HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: olson@acf9.nyu.edu (David Olson)
Subject: Re: Fischer and sanctions
Organization: New York University
Distribution: rec.games.chess
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 17:22:59 GMT

barbey@lglsun.epfl.ch (Stephane Barbey) writes:

>In article <1992Jul27.014417.25697@rata.vuw.ac.nz>, vova@kauri.vuw.ac.nz (Vladimir Pestov) writes:
>: The return of Bobby Fischer to chess is much more important than
>: maintaining sanctions against Yugoslavia.

>It's pathetic. Human rights are much more important than a game, even
>Chess. Some people are trying to save lives and you just crave for
>a show... 

Time for some careful reading?  Maybe...  I see Vlad writing that Fischer's
chess is more important than sanctions, not human rights.  And as someone
else pointed out, draining $5 million in hard currency from Yugoslavia
will hurt their financial stability.   These sanctions are likely to have
the same effect as those on Cuba:  Serbia does not have an economic elite 
with enough power to pressure the government, so the sanctions provide
little pressure (in current form).  These sanctions provide political 
cover for various democracies:  they can say they are Doing Something.

Someone else asked what Yugoslavia gains.  Prestige and a distraction
from the pogroms.  For a mere $5 mill?  That's not a bad PR campaign
for them.  Either player might comment about the host government, though.
I can see it now: Fischer is hiding in his hotel, refusing to play
game 18 unless Milosovic resigns.   Chess-crazed Serbians storm the
capital...  Wake me up, I'm dreaming.

I'd like to see Fischer play.  I think it's unfortunate that it will
(apparently) be under these circumstances.  I guess Fischer enjoys being
enswirled in controversy.  


david
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
From: direwolf@seismo.gps.caltech.edu (Kathy Watts)
Subject: Re: Is the Kings Gambit any good?
Summary: King's Gambit lives!  Groundless fears dismissed! 
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 17:19:44 GMT

To Louis Blair and all those who tremble at the words of King's Gambit
naysayers: TAKE HEART!  It ain't broke!

I wouldn't normally get into this discussion, but I've played the King's Gambit
all my life, winning against players up to 2400 regularly.

And don't fear 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 d6 4.d4 g5 5.h4 g4 6.Ng1 -- it's not
really the reason why Bobby took 20 years off, but it's still just fine for
white.  I'll take on M-Chess personally with it!

(By the way - M-Chess is no longer the "king of the hill."  I just started
shipping Zarkov 2.6 (Aegon Version), which is a lot stronger, and it's reported
to play M-Chess dead even.)

-Hal Bogner
 National Master
 International Arbiter
 owner, Chess Laboratories
 KING'S GAMBITEER! (And don't try to wimp out with the Sicilian: 2.b4!)

Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
From: hyatt@cis.uab.edu (Robert Hyatt)
Subject: Re: Castling and Check
Organization: University of Alabama at Birmingham
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 03:25:04 GMT

In article <1992Jul24.201522.2472@sco.com> richardr@sco.COM (Richard Robinson) writes:
>
>In article <1992Jul20.235847.14002@husc3.harvard.edu> elkies@ramanujan.harvard.edu (Noam Elkies) writes:
>>In article <92202.193309U13054@uicvm.uic.edu>
>>U13054@uicvm.uic.edu (Howard Wachtel) writes:
>>:>Fortunately, opposing players are no
>>:>longer able to promote their Rook Pawns to Rooks of your color, so the
>>:>question of whether you could thereafter castle with these new Rooks is
>>:>now moot.  (It was an amusing puzzler for some time way back when.)
>>
>>E.g. White Kh5,Rf7,g7; Black Kh7,Rh8: White to mate in 1.
>>
>>:    Really?  Was there ever a time when it was legal to promote a pawn to
>>:a piece of the _opposite_ color?
>>
>>Apparently so, according to Hooper and Whyld's _Oxford Companion to Chess_.
>>I don't remember when they say this rule was finally abolished, but I'd
>>expect it was well before the rules were first codified by FIDE.  Krabbe's
>>_Chess Curiosities_ mentions this too, and does not give an example of
>>an occurrence in serious play (as he does for promotions to B and R, and
>>castling on the 46th move), so presumably none is known.
>>


George Koltonowski (spelling incorrect, but don't any references at home to
fix it.... sorry George...) used to tell a great story about playing a
pick=up game on an airplane.  His "expert" opponent, promoted a pawn to
a "king".  George got quite upset, but without a rulebook, couldn't convince
his opponent that two kings wouldn't cut it.  He therefore promoted HIS
pawn to an "opponent's" king and then mated all three.  You had to be there
and see his arm=waving to appreciate it.  BTW, the rules I've seen always
specified promoting to a piece of the same color excluding the king...

