Friday
Jun042010
Anand and His Helpers: Two Views
Friday, June 4, 2010 at 11:52PM
This one is pro-Anand, this one is critical. About the first one, there's something that's either extremely interesting or peculiar; either a potential bombshell in chess history or the material for a world-class practical joke. Arvind Aaron writes this:
As for Kramnik’s decision to pitch in, there are several factors. Kramnik shares a special relationship with Anand. When the World Chess Council was formed by Linares organiser Luis Rentero, Kramnik even visited Anand at his Madrid home in 1998 to play a match with him, with the winner to play Kasparov.
Say what???? Does anyone know anything more about this (alleged) match?
HT: Brian Karen
Reader Comments (5)
Hmm, Arvind Aaron fails to mention when that match supposedly took place, before or after Kramnik's match against Shirov in Cazorla in May 1998?
The timeline seems to have been
- February 1998 (before Linares): World Chess Council is formed and first tries to organize a match between Anand and Kramnik - but this match didn't take place because Anand was committed to the parallel FIDE world championship cycle. So Anand refused to play an official match with Kramnik, why should he instead play a private one? Then Shirov entered the picture.
- May 1998: Kramnik-Shirov match, won by Shirov who "qualified" for a WCh match against Kasparov
- from August 1998: It gradually emerged that there would be no match between Shirov and Kasparov.
- later Kasparov wanted to play a match against Anand
- even later it turned out that Kramnik was replacing Anand and/or Shirov.
Based on Shirov's Fire on the Board II and http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/9899gkix.htm (plus linked "Continued" pages).
BTW, the second piece also contains an odd statement: "It was the Russians who brought the game of chess to Germany and, probably, that is one of the reasons why I got to play chess". Well, WCh candidate Huebner was West German, and - among others - Tarrasch and Lasker predate the division of Germany. But the whole interview seems like an average GM seeking global media attention. Is this the first time that Thomas Luther is mentioned (albeit indirectly) here, as well as in the comments at Dailydirt?
Thomas,
Good points regarding Luther's odd statement that the Russian's brought chess to Germany. Adolph Anderssen, winner of the first international chess tournament in 1851, was German. He joked that the Russian master Petroff (who declined his invitation to the tournament and had never been seen outside of Russia) was concocted by the Russian people so they could have a master too.
"to play a match with him" should read as to meet Anand in order to arrange a match, not that he actually played it.
I wouldn't go as far as calling Luther an "average GM". If I'm not mistaken he has qualified for one of the WCh KO tournaments and even survived the first round against Sergei Shipov, plus he had an Elo slightly >2600 for years. ;)
Luther's words shouldn't be taken literally. Of course he knows about the great German players of the past. What he probably meant is:
The Russians gave chess a certain importance in the former GDR. Not necessarily as a sport, but at least as a social activity. In the west on the other hand chess didn't really matter.
The article states that Luther "attained his highest world ranking of 80 ten years ago" - corresponding to the period (second half of 2001) when he was rated 2601-2604. Granted, this makes him a bit more important than his current status: Elo 2541, German #23, world #385.
Regarding his IMO odd statement about Russians bringing chess to Germany: I am two years older than Luther, hence talking about the same time period, and originally from Western Germany. At least in the part of the country where I grew up - countryside south of Frankfurt/Main - about every second village had a chess club, and there were team competitions at nine different levels. I cannot compare this with East Germany or other countries, but I would say "chess did matter". Luther's chances to become interested in and acquainted with the game, and to reach GM level wouldn't have been worse if he had grown up in the western part of the country?
So I think Luther doesn't know what he's talking about ... Andre, what's your source of first- or second- or thirdhand information?
Luther would have a point about biathlon: All or at least most medal winners for united Germany are from the eastern part of the country - and their coaches may still be a product of the Soviet-inspired GDR system.