The Financial Times has today published an article (£) based on research commissioned by I Trust Sport about the World Chess Championship Match, which is currently taking place in Sochi.
The original analysis of historic chess results by computer scientist Randal Olson suggests that challenger Vishy Anand may have his best chance of beating the young champion Magnus Carlsen if he can play aggressively with the objective of winning within about 60 moves.
Through this research, sports governance agency I Trust Sport aims to demonstrate that there is considerable hidden value to be gleaned from sports data once more of the data is published in an open format. Even if sports federations earn revenue from live results information it remains perfectly possible to publish data that no longer has commercial value, allowing academics and analysts to work with it. Benefits might include gaining an improved understanding of tactics or how to optimise training for peak performance. It’s time to extend the drive for Open Data to sport.
