‘Why don’t we play both colours or Armageddon? Like chess960, baseball, csgo, valorant.’ where I talk about the hypocrisy of chess.

Series : 9LX quotes from the Internet – Table of Contents

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1st I’ll copy the ff that I posted in 2023Apr. Then I’ll add some updates.

• https://www.chess.com/forum/view/for-beginners/why-dont-we-play-both-colours-or-armageddon-like-chess960-baseball-csgo-valorant
• https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/why-dont-we-play-both-colours-or-armageddon-like-chess960-baseball-csgo-valorant

Above, I talk about the hypocrisy of chess – Tournament organisers fear UNKNOWN white advantage in 9LX and so insist on playing both colours of the same setup consecutively and hence why there aren’t rated classical (as in 120min+) 9LX tournaments (because a pair of games could possibly be at least 8 hours total – i guess 4 hours before lunch and 4 hours after lunch idk) and yet they don’t fear KNOWN white advantage in regular chess to the point that they play single swiss & single round robins.

• Update : Post in r/chess960 on 2023Jul13 post ID 14y7f92 – Hans ‘wasn’t tense or even fully concentrating on the game in critical positions, while outplaying me as black’. Thanks Magnus & iBlunderWithFriends for showing chess’ hypocrisy: We have NOT classical 9LX fearing UNKNOWN white advantage BUT single round robins in chess FULLY KNOWING white advantage? – re ‘Chess ipsa loquitur’ is a thing? / Chess speaks for itself? Chess960 speaks for itself.

• Also had posted in r/chess960 on 2023Jun10 post ID 145j9dr – 9LX’s greatest challenge is lack of classical time controls due to FIDE’s insane fear of white advantage w/c forces players to play both colours of the same SP. LOL hypocrisy! Single round robins exist in chess tournaments. They’re afraid of white advantage KNOWN in chess but UNKNOWN in 9LX? HAHAHA – linking to 2019 Champions Showdown | Chess 9LX: 960’s Greatest Challenge? by Saint Louis Chess Club aka STLChessClub
• Update – posted on YouTube – date 2023Sep24 – video ID TBTouiKmOCg – ‘Magnus wasn’t tense or even fully concentrating on the game outplaying Vishy as black.’

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Part 1 – Duplication – 2023Apr

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[begin duplication]

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In chess, we often play just 1 colour. Not just us amateurs on sites but also in pro chess, players play round robins & swiss with uneven colours. Like 1 side just gets black without any compensation.

• Not even score bonuses if we win 0.0-1.1 or even draw 0.4-0.6 as black.
• Not even rating bonuses. I mean last I checked glicko or whatever doesn’t consider what colour you were.

I. Chess960:

Question 1: In chess960, we play both colours. Why not chess?

Quote by Mobeus Zoom : ‘Note also that the rule is more or less automatically implemented in match play in standard chess (the exception being Armageddon).’ Why don’t these statistics disprove white’s supposed larger (practical?) advantage in chess960? 

• More or less is the key term. 100% of all classical FIDE chess960 games are in knockouts so they all have pairs. Classical Chess960 statistics in 2019 WFRCC: Magnus & Hikaru are lowest? Nepo top 2 ! But you can play round robin or swiss classical chess where you have uneven number of white & black unless you really play a best of 2 round robin like the 2022 WFRCC that Levy didn’t even understand at 1st. Levy wonders about the 9LX world championship of 2022. It’s so ironic that white even has a lower advantage (on average it’s 0.18 vs chess 0.22) in chess960, yet FIDE forces both colours. Levon on 9LX: You have chances with black. (2022Sep) 

You personally, when you play or watch a chess960 game, do you care who’s white or black if it’s not armageddon? Do you ever think ‘whoa, I or player X won with the black pieces’ ?

II. In general:

I notice in general sports / games with 2 colours actually play both colours.

Question 2: Is chess actually the odd 1 out?

