IBM super-computer with 8792 processors!

[Hood]

haha topalov the moral winner.
that really made my day.

I'm glad anand had the last laugh after the whole volcanic ash incident and the response from the organizers. To quote (http://letters.chessdom.com/bcf-statement-anand-topalov):

".....The organizers and the journalists in Bulgaria were bitterly disappointed of the attitude of the world champion V.Anand, but we accepted it as a part of the 'playing on the nerves game'..."
"...we are bitterly disappointed by his derogatory actions and attitude towards the organizers. All problems that emerge should be resolved in dialogue with shown understanding from all sides, and not in the form of pressure.... "

That is nice you will have a good day. I think next time India will organize the WCM for 2 000 000 Euro and will have to wait for pretendent who is not able to go by car 1500 km and needs 3 days to take such the decision.

The Anand behaviour in that situation showed his helpless in non standard circumstances and i had thought he would losed the match because he was afraid of Topalov.

I doubt if without Kasparov, Carlsen and Kramnik help he would win that match.

[Hood]

This article is fascinating in so many ways.

Three of the world's very best/top chess players - Kasparov, Carlson, and Kramnik - all gave their personal help to Anand. And Kasparov and Kramnik both helped Anand *during* the match via phone calls and Skype.

Knowledge that 'personal support facts' and the result of the match makes Topalov moral winner of the match, is not it ?

Alone versus the clan.

Topalov lost pure and simple. There's no moral victory just ignominious defeat.

You do not know or do not understand about what I wrote .

[sockmonkey]

This article is fascinating in so many ways.

Three of the world's very best/top chess players - Kasparov, Carlson, and Kramnik - all gave their personal help to Anand. And Kasparov and Kramnik both helped Anand *during* the match via phone calls and Skype.

Knowledge that 'personal support facts' and the result of the match makes Topalov moral winner of the match, is not it ?

Alone versus the clan.

Topalov lost pure and simple. There's no moral victory just ignominious defeat.

You do not know or do not understand about what I wrote .

It's difficult to understand where you're coming from. Topalov spends 10s of thousands of dollars for the use of a cluster and gets a special dispensation from the government of Bulgaria for the use of Deep Gene in order to out-compute his opponent in preparation. Anand talks to his friends. I'd call that even-steven. Ultimately, they both were alone at the board, and the best man won.

Jeremy

[Terry McCracken]

This article is fascinating in so many ways.

Three of the world's very best/top chess players - Kasparov, Carlson, and Kramnik - all gave their personal help to Anand. And Kasparov and Kramnik both helped Anand *during* the match via phone calls and Skype.

Knowledge that 'personal support facts' and the result of the match makes Topalov moral winner of the match, is not it ?

Alone versus the clan.

Topalov lost pure and simple. There's no moral victory just ignominious defeat.

You do not know or do not understand about what I wrote .

Your hero, Topalov is a loser.

[Hood]

This article is fascinating in so many ways.

Three of the world's very best/top chess players - Kasparov, Carlson, and Kramnik - all gave their personal help to Anand. And Kasparov and Kramnik both helped Anand *during* the match via phone calls and Skype.

Knowledge that 'personal support facts' and the result of the match makes Topalov moral winner of the match, is not it ?

Alone versus the clan.

Topalov lost pure and simple. There's no moral victory just ignominious defeat.

You do not know or do not understand about what I wrote .

It's difficult to understand where you're coming from. Topalov spends 10s of thousands of dollars for the use of a cluster and gets a special dispensation from the government of Bulgaria for the use of Deep Gene in order to out-compute his opponent in preparation. Anand talks to his friends. I'd call that even-steven. Ultimately, they both were alone at the board, and the best man won.

Jeremy

Anand was having access to 64 core system. So the access to the Gene computer is not big advantage as it is university computer busy with other tasks.
Kasparov, Kramnik, Carlsen do have access to the strong computers either, so KK help during the match was not only by words but by variants either, most probably and that breaks the rule of the match.

It is the 1st case when the top players are involved in the WCC match (individual !) as supporters and it is the bad case.
If the unwritten rule is broken 1st time it will be broken next time for sure
and it will be the end of individual championship.

Now we could say that we have the 'group' champion Anand-Kramnik-Kasparov who faced Topalov.
Next time Topalov or other Anand oponent shall invite Wang-Yue, Ivanchuk, Aronian etc. for his team.

It will be the 'real individual' championship.

[sockmonkey]

This article is fascinating in so many ways.

Three of the world's very best/top chess players - Kasparov, Carlson, and Kramnik - all gave their personal help to Anand. And Kasparov and Kramnik both helped Anand *during* the match via phone calls and Skype.

Knowledge that 'personal support facts' and the result of the match makes Topalov moral winner of the match, is not it ?

Alone versus the clan.

Topalov lost pure and simple. There's no moral victory just ignominious defeat.

You do not know or do not understand about what I wrote .

It's difficult to understand where you're coming from. Topalov spends 10s of thousands of dollars for the use of a cluster and gets a special dispensation from the government of Bulgaria for the use of Deep Gene in order to out-compute his opponent in preparation. Anand talks to his friends. I'd call that even-steven. Ultimately, they both were alone at the board, and the best man won.

