Life In 19x19

I think the current chess world championship teaches the Go scene a lesson in marketing & promtion. This single tournament is driving more people towards chess then anything. I see it with a lot of my friends that do not care about chess, but talk about it suddently because of this tournament and its coverage. If Go would have such an ultimate event, I bet it would soon overtaking chess in the Western world, because Go is superior to chess in almost any (comptetitive) way. And needless to say it would be more fun too, instead of having zillion tournaments where you don't know their importances (e.g. what's more valueable...to win Honinbo or LG Cup?). That's my opinion.

What do you think? Why is the Go scene in Asia so splitted, why is there not a big firm that'd sponsor a world champ jubango? Or do you even like the current system in Go?

1. A few months ago there was a superhuge jubango finishing
2. The chess world has a gazillion tournaments

RBerenguel wrote:1. A few months ago there was a superhuge jubango finishing

Between two players past their prime. It's like if Karpov would play against Kasparov nowadays. Yes, there are many tournaments in chess, but it all peaks in the World Championship. That is missing in Go - at least for me.

I don't see the chess World Champion title as overwhelmingly important. The winner of the world championship just won some tournaments and a match. As we have seen, the "world champion" might not actually be a dominating player. A lot of popularity in the competitive chess world comes from politics, IMO. At one time, sixty years ago, I was a big fan of chess. Then there weren't very many grandmasters so you could keep track of the top competitive players. Back then there was still too much politics, though. As for Go, there are so many pro players it is hard to keep track of what's happening in the top three go countires. I'm sure it has been raised before, but the West does not have a world politics or war enemy for which becoming at go connects with somehow defeating a national enemy.

gowan wrote:I don't see the chess World Champion title as overwhelmingly important. The winner of the world championship just won some tournaments and a match. As we have seen, the "world champion" might not actually be a dominating player. A lot of popularity in the competitive chess world comes from politics, IMO. At one time, sixty years ago, I was a big fan of chess. Then there weren't very many grandmasters so you could keep track of the top competitive players. Back then there was still too much politics, though. As for Go, there are so many pro players it is hard to keep track of what's happening in the top three go countires. I'm sure it has been raised before, but the West does not have a world politics or war enemy for which becoming at go connects with somehow defeating a national enemy.

Kasparov and Karpov are completely retired, not only "past their prime." Gu Li and Yi Se-tol even if not the best at the moment are probably still top 10 players. Say, Nakamura vs Caruana, for instance. And like gowan says, Carlsen was thought to be #1 at least a year (probably 2) before becoming World Champion. And like gowan says, winning the WC is "almost" just a simple tournament. The recent Sinquefield cup was actually considered "harder" than the Candidates tournament was/is, at least by opposition.

Pippen wrote:This single tournament is driving more people towards chess then anything.

Do you have some proof of this? I haven't even heard of a chess tournament going on now.

Is the world chess championship currently being played? Is so, are people flocking to it. I would not have a clue when or where it takes place, and I doubt I know anyone who does. Or is all this hypothetical?

DrStraw wrote:Is the world chess championship currently being played? Is so, are people flocking to it. I would not have a clue when or where it takes place, and I doubt I know anyone who does. Or is all this hypothetical?

Magnus Carlsen vs Anand Viswanathan in Sochi (Russia) round 7, Magnus is 1 pt ahead. Best of 12.

RBerenguel wrote:

DrStraw wrote:Is the world chess championship currently being played? Is so, are people flocking to it. I would not have a clue when or where it takes place, and I doubt I know anyone who does. Or is all this hypothetical?

Magnus Carlsen vs Anand Viswanathan in Sochi (Russia) round 7, Magnus is 1 pt ahead. Best of 12.

Never heard of either of them.

Did they hold a candidates tournament? Last years WC match was kinda boring, as Carlsen just dominated, but the candidates one (I think it was in London) was pretty close and produced some nice matches.

DrStraw wrote:

RBerenguel wrote:

DrStraw wrote:Is the world chess championship currently being played? Is so, are people flocking to it. I would not have a clue when or where it takes place, and I doubt I know anyone who does. Or is all this hypothetical?

Magnus Carlsen vs Anand Viswanathan in Sochi (Russia) round 7, Magnus is 1 pt ahead. Best of 12.

Never heard of either of them.

It's not their fault. Anand has been world champion or candidate since 1997 or around that time.

paK0 wrote:Did they hold a candidates tournament? Last years WC match was kinda boring, as Carlsen just dominated, but the candidates one (I think it was in London) was pretty close and produced some nice matches.

This year's was mostly a sweep by Anand to get back the title, but I don't know much more, didn't check the games. Everything seems to tell next year Fabiano Caruana will be the challenger: he kicked ass in the Sinquefield cup (it was the tournament with highest average rating ever)

As far as I can tell, if you like chess, you know when the big chess events are.

If you like go, you know when the big go events are.

Having a 'world championship' hasn't really helped either game get into the news in the West lately.

RBerenguel wrote:

DrStraw wrote:
Never heard of either of them.

It's not their fault. Anand has been world champion or candidate since 1997 or around that time.

Well, I realize that, but the point I was making was that if chess is so big then I should have heard of them. I don't care one wit about soccer, baseball or basketball but I would recognize the names of one or two of the top players.

DrStraw wrote:

RBerenguel wrote:

DrStraw wrote:
Never heard of either of them.

It's not their fault. Anand has been world champion or candidate since 1997 or around that time.

Well, I realize that, but the point I was making was that if chess is so big then I should have heard of them. I don't care one wit about soccer, baseball or basketball but I would recognize the names of one or two of the top players.

The largest, mostly soccer-focused newspaper in Spain has live commentary on the matches online. I doubt the US can be worse, given that chess is way bigger there than here.