China’s Bu beats Carlsen to lead Blindfold Cup
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-10-18 09:36
MADRID – Chinese grand master (GM) Bu Xiangzhi defeated Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen 4-1 in their two-game match on Wednesday at the Blindfold Chess World Cup Bilbao-2007 in Spain.
The 22-year-old, who was the youngest chess player in world history to obtain the GM chess title when he was just 13 years old, thus demonstrated China’s chess power and leads the tournament with a wide 3-point margin.
Also on Wednesday, GM Sergei Karjakin beat Hungarian GM Judith Polgar 4-1 and Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna won 4-1 over former world chess champion, Bulgarian Veselin Topalov.
The standings after the 4th round are as follows: Bu is the absolute leader with 8.0 puntos, while Karjakin, Harikrishna and Carlsen have 5.0 points each, and Topalov and Polgar are tail enders with four points each.
Next match-ups for the 5th round on Thursday at 18:30 local time (20:30 GMT) are as follows: Harikrishna versus Polgar, Bu versus Topalov, and Karjakin versus Carlsen.
And the pairings for the 6th round on Thursday at 19:30 local time (21:30 GMT) are as follows: Polgar versus Harikrishna, Topalov versus Bu, and Carlsen versus Karjakin.
For each game, the winners earn three points while losers get zero, and a draw will give the rivals one point each.
Source: China Daily.com
Susan
I was confused by these 4-1 scores. I think you should have explained that it was 2 games with one game scoring 3 points for a win and the other game 1 point for a draw.
We are not yet used to this scoring system.
IMHO this is the BETTER scoring system and it should be implemented accross the board. Enough of gutless draws
I was confused by this scoring system as well. I had to think about it for a moment, but now I get it.
I’m in favor of fighting chess as well, but this scoring system would be absolutely terrible. Why? Because then fixing tournaments would be easier than ever. Instead of players drawing amongst themselves and then only really playing against people of other nationalities(as Fischer described), you would have players fixing games in one’s favor and then drawing against players of different nationalities on purpose. Double RRs would see this magnified as a win for each player means 3-3, where a draw for each player means 1-1. It’s a terrible scoring system that I hope never gets put into place in any serious tournament.
anonymous @ 4:20, I see your point. In Swiss and direct matches, however, it is the better scoring system. Per your post, it’s interesting how little faith we have in the integrity of the top chess players in the world (with the chess being the most intelectual sport and all)…