Nakamura Breaks Out

The New York Knights beat the Queens Pioneers in the US Chess League when Hikaru Nakamura, the White Plains wonder, broke the Nakamura paradox and won his first game as a Knight. Maybe it was the inspiration teammate Jay Bonin provided when he arrived at the Marshall Chess Club donning a shield and sword and shouting, “Go Knights!” New York still has a chance to reach the playoffs. The Knights played their match early this week. The other teams play tonight.

The new world chess champion Vishy Anand said yesterday that he hopes to see chess as an Olympic sport. Now, I too would welcome all the attention chess might get if it were part of the Olympic games. But, as one wag said, “I don’t consider something to be a sport if I can do it better while smoking.”

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Russia Loses the World Chess Championship

For the first time since Bobby Fischer, a non-Russian player has become the undisputed chess champion of the world. Last night in Mexico City, the Indian phenom Viswanathan Anand, age 37, was crowned world champion, after emerging as the high scorer with nine points out of 14 in a double round robin against seven other super grandmasters. He did not lose a single game in Mexico City.

(By some counts, this was the second time Anand had won the title; in 2000 he won the championship of FIDE, the World Chess Federation, but the legitimacy of the title was in dispute because a splinter organization, the Professional Chess Association, had its own world champion.)