Things to look forward to in 2022

 Predicting what will happen in world chess in 2022 is a risky proposition. Just as it looks like things are on the up, a new covid strain, or outbreak comes along to throw everything into conclusion. This means exactly which events will, or will not happen, is quite difficult.

At this stage local events like the 2022 O2C Doeberl Cup will be running. The ACT Government has been pretty flexible with restrictions, and given the low infection rate and high vaccination rate, I would be surprised if there is a shutdown in the ACT. Slightly trickier is guessing whether there will be travel restrictions between states, although the constant redefinition of infection periods (or what a close contact is), indicates that the federal government is doing its best to pretend the whole covid thing is behind us.

As for the international scene, the 2022 Olympiad is apparently going ahead in Moscow. However I see 2 clouds on the horizon. The first is that GM Hikaru Nakamura had to withdraw from the 2021 World Blitz after testing positive to covid, which indicates there is still issues with large international events. The second is that the Russian Government may well restrict who can enter the country, meaning some countries may not be able to play. There are restrictions currently in place for some countries, and these may not be lifted in time for the event.

On the other hand, there were a few large international opens in Europe towards the end of the year, and I suspect the number will increase throughout the year. And if you are able to travel to the US, they seem to just keep holding events, as a number of there huge tournaments seem to still be on the calendar.

There are no perfect tie-breaks

 The topic of suitable tie-breaks has popped up again, after a 4 way tie in the 2021 World Rapid Championship. The regulations (published beforehand, and used in previous events) specified a playoff in the case of a tie for 1st. The controversy was that only the top 2 players (on tie break) were involved, which in this case were Abdusattorov and Nepomniachtchi, whith Carlsen and Caruana missing out. 

Despite the players being aware of the tie-break system, Carlsen immediately criticised the rules, and was backed up by other players. Pushing back were a number of arbiters/officials who pointed out that the previous tie-break were changed at the request of the players, and had been used in the previous event.

Having done quite a large amount of work in tie-breaks there are a few things worth pointing out

1. There is no perfect tie-break system, even for similar types of event
2. No one cares about the tie-break method until they are disadvantaged by it
3. Everyone thinks that the solution to tie-break issues is to simply use a different tie-break
4. Not even FIDE can sort this issue, as at least 3 different FIDE Commissions believe they are the responsible body for defining tie-breaks (and I have been a member of 2 of them!)

Due to the issues with tie-breaks, the ACT Chess Association made a decision a very long time ago to avoid them wherever possible. For the ACT Chess Championship (and the Belconnen/Gungahlin Chess Club) the title of champion was simply shared. If there was a necessity to separate the players (eg to see who qualifies for the Australian Championship) then a playoff match (at the same time controls as the championship) was organised.

On the other hand, the ACT Junior Chess League has always used a similar playoff system as the World Rapid, with on exception. The first tie-break is direct encounter, but if that doesn't work (either due to players drawing in the tournament, or a multi-way tie), then a playoff match between the top two finishers (on tie-break) takes place. If it is good enough to decide the ACT Junior Chess Championship, then it is good enough for the World Championship as well!

Things that went poorly

 The 2021 FIDE General Assembly was held last night (starting at midnight my time), and the Papua New Guinea Chess Federation had 2 important motions on the agenda. That was until I logged into the voting system to discover that our 2 motions had been listed as a single motion for voting purposes. This was of course done without the knowledge of the PNGCF and attempts to get it fixed were unsuccessful. 

The main issue with this (apart from arbitrarily changing properly submitted motions) was that both motions had different chances of success. While we expected one motion to be defeated, we had high hopes that the second would be passed. And I was planning to make this point when called upon to speak.

Then the second problem arose. Despite using my headphone/microphone setup all through the FIDE Commission meetings, it chose this moment to break. So instead of me putting forward the PNGCF reasoning behind both motions, the congress was reduced to watching me play a round of charades ('First word - Microphone', I nod my head, 'Second word begins with F', I nod more vigorously). However, at the same time, the online voting system used for the Congress also broke. So I am trying to fix my mic, and number of people are telling the congress what a stupid motion it is, and no one can vote on it (or a number of other motions). 

So the meeting moved on, and about an hour later, the voting system was fixed (I assume it was an issue with access to the service provider). When the vote was then called, the FIDE exec made it quite clear they did not support the PNG proposal, while former FIDE VP Georgios Makropoulos went as far as to say that such motions should not even be allowed on the agenda, unless the FIDE Exec support them (The FIDE President did tell him he was wrong on this btw). Despite suggestions from the floor that the vote on this shouldn't even be counted, there was a surprisingly high number of votes (41) in favour of our motion, with around 69 against (There was a very low turnout for the congress). 

Unfortunately, the decision by FIDE to have this under a single vote meant that the second proposal did not even get voted on, which based on the numbers, might well have got up.

 

World Rapid and Blitz

The last major event of 2021, the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz begins shortly. Originally planned for Kazakhstan, a covid outbreak in the country meant that it was relocated to Poland at short notice. 

The Rapid portion starts this evening, with Magnus Carlsen the top seed in the 181 player field. The bottom half of the field starts at 2538 (Rapid), and while there were concern about a lag between Rapid ratings and standard ratings, there doesn't seem to be a huge difference, except for IM Aditya Mittal, who has a rapid rating of 1488

There are plenty of places to follow this event (including plenty of youtube and twitch streams), but for now I am planning to watch it on chess24.com 

We all make mistakes

An older video than I realised, but still fun to watch 

Bad Xmas Presents

 If you are looking for a chess themed Xmas present there are some good ones, and some less than good. 

In the category of less than good, is an 'Backyard Chess Set' offered by own of Australia's well known retailers, Kmart. Kmart is at the cheaper end of the retails spectrum, although I do often by items from this store. However the Backyard Chess Set, isn't one of them.

This isn't because of the quality mind you, but for the size. Appearing to use the same designers as Spinal Tap, the size of the board is a massive 1 metre x 1 metre. The pieces are descried as 10cm tall, which while suitable for this particular board, isn't much larger than the size of pieces in a standard chess set. My big fear would be that leaving the pieces outside would result in them being stolen by passing birds.

If however you do decide to purchase this gift, I hope you have as much fun as reading the manual as I did.

Late nights at the FIDE saloon

 Just like 2020, 2021 has seen the FIDE Congress become an online affair. The good thing about this is that more people can attend, the bad thing is that not everyone is in the 'right' time zone. For people in Oceania, the meetings start at 11pm (at the earliest) and finish after 3am (and later in some cases). If attendees are based in the America's early starts are the problem, with meetings starting at 6 or 7 am.

So far I have attended the Qualification Commission (quite well run), Arbiters (lots of slides), Swiss Pairings and Programs (very technical) and Rules Commission (still recovering). For some it was about making changes to documents included in the FIDE Handbook, but for others, it was mainly to inform people what is going on. The final big meeting will be the General Assembly, which is held after Christmas, and if last year is a guide, this may be the longest of the lot!