Strike a light (15)

Chess Cafe and Pakistan Chess Player

I looked at the Chess Cafe web site, http://www.chesscafe.com/ , after
several months. Some years ago, it was my favourite site. But, many things
have changed, some columnists have gone, some news have come. My opinion is
that site is now worse than ever before. If somebody who has never read
texts on this site opens it, he will be frightened by various advertisements
which had nothing with chess. You could read about 100% cotton T-shirts
which are machine washable, in five (men's) sizes: Small, Medium, Large,
X-Large and XX-Large. All are $15.95, except for the XXL, which is $2. Could
you believe that it's chess site?

On that site you can see many books about Bobby Fischer. Are they allowed to
make money on his name and games. I'll cite only few books which they
advertise:

Bobby Fischer Rediscovered, Three Days with Bobby Fischer and other chess
essays , Bobby Fischer Rediscovered , Bobby Fischer: Complete Games of the
American World Chess Champion...

What does the owner of that site think how Bobby feels when he sees it? And
what about Copyright Violation?

Bobby obviously didn't get money from this sale.

The site Chess Cafe was popular chess site some years ago. I wouldn't
undervalued the texts of some chess columnists. Obviously it's not enough to
be a grandmaster to write interesting chess texts. But, there is one big
difference between that site and Pakistan Chess Player,
http://www.pakchess.com/ , which is the best chess site for many chess
players. Chess Cafe has not a brilliant chess writer who is on level Lev
Khariton. He is not only chess player and chess writer, he is really fighter
for the truth and justice.

I read some new texts. I noticed the text of GM Hans Ree (Dutch Treat) in
which he commented about Yugoslav GM Milan Matulovic. GM Ree wrote very ugly
things about GM Matulovic, accusing him for some "tricks" and cheating in
the candidates matches. By the way he said that Matulovic hadn't played well
in Senior World Championship in 1995.

I would recall that Matulovic was born in 1935 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
Somebody could think that GM Hans Ree doesn't like Matulovic personally.
Matulovic is known for his knowledge of opening theory (there is the opening
named by him, Matulovic's gambit). I played in the same team with Matulovic
few years ago, for the Herceg Novi team. He played on the first board and he
was example of professional chess player who is an excellent fighter.

I would present the game against his critic, Hans Ree. Maybe it would be the
origin of the text in Chess Cafe, some type of revenge (but out of the
board):

Matulovic,M (2530) - Ree,H (2425) [C99]
Hoogovens Wijk aan Zee (8), 1974

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0
9.h3 Na5 10.Bc2 c5 11.d4 Qc7 12.Nbd2 cxd4 13.cxd4 Nc6 14.Nb3 a5 15.Be3 a4
16.Nbd2 Be6 17.a3 Na5 18.Bd3 Qb8 19.Ng5 exd4 20.Bxd4 Nc6
21.Bxf6! Bxf6 22.Nxh7! Bxb2 23.Nxf8 Qxf8 24.Rb1 Bc3 25.Qc1 b4 26.axb4 Bxb4
27.Bb5 Bxd2 28.Qxd2 Ne5 29.f4 Nc4 30.Qb4 Nb6 31.Bc6 Ra6 32.Bb7 1-0

Goran Tomic

Goran Tomic wrote:

Strike a light (15)

Chess Cafe and Pakistan Chess Player

I looked at the Chess Cafe web site, http://www.chesscafe.com/ , after
several months. Some years ago, it was my favourite site. But, many things
have changed, some columnists have gone, some news have come. My opinion
is that site is now worse than ever before. If somebody who has never read
texts on this site opens it, he will be frightened by various
advertisements which had nothing with chess. You could read about 100%
cotton T-shirts which are machine washable, in five (men's) sizes: Small,
Medium, Large, X-Large and XX-Large. All are $15.95, except for the XXL,
which is $2. Could you believe that it's chess site?

