Estoy de Vuelta

Comments

Yep!
Posted by: noyb at June 7, 2006 00:08

And nobody is thanking Norway? A complete meltdown by the Norwegian team (except Carlsen, of course) did help a bit in the last round... Anyway, congratulations with a well deserved medal. Even with barnrumpa and a guy who swears in front of children on the team:-)
Posted by: 2roll at June 7, 2006 02:25

Wow. Cool looking fish. Is it bachelor-dom that allows you to take a trip like each year? I am envious. Married men aren't allowed fishing trips!
Posted by: RingLord at June 7, 2006 11:12

hey mig. nice to have you back. the 'pawns in love' on chessbase.com is pretty cool, though the board is the wrong way 'round in the video. *sigh*
Posted by: rockrobinoff at June 7, 2006 11:27

Actually RL, I was one of the only ones in our group of 20 that wasn't married. They are all hunting/fishing gents from the far north of California (around Redding) and the wives are used to regular disappearances for things like this. City boys are on shorter leashes I imagine. Or they go with, although this is clearly frowned upon in my dad's circle.
Posted by: Mig at June 7, 2006 11:50

I'm on a pretty short leash, but at age 32, I also have four children which is the main factor in leash length. I am hoping to take my kids on some deep sea fishing and chess tourney excursions in a few years though, Lord willing.

Good to have you back Mig. It's probably best that you were away when Kok got kooked. I'd gladly give away Kamsky's bronze for 4 years of Kok. I wonder if Gata would...
Posted by: Todd C. Reynolds at June 7, 2006 12:21

"I'd gladly give away Kamsky's bronze for 4 years of Kok."

(snicker). Sorry, but that is just funny. Even if it is straight out of Beavis and Butthead: "heh, uhhh, uhhh, you said 'Kok', hehhh, hehhh."

Yeah I know it's not pronounced that way, but still...

It was nice for "Ms. Terious" to post stubs for discussions, but is it so hard to have a real guest blogger? Like Jeff Sonas or even Greg Koster? A different perspective would have been interesting, though I understand it if Mig were reluctant to risk being "shown up".
Posted by: Stern at June 7, 2006 12:37

Nice gradeschool comment. "What, are you SCARED?!" Jeff has his own site and I can't think of any reason why Koster, you, or anyone else here can't start one and show me up all day.

I would want a real guest blogger to be someone with information or useful perspective. Certainly a player would be a first choice. I didn't leave myself time to deal with it this time, especially since they also have to have at least some web proficiency. Just posting, linking, and cleaning up spam can be learned in a few minutes though. No coding required. Another problem is that many of the people who came to mind were in Turin.
Posted by: Mig at June 7, 2006 14:13

"Nice gradeschool comment. "What, are you SCARED?!""

I didn't mean it that way. I didn't mean "shown up" as "my Kok is bigger than your Kok", or as a "are you scared?" challenge, but more that I understand why you might not want a guy like Koster to have your platform (that you legitimately built up by yourself) when you two have butted heads a lot in the past (particulary in regards to Kasparov). I think it would be brave, but again, I understand why someone wouldn't and I don't think less of him (you) for that choice. That is all.
Posted by: Stern at June 7, 2006 14:46

It could have been worse, Mig could have asked me to do it...

Hopefully Mig didn't get hooked accidentally, he makes a nice target for those poor at proper casting technique.

Significant props to the US team for medaling. Great, great result.
Posted by: John Fernandez at June 7, 2006 14:55

I heard it said that the fresh salt sea air is supposed to be good for you, but by the looks of the picture you aged a good 25 years while you were out there. Nice smile though. :)
Posted by: chesstraveler at June 7, 2006 14:59

If you are going to have a 'guest blogger' I can't think why anyone would be interested in hearing the opinons of people who often don't use their real names, and seem to have little knowledge or experience of the game.

Talent in writing and knowledge of chess is essential in brining in an web audience. Mig has enough of the former and a fair amount of the latter to suffice.
Posted by: Mark Howitt at June 7, 2006 15:47

Since there doesn't seem to be much of a theme to this day's threads, I thought I might toss out a link to an interesting paper I just read regarding the possible collusion of the Soviets at international tournaments during the post-WWII years. I found it as a link on the ChessCafe.com site. Here is the link:

http://artsci.wustl.edu/~moul/pdf_drafts/sovietchesscartel.pdf

It's a bit scholarly and throws in some mathematics, but I found it very interesting...
Posted by: voss at June 7, 2006 17:17

voss:

Great link. Just fascinating. Thanks for it.

