Have four days gone by already? Maybe if I'd spent fewer of those hours at various doctors' offices it wouldn't have passed so quickly. Bleh. I've been trying out more drugs than Timothy Leary and with considerably less enjoyment. And they still aren't sure why I have a cross-country ski team dancing to a techno beat in my left ear. More scans next week. If they do pluck one of these out of my skull I promise I'll auction it on Ebay. Ick.
Anand and Carlsen lead at the start of the Linares second half today. Round 8 is Anand-Topalov, Aronian-Svidler, Morozevich-Carlsen, Leko-Ivanchuk. Carlsen continued his hoodoo over Moro in the first round in the only decisive game of these matchups. All games drawn.
It's 16:07 PM, the official link doesn't load and the alternative site (chesspro.ru) still shows the starting position.
I don't know -- I would like to be a chess fan, but it's difficult. I don't know of any other sport that treats its fans with such contempt.
Maxim Notkin: "It's been half an hour and we received no moves--the translation paralyzing virus has apparently been brought from Morelia to Linares."
mig,
I had that once-never saw a doctor for it, so maybe you're actually in pain too? For me, it just went away eventually. Might have something to do with your kidney.
GET WELL SOON, MIG!!!
BEST WISHES FOR A SPEEDY RECOVERY, E.
Mig, did you try Novcaine? It seems to work for the rockstars :) Do something... the games are all delayed because of your ear infection
---------------
Tell me that I won't feel a thing,
So give me Novacaine
Drain the pressure from the swelling,
This sensations overwhelming
-- Green Day
I tell myself I (feel no pain)
But I'm feeling the pain (walk away)
Can't walk away
I'm hanging on the ropes of hope
It's getting hard to cope you know
When CHESS is the needle running through my veins
I've changed my name to novocaine
-- not Bon Jovi
It's because its fans don't pay, Evening Wolf. Which in turn is because chess games are not copyrightable - something Emanuel Lasker foresaw long ago, and an interesting illustration of how arcane points of law affect real life. Enlightened governments would have reversed the position by legislation long ago, but when was the last time either the US or Britain had one of those?!
http://www.chesspro.ru/chessonline/onlines/index_305.html
Off topic I know - but since this is the most recent thread here and Mig seems a bit poorly and hence might not have picked it up yet...
On the FIDE website the following has been posted recently: http://www.fide.com/news.asp?id=1277
Upshot is that if Kramnik wins Mexico, he plays Topalov in 2008. If Kramnik loses Mexico, he plays the winner of Mexico in 2008. After that is all resolved, the champion plays the winner of the 2007 World Cup which will be held in Khanty-Mansiysk.
Subsequently there is a World Cup every 2 years - the winner of this plays the World Champion for the title. Doesn't say whether the World Champion can play in the World Cup and what happens if he wins the World Cup.
Mig, I've had it for half a year and couldn't go to sleep without a headphone. All classic methods failed. My doctor cured me by using acupuncture in combination with medicine in the old traditional Chinese way called TCM.
Moro-Carlsen according to nettavisen:
http://www.nettavisen.no/sjakk/article918173.ece
1. e4 e5 2. Sf3 Sc6 3. Lb5 a6 4. La4 Sf6 5. O-O Sxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Lb3 d5 8. dxe5 Le6 9. c3 Le7 10. Sbd2 Sc5 11. a4 Sxb3 12. Dxb3 O-O 13. axb5 axb5 14. Txa8 Dxa8 15. Dxb5 Td8 16. Dd3 Db7
Sounds like an infected tooth nerve. That can be nasty.
Another draw festival.
The entertaining irony will be that Topalov will be rooting like mad for Kramnik to win Mexico.
Extraordinary though - where on earth did Topalov get this privilege from?!
Morozevich vs. Carlsen is going to be interesting. Sharp pawn attack by Moro, but his king is not very safe (after move 26).
"Enlightened governments would have reversed the position by legislation long ago...."
There are many adjectives I could use to describe the idea of making the scores of chess games copyrightable and therefore salable items, but "enlightened" would not be one of them.
Hopefully there will be some changes to the World Cup format in the years to come. A four-game match is very poor prediction of relative chess strength between two top players; it would make more sense to have less than 126 players and less than 18 at the second stage and have 6 to 8 games in the final.
Nonetheless, the "King of the Hill" tradition obviously returns; Kramnik and each subsequent champion will now have to be defeated in a match.
The Daily Dirt never ceases to amaze. Expert diagnosticians that we are, we're kibitzing Mig's illness!
Mig, you have our best wishes. Get well soon!
mcb--thanks for the link...
This fall's WCC should be hilarious:
--Topalov fans rooting for Kramnik
--Kramnik fans hoping he places second, preferring, e.g., a Kramnik-Anand match.
Who will be the first Topalov fan to proclaim, "Kramnik will deliberately lose in Mexico because he's afraid of a Topalov rematch?" My money's on marca.
