The Chess World Championship

      The great thing about chess championship matches, the thing that distinguishes them from championships in other sports, such as boxing and football, is that we get to see the best in the world go toe to toe many times. That’s what makes it special. If you look at the NFL's Super Bowl, there is only one game that decides the champion.  The same goes for boxing, only 12 rounds of boxing decides who’s the champ. In some cases with football and boxing, the best team or fighter does not win. In boxing the bout can be decided by a lucky punch,  a cut, or bad judging. With the Super Bowl there could be a bad bounce of the ball or a bad call from a ref that decides the outcome. 

    
With a chess world championship match that’s not the case.  These matches are usually two months long, and at the end, there is no question as to who the champion is. In a match of 14+ games, there will be no questions as to who is best. That’s what distinguishes chess championships from other sport's championships. If the challenger wins a game, the champion can say, ok fine lets see if you can do it again. At the end of the match, we can all feel good about the champion. 
 
    To bad Fide is not taking this opportunity to promote the Kramnik vs. Leko match. As of 9/24/2004 I see nothing on their web site that talks about this match between two of their top 5 players. I think if FIDE had promoted this match, they would make the reunification a lot easier to sponsor. To bad FIDE does not recognize Kramnik’s victory over Kasparov in 2000 as a  significant accomplishment  I believe Kramnik's victory over Kasparov  was the greatest match victory since  Alekhine’s defeat of Capablanca in 1927.  These world championship matches  inspire the young and old to play the royal game. Young people need heroes. Heroes are made during  world championships matches.