Saturday
Oct102015
The New Agon/World Chess Website
Saturday, October 10, 2015 at 12:40AM
Agon has the rights to the world championships, including not just the classical title but the rapid & blitz as well, and some other events, too. Their website (under the name "World Chess") has opened in time for the rapid & blitz championship, and while not everything is fully operational, there's already a fair amount of material on the site, including the first installment of a weekly column by yours truly.
Keep an eye on the site, which is bound to get better and better, especially as next year's Candidates' tournament and the world championship draw nearer and nearer.
tagged AGON
Reader Comments (4)
Congratulations for the new weekly column and the wonderfully written first installment, which, of course, comes as no surprise for the regular followers of this blog.
Nice column. I notice there is already a conspiracy nutter who posted a comment to it. Appropriate, since the later adult Fischer was exactly this type of nutter himself. I haven't seen the movie yet, but one thing I always think of regarding the older Fischer is a story told by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam during his '92 rematch with Spassky. Fischer was holding forth/ ranting about various subjects in his hotel room, with his friends/ enablers just sitting and listening, either agreeing or being silent. Fischer than pointed out some endgame position in one of the Karpov- Kasparov matches, set it up on the board, and argued that every move of every game of thes matches was prearranged, and as partial proof he said of this position, "Kasparov played ... Rh7 here....as even a child can see, this is nonsense, and no strong player would play this move". (Please excuse my paraphrasing, I don't have the article in front of me at the moment. It was some such rook move, though)
What was funny was that several years ago I analyzed this very position for quite some time using Rybka, I believe, and what do you imagine the engine's top move was? Yes, of course, Kasparov's very rook move. Which does not prove it was in fact the very best move in the position, but it did prove Fischer's argument was ridiculous.
Fischer's 60 Memorable Games was my first 'serious' chess book in junior high, and I will always appreciate his chess, but I prefer to remember his earlier days.
Congratulations on your new column!
[DM: Thanks!]
I have the site bookmarked. Can't wait to see more articles from you in the future.