Notes from the 'sphere

1. zenpawn shares his strategy for eating vegan during a four-day chess tournament.


2. The Hungarian Knight continues the discussion on children's chess, competitiveness and whether it's important to have winners and losers with "Winning Isn't Everything." You may want to read the preceding posts first -- from BCC Weblog "With no winners, isn't everyone a loser?" and from The Chess Mind "You're All Winners! All of You! (Or are You?)."


3. J'adoube confirms that "400 points in 400 days" isn't just a marketing slogan. In fact, he's entitled to a 72 day vacation if he so pleases.


4. What do you suppose James Wilson is going to blog about now that he has reached "Z"?


5. With Castro in the news again, Michael Goeller attempts to clarify the historical record regarding the Cuban Dictator's game with Bobby Fisher -- fascinating pictures and analysis.


6. His days as an e-mail spammer presumably past, Braden Bournival has returned to the local tournament circuit with a tie for first in the 56th New Hampshire Open.


7. There has been lots of action in the chess blog listings as of late. Among the new additions you'll find two blogs named Chess Improvement, The Center Square (a Kenilworth Chess Club member), Chess Crusade (seeking the holy grail of chess excellence, no doubt), My Chess Games (which three days in, doesn't include any games), and several Spanish blogs primarily from Uruguay (some of which can be found in the new Non-English Chess Blogs section of the sidebar).


8. Like last summer, many blogs have also been heading in the opposite direction -- to inactive status, e.g, Bobby Fischer Chess Blog, Chess Corner, JDK Blog and Chess Vault. Most notably, after showing quite a bit of patience, I finally removed GMs Chabanon and Charbonneau from the sidebar.

Minor League Chess

From an interview with Grant Johnson, pitcher for the Daytona Cubs -- a Chicago Cubs Class A affiliate:

Chess? How many guys in the clubhouse play chess?

There's probably about five of us right now. It's like anything else. The more you play, the better you get. Some guys are coming around and playing a lot better.

Who's the best?

When Jake was here, I'd say it was me or Olin Wick, but since (Paul) Schappert came on the team I'd have to say he's the best.

So you guys are the cerebral type?

Yeah, we're the brain trust of the clubhouse.

Two arrested for transporting chess set

It's actually true, but I may have left out part of the story. Let's see.

Sudesh and Deo Rampersad of Bedasie Street in Enterprise, Chaguanas, appeared before Magistrate Avason Quinlan in the Port-of-Spain Fourth Court charged with trafficking cocaine....

In court yesterday, four packets with the cocaine were produced along with a wooden chess set. The cocaine, which weighed 6.8 kilos was valued at $3 million.

Read "Drugs in chess set" from Trinidad Newsday.

Why chess and religion are not the same

The blog Disputations points out that while "...in chess, a bishop can only move diagonally," in the church, bishops can move both up and sideways. Sideways, you ask?

The post provides the following explanation:

At this point, I'm only interested in one possibility for such a sideways move. Bishop Edward Dominic Fenwick, OP -- founder of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph in the United States, first Bishop of Cincinnati, and namesake of my Lay Dominican chapter -- is currently buried in a cemetery associated with neither the Archdiocese of Cincinnati nor the Dominicans, and there has been some talk of a more fitting resting place...

Does Chess disprove feminist doctrine?

In "Womenism, Chess Fairness and Sinisterism", Bruce Walker argues that women's relative lack of success in chess versus men challenges the philosophical underpinnings of the feminist movement:

In January 2003, I wrote an article "Womenism and Chess Fairness" in which I noted that because men have a strong innate superiority over women in purely spatial analytical activities like chess, no woman would ever become the best chess player in the world....

In October 2004, I wrote a follow-up article "Womenism and Chess Fairness - Redux." In this I observed that the differences between men and women accounted for the social differences between men and women. In short, I utterly repudiated the totalitarian doctrine that the reason women have not "succeeded" is because men have "oppressed" then. Chess is immune to such oppression. It is pure logic. It can be played anonymously by mail. Persecuted groups often do better, not worse, than privileged groups in playing chess.

We report; you decide.

The Expert Mind

Philip E. Ross has a very readable and informative article on the nature of expertise in chess in Scientific American (August, 2006).

Effortful study seems to be the critical line.

It is a feature article available online at Scientific American.

The smell must be just awful

Based on this article from Trend - The Azerbaijan News Agency, it seems that some Grandmasters not invited to the Biel Chess Festival are participating in an alternative event in the Swiss city of Bile.

What do you suppose they served for dinner at the opening ceremony of the Bile event? I'm guessing liver and onions.

USCL announces 2006 schedule

Clocks will start for the second season of the United States Chess League on Monday, August 28th at 9:00pm EDT with the two expansion teams -- the Tennessee Tempo and the Seattle Sluggers -- facing off. The rest of the league begins their season two days later on Wednesday, August 30th. All matches will be broadcast at the Internet Chess Club.

Two notable changes in this year's schedule:

1. While most matches will be played on Wednesday evenings, each week a single match is scheduled for Monday Night. Perhaps the commissioner is looking to resurrect Howard Cossell to provide the play by play.

2. With a larger league this year, inter-divisional play will be more limited prior to the playoffs. Each team will play their divisional rivals twice and face-off against only two opponents from the other division. Depending on the relative strength of the teams, this may confer an advantage to some teams in their divisional races.

Highlights of the Boston Blitz season include a Monday Night matchup against the New York Knights in week 3, a season finale against the defending champion Baltimore Kingfishers, and inter-divisional matches against Miami and Tennessee:

2006 Boston Blitz Schedule
(bold indicates team has White on boards 1 and 3; all ET [GMT-5])

Wed. 8/30 7:30pm - Miami Sharks
Wed. 9/06 7:00pm - Philadelphia Masterminds
Mon. 9/11 7:00pm - New York Knights
Wed. 9/20 7:15pm - Philadelphia Masterminds
Wed. 9/27 7:00pm - Carolina Cobras
Wed. 10/04 7:15pm - Baltimore Kingfishers
Wed. 10/11 8:15pm - Tennessee Tempo
Wed. 10/18 7:00pm - New York Knights
Wed. 10/25 7:00pm - Carolina Cobras
Wed. 11/01 7:15pm - Baltimore Kingfishers

Disclaimer: BCC Weblog provides independent coverage of the United States Chess League. It is not affiliated with the USCL or the Boston Blitz.

Note to Bloggers: Let me know if you are planning to provide coverage of the USCL in general or any team in particular. If there is a critical mass of coverage in the blogosphere this year, I'll make some efforts to generate outside publicity for it.

Breaking News

Caissa's Confabulations (wolfganguschess.blogspot.com) appears to be the most recent victim of a blog highjacking.

Computer Chess -- Yesterday's Challenge

It may surprise you to learn that it's more difficult for a computer to play poker, perhaps the world's most popular card game, than chess, the pastime of deep thinkers.

Unlike chess, poker deals with tricky matters such as uncertainty, probability, guesswork and deception - human wiles that a chess-playing robot, such as the one that beat world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, doesn't need to consider.

As a result, computer experts say, poker is more like real life - with all its subtleties and complications - than chess is, with its fixed rules and vast but finite possibilities.

"Chess might be a better test of raw computer power," said Christian Lebiere, a psychology professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. But computer poker programs "are indeed more like human problem-solving."

Read "Computers find poker, like real life, a tougher challenge than chess" at The Mercury News.

A Perfect Pair

I bet you didn't know that GM Maurice Ashley's sister Alicia is a professional boxer. They would undoubtedly be prohibitive favorites for the Sibling Doubles Chessboxing Championship.

Here is an excerpt from a recent interview with Alicia Ashley:

ESB: Your other brother, Maurice Ashley, is the first black grandmaster in chess. Who is better, you at Chess or him at boxing?

