Chess tourney in Neenah next weekend
The 42nd Northeastern Open Chess Championship will take place next weekend in Neenah.
The event is set for Saturday and Jan. 21 at Holiday Inn Neenah Riverwalk, 123 E. Wisconsin Ave., Neenah.
The five-round Northeastern is Wisconsin’s largest open tournament; players of all ages and strengths may enter.
For more information, call Mike Selig, 920-739-7550
Full info here.
Bobby Fischer: The greatest chess player of all time?
With Errol Tiwari
Sunday, January 14th 2007
The debate was already raging when I joined the small group downtown, well-wishers of chess who enjoy discussing the literature of the game, and the people who play it. The question was: Who is the greatest chess player of all time?
I could not answer the question then and I cannot do so now. The argument is futile. Some would say Fischer, some would say Kasparov. Before Fischer, the last supermaster was Alekhine. Preceding him, in reverse order, were Capablanca, Lasker and Steintz, all world champions who comprised a magic circle of greatness. Players like Tal and Spassky have touched the perimeters of the circle and even entered it on occasion, but were never card-carrying members. Bobby Fischer is.
There is a mystique about Fischer which continues to fascinate people who are not even remotely connected to chess. No other chess player alive or dead has succeeded in capturing the imagination of people around the world like Fischer did.
He did more to popularise chess than any other player who has ever lived. His tantrums and inexplicable actions were front-page news wherever he went. Bobby Fischer the eccentric, the rebel against authority, the monomaniac, the enfant terrible, the ego-crushing titan of chess whose intransigence approached sublimity, the brilliant, temperamental, self-centred genius from Brooklyn who singlehandedly broke the Soviet hegemony on chess — he was already a legend before he even played for the World Championship.
The full article is here.
School hopes to make all the right moves with chess
By Belia Ortega Sheboygan Press staff
Kids rushed into the first-floor classroom at Sheboygan Christian School, dropped their backpacks on the floor and quickly set up chessboards across the tables in the room.
While considering their next moves, the second- through eighth-grade students spoke to each other as animatedly as if they were playing a video game.
…The students are members of Sheboygan Christian’s chess club that organized in the fall. Principal Corey Navis took an interest in the game after he heard about an initiative by the Wisconsin Scholastic Chess Federation (WSCF) to incorporate chess as part of the curriculum.
“The program is designed for second- and third-grade students. By following the program — even if they abandon chess — those deep problem-solving thinking strategies stay with them for a life time,” Navis said. “They become different types of problem solvers.”
The full article is here.
I agree with the author of the first article that arguing over the “best of all time” is in one sense pointless; we’ll never have these players together under the same conditions, so we’ll never know. Still, like sports fans everywhere, it’s fun to argue. 🙂
For my money, in his prime, Fischer is the best of all time (so far). It’s interesting to note that the Chessmetrics site places Fischer just a wee bit above Kasparov, though I don’t know anything about the methodology there.
If I were God-Emperor of the Universe, I’d decree a double round-robin of the following players, chosen at the peak of their performance: Fischer, Capablanca, Alekhine, Kasparov, Botvinnik, Lasker, and Keres, because I’d want him to have the shot at the title he richly deserved but, I believe, the Soviets screwed him out of. The winner of this tournament would be declared “Best of all time.”
Of course, the whole thing would fall apart before it got started because of Bobby’s demands. 😉
Susan, thank you for mentioning the Northeastern Wisconsin Open. Not only does it draw some of the better players in Wisconsin and neighboring states, but it presents some of the better tournament conditions I’ve encountered – large, spacious playing room, readily accessible TD’s, and rounds that start on time! It’s also about two miles from where I live. 🙂
I’m pretty sure that parts of that Fischer article are recycled from somewhere else, maybe something by Evans or Soltis. It really feels like I’ve read that article before, years ago. Some particular phrases have stayed with me. Anyone else remember?