My god! Warp Speed Vodka

My brief comment at a most wonderful chess site, ChessVibes on round two of the super strong Amber Tournament at Monaco pretty much says it all about Grishuk. Some wonderful comments back, here.

"Grischuk, such a talent. Manages to be at or near the very top with a reputation for lack of work, is it (not sure) or saying he does not enjoy chess (its just a job, i.e. in money as a comparison to other alternatives), and playing poker?

"In comparison think of Morozevich, who on the other hand, might not feel compelled to do anything save on the one hand either play beautiful, daring chess or says top eight or just the top thirty, his place there is off no consequence as he tells it, except to the extent that he is positioned to win the World Chess Championship".

The way he never smiles somehow makes him seem--from a chess perspective--seem all the more godlike. dk [1] [2]



[1] don't ask me how, but the otherworldly quality of his face, as though his pale blue eyes were somehow carrying the burdens of the entire planet, reminds me of Werner Herzog's account My Best Friend (documentary 1999) of manically crazed Klaus Kinski, in his most amazing story of their twisted collaboration cum friendship, or his other movie, Fitzcarraldo (1982). Cold Russian nights, vodka, deep Dostoyevskian preturnatural infinite yearning for redemption and god.

[2] By the way, lest I forgt to mention, THE game in THIS video is a blinfold game. First god created Spinoza, Descartes, then Hume, but when he got to Plato and Kant, he created gods. Kramnik, Anand, Carlsen. All of them from Olympus.