raw chess champion?

[Guest guest]

I'm forwarding Bob Avery's email, an interesting story about a

(former?) rawfood chess champion:

 

Some of you may remember some years back when I announced that the

youngest grandmaster in history to that point, 14-yr-old Peter Leko

of

Hungary (16 at the time of the interview I mentioned), was a raw

fooder

and aiming to become world champion some day.

 

I'm not sure whether he's still 100% raw (I have my doubts, and the

chess

press isn't much interested in saying), but he still wears the

vegetarian

label and is now close to qualifiying for a match with the current

world

champion, Vladimir Kramnik, who defeated the former champion Gary

Kasparov in a championship match last year.

 

Kasparov, who many feel is still the world's best player who just

happened to be off form during his match with Kramnik, felt he should

have been given a rematch before a competition for a new challenger

was

held, and hence he is boycotting the current selection contest for

the

right to play Kramnik.

 

The competition to find the next challenger started with 8 of the

best

players in the world and all the best candidates except Kasparov.

There

are now only 2 left in this elimination contest, and Leko is one of

them.

He has taken what looks to be an insurmountable lead over Topalov of

Bulgaria, the other remaining challenger, so soon it looks like a raw

fooder, or vegetarian former raw fooder, will be playing a match for

the

world chess championship, just as he set out to accomplish 6 ago.

He's

now 22 and at the peak of his powers, cutting through the competition

like a hot knife through butter.

 

Though most of this news release will be incomprehensible to a non-

chess

player, you will find his photo and a report on his progress here:

http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/event/dort02/r11.html

 

Bob Avery