Laughing it up with Garry

Here is a clip of Garry Kasparov's appearance on The Colbert Report (not sure how long it will be up).

Blitz and Inventors top the QPRs

There has been a fair bit of movement in the US Chess League Quantitative Power Rankings this week, which is not surprising since we are so early in the season. Boston and Philadelphia take the top spots as the only undefeated teams in the league. Interestingly, the two teams are scheduled to play each other next week. The top teams in the West, San Francisco and Dallas, hold the next two spots.

Not only is Tennessee not at the bottom, but they have inched their way up to 10th. Meanwhile, the New York Knights -- pre-season favorites of some -- continue to occupy the cellar, and next week they have to face the 3rd ranked Mechanics.

US Chess League Quantitative Power Rankings
After Week 2
Format - (Match Record, Scaled Score, Last Week's Rank)

1. Boston (2.0, .913, 4th) - Greater strength of schedule than the Inventors
   
   
2. Philadelphia (2.0, .889, 5th)
   
   
3. San Francisco (1.5, .827, 1st) - Mechanics are ahead of the Destiny on game score with Black, performance rating, and schedule strength
   
   
4. Dallas (1.5, .731, 3rd)
   
   
5. Seattle (1.0, .682, 9th) - More game points than the other 1-1 teams
   
   
6. Carolina (1.0, .628, 10th) - Cobras have a slightly lower performance rating than the Kingfishers but are way ahead on schedule strength and game score with Black
   
   
7. Baltimore (1.0, .518, 2nd)
   
   
8. New Jersey (1.0, .451, 7th)
   
   
9. Queens (0.5, .318, 6th) - Pioneers have a slight edge over the Tempo in performance rating and strength of schedule
   
   
10. Tennessee (0.5, .281, 11th)
    
    
11. Miami (0.0, .112, 8th) - The Sharks and Knights share the worst scores for match record, games score, and games score with Black. They also have the same strength of schedule. Miami gets the nudge with a 2192 to 2160 performance rating advantage
    
    
12. New York (0.0, .100, 12th) - I must admit that I'm not shedding a tear for the Knight's predicament. Then again, the Yankees are odds on favorites to make the playoffs after their horrendous start.
    

Click here for a discussion of the methodology behind the US Chess League Quantitative Power Rankings.

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How could I not rip this picture?

It's Boylston Chess Foundation Board Member Natasha Christiansen all decked out in Boston Blitz attire. I'm not sure what her connection to the team is, but she must be a very big fan.

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More multimedia from the Blitz -- this time it is an interview with Jorge Sammour-Hasbun after his Board 2 victory on Wednesday night. I was happy to hear that he also thought he was about to be mated before coming back to win.

There is also an 8-minute video of game action from the match. You can skip the first 5:20 which is incredibly boring, but don't miss the the last two and half minutes which covers the moments immediately after FM Critelli's mouseslip.

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

Chessdom Interview Part 2: Trends

Chessdom: You are maintaining an impressive list on your blogroll and bloglines. What are the trends in chess blogosphere?

DG: Well, the first trend is the explosive growth of the chess blogosphere which makes it almost impossible to keep up. As of today (6/11/07), my listings include 259 Active blogs (which have posted at least one item in the last 45 days), 209 Inactive blogs, and another 132 blogs which were Inactive for more than one year, went 404, or were highjacked. In Bloglines, I am subscribed to over 520 chess blog feeds and receive between 100-200 posts per day (of course, Susan Polgar’s blogs account for 10-20% of the daily volume). It’s a lot of skimming to find the small handful posts worth a read, a comment, or that might make good fodder for a post of my own.

And the onslaught continues… I add new blogs every week and could probably do so daily if I wanted to. To make this point, I accepted a bet from About Chess’ Mark Weeks where he challenged me to find 5 chess blogs he had never seen before in two hours. I found about 5 times that many in only one. The good news is that there are many more interesting, unique, high quality chess blogs available to find; the downside, however, is that you have to weed through many mediocre ones, often covering the same old ground, to find them.

Another trend is the increasing use of video in chess blogs – both posting of content found on sites like YouTube and self-produced chess videos. I remember how unique it was when Chris Kilgore posted a homemade video on his blog a couple years back. Now dozens of chess bloggers do it. Chess Vibes has produced a very high quality, “semi-professional” blog largely based around their unique chess video content. There’s even a community site specifically focused on developing and sharing chess videos.

