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| Posted by andy94 nikto.net 10/30/2008 10:42:19 Play online chess |  Subject: The Magician from Riga.Message: I know some quotations on chess by him. "There are two kinds of sacrifices: sound ones and mine." "To play for a draw, at any rate with White, is to some degree a crime against chess." "They compare me to Lasker, which is an exaggerated honor. He made mistakes in every game and I only in every second one!" Referring to his piece sacrifices: "They can only take them one at a time!" "If playing chess were made illegal by law, I would become an outlaw." And about Bobby Fischer: "It is also important to remember that Bobby Fischer was a real chess gentleman during games. He was always very fair and very correct." Unfortunately he suffered from bad health. He was a heavy drinker and a chain smoker. In 1962, in Curaçao, while he was admitted to hospital, he received a famous visit by Bobby Fischer. Anyway, I'm sure health problems destroyed Tal's career, but the question is: how much? | ||||||||||
| Posted by ionadowman nikto.net 10/30/2008 12:18:47 Play online chess | I have long thought... Message: Ever since back in 1971 when I read P.H. Clarke's book "Tal's Best Games of Chess (1951-1960)" I have been a Tal fan. Over 100 years ago, H. N. Pillsbury once remarked that when making combinations, you make sure that "when the fire was out, it isn't out!" Well, Tal seemed to be able to ignite the dampest lump of vegetable matter at will. How I wish I could play as he did! I liked what little I've heard of his sense of humour as well. Sometime during the 1980s, Mischa won the World Blitz Championship. In receiving his prize, Tal welcomed the opportunity once more of becoming "ex-World Champion". In an interview for a chess magazine on one occasion, the subject of Tal's fondness for fiery fluids was touched upon, though rather obliquely. When asked whether he would play for a Russian team or the "Vodka" team, Tal rather thought he would choose the latter. Tal's caveat notwithstanding, probably he stands best in comparison with Em. Lasker than with anyone else. In Lasker's view, Chess was neither a science, nor an art, but a fight. I'm sure Tal approached the game in the same way. Such are my impressions of my all-time favorite player. Cheers, Ion | ||||||||||
| Posted by tag1153 nikto.net 10/31/2008 12:14:34 Play online chess | An example of his magic..... Message:  gameknot.com ——— After Four Rounds of the Chess Olympiad, Several Favorites Have Fallen — Seven teams have won all of their matches through the first four rounds of the biennial Chess Olympiad. Four of those teams — the top two Russian teams, Hungary and Armenia — were ranked among the top six at the start, so their standing is no surprise. But three of the leaders — the Netherlands, the Republic of Georgia and Vietnam — are unexpected, in particular the last two, who were ranked No. 20 and 27, respectively, when the chess competition began. Several of the pre-tournament favorites ran into unexpected trouble early on. Ukraine, which was ranked No. 2, gave up a drawn match to Croatia, No. 28, in Round 3. (Matches are between teams of four players). Ukraine is now tied for ... Posted by ionadowman | nikto.net 10/31/2008 14:18:25 Play online chess Hi Thomas...Message: 'Just one round after the positional triumph over Khasin came one from a different mould. It amonf the first of Tal's games that I ever saw, and I well remember being amazed by its sheer ferocity. 'Furthermore it illustrates very clearly, even starkly, ... practical approach to the opening, attacking inclination, and wonderful skill on one side; on the other carelessness, lack of technique and overindulgence in combinative play and fantasy. And all the time you can feel [Tal's] spirit, determination and exuberance coming through. A game full of life and excitement.' P.H.Clarke "Mikhail Tal's Best Games of Chess". One regrets that a long time addiction to alcohol and tobacco - and morphine as well it seems - did so much to depreciate Tal's talent, finally to cut it short well before Tal reached 60 years of age. I recall with horror Tal crashing and burning at the Leningrad Interzonal in 1973, after having posted a record to rival Fischer's contemporaneous 20 World Championship cycle wins in a row. Tal had gone 80+ (83 I think) Master level games without a defeat. But then, maybe the sort of person who plays chess like that is the sort of person who is going to ply himself with dangerous organic chemicals. Who knows? Just as an aside, I guess in the world of sport we sometimes have to take the rough with the smooth. Though never a John McInroe fan, I could not help but admire his fighting qualities. Sure, his ranting and raving on the court was embarrassing and unpleasant to watch and hear. Yet it has always seemed to me that what within