My drastic proposal to 100% end drawfest in top level RR events
SusanPolgar
Here is my suggestion to guarantee decisive results and excitement for every round in top-level round robin events:
- Classical game: If it ends in a draw, the 2 players will immediately reverse colors and play a 15' 10" rapid game.
- If 15' 10" rapid game ends in a draw, the 2 players immediately reverse colors and play a 5' 3" blitz game.
- if 5' 3" blitz game ends in a draw, the 2 players immediately reverse colors and play a 3' 2" blitz game.
- If 3' 2" blitz game ends in a draw, there will be a toss of colors for an Armageddon game where black will have draw odds. White will have 6 minutes and black will have 4 minutes. There will be a 2" increment after move 60.
The classical game will be rated for classical chess, and others will be rated for rapid and blitz (just like in FIDE World Cup). This way, there will be a decisive result for every round of the tournament. I think this will raise the level of excitement and viewership big time.
To illustrate my point, in round 1 of the London Chess Classic, other than the Carlsen - Caruana game, would any of these players take a draw in the final position if they need a win to win the tournament, to avoid elimination in the World Cup, or if their opponents are 2500 GMs? I think not. The point is they have very little incentive to play out.
What do you think?
At the current state, 99.9% of the world population cannot even name the top 10-20 chess players globally. I personally find it boring to see the same 6-8-10 players in top level tournaments where there is very little incentive for them to take risk for victories.
When I asked about 1,000 kids in some of the scholastic events I attended this year, almost all of them have no idea who the top professional chess players are. But they all know who Bobby Fischer is.