English Chess Forum

That rings a bell, I went 1 of the days, but my recollection has dimmed over the years

Must have been close to the water as I do recall seeing a penguin there

In the audience you could listen on headphones to commentary (Danny King? Andrew Martin??)

I am not sure how I would rate it with my other chess spectating - candidates (sponsored by Pilkington Glass) in London, or the Interzonal(?) in Biel

Linares (Short-Karpov and Timman-Jusapow) was favourite, the hotel (Anibal?) was nearly deserted, it was quite drive from Granada, and we got lost on the way - stopped next to a police car, wound window down, said "Ajadrez" and got a police escort to the venue

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Any postings on here represent my personal views and should not be taken as representative of the Manchester Chess Federation

Thanks everyone for the memories to and Tristan for showing his ticket. Justin was right.

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To find a for(u)m that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now. (Samuel Beckett)

Europe Echecs has an article at http://www.europe-echecs.com/actualites ... -4072.html, with a link to an Azerbaijani article at http://www.extratime.az/article.php?aid=265244. (Use Google Translate from Russian for the latter.)

No new news, but going back in time again: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=452
RDK pontificates and speculates in his idiosyncratic way.
It includes the word 'burocratic' please remember the caveat that it may be a Shakespearean snare for the unwary.
Wait, some breaking news... but it's about the possible demise of the (tabloid) Sun, and if that were to happen the Times & Sunday Times could go as well!?
Also, Alastair Campbell was heard to say the PCC was, is and will be a joke!
What's new?

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To find a for(u)m that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now. (Samuel Beckett)

In yesterday's Times (13/2/2012) RDK did chess a service in pointing out "access to a complete archive of all Boris Spassky's (75 years old on 30/1/2012) games, many with notes, can be reached via The Times chess twitter feed (@times_chess)."

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To find a for(u)m that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now. (Samuel Beckett)

Chessbase article on the Candidates' tournament and potential fixture pile-ups:

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=7917

He could have done an even better service pointing out that the http://www.chessgames.com provides access to a very good archive of all major chess players, including Boris Spassky http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=21136 (without the need of any middleman or twittbok link)

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I don't want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member.

There's more on this at ChessBase http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=7936

It appears confirmed that Azerbaijan are paying for it, which is why they get to select the wildcard, but holding it in London presumably because Aronian wouldn't play in Baku.

It still leaves open the question as to why FIDE have devolved the organisation of the Candidates Tournament and other future events to the unknown and untested entity of Agon.

I naively thought that it might be something to do with "FIDE to receive 10-12 million Euros for upcoming cycles".

It sounds like they get guaranteed money without the hassle of trying to organise it.

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February 16-17: 2013 BUCA Team Championship
April 20: 2013 British Blitz Championship
July 27-August 10: 100th British Chess Championships

Because they couldn't possibly make a bigger mess of organising such events than FIDE manage by themselves?

A very fair point

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"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)

If you are an international or even a national "sporting" body, you should be cautious about accepting promises from untested third parties. Think cricket and Stanford or even ECF and "chess in schools". Kirsan has a fifteen year track record of undelivered promises and has purported to have sold chess to commercial operators almost as often as the Brooklyn bridge.

I doubt AGON have promised 10 million Euro, rather they have promised to try and raise 10 million for FIDE to spend on events. The money for the London candidates is said to come from Baku rather than Agon.

Reaction from Steve Giddins:

http://stevegiddinschessblog.wordpress. ... jackanory/

and from Silvio Danailov:

http://www.chessdom.com/silvio-danailov ... ment-2012/

“Are you sitting comfortably, children? Then I’ll begin…”

Surely this was "Listen with Mother", not Jackanory?

Danailov talks about a "singed agreement", presumably from close contact with the fires of Hell.

I have to say I share their scepticism...

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Kevin J Thurlow

"One of the nicest people in English chess." - S Giddins 2011
"Not a gracious gentleman" - D Howes 2011

I also share Giddins' and Danailov's scepticism.
However, I am sure Danailov's annoyance is more to do with his man, Topalov, now probably missing out on a place. The saying "what goes around comes around" springs to mind.
Personally, I find the idea of a national federation 'buying' a candidates slot dubious to say the least. It means players from countries with heavy state involvement (funding) in chess have an inbuilt advantage. As Radjabov is so highly rated nobody seems to be objecting, but if Adams (for example) were rated 5th in the world he would still most likely not get a place.