Compiled by WMD

Igor Stohl has selected 50 outstanding games from recent years and analyzed them in painstaking depth.

"We were in the fifth hour. He was lost, ruined, not a chance! I knew it, he knew it. But he sat there —almost an hour! —calculating, calculating, calculating! Inside he was screaming. He was pale, like a dead man, but this force was going through him like millions of volts. I could feel it smashing and smashing at me across the board. Well, it had an effect, I can tell you that. Five or ten minutes—all right. But an hour! In the end, I was the one screaming inside. When you play Bobby, it is not a question if you win or lose. It is a question if you survive." —Boris Spassky after defeating Bobby Fischer at the Siegen Olympiad in 1970

Here is what Vladimir Kramnik has to say:
"Botvinnik's example and teaching established the modern approach to preparing for competitive chess: regular but moderate physical exercise; analysing very thoroughly a relatively narrow repertoire of openings; annotating one's own games, those of past great players and those of competitors; publishing one's annotations so that others can point out any errors; studying strong opponents to discover their strengths and weaknesses; ruthless objectivity about one's own strengths and weaknesses."

"Reading can take you places you have never been before." — Dr. Seuss

Apr-13-63 Congratulations to one of the greatest chess players who ever lived! It is incredulous that Garry Kasparov celebrates his 60th birthday today. He played five of the best games in the history of the royal game: 1. A. Karpov - G. Kasparov, Moscow (m/16) 1985; 2. G. Kasparov - V. Topalov, Wijk aan Zee 1999; 3. A. Karpov - G. Kasparov, Linares 1993;
4. G. Kasparov - V. Anand, New York (m/10) 1995; 5. G. Kasparov - L. Portisch, Niksic 1983.

Kasparov's Evan's Gambit game against V. Anand is one of his most reprinted games in Russian chess literature: Kasparov vs Anand, 1995.

Al the ventriloquist is performing with his dummy on his lap. He's telling a dumb-blonde joke when a young platinum-haired beauty jumps to her feet.

"What gives you the right to stereotype blondes that way?" she demands. "What does hair color have to do with my worth as a human being?"

Flustered, Al the ventriloquist begins to stammer out an apology.

"You keep out of this!" she yells. "I'm talking to that little jerk on your knee!"

— Submitted by Nancy Gomes