Garry Kasparov, no doubt with a few sour grapes underfoot, coined that term to describe the conservative, play-the-percentages chess style epitomized by the man who took away his world championship title in 2000, Vladimir Kramnik. I consider these to be...
July 2004 Archives
The latest has Japan announcing it would deport Fischer, but saying that Fischer could appeal that ruling. (He has yet to hire a lawyer.) Better hope for his avoiding arriving in the US is promised by his attempt to secure...
There exists a special category of chess appearing in the news. It's whenever there is a mundane crime that makes the news only because someone in the scene was playing chess at the time. This dull gem popped up yesterday...
Some thought-provoking items from a thought-provoking and rather forgotten book. "What needs emphasis is the plain fact that a chess genius is a human being who focuses vast, little-understood mental gifts and labors on an ultimately trivial human enterprise. Almost...
Salon.com has an article by Rene Chun on the Fischer Incident. He wrote about Fischer in the Atlantic Monthly a few years ago and has a few new facts this time around. (The new article is for paying Salon.com subscribers,...
Following the North Urals Cup this week? Didn't think so. With powerful events going on in Biel, Dortmund, and Taiyuan right now, a remarkable event in Russia probably escaped your notice. It is also a supertournament, but of the women-only...
A few more tidbits of information have trickled out about the Fischer case. You are just as capable of I am of going to Google News and searching for the words "Fischer" and "chess" so I'll keep it brief. Reuters...
In a follow-up to yesterday's casting call for titled contributors, I wanted to mention one of the problems of the chess publishing trade and a suggestion that might help many in the community. If a Russian or Israeli or Brazilian...
At a time in which you hear of GMs retiring or threatening to retire because of a lack of income, you would think it would be easy to find contributors of chess content. Not exactly. I spent two years as...
UPDATE: We have posted Kasparov's full article at ChessBase.com. Garry Kasparov has been working on the Bobby Fischer section of his Great Predecessors book series. It will cover an amazing 55 Fischer games and 250 pages! Even if he hadn't...
As mentioned here before, former world championship contender and US champion Gata Kamsky recently returned to play chess for the first time since 1999. The newly lucrative US Championship in San Diego in November could be a tempting target for...
Yes, that is a double meaning in the title. It looks like we're going to have to live with Bobby Fischer in the headlines for a while, unless the media storm around his detention in Japan dies down very quickly....
Alert reader Sean Evans tells us that Bobby Fischer's scrofulous website has just added the news that he has been detained at the Narita airport in Japan. (Be warned that the item, like most of the page, contains profane and...
As if just to spite FIDE, the Israeli program Deep Junior just won the 12th World Computer Chess Championship. Israelis were banned from the human WCh, but this one was held in Israel. It was a narrow win over Shredder...
Uzbekistani GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov triumphed over odds, Elo, and four world-class opponents to become the new FIDE world champion. Despite eliminating Ivanchuk, Grischuk, Topalov, and Adams he will be a heavy underdog in his unification match against Garry Kasparov, which...
Just a quick note to say I'm back home and that "daily" will be back in the Daily Dirt again as soon as I pay off my massive sleep deficit. Now I need to go over all the Kasimdzhanov-Adams games...
Not that I really care with so much good food and wine around, but of course I keep my eyes peeled for chess when on the road. After hitting a few dozen bookstores and magazine stands here in Toulouse I...
A 33.6 dial-up connection at my Toulouse hotel isn't a dream, but it works. Had a chess experience on the flight from New York to Paris. The Air France Airbus plane had an "Echecs" game installed on the personal video...
Just as the FIDE WCh in Tripoli hits the finals I'm off to Toulouse, France for my sister's wedding. You know how hard it can be to get an internet connection in these third-world countries, so updating may be sporadic...
The new FIDE rating list is out. Nothing too interesting, although France's Bacrot crashed the 2700 club with a huge leap. He took the French #1 spot from Lautier by a wide margin and will likely play board one in...
