Eideard

A little post-mortem analysis.

Final Score: Korchnoi 4 – Spassky 4

The “Battle of the Giants” between tenth World Champion Boris Spassky, 72, and multiple World Championship challenger Viktor Korchnoi, 78 began with the latter pressing. But in the second half of the match it was Spassky who called the shots.

You can find the game scores here: All eight games in PGN format

You can read my previous comments on the match here:
A chess match only an old fart could love

“Something is wrong… something is dead wrong.”

You can read more and see the video here: Something’s wrong in the world of chess.

Oh, what a delight, an interview fertile for comment — by me.

Is chess dead, or are we just making it irrelevant by the way we handle modern competition?

Where do I begin? I could revert to the irritation my high school physics instructor expressed when someone would want to know what the answer to a problem was. “It doesn’t matter,” he would blurt. “Did you understand the concept?” Most current players are obsessed with right answers– which is why they run to Fritz every time their brain hurts.

Then again, I could turn the topic to faster time controls, which have turned competitive chess from something almost sexy to sheer intellectual masturbation.

Or should I quote a certain American Grandmaster, who not long ago explained that the likes of Emanuel Lasker could teach him nothing?

Which.. reminds me..

Kasparov also said this: “Something is dead wrong, if nobody cares about everything else and everybody pays attention to a match of, okay, two old guys.”

The fact is, it’s not only more interesting to watch Kasparov and Karpov play now– because at least it reminds us of a day when a world title actually meant something– but it is more interesting still to study the games of.. Emanuel Lasker– you know, the really, really old guys… than the ever-increasing heap that has become the modern Grandmaster pool.

MADRID: Chess legends Garry Kasparov and Anatoli Karpov will face off on Monday in the Spanish city of Valencia for a five-day re-match, 25 years after their epic world championship duel.

The September 21-25 match will not carry the same suspense as the Moscow showdown between then world champion Karpov and challenger Kasparov, their first battle that dragged on five months before it was called off with no winner.

The new match will have only 12 games – four semi-rapid and eight rapid – with Kasparov, 46, and Karpov, 58, facing off under the watch of Dutch chess arbiter Geurt Gijssen, the Valencia regional government said.

Kasparov, who earlier said it would be more a “ceremonial tournament” with a time-limit on moves, has been training in the Norwegian capital Oslo with the 18-year-old chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen….

Karpov has secluded himself for the last week in an apartment on the Spanish coast, training with a group of world-class players and with a computer, according to organisers.

The matches will be broadcast live on the Valencia regional government website (www.gva.es). Organisers said they expect some 10 million web users to follow the event in this city known as the birthplace of modern chess, where the game has been played since the 15th century.

I realize that this story is about as interesting to most people as watching paint dry. And, of course, I don’t care.

It won’t be the match of the century. It probably won’t even be the match of the year. But for some of us who were watching in 1984, it will be interesting on one level or another.

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Updates:
Kasparov Wins First Two Games Against Karpov

Man of the Match – Guillermo Barros Schelotto of Argentina

Frankie Hejduk scoring goal that made it 3 – 1 victory over NY/NJ Red Bulls

Photos from Daylife, Reuters and AP/Reed Saxon

Delightful match. Columbus dominated and deserved the title.

An Israeli city is using DNA analysis of dog droppings to reward or punish pet owners.

Under a six-month trial program launched this week, the city of Petah Tikva, a suburb of Tel Aviv, is asking dog owners to take their animal to a municipal veterinarian, who then swabs its mouth and collects DNA. The city will use the DNA database it is building to match feces to a registered dog and identify its owner.

Owners who scoop up their dogs’ droppings and place them in specially marked bins on Petah Tikva’s streets will be eligible for rewards of pet food coupons and dog toys.

But droppings found underfoot in the street and matched through the DNA database to a registered pet could earn its owner a municipal fine.

Sooner or later, governments will figure out a rationale to do this with people, as well.