September 2004 Archives

Okay, I know I was supposed to be taking a break from Kasparov items, but this is a good one. The NY Post reveals that Penguin books has won the bidding war for Garry Kasparov's next book project. The fee? How about half a million dollars! First off, it won't have any chess notation in it. It's called "How Life Imitates Chess" and is about, well, life's lessons from chess.

I've perused the proposal and sample chapter, but I'm not the best person to comment. I'm sure there are many insights to be gleaned from a life of top-level chess, but this sort of forced authorial introspection is weird coming from someone you know. It's not really a self-help book, but it's not a memoir either. On the other hand, maybe he could write one on getting in touch with your inner child!

Okay, cheapo there. If this is as big a hit as they must expect considering the price tag, it could push Kasparov fully into the American mainstream. His regular Wall Stree Journal articles keep him visible, but his Q-rating still isn't that great, at least not for someone who was in a Pepsi Super Bowl commercial a few years ago. And if it's good enough for Twyla Tharp...

There's a fluffy little piece on Anand's current chess promotion tour in India. Most mainstream chess news coverage in English comes from India or the Philippines. Spanish and Latin American papers are also good. As for other languages, a Google news search in German turns up 76 hits for "Kramnik" right now and only 24 in English. That despite there being over six times as many English sources, although many of them are small, local US newspapers. US and UK papers feel that chess needs to be ghettoized with the classified adds or the comics instead of included in the sports pages. It's one thing (and a good thing) for the Olympics to rule us out again, but being dumped in with the crossword is humiliating.

Where was I? Oh yes, tennis. Anand joked about how his mother originally put him into a tennis program.

No doubt. I'm much more likely to be going to bed at 5am than getting up. Actually, I'm even more likely to be playing blitz online. We don't know what tennis lost by Anand's defection; certainly it was a coup for chess. Reminding me of the immortal line about Reuben Fine's retirement from the game: "a loss for chess, at best a draw for psychology".

Slipping in one more Kasparov item before the Kramnik-Leko match starts up again. GK just arrived in Turkey, where he will be playing in the Euro Club Championship starting next week. There is a brief item on his presence in a Turkish paper online.

When I talked to Kasparov today he said he was "in the middle of nowhere" 100 kilometers from the event site of Cesme. The Turks run these events on a for-profit basis, something that has brought them into conflict with the ACP on occasion. Kasparov called the energetic organizer and federation chief Ali Nihat Yazici "sort of a Turkish Bill Goichberg."

Kasparov arrived early to finally focus on chess and train for a few days after so much running around in the past few months. Last year in this event he started very strongly, winning four games in a row, several of them excellent, before blundering into the ugliest loss of his career against Huzman. That's what a combination of age and lack of practice will do to you. Kasparov hasn't played since June.

It was pretty informal, but I managed to get a few answers to your questions for Garry Kasparov. He dodged a few of the more complicated ones, but at least he was funny about it. Thanks for all your questions.

He considers Kramnik the favorite against Leko (game one was in its early stages at this point).

About Kramnik getting a rematch if he loses to Leko, Kasparov said, "It's none of my business. Probably Kramnik will think he should!"

Re if he would play in a qualifier if he loses to Kasimdzhanov or Kramnik/Leko, "That's too many "ifs" for FIDE."

Re if there will be rule changes in chess in the future. "I wouldn't rule it out. Many people are thinking about the openings." [Meaning things like balloted openings.]

Re getting his My Story videos on DVD, or continuing them: "There are no plans, but these ChessBase [Fritz Trainer] DVDs are a better format anyway. No interviewer, just speaking directly to the camera." For those who don't know, Kasparov is making a series of these with many of them already recorded. I think the first to be released is on the Najdorf.

Re who will be world champion in 2010. "A better question is how many champions will there be. And who will run such an event in 2010?"

Re Kamsky comeback: "He may fall short of Fischer's comeback! Who knows, it's up to him."

Re the last book he read: "Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, better, or more believable, than Da Vinci Code. And Jefferson's Second Revolution." Kasparov is a serious American history buff, btw.

Re are GMs over-reliant on computers these days: "Yes, but there's really no choice."

Re has his style of play changed in the last few years. "It evolves, but I'm not playing like Karpov yet!"

