In his article he has some really interesting and good points on why classical, tournament chess should become faster.
Article:
gregshahade.wordpress.com/2015/11/02/slow-chess-should-die-a-fast-death/Second part:
gregshahade.wordpress.com/2015/11/05/slow-chess-should-die-a-fast-death-part-2/Do not be fast to discredit what he has to say. At least think about the fact that 99% of games here ( that stat probably includes you also ) are fast chess.
Botvinnik warned that chess was becoming faster and faster. He said the beauty of chess would soon disappear with short time control and the game revolving around opening prep.
Read untill he started "proving" that the reader doesn't like slow chess.
I love slow chess and playing a game of serious otb tournament chess lasting between 3-5 hours is in my opinion the most enjoyable form of chess, a rare treat infact, since otb tournaments are rare and you usually have to travel to them and sometimes even stay at a hotel.
I would never play slow chess online however. Simply because the chance of getting cheated is too high. Also games online are less "real", there is no real room, real opponent, real boards and pieces, real atmosphere. It is infact only a poor substitute for real otb play.
Playing online will however allow you to practise your chess game everyday, so you stay in shape to play otb chess at your best level.
His argument and evidence are totally unrelated. His evidence is that people are moving towards faster forms of chess, which is the statistical analysis. He then says that because most people are playing blitz that it's desirable. That's silly.
There is also a great disconnect, essentially he's arguing that because the vast majority of people play blitz, that we should all play games with about 10x the time control. That doesn't really make sense.
I play pretty much entirely correspondence games on here, because that's the way I enjoy this game, with a long time to think about moves and to actually think about the game. Blitz necessitates that one cannot think about the game as a whole, it defeats the point.
Part 2 is far more reasonable and makes so much more sense, probably because he got a lot of blowback.
He condenses his article into 5 major points and the issue I have is that none of those points are "chess becomes a higher quality game." As well, the majority of new players aren't playing 5 hour games, if you go to a tournament with multiple hour time controls and go to the U1200 bracket, they're finished within an hour, because the game length increases with skill, as there are fewer blunders and people are better at not losing (sort of the definition of skill).
In short I can't really see this as a really exceptional argument for chess as a game, since most of it is marketing and that marketing doesn't actually apply to the people he's trying to target, being new players.
Read some more, he is getting even worse :D
First of all, I doubt people often start playing chess online. Usually you start with a family member or a friend, so I'm pretty sure most peoples first experience of chess involves a real board and pieces and real interaction with the opponent.
The funny thing is, I'm one of those players who got "good" playing online and then joined a real chess club. My first otb rating was 1800 elo, so I was decent when I joined. And I frigging loved otb chess and long games and tournaments! I had found the real thing and I enjoyed it alot more than online chess.
So yeah, this guy is just weird. Maybe too impatient to really enjoy chess?
Nothing beats playing a classical OTB game. I agree that it might not be the most interesting to watch. But its certainly the most interesting and rewarding time control to play.
After my first time playing OTB with a time control of 2hrs 30 min and time control of 30 after 40.
I fell in love. Greg seems to have a bone to pick with long time control tournaments and not without reason but to go this nuts and say long time control chess must die.. is well just as extreme as saying blitz and rapid must die.
I rememeber when I had to walk 5 miles in the snow uphill to play a 5 hour chess game. You kids have it good.
The quality of endgames is already suffering since the classical times got shorter.
I find blitz a bit boring, even online I play with longer time periods like 15+10 at least. Sometimes I play 1 min bullet for the thrill or a 5 min game to chill.