1. Baseball – There’s no way just 1 team is going to play batting while the other plays fielding without some handicap of runs or something right?
2. North American football – Not familiar, but apparently this is like baseball? What’s the term for those sports/games that don’t really have offense or defense and are more like exams?  ‘Interestingly enough, American football is both. The players in the offensive line are completely different to those in the defensive line for the same team, so OffenceA and DefenceB are playing a shared state game in parallel with the shared state game between OffenceB and DefenceA. The scores are added together as the game goes, and the winner is whoever got the most combined points from the two parallel games. – gotube ♦ Nov 25, 2022 at 17:52’
3. Csgo, valorant, etc – Same thing. There’s no way just 1 side plays defender / CT and the other attacker / T. Even when they go to tiebreaks, there’s no armageddon. They still play both colours.
4. Basketball, association football, etc – White is whoever has the ball, and other team gets the ball if your team scores right? 
5. Yu-Gi-Oh! and trading card games in general – Not that I necessarily consider it fair, but it’s like basketball where whoever loses goes 1st next right?
6. Tennis – not familiar but in 2023 Armageddon Americas, Simon said being white is like having the serve in tennis. Do players alternate serve?
7. Poker / Chessino – Alternate small & big blind.
8. Boxing – This doesn’t have 2 colours right?

III. Guess:

Question 3 part1: Why don’t we play both colours? Of course chess is nowhere near as asymmetrical as baseball, csgo, etc, but still. The only reason I can think of is simply logistics. Like we do we want 2 hour games, and we can do only one a day, so if we play both colours, then the tournaments will be twice as long. Plus there may be more draws if wins cancel out.

Question 3 part2: So why not Armageddon – but with auction so it’s always fair and so you can even do classical Armageddon Which side has the advantage in an Armageddon tiebreak game? like for the 2013 USCC (which was slow rapid but still Why was the 2019 WFRCC called ‘slow rapid’ when it’s actually classical (45+15=60)? ) ?

• Who knows? Someone might even bid for white. Lol. Why would I bid for white in armageddon in chess960? 
• After a million Armageddon’s we’ll eventually arrive at an optimal range for black’s time and then chess will truly be balanced.
• No more complaining ‘outplaying me as black in a way I think only a handful of players can do‘ (Magnus Carlsen re Hans Niemann at 2022 Sinquefield Cup). Well I guess black won’t play for a win anymore, but any win by a draw is well-earned with the time deficit and then well-rewarded with a score of 0-1. [wordpress edit : see here ‘Chess ipsa loquitur’ is a thing? / Chess speaks for itself? Chess960 speaks for itself.]
• No more false consolation ‘Sigh. I guess a draw with the black pieces against Magnus you can be happy with it every day‘ (Wesley So re Magnus Carlsen 2023 Tata Steel Wesley So draws Magnus Carlsen | Round 11 ). And if you lose to black thinking that black had too much time, then it’s your own fault for not bidding lower.
• Can’t think of a reason.

Or alternatively let chess960 replace chess because at least in human chess I believe it is symmetrical. I don’t mind if I get black in chess960 for the rest of my life. But I can’t stand to get black even a single time in chess.

• It’s a significant disadvantage for no compensation (no draw odds or time bonuses during the game and no rating bonuses upon victory, etc) that isn’t repeated (we don’t play minimatches of both colours in single round robins, in swiss or in average online games).
• The only time I see black better in chess than in chess960 is in armageddon with auction: I notice players bid much lower for black in chess as compared to in chess960: Armageddon: How much more desirable is black in chess than chess960 based on airthings masters 2023 vs 2022 WFRCC? 

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[end duplication]

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Part1.1 – 2023Jun re knockouts vs round robins

Around 2023Jun maybe, I saw a comment that says some players do better in knockouts than (single) round robins. Well in knockouts, they’re not unfairly biased by the colour they get.

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Part1.2 – Gotham Chess doesn’t know about colour swap.

