Gashimov left out of Azerbaijan team for Olympiad
In an ugly turn of events, Azerbaijan, previously real contenders for a gold medal at the Olympiad, have chosen to leave out Vugar Gashimov, one of their star players. This follows a bitter conflict with the team management and a nationalistic campaign against the 2719-rated player.
Karpov hits back
Today, in his Echo of Moscow blog, Anatoly Karpov responded fiercely both to FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov’s explanation for stepping down as Head of Kalmykia, and his statement attacking the “political” actions of the Karpov campaign, and especially Gary Kasparov.
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.
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.
“The Russian player we played a match against in 2006 in Elista doesn’t exist for us!”
Yury Vasiliev of Sport Express broke the news yesterday that Veselin Topalov would, after all, be willing to play Candidates Matches in Russia. Today, in the full version of the interview, Silvio Danailov goes into much greater detail on his feelings towards Kramnik, his disapproval of FIDE’s conduct during the match in Sofia, and the upcoming matches and Olympiad.
Kramnik on competing with Carlsen
In something of a media blitz around his 35th birthday, Vladimir Kramnik gave another interview, this time to Evgeny Gik of the Moscow-based “Moskovsky Komsomolets”. He talks about Magnus Carlsen’s threat to his chances of reclaiming the title, chess politics and how age has affected his chess.
Kramnik: “Kasparov took that sporting defeat as a declaration of war”
For his 35th birthday (see Alexandra Kosteniuk’s birthday wishes), Vladimir Kramnik was interviewed by the popular Russian weekly newspaper, Argumenty i Fakty. He talks about whether friendship is possible in chess, and his troubled relationship with Gary Kasparov.
Topalov, Didier Drogba and romanticism in chess
In what some might consider cruel and unusual punishment, Bulgarian schoolchildren recently played chess with an IBM supercomputer. Fortunately, they had a little help from Veselin Topalov, who after the match gave an interview to Danail Kisov of Klassa.bg.
Gelfand at Crestbook Part II
The second installment of Boris Gelfand’s answers to the questions of Crestbook readers kept up the incredible length and quality of the first. A general title might be, “Everything you ever wanted to know about GM chess but never dared to ask”. He patiently answers questions ranging from “e4 or d4” to “what’s the meaning of life”!
