From BalticBusinessNews : Love and taxes bring Danish grandmaster to Lithuania
Interesting piece of news on Peter Nielsen, the second of Magnus Carlsen.
“Chess, love and taxes – a mixture of such unlikely ingredients has attracted a Danish chess grandmaster to Lithuania”
From Forbes : The Brave New World of Celebrity Sponsorships: What Danica Patrick and Magnus Carlsen Have in Common
YAP on Magnus Carlsen. This time from Forbes! But not your regular news. Its a different perspective on human achievement. (I think it is good for chess that popular media houses are showing some bit of interest in Magnus if not Chess per se. Earlier it was NYTimes reporting on the marketing aspect.
“Probably fewer of us have heard of Magnus Carlsen, the 22-year-old from Norway, currently ranked the #1 chess player in the world. While not yet a household name, he’s a budding celebrity with sponsorships for a Norwegian law firm, an investment bank, and a newspaper. Combined, these sponsorships earn him hundreds of thousands of dollars”
From crestbook.com : Experts on the Candidates Tournament 2013
The Candidates2013 may be over, but it will be remembered for a long time. A very nice and long post bringing together the thoughts of famous Chess personalities like former champions Kasparov & Kosteniuk and other top players.
“I’m also against the World Champion getting so many privileges and simply being able to wait a few years for a challenger to be determined for him. Yes, the World Champion should automatically qualify for the final part of the cycle, but he shouldn’t just calmly wait on his throne for the next challenger.” – Kosteniuk
“Well, first of all, Kramnik will soon be forty, and for modern computer chess that’s almost retirement age.
Levon finished the first half level with Magnus and far ahead of Kramnik, but it seemed as though the second half was played by some other chess player from the ranks of the 2600s. I was rooting for Levon – he was once in my “Spartak” school. I was worried and phoned my friend Genna Sosonko in London: “What’s happened to Levon?” He simply told me that a lot of Armenian journalists and TV personalities had arrived. There was no need for any more explanations.” – Nikitin
“Kramnik grew even further in my eyes. He’s become a monumental figure who’s now a true chess thinker. In my opinion Kramnik is the Rubinstein of the 21st century.
The time control in this tournament became a punishment. When I heard the tournament regulations I immediately realised that the control eliminated four people from the race before it began. It condemned Grischuk, Radjabov, Ivanchuk and Gelfand. And the results showed I was right.” – Tkachiev
“Nevertheless, I’d like to note Svidler’s brilliant preparation – in opening terms he surpassed everyone other than Kramnik, and losing 22 kg of ballast had a great effect on his physical form – it was precisely at the end that Peter looked fresher than the rest.” – Sutovsky
From chess-news.ru : GM Evgeny Tomashevsky Was Awarded the ACP Fair Play Prize
This page is in Russian and you will need to translate this page to English. The gist of it is this nice episode of sportsmanship!
“The game Tomashevsky – Sasikiran was the 3rd round game in the match between Economist-SGSEU (Saratov) and Navigator (Moscow). Up to the end of the game the Indian GM had an extra pawn in the rook endgame, although at that moment White has already set up the position for the draw. After making the move Sasikiran pushed the clock too weakly, so it was still his time running out. Soon he dropped the flag. Tomashevsky however refused getting such a point and offered his opponent a draw.”