After replacing the hard drive on my laptop I managed to get the ancient Fritz 12 and Aquarium 2014 up and running off the old hard drive, but didn’t bother trying to get Chess Assistant running. I never liked CA because even the most mundane tasks, such as saving a new game, was too convoluted to bother with. Besides it used to crash occasionally.
After an hour or so fiddling with Aquarium I finally managed to figure out how to do all the basic stuff. I like the interface, but still prefer trusty old and easy to use Fritz 12.
I considered maybe upgrading to Fritz 16...the downloadable basic version sells for $80, but has a bunch of bells and whistles I am not interested in. Besides that, a number of reviewers were complaining that it was a bit buggy. In the final analysis Fritz 12 coupled with Stockfish is still the best.
Another bit of time was spent on New In Chess looking to see what was new in the world of chess books, specifically game collections and tournaments. As usual there were a ton of opening books...not interested.
Gata Kamsky - Chess Gamer, Volume 1: The Awakening 1989-1996, My Magic Years with Topalov by Romain Edouard, Learn from Michal Krasenkow and The Chelyabinsk Meteorite: Selected Games of Igor Kurnosov were some of the most recent publications. The price of these books run about $30 which is, in my opinion, rather steep otherwise I might be interested in having a couple of game collections by today’s GMs.
Who is Igor Kurnosov, I asked. It turns out he was a Russian GM who was youth champion, a member of the Russian national team that won the world student team championship and the Tomsk-400 team that finished first at the Russian championship. He won or placed highly at dozens of international tournaments. He was born May 30, 1985. On August 8, 2013 a report was published by the press service of the Russian Interior Ministry that at 2:45am a 20-year-old girl who had been driving for 14 months and driving a Ford Fiesta hit two pedestrians crossing the street in Chelyabins, Kurnosov’s hometown. He died on the spot. The other victim, a 42-year-old man, was taken to the hospital in serious condition. Kurnosov had just returned from an open tournament in Biel.
Who is going to pay over $1,100 for this chess set?!
There was a sign in the library around the corner advertising the meeting of the chess club on Wednesdays at 4pm. Nobody was there. Here in Butt Crack we haven’t had any chess players since the Fischer Boom when 20-30 players showed up at the Family YMCA on Friday nights. The Y has been closed for a couple of decades. Apparently chess players weren’t the only ones who quit showing up.
There’s a place called Ethiriel Photography Art Collections where you can browse and shop their chess art collection which is a pretty interesting. Who wouldn't want this picture hanging in their living room?
While browsing old issues of the West Virginia Chess Bulletin the following miniature from the state’s 1949 junior championship caught my attention. The championship was dominated by by a fellow named Charles Morgan who scored a perfect 5-0. The two players in this game tied for 3rd and 4th with scores of 3-2 in the 10-player event.
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