The Chess Blog of the Boylston Chess Club... The Boylston Chess Club (BCC) is a part of the Boylston Chess Foundation (BCF).
White: Voodoo ZebraThe Santa Monica Bay Chess Club begins its eight-round club championship Monday in Joslyn Park, 633 Kensington Road in Santa Monica. Call Pete Savino at (310) 827-2789 for more information....I finally found a place called the Chess Palace and played in a couple of tournaments there. Here's what I wrote about the place in Chess Horizons:
For more information about the Arcadia Chess Club, which meets Monday evenings in the Senior Citizens building, 405 S. Santa Anita Ave. in Arcadia, call Fred Brock at (626) 331-1638....
The Pasadena Chess Club runs tournaments at 6:30 p.m. Fridays in Throop Memorial Church, 300 S. Los Robles Ave. in Pasadena.... Call Raymond Boncato at (626) 568-0431 or Randy Hough at (626) 282-7412 for information....
The Exposition Park Chess Club's free monthly tournament will be held next Sunday in the public library, 3665 S. Vermont Ave. in Los Angeles.
The Rialto Chess Club has lost its playing site. To find out the new location, call Dec Cuerdon at (909) 641-4337.
Los AngelesCheck out their website for an update on what's been going on at the Chess Palace since I was there.
Well, Los Alamitos to be more accurate, though the initials are the same. The Chess Palace is a rather optimistic moniker for this storefront in a strip mall on Katella Avenue. This palace is small -- the tournament room is the skittles room is the bookstore. This is generally not a problem except when the phone keeps ringing in the middle of the round. Like the Manhattan Club [note: In 1997-98 the Manhattan Chess Club was still in existence on W. 46th St. between 8th and 9th Avenues], the Chess Palace has a bit of a business feel to it. If you forget a pen, you can buy one for $.50; pencils are a bargain at $.25 but fortunately scoresheets are still free. At these prices, it doesn't look like Charles Rostedt, the proprietor and good friend of chess, will be moving to Beverly Hills anytime soon.
So how is it that someone finds out where to play chess in an unfamiliar city? Listen carefully chess club marketers -- the TLA's in Chess Life. While I had heard that their might be a club in Santa Monica and/or Pasadena (which would have been much closer to where I was staying) I couldn't find any tournaments listed in the magazine. On the other hand, about half the listings in Southern California section are for the Chess Palace.
The Chess Palace Wednesday Knights is played not surprisingly on Wednesday nights, with the number of rounds determined by the number of Wednesdays in the month. Unlike most of the other clubs I've played in, the competition here was not as strong -- both months I played, I was either the highest or second-highest rated player in the tournament....
"Nightclubbing - Our man goes forth from Boston, looking for new worlds to conquer" Chess Horizons, July/August 1998
Getting Even, Without Feathers, and Side Effects collect Woody Allen's written humor from the mid 60s through to the late 70s, in 5-year chunks....
Getting Even contains ... "The Gossage-Vardabedian Papers" - a succession of correspondence-chess letters, each one more politely sarcastic and seethingly hostile than the last.
From "Books to Laugh with by Andrew Saikali" at The Millions (A Blog About Books).
In addition to teaching at the library and in the Harwich elementary and middle school enrichment programs, Donlan is the editor of both ChessCafé.com and the Chess Horizons, a chess magazine.... Ironically, Donlan didn't learn chess as a child, but picked it up about 15 years ago. "It just clicked and it went forward from there," he explained. He's currently a candidate for grand master in correspondence chess.
"Ninjas vs. Pirates" will be just one of [the] showdowns at METROCON'S Anime Human Chess Match, which will take place during the Tampa Bay, Florida-based anime convention, during the weekendRead the full press release at i-Newswire.com.of June 24-26, 2005, at the Tampa Convention Center in Downtown Tampa, FL.
METROCON 2005 is now accepting applications for a variety of in-costume roles. Interested cosplayers and actors can visit www.metroconventions.com for more details about cast member responsibilities and requirements, as well as images of the anime characters participating in the chess match. Applications are due by Sunday, March 6th, and cast members will be announced shortly afterward.
chess is such a difficult game
there are so many pieces
so many squares
where you can go
so few promises
never you mind all the others
anticipating your next move
i know it's hard cause you got a lot to do
street signs and traffic lights ever confusing me it's you
stop left, go
right, no U-turn, where's the goddamn exit
never you mind all the others
influencing your next move
i know it's hard cause you got a lot to prove
lalalalalalala~....
