My last blog before going on vacation! China wins chess Olympiad with India finishing third. China becomes the first Asian country to win what is essentially the world team championship in chess. It is also the first time two Asian countries medal in the same Olympiad. This has to be very frustrating to Russia as it finishes fourth and has failed to win the championship for 4 straight times! Russia in chess is like the U.S. in basketball. Their number 5 player is better than most teams' number one. Sure a Bobby Fisher can beat any Russian but in a team competition over 11 rounds of play, you would think they cannot lose. In fact China did not send 3 of its top 5 players, including their number 1. So Russia's number 5 is ranked higher than Wang Yue, who played first board for China in this championship. India is also missing its top 2 players, including its former world champion! So how did this happened? I have no idea. But with this result, you can bet there will be a surge in chess in China, India and maybe other places in Asia.
First night on the NBA schedule: Houston at Lakers. I did not know that the NBA wants to give Jeremy Lin a chance at revenge so fast! Well, Lin vs Rockets is not the top story line here. How about Kobe vs Dwight after they parted ways last season? Or Kobe vs Harden since Kobe is upset that people are saying Harden is the best SG in the NBA. Looking forward to opening night on TNT!
Now that the Tigers have traded for Price and Soria, they just need couple more starting pitchers and couple more relievers and they can maybe catch the Royals!
Thursday, August 14, 2014
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How the heck do you follow world championship chess? I've never heard of such a thing! I am surprised that the Asians haven't done better.
ReplyDeleteSo, is there a world Chinese Checkers competition I don't know about? And what do they call Chinese Checkers in China? Checkers?
I might have to watch a couple of NBA games this year! Sounds like a great matchup on that first day. Hopefully everyone will be healthy and ready to go.
I wonder if the Tigers will get a break with their pitching this year. Of course, they've had some great pitching performances this year but the offense could not score runs.
Have a great vacation.
-LBOAYM
I have been following chess on and off since playing on my high school team. That was the time Bobby Fisher inspired a surge in chess in the U.S. But the USSR or Russia had won 24 of 26 Olympiad between 1952 and 2002. And one of the two they didn't win was their boycott of playing in Israel. So that is why their losses in the last 4 Olympiad are so surprising. Armenia had won the last two before this year. So it is still Eastern Europe domination till this year. Even the U.S. Teams are generally made up of Armenians or Jews from Russia. The big exception is the number 1 player Nakamura, whom I presume is Japanese American.
ReplyDeleteChinese has a game called Xiangqi which is similar in difficulty to chess. But since hardly anyone else play it, winning the world championship doesn't bring much pride to China. So they will probably concentrate more on chess. But it will be awhile before they catch up to Russia, Ukraine and Armenia in the number of great players. But I am sure more money will be poured into chess by the government after this victory.
What is happening to Cabrera? Since playoff last year, his power has decreased. Still lingering injury?