparation towards getting playable positions), but commercially, these things seem pretty dead.
  

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Leon_Trotsky
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Re: Too many elites only tournaments
Reply #2 - 04/17/19 at 18:49:51
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https://www.twitch.tv/videos/409556749?t=02h03m48s

Reykjavík Open, commentators mention not exciting watching super GM draw each others in closed event, better are big open like Reykjavík.

I stopped watching super GM round robin with Anand, Giri, Aronian, etc. It is same thing over and over, yet proletariat's tournaments barely get a coverage  Cheesy
  
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tony37
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Re: Too many elites only tournaments
Reply #1 - 04/10/19 at 13:24:13
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luckily there's still Magnus Carlsen
  
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Leon_Trotsky
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Too many elites only tournaments
04/05/19 at 03:41:15
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Anyone feel that there are too many elites invitationals tournaments with a round-robin pairing system, where everyone knows everyone else and can prepare accordingly ¿ 

I must liked big open tournaments like Gibraltar Open, Reykjavík Open, Sants Open and others where if elites play, they have to play against the "middle players" which are not amateurs but many of us, with level around 2100-2500 and is hard to prepare. 

As example I remember that there was a Gibraltar Open maybe last year (¿) where Anand had some struggled with the lower-rated players, and other elite got upset as well.

At least for me these are more exciting. The elites invitational only tournaments is like a CEO board roam meeting circlejerk of Berlin Defences and QGD's where everyone wears fancy suits or dresses instead of regular people's clothes, and they can do deep preparation with move deepness of 40+ before the tournament even starts.  Cheesy
  
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