The Chess Mind

And the glorious mess that is the championship of chess continues...

I wonder what's stopping us from returning to the old system of candidate matches, I'm quite sure that would yield far fewer complaints from the top players.

I'm of the opinion a "World Champion" is only that when he's recognized to be it. When I think of Champions, Euwe, Steinitz, Capablanca, Lasker, Spassky, Petrosian, Alekhine, Kasparov, Karpov, Botvinnik, Tal, Smyslov and Fischer, I have no doubts.
But.. Khalifman? Ponomariov? Kasimdzhanov? Great players? sure, but the world's greatest? I think not.

Since this match seems to go on no matter what, I hope Topalov wins. He's been more active and has the top rating at this moment. In my opinion Anand deserves a shot at the title sometime soon. He has more reason to complain than Shirov at any rate.

Hmm, I'm not counting anything after Kasparov broke off. As Shirov stated, Kramnik has slipped down a bit in activity and rating, shouldn't someone stronger play Topalov? Vishy Anand comes closest to Topalov in my book.