Chaos in Russia

After being released from prison in Moscow, Garry Kasparov gave an impromptu news conference during which he warned that Russia was heading toward chaos.

Kasparov on Hunger Strike

Garry Kasparov has been on a forced hunger strike, for fear of being poisoned, while serving his five-day sentence in a Moscow jail.

Kasparov's release is expected today.

Karpov Denied Jail Visit

When Bobby Fischer was in a Japanese prison, Boris Spassky wrote a letter to president George W. Bush in which he famously declared, "Arrest me. And put me in the same cell with Bobby Fischer. And give us a chess set."

Yesterday, in a scene that was eerily reminiscent of Spassky's letter, Anatoly Karpov attempted to visit Garry Kasparov in a Moscow jail. But Karpov was not permitted to see his old rival. He told Radio Free Europe, "In Russia right now we have, what, four world chess champions? And of course the fate of any one of them is important to other chess players, both in Russia and abroad."

Her Brilliant Brain

Susan Polgar was the first woman to achieve the rank of grandmaster. Recently, she was featured on British television in a series called My Brilliant Brain.

My favorite part is when Polgar undergoes an MRI scan of her brain while she is looking at photographs of famous chess players, and then at chess positions from games that she has played in the past. The MRI scan reveals that, in both cases, she uses the same part of her brain. This means that, for Polgar, remembering a chess position is no more difficult than recognizing a familiar face!

You can watch the program here.

Kasparov in Jail

Garry Kasparov was arrested Saturday in Moscow for organizing an unsanctioned anti-government rally.

Kasaparov was sentenced to five days in jail.

Viking Quads 11/24/2007

Yesterday, at the Viking quads in Mount Arlington, I had a score of 1-0-2. These are the games.
Round One: Sicilian Defense

Jim West (USCF 2200) - Sandi Hutama (USCF 2191), Mount Arlington NJ 11/24/2007

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Qc7 6.O-O Nf6 7.Qe2 d6 8.c4 Nbd7 9.Be3 Be7 10.Nc3 O-O 11.Rac1 b6 12.f3 Bb7 13.Rfd1 Rfe8 14.b3 Bf8 15.Qf2 Rab8 16.Bf1 Rbc8 17.g3 Qb8 18.Bh3 Ba8

19.g4 g6 20.g5 Nh5 21.Bg4 Ng7 22.Nd5 exd5 23.Bxd7 dxe4 24.f4 Rcd8 25.Bxe8 Rxe8 26.Rc2 Ne6 27.Nxe6 Rxe6 28.Bxb6 e3 29.Bxe3 Qb7 30.Rd5 Qe7 31.Re2 Bxd5 32.cxd5 Re4 33.Kf1 Qb7 34.Bd2 Rxe2 35.Kxe2 Qxd5


36.Qf3 Qb5+ 37.Qd3 Qb7 38.Qf3 d5 39.Bc3 Bc5 40.Kd1 Bf8 41.Qe3 d4 42.Qxd4 Qh1+ 43.Kc2 Qxh2+ 44.Qd2 Qxd2+ 45.Kxd2 h5 46.gxh6 Bxh6 47.Ke3 Kf8


48.Bf6 Ke8 49.Ke4 Kd7 50.a4 Ke6 51.Bc3 f5+ 52.Ke3 Kd5 53.b4 Kc4 54.Be1 Bg7 55.b5 axb5 56.axb5 Kxb5 57.Kf3 Kc4 58.Bh4 Kd3 59.Be7 Bh6 60.Bd8 Kd4 61.Bf6+ Kd5 62.Bd8 Ke6 63.Ba5, draw.

