White to move

Link

Chess in the background

Here is an addition to Goran's posts (1, 2) on chess-related computer backgrounds -- a blogger creates his own chess-themed wallpaper (larger image).

I wish they all could be California...

...Chess Girls.

Safety and Security through Chess

When is Mate in 16 better than Mate in 1?

Read "Pentagon Stuns Terrorists With "Non-Checkmate" Move In Homeland Security Chess Match" from The Therapist.

US Chess League Announces 2006 Line-Up

After two days of intensive meetings, Commissioner Greg Shahade and DG's Mother-in-law emerged from US Chess League Headquarters in New York City to report to the media on plans for the 2006 USCL Season. Here is a transcript of their press conference.

Greg Shahade: I would like to thank all of you for coming. Today, we'd like to announce the team lineup and division structure for the 2006 USCL season. While the league will remain the same size next year, we wanted to provide opportunities for some new cities to participate. As a result, some very difficult decisions needed to be made. Now, here are next year's teams --

Eastern Division

Boston Blintzes
New York Bagels
Carolina Kreplach
Miami Matzo Balls

Western Division

Chicago Chubs
Kansas City Knishes
Houston Challah
Los Angeles Latkes

I'm sure there will be some questions about the 2005 teams which are not on the list, so let's cover each of them in turn. First, in the Eastern Division, the Baltimore Bialys...

DG's Mother-in-law: What is a Bialy anyway? Some sort of bastard cousin to the bagel. Oops, can I say that Greg?

Greg Shahade: I think it's ok.

DG's Mother-in-law: There really is nothing better than a New York Bagel. Bagels and Bialys just would have been too confusing.

Greg Shahade: I'm sure you can begin to see some of the hard bargaining and tough decision-making we've gone through over the past two days. Let's move on to the Philadelphia Perogies.

DG's Mother-in-law: From the old country sure, but so associated with a single country.

Greg Shahade: And after we decided to put a team in Chicago, we didn't want to do anything that might split the loyalties of a portion of their fan base.

DG's Mother-in-law: They did offer an alternative name, but Philadelphia Pastrami really doesn't roll off the tongue that well.

Greg Shahade: Who goes to Philadelphia for a pastrami sandwich anyways? ... Ok, before we move on are there any other questions about the Eastern Division? ... PETA?

DG's Mother-in-law: They're asking if we're concerned about PETA disrupting the matches in Miami?

Greg Shahade: Oh ok, I can handle this one... I had extensive discussions with Miami team officials. They assured me that they work exclusively with farms that raise free-range Matzos and that use only the most humane removal methods... Let's move on to the Western Division. Dallas...

DG's Mother-in-law: To be perfectly honest, until I got involved in this process I didn't even realize that Texas was part of the United States. In any case, the Dallas Donuts really wasn't on point at all. Hopefully they'll send their marketing people to a couple of Hadassah meetings before next year's selection process.

Greg Shahade: Next up is the San Francisco Sissel Bread.

DG's Mother-in-law: Bagels, Bialys, Challah, Sissel and then there was the late entry from Rochester.

Greg Shahade: Oh right, the Rye Toast.

DG's Mother-in-law: Why they didn't go with Rugelach, I'll never know. No matter, but in this day and age of low-carb dieting, how much bread can you really put on the table?

Greg Shahade: We couldn't really have two teams from California ... Well, sure, San Francisco has the longer chess history, but wait 'til you taste these latkes -- crisp, fried potato pancakes with a dollop of applesauce. Absolutely delicious!

DG's Mother-in-law: I made him an extra batch to take home.

Greg Shahade: Other teams that didn't make the cut? ... Well, there were actually two different proposals from Chicago. A group from the North side of the city put together the bid for the Chubs; meanwhile, South Siders were looking to form a separate team, the Whitefish.

DG's Mother-in-law: Of course, we couldn't have two teams in Chicago. Can you imagine how much confusion would have been created distinguishing Whitefish from Chubs? We had to line up both proposals side-by-side in order to make a final decision.

Greg Shahade: The Whitefish were definitely easier to eat, but the Chubs had so much more flavor.

