1.   Also like Fischer, Kamsky seems less a participant in the chess world than its independent challenger.

2.   At that moment Brown seemed less the overindulged athlete than just another overburdened adult.

3.   At those rates, Las Vegas seems less a gamble than a sure bet.

4.   At times Ms. Stern seems less an outsider artist than an extremely astute assimilator of everything she might ever have seen, Pac Man included.

5.   A lobbyist with a long-standing knowledge of how Bush operates says the governor seems far less likely this year to put his neck on the line.

6.   But as his health declined his HMO, the Health Insurance Plan of New York, came to seem less his ally than his enemy.

7.   But as his health declined, he said, the Health Insurance Plan of New York came to seem less his ally than his enemy.

8.   But in a World Cup full of upsets, nothing seems less certain now than convention.

9.   But that seemed less a bold stroke than a recognition of reality.

10.   But the president himself seemed less a stranger to New York.