World Rapid & Blitz Championships Start In New York, FIDE Changes The Rules

[@MinasanKonnichiwa777]

Fun fact - Raunak Sadhwani forfeited that game against Alireza in WR masters because his alarm didn't go off and he over slept

[@revanth2628]

Technically it did go off.. but his airpods were connected.. so while the alarm was ringing in them.. and the boy had no idea about it. Tough luck, hopefully it never happens again.

[@nabanitasaha7941]

So what he forfeited for his absence.. So what's the problem?

[@FloydMaxwell]

You guys plunged into examples without giving a high level overview. How exactly were the FIDE rules changed should have been your lead off. Then give examples of how this is a bad idea. I'm 13 minutes in and, frankly, lost. No idea what your points are. Something to do with ratings? But what, specifically? What, relative to FIDE rules?

[@nickburggraaf3977]

You managed to watch a long time. I was already lost after six minutes

[@boomrafa]

Trying to defend the indefensible , so incoherent

[@NotQuiteFirst]

And to make it worse, the background image isn't looping properly meaning there's a distracting jump in the smooth motion every 30 seconds. Mickey Mouse operation.

[@prussia9255]

I have little idea what the fide circuit is, yet I mostly understood. Sounds like a you problem.

[@jgreen802]

This is about the FIDE circuit, it's a point system and whoever has the most points at the end of the year gets a spot in the 2026 candidates. You earn points by placing in tournaments, the problem is different tournaments award a different amount of points and the process to determine what tournaments are worth doesn't make much sense.

[@frankrogers4386]

I kind of think going back to interzonals and then eventual match plays for candidates would be cool to try, tho they'd have to schedule super tourneys around them, could really make each match into it's own huge event though

[@DeepakChauhanplays]

Yeah an official fide superGM tournament tour would be nice...❤

[@Jacob99174]

I purchased Chris’s recommended crotch hair trimmer, and it was a BANGER, an absolute GAME Changer!!! 😂

[@kartz2010]

I clicked to check on your Santa costume guys and you deceived me with a click bait thumbnail!

[@rachit6366]

22:25 I don't think US is the only country where classical tournaments are played with 2-rounds-a-day schedule. It is very common here in India and many Opens in Spain

[@lukaswolek7294]

In Germany the smaller opens are definitely also played with 2 rounds a day.

[@elast7dospuntocero]

as a spaniard i can verify that is very common

[@jgreen802]

At lower levels it is common, but in most master level tournaments, the norm across most of the world is playing only one round per day.

[@rexfariss5653]

Merry Christmas, guys!

[@saicharand7765]

“It’s always been that way” (regarding multiple matches a day) isn’t any type of justification, especially when you yourself agree it’s not that ‘professional’. You haven’t really addressed the reason given for doing this, which is that it affects the level of play compared to having a single match a day. If you do agree that it affects the level of play, shouldn’t you actually be supporting it because that’s exactly in line with your argument that tournament points should be in line with the level of play ?

[@ChavaM88]

I see video, I click, I like. Mery Christmas to the C-Squared boys!!!

[@Iamdead25]

Bro please tell them to change their channel logo , it is very dull , I mean it very much as a viewer.

[@Phymacss]

@@Iamdead25 beauty in simplicity👍🏻

[@Iamdead25]

@@Phymacss Ok enjoy the simplicity alone, why need to make a channel of it.

[@Phymacss]

@@Iamdead25 I think it’s a cool logo and most companies even the most famous ones have updated their logos to be minimalist. It’s more recognizable and they are just known for it now. That’s how I see it.

[@Iamdead25]

@@Phymacss But as a new viewer when I see first time it doesn't attract to see it , it's just a boring dull old lecture .

[@aarambh9788]

Full respect to fabi, handles everything so well

[@chesstime_0720]

Fabi fav: Magnus, Hikaru, Ian, Alireza & Nordibek. Wesley and Levon also are favourites. Arjun(rival FIDE Circuit)

[@FongYukYu]

The room Christian was filming looks so cozy! Like grandma's study, oozing Old World charm. Very demure, very appropriate for the season 🎄🫖☕

[@your_average_joe5781]

It's the room he was 'recording' in. Nobody uses film anymore ✅

[@rexfariss5653]

@@your_average_joe5781it’s generally accepted that filming these days can refer to recording video with a digital camera

[@your_average_joe5781]

@@rexfariss5653 You're not wrong but recording is more accurate. I wish you a Merry Christmas 🙏

[@rexfariss5653]

@@your_average_joe5781You as well man!

