For almost a month, we were able to follow the gigantic clash of two hundred and eight participants in the knockout World Cup tournament in Indian Goa. The closer the end approached, the less \u2014 at least for me \u2014 it was clear in which discipline the competition was actually held. In chess? Yes. But in classical chess, the \u201ereal\u201c chess as history knows it? Hardly. And since for all three winners, Javokhir Sindarov, Wei Yi and Andrey Jesipenko, success means automatic qualification for the Candidates Tournament for the classical World Chess Championship title, it makes little sense why the qualifiers were decided in the vast majority of cases by rapid games 15+10 or 10+10, including the final time scrambles.<\/p>\n