Web Watch

1 July 2003

There is so much chess information on the Web that sometimes I feel that I could write this column every day! Anyway, I would like share with you my most recent findings.

In this column I already praised Chess Base website several times and it continues to entertain its visitors. Most recent postings include a story on the World Junior Ch in Azerbaijan, lots of photos of chess players from the European Championships in Turkey (girls seem to dominate the selection!), article on Fritz and, most interestingly, interview with Ruslan Ponomariov, called "I can beat Kasparov", conducted by Yuri Vasiliev for Russian newspaper Sport-Express. While the English version is only the interview itself, the Russian version contains comments of Yuri Vasiliev. I don't see why he is being so sarcastic about the very reasonable answers, which he got from Ponomariov... It is only normal that the FIDE Champion (or any player!) would want FIDE to honour its obligations and contracts. Well, I remember that my only brief moment of fame come when Yuri Vasiliev wrote in Chess-Express about the first round sensation at the Yerevan-1996 Chess Olympiad, when GM Ivanchuk (then No. 3 in the world) only drew with some patzer from Ireland... J Obviously, for Mr Vasiliev an IM with the rating of 2570 was a pushover!

It would be silly to promote other sites and not to mention Grandmaster Square and Chess Today. While unfortunately I don't have time to do major work on them, some new material continues to appear on both. At the GM Square you can take part in the poll on whether draw offers should be banned in chess (see which opinion is prevailing!), read excerpt from the Leko book (in PDF) and the latest book review by Sam Collins (first appeared in CT-963). On the CT site people can find another issue (CT-963) added to the samples page - please forward this link to your friends. Remember, 1000 referrals will get you a week at the CT yacht in Bahamas! J And if you are seasick or more down-to-earth, keep in mind that each referral adds one month to your subscription - no kidding.

Chess and Books with Fred Wilson Live Internet Radio Show will be on this Wednesday (2nd July) at 21:00 Eastern Time. This week Fred's guest is American Grandmaster Arthur Bisguier, who will discuss his new autobiographical games collection "The Art of Bisguier", Vol 1, along with describing his current endeavours towards finishing Vol 2, which will cover his career from 1961 to the present. He will also talk about his close friendships with such chess greats as Paul Keres and David Bronstein. If you have a good question for Arthur Bisguier, can email it to Fred beforehand.

Recently I got a message from Nelson Newman who runs Chess Knights website. The site has reviews, links, chess graphics, games in PGN Viewer and much more - well worth a visit! Alas, no matter how hard I looked in its 'Selected Player Collections' section, I could not see games by my favourite Irish player! J

Disappointed, but clearly not defeated I went to the About Chess website, to see if certain GM O'Baburin was featured in its Famous Players list. Not a chance! Well, I will wait till they create the Great Web Reviewers list - I don't want to be famous only thanks to the IM-slayer Yuri Vasiliev! J

I will continue with the column tomorrow - stay tuned! And if you come across an interesting chess site, please drop me a message.