Moroz apparently missed a nice shot: 34.Rg5!, now he's struggling for draw...
What privilege for Topalov? FIDE is merely trying to honor it's pledge that a any 2700 can challenge for the title if they put up the cash. Topalov put up the cash, but FIDE decided it was a little late to stage a championship.
This Goober PRAYS to Allah and his frisbee-catching 4-legged friend that 'rdh' was in one of his more sarcastic moods when he chortled "Enlightened governments would have reversed the position by legislation long ago, but when was the last time either the US or Britain had one of those?!"
Apparently rdh would like to ante up a fee to watch chess moves relayed online?
Moroz apparently missed a nice shot: 34.Rg5!, now he's struggling for draw...
-- Posted by: iulian at March 2, 2007 13:33
34 Rxg5! hxg5 35 Bxg5 and now the White g5-bishop controls the d8-promotion square of the passed White d6-pawn?
34 Rxg5! hxg5 35 Bxg5 and now the White g5-bishop controls the d8-promotion square of the passed White d6-pawn?
Posted by: gmnotyet at March 2, 2007 13:51
Fritz gives 35..Nc6 36.d7 Re5 37.d8Q Nd8 38.Bd8 c4 about equal.
So what is going on now in the Morozevich-Carlsen game?
All games drawn.
Mig, get well soon!
How did you detect it? Got worried about loss of hearing?
"Apparently rdh would like to ante up a fee to watch chess moves relayed online?"
Next up: copyrighting bowling score cards and baseball run-hit-error charts. (Yeah, I hope it was a joke too.)
Is tennis popular in Linares? Maybe Rafael Nadal made a guest appearance to give the chess junkies tennis lessons?
Thanks Misha, and all. Was just increasing noise and pressure in the ear, then process of elimination with other examinations and treatments having no effect. It's still not confirmed and there are various possibilities. Will have MRI next week to see if something is visible. In a way I hope so, because if it's not an acoustic neuroma it's probably just very bad tinnitus, which usually has no clear cause and often isn't treatable at all. I'd rather be deaf in my left ear than have the noise and pressure. That's why we get two ears, I suppose!
Two more lame draws today, and after four days off. Larry was getting quite optimistic about Vishy's position, and also liked Aronian, at least until g3. Maybe we should pay by the move.
Mig,
Quit your damn whining about your ear and cowboy up.
How about taking a hint from TV game shows? The players start off each game with a small "pot" of prize money. Every time they make a move the pot doubles. If they win, they get it all; if they lose, they get nothing. What the proper payoff should be for a draw I'm not sure.
Just for clarification, I hadn't seen Mig's last post and was just doing some silly tongue-in-cheek which I think Mig would have known. Anyway, it does sound serious and I certainly hope that it doesn't continue and does heal soon.
Greg Koster jokes - "This fall's WCC should be hilarious"
"--Topalov fans rooting for Kramnik"
Um, I'll root for him to play his best chess. Could care less if he finishes 1st or 8th.
"--Kramnik fans hoping he places second, preferring, e.g., a Kramnik-Anand match."
As a fan of many sporting or artistic competitions, I don't think I have ever hoped for my favorite player or team to finish 2nd in anything, no matter what the consequences.
"Who will be the first Topalov fan to proclaim, "Kramnik will deliberately lose in Mexico because he's afraid of a Topalov rematch?" My money's on marca."
Don't know who marca is or what he's said in the past, so you could be right. But it's nice to know that we Topalov Fans as a whole are a bunch of self-serving, outrageous statement-making, classless punks. Maybe I should pick a new player to root for, rather than be branded by implication as an ultra-biased freak. And if you think this is an overreaction, which it may be, I can always take solace in the fact that I can refer to the many passionate emails of yesteryear from Dirt posters about how Mig trashes Kramnik all the time (sometimes reading between the lines, shame on Mig, sometimes inventing things outright, shame on Hurt Fan X).
How about this:
1) As a fan of Chess in General, I hope that if Kramnik wins Mexico, he doesn't have to rematch Topalov. Veselin should try to qualify via World Cup, or whatever the qualification process according to FIDE is that day/month/year.
2) As a fan of Topalov, I hope that ..... SAME AS # 1 ABOVE.
From the latest Vasilyev article on ChessPro, entitled "Linares Oranges"
"Ex-world champion Topalov gladly responded to FIDE’s vice president’s offer to demonstrate the spirit of unity and togetherness in gens una. About this spirit we will have to talk soon: the president of FIDE on the 1st of March publicized his decision, according to which the winner of the tournament in Mexico will play a match against the winner of World Cup in Khantu-Mansiysk. As vice-president of FIDE Zurab Azmaiparashvili, against this project were: a) the majority of polled candidates b) the majority of the presidential committee. Azmaiparashvili thinks the decision of FIDE’s president may be repealed by the next meeting of FIDE’s presidential committee, which will take place in May. Or it may be approved."
http://www.chesspro.ru/_events/2007/morelialinares10.html
I don't write this, guys, so don't ask me what it means. I just translate it.
