Bagley in the sink, what's not to like? Open thread, suggestions, questions, the usual. I can't believe Argentina got another brutal group this year. The USA is toast. England got a pansy group.
Bagley in the sink, what's not to like? Open thread, suggestions, questions, the usual. I can't believe Argentina got another brutal group this year. The USA is toast. England got a pansy group.
Well US should make the round of 16, and even win its first elimination match, but it will probably be Brasil in round 2...
You think the US will win a game in that group?! Against which team? Ghana is their only chance, plus two almost certain losses = no next round.
Sigh... I thought the cat blog was for happy thoughts. And here you bring up the World Cup draw.
I see you have Oil of Olay...great for keeping the face looking young especially as advancing age defoliates our craniums and provides us with a lot more face to look after. :-)
It's face soap, thank you very much. My wise sister long ago recommended to me that I, as a single chap, should stock my bachelor pad's bathroom with that and a shampoo+conditioner. Good to have a sister.
Mig can you give us some info about Kasparov's upcoming books? Both OMGP V and Chess imitates life.
In Amazon I saw that OMGP V is around 600 pages. Is that true? With the time available for writing this volume I hope there are fewer mistakes.
Any release dates?
MGP #5 is still planned for March 2006. Yes, it's huge.
http://www.chesschamps.com/bookupdates.php
The date for Chess Imitates Life (perhaps to be titled differently) publication is unclear and is in the hands of various editors in various countries.
I've seen or heard of very few mistakes in MGP volumes 2, 3, and 4. Certainly fewer with each book and nothing like the problems of #1.
Cute cat! Make sure she cleans behind her ears ;).
There's a nice piece by Nigel Short in The Guardian:
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/chess/story/0,15873,1661952,00.html?gusrc=rss
The game with the Czechs makes me think of the match with Portugal a few years back...Italy will be tough but it could be much worse....Freddy Adu scores the game winner against Ghana? I hear FIDE is going to ditch the ELO system and use FIFAs methods for world rankings (it perfectly fits their style! vague, self serving, easily manipulated....).
think you need to check this out
i saw an interview with karpov the other day (serbian satelite tv)
1. he is running for fide's head office
2. he accepted a match offer from fisher to play in island (sorry, but its only fisher-random)
think you need to check this out
i saw an interview with karpov the other day (serbian satelite tv)
1. he is running for fide's head office
2. he accepted a match offer from fisher to play in island (sorry, but its only fisher-random)
I suppose everyone assumes that Ghana is weaker than the other three teams. In my view, the USA beating Ghana would be an upset. Mild, but still an upset. African football is deeper than people think and of course Nigeria, Cameroon and Senegal are not even in.
Ghana is twice World under-17 champs, twice under-17 runner-up, so the talent is there. Just think... Adu would be playing for Ghana if not for the green card lottery. That is the type of talent on the continent. Too bad for Nigeria... I wanted to see "Jay Jay" Okocha in a last dance.
Serbia & Montenegro team is made up of warriors. Hope they can beat Netherlands.
Karpov is "thinking" about this running quite for awhile. But if false GM Dimitrije Bjelica is in his team, he stands no chance.
Fischer never offered him a match. I think this is Karpov's initiative.
I suppose everyone assumes that Ghana is weaker than the other three teams. In my view, the USA beating Ghana would be an upset. Mild, but still an upset. African football is deeper than people think and of course Nigeria, Cameroon and Senegal are not even in.
Ghana is twice World under-17 champs, twice under-17 runner-up, so the talent is there. Just think... Adu would be playing for Ghana if not for the green card lottery. That is the type of talent on the continent. Too bad for Nigeria... I wanted to see "Jay Jay" Okocha in a last dance.
Yes, the US group is tough. But, if you want to establish yourself as a legitimate football (soccer) country, you have to win games in groups like this.
I think they *can* win the game against Ghana, and wouldn't be completely shocked if they drew the Czech Republic. Remember, they've beaten Mexico and Portugal in World Cup play, and they had definite chances to draw level in the Quarterfinal game against Germany (although they were outplayed).
Mig, I think you underestimate them to a degree. Again, this is a squad that made the Quaterfinals in the last World Cup.
Come on boys, FIFA is theatre like FIDE. Just much more professionally played. Last time the draw was done for the german media company, which had the TV rights. So simple for the German team. And with the german functionaires at the top of the bystanders to a corrupt president. And afterwards betrayal to at least Spain to have 4 continents and the host in the semis. When commerce is everything in a sport it is only show business. Would not like to see that for chess. The profs should have a good income playing tournaments. But the WC title should not be about money at all. To hear that some matches are?/were not marketable is pain in my ears. What is a chessplayer in a WC final playing for: money or the title? Plus: events are not better marketable from one date to the next. Here in Germany you could have made a fortune with marketing tennis in the late eighties. But now, without Becker, Graf and Stich?
Regards, Frank
Hey all,
Everybody here clearly underestimate the football/soccer level of the US team. They are not as weak as you think they are. I would even say that right now, their level is not so far from Italian level.
