Monday, November 07, 2005

Up Yours Sergey

In "Just Checking" section of NIC no. 7, the Soviet-born Dutchman, Sergey Tiviakov had this to say when asked, "What will be the number one chess country in the world 10 years from now":

Nothing will change in the current hierarchy. Russia will remain one of the strongest countries in the world because of the deep chess culture, as will Ukraine, probably. China, India and other chess developing countries have no chess culture and will not be strong enough to break the hegemony of the present leading chess countries.

While Russia, as well as the long established chess powers of Europe, will definitely remain at the top, it is hard to believe the claim that neither India nor China will break that hegemony. Of course this is just nonesense.

Their internal politics notwithstanding, the ambition of the AICF is enormous. And with Anand being one of that country's leading stars, chess is as popular as ever. Plus, only days ago, Harikrishna clinched the Essent title and is well and truly on the path to super-GM status which can only further heat the attraction for chess.

As for China, well, who's leading Beer Sheva then? Up yours Sergey!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the real problem with you is that you are too young. In 10 years time you will understand that things do not change quickly. Look at the top 50, how many chinese can you see? In 10 years they will at most double. It is not good enough, is it??

The Closet Grandmaster said...

I understand you are Russian. But just as the Soviet hegemon was defeated and so will the might of Mother Russia. It has of course already began. Did not your country finish 14th in Euro Teams. Well of course they did, didn't they? All hail China!