If a series of chess games is drawn, how do you split the tie? One answer is to play two more games (one of each colour) at a faster time limit, to boost the odds of a decisive result. But that might take a while. When the games get too brisk, the tiebreak feels divorced from the original contest.
The drawbacks of playing just one game are obvious – the white player get an unfair edge, and the game might end up drawn anyway. So the Armageddon game was invented – the chess equivalent of a penalty shoot-out. In this, a drawn game results in a win for the black player. On its own, that’s a chunky advantage, so a time handicap is used to even out the chances.
What time handicap yields a fair contest? A typical Armageddon time limit is for White to play with five minutes to four, and a two-second increment starting from move 61. As far as I’m aware, this allocation of time has more grounding in guesswork than empirical evidence. A second problem is that a fair time split depends on the players’ skill. At a higher level, draws are more frequent, so a larger time handicap is necessary to compensate for Black having draw odds.
In fact, guesswork needn’t be involved at all. You fix an amount of time for White (say, five minutes), and then have the players make a sealed bid for whatever amount of time they deem satisfactory to take Black. Whoever bids the lower amount of time plays with Black and draw odds, with the exact amount of time that they bid.
That system was used for an Armageddon playoff at the 2010 US championship. The white player was stipulated an hour for the game. Gata Kamsky made the lower bid, so he got Black with 25 minutes and draw odds against Yury Shulman. Kamsky was on the ropes, but won the championship with a draw. The same system was used for Armageddon games at the Airthings Masters earlier this month, the online event hosted by chess.com which kicked off the 2023 Champions Chess Tour.
It’s a neat solution, and entertaining for spectators, though a purist might prefer a player’s fortunes to be determined solely by the quality of their moves rather than the skill of their bidding. An amusing case arose in the Armageddon match between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura from the preliminary stages. For this game, White would play with 15 minutes, so Nakamura sealed a bid of eight minutes and 59 seconds, presumably in anticipation of a nine-minute bid from Carlsen. But Carlsen’s sixth sense for his opponent’s intentions extends beyond the chessboard. His bid of eight minutes and 58 seconds was at least a psychological victory, and he went on to achieve the draw he needed to win the match.
The eccentric format meant that this was not their last encounter of the event. The two giants battled it out again in the final, where Carlsen earned tournament victory with a 2.5-1.5 margin. A surprising double blunder occurred in this position from another heavyweight pairing.
Wesley So-Hikaru Nakamura
Airthings Masters, February 2023
Nakamura’s last move was the blunder 52…Kg7-f7. Wesley So responded with 53 Qe6+ and in view of what came before, the response 53…Kg7 led to a draw by threefold repetition. Both players overlooked that 53 Qf3! was a winning move. White’s extra kingside pawn ensures a straightforward win after the exchange of queens. In case of 53…Kf6 54 Qxf4+ gxf4 55 h4 Ke5 56 Kf3 Kxd5 57 Kxf4 White wins easily. Black’s king will be diverted by an advancing g-pawn, while White mops up the queenside pawns.
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