fighter, but hes nowhere near as reckless as he was in his prim

NEW YORK -- On a dreary, rainy Manhattan night, a huge, happy roar arose in a crowd of chess fans from around the world.Two-time world chess champion, Magnus Carlsen, had just reached for a final, victorious move on Wednesday that crowned him a champ for the third time.He had beaten Russian grandmaster Sergey Karjakin with bold, aggressive moves in a series of tie-breakers capping three weeks of the World Chess Championship that until Wednesday was tied after 12 games.The setting was in a refurbished New York City building overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge that was once the citys fish market.On this night, it became a glittering gathering of hundreds of fans -- adults and children -- from Norway, Russia, the United States and elsewhere. They were riveted as the two grandmasters leaned over in the tense game, barely moving, in total silence and deep in thought.The fans paid $100 to enter, feasting on snacks and drinks as they kept their eyes glued to flat-screens that beamed close-ups of the chessboard in an inner chamber. A panel of soundproof glass shielded the players from onlookers, who could see in but whom the players could not see.Hungarian grandmaster Judit Polgar said the four lightning-quick games played on Wednesday were like Russian roulette.Today, the faster games are a great show even for people who dont know the game, said Polgar, considered the greatest female player ever.On Wednesday, the required mental strategies also played out on chessboards scattered around the spectator lounge. People hovered over them, trying out various combinations of pieces, mirroring the masters.Magnus is my hero because he takes risks, hes really exciting, said Pippa Millstone, a Manhattan 9-year-old who came to watch the tournament for her fourth time.The game is pretty even now, but I feel like Magnus is going to start attacking really soon, she said in the middle of the third of four so-called rapid games, each about a half hour long each, played as tie-breakers on Wednesday.Carlsen and Karjakin reached a draw in two, and the Norwegian won two for the championship.At crucial moments, spectators hushed, waiting to see what the next move would be. At times, one whispered, no, no when Karjakins choice seemed halting, or on the defensive.Even the winner missed a chance in one game, drawing groans and a few happy shrieks, depending on loyalties.Organizers said about 6 million people around the world followed the tie-breaking games, sort of like sudden death play in football.Most fans were in homes and clubs across the globe. Some spent $15 for a Pay-Per-View live transmission, others to watch via high-tech goggles in 3D virtual reality or by tracking moves on various free websites.The prize was $1.1 million divided between the two players, with the winner getting 60 percent.The New York championship did not escape the shadow of East-West rivalry reaching back to the Cold War days when American Bobby Fischer beat Russian Boris Spassky in 1972.This time, a key figure in chess was absent in New York: Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a Russian businessman and longtime president of the governing World Chess Federation who was accused by the U.S. government of collaborating with the Syrian regime.---This story has been corrected to show the first name is Bobby Fischer, not Garry Fischer. Rockies Jerseys 2020 . PAUL, Minn. Fake Rockies Jerseys ., and Rudi Swiegers of Kipling, Sask., took sixth spot on Saturday in pairs at the NHK Trophy ISU Grand Prix figure skating competition. https://www.cheaprockiesjerseys.us/ . Thats not a comment on the suspension that banished the Portland Winterhawks general manager and coach from his Western Hockey League teams bench for most of the 2012-13 season. Colorado Rockies Shirts . Manuel was offered a position the day he was fired. He accepted earlier this week and the team made the announcement Friday. Wholesale Rockies Jerseys .com) - Manchester City midfielder David Silva is expected to miss the next four weeks because of a calf problem. Boxing is currently caught up in a frenzy of frustration and fans are in a mutinous mood. Attractive matches are sinking in a morass of greed and incompetence, while pretenders looking for an easy buck seem to have overrun a world once populated by hard men itching for a fight.Welcome to boxing, 2016 style.Amid all the cancellations, postponements and alphabet idiocy comes the return of Manny Pacquiao, an event that was virtually guaranteed the moment Manny said he was retiring following his April 9 victory over Timothy Bradley.Pacquiao is no Tyson Fury when it comes to such matters, but by normal standards a seven-month hiatus can hardly be considered a retirement. Not a serious one, anyway, so when Pacquiao signed to fight Jessie Vargas it seemed more an inevitability than a betrayal.Manny talked about missing boxing and maybe he did. But thats secondary. Its all about the money. It always is. And when it comes to Pacquiao, were talking megabucks. Not quite Floyd Mayweather money, but close enough.Pacquiaos fights have sold approximately 18.4 million pay-per-views, generating roughly $1.2 billion in revenue. According to Kurt Badenhausen, who covers sports business for Forbes, Mannys share, combined with endorsements and other ancillary earnings, totals about $500 million.Even after taxes, thats a staggering amount of money. Whats even more mind-blowing is the rapidity with which Manny spends it. Pacquiaos lifestyle is unsustainable without massive infusions of cash that only boxing can provide. He has to keep fighting and he knows it.Boxing is