LONDON - Darts players are the brightest of all sportsmen, new research shows. According to the study by Britain's National Instituteof Economic and Social Research (NIESR), darts players have an enormous knowledge of world affairs and are eager to learn more....
Chess players and golfers, as expected, are the least bright sportsmen. "Chess and golf is generally speaking for people with little, if any, education," NIESR Director Martin Weale explained.
Read more...
Well said.A little story from my own childhood may help. My father taught me how to play chess, a game we still enjoy playing together. However, as a kid, my father, would play to his level, which was more advanced than mine. As a result I would lose, often and regularly. But each time I lost, my dad taught me a lesson, about chess and about life. The chess lesson was easy. The life lesson was usually left unspoken, that no matter how well you do (and I improved over time) you can still fail. Failure is a part of life, what takes courage and real self-esteem is not thinking you are a failure, but realizing that you got beat and you need to learn a lesson and apply that lesson.
Facing the division’s top team, the underdogs had Bermudian Springs on the brink of defeat during the day’s final bout. Scoring one upset victory after another, the two-hour battle culminated with Biglerville’s hopes resting on one last move.Read "High school chess players take the game very seriously" from the Gettysburg Times.
With the score tied at two wins a piece, an uplifting win was within an arms length. Time was running out on Bermudian.
As it turns out, time did run out, as a Bermudian Springs’ player exceeded his time limit.
Thinking that his team had seized triumph, a Biglerville teammate yelled, “Time’s up!”
Penalty. Bermudian was granted a time extension.
Minutes later, checkmate. Final score: Bermudian 3, Biglerville 2.
"Just got my valentines gift from my wife. Nothing says I love you like good chess tactic software." - Takchess
Cross-Knight Synthesis Post (I thought that was my job!?) - Temposchlucker's Nicknames of the Knights"The patterns of the previous 1000+ problems have burned into my mind so sharply, as though a diamond was shot through my brain, that I see them in the back of my eyelids." - J'adoube
7. Does Rock crush Scissors or is Scissors dulled by Rock?Hat Tip: A Work In Progress
There is no clear answer to that question. Younger and aggressive (or American) players tend to favour the Rock crushing Scissors view. More liberal-minded players take the view that scissors are dulled by the Rock. The World RPS Society created a task force in 1987 with a hope of eventually resolving the issue but it has been locked in debate and we no longer hold much hope of quick resolution.
Ruby Magdalena arrived Monday morning, January 31, at 9:40 a.m. She was 8 pounds, 4 ounces and 19 and 3/4 inches long.Of course, having a newborn in the house poses all sorts of new challenges. But proud papa Raul didn't let that get in the way of starting the child's chess education.
We have also begun working on her chess repertoire, beginning with Alekhine's Defense, a quirky but sound response to 1.e4 (1...Nf6). It's going fairly well considering the circumstances, though I get the feeling I haven't been able to fully convince her that the old Four Pawns Attack is unsound. Nothing a few bloody losses to her old man won't cure, I suppose.
Pawns are not je[a]lous, they do not whine about their lowly position....Knights do not brag about their ability to [j]ump over other pieces[;] Bishops do not consider themselves in a higher class because they have positions on the right and left of the King and Queen.
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To all the kids with
Headgear and braces and freckly faces
Glasses and acne and foster care families
Eating disorders who sit on the corners
Bikes with a basket and pants with elastic
Retards and spastics and Star Trek fanatics
And guys in gymnastics with lives that are tragic
Chess club contenders with speculative genders
Friends they imagine with matching pajamas
(God loves us all)
Place a chess game in the middle of the main gallery [at CalArts] and see if people start playing.I've seen perfectly white canvases hanging on the walls of art museums, though I've never been inclined to paint on them. Have you?
