On Apr 14, 10:49=A0am, Rich Hutnik <richardhut...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Anyhow, on this note, if there was a well done TV show that involved a
> chess player playing in tournaments, that's true to chess in that they
> get the name of the moves, set up, etc... correct, would people here
> watch it?
I suspect that, indeed, if the show was any good, it would attract a
lot of the people who are interested in Chess - at least who have any
time left to watch TV. The real question would be, though, would
anyone else watch it.
Ah, and have you caught my other post recently? Ages ago, I had
thought of getting chess unstuck, and felt that I could offer another
alternative to shaking up the openings that might be more palatable
than FischerRandom.
And 1/3 - 1/3 for a draw would presumably have some effect - in
tournaments, but not matches - on draws. But it's precisely the
matches, not tournaments, that attract the most attention from
spectators.
I didn't think I could come up with an idea that would get Chess out
of the less splashy and exciting mode it's been in ever since
Steinitz. Chess players will play what gives them the best chance of
winning in any individual game, and I didn't see any reasonable way to
drive a return to the days of Labourdonnais-McDonnel or Anderssen-
Kieseritzky.
But then I heard about how _komida****_, requiring the player who
placed the first stone (Black) in Go to win by more than X points to
win, did just that for Go. So, based on that, I thought about how one
could modify Chess in an analogous manner to what was shown to work
for another game.
I finally came up with a notion. In terms of 10 points per game, for
checkmate by White the split is 10/0, a draw is 5/5, and checkmate by
Black is 0/10, the same as we have now.
But forcing stalemate also counts for a win - 8/2 for White, but 1/9
for Black.
And, to narrow the space for draw by insufficient material even
further, bare King also gets to be a win - 6/4 for White, but 2/8 for
Black.
The idea is that White is encouraged more to take risks and go all the
way for checkmate, and Black is rewarded well for even managing a bare
King victory. The game is made balanced, and the players are pushed
away from defensive play, without changing the rules of Chess (much).
(A rule needs to be present to allow a player baring the opponent's
King to press on for checkmate at his choice when that is possible as
well.)
I had thought to give some points to Black for drawing, but 4/6 turned
out to be too much; it would have stopped the scheme from working the
way I wanted, because except for a points offset that would cancel out
as players alternate colors, the effect would have been to penalize
Black instead of rewarding Black.
John Savard
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