Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Pavlovian

In an interview with Janis Nisii for Torre & Cavallo Scacco!, No. 7-8, July-August 2008, pp. 14-19, the “unnumbered” former World Chess Champion Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov, among other matters, gave his opinions about Fischerandom chess (a.k.a. chess960):

— What do you think of variants like chess960?
— For me, it is indifferent, but the problem with Fischerandom is for the mass of non-professional players. There are many players who don’t have too much time to study chess, but for example they have their Sicilian and with Fischerandom they could no longer play it. For me it’s fine, we professionals would adapt, but I doubt amateurs can do the same. Ordinary players want to go to the club on Saturday and play the French or the Sicilian. It would be a great tragedy for them because they do not want to lose their French!