[@UnknownUser-j3n]

Caruana should have acknowledged that tournaments limited to a particular country cant be used to give qualification points, thats just unfair to the rest of the world.

[@Blayd9]

I agree and would extend that sentiment to invite only tournaments as well. If you're not getting invited for political or personal reasons then that also seems not fair. Or simply because there's only 6 spots or so, so a bunch of deserving players won't have the opportunity.

[@donfan7552]

Maybe to add, Ding will start the FIDE Circuit 2025 with 40 points for his WC Match performance. Thats huge, but i doubt he will play enough events.

[@sachinpaul2111]

Srinath is correct If china held two tournaments to help Wei qualify with dodgy byes, there would be outrage. But it’s US and Sinquefeld , so it’s suddenly okay

[@aleladebiri]

I "dislike" the US and everything about it so profoundly man. At the beginning of the last title match I was rooting for Ding and was sad that Gukesh won, but now that I'm thinking again, Ding's form is not going to get better, but Gukesh can definitely improve in the next two years. So if, God forbid, an american wins the next Candidates, there should be a lower chance that he becomes champion.

[@sachinpaul2111]

@@aleladebiriI don’t dislike the US itself. It’s an amazing country. But just like the English media, the media coverage being made like everything they do is fair while anything others like China/Russia/India or Firouzja do is dodgy is what irritates me I don’t mind Fabi but I DEFINITELY do not want world champion Hikaru.

[@daryab9416]

​@sachinpaul2111 hmm. I think the problem with Alireza (i usually root for him) was that he made a tournament for himself. Also with the chinese tournament, it was the same thing. US masters and the other tournament are well known tournaments that happen in the U.S regardless of Fabi. He decided to fight in them.

[@aleladebiri]

​@@sachinpaul2111 Fabi is a nice guy but I don't want him as champion either because the murricans won't shut up. Also more murricans will be interested in chess. that'd be a disaster. chess was born as and has been an Eastern game, let's keep it that way. although we had an interruption with Carlsen but I hope that was an anomaly.

[@illinnear7233]

@@aleladebiri What's wrong with an American winning the Candidates? I say this as a Finnish person. As for Fabi, he's merely participating in the tournaments that present themselves to him, the system leaves a lot to be desired but there's little evidence to suggest this circuit was tailored to Fabi to increase his chances--this seems more like a reaction to a fellow countryman falling short, as I have my doubts that you would bother bringing this up had Arjun already qualified.

[@sanskaragrawal1127]

Isn't it the best solution to have top 7 performance rating of the year as FIDE Circuit points (including 2 opens maybe) ? Not counting what position you finish, but only your performance rating should solve all the problems.

[@divyaanshverma8304]

Then players wouldn't have to grind that hard to earn the place and it would also decrease the worth of individual tournaments so less top players will play them and they would choose to play against kind of weaker opponents to increase their winning record and just opt fordraw whenever they see any potential of their overall rating performance going downhill. I fill there should be more open and decisive tournaments. And also if a player has a really good tournament with a really high performance rating , he wouldn't wanna play any other tournament to bottle it up. There won't be much competition that way when you remove the superiority from leaderboard.

[@TheRajneeshsrivastav]

Circuit point should be based on one to one counter in any tournament rather than position - like 2772 playing 2801 (draw, loss and win) ...it is not difficult to develop calculator...

[@dark_magician_sdy]

Merry Christmas 🎅 ❤

[@chrisgroves4097]

That thumbnail though 😅🔥

[@chesstime_0720]

WR masters and top 3 prizes point is 💯

[@Najdorfc5]

Go Fabiano👏🏻👏🏻

[@Blayd9]

In my personal opinion, invite only tournaments should not be eligible for circuit points. That just doesn't seem fair to those who might not be invited for political or personal reasons etc. Or simply because there are only 6 spots so many won't have the opportunity. Open tournaments should be the only tourneys eligible for circuit points.