Alicia: (Laughing) Probably equally horrible. (laughing) I would say, me, because I at least know the moves. (Laughing) He doesn't know boxing at all; I don't even think he knows what a jab is.

ESB: Does he ever come to your fights to cheer you on?

Alicia: Only a couple of my amateur fights, the one or two at the Garden he has been to. All my pro fights have been away, so he hasn't been to my pro fights. We are really trying to get a pro fight in New York, cause just the people at the gym would be a huge crowd.

ESB: Did you hear about the new sport of ChessBoxing in Europe?

Alicia: (laughing) I have never heard of that.

ESB: Yeah, it's like alternating rounds and you can win by checkmate or knockout.

Alicia: (laughing) I don't think they have much to do with themselves over there.

ESB: You would never compete in something like that if Maurice trained you?

Alicia: (laughing) No, I think they would checkmate me, although if we boxed first?

ESB: (Laughing) Yeah, I mean, there is a lot of strategy involved in that. Would your parents rather have had another chess player in the family or another boxer?

Alicia: My mom, she has never seen me boxing; actually, she has never seen me in karate, either, but she is very proud of me and what I have done. So they are happy, you know. She is a world champion here, and he is a grand master there, so they are happy in that sense.

ESB: Which boxer do you think would make a good chess player with the right training and why?

Alicia: Mayweather because I think he uses strategy a lot. When he went in to fight Gatti, people expected him to run around and he didn't. He comes out and surprises you, and now people know he is not just a mover and he can stand there and fight. So he employs strategy and that is what you need in chess.

Reubens-Landey standings after Round 3

#	Name	ID	Rtng	Post	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Tot
1	Jason M Rihel	12551205	1903	1918	B---	W10	W4	3.0
2	Brian D Salomon	12685114	2020	2033	D9	W7	W5	2.5
3	Bryant C Vernon	12537474	1909	1921	H---	W9	W10	2.5
4	Farzad Abdi	12868372	1982	1981	W11	W6	L1	2.0
5	Simon K Warfield	12625572	2179	2170	H---	W11	L2	1.5
6	Natasha Christiansen	11366805	1872	1860	B---	L4	D8	1.5
7	Daniel Schmidt	12603571	1824	1828	H---	L2	W11	1.5
8	Jonathan M Lee	12742928	1707	1713	H---	H---	D6	1.5
9	Philip A Nutzman	12842960	1865	1861	D2	L3	H---	1.0
10	Robert J Oresick	12659519	1608	1599	B---	L1	L3	1.0
11	Lior Rozhansky	12825910	1769	1751	L4	L5	L7	0.0

Tentative Round 4 Pairings

Salomon - Rihel
Abdi - Vernon
Warfield - Lee
Christiansen - Schmidt
Nutzman - Oresick
Rozhansky (1 pt. bye)

Still more drinking chess

From Liquor Snob:

On paper, Power Hour doesn't really seem like it's that big of a deal. You take a shot of beer every minute for an hour. Sounds straightforward enough, especially for the drunkards in our audience....

In practice, [however], the whole Power Hour thing is like trying to play chess while riding a rhino - or that's what it seems like about halfway through.

Yet another twelve step program

Spending 16 hours a day on CTS? Have so many turn-based games going that you can't keep count any more? Still dreaming about chess?

You might be suffering from the little understood affliction of board game addiction. Fear not, there are people available to help. Board Gamers Anonymous (BGA) is an organization committed to helping board game addicts and their families.

"Most people are shocked when they hear about our group," states David, the founding member of the Newark chapter of BGA, "most people have never heard of board game addiction, but I can assure you it is a very real problem."

No doubt Tempo will eventually find his way to the Amsterdam chapter.

Passerby

Hey, get out of the way! I'm trying to get a shot of the chess set.

Chess Poetry IX

"A Game of Chess"

The cafe revels in the smell of things sweet
Of coffee and pastries and other such treats
And the man bathed in the window light
With a glow in his eyes quite dark
And a twist of the lips quite stark
Over squares of black and squares of white
He beckons with a smile like a ghost wise
Whilst the man by the clock just lingers and sighs

Read more...

Chess Plumbing

Link

On the one hand

My interest was piqued by a post at The 64 Square Jungle about the plight of NM Alexander Stamnov. Chessdad64 reports:

National Master Alexander Stamnov, a virtual fixture on the Chicago area chess scene, has been confined for over three months at a detention facility in El Paso, Texas on immigration violations... Alex ... has been one of the most active tournament players in Illinois and the country -- 323 events since 1998, he has been a mainstay at local chess clubs and the North Avenue Chess Pavilion over the years.

Tomorrow evening, many members of the Illinois chess community will join together for a benefit that will include GM Simuls and a buffet dinner, with the proceeds going to assist Alex.... Those supporting this cause include GM Dmitry Gurevich, GM Nikola Mitkov, GM Vladimir Georgiev, IM Jan van de Mortel, chess organizer Zack Fishman, and many others as well.

My initial thoughts were along these lines -- Is he being held improperly? If not (i.e., if he illegally entered the country or overstayed his visa), why all the concern?

An anonymous commenter offered the following:

Stamnov entered the country legally. He should have applied for political asylum within one year; he did not. Were he to return to (former Yugoslav) Macedonia, it would not be good for his health.

One side of my brain says, "Hey, the rules are the rules", while the other says, "Surely a refugee deserves a political asylum hearing even if he's 7 years late in asking for it." What do you think?

Before the days of punch cards

Seoul Hero's Nathan Bauman has posted an interesting piece about the first analog chess "computer," which was invented around the turn of the century by the Spanish inventor Torres y Quevedo.

According to Nathan:

The post contains all the pictographic evidence I can find on the internet for the first two chess computers, including a new color photograph showing the workings of the first machine in more detail than was the case with the only other photograph of this machine. I think it's kind of sad how unknown this machine is, considering how far ahead of its day it was when it was invented.

Remember when...

...all the excitement was about the 10,000th visit to BCC Weblog?

50,000 Baby!!

Reubens-Landey standings after Round 2

2.0 Abdi, Farzad (1982)
2.0 Rihel, Jason (1903)

1.5 Salomon, Brian (2020)
1.5 Vernon, Bryant (1909)

1.0 Warfield, Simon (2179)
1.0 Christiansen, Natasha (1872)
1.0 Lee, Jonathan (1707)
1.0 Oresick, Robert (1608)

0.5 Nutzman, Philip (1865)
0.5 Schmidt, Daniel (1824)

0.0 Rozhansky, Lior (1769)

Tentative pairings for Round 3:

Rihel - Abdi
Salomon - Vernon
Warfield - Christiansen
Lee - Oresick
Schmidt - Rozhansky
Nutzman (1/2 pt bye)

"...like fight club, except with more bishops"

whiffer likes to play a variant called Full Impact Chess.

...its just like normal chess except when you lose a piece you were going to use or otherwise didnt want to lose, you punch your opponent. the best part is, most people dont know theyre playing full impact chess until that first hit.

Virtual Chess Babe Championship

Follow all the action at the Sims Bachelor Chess Competition:

• Chess Championship
  
• Round 1 - Angelina vs. Becky
• Round 1 - Cecilie vs. Cassidy
• Round 1 - Eva vs. Daniella
• Round 1 - Teresa vs. Mira
  
• Round 2
  
• Round 3 - Eva vs. Cassidy

Fritzky

Over at Yahoo! Chess there is another man vs. machine competition taking place, one that has very little to do with chess.

Like any web community, Yahoo! Chess has an Instant-Message window, where the chatter alternates between chess nerds flirting and homophobic racists spouting names at Bush-whacking foreigners. That is, until about a year ago, when the streets of our cyber neighborhood -- like those of any thriving economy -- attracted the online equivalent of hookers. In order to drive traffic to their pornographic web sites, these clever bots engage players with flirtatious chatter crafted to simulate genuine chess-playing hotties.

Read "Return of the Cyber Street Walkers" at Who Has Time For This?.

