Putin assassinates Fischer, reinstates Red Square Parades

[MKSheppard]

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Russia revives military boast of Soviet days

January 18, 2008

By David R. Sands - Reviving yet another iconic image from Soviet days, Russia's military announced plans to stage a parade of ballistic missiles, tanks and platoons of soldiers this May through the Kremlin's Red Square.

The display of military hardware, the first of its kind since 1990, will be held May 9, the day Russians mark the victory over Germany in World War II, and could coincide with the inauguration of Dmitry Medvedev, close aide to outgoing President Vladimir Putin, as Russia's new leader.

Similar displays, typically held May 1, were a high point of the old Soviet calendar, with leaders such as Josef Stalin and other top Communist Party figures perched on the reviewing stand above Lenin's Tomb to witness the country's military prowess and send a message to the Soviet Union's Cold War adversaries.

The announcement comes at a time of rising tension between Russia and the West, on issues ranging from a planned U.S. missile defense system in Eastern Europe, to human rights to the future of Serbia's Kosovo province. Mr. Putin also has struggled to rebuild Russia's military forces, which deteriorated badly in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse.

"You can't teach an old imperial bear new tricks," said Ariel Cohen, a Russian specialist at the Heritage Foundation. "The current regime's craving for international prestige is as high as the insecurity of its rulers."

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband yesterday accused Moscow of following the old, hostile Soviet pattern in an escalating dispute over Russia's order that two British cultural outreach offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg be shut down. Russia claims the centers are operating illegally, but Mr. Miliband said Russian authorities were trying to intimidate the British employees.

"We saw similar actions during the Cold War, but frankly thought they had been put behind us," Mr. Miliband told the House of Commons.

According to Russia's Interfax news agency, the May 9 parade lineup will include the newest version of the Topol-M SS-27 intercontinental ballistic missile, armored personnel carriers, tanks, and 6,000 troops decked out in a newly designed uniform.

Mr. Putin has made restoring Russian national pride and reclaiming some of its lost international influence central to his presidency.

He revived a reworked version of the old Soviet anthem as Russia's new national anthem and once called the collapse of the old Soviet empire "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century."

With Mr. Putin's endorsement, Mr. Medvedev is expected to win the March 2 presidential vote handily. He already asked Mr. Putin to serve as his prime minister.

The official May Day parades were discontinued after 1990. In recent years, the day has been marked in Moscow and other cities primarily by protest marches by the declining Communist Party and by right-wing nationalist parties.

President Boris Yeltsin began staging military parades — without the weaponry — through Red Square in 1995, the first one marking the 60th anniversary of the Allied victory in Europe.

Pavel Felgenhauer, a Russian military analyst for the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation, said the revived display is one of a number of recent symbolic moves by the country's military. They include the resumption of strategic bomber patrol flights over the Atlantic and Pacific in August and plans for major naval exercises in the Mediterranean for the first time since 1991.

Mr. Felgenhauer noted that the traditional route for the May parade must now be altered in part because of the construction of a new shopping mall.

"One can only hope that ... no ancient building will collapse as tanks and ICBMs roll into central Moscow to serve the vanity of Russia's leaders," he said.

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Reclusive former chess champion Bobby Fischer has died at 64

5 hours ago

REYKJAVIK, Iceland - Bobby Fischer, the reclusive American chess master who became a Cold War icon when he dethroned the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky as world champion in 1972, has died. He was 64.

Fischer died Thursday in a Reykjavik hospital, his spokesman, Gardar Sverrisson, said. There was no immediate word on the cause of death.

Born in Chicago and raised in Brooklyn, Robert James Fischer was a U.S. chess champion at 14 and a grand master at 15. He beat Spassky in a series of games in Reykjavik to claim America's first world chess championship in more than a century.

The event had tremendous symbolic importance, pitting the intensely individualistic young American against a product of what was portrayed in the western media as a grim and soulless Soviet Union.

