Anand Wins World Chess Championship 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx5D1_Vd4sM
India can boast of three world champions in the last 10 days - cricket in the 20-20 World Cup, Pankaj Advani for billiards and now Viswanathan Anand in chess. The Indian won the world chess title in Mexico after a draw in the final round gave him a total of 9 points out of a possible of 14.
Land Marks of Anand:
Viswanathan Anand, India's greatest chess player ever and one of the all-time greats of the game, has numerous landmarks in his career dating back to 1983, when he first cam on to the scene by winning the National sub-junior title.
Over the years, the awards, accolades and landmarks have piled on his career.
The important and most significant landmarks are (year-wise):
2007: First Indian and Asian to become undisputed World Chess Champion
2007: First Indian and Asian to attain World No. 1 rating
2006: First Asian and only fourth player in the world to cross 2800 elo rating
2000: First Indian and Asian to win FIDE World title in New Delhi and Teheran
1999: First Indian and Asian to win Chess Oscar for second year running
1998: First Indian and Asian to win Chess Oscar (for 1997)
1995: First Asian to qualify for World Championships title match; lost to Kasparov in New York
1992: Won the strongest ever tournament till then in Category 18 in Reggio Emilia ahead of Kasparov and Karpov
1992: Became only the eighth player in the world to attain a rating of over 2700.
1991: First Asian to qualify for quarter-finals of World Championships
1990: First Indian to come through qualifiers for Candidates Matches for World Championships
1987: First Indian to touch 2500 elo rating
1987: First Indian and Asian to win World Junior title
1987: First Indian to become Grandmaster - all three GM norms in the same year
1986: Youngest National champion in Indian chess at 16
1984: Youngest Asian to become international master (IM) at age of 14
1983: First National sub-junior title
Anand in Numbers
10: The number of times Anand has won the title in Chess Classic at Mainz
7: The record number of times Anand has won the title at Ciudad de León Chess.
6: The number of computers that competed against Anand in 1997, when he won the exhibition match against the machine by a 4-2 margin
5: The number of times Anand has won the Corus Grandmasters tournament
4: The number of Oscars won by Anand (1997, 1998, 2003, 2004) and he is leading the nominations for 2006 also)
3: The number of National A chess titles Anand won in a row from 1986-1988 before he stopped taking part
2: The number of World Championship (classical) final matches Anand played and lost before winning the world title - Anand lost to Kasparov (New York, 1995) and Karpov (1998)
1: The current position of Anand in World chess ratings
http://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/?p=87
http://partidas.chessmexico.com/archive/archive.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viswanathan_Anand
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Boby fischer is No more
The reclusive chess genius who became a Cold War hero by dethroning the Soviet world champion in 1972 and later renounced his American citizenship, has died. He was 64.
Modern chess is an incomplete story without the Bobby Fischer chapter His years were exactly the same number of 64 sqaures.My salute and gratitude to this great legend who contrubuted and made a concrete base for Modern chess theory .
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120096385865905161.html
His Contributions to chess
Chess theory
Fischer was renowned for his opening preparation, and made numerous contributions to chess opening theory. He was considered the greatest practitioner of the White side of the Ruy Lopez; a line of the Exchange Variation (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.0-0) is sometimes called the "Fischer variation" after he successfully resurrected it at the 1966 Havana Olympiad.
He was also a recognized expert in the Black side of the Najdorf Sicilian, as well as being one of the greatest theoreticians of the King's Indian Defense. He also demonstrated several important improvements in the Grünfeld Defence. In the Nimzo-Indian Defence, the line beginning with 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 b6 5.Ne2 Ba6 is named for him.
Fischer established the viability of the so-called "Poisoned Pawn" variation of the Najdorf Sicilian (1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4 Qb6). Although this bold queen sortie, snatching a pawn at the expense of development, had been considered dubious, Fischer succeeded in proving its soundness, a claim supported by contemporary theory. Fischer won many games with this line; his only loss was in the 11th game of his 1972 match with Spassky.
On the White side of the Sicilian, Fischer made advances to the theory of the line beginning 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 (or e6) 6. Bc4, which is now called the Fischer-Sozin Attack. In 1960, prompted by a loss to Spassky,[120] Fischer wrote an article entitled "A Bust to the King's Gambit" for the first issue of Larry Evans' American Chess Quarterly, in which he recommended 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 d6. This variation has since become known as the Fischer Defense to the King's Gambit. After Fischer's article was published, the King's Gambit was seen even less frequently in master-level games, although Fischer took up the White side of it in three games (preferring 3.Bc4 to 3.Nf3), winning them all.[121]
Endgame
International Master Jeremy Silman listed Fischer as one of the five best endgame players. The others he listed were Emanuel Lasker, Akiba Rubinstein, José Capablanca, and Vasily Smyslov. Silman called him a "master of bishop endings"[122].
