VIP Visitors

Anatoly Karpov, world chess champion 1975–85 and 1993–99, visited the William Herschel Telescope in November 2002 (see picture on the right), accompanied by the presidents of the chess federations of La Palma and of the Canary Islands. A few days earlier, he played 18 simultaneous matches in Gran Canaria, half of them via internet with opponents on other islands. The La Palma challenger was Chris Benn, manager of the William Herschel Telescope (the sponsors of the event wanted somebody in a remote location), playing from a computer in the observatory with members of the local chess federation acting as referees. Having 18 times as long as Karpov to think about each move was encouraging, but by move 15, Karpov’s pieces had somehow taken over the centre of the board. Then Chris made a weak move, and Karpov very rapidly demolished his defences and checkmated on move 24. He won the other 17 games too. Other VIP visitors were Josep Piqué (Spanish Science and Technology Minister), Annejet Meijler (director of the Physical Science Council of NWO) and Richard Wade (Director of PPARC’s Programmes).¤

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Email contact: Javier Méndez (jma@ing.iac.es)