Well, I think that Chess is indeed a Combat Sport.
But, pretending that in order to be a PURE MERITOCRACY, Chess should be like the UFC and Boxing is a sign of ignorance.
Visibly, Hans Niemann, no matter how brilliant he is, yes he is. But he doesn’t know shit about UFC and Boxing.
However, as a lifelong Combat Sports fan, I know a thing or two on the subject.
Let’s start with the very worst offender, Boxing.
- There is 5 “legitimate” Boxing “world” Championship organizations. WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, and The Ring magazine.
- Multiply the above with 18 weight divisions. There used to be 17, but now it’s 18 with the addition of “Bridgerweight” (200-224 lbs).
- Don’t forget to mention “Champion in Recess”, “Champion Emeritus”, “Unified Champion”, “Regular Champion”, “Super Champion”, “Undisputed Champion”, “Regular Champion”, “Silver”, “Diamond”, “Emeritus”, “Franchise”, “Honorary”, “Supreme Champion”, and the dreaded “interim” championships. I’m not kidding, all those improvised titles have flashy looking assorted championship belts that come with it. All those funny titles are either won in the ring or awarded.
- A grand total of more than 100 “world” champions.
- Add to this the endless number of bogus titles and “championship” belts not even worth mentioning. I’ve even seen tomato cans wearing championship belts??!!
- A pro Boxer must win his first 25-30 bouts to be considered a contender. So careful match-making is much more important than ability at the beginning.
- The careful match-making continue at the very top. “World” Champions avoid facing any real threat nor any legit Top 10 contenders.
- Tomato can system. Those unblemish, undefeated records need to be padded with a constant flux of third rated opposition (career journeymen and washed out boxers).
- Championship matches sometimes last for several years. Examples: Mayweather vs. Pacquiao.
- Champions hardly fought 3 times a day at best. It’s not unusual that a champion is more than 12 months without defending his title.
- The Top 10 or Top 15 isn’t decided by “Who Beat Who” like it should be. It’s all about promoters politicking a good ranking for their fighters.
- If Chess has Blinfold Chess. Boxing has its share of blindfold judges.
- Referees stopping matches too soon.
- And probably much more than I can remember.
In many ways, Pro Wrestling lokks more legit than Boxing.
Now let’s roast the almighty UFC.
- Interim “champions”. WTF is this. What about a paper champ title instead?!
- Fuckin’ referees stoppages. Too often, matches are stopped way too soon. An easy way to rob a Combatant of a victory. FU Herb Dean.
- Same blindfold judging problem as in Boxing. But a lot less.
A very short offending list next to Boxing.
Visibly not perfect, UFC is an hundred times more legit than Boxing.
At least in UFC, there isn’t a de-facto tomato can system where a fighter must avoid losing one of his first 25-30 bouts to become a contender.
If you want Pure Meritocracy and zero-sum game. Just play online Chess. You win, you earn rating points. You lose, you lose rating points.
ELO rating and online chess ratings are Pure Meritocracy.
Combat Sports aside.
His “Hans Against the World” series was Total Chess before Total Chess.
Hans Against the World series was a set of chess matches organized by GM Hans Niemann featuring himself playing against top international players in Classical, Rapid, and Blitz time controls. Which was/is an excellent idea.
- Classical: 6 games played over three days.
- Rapid: 6 games.
- Blitz: 12 games.
Based on the scoring system where classical wins are 3 points, rapid wins are 2 points, and blitz wins are 1 point.