The endgame of a rook and bishop versus a rook and knight (both sides with pawns) has sometimes been called the "Fischer Endgame" because of three instructive wins by Fischer in 1970 and 1971.[123] In all three of the games Fischer had the bishop and Mark Taimanov had the knight. One of the games was in the 1970 Interzonal and the other two were in their 1971 quarter-final candidates match in the World Championship process. Steve Mayer calls this ending the Grindable Ending, but notes that it has sometimes been called the "Fischer Ending"[124].
Fischer clock
In 1988, Fischer filed for U.S. Patent 4,884,255 for a new type of digital chess clock. Fischer's clock gave each player a fixed period of time at the start of the game and then added a small increment after each completed move. The Fischer clock soon became standard in most major chess tournaments. The patent expired in November 2001 because of overdue maintenance fees. See also the Fischer delay game clock.
Fischer Random Chess
On June 19, 1996, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Fischer announced and advocated a variant of chess called Fischer Random Chess, also known as Chess960, that is intended to allow players to contest games based on their understanding of chess rather than their ability to memorize opening variations.
Fischer Random was designed to remove the importance of opening book memorization. Fischer complained in a 2006 phoned-in call with a television interviewer that talented celebrity players from long ago, if brought back from the dead to play today, would no longer be competitive, because of the progress in memorization of opening books. "Some kid of fourteen today, or even younger, could get an opening advantage against Capablanca," he said, merely because of opening-book memorization, which Fischer disdained. "Now chess is completely dead. It is all just memorisation and prearrangement. It’s a terrible game now. Very uncreative."[125]
• Audio clip of Bobby Fischer describing the unsavory side of chess in its current form at the highest levels.
Legacy
Fischer was a charter inductee into the United States Chess Hall of Fame in Washington, D.C. in 1985. He was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in Miami in 2001.[126]
Other talents
Fischer was an expert at solving the fifteen puzzle, which he completed in under 25 seconds multiple times. Fischer demonstrated this on November 8, 1972 on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
In popular culture
• The film Searching for Bobby Fischer uses his name in the title despite the fact that it is about the life of Joshua Waitzkin (it was named Innocent Moves instead in Great Britain). The title refers to the search for Fischer's successor after his disappearance from competitive chess. In the book on which the film is based, the narrator/author actually looks for Fischer for a brief period and imagines what he would say to him if found.
• In the animated Nickelodeon series Hey Arnold, there is a Chinese Checkers champion named Robby Fischer.
• The musical Chess, with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, tells the story of two chess champions. Although they are known in the musical only as "The American" and "The Russian", their personalities are loosely based on Bobby Fischer and the Soviet (and later Swiss) grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi. (In later versions of the show, "The American" is named "Freddy Trumper".)
• The British band iLiKETRAiNS wrote the song "A Rook House For Bobby" about Fischer. It appeared on their debut EP Progress Reform.
• During the 1972 Spassky-Fischer matches, the Soviet bard Vladimir Vysotsky wrote an ironic two-song cycle "Honor of the Chess Crown". The first one is about preparation to the match with Fischer of a rank-and-file Soviet worker, the second one is about the game. Many expressions from the songs have become catch phrases in Russian culture.[127]
• The Australian band Lazy Susan wrote the song called "Bobby Fischer". It appeared on their album "Long Lost", in 2001.
Writings
• Bobby Fischer's Games of Chess (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1959). An early collection of 34 lightly-annotated games including the famous "Game of the Century" vs. Donald Byrne.
• A Bust to the King's Gambit (text) (American Chess Quarterly, 1961)
• The Russians Have Fixed World Chess (Sports Illustrated magazine, August 1962). This is the controversial and influential article, detailing Fischer's assertions of Soviet collusion in the 1962 Curacao Candidates' tournament.
• Checkmate from 1966 to 1969 in Boys' Life.
• My 60 Memorable Games (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1969, and Faber and Faber, London, 1969). Considered a classic text by most chess masters.
• Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess with Donn Mosenfelder and Stuart Margulies (Bantam Books, May 1972, ISBN 0-553-26315-3). Uses programmed learning (aka programmed instruction) to help beginners learn how to see very simple chess combinations. This book is widely used by chess instructors, and is one of the highest-selling chess books of all time. (Bobby had nothing to do with this book thus it shouldn't be here, someone used him name to make a buck).
• I Was Tortured in the Pasadena Jailhouse! (1982)
Notable games
• "The Game of the Century" - an external link: Donald Byrne-Fischer, New York 1956, Grünfeld, 5.Bf4 (D92), 0-1 Just 13 years old, Bobby played in a bold combinational style.
• Robert Byrne-Fischer, 1963-64 US Championship, Neo-Grünfeld 0-1 From an almost symmetrical position, Fischer as Black beats a grandmaster in just 21 moves.
• Fischer-Tigran Petrosian, Buenos Aires Candidates Final 1971, 7th match game, Sicilian Defense: Kan. Modern Variation (B42), 1-0 Even Petrosian, the master of defense, was not able to bear the pressure of Fischer's rooks.
• Fischer-Boris Spassky, World Championship 1972, 6th match game, Queen's Gambit Declined, Tartakower (D59), 1-0 One of the most beautiful and most important games of the match.
