15 October 2006

World Championship Tiebreak

While working on an article for the Kramnik - Topalov unification match, I started thinking about tiebreak. There haven't been many other World Championship events where tiebreak was an issue. It was used in the FIDE knockout tournaments, the final round following the same principles as for all preceding rounds.

I can think of only one other occasion where it would have resolved a tie : the 1948 match tournament with Botvinnik, Smyslov, Reshevsky, Keres, and Euwe. What sort of playoff was foreseen for that event?

1 comment:

Mark Weeks said...

BCM 1946(?) p.287 mentions that 'If the tournament results in a tie for the first place, the tie-ers shall play a match or tournament in Russia according to conditions decided by FIDE.' That's all I've found so far.