Levy didn’t know about colour swap. See Levy didn’t know players swap colours in 9LX. (2022Sep part1) where Levy reviews the 2019 WFRCC finals. – date 2022Sep03 – video ID – 47XSdyeQA6o

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Part1.3 – Oh yeah the Grand Swiss coming up in late 2023.

that last time in 2021 was won by Alireza & Tingjie.

More like the Grand Hypocrisy.

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Part2 – 2023Jun re Norway Chess – Still not fair but better? See statistics here.

Predetermined armageddon sucks in general, but here it might be good!

This is a single round robin, but it gives power to black in that if a classical game is drawn, then the game is replayed with the same colours in a predetermined armageddon. Assuming the predetermined time controls favour black : As black, I needn’t play for a win. I can play for a draw both in classical and then win in armageddon to play for 1.5 points.

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Part3 – Update for 2023 WCC (also 2023Apr) & 2023 women’s WCC (2023Jul) – Sudden death blitz ( i.e. Best-of-1 Non-armageddon blitz ) ?! HAHAHAHAHAHA

They replaced armageddon w/ something WORSE – bo1 non-armageddon blitz!!!! Imagine if it came down to this – you think there wouldn’t be a huge controversy like w/ the 2021 rapid WCC?

Yes predetermined armageddon (i.e. armageddon w/o auction) sucks, but this sucks even more! At least predetermined armageddon hopes for fairness. This doesn’t!

For 2023 WCC – From https://handbook.fide.com/files/handbook/FWCM2023.pdf

Quote :

after a new drawing of lots, a single game shall be played with a time control of 3 minutes for each player + 2 seconds increment per move, starting from move 1.

For 2023 women’s WCC – From https://handbook.fide.com/files/handbook/FWWCM2023.pdf

Quote

after a new drawing of lots to decide which player has white, a single game shall be played with a time control of 3 minutes for each player + 2 seconds increment per move, starting from move 1.

Lol hypocrisy at its finest. Is it surprising that FIDE is as hypocritical as Magnus, who baselessly accuses Hans of cheating despite having cheated Alexandra Kosteniuk, Alireza, Danya & Nepo? Or maybe it’s not really FIDE or even tournament organisations in general but the very game of chess itself that’s hypocritical? Yeah hypocritical game, hypocritical organisation, hypocritical top 2 rated players Magnus & Garry. It all fits. It all aligns. It all makes sense.

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Part4 – 2023Aug Update in 2023 World Cup – same hypocrisy as Part2

From https://handbook.fide.com/files/handbook/WorldCup2023Regulations.pdf and https://www.chess.com/events/2023-fide-chess-world-cup

Quote :

One game in the 3+2 time control Players alternate colors and keep playing 3+2 games until a decisive result determines the winner.

and

7. 5. If the game described in Article 4.7.4 is drawn, another game shall be played with a time control of 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment per move, starting from move 1 with the colours reversed from the previous game. 4. 7. 6. If the game described in Article 4.7.5 is drawn, the procedure described in Article 4.7.5 shall be repeated until the first game won by one of the players.

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Part4.1 – And World Cup is bo2 re black wins

Oh yeah and the world cup starts as a best-of-2 not a best-of-4. In a bo4, you can compensate for a white loss with a white win. In a bo2, you must compensate for a white loss with a black win.

1 – Of course that’s good in the world cup, but it’s not quite what you have to do in the the eventual classical WCC.

2 – But idk the candidates is just a double round robin not a quadruple round robin like say the 1962 candidates (w/c I guess was FIDE’s last open (looks like women’s doesn’t have for 1962 onwards. but they had double round robins) X-tuple round robin for X > 2), so when it comes to head-to-head yeah it’s bo2.

• 2.1 – And then in that case. In the candidates it’s just a bo2, but then when it gets to WCC, it’s bo4 … well at least when the number of classical games is a multiple of 4 like in 2008 – 2018 but not recently in 2021 & 2023.

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