Check!

The other day your faithful correspondent wrote a screed about the current popularity if the inane poker game of Texas Hold 'um. I still hold to that opinion and will do so until the day the undertaker pounds the last shovelfull of dirt over my casket. It is a silly game that, without the money involved, would not be able to hold the attention of a backward ten year old for more than five minutes.

So imagine my delight when I got home from church this afternoon and saw a team chess match being televised. This particular match was between the US and Russia. The only name I recognized was that of the Grandmaster Susan Polgar, who was playing for the US. The commentary was lacking and the production values of the match left a lot to be desired, but I found it much more interesting than a bunch of cool jerks in sunglasses who should probably be selling used Vegas and Pintos instead of sitting around a poker table in Vegas making more money by lying than the average politician.

Now, to be honest, this particular program was, in a sense, a two hour infomercial for a web based company called www.chessmasterminds.com and for a Russian country western band called Bering Strait. But given the commercial intention of the match (and aren't baseball and beach volleyball commercial enterprises?) the match showed fast chess at it's best. It showed that chess was not only a mind game, but also a "mind" game.

If the program is shown in your area, check it out. I think that you'll see that a King's Indian is more interesting than a possible three of a kind.