The great Anand’s little ideas – part II
Radosław Wojtaszek, one of Anand’s seconds and the latest member of the 2700-club, annotates games 7-9 of the Anand-Topalov World Championship match in Sofia.
Voices from Kalmykia
For all the attention devoted to Kirsan Ilyumzhinov as FIDE President, his role as Head of the Republic of Kalmykia remains more of a mystery. Daria Aslamova’s recent two-part report offered a fascinating glimpse into everyday life in the small steppe republic.
Kamsky on the Candidates Matches
Gata Kamsky, in Azerbaijan for the Baku Open which starts on Sunday, gave an interview to T. Tushiev for extratime.az. The conversation inevitably centred around the uncertainty over the Candidates Matches, with Kamsky coming out against any last-minute changes to the line-up.
Interviews from the World Junior Championship
The World U-20 Championship in Poland lent itself to photo reports, but there was little real coverage from the venue. An exception was the regional “Super Nowości” newspaper, which interviewed the winners, Anna Muzychuk and Dmitry Andreikin, as well as the Polish star, Dariusz Świercz.
The forgotten recollections of Chigorin’s daughter
Alexander Kentler, who writes a chess column for sportsdaily.ru, was recently sent a remarkable document: the recollections of Mikhail Chigorin’s daughter on the 50th anniversary of her father’s death. She talks of his legendary absent-mindedness, how cigar smoke thwarted his title ambitions, and describes the last moments of his life.
Khalifman: “Anand’s a genius. He emanates light”
While on his way to winning the Minsk Open, former World Champion Alexander Khalifman gave a long and thoughtful interview to Elena Klimetz for the openchess.by website. Topics include why his career tapered off after winning the world title, parental pressure on young chess players, and the match in Sofia.
The great Anand’s little ideas – part I
Grandmaster Radosław Wojtaszek, one of Viswanathan Anand’s seconds in Sofia, annotated the games from the recent World Championship Match for the Polish “Mat” chess magazine.
Karpov proposes holding Candidates Matches in Kiev
Anatoly Karpov, former World Chess Champion and candidate for the post of FIDE President, is proposing switching the Candidates Matches from Kazan, Russia, to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.
“One of those things that distinguish us from the Neanderthals”
This is how Grandmaster Michal Krasenkow describes chess in his wide-ranging responses to reader questions at the Crestbook website. Other topics include phoney titles, the “theorisation” of chess and Krasenkow’s thoughts on emigrating from Russia to live in Poland.
Making a drama out of a crisis
Worries over the state of preparations for the World Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk have recently made the headlines, but surely the strangest report appeared on the local Ugra Inform website. Their decision to transcribe the conversation during FIDE Vice President Israel Gelfer’s inspection quite literally made a drama out of a crisis.
