Author: Terry McCracken
Date: 19:17:52 07/08/05
09.07.2005 The Thursday atrocities in London left the world stunned, with terrorists hitting the nerve centres of the city's transport system. After the initial horror had subsided, and the phones were working again, we started contacting our friends. None had been harmed, but one escaped disaster by just twenty minutes. It is hard to believe who that was... Thursday night and Friday morning we were able to contact most of our friends in London, and found them all shocked but safe. Malcolm Pein, whose London Chess Centre lies right between the sites of three of the explosions, told us how he had experienced the events. His description is given below. But the real stunner came on Friday morning, when we received a call from – Garry Kasparov. He was at Heathrow Airport, on his way to Florida. Somewhat reluctantly he gave us the harrowing details of his stay in London. On Thursday morning Garry had decided to make a trip to the countryside in the north of the city. To get there he and his wife decided to take the London Underground. They got on the train at King's Cross and travelled to their destination without incident. Once they arrived they learnt what had happened. A quick time check revealed that they had been at the place of the King's Cross explosion twenty to maximum thirty minutes before it had happened. Getting back to the hotel was another adventure. The two were lucky enough to find a cab on the outskirts, and the Pakistani driver somehow navigated his way through the gridlock to deliver them safely at their hotel. Himself a Muslim, the driver was deeply upset by what had taken place. We must say that Garry Kasparov leads a dangerous life. Just a week earlier he had been to Dagestan, where shortly after his departure a bomb packed with metal rods shredded three military trucks and killed 11 Russian soldiers. Thank heavens the next stop, Florida, where he is working on his new book, is probably fairly safe. Except perhaps for Hurricane Dennis... whole article.. http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2502
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