Re is there any particular child prodigy he is watching: "Not really watching, but probably Carlsen is the most promising."

Re playing Hydra. He'd heard of it, and said he is always willing to play a computer opponent. "To continue the experiment" is how he usually puts it.

Re 2004 Olympiad predictions (he's not playing): "Russia of course, India could surprise. Anand on board one changes everything, it's huge. The young Ukrainian team."

I asked him what he thought of Nakamura not being on the US men's team and he initially didn't want to comment. "They got us (the Kasparov Chess Foundation) to work with the women's team only!" Eventually he settled for "I'll just say it's strange to see a US team without Nakamura."

Re the current hierarchy: "The results speak for themselves. Obviously Anand has been in great form." He then went on to point out the irony of people complaining about his benefiting from the static FIDE rating system when he organized the development and the propagation of the more advanced and much more dynamic Thompson rating system (aka Professional list) a decade ago. Just two years ago he started the now-defunct World Chess Rating with the hopes of reforming the system.

Note the September 2004 Professional list below. It is much more dynamic, but still doesn't punish inactivity, so GK is still #1. That last number is an index of volatility. The lower the number, the more stable your rating.

1 Kasparov,Garry 13.04.1963 RUS 2764 137
2 Morozevich,Alexander 18.07.1977 RUS 2734 163
3 Anand,Viswanathan 11.12.1969 IND 2725 142
4 Topalov,Veselin 15.03.1975 BUL 2714 153
5 Kramnik,Vladimir 25.06.1975 RUS 2692 120
6 Polgar,Judit 23.07.1976 HUN 2690 161
7 Adams,Michael 17.11.1971 ENG 2687 143
8 Leko,Peter 08.09.1979 HUN 2680 130
9 Svidler,Peter 17.06.1976 RUS 2677 128
10 Shirov,Alexei 04.07.1972 ESP 2669 150

He blew off the New Chronology stuff and said he didn't want to discuss his political aspirations.

I've found something much better than ChessBase or Playchess.com for watching live games. Even the new ChessBase 9 coming out next week doesn't come close. It's watching games live with Garry Kasparov in the room making comments. Really, ChessBase needs to incorporate this feature. Watching game one of Kramnik-Leko at Playchess.com with Garry in the room is a great user experience. He's reasonably user friendly, his graphics aren't bad for 41, and his endgame evaluations are much better than Fritz's.

We had the game on in the background as Garry packed to leave New York for Turkey, where he'll play in the Euro Team Championship next week. Every once in a while he'd wander by the screen, work through a few lines in his head, render a verdict, and go back to packing. For the record, Kasparov pronounced Leko "dead meat" when he played 44.Qf4 instead of taking on g6. (Kramnik won with black, analysis and report coming at ChessBase.com.)

The tiny town of Brissago, Switzerland will be the center of the chess world for the next three weeks. It is already drawing the usual suspects of the chess world in like a black hole. Let's hope it doesn't suck like one. Oh yes, I forgot, I'm trying to be positive. It's going to be great. I mean, GREAT!

My partner in crime at ChessBase.com, Frederic Friedel, just arrived in Brissago and will be filing reports and photos. I'll be spectating and commenting on some of the games at Playchess.com and we can expect a host of GMs to be there too. They are really playing up the betting angle at the official match website. So we have smoking and gambling, all we need is some sex and booze and we'll really have a match!

Let's look back four years to the 2000 world championship match, where Kramnik took the title from Kasparov. Below is the transcript of the post-match press conference. Unfortunately, most of the questions were for the dethroned Kasparov, who hardly needs an invitation to talk, so we didn't hear much from the quiet new champion. It seemed odd to many of us in attendance (including Kasparov) that Kramnik didn't say anything to honor his victim's 15 years on top. But really he just didn't say much.

It's a pretty slow week as things ramp up for the Kramnik-Leko match that starts on Saturday. Meanwhile Garry Kasparov in here in NY for meetings with publishers, among other things. In a few hours I'll post a long article at ChessBase.com about Kasparov's recent stay in Pamplona, Spain. There are also some interesting comments about the third volume of his My Great Predecessors book series. I'll see him again before he leaves this weekend, and if you have some good questions that haven't been answered many times already, post'em if ya got'em.