my main source of income, Pacquiao told reporters in the Philippines when he announced he would return to the ring. I cant rely on my salary as public official.One can only imagine what will happen when Pacquiao can no longer demand eight-figure paydays, and those days might be coming sooner than later. His third PPV fight with Bradley performed poorly and the announcement of Pacquiao-Vargas was not greeted with anything approaching universal approval.Social media was inundated with negative feedback, most of it of the no way Im buying the pay-per-view variety. Its a perfectly valid point of view, but as many abstainers would agree, the Vargas match -- set for Saturday in Las Vegas -- is not a bad one in itself. It could very well be a fun fight. Its just not what most consumers consider PPV-worthy.When HBO passed on the match, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum bristled but soon switched to boasting about all the money he would save by cutting out the middleman.From here, however, it looks like Arum is gambling on the future, confident he can maneuver Manny into another massive payday -- or at the very least make sure that if Arums meal ticket loses, is to one of his own guys.Not even Arum is audacious enough to peddle Pacquiao-Vargas as super fight, but maybe we should be grateful for small favors. At least Pacquiao-Vargas is happening and has a reasonably good chance of being an entertaining bout.That is more than you can say for Anthony Joshua-Wladimir Klitschko (or Fury-Klitschko, for that matter), Daniel Jacobs-Gennady Golovkin or even Orlando Salido-Takashi Miura, all of which have vanished from the boxing calendar like spit on a hot stove.Sure, better fights have been promised farther on down the road, but weve heard that before and know how quickly things can fall apart. Thats just the way it is in boxing. The only thing you can count on is inconsistency, and things have been so drab of late any dash of color is welcome, even if its overpriced.Pacquiao is still one of the most recognizable names in boxing, and if the Vargas bout turns out to be a good one, the fighters wwill not be the only beneficiaries.dddddddddddd An exciting contest will also help hoist the sports sagging image while we wait for Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev to finally get down to business.There is no doubt Pacquiao chose the easiest option among the opponents Arum offered. Terence Crawford would have pacified the cognoscenti, but he was little more than click bait and never really part of the equation.Crawford is only marginally better known to the casuals than Vargas. The money simply wasnt there to make the risk-reward factor worthwhile. But its not all bad news.Vargas is better equipped to give Pacquiao a tough fight than recent opponents such as Brandon Rios and Chris Algieri. Rios was outclassed and overwhelmed by the occasion, while Algieris chin turned out to be as soft as his punch, resulting in six trips to the canvas and an easy win for Manny.Vargas is tougher both mentally and physically and comes armed with the hungry determination of a man who always thought he would make it to the top and cant quite understand why he hasnt gotten there yet.That Vargas has only 10 knockouts to his credit in an overall record of 27-1 is misleading. His latent power surged to the forefront in his two most recent fights in the form of a concussive right hand.It first emerged in June 2015 when he had Bradley out on his feet with just 15 seconds to go in the final round. Vargas ran out of time and lost the decision, but his newfound power was confirmed when he pancaked highly touted Sadam Ali eight months ago. The vacant welterweight title Jessie won that night will be on the line against Pacquiao.This is not to say that Vargas has morphed into Tommy Hearns. Nonetheless, knowing Vargas has the power to turn a fight around with one or two punches should give him added confidence going into the biggest fight of his career. And a confident Vargas means a better fight.Pacquiao did the bulk of his training in the Philippines, splitting his time between the gym and his job as a first-term senator. Such a crazy schedule could prove disastrous for most fighters, but Mannys multitasking skills have never let him down before and are unlikely to do so now.Conditioning has never been a problem and Pacquiao looked sharp in training videos, ripping into the heavy bag with rapid-fire combinations. But the bag doesnt punch back. Vargas does.Pacquiao, 37, remains an aggressive fighter, but hes nowhere near as reckless as he was in his prime. Now he prefers to use his legs to get in, unload and get out. Hell occasionally revert to his whirlwind style of old but its just a flashback, not a renaissance.Vargas is 10 years younger than Pacquiao, 5 inches taller and has a 4-inch reach advantage. That alone will not be enough, but no fighter, not even George Foreman or Bernard Hopkins, can go on forever. If Saturday is the day the weight of 66 professional fights against the best of his era comes crashing down on Manny, an upset is within Vargas reach.Not even Pacquiao knows how long hell be able to keep competing at the highest level. Money is his chief motivation but boxing is still what he does best, his first love, the one that made everything else possible. Voluntary retirement is not an option. Never was.Its like Louis Armstrong once said, Musicians dont retire; they stop when theres no more music in them. Its the same for boxers; they stop when they have no fight left in them. Judging by the way he handled Bradley earlier this year, Pacquiao still has quite a lot left, enough to defeat Vargas at any rate. ' ' '