From the Week in Chess

Big-Time Blitz

The chess world took another step into the future last weekend, it only remains to decide whether or not this is the future everybody wants. Gary Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik played a 24-game blitz chess match over two days. (five minutes per player, plus two seconds per move when less than 20 seconds remain on the clock) The match was tension-filled as Kasparov came back from two games down to tie the match, which ended in a 12-12 draw. However exciting it may be to watch blitz chess in person, the games, of course, are usually junk, even when played between the number one and number three ranked players in the world. And since few people have the option of flying to the Hotel Kosmos in Moscow to watch the games, why all the interest? Many people have touted spectator-friendly blitz and rapid chess as the key to increased chess revenues and sponsorship, but they have ignored the fact that you just can’t make much that much money from live fans. The stadium profits from football and tennis pale in comparison to the money made from broadcasting these events on TV and radio, and even the most optimistic chess promoter would admit that the chance of regular live chess TV is nil.

The solution, as with many things these days, is the internet. You want to buy a book you can’t find at local stores? Internet. You want to look up a word in a French-Swahili dictionary? Internet. You want to see what Demi Moore’s boobs looked like before plastic surgery? Internet. You want to watch a blitz chess match with each move transmitted live? INTERNET! Or, to be more precise, the Internet Chess Club, or ICC. ( http://www.chessclub.com ) Relaying live chess events on the internet is hardly new, however. Most big tournaments maintain their own web sites and update the games, with diagrams, almost as fast as the players can move the pieces. Many also offer bonuses such as on-line analysis by GMs and strong computer programs. So thousands of chess fans around the world can check in whenever they want, hit the "reload/refresh" button on their browsers a hundred times, and keep track of how the stars of the chess world are doing. The ICC also retransmits these tournaments, often taking the moves from the official website and displaying them on boards in the ICC. This is a much more satisfying experience for the fan, who can sit there and watch the different games being updated automatically. More importantly he/she can enjoy the club atmosphere as hundreds of fellow fans kibitz and analyze the games together as they are being played. The two weaknesses of this system are technical breakdowns, the bane of the internet in general, and the sheer slowness of regulation chess games! When you play in a tournament four hours zip by like nothing, but when you’re watching others play it feels like a lifetime. Even with four or five games going simultaneously it’s dreadfully slow going until the players start to get into time trouble. (At which point it’s often too fast, the moves coming in bunches too fast to analyze.)

The Kasparov-Kramnik match saw these problems addressed, both with mixed, yet promising, results. The technical problem of relaying the moves smoothly was solved by directly hooking up a sensory chess board to the internet, so the moves were transmitted the moment the pieces touched down. The Shahcom Company provided the high tech hardware at the site and theirs looks like a system with a future. Edward Sagitov, a Moscow-based computer technician and ICC administrator, was the one who made it all possible with his work at the site. Sensory boards have been in use for years, usually to transmit the moves to overhead screens for the benefit of the on-site audience, so this was the next logical step. It took an immense amount of work on all sides, at the playing site and at the ICC, to get this to work, and of course there were glitches on the first day. The solution to the second problem was also the cause of the first. Few people have the time or willpower to stick around and watch a four-hour chess game on-line, but the blitz format promised much more excitement. But high-speed, piece-slamming, clock-banging blitz is just the thing to bring one of these sensory boards to its silicon knees! Several times on the first day pieces just plain disappeared as the players failed to position them just right on the board, or failed to touch the board at all during rapid piece exchanges. This often left the sensory board and the ICC spectators in the dark until the game was over and the result was reported. But the programmers learned from this experience and were prepared on day two. A special "absolute" mode allowed the board to catch up with the players after losing track, and the on-line viewers could continue to follow the game. (Barring extreme problems, like when Kramnik’s knight was knocked off the board!) All in all the second day provided exactly what was hoped for: riveting live blitz games.

Kasparov and Kramnik both took home twelve thousand dollars for their two days of work. Both players had something to be happy about: Kramnik for drawing a match with the world champion and Kasparov for not losing after being down two games with four games to play. (NB I will refer to Kasparov as "world champion" for the next month, after that his three years without defending his title are up and he will be demoted to "world number one" as long as he maintains that rank on the list. In my opinion you can’t be world champion forever just by not playing, a la Bobby Fischer. And if he plays a title match against anyone other than rightful challenger Alexei Shirov it will be worse than no match at all. What would he be saying? "I will defend my title against the winner of this match. Oh, unless HE wins." NO WAY! If Kasparov wishes to salvage any credibility at all he should join Shirov in looking for sponsorship for their match. Nuff said.) And money was also the biggest topic of conversation regarding the match on the ICC. This was the first "pay-per-view" event in the history of the Internet Chess Club and it wasn’t exactly welcomed with open arms. There was a sixteen dollar charge for "tickets" to the match (good for both days) and members used to watching tournaments for free were annoyed to outraged about having to pay. The directors of the ICC took pains to make several things clear: 1) The money went to the prize fund of the match, not to the ICC. 2) This was a direct, exclusive transmission, not just a retransmission of something offered elsewhere on the net. 3) After the technical problems on the first day the ICC immediately offered a refund to all ticket buyers, even though the second day went off with barely a hitch. (The ICC can’t be blamed for pieces being knocked from the board!)

