You Do Not Know How Lucky You Are

To Post or not to Post?



Well it is all change, at Palmer Towers and a change for the better and once
again thanks to good old Vladimir Kramnik. World Champion.



As I sit here in front of my laptop and chessboard looking out at the huge
expanse of unkempt lawn covered in the remains of the Gypsy family who have
been encamped in front of Palmer towers for the last three weeks, it is with
some satisfaction that I peruse that Kramnik once again has made my life a
better place.



On Saturday afternoon as I hosted a small get together to follow the first
game of the World Chess Championships the assembled Gypos did not take
kindly to the dress sense and personal hygiene nor the general look of my
fellow club members as their mother's dropped them off or for the more
independent minded chess players meandered up the driveway from the bus
stop.



So much so that even before Kramnik had unleashed his Na5 novelty on the
board the swarthy looking head honcho of the Gypsies approached the
tradesman's entrance to inform me that they would be leaving that very
evening.



"G'd' evening to you Squire Palmer, thoughts as I'd come up and tell you
that we are pulling out, thanks for all the eggs, and the fish, and the use
of your second outside loo, and all. But we gotta be going, our women folk
don't take kindly to having all these weirdos in funny jumpers and thick
specs passing close by, makes them nervous it does, we have children here,
and we're off. And we ain't coming back."



If I had know this I would have organised an allegro quick play tournament
on the first weekend the Gypsy's had arrived.



Anyway this is just the latest favour I owe chess and Kramnik.



Do you remember back in the dark old days of Campomanes (now there is a name
to remember), those of us who followed the World Chess Championships and the
Candidates used to do so by getting up early in the morning and running
round to the news agent and picking up copies of all of the broadsheets.
Back then, when the names playing the World Championship matches and
Candidates matches were Karpov, Kortchnoi, Kasparov, Short, Speelman,
Yusopov, Timman and coverage - to be fair - was good, if frequently
incomplete. And we did not have Junior or Fritz to help us understand the
games.



But it was nothing to what we have these days - now I can have the games
LIVE as they are played, we can have reference databases telling us
novelties and lines, we can have Fritz and Junior suggesting really strong
lines of play.. It's another world, it's fantastic!



Why on Saturday and Sunday we listened to Arthur Yusopov commenting from the
back of the playing hall LIVE. Rather good commentary too.



Of course, even though I am rolling around like a pig in ****, general media
interest n the Kramnik-Leko match that I have seen in this neck of the woods
is negligible, and that is because chess is not a spectator sport. Never has
been never will be. I have said it before and I will say it again chess is
a participation activity and it has boomed through history because of
communication, first there were mutual visits to Italy and Spain and England
by leading players, then telegraph matches, then International tournaments
and with the advent of the train, horseless carriage and eventually
international penny post, jet travel, the telephone, telex, and now the web.





Anyway for we enthusiasts the coverage in the specialised web site has been
quite good.



Chessbase is now (even I have to admit) the best site for coverage on the
web. Although - and let's be Frank Lloyd Wright about this - their scribes
ain' up to much.



Chessbase offer a decent annotation of the first game plus a fabulous video
report of the first day and an excellent video interview with match
commentator and thoroughly all-round good bloke Arthur Yusupov. I am not a
big Chessbase fan but I am bigger than I was.



TWIC's coverage has been OK. And very quick.



The official site's live coverage is fantastic but not as good as I would
have liked.



Ajedrez 21 - the Spanish site - offer free GM commentary from Ubilava (Anand's
Second) as the game I is played - and the little I have read has been very
interested and informative.





Chess fans are being served up with a treat with the Kramnik - Leko match.
And we should follow them, talk about them post about the match and promote
the match to all.



I hope that others will start to post about the match. what are your
thoughts? Who do you want to win?



A few thoughts to ponder



1.. Will Kramnik and Leko repeat the Russian Defence in game 3?
2.. Wonder if Edward Winter is going to make an appearance?
3.. Who will play the first Sicilian?
4.. Will we get a Sveshnikov?

Gilbert Palmer
Chess Fan Extraordinaire