Mill Valley shoots down chess board

The Mill Valley (CA) City Council voted 3-1 to reject the proposal to install a chess board in its town center plaza. Apparently the Council was persuaded by "well thought out" arguments like this:

...others feared giant tour busses would inundate the town, and the resulting traffic would put the children at risk.

{turn on sarcasm} I know I would have been one of the first to book my seat for the cross-country tour bus trip to see the giant chess board. {turn off sarcasm} Idiots!!

Despite the setback, there are always rays of hope. Colonie, NY resident Denis Burke's campaign to have chess tables installed across the Capital District has had some early success.

Related Posts: Size doesn't matter - Save the Mill Valley Chess Board!!

...but hopefully, not a mirage

Maverick Philosopher explains that chess is an oasis.

Keep down the racket

Having previously reviewed chess playing among the NBA set, the Sun Star next takes a look at tennis players who have caught Caissa's bug.

Chess boards you can't misplace

Chinese archaeologists have found two ancient chess boards engraved on the Great Wall.

The two boards, one for Chinese chess and the other for the ancient game "Tiger Eats Sheep," were engraved on a stone in front of a Great Wall beacon tower possibly in the Song Dynasty (960-1279)...

Tiger Eats Sheep ... I think that might have been the original name of the Trompowsky Attack.

But women's billiards gets higher TV ratings

"Whoever called snooker 'chess with balls' was rude, but right." - Clive James

Hat Tip: Fustar

Name Roulette

It's a fact of life in the modern world that we need to continually adapt to change, but this one is getting hard to keep up with -- the ever changing Gila Chess Blog (at other times named Chess Improvement and Chess Training) is now named Chess Patzer Theory. I'm going to leave it listed as Gila Chess since I'm sure it will be changing again (and again).

Related Posts: Blogosphere Potpourri - Blog Rename

Reubens-Landey standings after Round 1

1.0 Abdi, Farzad (1982)
1.0 Rihel, Jason M (1903)
1.0 Christiansen, Natasha C (1872)
1.0 Oresick, Robert J* (1608)

0.5 Salomon, Brian D (2020)
0.5 Vernon, Bryant C (1909)
0.5 Nutzman, Philip A (1865)
0.5 Schmidt, Daniel (1824)

0.0 Rozhansky, Lior* (1769)
0.0 Paphitis, Alexander* (1756)
0.0 Lee, Jonathan M* (1707)

* Weaver Adams Qualifier; see the final Weaver Adams crosstable

It's not too late to join the fun. BCF members rated between 1800-2199 can enter this Monday with a 1/2 point bye for the first round. Not yet a member? Join and your entry for the Reubens-Landey will be waived.

Chess Blog Puttanesca

There have been several "around the chess blogosphere" pieces posted recently:

• About.com offers links to several of their favorite posts from last month in Elsewhere on the Web: Blog Tripping in June. In particular, The Closet Grandmaster was cited for providing the best coverage of the Turin Olympiad, Gormallygate, and the FIDE presidential election. Two pieces here at BCC Weblog also received mentions -- Rihel on Chess Life and the US Championship and Weaver Adams: In his own words.


• Chessdad64 penned an article for the Illinois Chess Bulletin -- Explorations in the Chess Blogosphere -- which he adapted into a post on The 64 Square Jungle. Chessdad asked me for some thoughts on major trends in chess blogosphere, which he included at the end of the piece.


• At brainwashcafe you'll find Chess Pimp Links -- an occasionally irreverent review of several blogs from our corner of the 'sphere. TCG, The Chess Mind, Shakmaty Bereolos, and others come in for some mild ribbing and criticism, but I wouldn't take it all too seriously. I mean, who knew that Dennis M. was "the FIDE president's right hand?"

Taking chess to heart

Montreal ... A chance encounter with a chess teacher ... A timeless lesson in the role of passion and emotion in chess.

Read the whole story.

Chess with maps

From sprintsite593's space:

Competitive orienteering has been called the thinking sport and has been likened to running while playing chess.

How about mail order?

Harry Singh has abandoned his quest to Find a Wife because dating is too much like a game of chess:

My take on the whole issue was that most modern relationships are like a game of chess. People mull over their moves, they brainstorm about the other person's plans and then they make their moves all the time worrying about what the other person is going to do next. You can give these things the labels of "element of mystery", "my dignity" and "your dignity" but in the end, it is essentially reduced to a game of chess.

I always figured that we played chess because it was so hard for us to find a date.

A luxury hotel, not!

icyblue103 reports on her week at chess camp:

Well I'm back from Chess camp, not that you care anyways. The food there was bad, I didn't eat much, so I starved myself for a week, dont try it, it's not fun! Then the girls dorm rooms were by a guys bathroom so they just put a sign on it saying it was a girl bathroom. Let me tell you a guys bathroom is no place for a girl, they lack those lovely candy boxes or slot machines, if you know what I mean. And the showers were bad no matter what you did, your clothes got wet...

I guess that's going to happen if you shower with your clothes on.

Cleaning up at chess

From "And all the king's men..." at Luxord's Live Journal:

I was dusting off my chess set out of sheer boredom today, and I realized... I spend more time cleaning the bloody things than actually using them.

HAL doubles the stakes

Here's an interesting article about the development of computer programs to play backgammon. It's interesting that while the best chess playing programs utilize "brute force" calculation, world class backgammon programs use neural nets and "...are entirely self taught using the technique of reinforcement learning...".

Back in the saddle

After returning from a week's vacation on Cape Cod (and a self-imposed hiatus from the internet), I was quite heartened to see several new posts on BCC Weblog. As some of you know, my original vision for this blog was a community site for the club where many members would post occasionally on chess related topics of interest to them. While this idea never really came to fruition, there are a few members who do post intermittently. My thanks to Bob and Jason for keeping the content fresh while I was gone (even though I never told them I was going away). Thanks also to Ken Ho who joined our post parade recently; I'm looking forward to reading more from him in the future.

While I was gone, one or two more Knights Errant appeared (depending on who you read). I added Dr. Munky to the list of Knights, but placed Square One Chess on the sidebar despite The Hungarian Knight's announcement (since it's not totally clear from his posts if he wants to join the group -- of course, he is more than welcome to).

One last comment which relates to measuring the size of the chess blogosphere -- I returned to almost 300 chess blog posts in Bloglines. Guess I've got some reading ahead of me.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Reubens-Landey Starts Monday

Monday, July 10th, is the beginning of the Reubens-Landey, a Boylston Chess Foundation tournament to remember and honor Emil Reubens and Benjamin Landey.

Part of the club championship cycle, the winner of the Reubens-Landey advances into the club championship with the invited masters. If you are a BCC member and rated 1800 and above, but not a master, please consider playing. If you are not a member, this is a good excuse to join. Notice the change in time control this year – no adjournments.

• Monday, July 10, 17, 24, 31 August 7: Reubens/Landey BCC Qualifier U2200 Championship
  
• 5SS; 40/90, G/30
  
• Open to BCC members rated over 1799 and under 2199
  
• Entry Fee: $25
  
• Winner receives free entry into the BCC Championship beginning on 9/11
  
• Registration: 6:00 to 6:45; Rounds: 7:00

from a Robert Oresick e-mail

BENJAMIN LANDEY

BENJAMIN LANDEY

by Bernardo Iglesias

Benjamin Landey was born in 1912 and died on January 20, 1981 in Quincy. From his high school days he worked for the Sharon Bolt and Screw Company founded by Emil Reubens, reaching the position of board chairman, which he held at his death.

According to Harry Lyman, Benjamin married Reubens’ daughter.

For many years, he was the ceremonial chess leader of New England: Landey was President of the MSCA, the Boylston Chess Club, the Boston Metropolitan Chess League, the New England Chess Association, and the USCF Regional Vice-President. He was a truly regional chess entrepreneur, a notable chess organizer, a man of remarkable poise and intelligence, a master of parliamentary procedure and a skillful politician, that is, a leader among leaders in the region. He worked for long hours at his job and then spend evenings and weekends on numerous chess projects and clubs.