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Round Two: English Opening

Danny Arceo (USCF 2084) - Jim West (USCF 2200), Mount Arlington NJ 11/24/2007

1.c4 f5 2.g3 e5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg2 Bc5 5.d3 Nc6 6.e3 f4 7.exf4 O-O 8.Nf3 exf4 9.Bxf4 Re8+ 10.Ne2 Qe7 11.h3 d6

12.Be3 Bxe3 13.fxe3 Qxe3 14.Qd2 Bf5 15.Qxe3 Rxe3 16.Kf2 Rae8 17.Ned4 Bxd3 18.Nxc6 bxc6 19.Nd4 c5 20.Nb5 Re2+ 21.Kg1, White resigns.



* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Round Three: Philidor Defense

Jim West (USCF 2200) - Boris Privman (USCF 2233), Mount Arlington NJ 11/24/2007

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 exd4 4.Qxd4 Bd7 5.Bg5 Nc6 6.Qd2 Nf6 7.Nc3 Be7 8.Bc4 h6 9.Bf4 Bg4 10.O-O-O Nd7 11.Kb1 Bxf3 12.gxf3 Nb6 13.Bb5 a6 14.Bxc6+ bxc6 15.Rhg1 Bf6

16.e5 dxe5 17.Rge1 Qxd2 18.Rxd2 Nc4 19.Rd4 O-O 20.Rxc4 exf4 21.Rxc6 Bd4 22.Re2 Rfe8 23.a4 Rxe2 24.Nxe2 Bxf2 25.Nxf4 Bg1 26.h3 Bh2 27.Nd5 a5 28.c4 Kh7 29.Kc2 Re8, draw.

Fischer in Hospital

Mig Greengard of The Daily Dirt Chess Blog reports that Bobby Fischer has been hospitalized in Reykjavik for several weeks.

Fischer's unknown ailment is not a threat to his life. Tests are being performed to diagnose the illness.

Get a Lawyer

The title of today's post is my advice to Sam Sloan in his legal action versus Paul Truong and others. As Mark Twain once said, "A man who acts as his own attorney has a fool for a client."

Having played chess over the board against both Sloan and Truong, I am not sure which side to root for in this lawsuit.

The Mottershead report indicates that there is merit in Sloan's claim that Truong impersonated him on the Internet. But it looks as if Sloan's case may be dismissed due to technical errors in his complaint.

A Bust to "King's Gambit"

There is an unfortunate tendency, whenever a well-written book like Paul Hoffman's King's Gambit [Hyperion, 2007, 433 pages] is published, for reviewers to say nothing but nice things about it. Perhaps this is because such books have been so few and far between that no one wants to be negativistic, for fear of jeopardizing its chances, when a new one finally comes along.

My journalistic philosophy, to the contrary, has always been that the book reviewer's primary responsibility is to the reader and not the author. In this vein, I will now list some of the shortcomings in Hoffman's book.

Let me begin by stating that I enjoyed reading King's Gambit. The last non-fiction book on chess that made me feel this way was Searching for Bobby Fischer. In many ways, Paul Hoffman covers the same material that Fred Waitzkin did, but in reverse. This time, it is the chess son, not the chess father, who does the storytelling. But it is the inexactitude in these tales of Hoffman that worries me.

Chess masters like myself learn the discipline of putting aside our subjective feelings and analyzing with complete objectivity. Of course, we are only human and never 100% successful in our efforts. But the author, a 1900 rated player, seems to be far too undisciplined. Allow me to make the unkind observation that, if Hoffman is as imprecise with his chess moves as he is with (at least some of) his anecdotes, it is no wonder that he has never achieved a master's rating. Here are a few examples of inaccurate anecdotes, concerning people that I know.

In 1989, when I reviewed Searching for Bobby Fischer, I wrote that Fred Waitzkin's keen insights enabled me to see, as though for the first time, chess players that I had already been paired against. I can not say the same for Hoffman because the Nicholas Rossolimo in King's Gambit is unrecognizable to me. As portrayed by Hoffman, Rossolimo comes across as an alcoholic whose drinking problem may have led to his accidental death by falling down a flight of stairs in 1975.

