I was quite tired when I wrote my first comment, should have been more precise. I also agree, let's stick to the wildcard topic, time control topic is another complex one and worth discussion, but maybe in another thread.
@FischyVishy you say "why x and not y?"
I think I'd trust the organizer choice on this, as it happens with chess (last candidates had Kramnik, why not MVL or Naka? simply Kramnik had had the highest ELO, had been playing on a higher level in the previous year, he's friend with the organizers etc. (lol ok maybe not this last one)). I would not give more then one wildcard "just cause they are good", after all the players have still the possibility to qualify. As I said I know there can be exceptions: I do consider an exception the Jkiller case, since he joined lichess when the tournament had already started! In fact I am in favor of JKiller in the candidates. I think in such situations the organizer should suggest the exception to the players and there should be a vote or something (here's the tricky part, I am not sure who should be able to vote on this, all of the players or just the candidates? I guess this is debatable. It's probably also debatable if there should be a possibility of veto by other candidates.. But this is not the point right now.).
Plus I forgot to say that if a player is chosen as a wildcard one year, I think he should not be eligible in the next 1/2 years as a wildcard: this might also help with your original question, one year x could be wildcard and the next year y would be.
@opperwezen A small invitational zh960 championship is in the works.
@xuanet So no Yasser-esque type of wild card?
Also, we might be able to make the cycle run for two years if we want to have longer TCs and lots of games in each match.
@the-lone-wolf Hmm, so the organizer should be able to choose but at the same time, there should be a vote?
Yeah I like having a certain time limit for ex-wild cards. I would've implemented that in practice, but it's good that you stated it so I can add it in as a rule should people agree.
Glad to see something good might come out of the mess
I think there should be
1) a few invites for people who proved themselves in the previous cwc (should be given before the qualifier).
2) at most 1 or 2 wildcards. should be given only if it helps promoting the game. giving it to, say, littleplotkin would be a bad idea because it only promotes zh among people who play zh. giving it to, say, yasser or some popular streamer would be a good idea. this purely promotional wildcard can be given at any point, and even to someone who isn't a top zh player (and maybe even someone who didn't make it through the qualifier), as long as there is a chance it can bring more people to the game
the number of both should depend on the structure of the event obviously
I agree With Fumitoks 1st point, but disagree With his second.
@FischyVishy the organizer would have full decision on the "normal" wildcard; the vote would only be in case of exceptions, which I am not against, like the JKiller one.
I think the highest average rating over a given period should be granted a Wildcard, and they would have to play a certain amount of games. + Fumitoks first point.
Regarding what Fumitoks says, I don't think giving a wildcard to someone like Hansen or Nakamura would be a great idea: they probably wouldn't accept and even if they did, they'd just get smashed (unless they study/practice enough). I'd love to see Naka playing vs Jann or some top zh player, but I also think that should be a separate event, and not part of the zh World Championship: after all you don't see Go masters in the Chess World Championship. I see Fumi cited Yasser: of course he is a top zh player and well known player, but I think he's the only popular streamer who can also claim to be able to compete in the zh Candidates.
If somebody withdraws from the tournament, I'd think it'd be interesting to have an arena tournament to find replacement. If somebody from the winner's bracket withdraws, players from the loser's bracket could enter and if they win, they take the place of the withdrawal. This has been a great event but there's been too many withdrawals.
the point of my idea is to bring new people to the game (if not players then at least new spectators), not to make cwc more interesting for people who'd spectate anyway -- it is interesting enough as is, no need to do anything for them
wildcard can't be given to someone who doesn't accept, can only be offered
separate event is good and strongly encouraged obviously, but including in cwc is also good because new spectators can watch the games of zh experts between each other if they become interested in the game
--Agreed with JKiller that the longer the games, the better. I would be in favor of making the Finals match 5 5, while keeping the Candidates matches at 3 2 for the sake of continuity.
I had a conversation with Diebleusau on this, and I think the right metric is this: We should pick a time control that, if somebody loses on time, we can almost guarantee that they were also losing on the board. There should be nearly no circumstance in which a player can win by simply moving the mouse faster, or by playing spite checks. Clearly 1 0 does not do this, nor do time controls without increments. I'm not 100% sure 3 2 eliminates this possibility, but 5 5 seems to be a good balance.
--In terms of Wild Cards, I think the organizer should have full discretion to give as many wild cards as they think is commensurate with maximizing the quality of tournament competition.
If Nakamura wanted to play in the Zhouse WCC, I don't think anybody would object to giving him an invitation. If then, the next day, Carlsen and Caruana also asked to play, it'd be goofy to say "Sorry guys, you'll have to wait next year, because we only have two wildcards, and we can't make exceptions because angry internet people said so." We should be interested in promoting our variant to the broader chess community, and deepening the difficulty of competition
I like Fumitok's idea of giving out promotional wildcards, but don't think wildcards should be restricted to chess celebrities. If Firefly showed up on LiChess tomorrow, I'd like to see him in the Candidates.
