The Chess Mind

It might happen in October. More here; original (in Italian) here.

If this keeps up, Carlsen might return Kasparov's promise ring.

HT: Brian Karen

According to this article, Kasparov and Carlsen will scale back their collaboration in 2010. This seems a peculiar decision, at least if they are backing off as much as the article seems to suggest. Sure, Carlsen is #1 now (by a whopping seven tenths of a rating point), but he's still developing and must have a lot more he can learn from Kasparov. So why not keep going (unless the cost was bankrupting Carlsen)? If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

The independence argument doesn't seem so impressive either. Kasparov kept the much weaker Dokhoian on his permanent staff for years, as did Anand with Ubilava and Karpov with Podgaets. But Carlsen is going to (largely) push off from intense work with Kasparov (Kasparov!) after just a single year? Carlsen has years to develop the virtues of independence Kasparov might be trying to help instill in him, but his years of "easy" improvement are fading away as he approaches developmental maturity. It's true that if Carlsen seems to be stagnating, they can always reverse it, but it's better to keep the momentum going. Anyway, if I were one of Carlsen's main rivals, I'd breathe a big sigh of relief at hearing this news. Carlsen's a handful and then some, but Carlsen + Kasparov + over a decade of Kasparov + Dokhoian's collaboration is monstrous.

P.S. To any Carlsen bootlickers who might be reading this: Please read my post carefully (for a change) before composing your anonymous slanders. Thanks ever so much.

I wasn't one of them, but I remember reading about it when it happened. In 1988, Garry Kasparov took on 6 strong American junior players in New York City, and - unbeknownst to me until earlier today - there was a brief documentary film made about it. Here are the clips, and here are the games.

The bearded fellow working with Kasparov is ChessBase's Frederic Friedel. About the players: Patrick Wolff, Ilya Gurevich and Alex Fishbein all became grandmasters. Gurevich even won the world junior championship, but both he and Wolff quit playing. Both work in the financial industry. Stuart Rachels didn't become a GM, but became an IM and won the US championship one year in a huge upset. Like his late father, he's a professional philosopher. Vivek Rao became an IM but quit the game to jump into the financial sector. Danny Edelman also made it to IM..and quit. I'm not sure what he does.

Speaking of Edelman, what do you think about his decision? (See the videos.)

A big HT to Ben Vinyard.

Right here.

Here. Very little that's new there, but he does present a recent simul game he played, with a nice finish.

Here.

Here, on the ChessBase site.