Jeremy

Anand was having access to 64 core system. So the access to the Gene computer is not big advantage as it is university computer busy with other tasks.
Kasparov, Kramnik, Carlsen do have access to the strong computers either, so KK help during the match was not only by words but by variants either, most probably and that breaks the rule of the match.

It is the 1st case when the top players are involved in the WCC match (individual !) as supporters and it is the bad case.
If the unwritten rule is broken 1st time it will be broken next time for sure
and it will be the end of individual championship.

Now we could say that we have the 'group' champion Anand-Kramnik-Kasparov who faced Topalov.
Next time Topalov or other Anand oponent shall invite Wang-Yue, Ivanchuk, Aronian etc. for his team.

It will be the 'real individual' championship.

Your logic assumes that either participant in the match has either a perfect memory, or remote access to his hardware/friends during the games. Sorry that your guy lost, but lose he did, in a very close match.

Jeremy

[BubbaTough]

Its nice to see that being a nice, trusting, and pleasant person is sometimes rewarded. It is certainly not always the case...a glance at the list of previous world champions show that only a couple of times has a pleasant person genuinely liked (not just admired) by his peers made it to the top.

Anand was offered all that help because he is a good person and people like him. What better reason could there be? In response to their offers he handed them over huge portions of his preparation, a very trusting act. Note that this included likely future rivals in the next world championship match. The guy is a class act, and while "pleasant and trusting" does not always win (or even usually) over "suspicious and confrontational", its nice when it does.

-Sam

[Terry McCracken]

Its nice to see that being a nice, trusting, and pleasant person is sometimes rewarded. It is certainly not always the case...a glance at the list of previous world champions show that only a couple of times has a pleasant person genuinely liked (not just admired) by his peers made it to the top.

Anand was offered all that help because he is a good person and people like him. What better reason could there be? In response to their offers he handed them over huge portions of his preparation, a very trusting act. Note that this included likely future rivals in the next world championship match. The guy is a class act, and while "pleasant and trusting" does not always win (or even usually) over "suspicious and confrontational", its nice when it does.

-Sam

Very well said, Sam! No one can take that away from Anand and the right man is still World Chess Champion.

[lmader]

Its nice to see that being a nice, trusting, and pleasant person is sometimes rewarded. It is certainly not always the case...a glance at the list of previous world champions show that only a couple of times has a pleasant person genuinely liked (not just admired) by his peers made it to the top.

Anand was offered all that help because he is a good person and people like him. What better reason could there be? In response to their offers he handed them over huge portions of his preparation, a very trusting act. Note that this included likely future rivals in the next world championship match. The guy is a class act, and while "pleasant and trusting" does not always win (or even usually) over "suspicious and confrontational", its nice when it does.

-Sam

Very well said, Sam! No one can take that away from Anand and the right man is still World Chess Champion.

Yes, you've expressed the point here very well! Thank you.

[Hood]

This article is fascinating in so many ways.

Three of the world's very best/top chess players - Kasparov, Carlson, and Kramnik - all gave their personal help to Anand. And Kasparov and Kramnik both helped Anand *during* the match via phone calls and Skype.

Knowledge that 'personal support facts' and the result of the match makes Topalov moral winner of the match, is not it ?

Alone versus the clan.

Topalov lost pure and simple. There's no moral victory just ignominious defeat.

You do not know or do not understand about what I wrote .

It's difficult to understand where you're coming from. Topalov spends 10s of thousands of dollars for the use of a cluster and gets a special dispensation from the government of Bulgaria for the use of Deep Gene in order to out-compute his opponent in preparation. Anand talks to his friends. I'd call that even-steven. Ultimately, they both were alone at the board, and the best man won.

Jeremy

Anand was having access to 64 core system. So the access to the Gene computer is not big advantage as it is university computer busy with other tasks.
Kasparov, Kramnik, Carlsen do have access to the strong computers either, so KK help during the match was not only by words but by variants either, most probably and that breaks the rule of the match.

It is the 1st case when the top players are involved in the WCC match (individual !) as supporters and it is the bad case.
If the unwritten rule is broken 1st time it will be broken next time for sure
and it will be the end of individual championship.

Now we could say that we have the 'group' champion Anand-Kramnik-Kasparov who faced Topalov.
Next time Topalov or other Anand oponent shall invite Wang-Yue, Ivanchuk, Aronian etc. for his team.

It will be the 'real individual' championship.

Your logic assumes that either participant in the match has either a perfect memory, or remote access to his hardware/friends during the games. Sorry that your guy lost, but lose he did, in a very close match.

Jeremy

My guy ? May be... let it be.

My logic is not assuming the access during the games but that the role of the preparation is extremly high now and is deciding factor . The good novelty equals the point in the match. 3 good novelties and match is over.

The way Anand prepared and performed the match is questioning the individual attribute of the title.

Lets say in correspondence play - computer aided - the player gets additional consultations from other top players . It is fair or not ?

There the player was getting consultations during the match - i.e. novelties.

rgds Hood