DG's Mother-in-law: There was also the Lincoln Lox. But, between you and me, I bet you can't find half-a-dozen people in all of Nebraska who can explain the difference between a piece of Scottish Salmon and a slice of Nova.

Greg Shahade: We also had some preliminary discussions about 2007. We're considering allowing smaller cities and towns to combine forces. Two cities in Washington State -- Kennewick and Vancouver -- have already started talking in anticipation of this opportunity.

DG's Mother-in-law: The Kennewick/Vancouver Kasha Varnishkes -- alone each is nothing special, but together they are a tasty combination.

Greg Shahade: Well, I think we'll wrap it up there. The buffet tables up-front are now open. Everyone dig in!

DG's Mother-in-law: Be sure to try both the blueberry and the cheese blintzes and don't forget the sour cream.

Greg Shahade: In the meantime, I'll be heading back upstairs to attend to an acute personal bloating issue.

DG's Mother-in-law: Isn't he cute? Someday, he's going to make a wonderful husband for some very lucky girl ... You are going to want to put those directly into your soup, dear...

Lemon Chess Gooey Butter Cake

Bottom layer:

1 (18.25-ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 egg
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, melted

Filling:

2 large lemons
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
2 large eggs
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, melted
2 tablespoons white or yellow cornmeal
3- 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

Prepare bottom layer as directed for Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake.

To make filling, rinse and dry the lemons. Grate the zest and set aside; you should have about 2 teaspoons. Cut the lemons in half, and squeeze juice into a small bowl; you should have about 6 tablespoons.

Place the cream cheese in the same mixing bowl you used to make the crust, and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and add the lemon juice, lemon zest, eggs, melted butter and cornmeal; beat on medium speed 1 minute.

Stop the machine and add the confectioners' sugar. Beat on medium speed until the sugar is well incorporated, 1 minute more.

Pour the filling over the crust, spreading with a rubber spatula so it covers the surface and reaches the sides of the pan. Bake until cake is browned but the center still jiggles when you shake the pan, about 45 minutes. Cool on a wire rack 30 minutes before cutting. Makes 16 servings.

Courtesy of The Huntsville Times.

Chess, an easier sell than Comics

Which is the bigger draw for passersby, the comics or the chess?
The chess. Unfortunately, the chess. They come to watch a good match. People stand and watch and wait to play. I used to charge a dollar, then went to a tip jar...but it'’s better if I don'’t charge. I'd rather people bought a comic. Sometimes you get a big crowd of people just watching a good chess match.

Read an interview with Franklin Crowe, sidewalk comic book salesman/chess player, from the Gothamist.

Queen for a day

A chess riddle from The Mind of Jeffrey Stapleton.

Develop your zalduns before your strelecs

Here's a follow-up to our discussion on Springers, Horses and Knights -- the names of chess pieces in 72 different languages.

BCC Championship - Round 3 Games

[Event "2005 BCC Championship"] [Site "Somerville, MA"] [Date "2005.09.26"] [Round "3"] [White "Theil"] [Black "Christiansen,N"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteELO "1991"] [BlackELO "1810"] [ECO "B27"]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 Nf6 5.e5 Nc6 6.Qa4 Nd5 7.Qe4 Nc7 8.Nc3 Bg7 9.Bg5 b6 10.Rd1 Bb7 11.Qe3 h5 12.a3 0-0 13.Bc4 b5 14.Bb3 Qc8 15.0-0 Ne6 16.Rfe1 Nxg5 17.Qxg5 a6 18.Qxg6 Na5 19.Ng5 1-0

[Event "2005 BCC Championship"] [Site "Somerville, MA"] [Date "2005.09.26"] [Round "3"] [White "Riordan"] [Black "MacIntyre"] [Result "1/2"] [WhiteELO "2283"] [BlackELO "2315"] [ECO "E68"]

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.g3 0-0 5.Bg2 d6 6.0-0 Nbd7 7.Qc2 c6 8.Rd1 Re8 9.Nc3 Qc7 10.e4 e5 11.h3 exd4 12.Nxd4 Nc5 13.Bf4 Nfd7 14.Be3 a5 15.b3 Nf8 16.Rac1 h5 17.Qd2 Nh7 18.Nde2 Bf8 19.Bf4 Re6 ½-½

