Candidates match are unrealistic in practice. Yet one still wants an element of matchplay to qualify for the title match.
I propose something like this: a 2-year cycle for the World Championship match. Year zero: Match, Interzonal for next cycle. Year one: Candidates match tournament. Year two: Match, Interzonal for next cycle etc.
To avoid cluttering up the calendar, there should only be one month per year where the main individual World Championship events occur - so we make the Interzonal in year 0 at about the same time as the World Championship Match. This also discourages a really strong player acting as second in the World Championship Match (e.g. Kramnik in 1995, Leko in 2008).
15 player interzonal. Odd number of players to avoid excess Whites. Single-round robin. First 4 go through to a 5-player Candidates matchplay tournament to be played in the following year, together with the loser of the World Championship match. Obviously no rematch - but the loser has no opportunity to play in the Interzonal so has to be seeded through to the Candidates directly.
In the Candidates tournament, there are 4-game matches, and match points take precedence over game points. The reason for 5-player tournament is that this gives players more rest days while keeping the tournament going for the public. Using match points avoids things like Botvinnik 4 Keres 0 deciding the event (if you look back at 1948 you would see Reshevsky would then still have a chance if he had made the most of his winning positions against Botvinnik).
Ties should be broken by playing chess - but I would prefer nothing faster than a rapidplay with increments. Just keep playing pairs of games until somebody wins.
Qualification for the Interzonal should be a mixture of winning events or having a high rating. For example, continental titles, world junior champion, 2nd and 3rd from previous candidates would be routes in by playing. But also players with real chances don't have to spend all their time qualifying for the interzonal (a common complaint from strong GMs in the 50s and 60s) since they can qualify by rating. Having the world junior champion encourages the likes of Carlsen and Karjakin to play in that event.
The World Championship Match should be extended to 16 games - thus you will note that all these events are about the same length in games and hence in time - e.g about 4 weeks at most to allow sufficient rest between games. No sick days of course (that is a thing of the past thank goodness).
'Candidates Matches' are the best only in theory. Here in the real world they are not financially viable.
The approaches by Kirsan (FIDO) and S.Danailov (Grand Slam) are more realistic, and appeal in other ways too.
Both would generate WCChamp candidates by accumulating the winners of individual tournaments. This principle is more the important essence than the last step grand tournament that whittles the list of challengers down to one; for the WCChamp match.
Candidates match are unrealistic in practice. Yet one still wants an element of matchplay to qualify for the title match.
I propose something like this: a 2-year cycle for the World Championship match. Year zero: Match, Interzonal for next cycle. Year one: Candidates match tournament. Year two: Match, Interzonal for next cycle etc.
To avoid cluttering up the calendar, there should only be one month per year where the main individual World Championship events occur - so we make the Interzonal in year 0 at about the same time as the World Championship Match. This also discourages a really strong player acting as second in the World Championship Match (e.g. Kramnik in 1995, Leko in 2008).
15 player interzonal. Odd number of players to avoid excess Whites. Single-round robin. First 4 go through to a 5-player Candidates matchplay tournament to be played in the following year, together with the loser of the World Championship match. Obviously no rematch - but the loser has no opportunity to play in the Interzonal so has to be seeded through to the Candidates directly.
In the Candidates tournament, there are 4-game matches, and match points take precedence over game points. The reason for 5-player tournament is that this gives players more rest days while keeping the tournament going for the public. Using match points avoids things like Botvinnik 4 Keres 0 deciding the event (if you look back at 1948 you would see Reshevsky would then still have a chance if he had made the most of his winning positions against Botvinnik).
Ties should be broken by playing chess - but I would prefer nothing faster than a rapidplay with increments. Just keep playing pairs of games until somebody wins.
Qualification for the Interzonal should be a mixture of winning events or having a high rating. For example, continental titles, world junior champion, 2nd and 3rd from previous candidates would be routes in by playing. But also players with real chances don't have to spend all their time qualifying for the interzonal (a common complaint from strong GMs in the 50s and 60s) since they can qualify by rating. Having the world junior champion encourages the likes of Carlsen and Karjakin to play in that event.
The World Championship Match should be extended to 16 games - thus you will note that all these events are about the same length in games and hence in time - e.g about 4 weeks at most to allow sufficient rest between games. No sick days of course (that is a thing of the past thank goodness).
'Candidates Matches' are the best only in theory. Here in the real world they are not financially viable.
The approaches by Kirsan (FIDO) and S.Danailov (Grand Slam) are more realistic, and appeal in other ways too.
Both would generate WCChamp candidates by accumulating the winners of individual tournaments. This principle is more the important essence than the last step grand tournament that whittles the list of challengers down to one; for the WCChamp match.
Do not choose candidates based on Elo rating.