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5

going west

ONLY A COUPLE OF WEEKS PASSED BEFORE SHAWN FANNING and Sean Parker packed their bags for California at the beginning of September 1999, as investor Yosi Amram demanded. “It wasn't even much of a decision, it happened so fast,” Parker said. Excited, he took whatever he could carry from Virginia and went to the airport. Shawn Fanning was supposed to fly the same day from Boston, but he misplaced his driver's license and couldn't make the flight.

When Parker arrived at the San Francisco airport and discovered his partner wasn't there, he realized he was alone in a city where he had no friends, no support network, and no place to stay. Then he heard his name being called out over the public-address system. He picked up the phone to the voice of Roman Dzindzichashvili, the fifty-five-year-old chess grandmaster John Fanning had lured from the rival Carnegie Mellon chess network when he set up Chess.net. Fanning had phoned

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