Like Hoffman, I also played against Rossolimo in his chess salon, within walking distance of the Marshall Chess Club. In my case, it was one game for the usual $5 fee. I was accompanied by two other club members who were Class B players, as I was back then. Believe it or not, I made it to a minor piece ending with even pawns. But the pawn structure favored Rossolimo's bishop over my knight, and I soon lost. I can still recall how courteous Rossolimo was in accepting my resignation. I saw nothing to indicate that he was anything but sober.

No doubt Hoffman's footnote, pertaining to Rossolimo's untimely death, is the official version. I will give you the unofficial version as told to me, within days of the event, by a New York chess player who seemed to know what he was talking about. His story went that Rossolimo lived in a tough neighborhood. One night, in late July 1975, a couple of muggers waited for Rossolimo at the top of the stairs in his apartment building. In the ensuing struggle, Rossolimo either fell or was pushed down the stairs, suffering his fatal injury. I am not certain which version of events is the correct one. All I can say is that the chess player's story rang true when I heard it.

One of the more humorous anecdotes told by Paul Hoffman is his victory against Noah Siegel, a 2300 rated player, who was the highest rated opponent ever beaten by Hoffman, at least until he defeated FIDE master Asa Hoffmann in a tournament at the Marshall Chess Club. I got a kick out of Hoffman's failure to realize that Siegel was acknowledging checkmate, not offering a draw, at the end of the game. What I found less amusing was Hoffman's describing the opening as a French defense against which Hoffman played the exchange variation, just as Bobby Fischer had done.

This story is wrong on two counts. From my own experience against Siegel, I know that he favors the Caro-Kann defense. And Bobby Fischer never played the exchange variation against the French, although he did play it against the Caro-Kann. The likely explanation for this confusion is that Siegel played the Caro-Kann, not the French, against Hoffman. What this would mean is that, not only was Hoffman unaware that he had checkmated his opponent at the game's conclusion, he did not even realize what opening had been played!

Admittedly, just because there are a couple of less than accurate tales, this is not to say that all the other anecdotes are inaccurate as well. But, ironically, I find myself in approximately the same position as the author when it dawned on him that his father had lied about the milkshakes at Baskin-Robbins, of all things. In other words, there is a suspicion that the stories in Hoffman's book are not as objectively correct as they should be.

To a chess player, the words "King's Gambit" conjure up an opening that is entertaining, albeit slightly unsound. Alas, the same holds true for Paul Hoffman's book by the same name.

PCG Clamp

Many thanks to yet another fellow blogger!

Yesterday, I said "Thank you!" to Atomic Patzer. This time, I say it to Michael Goeller of the The Kenilworthian, for annotating my victory in the Philidor Counter Gambit against FIDE master Steve Stoyko.

Goeller has coined the expression "Philidor clamp" to describe the game position after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4 f5 4.d3 c6 5.O-O f4. But I can not take credit for this line. Actually, it was analyzed by none other than Philidor himself in 1749!

Philidors Gegenangriff

To Atomic Patzer, I would like to say, "Danke schone!"

My fellow blogger has provided me with links to an article by Maurits Wind on the Philidor Counter Gambit in the April-June 2007 issue of the German chess magazine Kaissiber.

You can click here on the first page, the second page, and the third page. On the third page, Atomic Patzer has highlighted a reference to the second edition of my book on the PCG.

Auf wiedersehen!

Kasparov on "After Words"

An October 16th interview of Garry Kasparov aired this weekend on After Words, a program on C-Span 2 that features authors of recent books. I watched the 6 o'clock broadcast last night.

Of all the anecdotes told by Kasparov, my favorite one pertains to game 24 of the match in Seville between the two K's. Karpov needed only a draw to regain the title. Kasparov obtained a winning position but blundered it away after the referee startled him by tapping his shoulder, reminding him to write down the moves on his scoresheet. Karpov should now have drawn the game and won the match, but he blundered in return!

If you missed the interview, you can catch it here.