Poker bots? An interesting article on using computers to play online poker. It serves as a follow-up to our interesting discussion of poker a few weeks ago. A comparison to chess is again made. Slashdot has a long discussion thread on the story with many insightful posts.

Of course the implications of computer cheating for a game based on gambling are severe. Online chessplayers obsess about computer cheating, but that's about ego, rating points, and the occasional small prize. With the typical love of Big Round Numbers, they describe poker as a "billion dollar industry." I'm not sure gamblers would even care. These are people who pour money into slot machines, roulette, and other games in which they have only the casino's word that they have an honest chance of winning. Online poker is the same. You trust that it's not rigged or cheatable.

I suppose it's time to start talking about the Kramnik-Leko classical world championship match that starts on September 25. And why not? Nobody else is talking about it. With a roomful of chessplayers and fans at the Accoona match, nobody mentioned it once. It was all about the Olympiad. The two most consistently conservative elite players in a 14-game match. Yawn. Not that the 2000 Kasparov-Kramnik match wasn't a draw-fest. I was there for the duration. But the ongoing shock of seeing the heavily favored Kasparov down and increasingly desperate added tension and drama.

Anand said it best when he called Kramnik-Leko a battle of immovable object versus immovable object. Kasparov favors Kramnik, and thinks there will be more action than many predict. ("At least three or four decisive games. Two wins each if it's a draw. If Leko wins it will be plus two minus one.") What happens if both players just wait for mistakes? In K-K 2000 both decisive games (wins by Kramnik) were directly out of the opening. As well-prepared as Leko and Kramnik are, and as cautious as they tend to be, this could be a drag.

But let's be optimistic. Kramnik and Leko have played some very exciting games in the past. Leko has the game and the mental toughness to be able to beat Kramnik, who has the edge in experience and, I would say, in sheer talent and depth. If I were betting even money I'd go with Kramnik. But since you can get good odds on Leko, that's the smart bet. Leko even has a career plus against Vlady in classical chess.

Go vote on the winner in our message board poll and predict the score.

Either someone in FIDE actually has a sense of humor, or it's an amusing coincidence that they extended the deadline for bids on the Kasimdzhanov-Kasparov match to September 25, the day that the Kramnik-Leko world championship match starts in Brissago, Switzerland. Extended deadlines are rarely good news.

I heard about the HB Global Chess Challenge a week or so ago, but didn't want to rain on Maurice Ashley's press conference. It's quite an amazing sum: a $500,000 open tournament, doubling the prize fund of the US Championship, which had claims on being the richest annual tournament in the world. When I told Kasparov about it he responded that maybe he should play in that if the Kasimdzhanov match doesn't get off the ground!

Update: As several people have pointed out, perhaps an equally amazing sum is the entry fee: $350!

Been a bit busy with the aftermath of the Krush-Skripchenko match and the beforemath of Kasparov's arrival in NY. Meanwhile, the remnants of some hurricane or other has arrived here in Brooklyn and it's getting biblical out my window. Okay, it's not exactly what happened in Florida or Jamaica, but I'm still not going outside.

Some Dirt from in and around the Accoona match. As mentioned below, today there is an event with Susan Polgar facing Anatoly Karpov in Kansas. It was originally announced they would play blitz, rapid, and advanced chess (computer assisted). The advanced chess was later changed to shuffle chess (aka Fischerandom). From the press release: "Due to the current situation of Bobby Fischer, both World Champions agreed to change the format to include 2 Fischer random chess games instead. This is to show support and respect to their fellow World Champion Bobby Fischer for what he has accomplished over the chess board."

The word is that Karpov freaked out when he heard it was advanced chess, at which the veteran is predictably horrible. He was massacred in that format by ChessBase whiz Anand 5-1 in Leon in 1999. So it was hastily changed to Fischerandom. To show respect to Fischer they could have just had some sushi. Or played to 10 wins, draws not counting! I don't know how much Polgar has been training in private, but Karpov has been playing the worst chess of his life in the past year.

