From: Blunderov (squooker@mweb.co.za)
Date: Mon Feb 25 2002 - 00:24:24 MST
[Blunderov]
As all seems fairly quiet on the Virian front at the moment I thought that I
would take the opportunity to mention that the above tournament is currently
underway.
Those with an idle moment to spare might care to visit:
http://www.chessclub.com/event/linares2002 (the Internet Chess Club Site,
accessed 25/2/2002)
Interesting to note is that the tournament has a section for blind players
in keeping with the Spanish cultural tradition for paying special attention
to persons with disabilities.
Most attention will be focused on the performances of the formidable array
of super-grandmasters who are assembled here;
GM Kasparov (Elo 2838!) Former FIDE, PCA and Brain-Games world champion,
GM Anand (Elo 2757) Former Fide world champion,
GM Adams (Elo 2742) The latest and greatest English superstar,
GM Ponomariov (Elo 2727) Current Fide Champion, 19year-old wunderkind,
GM Ivanchuk (Elo 2717) FIDE world championship finalist
GM Shirov (Elo 2715) Mercurial Spanish genius,
GM Vallejo Pons (Elo 2629) 19year-old Spanish prodigy who held the mighty
Kasparov to a widely unanticipated draw in round 1.
The only notable (and most regrettable) absentee is the current "Brain
Games" world champion Vladimir Kramnik, the only man other than Garry
Kasparov (If memory serves) to have ever breached the Elo 2800 rating mark.
Speculation is that Kramnik is intent on holding his trophy as high above
his head as possible for as long as possible.
(For the uninitiated a certain Prof Elo devised a mathematical formula for
calculating the performances of players based on the results that they
achieve. A FIDE master would have a rating in the region of 2400- 2500; a
FIDE grandmaster would have a rating in excess of 2500. A rating in excess
of 2600 would place you firmly in the elite of chess players and a rating of
2700 would probably indicate that you were one of the great players in the
history of the game. A rating of 2800+ is superhuman.)
People often ask "Who is the strongest player ever, Fischer or Kasparov?"
Even though it is possible to compare their ratings, (Fischer achieved a
rating of Elo 2780+)
Such a comparison can never be satisfactory, for one thing there is an
inflationary tendency in the rating system which makes it less than precise
for such a purpose, also it must be questioned as to whether such a
comparison is useful, given that we all, as the saying goes, stand on the
shoulders of giants, chess-players included. The most revealing thing about
this question is that it is almost never asked except in relation to these
two particular players The only other distant contenders are, at least in
Blunderov's opinion, JR Capablanca the legendary Cuban genius, Emm. Lasker,
a friend of Einstein's who described him as the smartest man he knew and who
held the world championship for an unprecedented 28 years and the Russian
maestro of the attack (and complete bastard to boot) A. Alekhine, Kasparov's
favorite player.
Enjoy
Blunderov
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Sep 25 2002 - 13:28:43 MDT