While Ben Landey was a tournament director for M.S.C.A., he brought to Boston the U.S. Open in 1970 and the U.S. Junior Open in 1965 and 1969, held at Northeastern University. Ben Landey's most active years were from 1965 to 1970; after this year his health impeded more time in his passion for the royal game of chess. Despite his failing health, he was an extremely successful teacher of chess for beginners, though he himself was rated only about 1500 during most of his over the board career; he also, worked with the Massachusetts Association for Retarded Citizens and several local groups. Along with Emil Reubens, Landey was a major sponsor of prison chess programs, and the two of them sought the parole of a number of inmates who were avid chess players. In addition to being a regular tournament player, Ben Landey was very active in postal chess with the Nights of the Square Table (NOST).

Landey was the first person to compete with a computer in chess at a U.S. Chess Federation rated tournament. He lost.

Landey’s most glorious moment in the spotlight as an organizer was winning the bid for the 1970 US Open for Boston. It was Ben Landey’s rhetoric that easily won the bid at the 1969 U.S.C.F. meeting in Lincoln, Nebraska. It was unfortunate that the then M.S.C.A. was not ready to host such a major event. The host site, Boston's Parker House, was a less than welcoming host, and a great number of participants complained about the space designated for the playing room, that the light was not good enough for many, etc. Also, Ben Landey got sick a few months before the event along with his co-organizer Lewis Icenogle. It was not Landey's shining hour. `

Ben was treasurer of the Greater Boston Committee of the U.S. Peace Council, past President of the South Shore Assn. for Retarded Citizens. He was the President of the Boylston Chess Club at the time of his death.

After his death in 1981, M.A.C.A. organized a memorial tournament at the Mass. Open in April; the winner of this tournament was the young James Rizzitano in North Darmouth.

The Boylston Chess Club has honored Ben Landey since 1986, when the Board of Directors dedicated a qualifier tournament to those members of the club rated 1800 to 2199 plus the winners of the Weaver Adam's; the winner to participate in the fall championship. His memory will endure for ever at the Boylston Chess Club along with that of Emil Reubens.

References:
Boylston Chess Club Bulletin, 1986
Boylston Chess Club Bulletin, 1987
Chess Horizons, 1981, vol. 13, #2, p. 5, 10
Chess Horizons, 1981, vol. 13, #3, p. 5, 46
Chess Horizons, 1981, vol. 13, #4, p. 50
Chess Horizons, 1981, vol. 36, #4, p. 46
[edited by Robert Oresick July, 2004]

EMIL M REUBENS

EMIL M. REUBENS

...Chess appeals to our emotions and brings us joys and sorrows.

by Bernardo Iglesias

Emil Reubens was born in a beautiful land very far away, in Yelisavetpol (Kirovabad) Russia, in 1886, on September 23 and, died in Massachusetts in Norwood Hospital in 1973, on August 29 after a brief illness. Emil Reubens was 86 years old when he died, an extraordinary man who believed that mankind could become rehabilitated through Chess. Chess is more than life and can change a person to benefit Society. He was a chess master emeritus and one of the founding member of the United States Chess Federation, a member of the Boylston Chess Club, the Brockton Chess Club and his dear Sharon Chess Club.

Reubens received his formal education at the University of Prague. In 1906 he immigrated to the United States and worked for a time in steel mills in Detroit. Eventually he moved to Boston and graduated from Boston University in 1922 with a degree in business administration. Much later, in June of 1973 he received his Master's degree in business administration, he was the oldest person in the university's history to obtain such a degree at 86.

He lived in Sharon, Mass. for many years. Emil Reubens was a U.S.C.F. life director and authored a wonderful book on chess play, entitled Chess - Trick and Treat in 1965. This book is a treasure, a precious jewel for any novice player. At the end of the book he recommends that every young player should “Join a chess club. Meet chess players of differing skill and style. Subscribe to a periodical that will keep you abreast of the important events in Chess world."

In 1964, he helped to bring the U.S. Open to Boston. He was an honorary Chairman of the Committee, along with a lot of the great chess organizers of the time: Robert Goodspeed (Brockton C.C), Harold Dondis (Johnson C.C.), Eleanor Goodspeed, Eleanor Terry, Frank Ferdinand (Harvard C.C.), James Burgess (Boylston C.C.) ,Harry Goober (Clarendon C.C.), Beverly Jarnigan and Joseph Hurvitz (Boylston C.C.). That year, the U.S.C.F. was celebrating the silver anniversary of its foundation, in which Emil Reubens had been a strong force in promoting chess in this country.

Emil had a long time interest in prison reform and was instrumental in assisting many prisoners get back into society. In his book, mentioned above, he thought that “When I was drafted into becoming a "leader" in youth clubs, I employed chess and chocolate bars to lead the youth into the paths of righteousness. There are no available data to estimate the effect of chess on juvenile delinquency, nor are there statistics to gauge the collateral effects of chocolate bars freely rewarded for chess merits."

Reubens combined a lifelong interest in better prisons, rehabilitation and parole systems with chess activities. He organized many teams of players who visited several penal institutions to play against teams of inmates, or just to play simultaneous exhibitions against the inmates. On one occasion, he took Steve Frymer, John Curdo, and R. Gleason to Norfolk Prison, delighting one inmate in particular so much that he became an active player and organizer in Norfolk area.

Emil Reubens loved the youth, kids of all ages, -- they are our future joys and sorrows in life. The second Brockton Open, on September 25 & 26, 1971 in Brockton, Mass. William Lombardy, former World Junior Champion, had agreed to participate in the selection and awarding of a special Lombardy - Reubens “best played game” trophy to some player under the age of 21 (Harry Lyman was present in this ceremony). The winner of the award trophy was won by the young John Peters. The third Brockton Open, on September 23 & 24,1972, the Lombardy-Reubens award trophy was won by John Stopa. For the Boylston C.C. member’s information, at this event Alex Slive and Andrew Anisimov, two new youngsters showed up in the chess arena. After this event, it seems that such award stopped being awarded by the Brockton Chess Club, since he became sick and died shortly. The "MASS STATE JUNIOR CHESS CHALLENGE TROPHY PRESENTED BY EMIL M. REUBENS " is a silver trophy cup at the Boylston Chess Club to preserve his memory for future generations. In 1988, William Lukowiak, treasurer of the Boylston Chess Club and long time an officer on the board of MACA, introduced a motion to the Executive Board of MACA that the winner’s name of the Junior Scholastic Champion from Massachusetts be inscribed in this trophy and that MACA will help to pay for traveling expenses to the National Championship whenever it was to be held. The MACA board turned down this motion, and denied youngsters of this State such an honor.

After his death, the Mass State Chess Association, organized a one time "the Emil Reubens Memorial" at the Massachusetts Open at the new Brockton High School in 1974. The winner of this event was John Peters.

Emil founded the Steinberg-Reubens Educational Foundation. The Boylston Chess Club Board of Directors decided that in 1986 to pay tribute to Emil Reubens and Ben Landey by naming a qualifier cycle of the B.C.C. championship qualifier in their honor, for players rated 1800 to 2199. The winners of the Reubens/Landy move on to play against the club’s masters for the club championship.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
CHESS LIFE & REVIEW, 1973, v.28, #11, p. 647 CHESS LIFE, 1964, v.19, #5, p.106 CHESS HORIZONS, 1970, v.2,#2, p.2 CHESS HORIZONS1971, v.3, #5, p.2 CHESS HORIZONS, 1973, v.5, #6, p.20 CHESS HORIZONS1972, v.4, #6, p. 19 CHESS TRICK & TREAT - E. REUBENS, 1965, p.7,11,126 BOYLSTON C.C. BULLETIN, 1985, v. 1, #1, p.2 BOYLSTON C.C. BULLETIN, 1987, v.2, #2, p. 1 BOSTON GLOBE, 1973, August 30. [Edited by Robert Oresick]

First Impressions of New USCF website

Since so many people felt strong, mostly negative, feelings towards the newest design update to Chess Life, I decided to carefully puruse the new additions to the USCF Chess LIfe website. After some delay, the first version of the new website is now available, and I believe that the additions to the website strengthen the magazine as a whole.