[Life is] like a game of chess, but much much much more complicated. It's funny how I've always thought that I have everything under control in my mind, and that I've planned and forecasted every situation, move and countermove possible! However, life is such an impossible worthy opponent. It has proven to me time after time that it always has its trump card ready to defeat me no matter how many moves I have thought ahead. One day, I shall win. Or maybe and hopefully, one day, it will let me win or at least be in the lead for once.Read "Life is Chess" from Phu Son Nguyen's Journal and Portfolio.
[Chess is] actually very good therapy for those who regularly immerse themselves in heady ideas and abstract concepts. Chess trains the mind to engage reason with the sense of touch and depth perception; it forces the intellect to posit concrete possibilities through the concentrated use of sight ... and of touch... Moreover, every such executed move consolidates the engagement of our reason to reality; they burn impressions into us by virtue of the success or failure of that move...Good therapy or not, we've encountered not one, not two, but three chessplayer-blogger-philosophers.
Having been inspired by the blogs of the ManDe la Maza and the Knights Errant, I to[o] will take up the challenge. Based on the feedback I've seen I'll be using Don's modif[i]ed circle schedule.Check out the 65th Square. Say hello to fatboy and surprise him with how many readers are out there.
I've started this blog as [a] way of motivating myself to stick with the program. Even if nobody ever reads this at least I know it's here. Now for the good part, goals. Currently my USCF rating is an meager 1161. I'm shooting for 1350 by August and 1500 by this time next year.
A south suburban school bus company is under fire today after it allegedly hired a convicted child molester to drive Chicago schoolchildren to an out-of-town chess tournament, WGN-Ch. 9 reported.
William McAllister, 60, of Calumet City says his superiors at the Coleman Bus Co. in Dolton knew about his criminal conviction, WGN reported. Police in Channahon, near Joliet, pulled over McAllister's bus Sunday morning after he allegedly made an illegal U-turn.
On board were 29 chess players from Currie, Kelly and Whitney Young High Schools in Chicago, CLTV reported. They were returning from a tournament in Peoria and had stayed in the same motel as the driver.
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The thing with chess is, that all the pieces except the [pawn] are frustrate[d] cause they can't evolve and learn new tricks. The rooks are pissed because they're lab[e]led as meathead[s] ... always attacking things straight on. The bishops are criticized for having no spine - cause they never deal with things head on or directly. They always take some crooked sideways approach to dealing with their problems and no one sees them coming. They're the back stabbers of the game. And the [k]night (horsey) is the pretty boy. He's always dancing ... always dancing. And you're like "QUIT MESSIN' AROUND AND PLAY THE GAME LIKE EVERY OTHER PIECE" ... but Noooo, it just keeps dancing. And the king's pissed cause he's kept on a short leash by his wife, the queen.From comments on the blog kai was here.
I am sitting here (well actually standing) in chess club typing this entry. I wish some of you ... would post comments. I am lonely! I want blog friends! Don't make me kill myself! Help me!
...while chess is in some significant ways sports-like, and physical and mental training are of great value to ambitious tournament chess players, chess is not a sport...
Read the entire post...
It's no longer that Republicans are playing chess, while Democrats play checkers. It's Republicans playing Six-Tiered Star Trek Chess against John Nash while Democrats keep pumping quarters into a rigged slot machine.
In chess there are some rules that you either call on yourself, or can only be enforced if your opponent catches you ... and appeals to the director. A suburban child breaks such a rule. After the game is over, I suggest to him, politely, that he should learn the rules of the game if he plans to continue playing in tournaments. (I do this for his own good, because there are some folks who play chess who can get very outraged - and outrageous - if you transgress the rules while playing against them....) Indignantly, he tells me he knows the rules. Further, he obviously didn't do anything wrong, because his opponent didn't complain.
In chess, promotion occurs when a pawn reaches the eighth square. At that point, your opponent is challenged because this simple pawn takes on all the powers of a Queen—the deadliest piece on the board. Of course, the pawn may be promoted to bishop, rook, or any other piece but why? This only clues the other player in to your secret plans. That being said, however, promotions to knight can often be strategically useful depending on the situation.Ugh! What a tortured analogy; what a torture to read and his perspective on underpromotion, please.... You underpromote when it makes sense to do so. Forget about any secret plan which you would be unable to carry out in any case if you have already promoted to a Queen. You can make your own judgements on the value of draws. I have experienced both rewarding and unrewarding ones.