[Event "2005 BCC Championship"] [Site "Somerville, MA"] [Date "2005.09.26"] [Round "3"] [White "Cherniack"] [Black "Clayton"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteELO "2279"] [BlackELO "1888"] [ECO "A86"]

1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7 5.Nh3 d6 6.d5 a5 7.Nf4 0-0 8.Nc3 Na6 9.Be3 Qe8 10.0-0 Bd7 11.Bd4 g5 12.Nh3 Qh5 13.f4 h6 14.Qd2 g4 15.Nf2 Qg6 16.Rae1 Nc5 17.e4 Nfxe4 18.Ncxe4 Bxd4 19.Qxd4 e5 20.fxe5 Nxe4 21.e6 Nxf2 22.Rxf2 Rae8 23.Ref1 Bc8 24.Qd3 Qg7 25.Rxf5 Rxf5 26.Qxf5 Rf8 27.Qe4 h5 28.Rf4 b6 29.Bf1 Qxb2

30.e7 Rxf4 31.Qxf4 Bd7 32.Qf8+ Kh7 33.Bd3+ 1-0

Weighty Thoughts

Sir Chubalot shares his indisputable proof "that chess makes you fat."

Sharks bite down on Blitz

The Boston Blitz had a tough time in Round 6 of the US Chess League losing to the Miami Sharks 3-1. This loss, combined with wins by New York and Baltimore, leaves but a small flicker left in the Blitz' playoff hopes.

The evening started out quietly enough as FM Kelleher drew FM Martinez by three-fold repetition in a Bird's Variation of the Ruy Lopez. The game itself was relatively short and not particularly interesting as Queens came off early and after Black moved his rook to the 7th, White had little choice but to oppose it wherever it moved.

Things went downhill for the Blitz when FM MacIntyre blundered his Rook to a simple Knight fork and was forced to resign. While he certainly wasn't winning prior to this error, his position seemed playable enough. Time pressure must have played a role in this oversight; Paul doesn't allow these kinds of tactics when he is playing me.

Next to fall was IM Friedel, but he surely made it interesting. Josh sacrificed his Queen for a Rook, Knight and advanced passed c-pawn. Perhaps the ensuing complications would have been a problem for a lesser player, but GM Becerra played precisely and notched up a win for Miami.

On Board 4, NM Riordan had his hands full with Jorge Diaz. Charles didn't seem to get much going against what, to me, seemed like a fairly strange opening. The resulting position had elements of the Nimzo-Indian (White's doubled c-pawns) and the Dutch Leningrad (Black pawns on f5 and g6) -- though Black's fianchettoed Bishop had already left the board. Eventually the position took on a rather drawish character with double rooks and bishops of opposite color, but Riordan pushed forward looking for winning chances. One of the ICC kibitzers suggested 40.b5 (instead of 40.c5) as a winning try, but I'm not so sure.

From about move 35 on Diaz made draw offers on four or five consecutive moves. In my view, these repeated draw offers were not appropriate, and potentially annoying to the opponent. I'm sure Charles knew that Jorge was willing to take a draw after his first offer (and certainly after his second one). In any case, Riordan finally concluded that he little hope of creating winning chances and offered the draw himself on move 43.

Next week, the Blitz face the New York Knights for the second time this season in a must win match if they hope to keep their slim playoff hopes alive. Boston drew their previous encounter with New York 2-2.

Next Stop: Paparazzi

The Dean of New England chess journalism, Harold Dondis, was kind enough to make BCC Weblog the topic of his Chess Notes column in Monday's edition of The Boston Globe. Here is the article (hyperlinks and notes in italics are mine):

Monday, October 3, 2005

Chess Notes
By Harold Dondis and Patrick Wolff
Globe Correspondents

Readers who connect with the Boylston weblog (Boylston-chess-club.blogspot.com) are in for a treat. The blogmaster for the Boylston Club is DG, a regular player there. He has developed a sensible reportage of goings-on in the local chess arenas and also keeps tabs on national developments. The blog spot so far is thankfully free of much of the rancor that exists in many partisan blogs on the Internet.