Yuriy,
Thanks for the translation...I guess. I wonder how many times you went whaaa... during the process?
Interesting; Topalov has the right to challenge Kramnik, or Kramnik has the right to challenge the new world champion. A rather important detail is missing: do they have to organize the money for the match?
If it will be Topalov-Kramnik, and Danailov does not have to take care of the money, they will probably play for far less than in the January proposal of Danailov. If Kramnik has the right to challenge a new champion first, but has to organize more than 1 million - will he succeed?
And if Danailov has to organize the money, his sponsors (the previous ones were from Bulgaria) will probably demand the match takes place in Bulgaria. Which Kramnik will refuse.
Tomorrow the world champion will play in the Dutch league, live games at www.chessdimension.com
http://www.chesspro.ru/_images/materials/2007/morelialinares33.jpg
Will the honorable Mr. Azmaiparashvili, praise his name, example of virtue, be a unbiased member of the protest committee during the next match Kramnik-Topalov, just as he was in the previous one?
greg koster - you are most welcome.
Regarding copyrighting of chess moves - rdh was merely (I think) responding to Evening Wolf's complaint that chess fans get a raw deal.
Well those of old enough to remember pre-Internet will realize we now get a fantastic deal. There used to be big tournaments pre-Internet - and if we were lucky we got a report two months later in our chess magazines or a column or two in the newspapers. We might sometimes even get half an hour a week on TV to report world championship matches.
These days we should count ourselves lucky that we can get live coverage in many cases - and we do have to ask what is in it for the chess tournament organizer? They don't get any money for the live coverage (and if they try, somebody just reposts the moves for free) - and this is all because the moves in chess games are not copyrightable.
Where I have to disagree with rdh is that an enlightened government could do anything about it - and besides an enlightened government would probably have more important things to do. The moves of a chess game are in some sense like the score in tennis (who won each point) or the times of the goals in football. It is just reporting the facts of the event.
Pictures of the event could be copyrightable - thus those great videos at chessvibes.com - the organizers could reasonably demand to be paid for the right to video the after game press conferences - which would be a shame since they were very informative! However I believe that Google are planning on paying the suppliers of popular videos on YouTube through those little Google ads - so even that might not be the end of the world for us chess fans since it would encourage the support of niche TV such as chess. In many ways, chess news coverage on the Internet just gets better and better despite the odd glitch.
The part above the Yirii missed to translate is that Azmaiparashvili came to Linares to invite Anand and Topalov to join in the 'Council of Champions'. The idea belongs to Kirsan Ilimzhinov.
And then Topalov and agreed and in a show of unity... [the translated part].
D.
mcb,
Your absolutely right about pre-internet days. I still remember signing up for New In Chess at that time so that I could get the information 2-3 weeks earlier than Chess Life (better coverage too!) Also, same day video's on YouTube and Chessvibes were still science fiction so-to-speak.
It's still funny to listen to people complain if the information is hours late or God forbid a day; but this is what they have been conditioned to expect. There's a saying: Blessed are those who expect nothing, for they shall no be disappointed. Obviously, modern technology has shot a big hole in that way of thinking.
Dimi,
The paragraph immediately preceding the one I translated says:
"Vice-President Zurab Azmaiparashvili arrived to Linares in order to talk to former world champions Topalov and Anand, inviting them to join FIDE's Council of Champions. This is a new idea of FIDE's President Kirsan Illyumzhinov. I interviewed Azmaiparashvili and in one of the future reports will tell more about this project."
Next paragraph:
"Ex-World Champion Topalov gladly responded to FIDE’s vice president’s offer to demonstrate the spirit of unity and togetherness in gens una....(see the rest of my translation above)"
It doesn't help much since nothing in the previous paragraph says anything about the proposal being in the spirit of togetherness and unity in gens una, though it wouldn't surprise me to learn that Zurab has been hitting the spirits or that Topalov has been talking to them. Nor does it explain any of the rest of the paragraph, as the proposal described does not seem to match the one on FIDE's website. Or it may match, as Vasilyev would put it.
There were lots of other paragraphs and blurbs in the article that I omitted. (most because they weren't very interesting, just captions to pictures of Linares or more jokes about Danailov scratching his chin) Hope nobody thought I omitted anything to make it sound more ridiculous...
Lol guys... I think Kirsan is being a bit presumptious. I can't imagine Kramnik jumping through hoops to play Topalov if he wins in Mexico.
Yurii, I wasn't suggesting that you omitted anything for any specific reason. I just found this info about the ‘Council of Champions’ rather interesting because I didn’t know about it.
D.
Cool, D, just making sure--I think it was pretty dumb of Vasilyev to drop hints and then write the next paragraph like everybody knew what he was talking about.
Best wishes, Mig!
In the pics from Linares, how does one distinguish Mig from Leontxo?
About your ear ... is it related to your wife's tongue in any way?