[econnors]

> A light hearted, unplanned and unadvertised naka-carlsen bullet match can attract a lot of viewers.

I'd bet a 20 game rapid series over 4 days between naka-carlsen would attract more viewers than the world championship.

[whimsicalism]

Viewership is not all that matters. I doubt it will happen, but I certainly wouldn't cheerlead the death of very high-level chess.

[dalbasal]

That's a bit strong. The levels attained by the likes of Magnus is true art, and it's cool that the art has had such a following for so long.

I agree on fast chess being more fun, but hey now :)

[ptudan]

I don't think it will ever go away if chess is still around. But perhaps it stops being the main viewership draw

[MikePlacid]

Isn’t very high-level chess kind of dead already? I mean - watching Karpov-Kasparov was watching two best players in the world. But nowadays a match between human players just clarifies which of the second-rate devices is better than another. Or is it just me?

[whimsicalism]

Did the invention of artillery cause javelin throwing to be dead?

[MikePlacid]

I do not know the name of a single javelin throwing champion. But I know the names of chess champions… up to Kasparov.

[darepublic]

You have no knowledge of Kramnik, Anand or Carlsen?

[MikePlacid]

I’ve heard of these guys. But I do not know which of them is/was a champion. But I can name the previous champions, and I think I can still remember the exact sequence: Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanka, Alekhin, Eiwe, Botwinnik, Tal… missed somebody?

But I’ve lost interest after Deep Blue event. Alpha Zero plays were fun to watch though.

[drc500free]

Carlsen, yes. But only because of his personality and streaming. I played in the chess club every day in high school in the 90s, and I must have had a similar reaction about computers, because I don't know what happened after Kasparov.

I also stopped watching red sox games once they won the world series. Fandom is weird.

[frisco]

I mean ... yes?

[literallyWTF]

Oh fuck yes it would. I rather have a classical 960 tbh

[andrepd]

Yeah, classical 960 would be amazing since it de-emphasises preparation.

[ycombinete]

There have been a few 960 world champs. The first FIDE one was in 2019. Wesley So won it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Chess960_Championship