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

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  • #31
    Re: visit

    Originally posted by Jonathan Berry View Post
    All the time, he was just kidding!
    Jonathan, I have a different definition for hyperbole which really doesn't have anything to do with kidding. I take hyperbole an an obvious overstatement to make a point. Now whether the author of this statement intended the use of hyperbole, or believed this statement to be true, or was full of BS is a matter of opinion for each reader. I took the statement to mean that a player of Shirov's caliber visiting the chess community in Ottawa was a very good thing. Your opinion is that the author was full of BS. That's great, I appreciate that. What I don't appreciate is the attempt to prove that one opinion is correct over another.

    Originally posted by Jonathan Berry View Post
    and then considered whether the public might prefer ranked to rated
    As a member of the public, I prefer to make my own judgements, especially on something insignificant as whether the absolute highest ranked player visited Ottawa and how it affected a well received simul in Ottawa and Scarborough.
    Last edited by Andrei Moffat; Sunday, 21st February, 2010, 11:15 AM.

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    • #32
      Re: All is revealed (sort of)

      Originally posted by Gordon Taylor View Post
      Good work guys! But I have an inkling that Spassky may have been here long before 1995. The photo Doug spoke of came from a dusty old box, and I think predates '95, but I haven't seen it myself. Maybe ask Alex Danilov? He's been here forever and would likely remember.
      Spassky actually gave a simultaneous in Ottawa much earlier. It was in the early seventies (or even possibly 1969) at the RA chess club. Unfortunately my memory is so poor that I cannot even place the event as being pre or post the Fischer world championship match, but it certainly was prior to 1974, so Spassky would have been of world-champion standard about the time of the simul.

      Of course, none of this should detract from the Shirov event; surely one of the highest rated/ranked players to do a simul in Ottawa.

      My outstanding memory of the Spassky event was his game against Peter Stark (an anglicised version of his Hungarian name) a moderately strong, twenty-ish year old at that time. Peter achieved quite a lost position early on but continued to play for many many, more moves. Eventually he did resign (I think a move before he was to be mated) stating something along the lines, but a bit more eloquently: “I played on to protest about what you Soviets did to my country”. Spassky was a little bemused but being the perfect gentleman, gave his trademark smile and continued with the simultaneous.

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      • #33
        Re: Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibit

        I just found that at least some years of the Ottawa Citizen are accessible via Google's program to digitize old newspapers - the search mechanism is not the greatest, though.

        Bondarevsky and Kotov visited Ottawa in 1954:

        "Among the field challenging Bondarevsky was a blonde Ukrainian refugee girl who kept playing 15 moves after she should have resigned, because: 'I just won't let them beat me!'"

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        • #34
          Re: All is revealed (sort of)

          I have now had a chance to view the photo held by Doug Burgess showing Boris Spassky giving a simultaneous exhibition at the R.A. Chess Club in Ottawa. On the back of the photo is written "Chess Club 1971." People we recognize are Archie Howard, Marie Scarabelli and, of course, Spassky. In 1971 Spassky was World Champion so that's a pretty high ranking ! In the summer of 1971 I was in Vancouver competing in my second Canadian Open in which Spassky tied for 1st-2nd with Hans Ree. And sometime later we know that Spassky played in Toronto where Lawrence Day held him to a draw in a famous game. So it would seem to me that it was during his time in Ontario that he came to Ottawa.

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          • #35
            Re: All is revealed (sort of) - Karpov ?

            Along with visits to Winnipeg (1957, simul, says CanBASE) & Montreal (clock simul, 1953), Reshevsky http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=11209 seems to have toured in February 1954: http://ww2.glenbow.org/search/archiv...ResultsDetails at Calgary. A quick find with http://www.imagescanada.ca/009005-11...ess&interval=6 & search term "chess" revealed about a dozen hits. Although he's likely not the highest on the list, somebody might decide to look up further details of the February 12th issue of that year's "The Albertan" - or could visually identify any participants of that era.