Of the four or five noise interruptions during the Krush-Skripchenko match, two were caused by Accoona employees. One with a cell phone ringing three meters from the board, another yelling across the room downstairs. But the worst was a restaurant worker, as mentioned in my onsite photo report on the match. The video of Irina waving at arbiter John Fernandez will be priceless.

Speaking of, as I pointed out to my chess-newbie friend Ann LePore, a video artist who was there to film the match for ChessBase Magazine, no matter what countries the players represent, the post-mortem is always in Russian. It was. See below for photos and a caption contest.

The press conference announcing the event was so long ago you might not remember it. (And there was so much vodka after the press conference I wouldn't remember it myself without the photos.) The match between Almira Skripchenko and Irina Krush has finally arrived.

The match is two rapid games tomorrow (not four over two days as originally planned), starting at 2pm NY time. The control is 25'+10" and tiebreak will be a pair of 5'+10" blitz games. Then there's a sudden-death "armageddon" game of six minutes for white versus five minutes for black (no increment), with a draw being a win for black. The name of the sponsor has also changed. It's now Accoona, a new technology company. The money behind the curtain is the same (well, similar) as the sponsor of the X3D Kasparov matches I worked on.

I'll be at the Russian Samovar sitting near the board doing live commentary at Playchess.com. Download and install the client, log in and go to the Broadcast room to see the show. We'll also be filming for a future issue of ChessBase Magazine (CD-ROM) and some clips will be available on the web at ChessBase.com and the Accoona site. Contrary to what we were first told, the match WILL be open to the public, within reason. So if you're in midtown Manhattan Thursday afternoon, stop by. There will be live expert commentary downstairs.

I think they have more space than they thought because they scheduled the match on Rosh Hashanah. Oops. I'll bring the apples if you bring the honey. Susan Grumer writes in to point out that the Kramnik-Leko match starts on Yom Kippur, a major blunder. Quick, someone tell Fischer that maybe Jews really don't run the chess world.

Viswanathan Anand is always in the news in India, not that he hasn't deserved it with his dominance of the past year and a half at the board. He's about to embark on a tour of India to promote chess. Vishy has also been in the papers in the past week talking about the chances of the Olympiad team he will lead for the first time in a decade and corporate sponsorship of chess in India. It's nice to see the easy-going Anand taking an active role, and playing for the national team is a huge part of that. Even with the strongest board one (Kasparov isn't playing, as was revealed here) and Sasikiran on board two, Anand doesn't sound too optimistic, at least not about the men's team.

Perhaps a misquote, as Kasparov didn't play in any of those events. But they did meet in the Armenia vs the World match in Moscow this year, a 26-move draw. (My report here.)

I've added an email notification list sign-up on the left. Submit your address and receive an email + excerpt of each new Daily Dirt item. You'll receive a one-click address verification e-mail and that's it. When I tested it, SpamAssassin flagged the verification email, so check your junk box if you don't see the verification message in a few minutes. I won't sell your address to porn spammers, even if you ask.

Please click the Add button and the verification e-mail link ONCE or you could be added multiple times. I'll cull the doubles, but try to help out.

UPDATE: I'll put the usual XML link up on the left later, but if you are into the wide and wonderful world of RSS news feeds, there IS one for the Daily Dirt. http://www.chessninja.com/dailydirt/index.rdf. I recommend FeedDemon or if you want browser-based RSS, Bloglines.com. If you've never heard of RSS it basically culls news headlines from thousands of sites and blogs in channels you select. Very handy.

Vladimir Putin's latest power grab will do away with the direct election of local governors and presidents in the far-flung Russian republics. Although not mentioned in any of the reports I can find, that should include Kalmykia, where FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov rules. The Kremlin's move means Ilyumzhinov will, come next election, be serving at the whim of Moscow. Putin backed Ilyumzhinov's opponent last time around (third item). Next time Putin will essentially pick the candidates, if I understand the early descriptions of the changes.

Ilyumzhinov has proven a canny operator and a survivor, and the next elections there are far off. He might even steal enough money to stay in charge of FIDE after losing in Kalmykia. Still, it's fun to fantasize about restoring the game under a beneficent administration. My big three: 1) A return to classical chess. 2) A more dynamic rating system. 3) A rigorous world championship system.