Tomic seems to be gunning for ChessCafe for some reason. I consider it one
of the best chess resources on the web. Among its many fine contributors
are to be found Karsten Muller, Hans Ree, Taylor Kingston, and Edward
Winter. How does Tomic expect commercial sites to be funded, on a wing and
a prayer? For the record the advertisements are not that intrusive.

On that site you can see many books about Bobby Fischer. Are they allowed
to make money on his name and games.

Yes.


The site Chess Cafe was popular chess site some years ago.

It still is.

I wouldn't
undervalued the texts of some chess columnists. Obviously it's not enough
to be a grandmaster to write interesting chess texts. But, there is one
big difference between that site and Pakistan Chess Player,
http://www.pakchess.com/ , which is the best chess site for many chess
players. Chess Cafe has not a brilliant chess writer who is on level Lev
Khariton. He is not only chess player and chess writer, he is really
fighter for the truth and justice.

Apparently Karsten Muller and Mark Dvoretsky have floppy ears, I don't think
so, at least not compared to Khariton. I wonder, has Khariton ever featured
in ChessCafe?

I read some new texts. I noticed the text of GM Hans Ree (Dutch Treat) in
which he commented about Yugoslav GM Milan Matulovic. GM Ree wrote very
ugly things about GM Matulovic, accusing him for some "tricks" and
cheating in the candidates matches. By the way he said that Matulovic
hadn't played well in Senior World Championship in 1995.

I would recall that Matulovic was born in 1935 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
Somebody could think that GM Hans Ree doesn't like Matulovic personally.
Matulovic is known for his knowledge of opening theory (there is the
opening named by him, Matulovic's gambit). I played in the same team with
Matulovic few years ago, for the Herceg Novi team. He played on the first
board and he was example of professional chess player who is an excellent
fighter.

My, my, aren't we selective; here's what the January 1971 issue (volume 36,
nos. 620-1) of Chess has to say about the Doctor. It can be found on page
175 of Levy's report.

"The second unfortunate incident is one which fills me with horror and I am
writing about it at some length because I feel that publicity is necessary
if this sort of activity is going to be stamped out. Matulovic was black
against Taimanov. Arriving at the board twenty minutes late, Matulovic
proceeded to play incredibly weak moves at the rate of one per minute;
strange, since he normally uses his time to the full. Needless to say, he
lost and thereby let Taimanov into the candidates' tournament to the dismay
of Portisch and Smyslov who tied with half a point less. There are two
possible explanations of Matulovic's performance:

"a) He was bribed. To those of you who reel in horror that a respectable
publication should suggest such a thing, let me say that bribery is not
unknown in grand master chess and that Matulovic's reputation in this
respect is far from unblemished. ....

"b) He couldn't care less about the game. To my mind this is almost as bad
as accepting a bribe. When Portisch and Smyslov had worked so hard for five
weeks, it is criminal that their efforts should be dashed because someone
else lacked the inclination to fulfil his moral obligations to the
tournament."

On page 173 one can read:

"It is only recently that I discovered the reason for Matulovic adjourning
in totally lost positions - he would rather the newspapers announce that he
has (say) 5 out of 7 with four games adjourned than only 5 out of 11."


--
Simon.

I looked at the Chess Cafe web site, http://www.chesscafe.com/ , after
several months. Some years ago, it was my favourite site. But, many things
have changed, some columnists have gone, some news have come. My opinion is
that site is now worse than ever before. If somebody who has never read
texts on this site opens it, he will be frightened by various advertisements
which had nothing with chess. You could read about 100% cotton T-shirts
which are machine washable, in five (men's) sizes: Small, Medium, Large,
X-Large and XX-Large. All are $15.95, except for the XXL, which is $2. Could
you believe that it's chess site?

I just paid a visit to the site. I see no ads for shirts, although I DO
see ads for chess products (not exactly surprising on a CHESS site if
you ask me). And why would such an advertisement be "frightening" anyway?