A recent rundown of the blog shows a number of subjects. For example, the Boylston Championship has commenced with the following participants: Paul MacIntyre, Charles Riordan, Alex Cherniack, Vadim Martirosov, and Kyle Clayton. Matt Klegon withdrew after entry. Missing this year is one of the past year [champions], Chris Chase. [Click here for an updated list of participants.] Withdrawal, if it occurs during the tournament, is one of the problems with these long-term championships, as it prevents an accurate score. After Round 1 MacIntyre, Riordan, and Martirosov had one point apiece. DG's coverage includes games and chess positions.

Another event going on is the US Chess League in which major cities are having a go at one another with chess teams of equivalent ratings. The Boston Blitzes, waging a parallel competition to the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, faced a nemesis in the New York Knights and drew their match. A similar draw followed against the Philadelphia Masterminds. The team players for the Blitzes include Larry Christiansen, Bill Kelleher, Josh Friedel and Ilya Krasik. At last reporting, the Blitzes came up with a 2.5-1.5 victory over the Carolina Cobras, thus upstaging the New England Patriots in their game against the Carolina Panthers. But, as the Red Sox struggled with the Baltimore Orioles, the Blitzes bowed to the Baltimore Kingfishers 3.5-.5.

An unusual occurrence arose in the game between Friedel and International Master Shroer of the Cobras. Friedel had the better position and moved his Queen en prise, which was happily taken by a pawn. It turns out that the move was a slip of the mouse, in short, an unintended move. After negotiation, the position was restored and the proper Queen move was made. Friedel went on to win.

One of the services of the Boylston blog is to bring readers up to speed on other blogs. Apparently the most popular chess blog is the Daily Dirt Chess Blog, which receives about 5,000 postings a day [actually, Mig reports ~5,000 unique visitors a day]. Chess players [who are members of the Boylston Chess Foundation] can apply for the right to post on the Boylston blog. One report covers an AOL lawsuit that nailed chess spammers who hijacked an AOL address and used it for unsolicited e-mail.

Chess players often play in a vacuum, not knowing what is going on in their chess world. All in all, the Boylston chess blog is a welcome local addition to the local chess tradition.

As I'm sure you noticed, Harold referred to the Boston Blitz as the Blitzes throughout the article. When my mother-in-law, who unsurprisingly is not a frequent reader of The Boston Globe chess column, finished the article she asked, "Why is the team from Boston named the Blintzes?"

Surprise! Surprise!

I really thought that FIDE would cave to the players on the issue of writing your moves down before you play them. However, it seems that they stuck by their guns and the players blinked first.

From Guert Gijssen's most recent "An Arbiter's Notebook" column at ChessCafe.com:

In other news from Dresden: The Association of Chess Professionals (ACP) agreed with the new article that players may not record the moves in advance...

Now we just need to wait another 40 or 50 years for USCF to get on board.

Related Posts: Notetakers Rejoice! - No writing moves in advance at the US Championship! - Put your pen down ...

Jason reports on the Boston Open at U-Mass Boston

Boston area chessfans! Jason Rihel here with a report on the Boston Open, which took place Oct 1 - 2 at the U-Mass Boston beautiful new campus center.

First, it must be said that the turnout for this event was horrible-- there were a total of 8 players in the Open section, and the other sections had between 4-12 players each. While, I suspect that the beautiful weather, coupled with the Red Sox-- Yankees rivalry did much to keep people away, the relatively poor advertising for the event and the already low chess turnout these days could not have helped.

Also, while the harbor view is gorgeous, and the RedLine a free bus ride away, U-Mass Boston is too isolated for a good tournament. On Saturday, the only food option was a snack bar with some cold sandwiches and salads. On Sunday, there were NO food options at all! After a tough 4.5 hour scrape of a win in Round 3, I had to eat chips and pretzels out of a snack machine in preparation for my game against 2300-rated Avraam Pismennyy! I personally will not attend another weekend tournament held at U-Mass Boston, or will at least bring my own meals. If I had only been told about it.....

