Great chess quotes

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Great Chess Quotes

Great Chess Quotes

November 27, 2015

Curiouser and Curiouser

The final of the 1st FIDE World Online Women Blitz Championship is scheduled to take place on November 26th, in the club “Circolo Canottieri Aniene” in Rome, Italy. The players will be seated on a round table, with computer screens in front of them. No real chessboards will be used. The tournament is an 18 round, double round robin, with 3m+2s time control and starts at 16:00 CET.

Olimpiu Urcan comments on this:

If all the players have to fly to Rome, you can't call it an "online" event. It's like driving all the way to Macy's just to do e-shopping.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Great Chess Quotes

Great Chess Quotes

November 23, 2015

Never one to shrink from telling it just as it is, FIDE has published a list of the ten member countries in arrears.

I wonder how many of us could accurately place all ten on an outline map of the world? I know where Sao Tome is (off the west coast of Africa in the Gulf of Guinea) because in the old modem days a PC computer virus once dialed a long distance telephone call there, for which I was charged. Have no idea where the Comoros are and I always mix up Bahrain and Bhutan.

Chess Federations in Arrears

1 Bahrain
2 Bhutan
3 Comoros Islands
4 Congo
5 Dominican Republic
6 Ecuador
7 Sao Tome and Principe
8 Solomon Islands
9 Venezuela
10 Yemen

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Great Chess Quotes

Great Chess Quotes

November 23, 2015

European Team Championship II

Anish Giri’s tweeted reaction to Aronian’s comment about Melkumyan being “consistent as a mule”:

Lev Aronian, the only team leader who can get away with publicly calling his teammate a donkey. Congrats, great performance!

This is from Colin McGourty’s fine wrap-up of the team championships.

https://chess24.com/en/read/news/7-t...m-championship

Two other quotes from him:

Richard Rapport’s loss to Pavel Eljanov cost Hungary their only match defeat in Reykjavik, but it would be hard to hold it against him.
The 19-year-old had become the forgotten prodigy - despite starting the year at 2716 he fell out of the Top 100 by sinking to 2649 on the September rating list. Now after five wins and a 2828 performance in the Euro Teams he’s back up where he belongs, with a 2715.2 rating putting him at world no. 33. The only player younger and higher-rated is a certain Wei Yi.

Peter Svidler also gave Simon Williams the answer the English grandmaster was hoping for to a question about how the team would celebrate:

There will probably be some imbibing of liquids at some point.

[Wayne Komer]

Great Chess Quotes

Great Chess Quotes

November 22, 2015

The European Team Championship 2015 at Reykjavik has finished. The top scorers in the Open Section are: 1) Russia – gold, 2) Armenia – silver and 3) Hungary – bronze.

Levon Aronian tweeted this:

Silver at Euro Team Champs! Congrats to Gabriel Sargissian for crossing 2700 mark and to Hrant Melkumyan for being consistent as a mule!

_________

One hopes that Levon means that Hrant is patient and hardworking rather than otherwise!

[Nigel Hanrahan]

not Andy Lewis but Stephen Moss of The Guardian

"Grandmaster, not above the chessboard!"

Lewis: " In chess, intelligent and surprising variations of openings, style and approach can turn a strong player into a brilliant, terrifying opponent.

In life, this same unpredictability will make one an untrustworthy business partner, an unelectable politician, and a lousy human being."

Ouch.

More of the same from Stephen Moss in The Guardian.

[quote]

In his report to the federation’s AGM [pdf download] last month, the journalist and strong amateur chess player Dominic Lawson, who is president of the organisation, declared that “petty divisions and arguments within the ECF do nothing to help those of us who are attempting to persuade the government and sporting authorities that chess should be given enhanced status”. His warning, which went unheeded, underlines the peculiar rancour at the heart of the game, which is administered for the most part by middle-aged men who have been around for decades and built up all manner of petty jealousies and preoccupations.

