George Duke wrote on Mon, Oct 8, 2007 11:51 PM UTC:
Anand wins. A fitting follow-up to World Chess Championship in nearby
Mexico? Chess: Che: Que? Tuesday 9 October is fortieth anniversary of the death of heroic-thinker Argentina-born Che Guevara(1928-1967), avid chess player who played in tournaments from age 12. Cuba marks the occasion today with a gathering of 3000 people(1500 boards) playing Chess, Guevara's favourite game. Great WC#3 Jose R. Capablanca (1888-1942), Cuban of course, is one of three(or four with Morphy) western hemisphere WCCs. Argentine GM Miguel Najdorf (1910-1997) died in Spain after fulfilling a desire to watch a last Chess tournament there. Najdorf in his career played Chess with Che Guevara, Castro, Krushchev, Winston Churchill, the Shah of Iran, Juan Peron. Readers of Najdorf's chess column in Argentinan newspaper Clarin once could also study a chess problem contributed by chess-enthusiast John Paul II. Guevara's traversing Latin America by motorcycle in 1950's, chronicled in 'The Motorcycle Diaries', has precedent in the book 'My Hike' from late 1920's of Argentine adventurers, one of whom succeeded in hiking from south of Buenos Aires to New York in somewhat over a year. Cuban schoolchildren in daily pledge recite 'We will be like Che!' Like FIDE's motto 'Gens una sumus', it is appropriate that their 'unification' Champion be equally determined in the other 'one'(Western) of two hemispheres.
