It's time for the main event.

Nezh vs. smilingbill in a 6-game match to determine the 2011 2+2 Chess Champion!

The challenger for this year's title is smilingbill, winner of the 2011 Candidate's Tourney

His opponent will be the 2010 Champion Nezh, who will be defending his title.

The format will be six games at 30'2" time controls, played over the course of three weeks at preset times. The schedule:
November 22nd: Games 1 and 2, beginning at 8:00 PM GMT (That's 3:00 PM Eastern, for us boorish Americans)
November 29th: Games 3 and 4, beginning at 8:00 PM GMT
December 6th: Games 5 and 6 (if necessary), beginning at 8:00 PM GMT, and followed immediately by tie-breaks should the match finish 3-3

These games will all be played on FICS, so that anyone who wants to watch will be able to. I wish both players the best of luck!

Good luck guys!

rawr
let us gogogo
who has white in the first game?

Good luck to both.

(Also glad to see its on fics)

Good luck to both just cancels out!

Therefore, All the best to both competitors.

Give your best to each other, and see who wins the match!

Bump to remind interested observers (and the participants, for that matter) that this is scheduled to begin in 23 hours, at 7:00 PM GMT on November 22.

Also, I corrected the OP for those Americans who don't want to convert time zones themselves: the games will begin at 2:00 Eastern, not 3 like I originally said. I forgot that daylight savings time shifted AFTER I made the OP, but BEFORE the games will be played. Time zones are hard imo.

starting now, nezh has white in g1 (spielmacher-limozeen)

1-1 after some low quality play

g1: I maybe pushed a little too hard early and missed a lot of stuff, then lost the ending pretty meekly http://www.ficsgames.com/cgi-bin/sho...87;action=show
g2: Nezh went for an insanely optimistic pawn grab, insta crash and burn http://www.ficsgames.com/cgi-bin/sho...57;action=show

Next two games next week will start at the same time as we did this week, 8pm GMT

OP adjusted to account for 8pm starts. The 1-1 start is definitely exciting, and the play wasn't low quality by my standards

sigh, nezh awol

This is annoyingly anticlimactic, which is why I've waited so long to come to the inevitable ruling, but since Nezh has not yet responded in any way to my PM asking why he no-showed for the scheduled matches, I have no choice but to rule this match a forfeit.

I hereby officially declare smilingbill the 2011 2+2 Chess Champion!

The good news is that despite the dissapointing manner in which this was decided, there is no question that smilingbill is extremely deserving of the title. Hopefully next year we'll actually have a full and completed title match between him and whomever wins the 2012 Candidate's Tourney. Until then, enjoy your new title good sir!

wohoo! come get some 2012 challenger Now where is that undertitle ;p

congratulations sir, well deserved victory!

congrats!

congrats, you destroyed everyone who showed up, well deserved victory!