Mark Taimanov at 85
For someone perhaps best known for spectacular failure – losing 6:0 to Bobby Fischer – Mark Taimanov has had the most successful of lives. A top Soviet grandmaster and a successful concert pianist, he’s now the happy octogenarian father of 6-year-old twins. He talks about his life and contemporary chess.
Birth of a Supernova: Vasiliev reports from Wijk aan Zee
Hikaru Nakamura’s tournament victory was described as “the birth of a supernova” by Yury Vasiliev in two final reports from the Tata Steel 2011 Tournament. The Russian journalist was on the ground in Wijk aan Zee to provide photo reports and comments from players and observers throughout the event.
Vladimir Kramnik on 2010
Evgeny Surov’s interview with Vladimir Kramnik after the recent London Chess Classic provided not only an insight into Kramnik’s thought processes during that event, but also a review of 2010 as a whole and an indication of his hopes for the coming year.
Aronian: I’ve never considered myself a strong blitz player
Maria Fominykh’s final report on the Tal Memorial at ChessPro included interviews with two of the winners, Sergey Karjakin and Levon Aronian. Both players talked about the main event, but also the upcoming blitz.
Kramnik on Nakamura, blitz and Carlsen
Vladimir Kramnik, talking to Maria Fominykh for ChessPro, discussed his “unbelievably complex” game against Hikaru Nakamura, blitz and bullet chess, and once more expressed his opinion on Carlsen’s withdrawal from the Candidates Matches.
Russia beats Russia
The key encounter in round 7 of the Olympiad was between the top two Russian men’s teams, with the “veterans” prevailing thanks, once again, to Sergey Karjakin. Meanwhile, the emotional roller-coaster of Radek Wojtaszek’s win against Hikaru Nakamura was captured in live commentary by Mateusz Bartel, the fifth member of the Polish team.
Russia-USA in the Russian press
Russia’s 3:1 victory over the USA in round 4 saw some of the best Olympiad coverage yet. Bareev’s traditional commentary (read on for what Malakhov could learn from a cleaning lady!) was joined by Karjakin’s overview of the round, two photo reports and live and post-game insight on Kramnik-Nakamura.
Gelfand at Crestbook Part II
The second installment of Boris Gelfand’s answers to the questions of Crestbook readers kept up the incredible length and quality of the first. A general title might be, “Everything you ever wanted to know about GM chess but never dared to ask”. He patiently answers questions ranging from “e4 or d4” to “what’s the meaning of life”!
Karjakin on Nakamura (Crestbook interview)
Karjakin’s Q&A session at Crestbook was fairly unremarkable apart from his outspoken description of Nakamura’s behaviour at the ICC.
