[extropy-chat] politics in the sports world

[Spike]

The chess world is all tangled up in politics.  Heres
a condensed power point version:

- world championship cycles have been bogged down in politics

- there hasn't been an official world champion for years

- Gary Kasparov has been the highest rated player for a long time

- They managed to get a country to sponsor a championship:  Libya

- yes, Libya

- Jews were excluded

- some top players boycotted because Israelis were banned

- number 54 on the world list, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, pulled off
one stunning upset after another slaying monsters:

	- #16 Grischuk, 
	- #12 Ivanchuk 
	- just this morning #7, Bulgarian Veselin Topalov.

- Kasimdzhanov is from Uzbekistan, presumably Muslim

- Tomorrow Kasimdzhanov faces an Englishman in the final, world #6
Michael Adams

- This could be the most politicized chess match since 1972
Fischer/Spassky 

http://wcclibya2004.com/main.asp