Professor Kamsky showed Anand how to play Rook and Pawn endgame. This is vintage Kamsky! No matter what happens the rest of the way, I am very proud to see Gata showing his old flashes.
Ponomariov – Topalov 1/2
Bacrot – Svidler 1/2
Anand – Kamsky 0-1
After 3 rounds, the standings are:
1 2.5 GM Kamsky (USA 2671)
2-3 2.0 GM Anand (India 2803), GM Svidler (Russia 2743)
4-5 1.0 GM Ponomariov (Ukraine 2738), GM Topalov (Bulgaria 2804)
6 0.5 GM Bacrot (France 2708)
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Awesome precision from Kamsky! Well played!
Susan,
Do you think Kamsky’s excellent performance will spark interest in chess for Americans? If not, how far do you think he will have to go (world championship match?) to do this.
Kamsky has already gone to a “world championship” match (1996 FIDE vs Karpov), and it didn’t spark any American interest in chess. Granted Kamsky’s more outgoing now, and the specter of his father seems no longer present, but I don’t expect any “spark” from his comeback. [Disclaimer: I hope Kamsky does great and am a big fan, I’m just skeptical re. public interest.]
Did the American media cover it at all?
Yes, quite brilliant indeed. Infact, Anand has something of a bad time against Kamsky, as the American also beat him at Wijk aan Zee this year. Someone on the playchess server said yesterday that Anand had a psychological problem with Kamsky and it met with some doubt…I wonder if it still does now 🙂 Maybe Susan can shed some light on it?
haha, some high rated players are getting their rating points swiped from them by the lowest rated player!
I think the same type of thing happened in the US championship!
Hubba Hubba! I am so happy Gata is doing well and beat Anand again especially after last rounds thrashing of Topalov Anand administered. No one expected Gata to be First Place after 3 rounds against this group, but it seems he is well on his way to recovering his World Class Top Five form again. I know it is still a long shot, but I hope Kamsky wins this tournament, next few rounds will tell.
Why are almost all the participant s playing the same opening – Spanish with d3 and h3, and a3, with black also playing the same thing?
Kamsky is playing good, yeah, go get’em!
Is it true that in Russia the “Queen” is a male??
The only one who can spark interest in chess in our country is our blog host.
this is the most excited I have been in years. this is better than the super bowl. Oh god. I dont know if I can relax.
come on gata crush topalov on sunday. You can do it.
This is like a bad dream turning into an incredible wonderful reality.
Kamsky is alread spinning interest in me playing chess.
I am too excited I can not think about him winning the entire tournament yet.
Susan how do you handle this excitement. I am too exciteable. I love being excited like this. this is fun fun fun.
GO GATA GO.
“Did the American media cover it [Karpov-Kamsky 1996] at all?”
Robert Byrne covered it in his New York Times column, and annotated some games. I think (but am not sure) that Robert Huntington reported on the event for the Associated Press, but don’t know whether he traveled to Kalmykia (the match was held in Elista, after Iljumzhinov’s lobbying for a Baghdad match failed).
Answer to the question about the Queen gender in Russian
In Russian there are two words for the Queen – one is the Russian word for ‘queen’ and it is female; the other, more often used word is ‘ferz’, which is derived from the Persian vizier, and it is male. Marilyn Yalom wrote a book “Birth of the Chess Queen : A History” which traces the transformation of the vizier into queen in the West.
My grandmother could win the FIDE world championship, and the American media would barely notice. So there won’t be any serious press coverage if Kamsky should happen to win it. That’s too bad, but it tells you where chess coverage has gone since Fischer beat Spassky in 1972.
classplayer, it has nothing to do with Kamsky’s performance, it has to do with who is promoting Gata. He needs a serious business manager who understands marketing and PR.
John Lee Shaw, this psychological thing exists in every sport including chess. Anand’s style clearly does not bother Gata.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
http://www.SusanPolgar.com
Susan, have you ever played chess with Gata?
“Anand had a psychological problem with Kamsky”.
Kamsky fled from chess a long time ago, so Anand couldn’t prepare for him very well. Another reason may be that Kamsky is a better player than Anand.
The hallmark of greats is consistency and not occasional sparks. Agreed that Anand lost to Gata, but it was more psychological. Gata won in mind not on board. At the end, I am sure Gata will find it difficult to sustain this surprise run.
Where was the photo taken, at the tournament? Susan was there? Wow!
Photo was taken at Polgar Chess Center (also see photo name)
Yay! It looks like Kamsky is back and with a hunger in his eye! Excited to see his performance at the Olympiad which is now underway. I’m sure he will catch up to Topalov soon enough. Watch out, Topa!