Bob

-- 
!Robert Hyatt                    Computer and Information Sciences   !
!hyatt@cis.uab.edu               University of Alabama at Birmingham !
Xref: sparky rec.games.chess:5646 soc.culture.yugoslavia:7394
From: tedrick@whistle.Berkeley.EDU (Tom Tedrick)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess,soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: Re: Why not Baghdad (chess as art)
Date: 28 Jul 92 10:26:55 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: whistle.berkeley.edu

Personally, I think Fischer's chess is a very high form of
human culture, and making it possible for a great artist
to make a creative contribution to our culture is more
important than some bureaucratic nonsense promulgated
by some careerist ignoramouses sucking our lifeblood via
the taxes we pay to support the UN.

As if anything those morons at the UN are doing is going
to help in the first place.

Would you be willing to ignore some UN pronouncements in
order to see Shakespeare produce another play? I would, and
Fischer's chess, to me, was almost on the same artistic level.

Strange to see the "politically correct" jump on the UN bandwagon
so readily, without the slightest sign of doubt as to whether
the high priests of bureaucratic nonsense have the slightest
idea of what they are doing.

As a great chess center, Yugoslavia seems as deserving as
any region of hosting the match. And as if cancelling the match
would stop the war. The absurdity of it all :-)

-- 
"An army is composed of idle and inactive men. Unless the general has a constant
eye on them this artificial machine will fall to pieces. If my soldiers began to
think, not one would remain. All that can be done is give them 'esprit de corps'
and keep them more afraid of their officers than the enemy" -Frederick the Great
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess,soc.culture.yugoslavia
From: hau4@ellis.uchicago.edu (sven  hauptfeld)
Subject: Re: Why not Baghdad (chess as art)
Reply-To: hau4@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 07:12:01 GMT

I am appalled to see how many netters are willing to sacrifice all dignity of
chess just to see Fischer play again, and how little they understand the
obvious motives behind this shameful match.

Let's review the facts first: the Fischer-Spassky match would be played in
the country which calls itself "Yugoslavia". It is a federation of Serbia and
its satellite, Montenegro, which, BTW, is not recognized by any country in the
world. That country has invaded its neighbors, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina,
killing an estimated minimum of 40,000 people, expelling more then a million 
from their homes in order to establish an ethnically "pure" Serbian state in
those territories. In the course of these operations, they have destroyed
entire cities, causing an estimated 50 billion dollar damage.

After months of very passive policy, the UN finally imposed strict sanctions
against this state, forbidding any trade or business, as well as sport, 
cultural or informatic exchange with it.

Knowing these facts it is easy to understand what is behind the $5M offered
for the match. The regime which has found itself isolated from the world like
a leper, found a way to launch a very effective marketing campaign to improve
its image: resurrect Fischer, which had been considered the second most
difficult of all miracles, next to resurrecting Elvis. They will stage a
Fischer-Spassky rematch in the beautiful and romantic Montenegrin town of
San Stefan, for all the world to see how beautiful their country is.

They would probably also expect the world NOT TO SEE that less than 100 km
away, the even more beautiful and romantic Croatian town of Dubrovnik is
still being shelled by their artillery, its landmarks destroyed and people
killed or forced to spend days in shelters and without food, running water
and electricity. And that is nothing compared to what is happening to
Sarajevo and most of Bosnia-Herzegovina, a crime beyond imagination.

They are counting on the following:
1) Five million dollars can buy almost everybody;
2) Fischer's political views are utterly confused (a Jew advocating 
   antisemitism) and he has many friends there (Gligoric, Bjelica);
3) Spassky is not a person who often says "no";
4) propaganda effects from the match will be enormous; one of them has
   already shown on this net: people begin to regard the UN sanctions as
   "beaurocratic nonsense"...

