Chess, potpourri and other nonsense!
NICE CHESS PHOTO!
Chess on the beach (well, almost!) Beautiful! Nice tattoo also. And a very normal chess position, with the board set up properly. Well done! (Photographer and model unknown)
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CHESS PSYCHOLOGY!?
Imagine that your opponent decided to use her female charms against you…would you complain to the arbiter? Both of these magnificent photos are by the 35-year old Kiev,Ukraine photographer Ruslan Lobanov. (Instagram; Tumblr) Lobanov specializes in black and white nude photography.
What I like the most of his work is the alluringly serene atmosphere of his photos, and especially the complete indifference on the faces of models to their nudity.
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MORE FROM LOBANOV
This photo is called ‘First Date’. Behave yourself…!!
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PHOTOGENIC CHESS SISTERS
Elena and (wgm) Irina Bulmaga LINK
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GRANDMASTERLY REGRETS…
Macauley Peterson (US Chess) published yesterday an indepth interview with Walter Browne done last December. I highly recommend the reader to take a quick look at. At one point in the interview Browne expressed regrets that he did not try hard enough to help Bobby Fischer…
- Bobby Fischer playing blitz with Walter Browne sometime in the 1970’s
”I wish I had been more in touch with him, but I wasn’t. And he never called me and—you know he was very reclusive anyway. I could have tried to contact somebody who did know him, to get in touch with him. You know it’s something I should have done, I didn’t do it, and what should I say, I regret that.
Photo by Philippe Halsman 1967
Another thing I regret is that I didn’t at least suggest to Fischer that I could have been his second, if not in Reykjavik, which would have been interesting, but at least later on while he was negotiating with Karpov. I could have advised him and tried to get him to mediate or to soften his conditions so that he could continue to play the match with Karpov in 1975, and also to help him as his second for that match. Yes, I regret that one, I wish I had tried to do that.”
On April 3, 1975 Karpov was declared World Champion, 2 days after the deadline passed for Fischer to agree to the 5 million dollar match for the world championship. Bobby Fischer would not play another serious game of chess for the next 20 years…
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THE PARTY THAT YOU WERE NEVER INVITED TO…
Well, at least one person is having FUN!
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MORE GRANDMASTERLY REGRETS…
Chess legend Vladimir Kramnik turned 40 years of age last Thursday (congrats!!) The former world champion gave a short, but very interesting interview to Chess24 that was published on his birthday. Once more I recommend my readers to take a look at it. At one point the interview turns to an over-view of Kramnik’s career and if he had to do it all again, what would he change (if anything)?
”You know what I particularly missed? The presence beside me of a man like Nikitin for Kasparov or Furman for Karpov. A wise mentor, who would have led me through life, giving me tips in difficult situations and allowing me to learn from the mistakes of others rather than my own. I achieved everything by trial and error – if I was now the coach of the 17-year-old me I would simply have forbidden a lot of things.
On the other hand, if you take it as a whole I don’t have any regrets: everything went pretty well and successfully.”
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Photo Furman (l) analyzing with Karpov. 1970
Grandmaster Semen Furman had already earned a reputation as an excellent coach and trainer when he first met the 17-year old Karpov in 1968. He soon was assigned to be Karpov’s coach and the successes began almost immediately. Furman worked with Karpov until his premature death in 1978. Wiki writes:
In his autobiographical book, Karpov on Karpov, published in 1991, Karpov credits Furman very extensively and deservedly with helping him scale the heights of grandmaster chess, culminating in his World Championship in 1975 and superb play for the next decade, as he dominated the game. This fine book is perhaps the most detailed work ever published on the relationship between a top chess player and his coach. The two also played a great deal of bridge together; this game became for a time something of an obsession with Furman.
Bronstein, who had worked with Furman earlier, wrote “When Furman started to work with Anatoly Karpov, I was not surprised by the young grandmaster’s success, showing a brilliant understanding of grandmaster strategy. It was obvious that Furman had passed on to him a lot of the knowledge acquired during his earlier years. It should also be said that Furman had very good analytical powers and was able to look deeply into the games of other grandmasters, disclosing the secrets of their success.”
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WHEN LIGHTNING STRIKES…
The lovely Valeria Orsini Born January 19, 1990. USA
Not so numb, Mr. Nietzsche!
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NUCLEAR WAR CAN BE FUN!
