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Happy Birthday Walter! – Walter? Walter?
11.01.2003
– They had organised a present of a bottle of vintage wine and placed it by his board. They were prepared to give this living-legend a Happy Birthday a rousing rendition of 'Happy Birthday' for his 54th before the start of play. But typically Walter Browne arrived five minutes late and missed everything! John Henderson reports from the US Chess Championship in Seattle in an article entitled
Good ol' Walter Browne!
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Will FIDE champion Ponomariov be defaulted?
11.01.2003
– FIDE has set an ultimatum until
January 10, 2003, for Ruslan Ponomariov to sign a contract to play the world's
top-rank player Garry Kasparov as as part of the reunification
plan agreed in Prague. If the FIDE champion did not sign the agreement by
that date then he would be replaced by runner-up Vassily Ivanchuk. This would
mean that Kasparov would play Ivanchuk, and the winner would face the winner
of Kramnik vs Leko in a unification title match.
More.
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What about the rules, David?
10.01.2003
– IM David Levy was deeply involved in computer chess back when any respectable
master could give a simul against the top machines and win easily.
His famous bets and matches against computers were regular computer chess highlights
for years. Now he
talks to Mig about the differences between this match and the Kramnik-Fritz
contest, what computer chess means to chess and to science, and the inexact
science of man-machine punditry.
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Wijk aan Zee – who will win?
10.01.2003
– Corus Wijk aan Zee, the Dutch super-tournament, starts on January 10. For the second year in succession it is without the world's number one player, Garry Kasparov. But it does have nos. 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9 and 10, the average rating is 2701 and the category 19. You will find some information on the participants and can take part in our special
Wijk aan Zee quiz.
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Searching for the next champion
09.01.2003
– What is a nine-year-old doing ceremoniously executing the first move at the 2003 US Championship? Well, he was sent to do it by the Mayor of Seattle, who had to cancel his own appearance due to an urgent City board meeting. Rather than send another official to deputize for him Mayor Greg Nickels prefered to nominate a child from one of the scholastic programs for chess.
More
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The Beauty of Chess, Part II
09.01.2003
– Grandmaster training free of charge. In his session tonight, riveting Rogozenko will continue with the beauty of chess, showing
fantastic combinations and brilliant sacrificial attacks. If you ever wanted to
see a game in which all pieces are sacrificed, you should definitely not miss this
lesson. Starting time is at 21.00 p.m. CET, on our
server at Playchess.com
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Kasparov vs FIBI in the broadsheets
08.01.2003
– Remember when it was Kasparov vs FIDE? Now in a déjà
vu twist it is Kasparov vs FIBI (First International Bank of Israel). We reported on the cancelled
Jerusalem leg of the Man vs Machine event and Kasparov's
reaction. Today the broadsheets are full of it. Even the Islamic Republic
News Agency of Iran (IRNA) give it a full page.
More.
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Scandal in Lampertsheim – cheating in the loo
07.01.2003
– At the Open Tournament in Lampertsheim a player was caught cheating. He was
consulting the program Pocket Fritz during the game in the toilet. While we
in ChessBase condemn every form of electronic performance enhancement we would
like to express our thanks to the player for choosing Pocket Fritz for his
devious behaviour. We recommend that the next time he use the new Pocket
Fritz 2 and carefully follow
the instructions.
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It's dirty and intense — it's college chess
07.01.2003
– Too bad the wrestling people don't run chess tournaments. Imagine the roar
when "the Mongolian Terror" charges up to the table swinging a giant
rook above his head. In chess a fussy guy in a suit roams the room,
shushing anyone who speaks above a whisper. No body-slams, no face paint. The
finest moment came a few years back when a hotshot female player slipped into
a slinky, short blue dress with a plunging neckline. Read
about it here.
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Kasparov vs Deep Junior – match details
06.01.2003
– After considerable turbulence over the Christmas holidays (see reports below) the final details of the spectacular Man vs Machine event pitting the world's strongest human player against the reigning world computer chess champion is set to commence in New York on January 26. Full details on the venue, sponsors, schedule and prize money have just
been released.
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They wanted perpetual use of his name and likeness
06.01.2003
– The proceedings brought against Garry Kasparov on Christmas Eve by an Israeli
bank were rebuffed by a US judge. “At the end of the day, this is about
a financial institution trying to squeeze individuals to pay a corporate obligation,”
said Kasparov’s attorney. “The bank was attempting to seize permanent
control of the world-class asset of Garry Kasparov’s name and likeness.”
Full details are to be found in the following
press release by Kasparov's lawyer.
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Jerusalem leg of Kasparov vs Deep Junior cancelled
06.01.2003
– On New Year's Day we published the
schedule of the FIDE Man vs Computer event. According to this Garry Kasparov
was supposed to play a first of two practice games against the Israeli program
Deep Junior in Jerusalem this week. That leg of the match has now been cancelled.
But we have reliable information that the main event will go ahead in New York,
starting on January 26. An official announcement is expected in the next two
days.
More
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