World Championship Match : Ron King vs. Sergio Scarpetta

[Ingo_Zachos]

Sergio,

I also think that Ron should have been forced to write down the move on his time or should be declared loser as the rules require.
But, like in football, it is not the player who has that power, but the referee.
And not always all decions of the referee are correct. Sometimes he makes the same mistake again and again (sigh!)

But if he does not blow the whiste, the result stands.
Despite this handicap you did remarkably well and you were the man of the match.

I can only assure you that in Lille at the WMSG and in any future event now every referee has to be strict about it, or it is true what you say, we would not need the rule at all, and we can forgret about time limits and any competion.

And at other occasions the referees have been stricter on it, though it is always hard to forfeit a player, but players have to be forced to write down on their own time. Period.

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Also my deep thanks for the games u published online, they are very much appreciated and I hope that in any future events games will be published maybe not on the day they were played, but very close after the event has finished.

Some games had been published and commentated by spectators of the live stream, and it seems Ron King does not notice discussions about his game or never checks his games after he played them, or he would not have been that foolish to run into the same loss twice.

This shows how important it is to follow matches and publications about matches.
It can be valuable the very next day.iot
In chess the player usually hire a special coach that does this work, but checkers is not that professional yet, though the book Big League Checkers shows that the champions have always been prtofessional in their preparation.
Our game in general is not that professional as it should be.

I especially like your choice of the Alma to get some new and complicated lines and the revival of the Centre, the pet line of the great Richard Jordan.
If I am not wrong the Alma might become a new fashion opening in GAYP due to your efforts.
Too bad that it already has a name...


Greetinx from sunny Dortmund,

Ingo Zachos

[tommyc]

Well having read all your comments and ideas ,nothing is sure yet on how to break this unfair situation.

Im sure everyone realises just how much TIME is spent getting to or qualifing for a WCM. Years maybe in some cases!!.....Therefore its seem to me a little naive to put on the table the argument that there isnt TIME for a better way to break a tied match in what ever way is deemed best. That is a bit of a cop-out to say we dont have another day or TIME to go on a short timer or some other idea. So perhaps this is one thing we can take off the table right away.It is ALMOST more logical to say the champ should lose the title rather than the challenger not gain it, now im not proposing this but you can see what im saying.

1] The toss of a coin is totally unscientific but is fair to both.
2] A short timer is "extra time being played" if that doesnt find a winner then my No3 comes into play.[
3] The best of 5 coin tosses would be like "penalty shoot-out".

Just some food for thought im sure NONE of these ideas will be taken up.

[Chexhero]

I would never except a championship title because I won a coin toss. I would actually give it back to the current champion. You want to be champion, you got to beat the champion. And if we play rounds of fast game checkers to decide it, make sure the trophy says, "World GAYP Fast player Champion"

[tommyc]

Chex thanks for that..but yu didnt give us any good ideas what to do.?

[Chexhero]

I like things the way they are, nothing has to change. A championship title is precious and great and in my opinion should never change hands because of a coin toss. That is a disrespect to the title if you ask me. If a winner has to be decided, then you extend the games played until there is a winner. In all sports, championships are won by beating your opponent, nothing less. In my opinion, nothing is wrong with a draw in a title match as draws are apart of checkers. I have a theory. The better player wins the championship. If Sergio was better than King he would have beat him. While we could argue Sergio was the better player, he was not better enough to win one extra game. King who earned that title by rightfully winning it deserves to keep it.

[Bernard Coll]

Just to get back to a point I suggested a few posts back, What is wrong with a drawn contest? It is obviously acceptable in other sports and has always been recognised as an acceptable result in draughts Title Matches until now. Are the KIBITZERS (Derek Oldburys's terminology) now only going to be satisfied if there is a proven loser? I sincerely hope this ancient and noble game of ours is not going to degenerate to the level of the notorious guttersniping all too familiar in professional boxing? Again, are we all going to conveniently cherrypick which WCDF rules and bye-laws we enforce and which we turn a blind eye to? Was the WCDF not formed as a body in 2003 to ease the shamatuerism in draughts into the sidelines?

[tommyc]

Thanks lads both points well made..............in favor of NO change.

[MostFamousDane]

Just to get back to a point I suggested a few posts back, What is wrong with a drawn contest?

Well if you read back in the posts you will see that I have argued that the extra point is a huge unfair advantage due to the low number of points generally scored in these event. Nobody has given any reasonable arguments for the current situation.

It is obviously acceptable in other sports

Yes last year's winner of wimbeldon in tennis just keeps his title if there are no breaks in the final set - there is no replay in us open in golf etc etc - you would be hard pressed to find any other sport where they accept no winner of a world championship or arbitrary give the title to the previous winner

[tommyc]

My point of view is a bit different yu see i think someone holding any title for tooo long is bad for any activity and as yu know draughts needs a boost. So i dont thing the holder should have the GIFT he has now of retaining on a drawn match. Id like to see more champions more often its good for the game.In fact snooker has had a revival recently by shifting the goal posts and its working.

[Bill Salot]

Sergio,

I admire your skill at Checkers. But I marvel even more at your mastery of the English language. It surpasses most of us natives.

How and where did you learn your great checker and language skills?

What do you think of the problems on the Contest page? One of them is a previously unpublished correction of a game position misplayed by more than one strong player.

[Danny_Alvarez]

I agree with Alex & Sergio here .... WHY on earth should a champion or a challenger have to ASK the referee to enforce the rules ?????!!!!??? that is ridiculous ....no disrespect to Mister King but is he above the rules??? does he deserve PREFERENTIAL treatment???? Perhaps the FID should write a letter to Mr Caws and bring this issue up , so that in 2 years time it can be rectified.


as far as the issue of the draws .... Dear Tommy , a coin toss or a million .... will never be acceptable as a way to determine the champion. I believe that shorter timers should be used until someone wins a game.... for example the first game after the draw will be 50% of the regular timer... if that is also a draw the second game will be 50% of the timer of the previous game.... etc etc etc until someone wins a game. That is my humble suggestion.

[Alex_Moiseyev]

Solution ...

in case of tie world match champion keeps title for 2 years but loses his privelege and must play in the next QT. Two winners of next QT shall play World Title match. A bit more attractive and fun. Good champion shouldn't have much problems to finish among top two in QT and if he doesn't - it is always better to replace him.

If two challengers meet in match and tie, they should play rapid tiebreak games ... another fun.

[Alex_Moiseyev]

All after all, I am curious how new world champion names can boost the game ? If we look in the past when title changed hands, I don't see much evidents and prove to this.

If we want boost, we need more promoters and sponsors etc, not new champions.

An interesting thing is .... In 2003 before I played historic match with Ron King in Nothern Ireland, most people backed me, supported and wanted to win. But as soon as this hapened, on the next day it was a question - who is next ?

This is sort of human nature I think.

Respectfully,

Alex Moiseyev

[tommyc]

New champions generate new interest in their own countries.Look at Italy right now.............the time is right to bring all these into the English 8x8 this in turn creates new players for the nxt generation to make sure the game survives.I think alot of are thinking of themselves and what THEY can get out rather than the progress of draughts thru the nxt century.If the game dont survive there wont be any need for champions.

[Alex_Moiseyev]

So ...you want me to play with Suki GAYP match and take title, correct ? In this case it will be checkers GAYP boost in USA after bringing title back home where it suppose to be ! 20 years oversea trip is quite long and must be stopped.

By the way - we had checkers boost on Barbados at the end of 80's / beginning of 90's, and ... what do we have today ? 20-30 new outstanding players, thats all.