The low turnout led to some interesting outcomes for the Open section. After I defeted Matt Klegon in the first round, he withdrew, leaving just 7 players in the Open section battling it out for 5 prizes!! The lowest rated member of the group, Azaivier Davis (Just rated below your humble reporter), actually won 3rd prize outright after receiving a FULL POINT BYE in the last round. Going into the last round, Chris Williams and Davis had 1.5 points, Jared Becker had 1 point from an earlier full point bye he received, and I had 2 points. This left Chris Williams to play a 2100 player, Leonid Tkach, and it left me to play the top-rated Pismennyy. Meanwhile, Davis, at the bottom of the rating and score list, leapfrogged us in the standings with his bye!! Chris and I went down to defeat to co-winners Pismennyy and Tkach, leaving Davis sole possessor of 3rd place at 2.5 points (actually, he received the under 2200 prize, which was worth slightly more). Jared Becker (boosted with a full point bye), and I split the 3rd place and under 2100 prize, and Chris Williams, who had to play four tough rounds, was left out of the money.

In the other sections, Stephen Brudno and Philip Nutzman won the Under 2000 section with 3 points, Thomas Sifter was the sole winner of the Under 1700 section with a 3.5 score, and Mark Huston scored 3.0 to win the Under 1400 prize.

They also had a one day event, which was won by 1700 rated Felix Yang with a perfect 4.0 score. In the side Scholastic Events, Frederick Law won the K-6 event with a 4.0 score, and Nicholas Zhang scored 4.0 to win the K-3 section.

So, the lingering question remains-- how do we increase interest in the local area chess competitions? Was this a fluke of Red Sox Mania? Can regular Internet reports about local activity boost interest? I'm guessing it can, which is why I am writing this piece. I encourage all the Boston chess players to write up their own chess experiences here on this BCC blog, and maybe chess publicity can generate chess interest.

Lost in translation

The German company Springer unveiled their new logo:There is a certain logic in it since the Knight is called a Springer in German. However, their marketing people must have been using one of those web-based translation programs when they put up this press release on their English site. "The horse chess piece..."?

Analytics vs. Intuition

As a fairly analytical person myself, I found Michael Lewis' book "Moneyball" to be a revelation. Lewis chronicles the Oakland Athletics' use of baseball statistics in forming their team and making day-to-day decisions on the field. His underlying thesis is that General Manager Billy Beane's embrace of a statistical approach to baseball has allowed the Althletics to compete year in and year out with teams that have much greater resources at their disposal. Along the way, Lewis discusses the tension that was created between old-time baseball people who primarily used intuitive and emotional approaches to decision-making (e.g., identifying five tool players, going with gut instincts, staying with the hot bat, etc.) and the new-breed of statistical geeks (e.g., OBP, previous head-to-head matchups, ignoring pitchers' save numbers and won-loss records in favor of different performance measures, etc.).

I suspect that similar approaches (and tensions) are applicable in the US Chess League as well. In a previous post I discussed how analytics might play a role in team formation; but, I think over time, the search for an extra edge will lead to additional applications. For example, in determining the line-up each week previous head-to-head matchups might be considered. The historical success of your player against the typical opening repetoire of the expected opponent might also be factor. And with the existence and accessibility of large scale chess game databases, these types of analyses are reasonably easy to perform.

Today, I want to take a look at another potentially useful measure. Five weeks into the season, we can begin to look at the performance ratings of the various players. This measure can be thought of as the chess equivalent of a batter's OBP or a pitcher's ERA. By comparing a player's performance rating to their actual rating, we can assess how well each player is performing for the team relative to the expectation implied in their official USCL rating. Since the USCL imposes a rating cap each week, the overall success of a team is largely driven by the individual players' ability to perform above rating expectations.

So let's take a look at the relative performance ratings of the Boston Blitz through week 5. The format of the data is as follows -- Player Name (# of games played) - USCL Rating, Performance Rating, Performance Rating-USCL Rating. I have sorted the players by relative over/under-performance:

IM Perelshteyn (2) - 2576, 2953, +377
NM Riordan (2) - 2272, 2400, +128
IM Friedel (4) - 2447, 2520, +73
--------------------------------
GM Christiansen (3) - 2596, 2562, -34
Krasik (5) - 2123, 1979, -144
FM MacIntyre (2) - 2316, 2137, -179
FM Kelleher (2) - 2383, 1992, -392

Of course the sample sizes are fairly small, so you need to be careful about reading too much into these numbers (especially for those players who have played only two games). Nevertheless, they do reflect the actual performance of the players under USCL playing conditions.

