All About Chess...

F ew young players knew how strong GM Boris Gelfand was and still is. In 1989 he won the GMA Open in Palma de Mallorca which was participated by more than 160 grandmasters! An amazing record!! He left Ivanchuk, Anand, Shirov, Karpov, Leko, Adams, Short, Korchnoi, Timman, Kamsky, Svidler etc. behind him eating dust. He won with a clear half point edge. Untied and un-equaled. He won the 1990 Manila Inter-Zonal (Ivanchuk was the co-champion but he lost in the tie-break) ahead of 63 elite grandmasters. In the 13th and final round Ivanchuk (who was the solo leader with a half point advantage against Gelfand) quickly drew with Anand in only 12 moves of Petroff Defense. While Gelfand, relieved somewhat of the pressure, was in a win to order mode. Determined to crush his own compatriot GM Alexander Khalifman (Khalifman became World Champion in the late 90's when Fide decided to hold the WCC in a ridiculous KO format.), he fought with all his might and accompl...

B eauty itself cannot be perceived. We have no physical sense for it in particular. We can only perceive elements, which in their combination, in their ratio of composition trigger a feeling of beauty in us. In order to experience beauty, it has nevertheless to be inside of ourselves. Not outside of ourselves. Not in a landscape, not in a sunset, not in the body of a woman and also not in a work of art. Neuroscientists say that the perception of beauty is caused by the disbursement of a certain hormone or neuron-transmitter. When this substance is present in an adequate concentration in a particular part of the brain, then it activates a special perception which we call "beauty". And it seems that a determinate set of impressions must act together, in order for the hormone to be disbursed. In their own way the mental movements of a game of chess seem to cause this effect equally on players and the audience in the same fashion, ...

The 2001 Philippine Open (Semi-Finals) was one of the most interesting chess events of the early 21'st Century. And not only because of the excellent start and sensational collapse of NM Rodrigo Atutubo, it is also the very first high caliber tournament sanctioned by the newly formed National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP). NCFP was fresh from it's victory over the floundering chess organization Philippine Chess Federation (PCF). The media coverage of the tournament was huge. I remember that almost all the sports journalist/writer (not only chess journalist) was there to cover the event. And not only that, ABS-CBN also sent it's own representative to cover the event. The tournament was held at the 2nd floor of Greenhills Shopping Mall. The total prize fund of the tournament was huge, in the semi-final alone the total prize fund was close to P500,000. Atutubo started the tournament like a h...