Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibition.

**Gordon Ritchie** · Sunday, 14th February, 2010, 11:34 PM

Re: Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibit

Thanks to Emil for this definitive analysis.

**Adam Murray** · Sunday, 14th February, 2010, 11:54 PM

Re: Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibit

I like this, Emil :) Because it says definitive, we know we can trust this list.

**Roger Patterson** · Monday, 15th February, 2010, 01:56 AM

Re: Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibit

yeesh. Someone makes a statement that is demonstrably false and the person who points this out is considered snide and ill mannered. What's wrong with you people?

**Ed Seedhouse** · Monday, 15th February, 2010, 01:59 AM

Re: Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibit

Originally posted by Roger Patterson View Post

Someone makes a statement that is demonstrably false and the person who points this out is considered snide and ill mannered. What's wrong with you people?

Given what I know about how people interact, they are quite normal! So your question should perhaps be better phrased "what's wrong with people", but I cannot give you a good answer to it.

**Emil Smilovici** · Tuesday, 16th February, 2010, 06:03 PM

Re: Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibit

Aaaaaaaawwwwwww :(… Woger … you’re breaking my liver (can’t use the right word here).
So sad … :( :( :(

Too bad the “notwithstanding Zukertort” snippet or the Curmudgeons rant didn’t show up on your sensitivity radar. Three names out of four were just pulled out of his hat (great grandpa Zucky was the only possibly valid one).
…speaking about Factoids!
We know well that only vindictiveness generated that outburst.

Therefore: Curmudgeons 3 (THREE) – Good Guys 0 (ZERO)
Evil will always triumph because good is dumb!

Simon: Curmudgeons, curmudgeons, curmudgeons!
Brian: Please be quiet … just for another five minutes …

**Jonathan Berry** · Tuesday, 16th February, 2010, 10:55 PM

Re: Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibit

Originally posted by Emil Smilovici View Post

Three names out of four were just pulled out of his hat (great grandpa Zucky was the only possibly valid one).

Excuse me? What are you trying to state about Karpov, Keres and Short (and we might as well also deal with Kotov)? Or Zukertort, for that matter? I confess that I have difficulty understanding most of what you write. I guess I need to study up on The Life of Brian.

**Frank Dixon** · Wednesday, 17th February, 2010, 01:57 PM

Re: Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibit

Thanks to Emil for supplying some laughs! :) :)

I do remember former World Champion GM Boris Spassky doing an Ottawa simul! So that is somewhat comparable with GM Shirov's latest very successful simul, given the inflation in ratings which has taken place since. Then, apparently, former World Champion GM Anatoly Karpov gave one; was this while he was World Champion!?

**Jonathan Berry** · Wednesday, 17th February, 2010, 03:21 PM

Re: Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibit

Originally posted by Frank Dixon View Post

Thanks to Emil for supplying some laughs! :) :)

I do remember former World Champion GM Boris Spassky doing an Ottawa simul!

I'd like to second that. Not everybody can write nonsense (Emil's first posting), but it takes special skill to write convincing nonsense with a hidden message and joke (Emil's second posting).

Evangelists tell us that Jesus is the answer. Both Gordon Taylor and Frank Dixon remember Spassky visiting Ottawa. So Spassky is the answer (which is a bit of word play in Russian), or one of six answers (works in chess, but apologies to evangelists). Zukertort, Kotov, Spassky, Keres, Karpov and Short are the answers.

My own answer to the larger joke in which we are entangled is: Gary Basanta.

If every answer entrains two further questions, here they are:

What was the thing that Gary Basanta did, the thing that annoyed Lynn Stringer no end? and
For which career did that thing train him?

**Tom O'Donnell** · Wednesday, 17th February, 2010, 04:01 PM

Re: Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibit

Probably most people on here don't know who Gary Basanta is, and that's their loss, imo.

Gary B is the most fun-loving people that I have ever met, and probably the player I have faced the most times over the board (at least 40, though not in the last 15 years). I hope he's doing well.