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            • #36
              Re : Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibi

              What is Ruy Lopez doing on the list?

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              • #37
                Re: Re : Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous ex

                Originally posted by Felix Dumont View Post
                Ruy Lopez
                (c 1530 - 1580) inventor of Free Trade Bxc6, and an Old Boy.

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                • #38
                  Re : Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibi

                  But he never visited Ottawa...

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                  • #39
                    Re: Re : Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous ex

                    Originally posted by Felix Dumont View Post
                    But he never visited Ottawa...
                    Can you prove it beyond any doubt ?

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                    • #40
                      Re: Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibit

                      He was a child prodigy, and gave a blindfold simul when Jacques Cartier took him there in 1535. :)

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                      • #41
                        Re : Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibi

                        I didn't know Ruy Lopez came to Canada in 1535. Thanks for the info! However, is it also specified that he gave a (blindfold?) simul, at the age of 5, on the actual site of Ottawa (because the city was funded in the 1800s)... Also, I thought that Cartier didn't go further than Montreal...
                        Even today's best players cannot do a simul at this age...
                        Last edited by Felix Dumont; Monday, 15th August, 2011, 09:29 AM.

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                        • #42
                          Caravaggio in Ottawa

                          Originally posted by Felix Dumont View Post
                          Even today's best players cannot do a simul at this age...
                          ok , blindfold was just a poetic license.
                          The simul was just a regular one.

                          By the way …
                          The name "Ottawa" is derived from the Algonquin word adawe, meaning "to trade".
                          The word existed well before 1800 !

                          Did you know that Basque fishermen founded the first commercial enterprise in the New World (whale fishing products) in Labrador in 1497 !?

                          Also - this summer - Caravaggio is in Ottawa – until September 11. True, he lived between 1571-1610 … lots of (postal) stamps were issued last year commemorating 400 years since his death.

                          The exhibition includes 12 paintings of the great master – highly recommended!!

                          (He did not give a simul!)
                          Last edited by Emil Smilovici; Monday, 15th August, 2011, 10:10 AM.

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                          • #43
                            Re: Re : Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous ex

                            Originally posted by Felix Dumont View Post
                            I didn't know Ruy Lopez came to Canada in 1535. Thanks for the info! However, is it also specified that he gave a (blindfold?) simul, at the age of 5, on the actual site of Ottawa (because the city was funded in the 1800s)... Also, I thought that Cartier didn't go further than Montreal...
                            Even today's best players cannot do a simul at this age...
                            History is not so dry as some books would have you believe. As is well known, the original Parliament buildings in Ottawa were an exact replica, in marzipan, of the Haghia Sophia. The Ottawans of the time named their city, not Bul-town or Con-town, but By-town, hinting at its hidden antiquity. As we all know, those original Parliament buildings melted in the heat of a particularly typical Ottawa summer. Fortunately, some of the inhabitants, when told to "toe the line", misheard it as "hoe the line", and, mirabile dictu, liquid flowed uphill, and after swamp water reacted with almond paste, and centuries of tongue burnishing--the Rideau Canal. Whether Ruy Lopez visited the Haghia Sophia in (then) Istanbul, or its exact replica in By_zantium-town, is much an existential question. Until the Canada Council of the National Cash Register rules in its fullness, your Grisch is as good as mine.

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                            • #44
                              Re: Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibit

                              That city's name is nobody's business but the Turks.

                              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vankaSlfSr0

                              :)

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                              • #45
                                Re: Highest-ranked players list to visit Ottawa and give a chess simultaneous exhibit

                                Originally posted by Hugh Brodie View Post
                                That city's name is nobody's business but the Turks.
                                Timeline puts Ruy Lopez (1530 - 1580) Pasha squarely inside the Ottawaman Empire (1299 - 1923).

                                PS: Got a kick out of the Craig Ferguson version.
                                Last edited by Jonathan Berry; Tuesday, 16th August, 2011, 11:45 AM.

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