34
votes
Accepted
What will happen if all games are draws for a World Chess Championship?
From the Wikipedia page of WCC 2021:
The match consists of 14 games, and a score of 7½ wins the world championship. If the score is equal after 14 games, tie-break games with faster time controls ...
- 1,840
28
votes
Why is Carlsen criticized for poor preparation at World Chess Championship 2018?
Carlsen is being criticized for his preparation with white, particularly e4. He knows that Caruana is going to play the Petrof yet nevertheless Caruana equalizes effortlessly. Carlsen appears to have ...
- 87k
27
votes
Why is Carlsen being praised for his tie-break play, when Caruana made several game-losing moves?
Carlsen crushed it, made almost no mistakes whatsoever in rapid. It is as if he was playing at classical time controls.
Chess is about not making mistakes. If your opponent doesn't make mistakes then ...
- 1,065
25
votes
Why did Bobby Fischer resign his title?
Bobby Fischer did not resign the title, although it may have looked that way.
As the New York Times reported at the time:
The International Chess Federation stripped Mr. Fischer of his title and gave ...
- 87k
23
votes
Accepted
Carlsen-Caruana Game 12
Is the tournament leading to some consensus on how good/bad Carlsen's decision was?
Not quite. As others have pointed out, Carlsen's decision was based on factors outside that one game. With a ...
- 605
23
votes
Why are such complicated time controls popular?
Why are such complicated time controls popular?
...
For instance, in the 2021 WCC
First point, such time controls are neither popular nor unpopular with the vast majority of chess players for the ...
- 87k
21
votes
When will the 2018 FIDE Candidates tournament be held, and who will qualify for it?
The Candidates will be held in Berlin, Germany, on 10-28 March 2018 (source).
According to FIDE's Rules & Regulations for the Candidates Tournament of the FIDE World Championship cycle 2016-2018, ...
- 27k
21
votes
Accepted
Where can I watch World Chess Championship 2021?
Chess24 Global is providing commentary with David Howell, Jovanka Houska and Kaja Snare.
Chess24 Deep Dive is providing commentary with Anish Giri and Judit Polgar.
Chess.com is providing commentary ...
- 2,259
20
votes
Carlsen-Caruana Game 12
Is the tournament leading to some consensus on how good/bad Carlsen's
decision was?
No. Consensus on Carlsen's play and decision has already been reached, I would suggest.
Psychologically Carlsen ...
- 87k
19
votes
Based on their separate and mutual records, what chance does Karjakin have against Carlsen?
One of the Russians (Filatov?, maybe even Karjakin himself?) brown-nosed to the media that every match is 50-50 odds on the face of it...
But more seriously, Carlsen's rating has consistently been ...
- 838
18
votes
Accepted
What was the role of the second in top level matches?
What was the role, the duties, etc. of the second (e.g. GM Ray Keene
was Korchnoi’s second in the 1978 World Championship match vs. Karpov)
What it most definitely was NOT was writing a book of the ...
- 87k
18
votes
Youngest Player to beat a reigning World Champion?
I have not identified the record with certainty, but here are some young winners of World Champions in classical chess:
N.Abdusattorov, 18y 4m 1d, vs Carlsen in Wijk aan Zee 2023
V.Kramnik, 18y 8m ...
- 14k
17
votes
Why is Carlsen being praised for his tie-break play, when Caruana made several game-losing moves?
my feeling is that Caruana lost the game, more than Carlsen won it.
Whenever two players play a game without making any errors the result is a draw. Most games have lots of errors and it is usually ...
- 87k
16
votes
Did Hans Berliner win the world ICCF championship using computer help?
Short of asking a deceased man, I would say that the answer is "no way".
He won the 5th World Correspondence Chess Championship in 1965. Computer chess, if it existed at all, was not strong at all. ...
- 32.2k
16
votes
Wrong inaugural move in game 2 of Carlsen - Nepomniachtchi
This is purely ceremonial. Some famous person is invited to make the first move, and they usually do it without consulting the player. Why doesn't the player tell the famous person what move to make? ...
