Back in the day (before the dawn of the 21st Century), there was a kind of arms race between tournament organisers about who could organise the highest category tournament. The tournament was almost always a round robin, and the category was determined by the average rating of the field. However the category system was eventually abandoned by FIDE, and such measurements lost their value.
However, the competition between organisers seems to have been restarted, although it is now Swiss tournaments that seem to be the battleground. The current Sharjah Masters is a 78 player swiss, with all 78 players holding the title of Grandmaster. The bottom seed is still rated above 2500 and the 'bottom half' starts at 2607
One Australian player is taking part, GM Temur Kuybokarov. He was in the unfamiliar position of being the lower rated player in round 1, and lost his first game. There were a number of draws, and even 3 upset wins. However the top few boards went according to rating, including the game on board 2
Gukesh D (2732) - Vescovi,Giovanni (2606) [C65]
Sharjah Masters 2023 Chess.com (1), 17.05.2023
No comments:
Post a Comment