The first thing to notice is that the team as a whole has just slightly underperformed by -33/game. As such it is not surprising that the Blitz' record through week 5 is right at .500 (2.5-2.5). This data can also be used to assess the validity of statements like "player x is on the team because he/she is actually stronger than their published rating." These claims of 'under-ratedness' can now be evaluated in the light of day.

The last use of performance rating information which I would like to discuss today is its application to the week-to-week team selection process. It definitely should not be used as the only input (that would be equivalent to riding the hot batter regardless of other mitigating factors), but I think it can be a useful source of information in selecting the line-up with the best chance of winning each week.

While not the best example to illustrate this point, let's take a look at the line-ups for this week's match against the Miami Sharks:

IM Josh Friedel (2477) vs. GM Julio Becerra (2622)
FM William Kelleher (2383) vs. FM Marcel Martinez (2469)
FM Paul MacIntyre (2316) vs. NM Miguel Espino (2272)
NM Charles Riordan (2272) vs. FM Javier Torres (2231)

Notice that the Blitz' line-up includes two over-performing players and two under-performing ones. This in itself is not remarkable; the Blitz don't really have the option of fielding all over-performing players at this point in time. However, I don't particularly like this line-up because one of the over-performing players (Friedel) is facing a major rating deficit on Board 1. As such, there is a reasonable chance that his relatively strong play won't result in any points for the team. In the middle of the line-up, Boston's under-performing players face a small rating deficit on Board 2 and a minor advantage on Board 3. Only on Board 4 does the team have both a rating advantage and an over-performing player. Of course, anything can happen in the games when they are played on Wednesday, but my pre-match assessment is that a 2-2 draw is the best the Blitz can reasonably expect from this line-up (Friedel 0, Kelleher 0 or 1/2, MacIntyre 1/2, Riordan 1).

Let's look at a couple of other options the Blitz might have considered (and, for all I know maybe they did -- e.g., IM Foygel may still be unavailable due to family issues and IM Perelshteyn may not have been able to play for some other reason). The first option would be to replace IM Friedel with IM Perelshteyn on Board 1. This doesn't change the mix of over and under-performing players, but does put a player on Board 1 with a much smaller rating deficit vs. his opponent. In addition, Eugene has already demonstrated an ability to successfully take on GMs in this league.

The second option is to go with the lineup -- Foygel, Friedel, MacIntyre, Riordan. Certainly Igor would have a hard time on Board 1, but in compensation the Blitz would have had rating advantages on the remaining three boards (two of the three with over-performing players). Had this option been feasible (and as mentioned earlier, it may very well have not been), it would have been my first choice.

For now, we'll wait for Wednesday and see what happens. As for BCC Weblog coverage of this week's match, I may do something a bit lighter on Wednesday night or just a post-match wrap-up. We'll see how much energy I have left after watching another round of San Luis.

ChessBoxing Action

Juergen at Random Good Stuff attended the European ChessBoxing Heavyweight Championship in Berlin. His report on the event is particularly noteworthy since it includes a couple of video clips of the action -- the first "live" ChessBoxing action I've seen.

I thought that NFL Europe had helped pull Berliners out of the middle ages of sports entertainment, but I guess we need to introduce them to baseball too.

Speaking of strange sports, in Arkansas they seem to have created their own form of chess-related competition:

A lot of people showed up here Friday night to watch Prairie Grove and Shiloh Christian meet in a chess match played on a green, grassy 100-yard gameboard.

For someone who has everything

What does dead_mike want for his birthday?

I don't care if anyone gets anything for me as long as you are all there and I get some chess action.

Chess is for the Birds

Here's a less than obvious combination of afternoon activities:

CHESS AND FALCONS IN CENTRAL PARK

Tomorrow, noon to 4 p.m., a "Falconry Extravaganza," with winged visitors in the East Meadow, Fifth Avenue and East 99th Street. Information: 311. Sunday at 10 a.m., the Annual Youth Chess Tournament, open to kindergarteners to eighth graders, at Chess and Checkers House, midpark, south of 65th Street; registration: (212) 338-5350.

...brings new meaning to the idea of a "Kingside attack."