| Matt Facts: Matthew dislikes drinking cold drinks from coffee mugs. He also hates plastic forks. | | Did you Know? Toothpicks are overrated. | | Words of Inspiration: "You can tell a lot about a fellow by the way he eats Jelly Beans" – R.Regan | | Did you know? There are no Pez Facts. Pez is, in fact, not factual. | | Matt Facts: Matthew's fortune cookies always predict success. | | Words of Inspiration: When I'm sad I stop being sad and be awesome instead - Barney Stinson | | Did you know? "Buf­falo buf­falo Buf­falo buf­falo buf­falo buf­falo Buf­falo buf­falo” is a gram­mat­i­cally valid sentence. | | Matt Facts: Matthew is best served on the rocks with a slice of lemon. | | Words of Inspiration: "Life is futile." | | Did you Know? Dinosaurs and Dandelions is the name of a popular blog that has been around since the 15 April 2010 | | Matt Facts: Unlike some people, Matthew only celebrates his birthday once a year. | | Words of Inspiration: "I'll be back" - The Terminator. | | Did you Know? The two modern breeds of Cocker Spaniel, American and English, are thought to have been descended from only two dogs? | | Matt Facts: On the second to last full moon of the year, Matthew develops an itch on his right shoulder. | | Words of Inspiration: “You can do it!” - Rob Schneider, in every Adam Sandler movie ever | | Did you know? Lettuce is often eaten raw. | | Words of Inspiration: "Science is always at work and never sleeps – just like Rust" | | Did you Know? When you dream, every­thing you see in that dream, you’ve seen before in real life. | | Matt Facts: Matthew officially endorses the Cadbury's Moro bar as being delicious | | Did You Know? A tadpole is also called a 'pollywog'. | | Matt Facts: Matthew has his own Facebook fan page. Creepy. | | Did You Know? Cats sleep for 70% of their lives. | | Words of Inspiration: "End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it." - Gandalf. | | Did you Know? This is the end. The journey ends here. Then it starts all over again. |

Friday, 21 May 2010

Friday Night Live: World Chess Championship 2010

Welcome back boys and girls to Friday Night Live, Dinosaurs and Dandelions EXCLUSIVE coverage of the very best in worldwide sport. And best of all, it's all entirely LIVE and Free-to-air! This week we swap the gloomy streets of Sheffield for the exciting gym halls of Sofia, Bulgaria. The World Chess Championship 2010 awaits!

The match was a classic ladies and gentlemen, so strap yourselves in and prepare for a wild ride. The best of twelve thriller was between the DEFENDING Viswanathan Anand and the young (35) upstart challenger Veselin Topalov. But before we can get to the classic match, lets have a look at some of the background wheeling and dealing that got us to this point.

Anand, who hails from India, has been the Undisputed World Chess Champion since 2007. The title was split in 1993 after a contractual dispute and was only unified again in 2006. Anand had been the FIDE (Federation of Idiots, Drongos and Elephants)World Champion between 2000 and 2002, before it was unified back into the Undisputed title. Anyway, that's Anand's story and how he became one of the two participants in today's exciting action.

Topalov's path to the match is entirely different. Topalov was the FIDE World Chess Champion between 2005 and 2006, so he has what it takes to be a champion. After he lost that title he became one of the two participants in the 2009 Challenger match, facing the 2007 Chess World Cup winner Gata Kamsky in a match to decide who would be the number one contender. Topalov, of course, won that match and so earned the RIGHT to face Anand.

Sofia, Bulgaria won the right to host this exciting event. Topalov is Bulgarian and so it was advantageous to him to be playing in front of his millions of fans. The match format was the best of 12 games. Players scored one point for a win and half a point for a draw. Topalov demanded that the match be played in silence, and so they were. SHHHHH. Harking back to old Western duels, both players got to nominate four "seconds" to help them prepare and presumably take over if they died. Anand had the same group of seconds who helped his preparation in World Chess Championship 2008: Peter Heine Nielsen, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Surya Ganguly and Radoslaw Wojtaszek. Topalov's seconds were Jan Smeets, Erwin l’Ami, Ivan Cheparinov and Jiri Dufek. What a class bunch of people.

So, the match it self. Well, I can tell you it was thrilling. After the first two matches (remember its a best of twelve) they were tied 1-1. They then played for five draws and an Anand win, to give a score of Anand 4, Topalov 3. But THEN Topalov struck back to tie them up at 4-all. They then played to THREE more draws to have the scores tied at 5½ each with ONE game remaining. This match is so exciting I am just going to post the whole thing, Remember Anand is black: Queen's Gambit Declined: Lasker Defense, D56
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 O-O 7.e3 Ne4 8.Bxe7 Qxe7 9.Rc1 c6 10.Be2 Nxc3 11.Rxc3 dxc4 12.Bxc4 Nd7 13.O-O b6 14.Bd3 c5 15.Be4 Rb8 16.Qc2 Nf6!? 17.dxc5 Nxe4 18.Qxe4 bxc5 19.Qc2 Bb7 20.Nd2 Rfd8 21.f3 Ba6 22.Rf2 Rd7 23.g3 Rbd8 24.Kg2 Bd3 25.Qc1 Ba6 26.Ra3 Bb7 27.Nb3 Rc7 28.Na5 Ba8 29.Nc4 e5 30.e4 f5! 31.exf5? e4! 32.fxe4?? Qxe4+ 33.Kh3 Rd4 34.Ne3 Qe8! 35.g4 h5 36.Kh4 g5+ 37.fxg6 Qxg6 38.Qf1 Rxg4+ 39.Kh3 Re7 40.Rf8+ Kg7 41.Nf5+ Kh7 42.Rg3 Rxg3+ 43.hxg3 Qg4+ 44.Kh2 Re2+ 45.Kg1 Rg2+ 46.Qxg2 Bxg2 47.Kxg2 Qe2+ 48.Kh3 c4 49.a4 a5 50.Rf6 Kg8 51.Nh6+ Kg7 52.Rb6 Qe4 53.Kh2 Kh7 54.Rd6 Qe5 55.Nf7 Qxb2+ 56.Kh3 Qg7 0–1
 
!!!!! OMG !!!!
ANAND WINS! ANAND WINS!
I know, right? To see an actual zugzwang in a World Championship match. Amazing!

Boy I can hardly wait for the World Chess Championship 2012.
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