The Tournament of Champions
The Tournament of Champions is a fantasy tournament played on the Chessmaster II for PS1* system with a 3 hour, Fischer Style, time control. I took the first 4 World Chess Champions and the last 4 World Chess Champions for an 8 man, 2 rounds, round robin tournament. Carlsen and Kramnik are not in the game, so I replaced them with CM Fischer. I made them play some of player’s favorite openings in some games, while I allowed the computer to pick whatever opening in other games.
- Let's get started!
Welcome everyone to the 1st Tournament of Champions. This is where we see who is the best of the best, the players will play is a 2 round, round robin tournament for bragging rights. Let's have a look at the players.
(Player profiles taken from Chessmaster II game on PS1)*
Round 1
The first game of round 1 has given us the biggest surprise of them all when CM Fischer played the Budapest Gambit against CM Steintz. CM Fischer has never played the Budapest before and when asked why this opening he said, “I came into this tournament with high hopes of giving the people what they really want to see from us World Champions, and that is good old fighting chess.” CM Fischer is the only player in the tournament not to have played any of the other participates (CM Steintz is close behind having only played CM Lasker), and because of this he wanted to “Test the best”.
The game itself was not a bad game but the players agreed to a draw after 41 moves with a slight advantage for White, when asked about the draw CM Steintz remarked, “This game for me was a surprise, so I just wanted to make it as boring as possible.”
Moving on, the next game show little surprises as CM Anand played his favorite defense against CM Lasker’s 1. d4. CM Lasker said, “I may have over played the game a little, and with 16. Pawn takes Bishop may have been a mistake, but all and all, it was only the first game and I look forward to playing the rest of the games. Hopefully I will have better results as the tournament wears on.”
CM Anand played very aggressively and came away with a win in Game 1, and when asked about the game he simply said, “I am pleased with the result.”
The second surprise of the tournament came when CM Kasparov played the Caro-Kann against CM Capablanca. This opening is played rarely by CM Kasparov. As the two titans battled over the position, CM Capablanca made a mistake with 28. Qc7 and from there CM Capablanca could not recover his position. “He (CM Kaspaorv) played the position well.” Said CM Capablanca, “Next time will be different.”
“It is a good for me.” Said CM Kasparov. “I knew CM Capablanca would be a tough opponent, I just tried to played to his strength and try to game interesting.” 
The CM Alekhine - CM Karpov game was an exciting Slav that netted a half point for the players.
“I missed chances, but I played well.” Said CM Alekhine of the game, “CM Karpov is a great player.”
CM Karpov says, “Having Black in the first game, and playing the Slav, is just getting me back to classical chess. We both had chances, but I think I was a little better for most of the game.” I don’t think CM Karpov was playing the same game I saw, the game looked even to me, but then again, what do I know?
Well that’s it for Round 1. Be here for Round 2, coming soon.
*Mindscape Entertainment Inc. Developed by Starsphere Interactive, Inc. 1990-1999 The Learning Company, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All rights reserved.
