English Chess Forum

>This will really spice things up

I don't reckon; on the contrary I think this is over. Anand needed to take the lead to draw Carlsen out. As things stand Carlsen's much the stronger player and has the lead; unless Anand can catch him in the opening with White I can't see a way back for him.

Matt Mackenzie wrote:Do you really need a "coach" to stop making basic elementary blunders, though?

Yes, you do. The chance of making a “basic elementary blunder” is considerably increased when you are under pressure from the opening and fall into time trouble as Dagne did.

Golly. The game NN-Lyell from the last ladies' match deserves wider publicity. In fact I would say it was truly a contest for the ages. I don't think I've ever seen five minor pieces blundered during the course of a single game before, although obviously if I did see it then almost certainly the occ...

Surely Morphy and the Count? I can't think of a serious competitor. I've never seen the OP's combination either.

Exactly. The fact is that far too many arbiters in general, and FIDE in particular, hate chess players and perceive that any opportunity to punish them must be seized. It beggars belief not to have an option available to substitute for a player who is admitted to hospital at a late stage, but as we ...

Top English team! Wtf is Rogers gloating??

Oh, I know you've SAID that, Jonathan. But then AP has SAID he doesn't support Kirsan. Your theory is that that was all a plot to lull us into thinking that he doesn't support Kirsan, when really he does. If that isn't a c t, I don't know what is.

And plenty of people go to play weekly bridge - paying a fee every single time they play. They do get really quite nice venues etc out of this. The main reason for that, IMHO, is that online bridge is crap and always will be, for two reasons; first, it's a partnership game and, second, because tabl...

That's Matt's point. If we accept that nothing we do and perhaps nothing anyone does is going to unseat KI, then questions about whether or not one supports him rather fade away, don’t they? In any event, AP as President presumably doesn’t dispose of the ECF’s vote. If Jonathan’s best conspi...

David Robertson wrote: It isn't about conspiracies either (pace John Cox).

I never said it *was* about conspiracies. It's just that some of the more bonkers posters (and Nigel, indeed) seem to harbour conspiracy theories. I always enjoy trying to elucidate what exactly those theories are.

95% of the chess playing world, I said, so I exclude delegates from countries where there are only about six players. Ok, Spraggett is in the chess playing world, but i feel sure that he speaks for a very select bunch of people. Any other GM think that FIDE is better off with Kirsan than Kasparov? ...

Why does Russia prefer Kirsan to Karpov, then? Indeed, did Russia really vote for Kirsan ahead of Karpov?

Incidentally, when did Nigel start putting on that absurd affected voice? He spoke perfectly normally when I knew him in the early eighties. Then I go away for 20 years, and when I come back he sounds like an American trrying to impersonate someone out of Downton Abbey. When did that happen?

>just Yorkshire chess would do for me.

Ah. That accounts for a lot.

Excellent. Now this is more like it. A proper, full-fledged conspiracy theory. So, if I follow Nigel's theory correctly, AP has gifted or sold part of Agon to Kirsan, and Kirsan in return has agreed to give Agon all the rights to run the world championship for ten years. And presumably Agon will the...