The chess merits of the match (which are very uncertain) would be dwarfed
by its despisable political side. The players and the chess public must be 
aware of the political dimension of the match BEFORE it starts, and
prevent that disgrace from happenning.

The game affiliated with the slogan "GENS UNA SUMUS" should not be used to
promote genocide!!!

Sven Hauptfeld
From: aaron@cie.uoregon.edu (Aaron Putnam)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: ICS
Keywords: chess server
Date: 27 Jul 92 23:07:19 GMT
Organization: University of Oregon Campus Information Exchange

The ICS formerly on eaststar.utah.edu has finally returned.  The new
address and port are:

  valkyries.andrew.cmu.edu 5000

The network there is extremely fast, and the machine isn't a snail
either.  I am considering a local ratings server, to nullify netlag
caused by the RS connection, but I would rather access the current
ratings if the connection is fast enough.  A suggestion was made by
trb on eve, to handle the ratings server connection with a separate
process, but this presents alot of tricky problems (such as password
verification).  It's a great idea, if it's feasible to implement.
I'll look into it.

  -Aaron / -Desmodus

PS - Please send mail regarding the server to aaron@cie.uoregon.edu
From: slsg6@cc.usu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Nigerian games at Olympiad?
Date: 24 Jul 92 16:45:47 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

Hi Guys,

I need to find some of the games played by Nigeria at the
olimpiad.  I am Nigeria and know a few people on the team
so I have a personal interest in the games.
If anybody has the games, I would be glad to have someone
email the games to me at aowos@pub.uwrl.usu.edu
or aowos@kernel.uwrl.usu.edu
Thanks

Akin
From: jswartz@mbunix.mitre.org (Swartz)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: More on Fischer-Spassky II
Date: 30 Jul 92 15:01:16 GMT
Distribution: rec.games.chess
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, Bedford, MA

The following appeared yesterday in The Boston Globe (reprinted without
permission):

Fischer Confirms He'll Play Spassky in Yugoslavia

BELGRADE - American Bobby Fischer, the reclusive former world chess
champion, has confirmed that his conditions have been fulfilled for
his first public competition in 20 years, a match spokesman said
yesterday.  The match will be held in two stages in the rump state of
Yugoslavia.

Fischer, 49, is to play Boris Spassky in a $5 million rematch starting 
Sept. 2.  In 1972, Fischer defeated chess champion Spassky to take the
title.  Fischer forfeited the championship by refusing to defend it, and
he has not played in public since.

The first half of the match will be on Sveti Stefan, a resort island in
Montenegro, on the southern Adriatic coast.  The rest of the nine-game
series will be in Belgrade.

The Yugoslav federation has been torn apart by fightin, and fierce battles
continue in newly independent Bosnia-Herzegovina, which borders Montenegro.
According to a Swiss report, Fischer's playing contract allows him to 
choose a new venue if gunfire can be heard at the rematch site.

On of Fischer's conditions was that all journalists be kept well away
from him before the match, Yugoslav media reported.      ASSOCIATED PRESS



". . . allows him to choose a new venue if gun fire can be heard . . ."
Sounds like typical Fischer, doesn't it.  My guess is that he's not
worried about the place being bombed, but the fact that gunfire would
disturb his concentration.

". . . all journalists be kept away from him . . ."  With all the 
excitement about his return to chess (if it actually happens), how will
they possibly keep the journalists away?

Sept 2nd -- 34 days away and counting . . .



 
-- 
JOHN A. SWARTZ - The MITRE Corp. Bedford, MA * John_Swartz@iegate.mitre.org
"One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
 One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them."  J.R.R. Tolkien
From: cc3@swvcc.wvnet.edu (Allen Farley)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Alekhine Defense
Date: 27 Jul 92 15:54:07 GMT
Organization: Southern WV Community College

Hi!

I'm posting this for a friend:
------------------------------------------------------------
What is white's best line against the Alekhine Defense (1. e4 Nf6)? I'd like to
use your responses in our club newsletter, with your permission of course.

Tim
------------------------------------------------------------
You can mail your replies to my account, I'll see that he gets them.

