Karpov, Kramnik and Kasparov on Spassky
To mark the 75th birthday yesterday of Boris Spassky, the Tenth World Chess Champion, the Russian Chess Federation website has published congratulations from three of Spassky’s great successors to the chess throne: Anatoly Karpov, Vladimir Kramnik and Garry Kasparov. They talk about Spassky as a chess player and a personality.
Gelfand and Grischuk’s final press conference
Much of the final press conference of the Candidates Matches in Kazan needed no interpretation. Grischuk’s sportsmanship in defeat was there for all to see, and the rough course of the game was conveyed in the players’ English comments. There was again, however, much more in Russian…
Sergey Shipov on Ukraine’s other chess genius
Andriy Slyusarchuk’s blindfold victory over Rybka last week earned him his 15 minutes of chess fame, which is not at all bad for someone who took up the game 8 months ago! GM Sergey Shipov has written surely the most eloquent assessment of the ‘trick’, and of the current state of man-versus-machine contests.
Vassily Ivanchuk: “I’m a very ambitious person”
Few would identify emotional outbursts as the quality to borrow from Garry Kasparov, but then Vassily Ivanchuk has always stood out from the crowd. In a long and fascinating interview he again displays the self-awareness and deliberate strategy that often lie behind his apparent eccentricities.
Judit Polgar: “I love chess”
While Vladimir Potkin’s transformation from coach into major tournament winner was impressive, perhaps the most popular story of the recent European Championship was Judit Polgar’s spectacular return to form. After the event she gave an interview to Evgeny Surov of Chess-News.
What the press don’t write about
If you heard that Sergey Shipov’s sixth letter from Aix-les-Bains was about an ex-World Champion and bathroom visits… you’d come to completely the wrong conclusion! Shipov talks about the European Championship venue, and the down-to-earth reality of grandmaster life.
The massacre of the innocents
We all know that computers have transformed chess, but in his Round 5 letter from the European Individual Championship in Aix-les-Bains, Sergey Shipov gave a particularly graphic account of how computer analysis can render strong grandmasters utterly helpless against apparently weaker opponents.
Can you match Garry Kasparov?
Garry Kasparov, with some help from his wife Dasha, recently won the Georgian charity version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”, answering 15 questions correctly to win 20,000 lari (about 11,400 USD) for a brother and sister requiring heart surgery. Could you have done the same?
GM Ruslan Ponomariov answers your questions: Part I
Answering reader questions almost a decade after becoming FIDE World Champion as an 18-year-old, Ruslan Ponomariov provides both a revealing insight into the life of an elite player, and a damning indictment of the chess politics that saw his match against Garry Kasparov collapse.
Vassily Ivanchuk: I can still become World Champion
Vassily Ivanchuk’s stunning win in Gibraltar reminded us all of his enormous chess talent, while his recent long interview with the Ukrainian Zaxid.net addressed the missing piece of the jigsaw – why is it that a genius like Ivanchuk has failed to mount a serious World Championship challenge?
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