Chess is a game that has existed for somewhere around 500 years. In all that time, the players who play the game have gone from really good to inhumanly great. Unlike other things that have existed that long, chess seems to be the one thing no one seems can turn into a spectacle. Though I’ve suggested things in the past, I am going to lay out a concept and then (once the details are solidified on my end) I’m going to simulate it to prove it can be done.
The first time I had a concept of turning chess into a spectacle was the Kasparov-Kramnik World Chess Championship Match. Back then, without much experience at looking at all the available data and having less available data, my example was professional wrestling. The problem with trying to explain turning chess into a spectacle using professional wrestling is that everyone goes to the obvious “and then I hit him with a chair, right?” At no point could I get anyone to understand that the competition was real, the idea was that they would simply play up some personalities to hype up their matches… CHESS matches.
I didn’t give up with that failure, though.
Another World Chess Championship had rolled around and I again began thinking about the correct way to turn chess into a proper spectacle. With more time between the last attempt and this one, I had seen plenty of Texas Hold ‘Em Poker on TV and I had a better comparison than pro wrestling.
Poker was the perfect analog for chess because I could literally point to the cards, tell you to remove them and replace them with chess, and say “why can’t we do that?” I was a little alarmed at the lack of enthusiasm from this idea, not even just a silence about wanting to see anything like this, but silence as feedback. I asked a wider audience and I got a smaller return in response than the pro wrestling callout.
My failure on this one wasn’t that poker on TV wasn’t a good example, the failure was in my lack of asking about a specific speed control of chess.
I didn’t give up, though. I kept moving forward.
An idea struck me when I had a Chess.com paid membership and I was running a lot of tournaments: I love sumo and I love chess, why not try to run chess like sumo (organize it like sumo)?
I ran a tournament called Chess Basho with an explanation of what the tournament was about, what it meant to participate, and how we could collectively build it up if we worked on it.
No one single player other than myself played in every tournament. Only three other players came back for between three and five tournaments. I never won any of the tournaments. No banzuke (official ranking) ever was produced because of the randomness of the players.
This concept was without a “play up the personalities” aspect but really needed a set group of people willing to belong. I didn’t have that.
Again, I did not give up.
I went a long time without thinking or caring much about chess. There were at least two World Chess Championships played during this period in time and I can tell you that neither of them had Magnus Carlsen as the World Champion. I just sort of fell out of love with chess for a little while and I needed a some distance.
Then I felt a pull.
I hadn’t stopped playing chess during that time. My lack of caring did show as my rating slipped from somewhere around 1100 to my current low 800s. Let’s not focus on that, though, let’s focus on the fact that I started really getting back into wanting to restart my Chess Bashos again. This time, however, I wanted to do it in a way that actually proved my concept and that meant I had to simulate things to make it work… THEN bring it to the world to play in.
WHEN this gets brought to you there will be solid and completely laid out rules to prevent anyone from asking questions about whether or not something is above board. Why? Because if I wanted to participate again I don’t want my participation to be questioned because someone didn’t understand a rule. This means everything needs to be very clear and covered. The simulation will be run until everything is covered, including how players are ranked after each tournament, how “named ranks” are determined, how chess basho’s version of a “Yokozuna” is determined, and more. While I may own this concept at the moment, I would want a “council” involved to adapt things as new things arise. Things WILL arise.
You’ll hear more as the year goes on and you’ll get to see (and possibly hear) the results of things as we move forward. I will release everything as I am ready to but I need to make sure all of the rules and presentation are correct before any of that happens.
Interested? You can email me at emeraldspecter – at – gmail – dot – com and tell me about it, sign on, get involved, or just get notified when things start dropping on this site.
Thanks for reading.