What the beelzebub am I talking about? Let's not get too lost in metaphor. Suffice to say, the circuitous game of promoting one's blog in the blogosphere (without the proper armament) can often seem as difficult and unrewarding as a day-long chess match that ends in a draw. If you play your game right, however, that pawn can hit the big time....
A truly amazing thing happened last night. I beat my phone at chess! And it wasn't even set on 'VERY EASY', it was on plain old 'EASY'! I guess all I needed to do to win was blog about how I can't beat my phone at chess. It was like magic.
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Rudolf Eichner produces a blackened chess piece from the pocket of a tattered shoulder-bag....Hat Tip: Art of Chess
Years after that terrible night, which he spent huddling for shelter from the savage air raid and the firestorm that razed 75 per cent of Dresden and killed 35,000 people, Mr Eichner, now 80, found the chess piece - a knight. It was on the small patch of ground where he had endured the onslaught.
...."My father and I were chess players," he recalled. "My father brought his chess set to the hospital to help me while away the time. When the bombing started, I just thought I must hang on to the chess set."
In the end, only the board was any use - for beating out the flames on his and his companions' heads and, when all their hair had burned, to put out the flames on their clothes and skin.
Read the article...
Some high school kids think the image of chess has changed from a game for geeks to one for the intellectually cool.Read "Chess Anyone?" from WHOI-19 News in Illinois.
Adlai E. Stevenson High School Junior and chess aficionado Asher Meyers said, "I was just talking with a couple of friends and the other day they were playing at Starbucks and they actually started picking up girls by playing chess, so I think that pretty much sums it up."
People who use queens, primarily, are in love with power... People who rely on castles are in love with ideals, and organization; they keep things “contained” as concepts and are constantly conceptualizing ... the world. People who use knights are complex, and are in love with intricacy as well as mystery... People who use bishops are conceptual... People who use pawns are in love with people and organization of people...Interesting, but it feels like a rather artificial framework to me.
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This was my first experience with Cajun Chess, and I wasn't sure at first if the tournament would even take place. The former owner, Richard Crespo, was recently arrested by a SWAT team for kidnapping a woman he had met at one of his chess tournaments.Read "$10,000 Georgian Peach Open" from Adventures in Georgia Tournament Chess.
"'Getting ground down' is one of the principal causes of 'death' in chess today!... A sound, but passive position is a good starting point to find reasons for your losing the game! You will never catch Kasparov in a sound but passive position ... he would much prefer an inferior position with some little counterplay! In fact, studying Kasparov's games is a good lesson in the importance of counterplay."Read "How player can become master" by Knight Mysterious from The Standard. (Hat Tip: Blog do Xadrez)
Stay away from passive but solid positions. Think dynamically! Be prepared to play positionally inferior positions that offer some chances of counterplay.
Poetry from a broken soul
Life's chess game laid out with kings and pawns.
So what of the knights in the fray?
We can not live if chivalry is dead,
so our castles and queens can be free.
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You can, I suppose, consider games (videogames and otherwise) as having two different elements: the story (or context), and the gameplay. Take checkers, for instance. No story, pure game. Chess doesn't have a story, but it does take place in the subtle context of abstracted medieval conflict. Chess's complex game design, which requires a great deal more thought and strategy, is probably more compelling than checkers from a gameplay standpoint. But I'd also argue that chess's various characters - the powerful queen, the capable knight, etc. - make the game more interesting.I definitely agree that chess is more compelling than checkers and that this is probably somewhat attributable to the fact that there are different types of pieces with different characteristics. However, Go has only one type of piece and many consider it even more compelling than chess. As to "the subtle context of abstracted medieval conflict", the effect must be very subtle and subliminal indeed. I can't ever recall thinking about its medieval context while playing a game of chess.
The Monash University Chess Association is in a spot of bother. They need twenty people from Monash Uni to sign up in order to remain associated with Clubs & Societies. If the Association losses this relationship with C&S, it'll not have a free venue at the university to conduct it activities. Strangely enough, the activities of the club are primarily member meet-ups so that much Chess playing can be had.Read "Monash University Chess Association needs members" from mechanical turk.