Gary used to make up some very clever chess idioms when we analysed. My favourite were two concerning bishops:

1) Bad bishop = Bumble "B"
2) Good bishop = Bob "B" (for Bobby Fischer)

I will guess the thing he did that annoyed Lynn no end was playing poker between rounds rather than doing sensible things like sleep. What that trained him for: I will guess poker professional. He was also a good golfer (and hockey player) in his youth; he was awesome at finding golf balls in the woods at UBC. We used to collect balls during the day (he would find roughly 4x as many as I did) and at night try to putt on the greens when the sun was down, but before the sprinklers were turned on. I remember once sinking a 30-footer up and over an incline in almost total darkness, but generally in that too Gary bested me almost every time.

**Gordon Taylor** · Wednesday, 17th February, 2010, 06:11 PM

Re: Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibit

Well, to clarify, I don't remember Spassky giving a simul in Ottawa. I have only anectodal evidence. Doug Burgess mentioned to me seeing a photo of Spassky giving a simul but this was even before Doug's time, so was it actually in Ottawa (?) at the R.A. (??), I don't really know for sure. Frank also has a recollection but didn't elaborate. When I first floated my comment I rather hoped some old dog from Ottawa could confirm or deny. Another task for MIGHTY ARCHIVIST!

**Emil Smilovici** · Wednesday, 17th February, 2010, 06:20 PM

Re: Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibit

Originally posted by Jonathan Berry View Post

Both Gordon Taylor and Frank Dixon remember Spassky visiting Ottawa. So Spassky is the answer (which is a bit of word play in Russian), or one of six answers (works in chess, but apologies to evangelists). Zukertort, Kotov, Spassky, Keres, Karpov and Short are the answers.

My own answer to the larger joke in which we are entangled is: Gary Basanta.

May I humbly remind you that I mentioned Spassky first ?
<False Modesty Mode OFF>

I'll try to stay on course (no nonsense) and avoid Brian as well.
In a Feb 12 message (under the thread +25 =9 -2!!) I was asking you if you knew about the Spassky and Karpov simuls - the first I suggested it happened between 95-97 - now I am sure of it.
Of course Spassky was not a world champion for a longtime - please ignore my remark that he played a World Ch match in 1992 :)

Eventually he was about #100 ranked at the time
If he would have visited us in '67 as planned (blame Vlad Drakulec!) this thread wouldn't exist.

So the question is about Karpov - was he in '79 (unlikely but possible) or around 2005?

But if his simul was something like This
then .... I'll have to resort to Brian!

About your question: I have nothing against the names you said: great respect for Keres the Great, have a book autographed by Short, respect for the elders (Zukertort) - all nice people.
But Kotov ?
have you read "The Soviet School of Chess" ? I thought it will help me sleep ... on the contrary! (this is not a joke)
Perhaps his small simul in 1954 (3 games?) was with the special personnel at the Soviet Embassy.

Well, let me know about Karpov - I am really interested about who and when played in Ottawa. Stephen Wright is a good reference - includes some Ottawa events but for sure not all of them.

See ... no Brian - I hope you answer kindly.
I don't mind being called a curdmugeon - on the contrary.

**Emil Smilovici** · Wednesday, 17th February, 2010, 06:29 PM

Re: Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibit

Hi Gordon.

I spoke during the week-end with a friend that actually participated and has/had a chess board signed by Spassky. Unfortunately he couldn't find the board which had the exact date on it - but it happened in 95, 96 or 97 and he remembers that they were 15-20 participants. I'd say they might have been slightly over 20 as well ...

**Stephen Wright** · Wednesday, 17th February, 2010, 07:05 PM

Re: Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibit

Might it have been a year earlier? Spassky was definitely in this country for the North Bay International in August, 1994.

**Egidijus Zeromskis** · Wednesday, 17th February, 2010, 07:35 PM

Re: Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibit

Originally posted by Stephen Wright View Post

Might it have been a year earlier? Spassky was definitely in this country for the North Bay International in August, 1994.

Caesar Posylek's album has several pictures from the Spassky's simul in Pickering.
http://www.chesstalk.info/forum/album.php?albumid=18

Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibition.

Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibition.

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