... In this world where, in truth, nothing is really at stake, the passions aroused are extraordinary. John Saunders, former editor of both Chess and British Chess Magazine, reckons the explanation lies in the nature of chess players: obsessive, attentive to detail, implacable, relentless. What makes for a strong chess player also produces a terrible diplomat, politician, administrator and sometimes, of course, quite an odd human being....

So what does the future hold? Davies believes the game is at a watershed. “Chess will continue in the UK,” he says, “but how it continues is not really clear. At the moment it looks more like becoming a minority game like go or shogi than a sport alongside darts. The next few years are going to decide, but if I had to bet on it then it would be that it will decline and become like go or checkers.” Some see the thousands who now play chess online or on apps as a source of hope, but Davies disagrees. “It’s not the same. The games have little value. You just finish the game and then start another one – it’s throwaway chess.”


(GM Nigel) Short sees signs of hope – notably the London Chess Classic, which starts at London’s Olympia on 4 December and attracts many of the world’s best players, including world champion Magnus Carlsen – but there are dangers, too, for a game whose place in the country’s cultural life has always been uncertain. Perhaps the glorious era of the 70s and 80s was the blip, and we are now reverting to mediocre type. Even when he strikes a modestly optimistic note, Davies makes the game’s future sound bleak: “It feels like a losing battle, but I’m sure chess will continue in some form. There’s so much history, so many stories, so many characters. This will be preserved, but it may not be as a living tradition.” Chess as morris dancing.

from Grandmaster crash: the inside story of how English chess pawned its future

Some of the other remarks belong on their own thread [over here!] but I provide them for context.

[Frank Dixon]

Re: Great Chess Quotes

"Life is a kind of chess, in which we have often points to gain, and competitors or adversaries to contend with." :)
[Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790, American statesman, diplomat, physicist, civil servant, writer, and chess player. Franklin may have been the most polymathic American who ever lived, in terms of high skill levels and achievement across many different fields of endeavour. This quote is from his book "Chess Morals', published in 1786. Franklin was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame a few years ago. America's second-oldest continuously operational chess club, the Franklin Mercantile Club in Philadelphia, is named in his honour.]

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Great Chess Quotes

Great Chess Quotes

November 18, 2015

On Reti

Reti studies mathematics although he is not a dry mathematician; represents Vienna without being Viennese; was born in old Hungary yet he does not know Hungarian; speaks uncommonly rapidly only in order to act all the more maturely and deliberately; and will yet become the best chessplayer without, however, becoming world champion.

Dr. Savielly Tartakover
Die Hypermoderne Schachpartie

(Quoted in Chess Review, February, 1952, p. 45)

[Wayne Komer]

Great Chess Quotes

Great Chess Quotes

November 18, 2015

I know how to change the title of the thread. I was just fantasizing as to how long we could go on with a thread entitled “Andy Lewis”. It could become shorthand for a quote as in, “Tartakower had a good Andy Lewis about tactics and strategy in chess”.



________

An unintentional error in a heading can often be more interesting than a more prosaic one. Readers may remember how much mileage we got out of the topic “Chess Will Shrink Your Brian”.

http://www.chesstalk.info/forum/show...rian#post88610

[Frank Dixon]

Re: Great Chess Quotes is an easy title to use.

I had nothing to do with this thread's name change. There's no grassy knoll in my back yard on this one! :)

[Nigel Hanrahan]

Great Chess Quotes is an easy title to use.

I think it very unfair that Messrs Maguire and Dixon have changed the name of this thread from “Great Chess Quotes” to “Andy Lewis”.

The former topic was so much broader and allowed much more scope for quotation.

If you edit your (initial) post, then you can change the title of your reply. Notice what I did with this reply.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Andy Lewis

Andy Lewis (formerly Great Chess Quotes)

November 17, 2015

I think it very unfair that Messrs Maguire and Dixon have changed the name of this thread from “Great Chess Quotes” to “Andy Lewis”.

The former topic was so much broader and allowed much more scope for quotation.

Well, I am not one to be behind the times, so here is my contribution on Andy Lewis.

