Chess Forum / General Topics / March 2004

A glance at the crosstable at Linares will reveal the loss that chess
at the highest levels is suffering from these days: a lack of fighting
spirit. The players are AFRAID to take risks against their strongest
rivals.

Last year about this time I asked for advice about whether one can exceed 32
players in a 5 round swiss tournament and still get a clear winner. Many
kind folks assured me that I could exceed the theoretical limit by a few
players without requiring a 6th round. The advice was sound ...

Aryeh Davidoff: Hers is Lev Khariton's latest column at "200 Words"
(www.pakchess.com)
Linares 2004 – Stifling a Yawn
The tournament in Linares this year was one of the most mystic events

Here's Jason Repa's address and telephone number:
The Greave Household
391 Gertrude Ave, Ste 306
Winnipeg, MB R3L 0M5

heh.
Wilma

More on http://Kramnikchess.narod.ru

Is there a holy grail of books out there?  Whenever I
get into the endgame, even a bishop up, I get that sinking
feeling.  It is clearly the weakest part of my game.  I use good tactics and
strategy in the midgame, only to lose a won game in the end.  Hmmff.

I am one of the world worst blitz players, but this sort of game doesn't
happen
very often, not even against WimpD. I promise it won't be a waste of your
time.

A new chess client to play online appears!
Download it, it is a convekta product.

I have a couple of kids rated 1000 to 1200.  Where would  be a good place
for them to play some online tournaments.  We have memberships to ICC but
most of these tournaments appear to be blitz or are for higher rated
players.

Does anyone have any experience with or comments about chessanytime.com?  It
appears to be a free internet chess server similar to FICS, although not as
well populated.

Someone asked in an earlier posting, "Where did all the chess computers
go?".   Well, chess computers are everywhere!
Check out my review page at:  
http://home.earthlink.net/~kantack/lcdchess/home.htm

On another thread someone stated that Boris Spassky was Jewish. I had always
thought he was Russian Orthodox.
http://marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar/2004/01/searching_for_b.html
'The system was so suspicious and inefficient that Spassky had to seek

Watching Linares, I noticed a steady stream of comments about how boring
Kramnik is, about how he only draws, never plays exciting lines etc etc. But
when you look closely, so far in this tournament, Kramnik has:
Tried out a whole new opening repertoire.

Hello chessamtes,
Trying to find some multimedia files (avi, mpeg, quicktime, etc) of
some of the international chess games that have been played by players
like Kramnik & Kasparov (I don't mean the moves but the actual