Chess champ takes on 20 opponents at Hay
May 25 2008 Media Wales
Former chess grandmaster Boris Spassky will today take on 20 opponents simultaneously – including one in Antarctica.
Spassky will take up the challenge at the Hay Festival, in mid Wales.
And, with Antarctica 8,000 miles away, it will be the longest distance live chess match ever attempted.
Spassky’s on-line opponent on the continent will be Ian McNab, a field technician with the British Antarctic Survey based on the Rothera Research Station.
His other 19 opponents, who include comedian Dom Joly, Liberal Democrat Welsh Assembly Member Peter Black, and a number of the area’s leading child chess prodigies, will play him in person.
Mr MacNab, 52, from Manchester, said: “I am not very optimistic. I would describe myself as an amateur, but I was quite good as a teenager. I don’t think that Boris has much to be afraid of.”
The former outdoor pursuits instructor is part of a British team of 21 scientists and experts who are undertaking a long-term monitoring of environmental and maritime changes in the region.
Their next physical contact with the outside world will not take place until the arrival of a supply ship in October 2008.
Spassky, a 71-year-old Russian, became grandmaster at the age of 18 and proceeded to win the Soviet Chess Championship twice.
He was in the world’s top ten players for most of the years between the mid 50s and the mid 80s.
The simultaneous chess match will take place at 6pm at Richard Booth’s Bookshop, in Lion Street, Hay-On-Wye.
The challenge pre-emts the former world number one’s talk at the annual literary festival tomorrow about his famous loss to Bobby Fischer, in Reykjavik, at the height of the Cold War in 1972.
Source of article : HERE …
We visited Wales a few years ago and I wanted to travel back through this “town of books”…Hay-on-Wye…and on THIS LINK
Hay Castle is where the “Honesty Bookshop” is…where you pay 50p per book and you can see the slot on my first pic for the money!
…and this is the bookshop! image:travel.nytimes.com
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
Please click HERE to visit the website of “Hay-On-Wey”…the “town of books”…
Chessalee 
Oe kyk hierdie boeke, hier sal ek feeste hê..
😉 jy sal behoorlik feeste he in hierdie dorpie…ek dink daar is iets soos 48 boekwinkels! enetjie het ons gesien toe ons so hele ent al uit die dorpie was…direk langs die pad… as mens soontoe gaan moet jy beslis ‘n dag afstaan vir net in daardie winkeltjies rondhang en boeke kyk/lees..en geniet.
48 ?? mens sal net in daardie dorpie wil kuier. Jy kan jou hele vakansie om lees. En vir my is dit die ideale vakansie. Stilte, rus, ‘n boek en moenie die Lindt sjokelade vergeet nie 😉
😉 dan moet jy definitief by die plekkie uitkom! sommige van daardie winkeltjies is net bietjie beknop…en boeke (oues in sommige winkels) is vreeslik opgestapel… en dit kan nogal ‘n frustrasie wees as jy plek soek om te sit en boeke deur te gaan…’n stoel of so iets… ek wil natuurlik altyd plat op die grond sit en na boeke kyk..ek soek spasie…ek wil nie heeltyd staan nie…;)