- 23.9k
15
votes
Accepted
What happened to the WCC?
The WCC was the "World Chess Council".
It was formed in 1998 by Kasparov after the collapse of the PCA (Professional Chess Association) in 1995. It was Kasparov's fourth attempt at an organization ...
- 32.2k
14
votes
What was the longest World Championship game?
The longest World Chess Championship game is now Carlsen-Nepomniachtchi (Dubai, 2021), held on 3 December 2021.
In their 6th game, Magnus Carlsen continued to press in a theoretically drawn endgame ...
- 3,173
14
votes
Accepted
Why did Bobby Fischer quit chess after the match with Spassky?
There is no real definite answer for this question. Many people have floated different theories, most of which borrow bits and pieces from each other. It is quite possible that his mental struggles ...
- 594
14
votes
Why is Carlsen criticized for poor preparation at World Chess Championship 2018?
Carlsen is criticized because he's in a defense position (he's defending his title, and doesn't need to win all games), and people want to see crazy games with new things, as simple as that.
While I ...
- 333
14
votes
Caruana vs Carlsen game 10 (WCC) why not 18...Nxb6?
From a purely positional point of view, 18...Nxb6 would have been a
terrible mistake, as it would have allowed white to then forcefully trade the light squared bishops with the immediate Bg4
move, ...
- 11.9k
13
votes
Accepted
What if threefold repetition occurs in WCC 2018?
Draw by mutual agreement is not allowed before move 30. But a draw by threefold repetition can be claimed at any point if it occurs.
- 14k
13
votes
Accepted
Why is Carlsen being praised for his tie-break play, when Caruana made several game-losing moves?
Game 1 of the tiebreak: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1937923
37 Rc7 is a brilliant endgame move under time control, that induces the opponent to make the mistake 37...Kxe4. There were ...
- 1,492
13
votes
Why did Bobby Fischer resign his title?
Fischer wanted to play under a first-to-ten-wins format. This was the format of the first world championship match between Steinitz and Zukertort. The argument for this format is that it forces ...
- 23.9k
13
votes
Accepted
Wrong inaugural move in game 2 of Carlsen - Nepomniachtchi
How does this exactly work, are there any rulings on this?
This is not a part of normal chess. I played white in a league game last night for my club and there was no famous person to make the first ...
- 87k
12
votes
What are the worst blunders ever committed in a world championship match (final)?
By far, the biggest blunder in all world championship is absolutely 32.Bb4?? played by Chigorin in the 1892 match. He threw away the win and the match, landed himself to mate in 2.
https://en....
- 22.1k
12
votes
What were Fischer's 179 demands for a World Championship rematch?
If it was only about the 1975 match, It could have been a mistake by the video editor. As far as many sources from the web, there were only 3.
Not counting the draws, first to win 10 games wins the ...
- 588
12
votes
Accepted
Is today's World Championship game the first with a symmetrical position and one file completely occupied?
Using this CQL query:
cql(input all_wcc.pgn)
[Aa][a1-8] == 8
or [Aa][b1-8] == 8
or [Aa][c1-8] == 8
or [Aa][d1-8] == 8
or [Aa][e1-8] == 8
or [Aa][f1-8] == 8
or [Aa][g1-8] == 8
or [Aa][h1-8] == 8
...
- 4,225
12
votes
Rules regarding food and drink during a world championship game
I assume they were not allowed to eat.
You assume wrong. The regulations for the match were published by FIDE here. There is no mention of food not being allowed. Article 4.10.5 defines what they may ...
- 87k
12
votes
Accepted
History of physical fitness in the world championships
Alekhine is the first, which is not surprising because he's in many regards the prototypical grandmaster.
Capablanca entered the match with no technical or physical preparation, while Alekhine got ...
- 23.9k
11
votes
Accepted
Are there any chances that the Fischer who reappeared in 1992 was not the real one?
At the very least we know that in 1992 a man that looked and sounded like an aged version of Bobby Fischer played Boris Spassky in a match, and won it. Assuming that this old man was actually not ...
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Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible