Tiebreak Chess Game 2 Anand-Gelfand played Kasparov Style

Efim Geller - Chess before
computer prep!

Legendary World Chess Champion Gary Kasparov has been following chess keenly even after his retirement from the sport. In an interesting comment on the recently-concluded Anand-Gelfand World Chess Championship 2012, Kasparov referred to his own game played in 1979 against Efim Geller in the Russian National Chess Championship. You can read about Gary Kasparov's comments on the recently-concluded World Chess Match at Crestbook. But, before you surf away, here are both the games: the second Anand-Gelfand tiebreak and the Geller-Kasparov chess game from 1979. You can replay the games in our flash chess game player. (Note by blog admin: Post-mortem of chess games played is a done thing in the chess world and not a criticism of the players themselves.)


Efim Geller-Gary Kasparov, 1979, 1/2-1/2

Viswanathan Anand-Boris Gelfand, 
World Chess Match Tiebreak Game 2, 1-0


Isn't chess amazing... like bridging time and universes, like navigating through dimensions... and returning to oneself over and over again, to the same moments mirroring back to us, on the chess board and in life? 

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On Chess: High Standards Credited to Fischer

An interesting chess column in The Columbus Dispatch by Shelby Lyman. Read on:

Before the rise of Bobby Fischer, international chess — even among the vaunted Soviets — was sometimes a quasi-amateur affair. Several of the top Soviet grandmasters depended on inspiration rather than diligence and preparation. In a category of his own was the young Mikhail Tal, whose creative flair at the board astonished and terrified foes. Often, he seemed to make up his game as he went along. His moves weren’t always correct, but, in the hurly-burly of struggle, they were effective. He became world champion at 24.

At the other extreme were players such as Fischer, Efim Geller and Viktor Korchnoi: harbingers of a more radical work ethic to come, laboring with little respite at the chess grindstone. Mikhail Botvinnik set a new standard for preparation and performance.

But it was the young American, Fischer, who raised the professional banner and chess work ethic to its highest level. As he explained to fellow grandmaster Larry Evans, Fischer focused on the game, consciously or unconsciously, 24 hours a day.

The previous bohemian approach to chess is no longer workable. This is, as some older grandmasters wistfully and woefully explain, largely both the contribution and the curse of Robert James Fischer. (Shelby Lyman is a Basic Chess Features columnist.)

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