It also was marked by Fischer's odd behaviour - possibly calculated psychological warfare against Spassky - that ranged from arriving two days late to complaining about the lighting, TV cameras, the spectators, even the shine on the table.

Spassky said in a brief phone call from France, where he lives, that he was "very sorry" to hear of Fischer's death.

Former Russian chess champion Garry Kasparov said Fischer's conquest of the chess world in the 1960s was "a revolutionary breakthrough" for the game.

But Fischer's reputation as a chess genius soon was eclipsed by his idiosyncrasies. He lost his world title in 1975 after refusing to defend it against Anatoly Karpov. He dropped out of competitive chess and largely out of view, emerging occasionally to make erratic and often anti-Semitic comments, although his mother was Jewish.

"The tragedy is that he left this world too early, and his extravagant life and scandalous statements did not contribute to the popularity of chess," Kasparov told The Associated Press.

Fischer lived in secret outside the United States but emerged in 1992 to confront Spassky again, in a highly publicized match in Yugoslavia. Fischer beat Spassky 10-5 to win $3.35 million.

The U.S. government said Fischer's playing the match violated UN sanctions against Yugoslavia, imposed for Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic's role in fomenting war in the Balkans.

Over the years, Fischer gave occasional interviews with a radio station in the Philippines, often digressing into anti-Semitic rants and accusing American officials of hounding him.

He praised the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying America should be "wiped out," and described Jews as "thieving, lying bastards." His mother was Jewish.

He also announced he had abandoned chess in 1996 and launched a new version in Argentina, "Fischerandom," a computerized shuffler that randomly distributes chess pieces on the back row of the board at the start of each game.

Fischer claimed it would bring the fun back into the game and rid it of cheats.

In July 2004, Fischer was arrested in Japan and threatened with extradition to the United States to face sanctions-busting charges. He spent nine months in custody before the dispute was resolved when Iceland - a chess-mad country and site of his greatest triumph - granted him citizenship.

Fischer told reporters that he was finished with a chess world he regarded as corrupt, and sparred with U.S. journalists who asked about his anti-American tirades.

"The United States is evil. There's this axis of evil. What about the allies of evil - the United States, England, Japan, Australia? These are the evildoers," Fischer said.

In his final years, Fischer railed against the chess establishment, alleging that the outcomes of many top-level chess matches were decided in advance.

Instead, he championed his concept of random chess.

"I don't play the old chess," he told reporters upon arrival in Iceland. "But obviously if I did, I would be the best."

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Clearly, Putin ordered the KG...err FSB to assassinate Fischer via yet undetected methods in order to erase the stain of him beating Russians at Chess; and then as he was leaving the office for the day said "Hey, I loved those parades, lets bring them back".

Personally, when I saw the headline in the Times, I Squeed personally; I was too young for the parades; and now they're back! Fun and Nuclear Missiles for the whole family!

[brianeyci]

On one hand the guy (Fischer) is a fucking piece of shit. On the other he is supposed to be one of the greatest chess players ever.

I say fuck him. He's completely overrated. He played 2700 chess, when now there's tons of 2700 players. In his most modern match, Kasparov says in his book Fischer played 2600 chess and it wouldn't be close between him and Fischer. Unlike anti-semitic fiction writers or mysognists, he didn't create anything other than his stupid idea of starting all the chess pieces on the board in a random spot. For example, if George Lucas turned out to be a Nazi (he's not) Star Wars would still have merit, but Fischer didn't make anything. He was just really, really good at doing one thing, and not even the best after pussying out from playing Karpov. Nobody plays his stupid version of chess.

[Vympel]

By David R. Sands - Reviving yet another iconic image from Soviet days, Russia's military announced plans to stage a parade of ballistic missiles, tanks and platoons of soldiers this May through the Kremlin's Red Square.

The display of military hardware, the first of its kind since 1990, will be held May 9, the day Russians mark the victory over Germany in World War II, and could coincide with the inauguration of Dmitry Medvedev, close aide to outgoing President Vladimir Putin, as Russia's new leader.

