World Chess Champion

[East Street Trader]

Vishy (Viswanathan) Anand looks set to become the next World Chess Champion having gone a point and a half clear of the field with only three games to go in the tournament which, this time round, determines the holder of the title.

This is a good site to follow the tournament for anyone interested.

http://www.chessbase.com/

There has not been an undisputed title holder for some years because of a split that developed between Kasparov and FIDE, the body which regulates world chess. But that split healed recently and an undisputed World Champion emerged.

Ordinarily the title changes hands as a result of a match between the incumbent and a challenger. But, as a one off, this time an all play all tournament with eight participants has been arranged.

Vishy will be a popular winner. India has been emerging as one of the leading chess nations and he is idolised there.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Did you know that one of Britain's top chess players is a Poly member?

[VetLegion]

Provost Harrison?

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Lazarus and the Gimp
Did you know that one of Britain's top piss artists is a Poly member?

I knew that.

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by VetLegion
Provost Harrison?

I'm very flattered you think that, although your question probably more accurately answers Agathon's question

[Proteus_MST]

Doesn´t he have to beat Deep Blue (or his successor if there is any) first before he can be declared world chess champion?

[DanS]

Originally posted by Lazarus and the Gimp
Did you know that one of Britain's top chess players is a Poly member?

The more important question: Is he any good at Civ?

[Kuciwalker]

Now I'm curious.

[DaShi]

Originally posted by Lazarus and the Gimp
Did you know that one of Britain's top chess players is a Poly member?

I don't think it's me. Is it me?

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

It's Jon Speelman. Not sure of his ranking now, but he was Britain's number 2 at the time the number 1 (Nigel Short) was contesting the world championship with Kasparov.

He wrote a couple of Poly articles which are still on display here.

[East Street Trader]

I didn't know that.

He is still quite active and his current rating is 2511 which ranks him 14th in England.

He briefly reached no. 4 in the world in early 1989 and came close to getting a crack at Kasparov's World title, losing out to Jan Timman of Holland at the semi final stage of the candidates tournament (which used to produce the challenger).

There is a picture half way down this page

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4104

His games have a tendency to produce wild and very asymetrical positions.

[MikeH]

He was one of the TV commentators/pundits on the Short/Kasparov title challenge. I thought he was good. But I thought the TV coverage as a whole was awesome and incredibly entertaining. Stuff like

"OH MY GOD! HE'S MOVED THE PAWN! THAT'S SOOOO AGRESSIVE! He's really going for the throat now..."

Almost better than darts.

I watched every minute, live coverage on Channel 4 with Carol Vorderman for the first 30 mins of the game then switched over to the highlights on BBC2.

[Provost Harrison]

Under what logon name does he post?

[East Street Trader]

This is one article

http://apolyton.net/misc/column/209_curse.shtml

and this the other

http://apolyton.net/misc/column/204_sidsoren.shtml

A (very very quick) scan suggests they are basic - not really written for Polytubbies.

[The Vagabond]

It seems that the 32 years of Russian monopoly on the world chess title finally come to an end...