Chess Games

2006-04-11T18:30:00.001-07:00

Chess Games

A milestone in the career of Anatoly Karpov was
undoubtedly the Candidates Matches of 1974.

The Candidates Matches are where the challenger
to the World Championship are determined. At that
time, the players at this level consisted of 6
qualifiers from the Interzonals, the former
World Champion and the loser of the previous
final candidates Match.

As former World Champion, having lost to Bobby
Fischer, obviously Boris Spassky was there, and
no doubt looking forward to a re-match with
Bobby to take his lost crown back.

He had prepared well. He'd had some ups and
downs in the past two years, but was back in his
old form.

Karpov had said that he regarded this match as
preparation for the 1978 cycle. Nevertheless, he
wound up facing Spassky in the semi-final round --
and beat him decisively.

In a recent interview, Kasparov stated that he
thought that then-defending World Champion
Bobby Fischer was psyched out by the level of
the play between Spassky and Karpov. According to
Kasparov, although he lost to Karpov, Spassky
played better chess than he had in 1972 against
Fischer.

That's why Fischer later made demands of FIDE
that they could not meet and he eventually
forfeited the title to Karpov -- he was struggling
to control the terms to suit himself so he
would not lose to Karpov.

Of course, nobody knows what the outcome of
a Fischer-Karpov World Championship tournament
would have been.

You can also check out my other chess blogs --

Russian Chess Masters
Chess Theory PDF
Play Chess Online
History of Chess
Internet Chess
Online Chess
Chess Games
Play Chess
Chess Rules

More on Chess Games

2006-04-11T18:30:00.000-07:00

The best book I've found to really teach you how to
win the game is Chess Success Secrets. This puts the
insider knowledge you need to know in one convenient,
easy to read and understand place:

Chess Success Secrets here

Chess Games

2006-04-11T17:53:00.000-07:00

Chess has its own version of the "Oscar" award. Every
year since December 1967 there's been a vote on the
chess player of the year. It was started by a group
of chess journalists. They also compile a list of
the top 10, which of course is still quite an
exclusive list, and a honor to be on even if you're
not number one for that year.

The 1967 winner was Bent Larsen of Denmark. Boris
Spassky got it for 2 years. Then Bobby Fischer
through 1972. Anatoly Karpov won for the first time
in 1973 and held it through 1977.

Korchnoi won in 1978. Karpov got it back in 1979
and held it again through 1981. Of course in 1982
it was won by Gary Kasparov, who dominated it
through 1988.

The next time it was awarded, in 1995, it was
won by Kasparov again, and then again in 1996.

Viswanathan Anand won for the first time in
1997. He's held it several times in years since
then, though Kasparov took it back several times.

The 2004 winner was Viswanathan Anand.

Chess Games

Chess Games

2006-04-09T09:04:00.000-07:00

You can start playing chess games without knowing
what you're doing and through hit and miss you
can learn to do better. But isn't it smarter
to learn from the accumulated wisdom of
chess players who've gone before you?

The best book for improving your chess games I've found
is Chess Success Secrets, which you can read more about by clicking here

It's the next best thing to cloning Garry Kasparov's
brain and transplanting it into your skull!

Chess Games

2006-04-07T07:58:00.000-07:00

Chess Games

Review of BOBBY FISCHER GOES TO WAR by
David Edmonds and John Eidinow:

Although it seems somewhat dated now because of its
association with the Cold War, the epic chess
match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky in
Reykjavik Iceland in the summer of 1972 was an important
milestone in the history of chess games.

This book is a thorough, inside look at this
match -- the first one to capture the attention
of the world outside of chess itself.

By now most people recognize that not only was
Bobby Fischer the commanding player on the
board, he was the one who manipulated the
chess games and conditions and made many
demands to favor him.

However, it's not clear that he was totally
unreasonable. Most of his complaints involved
noise -- from filming the matches, from
spectators etc.

I'm sensitive to noise myself, so I sympathize
with his desire to have as little noise as
possible while contemplating moves that
would be watched by people all over the
world.

The problem was that Iceland had agreed to
host the match in anticipation of making
money from it. So you can't blame them for
getting upset when Fischer insisted that the
games could not be filmed and that he wanted
the front rows of the seating area roped
off -- reducing their box office revenue.

As an American I can't help but feel some
renewed satisfaction that an American
out-manuevered the Soviets in international
competition -- especially since we know that
in many areas, such as gymnastics, Soviets
could be ruthlessly unfair to American
competitors.

On the other hand, as an American I don't
want to be represented by a crazy man who
admires Adolph Hitler.

There's little doubt that Boris Spassky
was the better personality of the two.
And it's also true that Spassky was not
a great representative for the U.S.S.R.
He was a Russian nationalist. That is,
he felt patriotic toward Mother Russia
and so on, but not toward the communist
government.

After Fischer shut out another Soviet
chess master during the playoffs in
contention for the right to challenge
the World Champion, that chess master
was crushed by the government, for
embarrassing them so much by losing
a chess match to an American without
winning a single game. The government
stopped paying him his chess income
plus denied him the right to play
the piano in concerts (he was a
great piano player as well as chess
master.)

Spassky was one of the few Soviet chess
players who dared to publicly defend
this man.

Later on, Spassky fell in love with a
French woman and managed to emigrate to
France and still retain Soviet citizenship
and continued to play in chess matches as
a Soviet. But that proves he was smart
enough to beat the system.

What's even more interesting about Fischer,
is what these authors discovered from old
FBI files. Fischer's mother was undoubtedly
a communist sympathizer at best, and probably
a Soviet agent. She and her husband lived
in the U.S.S.R. for several years during
the 1930s when Moscow was not exactly the
favorite expatriate city to live in.

So in retrospect the Fischer-Spassky match
was not so representative of the Cold War.
Except in one way. Despite all his eventual
craziness, Fischer showed that one American
dedicated to chess could break the
stranglehold on the game that the Soviets had
enjoyed since the end of World War 2.

Not because they were intrinsically better at
chess or because the communist mind is so
much better than the capitalist mind, but
because the government did support chess
throughout the country and did train and
support all children who showed talent at it.

Fischer's chess greatness was a product of
his own will power and determination.
Of course, in the end he went too far off the
deep end. He lost his world championship
title three years later because he made
demands that he must have known could not be
met.

He eventually had the fillings in his teeth
removed to prevent the Soviets from broadcasting
to him.

He did make a lot of money replaying Spassky
in 1992, but since it was in Serbia he was
eventually arrested for violating Americans
sanctions against commerce with that country
at that time.

Chess has passed Boris Spassky by but he
made a good living from it and is still
a recognized game.

Chess Games

2006-04-06T18:56:00.000-07:00

Thanks for visiting my blog on chess games. Here is where we
learn more about the great game of chess. It's so ancient it
goes back at least 1500 years to India, and yet every game you
play is new. We want to play against the best opponents possible,
to have fun and also learn from a challenge to improve our
chess games.

Chess Games