[@vibhor5015]

Solution to players in top 8 taking byes seems simple. Don't count them in circuit calculation. Right? Circuit seems like something, where you fix one thing another one breaks. But, this still seems to throw out the best classical player of the year.

[@annasandrapalya]

Audio is low, may be it can be bit better. Rest all is perfect

[@danielw00]

Seems like the biggest problems of the curcuit could be fixed when only look at elo Performance of tournaments. Currently way too muvh loopholes

[@anettemenes8594]

i love the pod but i hope fabi gets a new camera for christmas

[@IamPain190]

I understood , so people in comments are ignorant. Go read something's yourself , if you are new. Podcast isn't babysitting. FABI and Cristian have discussed on fide circuit 2-3 times already

[@FreddyDipace]

Agree with including in the TAR all partecipants for knockout events (at least 16, in case of 32 or 64 players events 16 could still be fine). Agree with including everyone and not only top 8 in round robin TAR (Tata Stell main example). Opens could be brought to 12 instead of 8 for TAR, agree. For the byes, the change should be simple: people that take more than 1 bye should be exluded from the TAR. I dont agree when Fabi says the points are "arbitrary": there is a formula, which may not be perfect, but for sure its objective. Comparing the Candidates with WR Masters of course seems stupid, but the problem in chess is that you cant based the points on "prestige" of the tournament, because it is not stable. Wimbledon and RG are there in tennis from 100 years. In chess Linares, the aboslute elite tournament, is (sadly) not there anymore. Dortmund and to some extent also London torunament are not elite anymore. For this reason, using the avg elo instead of the general "prestige" of the event is correct

[@syonnain]

People forget that the FIDE Circuit winner is decided after SEVEN events. It needs consistency, so any "unfair" rating of ONE tournament makes little impact overall. Sure, Mendonca got a lot of points for winning Tata Steel Challengers.... Ok good luck to him repeating this 6 more time, then. Those points end up not mattering in the end.

[@michaelf8221]

But it does matter since now Fabi and Arjun are within a handful of points from each other. Candidates 4th place vs 2nd place would have given Fabi a near-insurmountable lead. He got 4th place due to some arbitrary tie-break even though he was tied with 2nd.

[@Northseapirate44]

What of fide circuit gets you an invitation to a tournament for the candidates spot

[@90skidd97]

In knockouts, people reaching the quarter finals should be counted. In opens, Top 8 Finishers should be counted. (Or performance rating of Top 8 finishers) In closed Swiss tournaments, all players should be counted.

[@6Grimmjow]

Doesn't seem right to me. If you only count from quarterfinals in knock-outs, then just winning 3 matches could potentially reward you a skewed amount of points (you could beat a couple of easy opponents before top 8). In opens, as Fabi said as well, only counting top 8 out of 50+ could be too low.

[@90skidd97]

@6Grimmjow you get 7 points for reaching quarterfinals if the TOP 8 have a TAR of 2700. So good luck with that. And if you want to give points to all 50 players, any player after top 8 will be getting so ridiculously low points that it is worthless. Currently there is no system to calculate points for people ranked below 8 but in a tournament where top 8 were of TAR 2700 - 8th place gets 2 points. So yeah, go ahead and give points to all.

[@champ360yt4]

Merry Christmas 🎄 ❤

[@genehackman2]

Why not calculate average based on the players that actually played? Like if the player A plays against B, C and D, his average opponent rating shd be based on B,C and D. Doesnt have to include others?

[@thomasdequincey5811]

After that Chennai tournament (organised at the last minute and with every player KNOWING why they were there), that allowed Gukesh to qualify for the candidates this complaint by the Indian Captain is a bit rich. You might even call it hypocritical.

[@abhishekagrawal5670]

I think Srinath specifically criticised about the loopholes where players get byes or can use sickness as a reason to collude to give advantage to other players. Also, Srinath is the official coach of Arjun, so it is clear to see his personal frustration with the system.

