Mexico 70. Banks' save. Pele almost scoring from the halfway line. England wilting in the sun when 2-0 up against West Germany. Brazil's destruction of Italy in the final. I was only two at the time so can't claim any direct experience but still these memories have seeped into my consciousness as I've absorbed the received wisdom of the world cup tournament of 37 years ago as football's Best Ever.
I wonder if Mexico 07, which starts today, will be just as memorable. In any event you can follow it on the official site. In the meantime chessbase has lots of pictures in a report on the countdown to the first move and even Speedy Malc is on time today - this thing must be important.
Up until now, of course, the chess world equivalent of Mexico 70 is Reykjavik 72. We've already blogged Fischer being awarded the title and an excerpts from a pre-match interview. To get us in the mood for Anand, Kramnik, Morozevich, Leko, Aronian, Svidler, Gelfand and Grischuk let's return to Iceland with a montage of Bobby and Boris (keep an eye out for 2:54).
PS: I found this clip on YouTube but EJH points out it was blogged a year ago elsewhere.
4 comments:
Ten minutes gone and already the h-pawns are flying!
Leko defending the Spanish. Good lad.
Even Kramnik is at it - though he's an hour-and-a-half behind the others.
I sense that Aronian and Gelfand are doing at least alright against the early adopters (after almost two hours play). Anand is even behind on the clock against Gelfand.
(Angus.)
As per Jonathan's PS, the footage also appears on a site belonging to Alistair McSporran, who has a lot of chess stuff (though you may need to scroll down a lot due to a technical fault).
Those few readers who know or care that I used to write for the magazine When Saturday Comes may also recall its superior Scottish equivalent The Absolute Game, for which Alistair wrote.
Good starts for Gelfand & Svidler, less so Kramnik and Anand. I think Aronian has an edge. Grischuk-Leko I'm not sure about, but I'm guessing imminent draw.
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