Re: "Kasparov Retains Title on a Draw":

In article
<3f9d70e3-922f-4ca8-bdeb-b8347d7aa2fb@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
Rich Hutnik  <richardhutnik@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>How many organized s****ts have players playing 24 games?

	It rather depends what you call a "game".  Tennis in the
form of a 5-set match between reasonably even players can easily
go to 60+ games;  professional golf tournaments are commonly held
over 72 holes;  bowls matches used to be held over a large number
of ends, but fairly recently switched to shorter sets;  boxing
matches used [esp in the bare-knuckle era] to consist of a large
number of rounds, but Elf'n'Safety has cut that down.  A fairly
direct "equivalent" to chess is the snooker world champion****p,
being held currently, where the early rounds are over 19 frames,
and matches get longer until the final is [IIRC] 35 frames.

> [...] Someone please tell me
>exactly what reigning world champions do to help the growth of chess?

	Well, at least in principle, it gives us a focus -- the WC
has a certain amount of authority to speak for chess, eg to talk
to governments, to raise money, to improve conditions for [eg]
former professionals fallen on hard times, etc., etc.  The same
could be said of the FIDE President.  In the days when the former
was undisputed and the latter was of undisputed probity, this was
clearly a force for good.

>If nothing, why not end up not having one, if allows chess to to make
>needed changes.

	Perhaps.  Tennis and golf are two s****ts that manage without
a WC [and boxing manages with lots].

>		  As I see it, the reigning chess champion is known by
>next to no one outside the chess world.

	I suspect he is known by quite a lot of people who have no
connexion with or interest in chess, but who happen to be Indian.
I admit that in Europe he is probably less well known than were
Kasparov, Fischer and Capablanca;  but the actual weight of numbers
may well be in favour of the current holder.

[...]
>As far as unlimited number of games go, are they going to hold the
>world champion****p in the FIDE headquarters?  Please tell me how
>exactly you will be able to have a location to have the tournament for
>MONTHS?

	That, of course, was the problem with KK1.  A match that
started with fanfares and grandeur in the best venue in Moscow
finished in a telephone box somewhere in the suburbs in front of
two men and a dog.

-- 
Andy Walker
Nottingham