btw...

"When you play the Ruy López, it's like milking a cow."

And, in case you didn't know, Bronstein's quote was addressed to Fischer in reference to his great scoring percentage with the Ruy López

You must be a native Spanish speaker. For those that are not and may not know (and probably don't care), when pronouncing Spanish words ending in a vowel, "n", or "s" the emphasis is normally on the next to the last syllable and when pronouncing Spanish words ending in a consonant, not "n" or "s", the emphasis is normally on the last syllable. If for some reason the desired emphasis breaks these rules, then an accent mark is placed where the emphasis should be.

So "Lopez" without an accent mark would be pronounced "Lo<pez>" since it ends in a consonant that is neither "n" nor "s", although the fact that a "z" is pronounced like an "s" muddies the waters since some spell "López" as "Lopes" and pronounce it the same, which in that case it would be the correct pronunciation although likely the incorrect spelling. To put the emphasis on the proper (and I don't know how "proper" was determined; as a native Spanish speaker also I just go by what sounds right) syllable you put the accent mark on the "o" and pronounce it <Ló>pez. And I have heard it pronounced "Lo<pez>" following the Spanish pronunciation rules when the accent over the "o" is omitted.

Fortunately in this case English, which does not use accent marks, is much simpler, although it loses its simplicity when it comes to pronunciation. Maybe that's why the name "Spanish Opening" is replacing "Ruy López" in popularity? What do you think?

Perhaps we should consider ourselves lucky that we have only one accent mark. We could be native French speakers and have to deal with a multitude of accent marks. Although I suspect that if we were, it wouldn't be any problem for us.

<In 1995, at the magical age of 64, Kortchnoi won a strong tournament in Madrid. He explained his success saying: "I had to win, otherwise people would start to forget me..."

In his day-to-day life did he speak German, Italian or French, or perhaps English?

"I would say... Keres ... Spassky, Fischer [---] And the Champion, shall I complete the list with him? All right, put down Petrosian also"

"But what about Tal?"

"I am no fan of Tal's"

Some other quotes from the same interview (in Chess Life 2/1969)

"I learned from Alekhine, Nimzowitsch and Lasker, and in recent times from Bronstein. He had a great influence on me"

"Who is your most difficult opponent?"

"I am no fan of Tal's">

Korchnoi was no fan of Tal but he played together with him as an actor in 1972 Soviet movie "Grandmaster". In other lesser roles there were also Mark Taimanov, Yuri Averbakh and Alexander Kotov. In the film there were used also some shots from 1972 chess olympiad in Skopje, where you can see among others Vassily Smyslov, Ulf Andersson, Werner Hug and some other players.

<Albanius>

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