The Magazine-- First stop, the on-line version of Chess Life. All the articles from the magazine are now on-line. The major advantage is that all of the chess games from the 'zine are now playable directly on-line. If you are like me, you are often too lazy to set up the chess board when going over tournament commentary. This is a welcome addition. The on-screen boards are on the smallish side, and the notes to the game are not easily read side-by-side with the on-screen board. However, using the paper copy of the magazine with the on-line game boards is an easy fix for now.

The diagrams from Chess Life staples such as Key Crackers and Chess to Enjoy are much nicer on-line. Big and clear to read, a very nice improvement. ABCs of Chess is not inspired-- they could use the interactive features of the 'net to make it easier to cover up and reveal moves as you play along, but instead they just list moves and notes. It is actually harder to cover up the next moves. In another missed opportunity, Benko's Endgame Lab and other articles that start analysis from middle or end-game positions completely lack interactive diagrams. Boo!

Chess Life On-Line -- This is the heart of the changes to the USCF Chess Life service. All signs point to: YES! Keeping in mind this is still the early version, I am very pleased with what I see. The World Open just ended on Tuesday, and there are already several articles devoted to it. Several of the major games are already posted, with interactive diagrams. The puzzles section has 25 new puzzles, and there is a nice selection of puzzles specifically from Ruy Lopez games. GM Joel Benjamin has a section for answering reader's mail, taking over Larry Evan's old job. Perhaps he will field more than just questions about Bobby Fischer. Greg Shadade's analysis of the rating changes to the top players is an nice, if overlong, regular feature. Any way of drawing attention to the top players helps bring professionalism and legitimacy to these elite players and to American chess in general.


Top Players Bios -- Here is a great new USCF feature. With lots of photographs, nice write ups, and even a cute diagram of one of their best positions, the Top Players Bios injects a good helping of humanity into the USCF website. They should work to expand this list to include even more players, say the Top 100, and even the Top Junior players.

Ratings-- The rating section hasn't changed. All complaints about the USCF aside, the rating system and website are suberb. I played in a tourament last night that was rated by this afternoon. Players are easy to search and find, and it lists tournament cross tables all the way back to 1991.


Overall Grade-- B+ A nice first effort, with timely articles, a lot of puzzles, and many photos. Some features could use some tweak still, especially to the oversmall interactive diagrams. How successful this new web launch will be, however, depends on two factors-- 1) the regularity of updates and new articles 2) whether articles posted in the on-line portion do not overlap with the magazine portion. -- Jason

How can we improve attendance at our club?

Our tens of thousands of friends who play darts have a good idea.

Play in a pub.

Maybe we made a mistake working so hard to get non-profit status.

We should try for a liquor license. 

Caption Contest XI

A modified version of the scrum is

used in the new sport of ChessRugby

Post your caption in the comments.

Source

Chess Telestrator

Ken Ho brought another chess diagram maker to my attention -- DiagTransfer. It looks like it gives you significant flexibility in highlighting specific squares and placing arrows on the board. You may want to check it out.

Chessonomics

It has been the conventional wisdom in the West for some time now that Soviet era chess players colluded during major international tournaments in order to sway their outcome. Now, in the spirit of Steven Levitt's "Freakonomics", economists Charles Moule and John Nye attempt to prove the case.

Hat Tip: Marginal Revolution

Get paid to study chess

The University of Amsterdam is seeking a PhD candidate to study "Development of cognitive expertise in chess."

The appointment will be for a period of four years (one year plus a further three years after a positive evaluation) and should lead to a dissertation. The gross monthly salary will be in accordance with the University regulations for academic personnel. It will range from 1,933 Euros (first year) up to a maximum of 2,472 Euros (fourth year) gross per month. The envisaged starting date is 1 September 2006.

Get your application in soon.

Hat Tip: Temposchlucker

Hone your insults

Oscar Madison discusses one of the benefits of e-mail chess:

Another up side, of course, is the trash talking. In regular face-to-face chess games, unless you're playing speed chess or a pick-up game in Washington Square Park, trash talking is discouraged. The tradition in chess has always been the non-verbal psych out.

But it was never considered rude to trash talk in postal chess.

Under Bright Lights

Chessville puts the United States Chess League spotlight on GM Larry Christiansen of the Boston Blitz.

Larry Christiansen is a Southern California native who now resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his wife, Natasha. One of the greatest attacking players in the history of the United States, Larry was a star of the Bundesliga (a German league of chess teams) and was U.S. Champion in 1980, 1983, and 2002...

Of course, we always like to point out that both Larry and Natasha are members of the Boylston Chess Foundation.

The Game Inside The Game

As reported during NESN's Saturday broadcast of the Red Sox-Phillies game, Boston's rookie closer Jonathan Papelbon passes the time in the bullpen during the early innings playing board games, including scrabble and chess.

Weaver Adams: In his own words

This week the 2006 Weaver Adams U1800 Championship finishes up at the club. In an e-mail providing the current standings and the tentative pairings for the last round, Bob Oresick also republished an autobiography of Weaver Adams which he found in an old Massachusetts State Chess Association publication. Here it is in its entirety:

Weaver W. Adams -- An Autobiography

Massachusetts State Chess Association, 1949,
Robert W. Reddy (Ed.) p. 6-8

I was born on April 28th, 1901 to Frank H. Adams, native of Dedham, Mass., salesman for many years for Bellantine Breweries and later (after prohibition) for Ceresota Flour, and Ethel Weaver Adams, native of Newmarket, NH and graduate of Wellesley College. I am not directly related to the Presidents, John and John Quincy Adams, although the Adams's in and about Massachusetts are mostly of the same family, deriving from a Henry Adams who landed in Braintree in 1644. The family is quite famous and boasts of many statesmen, writers, historians, judges, preachers, etc. Footing the list comes a national chess champion. In the old days he would have surely been branded as a black sheep for wasting his time at so idle a pastime, and perhaps by many even today.

My schooling was conventional, Dedham Public schools and Dedham High School, but then they tried to make an engineer out of me by sending me to Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The result was not too good. During the first year a half dozen of us, after playing a few games at Walker Memorial in Cambridge, would regularly trek across the bridge to Ye Olde Boston Chess Club on Ashburton Place or to various dives in the West End, not the least attractive of which was the Lighted Lamp operated by Boston's famous Ambrose Gring. Those were really the balmy days of chess in Boston. Well I remember listening to tales told many times over by John Barry, Will Miller, George Babbitt, and a host of others most of whom are no longer living. I seemed to have been a favorite with John Barry because I would talk chess and analyze with him until 4 A. M. in the morning after everybody else had either gone home or turned to a bridge game. At any rate I believe I learned most of my chess from Mr. Barry, and in 1922 attained to the club championship.

An autobiography is supposed to contain a statement as to when one learned chess, although it's not clear as to why this is so important. However, for the sake of the record, I began playing at the age of about twelve. An older brother of a friend next door taught the two of us to play, and would play us both simultaneously blindfold at Queen odds. What I do think is important, however, is the time when he took us to Boston once to visit the Boston Chess Club which at that time was located in an alley off Boylston Street. I shall never forget the thrill it was to me to see for the first time the large club size pieces in action. Instinctively I seemed to feel that that was me. A friend of mine tells me that he had a similar experience on first visiting a stock exchange and seeing the ticker tapes in action. Curiously, all the rest of his life has been spent in the stock market.

