What a great fortune to know Adams personally! My biggest fortune is
watching Petrosian playing live just after he lost his crown.

O come on! You just can't say that, you have to tell us about it.
Where and when and against whom?

BTW, how does helmet's bizarreness stack up to Morozewich'? Let me look up
in the database if there are any Adams v Morozewich games!

helmet was much more bizarre than Moro - but we were only playing 2100
players, and could get away with it. I don't know if Adams has ever played
Moro [ who has only played in one tournament in the last 12 months ]

there is a poster here [ernie] who might know more.

phil

Pete

"Chess One" wrote in message
...

"PeteCasso" wrote in message
m...
Yes, I first thought that the break would come on the king side but
since
Radjabov complicated such that a king side break would not be
opportune,
Adams broke through on the queen side instead!

I just checked the newest July ratings on the FIDE web site and Adams
is
now
above Topalov by one ELO point. Adams moved up two places from #8 to
#6
in
the world with 2738 ELO and Topalov moved down two places from #5 to
#7
with
2737 ELO.

Its a pity that a poster called 'helmet' isn't here. We both grew up
with
Michael, although I remember him as being too young to take seriously,
helmet is a few years younger than me and helmet's bizarre opening
repetoire
[we were into 'shock' grin as teenage master players] probably put
Michael
off such strange experiments for life, and turned him into the
semi-classical player he is today.

Michael Adams played chess in the Cornish Chess League, and had attended
Truro School and played on their excellent chess team [no-one over 18
years
old] , later playing for the Falmouth, club, as well as for a Cornwall
team
led by P. H. Clarke.

But Topalov's performance rating is 2900+ whereas Adams' is 2800+. So
Topalov still has the somewhat better chances to win, I think, but the
FIDE
world champion would in any case be either #6 or #7 in terms of ELO
ratings,
disappointing ...

At least some of the top players get to compete. I have a hard time with
the
despicable politics and exclusion of Jewish people, or of the Ponomoriev
excuse, and all the preceeding nonsense.

However I do respond to the chess itself with great enthusiasm!

What will become interesting in the later rounds will be a switch from
these
slightly careful 2 game exchanges to something more like real
match-play.
A
different psychology, I think, where ELO is not so important as one's
spirit.

The big winner in the July rating list is Morozewich who moved up to
#4,
higher than Adams or Topalov when the WCC began, but the #2 seed, who
whould
now have been the real #1 seed, did not show up at the WCC ...

This guy Morozevich is an amazing player! He has not played very much
recently, like Pono. How would they do against the people who came
through
the Libya 128? Does that play you in to the top of your form? Or does it
exhaust your repetoire, and expose it to future opponents? Fascinating.

Anyway, from one chess fan to another, Phil