On that site you can see many books about Bobby Fischer. Are they allowed to
make money on his name and games. I'll cite only few books which they
advertise:

Bobby Fischer Rediscovered, Three Days with Bobby Fischer and other chess
essays , Bobby Fischer Rediscovered , Bobby Fischer: Complete Games of the
American World Chess Champion...

What does the owner of that site think how Bobby feels when he sees it? And
what about Copyright Violation?

Bobby obviously didn't get money from this sale.

And why should he? The fact that Bobby's name appears in a book title,
or the fact that some of Bobby's games are posted and analyzed is not
grounds for Fischer to receive compensation. If the books reprinted
copyrighted material from Bobby (such as analysis - as far as I know, no
chessplayer "owns" the recorded moves of their games), that would be one
thing, but there is no indication here that that is the case.

Do you think that if someone wrote a book about the U.S. and had George
Bush's name in the title, that George Bush would be entitled to
royalties? Do you think the author would need George Bush's permission?


John

"Goran Tomic" writes:



[ chess cafe]

On that site you can see many books about Bobby Fischer. Are they allowed to
make money on his name and games.

Yes. Provided the work is not defamatory that is perfectly legal.

I'll cite only few books which they
advertise:

Bobby Fischer Rediscovered,

Fischer has had 30 years to write a book on the games of
his career from 1969. I think that the chess world has
given him enough time, in the circumstances. I'm glad
Soltis wrote the above book.


Three Days with Bobby Fischer and other chess
essays , Bobby Fischer Rediscovered , Bobby Fischer: Complete Games of the
American World Chess Champion...

What does the owner of that site think how Bobby feels when he sees it?

Why should he feel anything? This is completely standard. Reinfeld
wrote a book of Keres games, Clarke annotated a book of Spassky's
games, Sierawan wrote about Kasparov-Karpov, and so on.

And
what about Copyright Violation?

You cannot copyright a chess game or a name. Clarke didn't
pay Spassky, Soltis is under no obligation to pay Fischer.

Bobby obviously didn't get money from this sale.

I've been waiting ever since "My 60 memorable", ready to buy
his new book. If published before his recent comments, I think
it would have sold in unprecedented numbers. He chose not to
write it, so I bought the Soltis book.


The site Chess Cafe was popular chess site some years ago.

And still is.


I read some new texts. I noticed the text of GM Hans Ree (Dutch Treat) in
which he commented about Yugoslav GM Milan Matulovic. GM Ree wrote very ugly
things about GM Matulovic, accusing him for some "tricks" and cheating


It's not really an accusation when the whole world knows it. More
the citing of a fact. He's not called "J'adoubovic" for nothing.

As to his recent actions, Ree is not outraged, he's amused:

"It was not for the money, just cheating for the fun of it.
In a way I was touched by the old man still going strong in
his particular field."


William Hyde
EOS Department
Duke University

Mr. Tomic's comments defy rational explanation. As a frequent contributor to
ChessCafe.com, I endorse the contrary views of Mr. Swartz and Mr. Hyde, and
offer a few comments of my own.

GM Ree wrote very ugly things about GM Matulovic, accusing him for some
"tricks" and cheating in the candidates matches.

Matulovic's cheating is well known. Ree has observed it firsthand.

On that site you can see many books about Bobby Fischer … what about
Copyright Violation? Bobby obviously didn't get money from this sale.

An absurd comment. Fischer did not write the books in question, and has no
copyright on any of them.

Chess Cafe has not a brilliant chess writer who is on level Lev Khariton. He
is not only chess player and chess writer, he is really fighter for the truth
and justice.

I agree that ChessCafe has no writer on Mr. Khariton's level, and I am very
glad about it. A "fighter for truth and justice"?? Then perhaps Mr. Tomic will
explain what kind of truth or justice was served when Khariton plagiarized
material written by Irving Chernev and posted it as his own. As someone just
said, what about copyright violation?
Tomic seems to share the same relaxed attitude on this issue. Not long ago it
was found that Tomic had lifted copyrighted ChessCafe material without
permission, including some of my own work. He desisted with ill grace, taking
the pirated material down from his site only grudgingly. Yet he alleges that
ChessCafe is in copyright violation? The word for this is hypocrisy.

