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  • Global Chess League

    From Silver Skull@21:1/5 to All on Wed Oct 9 13:01:10 2024
    Nobody interested in this tournament that's going on across the pond ?
    Or have we all gone back to sleep here ? { Yeah I know, the hockey is
    back. nuff said. }

    The term Global Chess League is enough to send shivers down my spine as
    chess isn't a team sport as far as I am concerned. It's a battle between
    two minds. You play for yourself. If a rich Indian wants to throw money
    at the game I suppose I should see it as a plus. Although I can't say it interests me very much.

    What say the intelligentsia of rec.games.chess.misc?

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  • From Silver Skull@21:1/5 to William Hyde on Sat Oct 12 13:00:04 2024
    On Fri, 11 Oct 2024 16:34:07 +0000, William Hyde wrote:

    Team tournaments have always been popular. City vs City matches go back
    to the 1800s, and in the 20th century the olympiads began.

    In my youth we had two questions for every olympiad:

    (1) Would Canada make it into the finals? (ans, sometimes)

    (2) Would the USSR finally be relegated to second place (ans, by the Hungarians but not for a long time).

    Team events brought together players who would not otherwise meet.
    Fischer's appearances in strong European events not related to the world championship were comparatively rare, and Botvinnik's career was winding down, so they only met once, at the olympiad in Varna in 1962,

    Also, as it was a national team event it provided the chance to get some public financing. Most of our local masters could not afford to play in Europe, where pretty much all norm-awarding tournaments were. A local player, Martin Jaeger, managed to get enough lottery money to help send
    a team to the olympiad, getting much needed international experience for
    our players.

    As for myself, I always seemed to play better in a team event. Playing
    only for myself I can drift off and blunder horribly. But I didn't want
    to let the team down, so I focused better in team events. If I only
    rated my team events I'd be 200 points higher.

    I get what you're saying but I don't feel it myself. I see chess as a
    game where two minds battle it out for supremacy. Having to think about
    how your own result will affect a team, maybe take a draw as opposed to
    pushing on for a win, seems to defeat the purpose of the game. Of
    course, team events whip-up national fervour and we all like a bit of nationalistic bashing of others at times. Plus, the dollars seem to
    roll-in for team events in sport. For me, chess is not the game for
    that. I play for myself. Not that i am a brilliant chess player or
    anything like that, I just want to beat the people I play. Hoping a
    player does well one minute, as they are on my team, then wanting them
    to go down another, as they are my opponent, is something that i can't
    get my head around.

    Want a team event ? The hockey is back, so get down to the arena and
    make some noise !

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  • From The Horny Goat@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sun Oct 13 02:44:31 2024
    On Fri, 11 Oct 2024 12:34:07 -0400, William Hyde
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    Also, as it was a national team event it provided the chance to get some >public financing. Most of our local masters could not afford to play in >Europe, where pretty much all norm-awarding tournaments were. A local >player, Martin Jaeger, managed to get enough lottery money to help send
    a team to the olympiad, getting much needed international experience for
    our players.

    I know the finances of the Canadian Chess federation have always been
    more or less on a two year cycle since Olympic costs are high enough
    that they're in the red in Olympiad years, and in the black in the off
    year. (Not officially you understand but in practice)

    At least that's the norm in the years that's I've been on the national executive. Which isn't surprising since the Olympiad is usually held
    in Europe which is great for Europeans but expensive for North
    Americans. (Many of the smaller countries outside North America and
    Europe get their team expenses fully or partially comped by FIDE - how
    else does for instance Faeroe Islands financially afford a Olympiad
    team?)

    (For what it's worth this year's top teams were 7 European teams plus
    India, USA and China. In the womens' section it was 6 European teams -
    India, Kazakhstan, USA being #1-3 with China #7)

    https://chessolympiad2024.fide.com/

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