Bobby Fischer Dead

Bobby Fischer died in Reykjavik Iceland on Jan 17, 2008. He died at the age of 64 from kidney Failure.How do you think this will affect the chess world? Should we honer the great gamer, the king of chess, or judge his faults? Will the world ever be so moved by the game of chess ever again as this man moved the world? Please tell me what you think using the comment box.

I say we honer his passing, respect his intellect and learn from what he has left us with.

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Rybka $100,000 challenge to FIDE

Have any of you seen this letter? It looks like something could really start here! And that is a lot of money involved, I don't really see how a petition offered in that manner can just be overlooked coupled with the prize I think that it's pretty irresistible.

Rybka $100,000 challenge to FIDE
(Open letter)

Dear Mr. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov & members of FIDE,
first, let me start by commending you for your entry into computer chess with the organization of the ‘Ultimate Computer Chess Challenge 2007'. Computer chess has seen dramatic improvements in the past few years. Some chess engines have progressed dramatically from the primitive beancounters of yesterday and I believe that our games too now qualify as art. Chess at this level inevitably attracts the attention of chess players all over the world.

Unfortunately, the lack of an open, formal qualification procedure for your event was disappointing, and your choice of the two opponents was downright bizarre. You have snubbed my program, Rybka, which leads every single computer chess rating list by a considerable margin at all time controls from blitz games to long tournament games. In many cases the gap between Rybka and her nearest competitor is well over 100 Elo . None of this is anything particularly new - Rybka was released on December 4, 2005, and since then her smallest lead ever in any major rating list at any time control and on any hardware was 60 Elo .. In addition to this, she has competed in all eight major international tournaments held since her first release and taken clear (unshared) first in seven of them. Rybka has also displayed her superiority in competitions against human players. It's no wonder that Rybka is ly considered &
Some of the other aspects of the match also raise questions. Chessbase exclusively markets three of the world's top ten engines, so it's a curious coincidence that two of them will participate. Also curious is the involvement of the ICGA - after all, their own self-titled “World Computer Chess Championship” is being held on overlapping dates. This type of apparent division between insiders and outsiders runs counter to all principles of sport and fairness, and I call on you to uphold democratic FIDE norms in the organization of such events.

In the spirit of open competition, I am formally offering a $100,000 computer chess challenge from Rybka to FIDE, who will be represented by the winner of the Ultimate Computer Chess Challenge 2007. My challenge consists of a 24 game match, at classical time controls, on unlimited hardware and with unlimited opening books, held at 2 games per day over twelve days, with Rybka giving a handicap of one point plus draw odds and thus requiring a score of 13/24 or better to win the match. The prize fund of $100,000 should be a winner-takes-all, loser-pays-all proposition. The remaining details can be worked out in private.

As the Ultimate Computer Chess Challenge 2007 takes place during the Candidates Matches in Elista, it is appropriate that the winner's match vs Rybka be played in Mexico between September 12 and October 1, 2007, during the FIDE World Chess Championship

.

Gens una Sumus,

Vasik Rajlich

author of Rybka

FIDE International Master

Nigel Short On Chess Titles

MUMBAI, NOV 18: Former world no two Nigel Short today called for the abolition of the titles in chess like Grand Masters and International Masters which he said served no purpose except leading to corrupt practices by several players who were not averse to buying these titles.
“My personal opinion is to do away with these titles in chess. I know several instances of tournaments being fixed in order to help players attain the required norms and then get the GM titles. There have been instances of players throwing away matches for money to enable their opponents get these titles,” GM Short said.

Short, who is here to play in the November 20-29 Commonwealth Chess Championship as well as in his capacity as the president of the Commonwealth Chess Association, minced no words in saying the world body FIDE did little to stamp out these malpractices and, on the contrary, even encouraging them.

“To me rankings are sufficient to guage a player's worth. There are over 1000 players -- both past and present -- who are holding GM titles. The titles are not the same as they were twenty years ago,” said Short who explained how the lowering of the qualifing standards deliberately by FIDE has devalued the titles.

“In olden days if a person had to get a norm after a 13-round tournament, he or she had to play extremely well throughout, but currently they can play well for nine rounds and play like fools in the last four but still get the norms,” Short elaborated.

Short, however, said that despite these corrupt practices that have lowered the game's image, the standards have remained high thanks to the advent of laptop computers.

“The standards have remained high due to the ubiquitous laptops which help the players maintain their high levels,” said Short who is to travel to Doha for the December 1-15 Asian Games as the coach of the Iranian team.

Short, has been coaching Indian prodigy Parimarjan Negi, predicted a bright future for the 13-year-old, but said he had a long way to go and cannot be compared to Viswanathan Anand.
“Negi is a very diligent and hard-working player. He's very talented, but still has a long way to go. He cannot be compared to Vishy Anand. The very fact that he's in the top 300 players in the world at 13 years of age show how good he is,” the British GM said.

—PTI

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