Thanx in advance

Allen
--
Allen Farley, Programmer      | #include <stddisclaim.h>  cc3@swvcc.wvnet.edu
Southern WV Community College | cc3@wvnscc.bitnet         cc3@sccvax.wvnet.edu
Computer Services             | sc251003@wvnvms.wvnet.edu
PO Box 2900; Logan, WV  25601 | as363@cleveland.freenet.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
From: schiller@tira.uchicago.edu (Eric Schiller)
Subject: Re: Fischer rumor
Organization: Center for Information and Language Studies / University of
	Chicago
	<1992Jul27.155804.22874@osf.org>
	<13132.2a74c200@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu>
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 22:24:51 GMT

George Foreman painstakingly worked his way through numerous opponents before
taking on Holyfield. The logical path for Fischer is Spassky (piece of cake),
Karpov (to qualify as a Contender), Anand (to earn a title shot), then 
Kasparov (possibly after playing the loser of Timman-Short). While I still don't
believe the comeback is real, even if it does happen Fischer has to earn the
right to play Kasparov by demonstrating that he still has what it takes. My
personal view is that Fischer would win each of these matches and then lose
to Kasparov 10-6 under Fischer's rules.

Eric Schiller
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
From: jhc@iris.uucp (James H. Coombs)
Subject: Re: Benoni, Winawer, Benko
Reply-To: jhc@iris.UUCP (James H. Coombs)
Organization: IRIS - Brown University
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 01:34:34 GMT

In article <1992Jul29.170039.15385@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU> qazqaz@Muir.Stanford.EDU (Mike Perkins) writes:

>2)   In an ICS game with Bigfoot we opened 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 e5 (my
>opponent told me this is called the Winawer countergambit, which I'd never
>seen) 4.de5 d4 5.Ne4 Qa5+ 6.Bd2 Qxe5 7.Ng3 c5 8.Nf3 Qc7 9.e3 de3 10.Bxe3 Bg4

>I believe 4.cd is normally played, but I seemed to do fine with 4.de.
>Is there a variation that shows 4.de to be inferior to 4.cd?

Yes, that's the Winawer Counterbamgit, "never refuted" according to my
books.  I practiced against it a little as White, and I have practiced
with it a little as Black.  In my brain, there is no "normal" response
to 3 ... e5.  The coverage in books on the Slav (that I have used)
tends to be just a short section in the chapter on 3 Nc3, but let me
get off my fatt but go look it up....

Well, it doesn't seem to be in MCO-13 at all.  Flear [*Slav*] calls it

	A violent and brave attempt to wrest the initiative.  Theory
	maintains that White can keep the advantage by presise play,
	but this is not at all clear.

Flear gives 4 cd but then says "another idea is 4 de".  ECO gives about
the same by my interpretation of the notes and symbols.  I forgot to
get Fine, but that is old and the answer is going to be the same: not a
heavily researched line.  The answers are not in the books but in your
own analysis.  I don't mean to put you off, but I don't see variations
convincing enough to type in.  Why not give us YOUR analysis of the
moves?  Do you see something that might be inferior about 4 de?  --Jim
From: mapmef@gdr.bath.ac.uk (M E Fletcher)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Re: Fischer rumor
Date: 31 Jul 92 11:00:12 GMT
Organization: School of Mathematics, University of Bath, UK

In article <1992Jul29.160225.17104@progress.com> disabito@progress.COM (Paul Disabito) writes:
>
>Most people seem to give Kasparov the edge over Fischer, but my
>question is why? Fischer is surely just as good at calculating
>variations. What part of Kasparov's game is superior to
>Fischer's? Does he have better postional understanding? Is he
>better prepared in the openings (which indeed seems likely)? Or
>is he just younger, which gives him greater stores of energy?
>
>The two most plausible advantages for Kasparov are his opening
>preparation and his age. But from what I've read about Fischer, he
>never stopped studying chess, so it seems likely that he is well
>prepared in the openings. I've also read that Fischer despises
>Kasparov and studies his games closely. (I read here on the net 
>that Fischer studied the Karpov-Kasparov matches for a year and
>a half.) Perhaps Fischer is particularly well-prepared to face
>Kasparov, of all his possible adversaries. Age, however, is a
>factor that has to favor Kasparov, especially if the match was
>to drag on for a long time. But is age alone enough to give
>Kasparov a 10-6 lead?
>
Fischer's understanding of clear cut positions is immense and is unlikely
to have declined much, but Kasparov is much better at calculating variations.
How many Fischer games can you think of where he sacrificed more than a 
pawn? The only Fischer piece sac that comes to mind is his loss against
Tal in My 60 Memorable Games. [Please don't bother posting all the Fischer
sacrifices you can find!]

