Friday, May 1, 2015
THE interest on this fight is awesome. There has never been a single sporting event comparable to this. The boxer who fights as a chess player will win.
Both are good chess players. Floyd has been quoted as saying “In a tough neighborhood, chess is the only way out.” He also said much earlier , “Chess will help you succeed in life.” Referring to Manny he said, “There are some bad apples on the chess board” and “In the chessboard he is a pawn.”
Manny has a chess set in his training camps and uses it as part of his mental relaxation, playing one or two hours every day. He has sponsored some of the biggest tournaments here.
He bankrolled the Asian Continental Cup in 2013 with a total prize of $100,000. Prior to the start of the tournament ,he played against GM Eugene Torre.
Pacquiao battled Torre to a draw in 20 moves . Manny played with a Queen fianchetto and Torre was quite impressed although he probably eased up a little bit.
In earlier interviews, Manny said that he was an avid chess player even before he became a boxer. Playing chess will allow Manny to strategize his defense and offense as the fight progresses.
I would like to describe this fight as between a bishop and a knight. Because of his longer reach and height, an advantage of four and 11.2 inches respectively, Floyd is the bishop while Manny is the knight.
Which is better? In an open game, the bishop is preferable but a knight is superior in closed positions.
If the fight will be at long range, then Floyd has an advantage. However ,if it will be a brawl and at close range, then Manny will win. Whatever the outcome it will be close and controversial so there will probably be a rematch.
You know what? If Manny wins, he has a good chance of being elected president! One thing sure, he will never enrich himself in office.
Gashimov Memorial. The field is so strong, a Category 22, that one of the players said, “In this tournament, everyone’s either an ex-world champion, a current world champion or a future world champion.”
Playing are World champion Magnus Carlsen (Norway, 2863), Fabiano Caruana (Italy, 2802), former world champion Viswanathan Anand (India, 2791), Anish Giri (Netherlands, 2790), Wesley So (USA 2788), former world champion Vladimir Kramnik (Russia, 2783), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France, 2762), Shakriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan, 2754), Michael Adams (England, 2746) and Rauf Mamedov (Azerbaijan, 2651).
Wesley finished at third place behind champion Carlsen and second placer Anand. This is a strong performance by Wesley, considering that he finished ahead of Caruana on tiebreak , Giri (his nemesis) and Kramnik. He posted a performance rating of 2814.
He won 15,000 euros and is likely to also receive an appearance fee and refund of expenses. He also moved up one rank higher to No.7.
This good showing represents a rebound from the U.S. championship in St. Louis, where an unexpected visit from his estranged mother made it difficult to focus on his games. He was also slapped a rare forfeit loss for a rules violation.
Next up for Wesley is participation in the French Team Championships starting at the end of May.
Vugar Gashimov was an Azerbaijani GM. He was a noted player of blitz chess and very popular among top players due to his sportsmanship. At his peak, he had a rating of 2761 and was no.6 in the world in 2009. He died due to a brain tumor at age 38.
Beach tournament. We had our annual outing last Saturday at Pado Beach Resort in Marigondon and also our April monthly tournament.
The winners in Group A were Rey Flores, Rosendo Yamyamin and Felix Shaun Balbona. In Group B Elmer Odango, Jun Olis and Jerry Maratas prevailed.
No comments:
Post a Comment