My conversation with Nigel Short

Playchess.com server at about 1:30 am Friday April 13-2007

Me: Hi Nigel, I look forward to seeing you at the Canadian Open
NS: Who are you?
Me: My name is Larry Page (a fictitious name)
NS: ok
Me: I'll also be playing in the Canadian Open in July. I guess you will be a favourite to win it.
NS: The odds against a player winning an open are high, even if he is the highest rated.
Me: True, but your odds must be better than everyone else's.
NS: If I am the highest rated.
Me: By the way, have you seen this blog: http://www.chesswhore.blogspot.com
NS: Never heard of it.
Me: It purports to be a blog by Susan Polgar. Anyway, I just thought you should know about it as they are talking about you.
NS: It does not look like a much visited site.
Me: On a different topic, I haven't seen any top GM's play the Winawer French anymore. It's usually a mccutcheon or classical.
NS: Why are you a guest?
Me: Well, I'm not really a guest. I just named myself "guest9210" as a gag. I don't think real guests can chat, nor play rated games.
NS: That is why I was confused. Mind you, I managed to play a totally illegal move in one game on this server, so I was starting to believe anything was possible.
Me: That's interesting. I've never heard of something like that happening on this server. The main problem here is the lag. But I prefer this interface to what ICC has, especially for bullet chess. The ICC version of premove is still quite choppy.
NS: The ICC is ancient, and it shows it.
Me: Yes
NS: First-mover disadvantage
Me: Yes, the clock runs immediately.
Me: So do you have any wisdom for my French Defense? I play it pretty much exclusively against 1.e4.
NS: The winawer loses to Qg4!
Me: White has too much pressure eh?
NS: No, He annihilates the kingside or Black has to castle into a mating attack.
(after a lull of about a minute, waiting for Nigel to provide more "wisdom" on the French)
Me: Well, it was nice chatting with you Nigel. And thank you for the advice. Hopefully we'll talk more in July, in Ottawa.
NS: I will be there. Unless I am ill.