The best against the rest

Monday, 24 August, 2009
Chess is moving with the times
— Vincent Landon, World Radio Switzerland

The greatest chess players of the last 50 years have spent the weekend in Zurich, playing matches against members of the public and each other in the main hall of Zurich train station.

The tournaments mark the 200th anniversary of the Zurich Chess Club—the oldest chess club in the world. Our Zurich correspondent Vincent Landon has more:

A fanfare fit for kings, queens, bishops and pawns as the chess champions of the past 50 years took on 25 challengers each in the cavernous concourse of Zurich train station.

What a roll-call it was: reigning world champion Vishi Anand, joined by his predecessors, including Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik and Boris Spassky. Anand says chess is moving with the times:

ANAND: “I would say it is younger and faster. Obviously the average age of the top players is going down. I mean we always had prodigies in chess but they tend to peak much faster as well. And here I think we can see the role of computers. We can also see the role of computers in the other thing where chess seems to go faster. There are more tournaments played and if you have an idea, you can use it once maybe but in a week everybody has already worked it out whereas that ability to handle information was much slower before.”

On Saturday it was enthusiasts pitting their wits against the top players in the game—the best against the rest. But the best clashed head to head on Sunday in a rapid tournament.

Here is the full article.