Garry Kasparov is keeping up his attacks on the government of Vladimir Putin. Since January he has done so as the Chairman of the Committee 2008: Free Choice, a Russian pro-democracy coalition that is dedicated to stopping Putin from keeping power in 2008. Last week Kasparov had another strong editorial in the Wall Street Journal, bashing Putin's government on its reaction to the Beslan horror and on Chechnya. You might wonder if Kasparov won't become the second world champion to have his passport revoked this year...

This week, today actually, Kasparov in in Hamburg speaking to the Baltic Development Forum on the prospects for relations between Russia and Europe. Even if the subject matter doesn't interest you, that there will be an online video of the event might. The organizers say there will be streaming video of Kasparov's 15-minute address this evening at their website. You probably have to go to the "Videofeatures" link.

Update: Still no sign of a video link, but we've posted the entire address at ChessBase.com with pics. Video of it should be on a future ChessBase Magazine.

Safely ensconced as I am in a blue state, it would take more than Swedish meatballs to get me to Kansas. But I like chess and I love a parade. Next weekend Susan Polgar and Anatoly Karpov will play an unusual three-format match in the tiny town of Linsborg, Kansas, which is becoming something of a chess Mecca these days. They'll play two games each of rapid chess, blitz, and shuffle chess (aka Fischerandom, aka Chess960, some of my thoughts on it here). The official press release (below) has enough hyperbole for six DD items. NPR has a truncated audio file of the note they did with the event's organizer, Mikhail Korenman. The Kansas City Star has a story on it, but it's a long registration page required, so they clearly don't want anyone to read it.

It's a shame there isn't any classical chess involved. After their last training session, Kasparov told me that Polgar is likely to be playing at a 2600 level come the Olympiad, where she'll lead the US women's team. It will be something if she can reach that level without playing a public game of serious chess before Calvia. That's a seven year break!

Anyone else remember an old Chess Life that had Karpov (and Polgar?) on the cover dressed up as a king and queen? Post or send me a scan if you've got it.

A trio has published a fascinating paper on how they hacked the Internet Chess Club. They produced a client with which they could easily cheat by controlling the amount of time they used per move, even setting it to zero. They also hacked the communications stream and could eavesdrop on all communications between any user and the ICC server, including credit card info, or even take control of the system to solicit information from an unsuspecting user. Read the abstract of their paper below.

They say they won't release their code and they offer suggestions to fix the problems. They also made their info available to the ICC before they published last week. I just chatted with George MacDonald, the general manager of the ICC, and they are still working on the system. Today they updated their help file to include a security disclaimer (see below).

As for it being easy, as the paper's authors imply, that's from a mathematical standpoint not a practical one. It's not as if anyone with a few hours free time would be able to whip up a cheat client. The danger would be an expert distributing such a thing.

The Washington Post has an interesting article on the popularity boom poker is enjoying.

Ah, what the elements of chance and money can do for a game. Sure, poker has a fairly high skill quotient and the longer a game goes the better chance the more skilled players will win. But chess it ain't. An amateur with good nerves and a few months of study can beat the world's best if he has a lucky streak. The last few poker championships were won by amateurs. With so many amateurs flooding the game, their sheer numbers overwhelm the pros for the top prizes. Still, the pros benefit overall from all the "dead money" coming into the game since they win more on the percentages over time.

Not much of a model for chess to imitate. The bluffing and odds-beating that make poker fun for amateurs, even beginners, to gamble on don't exist in chess. Some people just like to gamble, period. Bluffing, losing money, and beating odds all translate directly to television viewers, even if they barely understand the rules. And without the gambling element you won't see the massive promotion poker is getting from casinos.

Many chess players are heavily into card games, including poker. Six-time US champion Walter Browne is a veteran card shark. There are countless anecdotes about Lasker and other pre-WWII champions' addiction to whist, changing the names and the game to bridge post-war.

Big exclusive. Former US champion and FIDE world championship challenger Gata Kamsky will play in the 2004 US Championahip in San Diego on Nov. 24. He has been awarded one of the two wildcard spots by the AF4C, necessary if he was to play because his long inactivity left him ineligible by rating and he declined to play in any of the many qualifiers.

UPDATE 12:09 - The AF4C now has a press release announcing his participation. Full text below.

