Archive for May 7th, 2009

The debate on whether to increase the rate of change of the Elo list continues. Today we received an interesting letter from Ken Thompson, the father of Unix and C, and a pioneer of computer chess. Ken believes that the current rating system isn’t broken and that the status quo is better than change. If anything the ratings should be published more often – every day if possible. Food for thought.

The current and the former World Champions, Anand and Kramnik, lead the “Rest
of the World”, with two further 2700+ players, Shirov and Karjakin, completing
the team. The “Azeris” are fielding three 2700+ players, Radjabov,
Gashimov and Mamedyarov. Erounds of rapid chess, with live coverage on the official
site, on Playchess and
on our news page. Enjoy!

A chess grandmaster has won a seat in the Indonesian senate – no mean achievement in a country of 237 million people. Indonesia is the world’s third-largest democracy, the world’s largest archipelagic state, and home to the world’s largest Muslim population. The news of Adianto’s election will be officially announced on May 9th. Pictorial report by Casto Abundo.