As for the quality of the "Pakistani Chess Player" site, I will venture no
overall judgment, but I do note that it seems to have some trouble keeping up
with current events. Though its last update is given as 29 March 2004, it still
says:

"Saddam Hussein's now gone and whether he is dead or in exile is unknown."

If memory serves, Saddam was captured some time ago and is now alive and in
US custody. This is even better known than the facts about Matulovic.

Taylor Kingston

ospam (Taylor Kingston) wrote in message ...
Mr. Tomic's comments defy rational explanation. As a frequent contributor to
ChessCafe.com, I endorse the contrary views of Mr. Swartz and Mr. Hyde, and
offer a few comments of my own.

GM Ree wrote very ugly things about GM Matulovic, accusing him for some
"tricks" and cheating in the candidates matches.

Matulovic's cheating is well known. Ree has observed it firsthand.

On that site you can see many books about Bobby Fischer … what about
Copyright Violation? Bobby obviously didn't get money from this sale.

An absurd comment. Fischer did not write the books in question, and has no
copyright on any of them.

Chess Cafe has not a brilliant chess writer who is on level Lev Khariton. He
is not only chess player and chess writer, he is really fighter for the truth
and justice.

I agree that ChessCafe has no writer on Mr. Khariton's level, and I am very
glad about it. A "fighter for truth and justice"?? Then perhaps Mr. Tomic will
explain what kind of truth or justice was served when Khariton plagiarized
material written by Irving Chernev and posted it as his own. As someone just
said, what about copyright violation?
Tomic seems to share the same relaxed attitude on this issue. Not long ago it
was found that Tomic had lifted copyrighted ChessCafe material without
permission, including some of my own work. He desisted with ill grace, taking
the pirated material down from his site only grudgingly. Yet he alleges that
ChessCafe is in copyright violation? The word for this is hypocrisy.

As for the quality of the "Pakistani Chess Player" site, I will venture no
overall judgment, but I do note that it seems to have some trouble keeping up
with current events. Though its last update is given as 29 March 2004, it still
says:

"Saddam Hussein's now gone and whether he is dead or in exile is unknown."

If memory serves, Saddam was captured some time ago and is now alive and in
US custody. This is even better known than the facts about Matulovic.

Taylor Kingston

Mr.Kingston should mind his business, that is writing for ChessCafe.
Instead he is all out for age-old gossips as befits the editor of
"Chess Cafe Fairy Tales" which stand unclaimed by buyers in NY
bookstores.
As to my friend Mr.Khariton, his articles appeared on a regular basis
in the ChessCafe 4 and 5 years ago and they received a wide-scale
acclaim of the readers who appreciated his knowledge of Soviet and
world chess, chess history and profound psycological insight. Envy
burning you all over from your insides is not the best friend,
Mr.Kingston. But that helps to disgrace and boycott talented people.
Aryeh Davidoff

Aryeh Davidoff wrote:
Mr.Kingston … is all out for age-old gossips

Khariton’s plagiarism is not “age-old gossip,â€� it is an
established, quite recent fact. To present one documented example, he
lifted, verbatim, a lengthy passage from Chernev’s “Wonders and
Curiosities of Chess,� specifically page 147, which in 2001 he
posted at
http://pkchess.bizland.com/chesspres...cpress4_5.html as
his own work. I saw this with my own eyes. I read what Khariton
posted, I checked the book. Same words. Case closed.
It was still there, the byline still uncorrected, until at least
April 2002, months after his ruse had been made public. Amazingly,
later he lied about this, saying “Mr. Russell inspired by Mr. Winter
accused me of plagiarism. This was an absolutely ungrounded
accusation, and if there is someone to accuse of plagiarism I should
be the last person to deserve this accusation.� The full text, which
includes other fabrications, is still available on www.pakchess.com
(“An Interview with Lev Kharitonâ€� by Abdul Karim).

