THE WORLD VS. GM NATALIA POGONINA
FREE FOR ALL TO PARTICIPATE – SIGN-UP NOW
The Chessgames Challenge pits grandmasters against the world. The latest GM to agree to take the Challenge is both strong and charming: female Russian chess superstar Natalia Pogonina. GM Pogonina’s previous successes in this format, combined with her captivating conversational and analysis skills, make Natalia an ideal opponent.
The conditions for the game have been agreed upon:
– The rate of play is one day per half-move (this will make the game a very fast-paced game compared to previous challenges.)
– The World (that’s you) will have the white pieces.
– The World can vote on which move they think is best, democratically: one member, one vote.
– Natalia will have 5 extensions (see official rules for info).
– Computer analysis is allowed for both sides.
– The clock will start ticking on 2:00pm (USA/Eastern) August 31st, 2010. 24 hours later, on September 1st, the first move will be posted to the board. Each move to be posted at the same time, 2:00pm USA/Eastern.
Members of the World Team can sign-up at any time, even after the game has begun. Membership on the world team is available to everybody, absolutely free. Here are some important links for this historic event:
The World vs. Pogonina: Main page and registration
Pogonina.com: Natalia’s Homepage
Natalia Pogonina’s page at Chessgames
The Chessgames Challenge Help Page
Previous Chessgames Challenges
She’s the most beautiful Russian female player. Kosteniuk looks like a joke compare to Pogonina.
It doesn’t look like this game wil go past move 2! After Natalia’s manager and Natalia herself insulted the World Team, this game is in crisis!
Peter Zhdanov, Natalia’s husband/manager, enlisted as a member of the world team. He was asked to leave by chessgames.com, and did, but soon returned, leaving caustic, abusive posts on the team’s discussion forum – which he of course reads. Neither Mr Zhdanov nor Natalia see any conflict of interest here. They each accused members of the World team – a majority of whose regular players object strongly to the situation, and have either left in protest, or have voted to resign – of paranoia and stupidity. A disgusting farce. Mr Zhdanov refuses to leave, saying he has done nothing wrong, while hurling invective at his “team-mates”! A sorry mess, sad to say.