McInroe that made him capable of extraordinary winning or saving shots was also responsible for his flying off the handle when he misliked an umpire's call. McInroe called on a good deal of emotion in his play. That was his style. What the connection might be between Tal's fiery chess play, fantasy and imagination and his overindulgences, I wouldn't have the foggiest. I'll leave that to the psychoanalysts. Cheers, Ion ——— Yemen sacks chess team for playing against Israel — Yemen has sacked the country's chess team and members of the governing body after its players competed against Israel at a chess tournament in Belarus. The Yemeni Sports minister, Hamud Mohammed Ubad, took the unusual decision after chess players ignored instructions to pull out if drawn against Israel, which is widely criticised in the Middle East for its policies towards the Palestinians. "This was an individual action contrary to the policy of Yemen, which refuses any normalisation with Israel," said Mr Ubad, adding that the chess players were on their way home from Minsk. Like several other Middle Eastern countries, Yemen does not have diplomatic relations with Israel and bars ... Posted by ionadowman | nikto.net 11/02/2008 01:06:35 Play online chess In a game I recently annotated... Message: For a game just as wild and of the same stamp, I would commend you to an earlier annotated game in my list: "Die Hard: It's always too early to resign" between ian_want and nathanman22. To be sure there are several mistakes in the game, but there are some brilliant moves as well that shine all the brighter(especially White's astonishing endgame Q sac that ought at least to have saved the game). But for sheer overall entertainment it's a hard game to go past. Cheers, Ion ——— As Chess Olympiad Begins, No Surprises, but More Controversy — The first round of the Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, on Tuesday did not produce any upsets, though a few high-ranked chess teams yielded a draw or two. According to the Olympiad’s Web site, there are 1,300 players from 144 countries. The Chess Olympiad, which was first held in 1927 (or 1924, unofficially), is convened every two years. The 2010 Olympiad is particularly important as elections for the top offices in the World Chess Federation, the game’s governing body, will be held near the end of the competition. Prior to the start of the Olympiad, it had been plagued by problems, including a race to finish building the main venues before the teams arrived. Now that the chess event has ... Posted by ccmcacollister | nikto.net 11/02/2008 13:56:14 Play online chess ION .... Message: Tobacco? Well its nice to relax after a day of someone poking a cold plastic tube ... lets rephrase that and just say you'd just about rather have the stones stay IN, even if it is like sliding a jagged jellybean .... well never mind again there. Suffice to say, the steady knaw may be ignored, its those totally untimed stilletto-like pokes of back to front joy that play havoc with the analysis tree :)) ——— Chess Puzzles: Richard Reti's Marvelous Squares — A chessboard is a square, divided into 64 black and white squares. But there are more squares in chess, mostly invisible, as part of an amazing chess geometry hidden in chess players' minds. One classic square is often used in pawn endgames when a king is chasing the enemy's passed pawn. The king doesn't have to walk in horizontal or vertical lines, he can run diagonally or zig-zag across the field. But he needs to be close enough to catch the pawn. How close? The king has to walk into a square whose one side is defined as the distance between the pawn and its promoting square at the edge of the board. We can use a famous study by Richard Reti as an example. The world-class player ... Posted by ccmcacollister | nikto.net 11/02/2008 14:12:58 Play online chess PS ... Message: ——— Lahno Wins Women’s World Blitz Chess Championship — To be good at blitz, or speed, chess, players must think quickly and have good tactical skills. That is why the best chess players under slow, or classical, chess time controls are not necessarily the best at the faster form of the game. Though only 20 years old, Kateryna Lahno of Ukraine has been among the best women players in the world for seven years and is now ranked No. 7. She is actually ranked higher than Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia, the current women’s world chess champion, who is No. 10. She is clearly an excellent classical chess player and has won the European Individual Women’s Championship twice (in 2005 and 2008). Now she has proven that she may be even more adept at speed chess. ... Posted by ionadowman | nikto.net 11/02/2008 20:38:31 Play online chess Craig...Message: But what you say does seem to confirm my earlier guess about why Tal seemed sometimes to lose control of his pieces. Cheers, Ion |