Similar displays, typically held May 1, were a high point of the old Soviet calendar, with leaders such as Josef Stalin and other top Communist Party figures perched on the reviewing stand above Lenin's Tomb to witness the country's military prowess and send a message to the Soviet Union's Cold War adversaries.

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FUCK YEAH.

In celebration of this glorious turn of events, we can look forward to this sort of thing:-

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[Terralthra]

On one hand the guy (Fischer) is a fucking piece of shit. On the other he is supposed to be one of the greatest chess players ever.

I say fuck him. He's completely overrated. He played 2700 chess, when now there's tons of 2700 players. In his most modern match, Kasparov says in his book Fischer played 2600 chess and it wouldn't be close between him and Fischer.

That's a fundamental misunderstanding of Elo. Rankings can not be compared from different time periods, as they are relative to other players at the same time. The Kasparov quote is again, comparing different eras of chess. Kasparov is free to brag about how much better he is than Fischer, but they never played, and they haven't played enough of the same people for their relative rankings to matter, and Kasparov's estimation of Fischer's ranking means jack and shit.

[Sidewinder]

He praised the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying America should be "wiped out," and described Jews as "thieving, lying bastards." His mother was Jewish.

I searched Yahoo! for articles on the possibility that Fischer's mother abused him, and found nothing. Did the guy ever explain why he hated Jewish people?

[The Jester]

I say fuck him. He's completely overrated. He played 2700 chess, when now there's tons of 2700 players.

The reason for this is more to do with elo inflation, which is a well established phenomena.

[K. A. Pital]

Hahaha. Very funny. Thanks Shep. Lightened up my rather heavy days this year...

[Surlethe]

I searched Yahoo! for articles on the possibility that Fischer's mother abused him, and found nothing. Did the guy ever explain why he hated Jewish people?

Fischer was a crazy bastard. At one point, he lived out in a secluded religious community; he in fact donated all of the money he won from the 1972 championship to that community. Then, when (surprise!) corruption of the leadership was revealed, he got super-pissed and left. The man, though he was a chessplaying machine, wasn't rational.

[brianeyci]

I'm well aware of Elo inflation. But what makes you guys think that Elo inflation isn't due to a fundamental increase in skill? Fischer didn't have the Internet, games were played through the mail, and they played less games. Meanwhile now, like the current Indian chessmaster trained, you can train on chess engines and memorize whole books of opening moves, and play grand masters on the Internet.

If that makes players now better than before, because they train with better tools, then so be it.

I am also well aware that Elo is supposed to be a statistical system, not an awards based system. But if the curve moved and people are more skilled now, then too bad. If it was a true statistical system it would have an upper limit, with the top chess player in the world equal to that limit. But it isn't, and there is an element of award in there because if you play more and win, you get more rating.

[OmegaGuy]

Fischer was a great player. I've studied his games (considering I am a chess enthusiast myself). He was the youngest person ever to win the US Championship, and he was the youngest to attain the International Grandmaster title (before it was cheapened by FIDE). He was the only person ever to win a US championship without losing or drawing a single game, and his 6-0 victories over Mark Taimanov and Bent Larsen in the Candidates' matches have never been equaled.

I still don't think he was the best player of all time (I'd judge Tal, Morphy, and Kasparov to be better), but he was certainly incredible.

Also, people do play Fischer Random chess (aka Chess960). It is very popular on many internet playing sites, and there are even live tournaments and events for it.

Fischer was simply a nutcase towards the end of his life - it's not unheard of among chess players (eg. Morphy and Steinitz).

[Surlethe]

I'm well aware of Elo inflation. But what makes you guys think that Elo inflation isn't due to a fundamental increase in skill?

Did you miss the part where Terralthra said that you can't use Elo ratings to compare different eras of chessplaying? Ultimately, Elo ratings are to compare players of a given time period because there's no good data on how much of the average increase is inflation and how much is actual skill increase.