My chess activities , of course, did not have a good effect on my marks at M.I.T., and, due redness of my report card at the half year, I was politely asked to take a vacation. This I was quite agreeable too, since it afforded me additional time for chess playing. A year went by before my parents inveigled me into attending a military school in northern Vermont, and, six months later, re-entering my class at M.I.T. All knowledge is useful, and it is always futile to look back and say if we had done so and so, life would have been better. It is completely impossible to foresee the over all plan. We can live but a day at a time.

To continue my story, about 1924 Harold Morton had just won the championship of the Providence, R. I., chess club, and a purse was gotten up for a match to take place between Mr. Morton and myself for the championship of New England. Up to that time John Barry had been unofficially recognized as the strongest player in N. E., so, with his consent and approval it was logical that the winner of the match should hold that title. Thus, in 1924 I became the NE Champion and held the title until 1929 when Morton beat me in a succeeding match. Another match between us did not take place until about 1938 which Morton again won. After his death in 1939 the title came under the control of the N. E. Chess Association and has been decided by an annual tournament (usually held over Labor Day weekend) ever since, which is all to the good, since I am strongly opposed to the awarding of titles through private matches. The tournament method is pre-eminently fair and much more attractive to both the players and the public.

Thereby closes the local chapter in my chess career. At this time – say 1936 - I think that both Morton and myself - I know I did - thought that we were pretty good chess players. We were in for a rude awakening. In that year (1936) was held the first tournament for the Chess Championship of the United States, due to the retirement of Frank J. Marshall. I recall that after the first few rounds I kept figuring that I might still win the tournament, provided I won all of the remainder of my games. In fact, this went on for several rounds, before I finally gave up hope of first prize. After nine rounds I was relatively proud of my score, since I had three wins and six losses, while Morton had nine goose eggs in a row. However, we finished in a tie for last place, since in the remaining six rounds Morton got six draws, and it was my turn for goose eggs. I mention this experience in order to caution the reader that unless he happens to play regularly in the chess clubs of New York City, he shouldn't put too much store by his showing in the chess clubs of other cities. There is really a difference.

In a considerable sense I feel that my serious chess playing did not begin until after 1936. Hundreds of hours I spent on opening analysis, with the result that there began forming in my mind the idea that by means of precise play White could perhaps emerge from the opening with just enough edge to win. Thus developed a small volume published in 1959 by the David McKay Co. of Philadelphia entitled "White to Play and Win", by Weaver W. Adams. Forthwith, in a tournament at Dallas, Texas in 1940 I proceeded to lose all of my games playing white and win all of my games playing black! However, I still stick to my theory, and even under the handicap of bucking my own analysis (most writers sedulously avoid playing a move which they have recommended as best, because of fear of having to play against a line which their opponent has prepared against it) and despite the hours which I am advised that many of my opponents spend in trying to discover mistakes in my published variations in "Simple Chess," I nevertheless lost but a single half point with the white pieces in the Open Tournament at Baltimore in 1948. And it wasn't because the boys didn't try. There were my moves open for all to see in "Simple Chess." They could select any one of a hundred different opening variations and I would play the exact moves as published. Is this not just a little significant that white can win? And, if so, why is my favorite opening the Vienna, so damned by faint praise, and so shunned by all the celebrities? You answer that one. I can't.

I don't wish to take up space by tournament records. All in all, they could be a lot better, except perhaps locally, inasmuch as I have won every City of Boston, Massachusetts State, and New England tournament in which I have taken part since 1936 - some dozen or more altogether. I will merely say that having played in eighteen national tournaments, including U. S. National, U. S. Open, Ventnor City, and the Pan American in Los Angeles in 1945, I feel that this experience should mean something, and I hope eventually to demonstrate that it is possible to play chess with consistent scientific accuracy.

The following is an example of such a game. It is one of five which I have thus far played with similar accuracy for the Log Cabin Chess Team of West Orange, New Jersey, of which I have recently become a member. It was played at Elizabethtown, New York, vs. a Montreal Team, and was part of the coast to coast 1949 match between Canada and the U. S.

Adams,W - Guze [B72]

US v Canada, 1940

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.h3 Bg7 7.Be3 Nc6 8.Qd2 a6 9.g4 Nxd4 10.Bxd4 0-0 11.0-0-0 b5 12.Bg2 Bb7 13.f4 Qc7 14.Rhe1 Rfd8 15.Qf2 Nd7 16.Bxg7 Kxg7 17.Nd5 Bxd5 18.exd5 Nb6 19.f5 Nc4 20.g5 gxf5 21.Qxf5 Qd7 22.Qf4 Rac8 23.Be4 Rc5 24.b4 Rc7 25.Bf5 Qe8 26.Qd4+ Kg8 27.Qh4 e5 28.Qxh7+ Kf8 29.Qh8+ Ke7 30.Qf6+ Kf8 31.Re4 1-0

Meeting Little Mr. Grown Up

After once again destroying my chances to advance in the annual club championship (note to self: do not move rook to where it can be pinned to queen by enemy bishop), I made a bathroom pit stop before heading home.

As I stood at the sink washing my rating points down the drain, Little Mr. Grown Up came in. I had had a few brief exchanges earlier with this young man in the side room, and had been impressed by his maturity. He was polite and straightforward, and not shy with adults whom he hadn't previously met. At least he'd never met me previously. I soon learned how sophisticated Little Mr. Grown Up was. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: "So, what's your rating?"

Him: "What's your rating?"
(Little Mr. Grown Up plays his cards close to his chest.)

Me: "1700-something."

Him: "Mine is 1600-something. What was your opponent's rating?"
(Little Mr. Grown Up knew I had lost my game, and inquires what rating of player can take me down.)

Me: "1500-something. How long have you been playing?"

Him: "4 years. How long have you been playing?"

Me, after briefly reminiscing mentally about long-gone glory days: "About 20 years."

(interlude, while we take care of our respective business)

Him, as he's leaving: "Are you on your way up?"
(What an interesting, unexpected question from this young man!)

Me, with a wry smile borne of self-awareness of weakening chess powers: "No, I'm on my way down."

Little Mr. Grown Up, thank you for a highly entertaining, if brief, conversation. It was an amusing end to a chess-wise disappointing evening. I must tell you now that I was incorrect in what I said. I am not on my way down. I just received my latest rating, and I have (again) hit my floor of 1700, so it's only up from here!

When the child surpasses the parent

What does it say about the chess world, that Chessboxing is getting better exposure than chess itself?

ESPN.com The Magazine is currently promoting a feature entitled "Chessboxing: By Hook or By Rook." The piece includes a 5-minute highly produced video including interviews with chessboxers and action from the recent European Chessboxing Championship.

Seeing Double

It takes a little longer for news to reach the Midwest, but finally The Detroit Free Press has weighed in on the Arianne Caoili story:

A few months ago, we had an item on Alexandra Kosteniuk, a Russian woman described as the Anna Kournikova of chess.

Now we see a story on Arianne Caoili, 19, an Australian player who the Aussie media say is the Anna Kournikova of chess. How many Annas are there in chess? What goes on in those chess clubs?

A platform optimized for chess bloggers

Most chess blogs (including this one) are built on general purpose blogging platforms like Blogger, WordPress or TypePad. When we want to display games or positions we need to turn to chess tools like ChessViewer, ChessPad, ChessBase or the recently launched web-based ChessUp and figure out how to integrate the appropriate html code into our posts. Sometimes this is relatively easy, other times not (of course, the technical savvy of the blogger plays an important role).

Martin Villwock of Germany offers his solution to this problem -- chesslog.de, a blogging platform specifically designed to share chess games. Now, it's as simple as pasting in "... PGN files and see[ing] the games visualized instantly". In the bottom left hand corner of the his home page are links to several chesslog.de blogs that you can check out.

