🚀 go-pugleaf

>  >    b) The loser of the last world championship match (karpov
>  >       or Kasparov in this instance) will join these 2 candidates
>  >       for a 3-way playoff tournament. The winner of this
>  >       tournament will be the challenger.
>  >
>  >It will be nearly impossible for a non-soviet chess player to
>  >become challenger. Because, statistically, at least two soviet
>  >players have always reached the candidates tournament, this
>  >rule 3-b seems designed to allow collusion between the soviet
>  >candidates.
> 
> It seems that 2 soviet players reaching the top positions indicates that
> the soviets have VERY GOOD players.  If that were not the case, other people
> would be on top more often!  American players can become "intrenched"  just
> as much as French players and just as much as Soviet players and just as
> much as ... IF AND ONLY IF they are good enough to move to the top of 
> the list.
> 
> Politics can not cause a player to win or lose a game.  Politics can spoil
> the flavor of the game via bickering and yelling between games.  What do you
> want, a rule which requires 50% of all contenders to come from Western 
> nations?

You're missing the point entirely. If two players of any nation reach the
3-way playoff, then there is a distinct possibility of one player
intentionally drawing or losing games to the other so that their nation
will still have the challenger. Thus, you are COMPLETELY WRONG in stating
that politics can not cause a player to win or lose a game. Since the
Soviets have the current champ and will have the current loser, this
ensures that they will have at least one of the 3 in the playoff next
time. So all they have to do is get one out of the two others, and they
will be in a position to try this tactic to ensure that they will have
the challenger. This then ensures that they will have the loser the
next time, etc.

Also check the way Soviet players are seeded into Interzonals. I don't
remember the rules exactly, but I remember being impressed when I read
them with the fact that Soviets need not eliminate each other - they
can have a number of players with a good chance to reach the 3-way
playoff.

The whole point is that this is a system that heavily favors whichever 
nation has the current champion. Since the Russians have the current champ
and current loser-to-be, they have changed the rules in this fashion
to bias the chances towards themselves.