So, pass the word 'round the Melbourne blogosphere. Tell 'em Chess helps your logical thinking skills and'll help you become a better lawyer.
...all I can come up with is, "The best thing about this interesting chess game is when what's his name takes his king when he's castling," and that has nothing to do with Ali and also doesn't make much sense.
Chess pieces are a favorite symbol that is used again and again throughout his paintings. In fact, more than two hundred of Bak's paintings contain chess pieces but never a complete set or complete board. The completion of a chess set or its figures would add validity to the idea that there are rules in life or war, when in reality there are no rules. Rules are for games not the works of artists.
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"A man who could look back upon an ancestry of genuine knights-errant extending from well-nigh the time of Pelayo to the siege of Granada was likely to have a strong feeling on the subject of the sham chivalry of the romances."
"....or with eyes brimming over with merriment gazing at one of those preposterous portraits of a knight-errant in outrageous panoply and plumes with which the publishers of chivalry romances loved to embellish the title-pages of their folios."
Although I am afraid that pointing out your errors in your latest [article] ... would be an exercise in futility comparable to recommending chess openings to a chimpanzee, I will do so anyhow.Read "On Michael Ignatieff's latest NY Times Magazine article" at Unrepentant Marxist.
Q. Why can't Anglicans play chess?
A. Because they can't tell a Bishop from a Queen.
Indian Director Raja Bundela Comes To The U.S. To Direct "That Game of Chess", a New Romantic Dramedy About Love Abroad.Hat Tip: XTV World Media Junction
(PRWEB) January 28, 2005 -- "That Game of Chess" is the story of Rahul, an East Indian who travels from his motherland, to the land of opportunities, America, to pursue his dreams of being successful career man. Other than a few cultural adjustments in his new country, his smart and intelligent demeanor, his friendly, kind and easy-going nature help him adapt well with the new surroundings. The going is good for him, but life has something else in store. His life takes a new turn, when he falls deeply in love with an American girl. The film follows Rahul on this roller coaster ride. As the story unfolds, it also bares the harshness of life for an Indian immigrant in America.
Check out http://www.thatgameofchess.com/ for more information.
I finished the glue up of the 8 strips. Then went to cut them to 2 inches plus about one-eighth, so that I could stack plane them to exactly 2 inches all as 1 operation (precision). Well, my temporary roommate was looking over my shoulder, stuck his nose in, made some comments. To get him to shut up I made a modification to the setup and mis-measured. Then I started cutting strips. After 4 (of 8) it was clear that I would run out of material. The strips were too wide. Got mad, screwed up one, and was left with 6 good ones. Now I have to mill all new pieces from rough stock to make up the difference.See also "How to build a chessboard".
This time, I do think that Femi is stretching a bit too far. I think it is fair to say that the quality of the individual games, the experience of playing them over, and the thought processes of the players during the contest are all different. But the game itself remains the same. Is a steak dinner from Bern's fundamentally different from the same steak cooked at home? The restaurant version may taste better and certainly will cost you more, but in both cases you're eating a heated slab of cow flesh. Is the Broadway version of "Hello Dolly" something completely different from the Community Theatre version I was in (hard to believe I know, but I have a videotape to prove it!)? The Broadway show may have been more professional and even more enjoyable for the audience, but again these are measures of quality not substance.The fact that the ability to compete [in chess] is independent of skill level leads not only to some very interesting pairings, but really, also to different games being played, often in the same tournament hall. I do not mean simply different individual games of chess but literally different games, the way that Monopoly is different from say, Clue. This may seem strange and maybe even a little over the top, but I do not feel that the fact that a certain set of rules for an activity are adhered to outweighs the level of expertise and the perspectives of the participants when determining what the activity in question truly is. In other words, the fact that both Kasparov and I are not allowed to castle through check seems less important in determining what we are playing than the fact that I usually play sipping on brew cursing at my computer screen (or live opponent) over blunders, while he (Kasparov) creates lucent, inspiring works of art that will endure for generations.
