12 May 2010

Sour Grapes

A group of chess fans from Bulgaria took issue with ChessBase's one-sided coverage of the World Championship in which Viswanathan Anand dispatched challenger Veselin Topalov. It was a great match; both players can be proud of their performance and the quality of games. Of course, errors were made, and Topalov's final error was fatal.

It does seem that the world was rooting for Anand. This impression does not stem solely from the coverage by ChessBase, but from a potpourri of websites and chess discussion forums. Even so, Topalov has his admirers, including many in his own country. It's too bad that some of them are so partisan that they offer this nonsense:
Kramnik has not played even one nice game in his whole life and does not deserve anything except to be pitied.
Chess Fans from Bulgaria, Darmstadt, Germany
Kramnik has played many fine games.

4 comments:

  1. I hope Topalov could coup with the defeat... ;(

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  2. Topalov conducted himself as a gentlemen in victory and defeat during the match.

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  3. I enjoyed following the match on ICC. I agree that Anand seemed to be most peoples favorite, I think it has some to do with his troubles with Kramnik. Although Topalov's behavior was correct in this match, personality wise, he's not as personable, and more serious.

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  4. Seems we always have to manufacture 'whipping boys' eg Michael Schumacher , Mike Tyson, Tiger Woods etc . My fave 'whipping boy' is the snooker player, Alex Higgins ( http://www.talksnooker.co.uk/guides/snooker_legends_alex_higgins.html) - they don't make 'em like that any more!

    "As angry as John McEnroe but more physically threatening, Higgins head-butted a tournament director in 1986; once promised to have a fellow player shot, even though they were playing on the same side in a team event; and, as late as 2007, punched a referee during a charity match". " (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/sports/01higgins.html)

    ... punched a referee during a charity match - you can't really get better than that, can you? :)

    I'm not as 'quirky' as that, but I do run a quirky chess blog if you're interested:
    http://www.celebratechess.blogspot.com/

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