ICC News Item #1249

NEWS 1249 (30-Aug-99)
Praise for ICC's broadcast of FIDE Championships

"Mig" discusses Game 3 of Khalifman-Akopian and praises the ICC
broadcast and Grandmaster commentary of the game in his chess
column:

"Another factor contributes to my not sharing Salov's exuberance about
this endgame, perhaps unfairly. I watched game three live on the
Internet Chess Club along with several hundred other fans. They had
GM Peter Svidler there to provide commentary and the young St.
Petersburg star was a big hit with both his wit and top-quality
analysis. To complete this embarrassment of riches, GMs Alexei Shirov
and Jonathan Speelman also contributed! Shirov, along with Salov the
greatest endgame player of his generation, and Svidler presented some
fantastic lines for the edification and entertainment of the eager
audience. Thus it became clear to one at all fairly early on, even if
it wasn't clear to Akopian and Khalifman, that the ending was drawn!
So we just assumed that the players at the board would find what our
super-GM analysts made look so easy! Of course the players in Las Vegas
didn't have the advantage of an analysis board to check lines on, and
it always seems easier to see things when it's not your clock that's
ticking... Plus, as I pointed out at the time it was probably the first
time in history to have analysts ranked higher than the participants
in a FIDE championship match. But if you check out Salov's analysis
you'll see Akopian deserves accolades for continually creating
pitfalls for Black."

Courtesy of Michael "Mig" Greengard
mig@chessdev.com
http://www.clubkasparov.co.il

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