[@avikbose2216]

We don't really know if it was a last minute tournament, all we know is that it was announced last minute, it might have been in planning for a long time. Also multiple players who had chances to qualify for the candidates, were invited, like hikaru, wesley, levon, it was public info, so it wasn't "orchestrated for Gukesh", like the ones for Ding in the previous cycle which had multiple matches with weaker Chinese players just to take him over the line, and then for Alireza, which had retired players rated much lower so that he could farm them, those were the ones that took the loophole to the extreme, whereas Chennai grandmasters had none of these elements. All the top players agreed that it was a fair tournament in the end and didn't blatantly bend the rules like the other 2.

[@Bruno-ry3pg]

​@@avikbose2216your mistake is thinking Thomas can comprehend this

[@jaygheewala4585]

i guess they should use performance rating to give circuit points

[@spurriousgod]

They should just do 3 days of blitz. Top 8 after 2 days of the normal swiss qualify for knockout tourney on day 3.

[@DaDaRacingChannel]

This Time Hikaru cares, and cares a lot, So, is possible that He is going to win one or the Two events. Look out!

[@Randomthings1210]

Sheesh, Christian has quite a holiday glow✨✨

[@nabanitasaha7941]

I don't know about the US championship which consists of only US players.. And famous players like hikaru Wesley didn't participate in that.. Why should it be a part of the fide circuit? This is so messed up

[@Northseapirate44]

Is two tournaments a day easier

[@TristramPagot]

Fabi's got the receipts!

[@percyweasley9301]

Happy Christmas 🎄 from Northeast India.. 😊❤

[@chesstime_0720]

World rapid and blitz will be interesting 🔥

[@AroundWayOther]

good luck fabi get it!

[@hazedproph3t]

Merry Christmas guys

[@FongYukYu]

Whoa, a Christmas Eve drop? AND it's the 2nd video in a week?? 👏🏼🔥👏🏼

[@tagheuer001]

Whose birds are we hearing in the background????

[@zaftnotameni]

forcing ELITE players to play crappy open tournments is ABSURD

[@kpNov23]

Only twelve people in the world really care about the points, but I understand! 😅

[@Northseapirate44]

Magnus Carlsen plays rubegoldberg tournament format

[@chessforfun3032]

if you count average rating in knockout then imagine world cup

[@harryh2185]

Bortnyk and Naroditsky are the dark horses of the blitz portion. One of them might make it into the knockout.

[@S08GTM]

Nah - they are only good online when there is no cameras. Both of them will get found out over the board.

[@jaikarpan]

Whats your view on the loser of World Championship not being an automatic qualifier in the next Canditates

[@michaelhaddad2190]

Please crank up the volume.

[@kavinarasu8197]

Timestamps please

[@zaftnotameni]

31:00 what's wrong with tournments being exclusive an elitist? that makes it better and more fair....

[@codeforcesinpython]

Lets go🎉❤

[@carlodifresa5300]

I don't like to have to listen to the podcast in Spanish because I'm in Mexico. I cannot find the original podcasting English. Really bad.............................

[@QwertyCanada]

Is it just me or Fabi contradicts with Chris a little bit too much. It's all cool, just an observation.

[@boomrafa]

US masters Fabi won against all 2200,2300,2400,2500s and lost against the only 2600 he came across and won the circuit. That’s farming the system by back to back tournaments . Top six players he only played against one and lost it rest all the winner never played against . That’s a strange fact

[@melissacoats6855]

I mean he can't control the pairings, and he also had a 2824 or something like that performance. I'm not sure how that's a strange fact... You also didn't comment on the Qatar Masters where Arjun only played one of the top 6 in Andrey Esipenko and had a performance rating of 2787.

[@boomrafa]

Srinath point is top players giving bye after lending their elo for FIDE circuit points . Qatar no top player gave bye here one top player gave 4 byes . What’s the point if you are not fighting . This is the loop hole in the system

[@boomrafa]

@@melissacoats6855 the average rating of 9 rounds of players in US masters Fabi faced and got 17.11 points is 2477 while in Qatar the average rating of players Arjun faced was 2567 a rating point difference of 90 ELOs . Are you serious ?

[@boomrafa]

Performance elo Qatar masters Arjun 2787 St Louis masters Fabi 2746

[@boomrafa]

Chess Olympiad Arjun performance rating 2968 Fabi performance rating 2777

[@buzztube1738]

Santiano

[@theinvisibleman-e8v]

Put on x2 speed and thank me later.

