[extropy-chat] bizarre outcome of mtel masters

[spike]

Here's a kick that you may read about in tomorrow's
newspapers.

Six of the world's top chess players finished a
tournament in Sophia Bulgaria a couple hours ago.  The
local hero Topalov (a Bulgarian) won the tournament,
but real headline was the meltdown of the Russian
world champion Vladimir Kramnik.

As you may recall, Kramnik defeated Kasparov in a
match a couple years ago to become the de facto
world champion.  In yesterday's game, he made the
worst blunder of his professional career, and was
a top candidate for the worst blunder of a world
champion in history.  That debate was ended today
with a bizarre move on the part of Kramnik which
will surely fuel a number of conspiracy theories,
such as: was Kramnik drugged somehow?  Could the
Bulgarians have insured a win by their man by
placing some kind of topically-absorbed poison
on the white pieces?

Kramnik's final moves in the last two rounds were
so bizarre that such speculation becomes very
believable.  Or he coulda just been having a very
bad week.

spike

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2405