Nothing much new for this crowd, but it's something to see Greg Shahade's photo on the homepage of the NY Times. Today there's an article on how databases have changed the game. There are comments by various NY players like Bonin, Shahade, and Ehlvest, as well as by the volks at ChessBase. One para reminded me of various conversations I had with players at the US Championship in San Diego.
In San Diego it came out that many players, particularly the more net-savvy youngsters, had gone beyond the MegaBase and TWIC and had prepared by looking at their opponents' blitz games from the ICC. (Playchess.com doesn't archive games online.) Many players try out openings in blitz games they used to think were anonymous. Many GMs maintain anonymous accounts, but the real names tend to leak out, especially in the community. Soon there might be a black-market in secret identities. I would expect there to be a "do not archive games online" account option to be added.