[@Shekhar21402]

More importantly Srinath is Arjun's coach

[@ramachandra776]

Funny thing , just searched the wikipedia page for world rapid and blitz championships 2024 . They have yet to be created . FIDE professionalism at its best 🤣🤣🤣 . And spending time in creating hilariously dumb videos like "Chess and the city" 😂😂😂😂 .

[@kieran1990able]

Guys, you don't have Hans on sight to win world blitz? just unbelievable😅

[@aleladebiri]

Yeah the people that have jobs probably aren't aiming for the Candidates, and those opens don't rely on SuperGMs playing for the Circuit. It was really a last-minute surprise for them to have Fabi this year because of the leaderboard situation. What I'm worried about more is the closed super-tournaments like WR Chess. Those events definitely need to attract elite players. So if the FIDE keeps making up rules and intervening in the tournaments every time, they'll probably give in, and adjust their formats. This may result in all tournaments being similar to Candidates format, and that's really bad from a fan's point of view, I really liked the original WR chess format, it's good to have changes.

[@boomrafa]

Srinath is Talking about last two tournaments in US which was gaming the system pure and simple. Please don’t talk about other tournaments. With due respect to one of worlds great player, there is hypocrisy here. In St Louis masters Fabi didn’t have to play 2,3,5,7 seeds out of the top 8 lost to 9th seed and drew two of the top 8 he played and won only against Sam Shankalnd . All 4 matches aginst 2500, 2400 fabi won .

[@MrStruggle]

how is it gaming the system? that's the way open tournaments work, they literally have the system for pairings available, there's no secret formula. I'm unsure of what you're even upset about because your point isn't what Srinath said in his tweet, you're making a different point entirely

[@boomrafa]

It’s the same . When top seeds give byes and doesn’t get in to contention to play the eventual winner that’s gaming the system pure and simple . Please see top 8 and top 7 in last two tournaments Fabi played. He played only one 2600 in us master and lost to him and won against all 2200,2300s and St Louis he lost to 9th seed and drew two other . The point being top seeds should not give byes to put them out of contention

[@boomrafa]

This is the point Srinath is making

[@MrStruggle]

@@boomrafa players take byes all the time in US tournaments, they're playing 2 games a day, that's the way they've always been. that's not gaming the system, nobody told anybody to take a bye to help Fabi qualify, they probably just didn't want a tough schedule

[@boomrafa]

Awonder liang gave his 2687 elo to boost the top 8 rating and gave 4 byes in the tournament . If that’s not gaming the system what is ? FIDE should have removed his 2687 in average calculations for circuit points

[@armoshady2110]

India now crying over everything because their gold boy won the easiest WCC ever ...

[@kidartist9820]

I mean, surely the wcc also constitutes the circuit ame candidates right... Which certainly didn't look easy to anyone so..

[@manishkumarmohanta4179]

Trump seriously need to seal the borders...because the drugs you are consuming is dangerous for the society....the golden boy won the events that your coal boys couldn't....and the points Srinath raised were logical

[@farzein4002]

Fabi is not honest here, winning outright and winning on tie breaks aren't same. Its in the rules.

[@gamma9141]

Srinath checkmated you all. Simple.

[@prussia9255]

Even though Srinath said he agrees that Fabi deserves to be number 1 in the Fide circuit, and even though Fabi agreed that the circuit has issues but sure.

[@DieForMath]

This podcast is waste of a time

[@oktaydurukan6881]

Free Hans Niemann !

[@naveenh91]

Keep your podcasts short. 20 mins

[@dmfaccount1272]

@@naveenh91 no thank you?

[@kpNov23]

Podcasts are not meant to be 20 minutes dufus

[@KK-tc6xq]

Stop whinging and go win some tournaments. Nowadays the western last gen GMs are crying foul over the system cos they couldn't win the candidates and now as it they get older they fancy their chances as less and less of qualifying or even winning the world chess championship. Flaws or warts and all, everyone including Gukesh participated and Gukesh won. You couldn't. Period.

[@fxstreamer238]

stop rating players you are still a professional player your words mean nothing

[@genedios4473]

-A nobody whose words actually, literally, mean nothing.