Legend remembersBy ANDY SOLTISLast Updated: 1:08 AM, February 27, 2011Posted: 12:59 AM, February 27, 2011 Mark Taimanov, who turned 85 this month, talked of his twin careers as a world-class grandmaster and pianist in recent interviews with Russian media. He recalled playing chess with Fidel Castro in Cuba and analyzing positions with Che Guevara. Che […]
Magnus’ blunder by GM Soltis
Magnus’ blunderBy Grandmaster ANDY SOLTISLast Updated: 7:50 AM, November 28, 2010Posted: 10:20 PM, November 27, 2010 Three years ago, the Russian magazine 64 asked former world champions how world champions should be chosen. Vasily Smyslov, who won the title in a match, said the ideal format was a match. Veselin Topalov, who won it in […]
“The next Bobby Fischer”
The comeback kidBy ANDY SOLTISLast Updated: 1:02 AM, November 7, 2010Posted: 9:28 PM, November 6, 2010 Every year, some talented youngster is called a “prodigy” — or worse, “the next Bobby Fischer” — because of his spectacular results in junior events. But we’re still waiting for the next Fischer, and the prodigies of yesteryear typically […]
Untimely Larsen
Untimely LarsenBy ANDY SOLTISLast Updated: 9:02 AM, September 26, 2010Posted: 12:43 AM, September 26, 2010 Bent Larsen lived in the wrong time. Had he been born in 1925, rather than 1935, he would have been the best non-Soviet player after World War II and dominated Western chess for decades. Or had Larsen been born 20 […]
Iceland: The NY Post got it wrong
There was no drilling into Bobby Fischer’s bodyPosted on 08 July 2010 American newspaper The New York Post reported yesterday that Icelandic authorities had drilled through Bobby Fischer’s coffin and into his body in order to take a DNA sample from the exhumed chess grand master’s corpse. But the Selfoss district commissioner says the NYP […]
When Fritz flops
When Fritz flopsBy ANTHONY SOLTISLast Updated: 8:29 AM, May 23, 2010Posted: 1:15 AM, May 23, 2010 The reputation of chess computers rose — and fell — repeatedly during Vishy Anand’s successful defense of his world championship title this month. Chess-playing programs, like the popular Fritz, proved invaluable in calculating variations, such as the winning Anand […]
Rarely told Smyslov’s tragedy
Champ’s tragedyBy ANDY SOLTISLast Updated: 8:35 AM, April 4, 2010Posted: 11:48 PM, April 3, 2010 Vasily Smyslov, who died last week at 89, never talked about the life-wrenching tragedy that came at the time of his greatest triumph. Smyslov was 27 when he married his wife, Nadezhda, and adopted her son, Vladimir Selimanov, whose father […]
Too smart for one’s own good
Avert brain drainBy ANDY SOLTISLast Updated: 7:38 AM, March 21, 2010Posted: 1:12 AM, March 21, 2010 The world’s top-rated player says you can be too smart to play chess. “Being too intelligent” can “get in your way,” Magnus Carlsen, the 19-year-old Norwegian super-GM, told the magazine Der Spiegel. He cited the case of Britain’s John […]
It doesn’t compute
Doesn’t computeBy ANDY SOLTISLast Updated: 8:26 AM, January 31, 2010Posted: 12:51 AM, January 31, 2010 It’s been four years since a top grandmaster dared cross pawns with a strong computer — and it’s not likely to happen again. Garry Kasparov, who should know, declared the era of Man vs. Machine matches “a thing of the […]
Title of world champion doesn’t have the significance it used to
Kings don’t ruleBy ANDY SOLTISLast Updated: 4:28 AM, January 10, 2010Posted: 11:55 PM, January 9, 2010 There are no kings of the chess world anymore, lamented Boris Spassky, “only prime ministers and presidents. “Everything is decided by ratings, and the title of world champion doesn’t have the significance it used to,” said Spassky, the 10th […]