Grand Chess Tour 2017 St. Louis Rapid and Blitz Betting Odds
–Chess is a surprisingly popular game among bettors–particularly in Europe.
–All eyes will be on Garry Kasparov playing competitive chess for the first time in twelve years.
–Kasparov is considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all time
The Grand Chess Tour is a series of marquee events with huge purses. Here’s the blurb from their website:
The 2017 Grand Chess Tour is a series of five chess tournaments held throughout the year and across the globe. A total of nine players were selected as full 2017 Grand Chess Tour participants. Three spots were awarded to the top finishers in the 2016 GCT, another three to the top players by average 2016 rating and the final three were determined by the GCT advisory board as tour wildcards. Tour participants will play both classic events and two of the three rapid and blitz events. Unlike last year, every result will count toward a player’s final GCT standing.
The Grand Chess Tour St. Louis Rapid and Blitz Tournament comes immediately after the Sinquefield Cup, a $300,000 event featuring ten of the best chess players on the planet. You think that this tournament with a ‘mere’ $150,000 in prizes would pale in comparison. That might have been the case in a typical year but due to a surprising series of events this could end up being the most watched chess tournament of the year.
KASPAROV STRIKES BACK
The Grand Chess Tour’s website details the format for the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz Tournament as follows:
The Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz is new to the Grand Chess Tour in 2017. This $150,000 event will feature six of the 2017 Grand Chess Tour players and four wildcard picks, each of whom will try to prove they can push pawns with the very best.
The tournament wildcards are Czech powerhouse David Navara, 2013 World Blitz Champion Le Quang Liem, 4 time Cuban Chess champion Lenier Dominguez….and a guy named Garry Kasparov who can make a compelling case for being the best chess player in history. Making his participation all the more dramatic–the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz tournament will be the first time he’s played competitive chess in twelve years. In our preview of the Sinquefield Cup I made the comparison to Michael Jordan’s legendary un-retirement in the mid-1990’s which he announced simply by releasing a statement that said “I’m back”. Kasparov’s return to competitive chess in this setting is similar to Michael Jordan suiting up at Sunday’s Big3 3-on-3 Basketball League card in Dallas with one major difference–chess is a cerebral game and Kasparov is as sharp as ever.
So how good was Kasparov in his prime? Like I said before, among if not THE best ever. Kasparov was an absolute monster. I’ll frequently use that term but I’m far from the first to use that type of figurative language to describe Kasparov. His nickname was “The Beast” and he was described as a “monster with 100 eyes, who sees all”. He became World Champion in 1985 at age 22 and held the title for a ridiculous 15 years during which he was virtually unbeatable. Since his retirement, Kasparov has been politically active in his native Russia. He’s written many articles and a book addressing his concerns with Vladimir Putin. He’s been arrested on several occasions for his public opposition of Putin and has since become a Croatian citizen. The St. Louis Chess Club expects an audience ‘in the millions‘ watching their online feed of Kasparov’s return.
RAPID AND BLITZ RULES
Most competitive chess tournaments are contested under ‘standard’ rules contested under ‘classical’ time controls. This tournament will feature ‘rapid’ and ‘blitz’ rules. The difference is the amount of time allotted for the players to study the board and make their moves. For major international tournaments FIDE regulations stipulate “90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move starting from move one.” Last year’s World Chess Championship had the following time control: “100 minutes for the first 40 moves, 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move 1.” In other words, players have two hours or more to contemplate and execute their strategy.
Rapid and Blitz–as the names suggest–give players less time to make their moves. The FIDE Rapid rules are as follows:
A ‘Rapidplay’ game is one where either all the moves must be completed in a fixed time of more than 10 minutes but less than 60 minutes for each player; or the time allotted plus 60 times any increment is of more than 10 minutes but less than 60 minutes for each player.
The FIDE Blitz rules:
A ‘blitz’ game’ is one where all the moves must be completed in a fixed time of 10 minutes or less for each player; or the allotted time plus 60 times any increment is 10 minutes or less.
Making things more interesting–while a good chess player can be effective at any variation at the highest level there is some differentiation in the standard, rapid and blitz rankings. You’ll see reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen at the top of all three variations but the rest of the standings show a significant degree of difference.
SETTING THE ODDS
The odds for the six Grand Chess Tour players are easy enough to set thanks to the amount of data and metrics available. The four wild cards are just that and it’s tough to come up with their valuation. For one thing, chess players aren’t NFL football players–they’re all very smart individuals with other options in life. Le Quang Liem, for example, just graduated Summa Cum Laude from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri with a BS degree in Finance and a BA degree in Management. He played competitively in college–Webster University is essentially the Alabama Crimson Tide of chess and have won the last five National Championships. Even so, he’s obviously a guy with options. He might be ranked 30th in the world but considering that his full focus hasn’t been on chess over the past few years that might not be an accurate reflection of his competitive ability.
And then there’s this Garry Kasparov guy. This is where the Michael Jordan metaphors no longer work. MJ could show up at the BIG3 event as the greatest basketball player ever but he’d be the GOAT in a 54 year old body. Kasparov is also 54 but fully capable of turning his opponents’ lights out (metaphorically speaking unless the rules of chess have changed dramatically). This also isn’t 83 year old Doyle Brunson showing up at the World Series of Poker every year just because he’s a legend–though a legend with his competitive prime decades behind him. Kasparov is as sharp as ever though he’s obviously not completely focused on chess and has his attention divided by his very lucid political writing. You have to wonder if there’s anything like ‘ring rust’ in competitive chess? Even so, there’s good reason to think that Kasparov might be like Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and concepts like that just don’t apply to him. Maybe top chess pros don’t think this way but I know *I’d* be intimidated as hell to sit down across the table from him.
GRAND CHESS TOUR ST. LOUIS RAPID AND BLITZ BETTING ODDS–ST. LOUIS (AUGUST 14-19, 2017)
ODDS TO WIN GRAND CHESS TOUR ST. LOUIS RAPID AND BLITZ TOURNAMENT
Hikaru Nakamura: +350
Ian Nepomniachtchi: +350
Sergey Karjakin: +500
Garry Kasparov: +500
Levon Aronian: +750
Lenier Dominguez: +750
Viswanathan Anand: +950
Fabiano Caruana: +950
Le Quang Liem: +1250
David Navara: +1250