If you are interested in other "forensic economists'" work similar to Moul and Nye, here is a similar statistical analysis of point shaving in college basketball from the UPenn Wharton Economist Justin Wolfers:

http://bpp.wharton.upenn.edu/jwolfers/Papers/PointShaving.pdf

You might like it as well. Reading these types of papers makes you think that everyone would cheat if they can get away with it. Many of the economists' work I follow practically take that stance as axiomatic.

There are a whole bunch of studies being done on cheating on online poker sites, using the same statistical techniques as these papers. When the study results finally come out, I think it will change the face of the poker industry. Assuming it doesn't get buried by those in power (like the Soviets and chess back in the day), of course.
Posted by: Stern at June 7, 2006 18:04

voss and Stern,

Thanks for the nice links.
Posted by: greg koster at June 7, 2006 18:41

Regarding chess, a lot of information telling us what we already knew from Reshevsky, Fine, Fischer and Korchnoi among others. Cheating on online poker, it doesn't take a chess player to figure that out. Percentage wise, probably as much cheating as on online chess. Sorry guys, I'm just not big on "studies that overstate the obvious. Probably has more to do with my not being able to understand it anyway.
Posted by: chesstraveler at June 7, 2006 19:08

Did you people eat that fish or just throw it back with a gaping hole in its face like the other tequilla drinking boatsman do?
Posted by: fishadvocate at June 8, 2006 00:24

That fish is beautiful
Posted by: Leto at June 8, 2006 00:57

Fishadvocate, I bet you the fish would rather be thrown back into the ocean so that it can live, wounds heal.
Posted by: Leto at June 8, 2006 00:59

No tequila on the boat. That rooster fish was released. You eat the tasty fish, you release the others. If they seem disabled, usually by swallowing the hook - although this is rare in my limited experience - they are killed. This happened with a marlin I caught last year.

I grew up in a hunting and fishing family, though I haven't really continued the tradition. The concept of catching anything you aren't going to eat is strange to me (we ate that marlin), but I don't mind the thought nearly as much with fish. (Every year brings a new study about whether or not fish can feel pain at all, let alone have an emotional experience. My brother-in-law is a fish scientist so this is dinner conversation.) Shooting mammals for trophies I don't condone, for example. Everyone has his own line on these things. Don't eat meat but wear leather, worry about fish but crush spiders and wear silk, etc. They aren't hypocrites; it's just a matter of individual feelings.
Posted by: Mig at June 8, 2006 01:22

Never really understood all this Commie-cheating thing. If I have that paper aright (too dull to read properly) it says that the Russians agreed, or perhaps pre-agreed, a lot more draws in international tournaments than they did in domestic ones. Well, so what? That ain't cheating: nothing in the rules against pre-agreed draws. Cheating is throwing games, not that there hasn't been some of that too,to be sure. Go to any international all-play-all and if you're looking for a hard game between the participants from the same country, chances are you'll be disappointed.
Posted by: rdh at June 8, 2006 07:09

On the unthemed thread theme....

Sadly, the only way to get chess into local tabloid...

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,19399645%255E661,00.html

Especially since GM Rogers played very well, as usual.
Posted by: Babson at June 8, 2006 11:00

The article looked decently researched too, though I suspect one of the writers knew someone in the Aussie chess community. Said someone leapt at the chance to get chess in the media, no matter what type...
Posted by: cynical at June 8, 2006 15:56

Babson: that story doesn't make much sense. In the last New in Chess Aronian's interview talks about how he's really happy with his life as he's living with a girl.
Posted by: paul at June 8, 2006 16:01

Yes, but maybe there was a refutation in his previous choice and he is searching for a new line.
;)
Posted by: RingLord at June 8, 2006 16:31

Nice work RingLord.

paul, story has been picked up by others now - stick Aronian into google news and you'll find a few more.

Least our mates will believe us now when we tell them the black eye in a punch up over a girl at a tournament, even if we did get it banging into a cupboard over the stove.
Posted by: Babson at June 8, 2006 16:39

Above should be "we got the black eye..."

P.S. Nice article in the guardian : http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/stephen_moss/2006/06/sex_by_other_means.html
Posted by: Babson at June 8, 2006 16:43

I love Kok!
Posted by: Chess Auditor at June 8, 2006 17:15