According to eloratings.net (elo ratings applied to football), USA is rated 14th nation in the world with 1820, while Italia is 7th with 1909 and Czechia is 5th with 1931.
By the way, I think that it was ridiculous to put in the 4th group such countries like Czechia, Portugal, Sweden and Netherlands (much better to play togo, equator, japan or saudi arabia).
Czechia, and particarily Netherlands, are both stronger than Italia, Mexico, or even Germany who all were it 1st group.
[Troll section deleted.] Look at the pretty kitty, Rouslan. Happy thoughts, go troll elsewhere. You can start your own thread in the message boards if you want to troll.
USA plays Czech Republic first, then Italy. I find their chances quite good.
First game vs. Czech can be a draw, no team taking chances.
Next Italy. Italy are very often slow starters. IF they beat Ghana in first round, they may go for a riskless draw vs. USA. Then a USA win over Ghana in last round would quite likely lead to qualification.
USA is not a bad team, didn't they play quite well in last WC? Ghana may be dangerous also, and coupled with Italy being notoriously slow starters, I find that group very tough to predict. I would put my money on Czech Republic if I should pick one team to qualify, but that's it.
Just my 2 cents.
The US played well last time, although they benefited from Portugal's implosion. When the top team in your group completely falls apart for two games anything can happen. Yes, if the US had Italy in the first game it would improve their chances. But the Italians will be warmed up for them. I haven't seen Ghana play. The African teams are notoriously difficult to peg because so few of their players are seen regularly against top competition in the European leagues. But Italy and the Czech Republic are prohibitive favorites in my view.
Speaking of favorites, Aronian and Bacrot are through, time to post a chess item!
In a recent chessbase item it is posted:
"The city of Beer Sheva in Israel boasts a higher percentage of GMs per capita – one for every 22,875 residents – than any other city in the world"
This is wrong. Reykjavík boasts one GM for every 14.216 residents.
Hannes Hlífar Stefánsson 107 Reykjavík
Helgi Dagbjartur Áss Grétarsson 107 Reykjavík
Þröstur Þórhallsson 112 Reykjavík
Friðrik Ólafsson 105 Reykjavík
Margeir Pétursson 105 Reykjavík
Jóhann Hjartarson 109 Reykjavík
Jón Loftur Árnason 112 Reykjavík
Henrik Danielsen 101 Reykjavík.
Not counting the greater reykjavík area, which would add some gm's. :)
Absolutely correct about the US in 2002 - we benefitted from 1. a mentally unstable top seed, from a sporting point of view (Portugal) 2. a South Korean team that didn't understand the concept of a grandmaster draw (against Portugal) and 3. the best possible pairing after group play, Mexico (not because of their quality but because of their familiarity).
Doesn't look like any such luck this time, but we'll see.
Mig, you seem to have a penchant for black and white cats, this one is as cute as the other one. I also have had at one time or another at least three cats with similar colouring.
Btw, England may have got a wimp group, but they have a tough path after qualification. Hope my beloved Sweden also go through.
My apologies to Reykjavik and especially my friend Friðrik Ólafsson. I will let the people in Beersheva know. It may be that the population of each city and GMs living there has changed since the time the statistics were originally quoted.
In any case, it is wonderful that a city, both Beer Sheva and Reykjavik, can be so enthused about chess that GMs want to live there.
Mig - love your cats! That's a great picture.
The thing about Argentina is that they are "brutal", in my view they are the clear favourites to win the cup.
please give us a "kirsan wants a 1'000'000$ bid for fide presidency" entry......i assume you know something which is still developing....
Susan Polgar is the best!! Susan Polgar is the best!! Susan Polgar is the best!! Haha Mig, this is okay, right? I don't agree with the Kirsan request because its just so ludicrous that I don't think it merits discussion. Does anyone actually have anything positive to say about it?
What is this, everyone trying to outdo each other with being a jackass? It's not as if we don't believe you're capable, we just assume you have the wisdom and respect for others not to.
Mig...my sweetie read this thread yesterday, and today in my bathroom she left both Oil of Olay and some orange-coloured gritty cream that is supposed to remove dead skin and reduce wrinkles...maybe she's trying to tell me something...but I'm drawing the line at facial packs...unless they're found to regrow scalp hair. :-)
Like in chess, US needs some immigrants if its to be strong in soccer.
That's more how the US started out with international football success 15 years ago. Half the players were from abroad. But for lasting success they have to be homegrown, and most of them are now. Chessplayers have a longer lifespan than footballers, but the effect of the slowed immigrant flow to US chess has clear for over a decade. The US isn't producing many GMs now, but it has never exactly cranked them out. There was the Fischer boom and then a trickle.
For the US, the existence of the national league was a critical step in making soccer a viable career path. A professional chess league would do the same. Until that happens the US will never produce world class players with regularity. You can have 100 million scholastic players but if the best can't make a living at the game, they'll all go to university.
hehe no problem Susan, brilliant article! :)
actually in my calculation i forgot to include a certain former world champion who also lives in reykjavik.