Some important points that I didn’t see mentioned include the fact that you can enjoy going over regulation games on your own, but blitz can only be enjoyed live. While I might check in to see how the games are going during Tilburg or Linares and kibitz for a little while, I usually prefer to simply download all the games after each round and look them over in ChessBase. With blitz and rapid chess the pleasure is all in the live broadcast. You can see the clocks ticking away, see tactical traps and tricks rarely seen OTB in regulation games, and also see a very high percentage of decisive games. When you look at these games afterwards though, you wonder what all the fuss was about! Aside from a few nice tactical shots and the occasional opening novelty the games are naturally much worse than any regulation time control game. It’s exciting to watch Kramnik hang a rook when you see it live, ridiculous to see it later on. The market value of blitz games is live viewing, so it’s a natural opportunity for those who are trying to bring these games to the public. The one weakness is that the games are so fast there’s no time for decent commentary. Even a GM can’t do more than blurt out the occasional suggestion during a blitz game. American Grandmaster Dlugy gave it his best shot during the K-K match, but the format just doesn’t allow for much more than an occasional "White is better." Rapid games of 25 minutes would be the perfect match for live transmission; they provide the excitement of quick tempo and aggressive play while permitting on-line commentary and discussion by the viewers. This blitz match brought in around 300 viewers and as the technology improves these numbers will also improve. I was skeptical of the whole thing, to be honest, but watching Kasparov come from behind to win several spectacular games with 300 fans cheering him on was exhilarating. Well, spectacular when you were watching them, of course. As always the cruel light of analysis casts harsh shadows on any blitz brilliancy.

The games, yes, there were actual chess games played as well. Of course analyzing blitz games is hardly fair when they had five minutes and I have loads of time and Junior 5, but who said life (or I) was fair? Kramnik pointed out game six as his best game of the match. He had white against Kasparov’s King’s Indian Defense and as always he played the 9.b4 "Bayonet Attack" variation with which he has given Kasparov quite a bit of trouble in the past. They followed an Euwe game from 1958 (talk about cutting-edge theory!) until Kramnik pulled the novelty 15.Bf3 out of his hat. He swapped queens and went to work on Black’s weakened queenside, completely tying Kasparov up. A nice king march was the cherry on a nice positional sundae that didn’t look much like a blitz game from a distance. Several day one games saw Kramnik getting into trouble tactically against Kasparov. He got his queen trapped twice (games 2, 11) and another game (4) contained more cheapo forks than a picnic. But what he made up this difference with pure speed and almost every game saw Kramnik far ahead on the clock. Kasparov would get so into the position that he would stop and think for a minute or more on a single move, something that is almost fatal in blitz, increment or no increment. One notable exception was game 20, in which Kasparov was down to 15 seconds against Kramnik’s two minutes in a drawn endgame. Kramnik preferred to play on to take advantage of the clock difference and instead found himself completely outplayed by Gary "Old but Speedy" Kasparov. After some 20 moves Kramnik had two fewer pawns, only a few seconds on his clock, and Kasparov still had 15 seconds thanks to the 2-second increment and really fast hands.

Kasparov, very happy to have drawn the match after being behind, commented afterwards that several of the games were of theoretical importance, and gave games 6, 14, and 16 as examples. All three of these games saw novelties by Vladimir Kramnik according to my database! To the disappointment of the fans neither player had much interest in 1.e4 this time around; the match was full of Nimzo-Indians, Queen’s Gambits, and Slav variations. No matter what Kramnik did with the Nimzo he kept losing with it on day two and eventually gave it up. Game 22 was the one game that had the crowd really rocking and rolling, but the result really should have been a draw. It was a spectacular game of attack and defense by both players until Kramnik lost his way and hung a full rook. He had defended his king very well and even had mate threats of his own going until he blundered with 34...Rxf3?? which Kasparov answered with the crushing 35.exd7! The only move was 34...Rdd8, which forces White to take the repetition draw with 35.Qc3! (Found by Junior, drawing the queen away from protection of h4!) 35.Qc3 Qxc3 36.Rh3+ Kg8 37.Bh7+ Kh8 38.Bd3+ draw. Other moves look good for Black. Game five was nicely played by Kasparov and only a last second blunder turned the tables. Instead of relying on a pin that didn’t pin after 44...Qa7! Kasparov could have played for the win with the shot 43.Nxa5! It looks like Black can hold after 43...Nd5, but it’s not so easy.

The cynic in me calls this match a profitable weekend for the players and a circus designed to stop the world from forgetting about Kasparov, who has been largely inactive this year. A long blitz match against his protégé is hardly the way to show you’re still the best player in the world, however. But the fan in me found the live broadcast thrilling and would love to see more of the same, and if rapid time controls instead of blitz, better. This obviously promises a great future for the sponsorship of chess. Instead of relying only on the fans you can fit in the door (who can’t see much anyway) you have a global fan base you can advertise to and sell tickets to! The money brought in this way will help defer the costs of tournaments and the added potential publicity should draw new sponsors to the game. More tournaments and better prizes to attract the top players is better for all of us fans. Hats off to the ICC, the Hotel Kosmos, and everyone else who made this pioneering event possible.

You can contact Mig (Michael Greengard) in his Argentinian mountain retreat at: mig@impsat1.com.ar
He also writes a column called Chess Madness at the ChessBase website and Checkmate 101, a new educational series at the CheckMate Software website.