BB+ wrote:For my two cents (maybe I should start a new thread): is the WCCC too long? How many people can easily take a whole week off to "operate" their entry for 9 days [Friday-Saturday]? [And how many consider this a desirable "vacation"?] Given that there will likely be few/zero participants from the Americas [maybe Zach, maybe others, I obviously don't know], having it just be (say) 5 days long probably won't lead to any complaints about such a short stint not being worth the travel effort. Having it be a (very) long weekend might(?) lead to greater participation. The "statistical significance" of 9 or 11 games versus something like 7 can't be that great, though having a round-robin (if possible) is always nice in that everyone gets to play the champion. Of course, there are counter-arguments, but I just wanted to know if anyone had an opinion.
I'm jumping in late, but I think 9 days is too long. In fact I believe a single tournament is not a good way to establish a world champion, but I think they have to do it that way for practical reasons. In an ideal world there should be some sort of qualifying tournament or tournaments getting us down to matches between a very few players to select a challenger to last years world champion.
I say, "in an ideal world" because I'm not sure such a thing is practical. It could be made more practical if it were low overhead, the matches could even be played in someones home or work office but properly supervised and broadcast prominently over the internet. The pre-tournaments could be the ones where all the authors come together to play and meet each other.