While I find the chesslog.de platform intriguing, I'm struggling with whether the sites it creates should properly be classified as blogs. The archives do provide a chronological list of entries, but the homepage of each site seems more reminiscent of pre-blogging personal game pages people used to create (still do?). The platform does allow comments but does not currently allow you to create sidebar links. I'd be interested in others' views on whether these sites ought to be thought of as blogs.

Blogs or not, chesslog.de is an interesting platform which some of you may find useful.

The crazy old cat lady and friends

Every few weeks or so there is a story like this about a house full of sick or dying cats, but I never expected to hear about a guy who is hoarding chess sets. If any of the sets have been mistreated, I hope they put him away for a long time (presumably, in a rosewood box).

Games to kill by

I got scooped by ChessBase on this one, but some stories are worth repeating... MosNews reports on the “Crazy Chess Player” Serial Killer:

A serial killer detained in Moscow has confessed to killing 61 people of the 64 he was planning to kill — one murder for each of the chessboard checks.

Alexander Pichushkin, 32, a shop assistant, has claimed to be the notorious Bitsa Park serial killer, who Moscow police have been tracking down for more than half a year, Kommersant daily reports.

Pichushkin, who has already been nicknamed “Crazy Chess Player”, said he had initially planned to commit 64 murders, one for each of the chessboard checks. He also said there were three checks vacant, thus admitting to have killed 61.

Size doesn't matter

Awhile back I posted about the controversial proposal to install a giant chess board in Mill Valley, California's Lytton Square. Months later and things are still far from settled, but in a recent move to find a compromise, Mill Valley civic leader John Cuttler has proposed reducing the size of the board from 16 x 16 to 10 x 10. Unfortunately, his proposal was met with swift denunciation by the critics of the plan.

"If it's not broken, don't fix it," said Elaine Gentile, a leading opponent who dismissed the new proposal.... "This is like a sacred historical spot," she said.

Like a sacred spot? Lytton Square? ... I think you can find it listed right after The Temple on the Mount and the Birthplace of Jesus.

Scott Didham tops a strong field to win the H. Bird tournament

It came down to the final round - Jason Spector (2109) vs Scott Didham (1955) in Saturday's Legends: H. Bird tournament at the Boylston club.

Scott prevailed and won clear first ($100) with 4 points in a strong field. Jason had to settle for a group tie along with FM Chris Chase, Matt Klegon (2067), and Evan Sonkin (1814).

Other strong players included NM Alex Cherniack, NM Chris Williams, Andrew Wang, Kyle Clayton, NM Lawyer Times, Natasha Christiansen and Edmund Staples.

Winston Huang took the U1800 prize. 

Checking out the bar scene

Who needs chess clubs and community centers?

Jillian's, a bar in downtown Albany, N.Y., known for its big-screen TVs tuned to sports channels, dance club, pool hall and video arcade, is about to experiment with a little cross-marketing: it will host a chess tournament this summer....

Players will match up against five opponents in a series of 10-minute games. A no-talking rule has been waived and good-natured "trash talking" will be allowed.

Read "Albany bar to host chess tournament" from The Business Review.

How not to sell chess software

At BBHub - The Blackberry Weblog a post announcing chess software for the Blackberry platform includes this screenshot:

I have a couple of questions -

1. How come the White pieces look black and the Black pieces gold?


2. If Black's 2nd move was 2.f7-f6, then what was his first move?

Never mind FIDE, we need FEMA

For the usual reasons (family, work, etc.) I've not been able to play much at the club over the past couple of months. So, having a few free hours on Saturday I decided to stop by and check out the Legends of Chess event. Little did I realize that in the intervening weeks the club had been moved to New Orleans!

Well not really, but it sure seemed that way. Apparently we have been experiencing rather significant flooding issues in our basement location. Eastern Massachusetts has had one of the wettest springs on record this year with several bouts of flooding along local rivers. In fact, some claim to have seen various species of rats and mice lining up in pairs along Holland St. While Davis Square isn't in the flood plain, the local water table has reached a level where additional rainstorms cause water to seep up through the foundation into the basement of our building. As a result, the carpeting in the club has been soaked through several times.

On Saturday, the space seemed serviceable enough but far from ideal. Only one or two spots in the main playing room were really wet and the backroom seemed fine. On the other hand, the musty smell of wet carpeting was omnipresent. Given the heat of the day, I suppose the moisture offered some relief, though in a wet, clammy sort of way.

The activities of the club are continuing on schedule and Saturday's event had a normal turnout. Nonetheless, the situation is obviously in need of a remedy. I'm sure it will be a major topic of discussion at this week's BCF Board meeting.

So that explains the parquet floor

What is former Boston Celtics star Larry Bird's favorite opening as White? Why 1.f4, of course!

Learn about this and much more in this article about Chess-savvy NBA stars.

Rihel on Chess Life and the US Championship

I thought Jason's comment on the Chess Life item was worthy of its own post. At the very least, consider this an open thread to complain about or compliment the format of this year's US Championship.

I personally like the new redesign of the Chess Life, although the problems in Soltis's column should not be blue boards on a blue field!

I strongly disagree with comparing NIC to Chess Life -- I feel they have different target audiences. For example, I think Chess Life is not designed as a place for the stronger players to learn about the newest theory or the latest relevant game to their favorite openings. Chess Life, as I have always seen it, is there to showcase American chess and is more generally geared to players in the B-E classes. The changes to the design seem to strengthen that view.

The other redesign of Chess Life is the new focus on web content, where Chess Life has been way behind other places. It remains to be seen how good the web redesign is, but they clearly have the vision to relocate much Chess Life content to the web, which will hopefully enhance both the magazine and the website.

Now, Paul's complaint about our team getting snubbed in coverage in Chess Life is a big-big problem. As I said, Chess Life should FOCUS on American events. Growing up in the South, I always cherished my Chess Life to tell me about the local heroes from around the country. For example, they should do much more coverage of all (or many) the state championships (and Am. Team events!), as they once did fairly well. I do hope they begin to focus on that again.

Finally, the US Championship needs a complete rehaul of its format. This should be discussed in Chess Life, and on this blog, and we should protest for major changes.

posted by Rihel

Playing in traffic

Yet another chess dream:

I had a dream about this group of people who did performance art while driving....

...they were playing "road chess". Their cars were covered with these incredibly tall and beautifully built structures that made them look like chess pieces, and they would move around the "board" by speeding up, slowing down, or changing lanes.

It's Everywhere

You never know where you're going find chess blog related material. Consider this piece from ELLE girl magazine entitled "From Singapore With Love" (June/July pg. 102):

A pool shark and former chess champion pens our favorite blog this month. See the world from Angelique's perspective at raining-noodles.blogspot.com....

In high school, [Angelique] joined her chess club and rocked it. She wound up competing for Singapore in a tournament against Malaysia. Still, she insists she's not that good. "It was just a fun intellectual exercise," she says. "People pour money into coaches and training; it's a career for them. Chess is really frightening."

So I know what you're thinking ... "hey DG, how long have you been reading magazines for teenage girls and have you discussed this behavior with your therapist?"

Actually, things went down more like this ... "hey Dad, check out this article in my magazine. It's about blogging and chess. Maybe you can use it in your stupid chess blog."

Ah, the joys of parenthood...

Secret Chinese chess training techniques

At age 14, Yi Song received the women's master title and that year was ranked the 10th best woman chess player in China. Today, she is a graduate student at the University of Delaware. In addition to her studies, she coaches kids on UD's College School chess team. However, she has learned that she can't simply replicate the techniques of her former coach in China.

"There's a cultural difference between American and Chinese kids," Song said. "When I was with my coach, he often made me cry but you can't do that here."

Read "Grad student chess champion in China and Delaware" from UDaily.

Chess Life, New Life

Those of you who have received the latest issue of Chess Life are probably aware of the recent changes in format and content. I did my usual skim but still found no reason to spend more than about 10 minutes with the issue (no change there). To be honest, I wouldn't subscribe to Chess Life except that it is a "benefit" of USCF membership. I do pay to receive New in Chess and spend many hours with each issue.

