CHESS Lubomir Kavalek- April 18, 2005 Baseball returned triumphantly to Washington last Thursday after 34 years. "Luckily, it is not a national pastime in Russia," joked Garry Kasparov on Friday after he got hit over the head with a wooden chessboard he had just autographed. He was speaking to young political activists in Moscow when the attack occurred. The 13th official world chess champion survived the brush with Russian politics with only a bump. Let's hope his political opponents don't discover baseball bats.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61582-2005Apr17.html?nav=rss_style/columns/... CHESS Lubomir Kavalek- April 18, 2005 Garry Kasparov never played Bobby Fischer and never will. "Wait a minute," says Bohumir Stedron, author of an article titled "Forecasts of Artificial Intelligence,"don't be so sure." In the March-April 2004 issue of the Futurist, Stedron predicted that by 2050 we will be able to mimic human thought processes. Does this mean we could create as many Fischers and Kasparovs as we wanted "In theory we could," he says, "but we should only create one of each and protect them by copyright."http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3613-2005Feb6.html?nav=rss_style/columns/ch... CHESS Lubomir Kavalek- April 18, 2005 On Wednesday Garry Kasparov, the world's best player in the last two decades, will turn 42. After he retired from professional competition last month he was asked what his greatest game was. He pointed to his encounter against Bulgarian grandmaster Veselin Topalov, played in the Dutch coastal town of Wijk aan Zee in 1999. Later in an interview with his friend Michael Greengard, Kasparov called the game "the best combination ever."http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42687-2005Apr10.html?nav=rss_style/columns/... CHESS Lubomir Kavalek- April 18, 2005 Grandmaster Simen Agdestein is a former Norwegian soccer star, who turned into a wonderful chess coach. He wrote a fascinating book about his famous pupil called "Wonderboy," subtitled "How Magnus Carlsen Became the Youngest Chess Grandmaster in the World." Recently issued by New in Chess, it is a candid tale that may inspire and help other young players and their parents. The lightly annotated but exciting games complete the picture of a prodigy who, according to Garry Kasparov, is the best..http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60122-2004Dec12.html?nav=rss_style/columns/... CHESS Lubomir Kavalek- April 18, 2005 Vishy Anand, the world's top-rated grandmaster among active players, dominated the 14th Melody Amber tournament in Monaco last week. The Indian superstar scored eight points in 11 games in the blindfold competition and left his nearest rivals two points behind. In the rapid event, Anand scored 7.5 points, edging Alexander Morozevich of Russia by a half point. Anand triumphed over many of the world's best players with a combined score of 15.5 points in 22 games. Morozevich finished second with...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23883-2005Apr3.html?nav=rss_style/columns/c... CHESS Lubomir Kavalek- April 18, 2005 Yesterday, the top-rated Vishy Anand of India and the classical world champion, Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, played each other to a draw at the prestigious 14-player Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. After suffering setbacks in the second round, they fought well last week and made up the deficit. After eight rounds Bulgaria's Veselin Topalov is in the lead with 5 12 points. He is followed by Anand, England's Michael Adams and Hungary's Peter Leko, all with 5 points. Kramnik and...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31538-2005Jan23.html?nav=rss_style/columns/... CHESS Lubomir Kavalek- April 18, 2005 Two world champions, who don't play competitive chess anymore, made the headlines last week. Both expressed high opinions about their skills. Last Tuesday, Bobby Fischer was granted Icelandic citizenship, which may protect him from extradition to the United States. Two days later he flew from Japan to his new adopted country. The 24-hour journey ended in the middle of the night at the Reykjavik airport and suggested an extraterrestrial landing. The next day Fischer declared that he does not...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5689-2005Mar27.html?nav=rss_style/columns/c... CHESS Lubomir Kavalek- April 18, 2005 Here are some events making the chess headlines as the year draws to a close:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28097-2004Dec26.html?nav=rss_style/columns/... CHESS Lubomir Kavalek- April 18, 2005 Garry Kasparov retired from professional competition after he won the tournament in Linares, Spain, this month. You could see it coming when he declared in January that he was through with world championship play. "We have been going to tournaments for 30 years," his mother and closest supporter, Klara, said. Her son was the world's top-rated player for the last two decades. He played eight world championship matches and held the world title for 15 years. It's an amazing feat that may never be..http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52498-2005Mar20.html?nav=rss_style/columns/... CHESS Lubomir Kavalek- April 18, 2005 British master Peter Hugh Clarke, a former chess correspondent of the Sunday Times in London, once wrote that short draws are necessary, a means of conserving energy. "As such they can contribute to raising the standard of play rather than lowering it," he said. He would not dare to run this excuse by Erik Anderson, the man behind recent U.S. championships and the founder of the America for Chess Foundation. Anderson hates short draws, and anybody who tries them earns his wrath. But aren't...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38310-2004Dec5.html?nav=rss_style/columns/c... |