Again, the question was posed to us as fans, not as GMs. World Championships are very rare. In 45 years of being a fan, I have seen 2 of them . At the time the question was asked in this thread, I had seen 1. I would gladly have traded those two for a guaranteed championship. As of today, it wouldn't have been a bad bet. I hope that after this year the result of the bet changes, but that's not going to be easy. You are reading consequences and ripple effects into this that were not part of the premise of the bet.