Mike Vick is to football what Paul Morphy was to chess. Vick makes people look silly and inferior, just what Paul Morphy did in his time.Of course, Morphy went mad and Vick will be watching this year's Superbowl on television.
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"The club is very important to social outcasts like us, who have nothing better to do on a Thursday night."
that's when the evil double of her appeared. i knew she was evil, but she was very convincing - i almost fell under her spell. but suddenly, i grabbed her arm and hurled her body over the balcony!I don't know about you, but my chess dreams seem to be limited to variations of the French Defense.
it flew in slow motion, and before hitting the ground, a giant chess board formed in the center of the opera house and her body splashed [in a rubber-like way] onto the board and took the form of a queen-piece.
moving by itself, it took the first position on the board.
the clear realm disappeared, and me and my friend instinctively knew that we had to throw the evil doubles off the balcony in order to make it out alive.
Read the entire dream...
Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece.
Ralph Charell
95. I beat my husband at every board game we play except chess (which of course is why we never play chess).
He is best known within the chess world for the miraculous story of how chess saved him from perishing in a Nazi work camp. His life was spared by the Commander of the camp, who was an eager player himself and appreciated having a challenging opponent.
Take a straight and stronger course to the corner of your life.
Make the white queen run so fast she hasn't got time to make you a wife.
'Cause it's time, it's time in time with your time and its news is captured
For the queen to use.
Move me on to any black square,
Use me any time you want,
Just remember that the goal
Is for us all to capture all we want
(Move me on to any black square)
Yea, yea, yea.
Don't surround yourself with yourself,
Move on back two squares,
Send an Instant Karma to me,
Initial it with loving care
Don't surround
Yourself.
As the only female player on Yale's club chess team, Kathryn Au '08 has learned to hold her own.
"I'm really comfortabl[e] around the guys," Au said. "My confidence has gone up, so it's not intimidating anymore. I like to try to intimidate the guys -- And it's a great way for me to meet guys."
Though Au has not mated, so to speak, with any members of the team, the camaraderie of the members has certainly increased over the course of this year.
Read more...
CHESS NOTES by Harold Dondis and Patrick Wolff - Globe CorrespondentsWhile the gist of the story about the BCC's move to Somerville is correct, a few details warrant clarification just in case a chess historian uses this source to the write the "History of the BCF/BCC" one hundred years from now:
In 2003, the Boylston Chess Club was in a difficult situation as the Boston YWCA decided it needed space for expansion. At a critical meeting, club members turned out en masse in a remarkable show of interest to choose a new site. By a narrow vote, they opted against a site in Dedham for one in Somerville. The president of the Boylston Club, in a report to members, said that after nearly one year in the new location, the move is a success.
The club is faring well, with tournaments almost every weekend and several days a week - including the Boylston Chess Championship - and regular instruction by Kent Leung for novices.
The club's open house was held as usual on New Year's Day. The overflow of players used the neighboring Japanese Go office for extra playing space. The winners of the rated section (Game 30 minutes apiece) were [FM] Bill Kelleher and Lawyer Times. Those who did not put their rating on the line saw [FM] Christopher Chase, [NM] Charles Riordan and [NM] Alex Cherniack tie for [the] top spot. Another new club project, the College Beanpot of Chess, held in October, was carried away easily by the University of Massachusetts at Boston against opponents at Northeastern, MIT, Harvard, and Tufts.
The club received financial support by obtaining moving expenses from the Y, and it receives income from trusts in its favor. Its financial fortunes are thus looking up. The club was incorporated as the Boylston Chess Foundation and is using that name on its website. Boylston hopes to receive a favorable charitable tax ruling to enhance its economic fortunes.
The club has added a blog site, which can be found at www.world.std.com/~boylston or by hitting http://boylston-chess-club.blogspot.com. The site is just starting but has varied information, including a posting that discusses where Bill Paschall is now (in Europe) and a report from a blogger who is using the tactical exercises recommended by Michael De La Maza's book "Rapid Chess Improvement." Members can post to the website on application, and a nonmember can be invited to participate.
Grandmaster Patrick Wolff, a two-time US Champion, offers chess exercises and more at www.wolffchess.com.
