Woohoo !.. Congratulations to Peter Heine :) , and best wishes from an Anand fan !

http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp... (last picture)

<< Jan-26-12 toebone: And this is how Michael Adams met me: yes, it really was that way around. Back in 1979 I played in an away league match for St Ives against Falmouth. At the time my BCF grade was about 185, the highest in Cornish league chess (ex-international Peter H Clarke lived in the county but rarely played in league matches). I helped, through coaching and controlling, Cornish juniors.

After winning my individual match game I was approached by a man who asked me if I'd play his son - as sometimes happened when I visited clubs, so I thought little of it.

An hour or so later it was time to go; whether it was Michael's bedtime or my car passengers were all waiting I'm not sure. To my embarrassment, the position was very level after perhaps 20 utterly sensible moves on each side.

As I drove out of Falmouth, I said to my passengers who were teasing me about drawing with an infant, "I'm either going senile, or I've just played a genius". You can imagine what they initially said, but I told them the moves and a hush came over the car with two other BCF 170+ players sharing my view that indeed a possible chess genius was living in Falmouth. Michael (I can't get used to "Mickey") had never before this game with me played anyone graded over about 140. As we watched him develop his chess we always remarked what an extraordinary talent he had for knowing the best squares for his pieces and his natural ability to understand pawn structures: it all seemed so desperately and infuriatingly easy.

Robin Kneebone

"You may have the bishop pair but I have the ultimate advantage; I am the better player!"

"If you meet the right girl, it won't really matter that you're a chess player."

"The thing I find most surprising is that such a stupid-looking move can be so strong." (on 5.f3 in the Benko Gambit 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6)

"I don't think I will ever earn my living from chess --- I think I'll have a job and play chess in my spare time."

"I enjoy the competitive challenge and the deceptive complexity of the game." (on chess)

"I've never understood these players who lose but then say they enjoyed it because it was an interesting game...I mean, chess is a competitive game and the result is what you play for. If I lose then I'm not happy."

"When I win I've had fun."

"After a defeat, I use a different pen for the next game (if I can find one)."

"Tal was a lot of fun and a class act on and off the board. I was very happy that I got to play him a couple of times."

"When I was younger I read about David Bronstein and his various world championship tussles without ever really expecting to play him." (in Adams-Bronstein London Nat West Young Masters 1989 game)

"My career has not by any means been full of powerful opening novelties or heavily analysed theoretical systems --- in fact just the opposite!"

"I'm not interested in beauty too much when I'm playing; I'm just looking to win the game."

"I think I'm sort of an all-round player and that's perhaps my greatest strength."

"I sleep a lot more during tournaments than I do when I'm not playing."

"If you work harder for something, you enjoy it more."

<No, I think you're the right person to ask. This claim [that Mickey might be a future world champion] has been made on your behalf. Do you think it's extravagant?

I do actually, yeah. I don't really believe that a Western player has any chance against the Russian machine. When you think about the team that Kasparov has helping him, to assemble a team like this is just not really practical for any Western player.

Is it a question of help? If you had a trainer, a training machine, backup, support - would this make a crucial difference to you?

I don't know really. I mean, I think chess is really all a question of openings - everything stems from this. You really need to do immense analysis, not just on a few openings; you need to be able to play the whole range of openings. I think this is the most important part and you need people helping you with this. Maybe just analysing and then, like, showing you their analysis - this would be quite a big advantage, one feels.

Do you work with anyone at the moment?

Well I worked with Jules [Julian Hodgson] last week (laughs). We actually did quite a good bit of analysis but it only sort of lasted for a day, because then we got a bit sidetracked, as one would expect really (chuckle).

[...]

I don't know really. Well, I think I'd have to change my lifestyle and my personality to become World Champion. I'd have to really want it more than anything else and I'm not sure that I do.

[...]

I suppose I'm quite a relaxed guy really. I tend to take things as they come and nothing's really worth taking that seriously, one feels. You have to go with the flow.

[...]

Any other hobbies?

No, I'm quite a firm believer in not really doing very much, actually. The thing is, if I could spend all day, I could put in some serious chess study, or I could just sort of sit there and watch some rubbish on television, or listen to some music and the thing is... I just end up doing absolutely nothing (laughs).

Describe a typical Michael Adams day in Truro, Cornwall [before he moved to London].