I think the fact it is an anachronism is what makes it worth continuing. It has a history. There is a lineage stretching back to the 1800's. It is a signific

I think the fact it is an anachronism is what makes it worth continuing. It has a history. There is a lineage stretching back to the 1800's. It is a significant thing to beat the current champion, who beat the previous champion etc. And the process of selecting the candidate to challenge the champion hasn't always been perfect, but in general it is pretty good and fair. And regardless of ratings / performance etc, the World Champion is a match play champion. Elo is a very objective way of deciding who is generally the strongest player, and that is published and acknowledged. There is on and off : a world knockout champion, a world blitz champion, a world rapid play champion. So loads of other different scenarios are taken care of, so why not preserve the match play champion lineage. Basically, this article is link bait.