Despite my earlier waffling on the matter, I agree with the choice to break with the AF4C tradition of giving the spots to juniors (the other wildcard almost surely will go that way). I'm still concerned about giving a player a spot after he passed up a chance to play in a qualifier. It's a precedent that the organizers may regret next year when every GM who didn't make it will plead his case. Giving wildcards to GMs also contradicts the commendable policy of emphasizing qualification over free tickets by rating. It's a worthy prize, players should be willing to fight for it.

Kamsky is an exception for several reasons, mostly due to his long inactivity and recent return to the game. Past glories alone shouldn't cut the mustard. (Walter Browne played in many qualifiers and didn't make it from what I can tell.) I've heard that Kamsky offered his services to the US Olympiad team and was turned down.

Speaking of spots, another good AF4C idea is about to see the light. An online tournament of state champions starting in a few weeks will decide an entry spot to the US Championship. It's blitz and it's online, but it's an exciting idea that could add a lot of needed pizzazz to state championships, which get little to no publicity. There wasn't much time for such PR this time, but next year should be different.

Let's look in on the state of the regular chess column. If you're new here, this is one of my regular cheerleader sections to find more and to get more chess out there. Daily doesn't exist (even here, ahem) since George Koltanowski passed in 2000 after over 19,000 columns starting in 1948.

One of the best out there is GM Lubomir Kavalek's in the Washington Post. The UK Telegraph Chess Club section is also good. I believe both require free registration. The Scotsman column by John Henderson has been made hard to find. Go here to the Games section and click Chess on the right. His name isn't on it for some reason, but he assures me it's still him.

Few newspaper columns contribute much in the way of new news if you are already reading sites like ChessBase and TWIC (the aforementioned are exceptions), but they usually have an analyzed game. Does your local paper have a chess column? If not, write the editors online AND with a letter. Make suggestions, talk about kids and the game, be personal. Get other chess friends to do the same. I'll send'em a column for free if they'll run it.

Post links to other good columns, or mention offline ones you like. There's a list here, but I'd rather hear the ones you like and why. Too many just phone it in.

Sometimes it seems every American football player is a chess fan. Hall of Famer Barry Sanders is appearing at a Kansas club. Top star Priest Holmes has been on TV in his home's "chess room" complete with suits of armor for decorations. Then we have boxers like the Klitschkos, tennis players like Boris Becker, and many more. Such crossover appeal is an effective, if somewhat cheesy and desperate, way to promote chess, particularly in the USA where the game has a reputation for geekiness. List a few other stars into chess, with links if possible.

The US Men's Olympiad team has been announced. There are new faces on the team, although they are only new for the US. Onischuk is the highest-rated player and is also the youngest, turning 29 tomorrow. Novikov and Goldin are making their Olympiad debuts for the US, although both are 40-year-old veterans. Gulko, Kaidanov, and Shabalov round out the Soviet, I mean American, squad. According to John Donaldson's Mechanic's newsletter, even the USA team captain will be a Soviet veteran; Boris Postovsky led many Soviet teams in his long career and will now do the same for the US. (It's possible he may have even led a few of his current charges back when they were juniors.)

Two years ago it was already trite to suggest that the US team was getting too long in the tooth to compete under the rigors of the faster time controls and fewer off days of the Olympiad. The US won silver with a veteran team in 1998, but has shown more wear and tear in the last two events. From top to bottom the US team is one of the highest rated in the field. You still have to wonder why top young American stars Nakamura and Akobian aren't on the squad.

Not literally; we KNOW why. The selection formula goes back to April, 2003, so their strong performances in recent months don't have much impact. They focus on the US rating. Using the latest FIDE list would put Nakamura on the team as #6 since Seirawan has largely retired and Kamsky hasn't been active. Young American players have very few chances to gain international experience. While the "ratings only" system avoids controversy (witness the brouhaha over the women's team), it seems a shame. John Henderson suggests that the team's plane take a detour on the way to Calvia and play in the world senior championship!

With all the Bobby Fischer blather coming out of Japan these days over his ridiculous predicament, let's not miss an important anniversary. Today in 1972 Fischer won the world title from Boris Spassky. The final game started on August 31, but Spassky phoned in his resignation on September 1.