As to my friend Mr.Khariton, his articles appeared on a regular
basis in the ChessCafe 4 and 5 years ago

Not true. Khariton’s work was never a “regularâ€� feature of
ChessCafe.com. He contributed intermittently a total of about six
articles over a span of about two or three years. When his plagiarism
became known, ChessCafe.com immediately severed all relations with
him.

and they received a wide-scale acclaim of the readers

Actually Khariton’s work received a very mixed reception. His
factual errors, baseless assertions, and offensive statements became
quite a topic in the ChessCafe bulletin board.

Envy burning you all over from your insides is not the best friend,
Mr.Kingston.

If I ever meet anyone who envies Lev Khariton, I will convey your
advice.

Taylor Kingston

Plagiarism is so unnecessary especially when you can print just about anything
you want with proper attribution.

What do you think is the best chess book NEVER translated into English?

On 01 Apr 2004 20:14:33 GMT, (PJDBAD) wrote:

Plagiarism is so unnecessary especially when you can print just about anything
you want with proper attribution.

What do you think is the best chess book NEVER translated into English?

Wasn't there suppose to be a book on the Spassky-Petrosian matches
1 or 2 and it was never translated into English. I heard it was one
of the best books written on a world championship match that was never
translated into english. Also the Bronstein - Botvinnik match there
was suppose to be a book too.

EZoto

I have impression that all the chess columns and non-chess advertisements
published on Chess Cafe web site couldn't help much (in generally view).
There are a couple of subjective and objective reasons.

Internet boom stopped few years ago. "Mammoths sites" or hypertrophies sites
with enormous archives were made by inertia, by simply adding more materials
on existent. These sites are only ballast for their owner.

Different announcements and advertisements which didn't have anything with
chess or different chess materials sales seem to me repelling.
You can see on ChessCafe different shoppings, announcement about shipping
rates, online catalogs, enormous archives, and very bored Bulletin Board. I
wouldn't be too sharp, but I foresee very bad future for web site ChessCafe.
My opinion is that their columns are too templated, the texts are not too
original, and there are not any (or almost any) critical texts. If they
haven't got energy for including some critical texts they would switch off
like the millions web sites.

Well, Heroic Tales: The Best of ChessCafe.com 1996-2001 edited by Taylor
Kingston could have interesting texts. I know that's a big work. But I
regret big effort, because there are no enough people to buy it, to become
profitable. All these advertisements can't help. Today there are many
millions of web sites, but very small readers and visitors who look at them.

This is obviously era of newsgroups (which are moderated) and daily active
mailing lists. Somebody who can't conceive it can be frustrated with wane of
influence and significance of his site. Maybe it's the reason of sending
warning mails about copyright violation etc.

The second reason is because you have excellent chess programs (for learning
chess e.g. Convecta, Fritz, Hiarcs...) so very few people could be attracted
with games in the texts published on Chess Cafe.

Chess Cafe was a good site. I believe that decreasing importance of
ChessCafe started when Mr. Khariton stopped writing for it. What was the
reason? Maybe it was envy of mediocre writers, or something else. I won't
discuss more about these subjective reasons. The fact is that Chess Cafe has
only a few good columnists, and nobody who is on the Khariton's level. I'll
name some of Lev Khariton's brilliant texts: Once Upon A Time In Paris, A
Legend or a Myth? (Bobby Fischer's enigma), Overwhelmed With Sadness, The
KGB and Chess: Assets and Liabilities, Soviets vs. Botvinnik, Korchnoi
vs.Keres (Korchnoi Plays Anti-Keres Gambit), Yasha, My Friend., More Than A
Grandmaster (D.Bronstein's 80th birthday), Anatoly Karpov, the Exposed King,
Ungilded Monuments...

Today chess fans read Mr Khariton's text on an excellent site:
http://www.pakchess.com/ .

Whatever a man sowed that shall he reap!

Goran Tomic