Splitting hairs
By ANDY SOLTIS
Posted: 9:50 PM, June 16, 2012
When baseball has its All-Star Game each July, it’s accompanied by side events, like the Home Run Derby.
But why did chess end up with “Blondes vs. Brunettes”?
That was one of the exhibitions staged in Moscow during the recent world championship match.
On a Saturday last month, when champion Vishy Anand and challenger Boris Gelfand were not scheduled to play, 16 of Russia’s best women players gathered at Central Chess Club for a team match.
The teams were determined by hair color. The blondes, who had to wear light-colored clothing, had more fun and crushed the dark-clad brunettes.
Also during the championship. world-class GM Alexander Grischuk played a series of five-minute games with two champion robots. That is, he faced computers who moved their pieces with huge metallic arms. Grischuk had to duck after each robot move, and he lost 4 1/2-1 1/2.
One of the most impressive chess sideshows occurred during the 1996 Olympiad team tournament in Havana. On Jose Capablanca’s birthday, 380 Cuban masters gave a spectacular simultaneous exhibition on 6,840 boards. Among the chess-mad amateurs who took part were Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.
Source: http://www.nypost.com
1996?
Maybe Che Guevara’s ghost played in 1996.
What? Che Guerava is still alive in 1996?
Che died in 1967.
And the other guy in the picture looks very much like young (not 1996) Fisher.
Did I miss something? (The point perhaps?)
1966, I assume.