Andy Lewis is a former British U21 Chess Champion, has a PhD in Philosophy, but spent most of his working career in computer departments for investment banks. He is semi-retired and lives with his wife and two dogs in Manningtree, Essex. He has played Arimaa for six months and is competing in the 2015 World Championship.

Arimaa is a radical re-invention of chess. It has been around for just over a decade. It’s played between two players on a 64 square board, with the same number of pieces. It could be played with a standard chess-set and board. The pieces are named after members of the animal kingdom: ranging from the mighty Elephant to the humble Rabbit.

Although completely different, it is easy to teach a chess player the basics of Arimaa in about 10 minutes.

An Andy Lewis anti-Arimaa quote for this thread:

Tinkering with the rules of chess is like adding a harmonica or a ukulele section to a classical orchestra: it’s pointless. And sounds awful.

(Note: WK - And that is all I know about Andy Lewis)

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Andy Lewis

IM Sagar Shah writes at ChessBase today:

"Rapport played in his typical unorthodox style to beat Laurent Fressinet. What is amazing about this game is that after just ten moves Richard had a nearly decisive advantage with the white pieces. Would that have happened if he had played 1.e4 or 1.d4? I do not think so! The Bird's Opening is the way to go!"

Shah follows up with his opening annotations:

We will focus only on the first phase of the game because by playing quite an irregular opening White got a clear advantage against a very strong opponent. 1.f4 d5 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4!? Is this a Rapport special? He had tried this same move against Maxim Rodshtein in Politiken Cup 2014. c6 4.e3 Bg7 5.Nc3 Nf6 6.d4!? The position resembles some sort of a Stonewall setup, but the pawn is on c4 instead of c3, which gives White much more flexibility. 0-0 7.Be2 e6 Now we are in some sort of virgin territory. 8.0-0 dxc4?! Giving up the centre is not at all a good idea. 9.Bxc4 Nbd7 10.e4 Could White have imagined getting such a nice position after just ten moves by playing 1.e4 or 1.d4? I do not think so!

[Frank Dixon]

Re: Andy Lewis

"In his prime, Tal would sacrifice a rook for three checks, and his Queen for five checks!" :) (GM Edmar Mednis, joking about GM Mikhail Tal's devil-may-care tactical style. The quote appears in Mednis' fine book "Practical Middlegame Tips".)

[Nigel Hanrahan]

Andy Lewis

"Grandmaster, not above the chessboard!"

Andy Lewis, channeling the ancient Greek painter Apelles of Kos, with advice to Garry Kasparov.

"We Need to Talk about Garry: Why Life Does Not Imitate Chess"

Lewis: " In chess, intelligent and surprising variations of openings, style and approach can turn a strong player into a brilliant, terrifying opponent.

In life, this same unpredictability will make one an untrustworthy business partner, an unelectable politician, and a lousy human being."

Ouch.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Great chess quotes

Great Chess Quotes

November 15, 2015

Lasker after Retirement

From The American Chess Bulletin, Vol. 30, April 1933, p.70

Dr. Lasker Returns to Chess

It will be good news for followers of chess to learn that Dr. Emanuel Lasker, until 1921 champion of the world for twenty-seven years, has not renounced chess absolutely as had been feared when he made public announcement of his retirement, and, shortly afterward, was seen to be active among the devotees of bridge. It is not so long ago since he paid a visit to Latvia and gave some chess exhibitions there.

Now comes the report of a significant performance given by the sixty-four-year-old master in historic surroundings at the Café de la Regence, where for the last two centuries the chess players of the world have found a trysting place.

Playing in a room crowded to the doors, Dr. Lasker conducted thirty games. As usual there was much consultation, but the ex-champion entering fully into the spirit of the occasion, succeeded in making the creditable score of 22 wins, 3 draws and 5 losses. Three of these defeats were due to costly oversights in the last few minutes after he had been playing for five hours and a quarter.

Among the notables who took part was Serge Prokofiev, the Russian composer of music, who is a talented chess player. He obtained a fine position, but made the mistake of interesting himself too much in his neighbour’s game, with the upshot that he lost his own.