One other trend I might note is the use of advertising on chess blogs. In the early days (you know, 2004-2005!), we used to have long debates about the appropriateness of putting Google ads on chess blogs. Today, that debate is over; almost everyone has them. However, if my experience is a guide (and I think it is) then no one is getting wealthy from them (no one except Google, that is).

*****
You can read the entire interview here.

What Chess Sets Do While You're Sleeping

Hat Tip: Bryan Clark

Chess Now - episode 4

BDK wrote: "The lady in episode 4 is cute."

OK, maybe, but is it enough to sit through 28 minutes of technically deficient, excruciatingly bad chess video? You decide.

Related Post: Why sponsors aren't lining up for Chess on TV

Why sponsors aren't lining up for Chess on TV

So incredibly bad, it's humorous!

Chess Video Goes Mainstream

There was a time, not long ago, when a personally produced chess video game or lesson was a unique occurrence. I remember Chris Kilgore's effort a couple of years ago and how impressed I was (unfortunately I can't find it on the web anymore).

Nowadays, with YouTube, Google Video, et. al. video has taken off everywhere and so too in chess, as well. Here's a rundown of recent personally produced chess videos I've seen in the blogosphere:

• Chess Strategy has produced two video chess lessons -- the first features the game Taimanov-Bronstein, and the second Addison-Fischer. By the way, if you haven't registered at the site yet, what are you waiting for? In addition to the content on the blog, registered users receive extended lessons via e-mail. I've received two so far and they've both been worthwhile. Besides, it's free!


• PE's Chess Cast has been listed here for quite awhile, but until recently I never actually watched one of the podcasts -- some pretty weird stuff it turns out. I don't know about all of them but the one I watched has this sock puppet animal talking in front of a demostration board. Whatever helps teach the kids I guess.


• Manju posted a video covering a very basic K+P vs. K ending. The content won't be of much interest except to beginners, but I never get to hear anyone speaking Dutch around here.


• J'adoube has posted videos of several of his games recently and this one where he takes on Dennis Monokroussos' anti-French line. Jim is actually a bit unfair to Dennis in the video since Dennis never claimed that his line was a refutation of the defense. In fact, Monokroussos is quite clear that his line is bad if Black plays appropriately. This was originally a multi-part series on Dennis' old blog and when he posts the last part to his new one, you'll see that he offers a multitude of good solutions for Black. All that being said, Jim does a nice job unearthing a key improvement in the variation.


• My favorite recent video comes from Emily's Chess Blog. Emily's enthusiasm is absolutely infectious and you've got to love that pink and yellow chess board!

Video Killed the Radio Star

Or, as The Kenilworthian suggests, the endangered species might be the Chess Teacher. Like Michael, I too was impressed by the amateur video at Chess For Blood. My questions:

• What tools were used to produce the video?
• Are they readily available?
• Are they easy to use?

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For a different chess video experience, check out this 64 Square Jungle Production -- The Chess Life & Times of ChessDude64 (with cameos from ChessDad64 and ChessMom64 as well).

Hat Tip: Scholastic Chess Gateway

Sirloin Chess

Surely vegetarians will be disgusted, but even a protein-lover like me thinks this is pretty weird. It's a sculpture entitled "cutting board."

Two butchers play an unusual game of chess [on] a board made with steaks sliced into squares. The steak is cut into 2" by 2" pieces, with 64 pieces cut total, 32 of them kissed by a frying pan and hence enhanced in color. The meat is then arranged on a 16" x 16" platform of clear acrylic and placed on top of a podium. On either side of the sculpture are LCD panels hung from the ceiling in portrait orientation. Each panel plays a 20-minute loop of a butcher contemplating his next move.

Be sure to check out the video clip.

Hat Tip: we make money not art

Time to learn the rules

This guy thinks he's finally caught Microsoft red-handed. He posted a video that he believes proves that Microsoft's chess program cheats. How does he know this? Well apparently the program moved two different pieces during the same move.

That's right, Einstein. Black moved his King from e8 to g8 and his Rook from h8 to f8 all in the same move.

Pixar short film

Some of you will remember the Pixar short film about an old man playing chess in the park. Geri's Game won the Oscar for Best Animated Short in 1997. I found it posted on the Pixar site (not a great surprise, I suppose).