Kasparov's games are full of the most unfathomable complications
with pieces, exchanges even queens sometimes on offer in return for
initiative and dynamism. It's not enough to be able to find errors
in Karpov-Kasparov games after months of study, you have to find
Kasparov's errors at the board, with the clock ticking, and a move to
be made every couple of minutes. I don't think Fischer at his peak 
would have been able to cope with Kasparov's style and after so long
out of practise of finding good move after good move quickly, he wouldn't
stand a chance. 

Matt
From: stank@perrault.net.com (Stan Knight)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Fischer rusty?
Date: 27 Jul 92 22:53:51 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Network Equipment Technologies
Originator: stank@perrault




While it is true that Bobby has not made a single PUBLIC appearance in about
2 decades isn't it also true that just a few years ago in a special closed
match he played a round robin with 6 of the top players of the world and came
out 6-0? I remember the Pres. of our local club getting very excited about
this when it happened.

Inquiring mind wants to know!

Stan Knight

Fischer to KO Spassky in the Ohhhh 24th round or so!
From: rezkmah@ducvax.auburn.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Re: Help with FTP of Gnuchess software for Mac
Date: 21 Jul 92 06:13:39 GMT

In article <CMM.0.90.2.711657880.donabedi@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>, donabedi@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (David Donabedian) writes:
> 
> I would appeciate it if someone would tell me the commands to FTP
> Gnuchess 4.0 from prep.ai.mit.edu or export.1cs.mit.edu. After logging
> on anonymously, what must be done? I've been told Gnuchess is available
> for the Mac "in compactor format." In addition, any instructions for
> its installation would also be appreciated. THANKS in advance.--Dave

Hi,
from prep.ai.mit.edu you need to change dir to pub/gnu and get it from there.
I got it last night but cann't get it to run yet.  Any help for running it on
MSDOS is appreciated.  Does it have a source code?
                                                         Thanks,
                                                     Mahmoud A. Rezk
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
From: ceblair@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Charles Blair)
Subject: Chess tournaments held by bad guys
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 18:37:56 GMT

   There are definitely precedents for chess tournaments conducted by evil
regimes, although what you count depends on your definition of evil:

(1) Alekhine, Keres, and probably others played in chess tournaments under
Nazi auspices (Euwe refused to do so)

(2) Some people might consider the 1978 World Championship in the Phillipines
as an example.

(3) Smyslov played a match in Abu Dhabi (I think.  In any case, I must admit
this isn't a really strong example)

(4) Lasker wrote during World War I about Germany ``On our side fight 
morality and science.''

(5) Reshevsky and Fine played in tournaments in Russia in the middle 30's,
when the purges were in progress.

(6) There was a big uproar over attempts to bar Quinteros from tournaments
after he played in South Africa.

   I would be curious as to whether Fischer's playing would actually violate
any laws.  This is not the same as shipping arms or computers.
From: cfc@isr.harvard.edu (Christopher F. Chabris)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Re: New computer rules from FIDE
Date: 30 Jul 92 14:31:16 GMT
Distribution: rec
Organization: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

sje@xylos.ma30.bull.com writes:

>I've just received my copy of the 1992.06 _ICCA Journal_ (v.15/n.2)
>and I note a brief article at the bottom of page 102.  Entitled "STOP
>PRESS: New FIDE Ruling", it reports on some results of the 1992.06
>FIDE Congress in Manila that deal with computer participation in
>tournaments.  
>
>[I assume that only FIDE supervised or FIDE rated events are subject
>to the following rulings.]

That would be logical.

>The four points are:
>
>1) Computers may only play in tournaments if the computer manufacturer
>has paid a standard registration fee to FIDE.
>
>[I assume this applies similarly to software-only companies.  I am not
>sure how this affects non-commercial researchers; are they prohibited?
>Do they have a separate fee schedule?  What happens to the money?]

According to Carol Jarecki (International Arbiter), who was at the FIDE 
Congress, the fee will be $20,000. I was dismayed but not surprised.

-Chris