Given my views on Chess Life, I didn't think it made much sense for me to review the recent changes. Instead, I offer the perspectives of a couple of my fellow bloggers:

• The Manley Nick - Chess Life Redesign


• Alberto Dominguez - Changes in Chess Life

Warming up with chess

Grandmasters have concluded that staying in good physical shape is critical to performing at the top level of the chess world. As a result, many run, swim, play tennis, etc. But have you ever considered whether playing chess would benefit physical athletes?

The Basketball Player Development & Human Performance Enhancement blog shares an excerpt from a Sports Illustrated story about a competitive Tennis player who uses chess as his cross-training activity.

Hat Tip: Rocky Rook

P.S. Perhaps we can ask Mate in Three if chess helps with his cycling.

More chess blog thievery

Not a highjacking this time, but I did come across this blog which seems to be "borrowing" quite liberally from Dennis Monokroussos' The Chess Mind.

The best thing for chess since Bobby Fischer?!

Chess rarely breaks out into mainstream consciousness, but obviously the dance floor dust-up over WIM Arianne Caoili at the Turin Olympiad was just what the average person on the street was looking for. The story has cut across the blogosphere as well, with many non-chess related blogs covering and commenting on it. I was thinking about listing these blog references, but there are now far too many. Instead, I'll let the search engines do the work:

• Google Blog Search for "Caoili Gormally" (42 citations when I posted this)
  
  
• Technorati Search for "Caoili Gormally" (78 citations when I posted this)

Just trying to stay afloat

From "Old is the New" at Chicken...what? Do you expect a cow or something?:

...I quit chess last year due to nerdish puns made. I'm that low down on the food chain [that] I don't need chess to place me even lower.

Advanced Chess for Amateurs

At my top hat they describe a person who plays a variant that I guess you would call "mindless chess."

Well, he doesn't really play chess... when it's his turn to move he goes to the Hint option where a faint red arrow suggests which piece to move where, every time.

Every time it's his turn to move "Menu -> Hint".

You can never begin too early

While there are exceptions, most future Grandmasters start their chess training when they are young. It seems that the Chess Boxing community believes that the same principle holds true for their sport. Check out these photos from Chess Boxing Club Berlin.

You boys must really get around

From the Herald Sun (emphasis is mine):

THE heart of an Australian chess queen at the centre of a dance-floor brawl between two grandmasters appears to have been captured by one of the errant knights.

Fess up ... which one of you was involved in the Aronian-Caoili-Gormally tryst?

Pattern Recognition

Apparently everything in life can be boiled down into a 2x2 matrix, at least according to 4-Block World's Tom McMahon. Here's 4-Block Chess; check out his archives for other 4-Block concepts.

One-offs

• It's all over the mainstream press and the blogosphere, so I was trying to think of something unique to say about L'affaire Gormally. How about this?

Lev Aronian and the Armenian team faced many challenges on the way to winning the Chess Olympiad in Turin, including a new variation of the English Attack.

• My German is only as good as Bablefish's translation algorithm, but I think Schachblatter is proposing a tournament among the German chess bloggers. Meanwhile, PokerStars is organizing the World Blogger Championship of Online Poker. Our own DPJ is participating.

• Rocky Rook has launched a dedicated chess blog through which he has joined the Knights Errant clan. Welcome Sir Rocky Rook.

Three strikes and you're out

Luke Leong points out that times are not so good for Russian sports fans:

...what do maria sharapova, the russian national soccer team and the russian chess olympiad team have in common?

the tennis pin-up girl was just eliminated from the ongoing french open, guus hiddink's new charges failed to qualify for germany 2006 and the hot favourites for the recently concluded chess olympiad in turin fizzled out and eventually finished a dismal 6th.

They Evolved, They Rebelled

Before everyone becomes enamored with Joshua - The Chess Playing Robot, consider how things could go very wrong.

Caption Contest X

Lee regretted the fact that he had forgotten to pick up
his new eyeglass prescription before the tournament.

Post your caption in the comments.

Source: "Tourney contestants clash in 'sport for the mind': ISU chess event draws people from five states" from the Pocatello Idaho State Journal.

How I know there is a God

At Kosteniuk.com, readers have rated Sanja Dedijer of Bosnia Herzegovina the most attractive player at the Turin Olympiad (much higher than Alexandra herself). I couldn't agree more!

We'll always have Paris

From adri's Live Journal:

I dreamt we were in Paris, dancing on chess-boards and thinning ourselves out between the wooden kings and queens.

Unfair Game

"Most gods throw dice, but Fate plays chess, and you don't find out til too late that he's been playing with two queens all along." - Terry Pratchett

Hat Tip: woodyzone

Should Forfeiters Lose Rating Points?

Because of my recent experience at the 2006 Mass Open (see my previous post), I am wondering what might be done about last round forfeiters. Should forfeited games count by the USCF as a rated game, and would that cut down on forfeits?

I have examined both the Marshall Chess Club and the Boylston Chess Club's last 6 months of tournaments in order to estimate the prevalence of last round forfeits. For the BCC, there were 3 forfeits out of 19 tournaments so far this year, which means 15% of all events have a forfeit. For the Marshall Chess Club, the rate was similar -- 9 last round forfeits in 45 tournaments (20%). This means that a player is getting robbed of a last round game once every 5 events. This may seem like a small number to some, but considering that this kind of forfeit results only from the rudeness of players -- if a TD were told about it, they would simply be withdrawn from the event -- I was rather surprised at how common this was. When you consider that these are the rates for well established clubs, with many many regular players, this is outrageous!

Let me address one concern -- is it right to rate a game that went unplayed? I say, "Yes," because we have no problem rating a game if our opponents resigned after a few moves, or offered a draw on move 2. If a player walked out of a game after the moves 1.e4 c5 showed up, this would count as a full point, but that is hardly a real game. In both cases, one player has to sit and wait, wasting time and life for nothing.

The real question is -- would rating their unplayed game lead to fewer forfeits? I suspect it will, but I welcome comment. If it wouldn't, then there is no point in rating the game. But if it would lead to more repairings then I think it is worthy of consideration. I suppose other options include sanctioning or banning players who forfeit games from club play.

NA Chess blog hijacked?

When FIDE Chess in Chicago evolved into the North American Chess Association, a post on their blog pointed readers to the new North American Chess Association blog. During the recent Spring FIDE Invitational tournament, posts on the new blog were frequent. However, if you go to nachess.blogspot.com today, you'll find that it is now a spam blog entitled my names is Tyler Wright (WARNING: some of the links are definitely not family friendly).

Did North American Chess abandon its blog voluntarily or have sploggers figured out how to steal existing blogs? Whatever the answer, if you have a link to the NA Chess blog on your site, I recommend removing it.

Update: Sevan confirms the highjacking and reports that the blog can now be found at www.nachess.org/blog.html.

The Diplomacy Game

The Financial Times suggests that Washington has "lost touch with the style of Iranian diplomacy, in which ambiguity is a vital part of the process." The article continues:

Manouchehr Mottaki, the Iranian foreign minister, described the difference in approaches on a trip to Armenia in February. "Americans really love American football, the main aim of which is attack," he said. "But we have a cultural preference for chess and we approach problems calmly, taking account of all the circumstances."

Perhaps we should simply take on the Mullahs in a chess match in order to settle our differences.

It's a breeze

Move. Counter-move.

Attack. Defend.

Competing on the same side. Attacking on opposite wings.

That's right, we're talking about ... Sailing -- Like chess only wetter.

Efim Bogoljubow Quotes

When asked how many moves he thought ahead, Bogoljubow pondered for a second, flashed his teeth and said "Just one. The best".

Commenting on a recent run of victories, he said "When I play white I win because I play white. When I play black I win because I am Bogoljubow."

Hat Tip: Confused of Calcutta