Alternative moves

There's more than one way to win a piece.

Caption Contest III

Post your caption in the comments.

Source

What are we doing wrong?

Seems that there is more corporate sponsorship for chess on the island of Jamaica than here in the States. What do they know that we haven't figured out yet?

Let's go, Eugene! Eugene, let's go!

FIDE Chess in Chicago reports on the line-up for the Winter Chicago FIDE Invitational (January 9th-13th). The local entry is the Boston Blitz' very own IM Perelshteyn. He'll be looking for 6 points or more out of 9 to secure a GM norm.

I wonder if he'll be stopping by the Herb Healy for a tune-up before heading to the Midwest!?

Bobby Fischer - The Musical

The play takes place during a world chess tournament where Fischer, as usual, fails to show up.

Read more...

Yikes! Adsense

Sorry for the shock.

At the most recent BCF Board Meeting, I raised the option of generating some income for the Foundation through the blog (very small amounts I'm sure). The general sense of the Board was favorable towards this proposal. In addition, at the same meeting, I learned that the BCF webmaster already had a project underway to create a donations page for the website.

For those of you who do not know, The Boylston Chess Foundation is a registered charitable organization (501c3). As such we can accept tax-deductible donations to support our activities. To date, we have focused our charitable efforts on programs which support scholastic and youth chess in the local community. Some of our recent programs have included providing free chess sets to a local school in Somerville, offering free scholastic chess lessons with IM Husari every Wednesday afternoon at the club, and funding a very popular "16 & under play free" policy for a month each summer. The donations page will provide greater details on these and other programs. When it is officially launched I'll provide a link, and if you are inclined to support our chess activities in the Boston area I encourage you to consider making a tax-deductible contribution.

So, back to Adsense -- I've decided that if the blog can generate some incremental income for the Foundation without unduly impairing the experience of the readers, then it's worth doing. I want to assure you that BCC Weblog will not turn into a platform for Ads with occasional chess content (if you are looking for blogs like that, you can find them). And my efforts will continue to be focused on generating interesting and valuable content, not on optimizing the site for revenue generation.

I hope loyal readers of the blog will support this decision. If you do have concerns or other thoughts, please leave a comment below.

The end justifies the means

Kamakazi shares his strategy for winning games at Yahoo! Chess:

...I discovered the easiest way to win at chess, was to simply have your opponent forfeit the game. My strategy is to take the max allotted time for each move. This means I have at least ten minutes between each move, usually by the time I am on move number 3 my opponent offers me a draw, which I promptly decline. By move number 4 they are resigning and giving me yet another victory.

Can puzzles reduce the risk of dementia?

An article in The Herald (UK) suggests that its puzzle page might have therapeutic benefits:

...puzzles such as The Herald's giant crossword published today, chess, the number game Sudoku and IQ tests are today seen as the tools to give users a rigorous mental workout. They can improve mental age by up to 14 years, so the scientists claim.

Scientists have found the neurological equivalent of an untoned body could lead to a drastic dulling of cerebral powers. Most worryingly, an under-stretched mind may put some individuals at increased risk of dementia in later life.

Next time someone asks why you spend so much time on chess, tell them it's a better choice than medication.

Start 2006 off the Traditional Way - Play Chess at the Boylston Chess Foundation's Herb Healy Open House on New Year's Day

Irving Yaffe, long-time patron of the Boylston Chess Club, prepares the food for the 1990 New Year's Open House.

Bill MacLellan and Michael Tomlinson, past-presidents of the Boylston Chess Club, playing chess in the Open House of 1989.

You don't need to be a member... all chess players are invited.

Sunday January 1st: BCC Herb Healy Open House 2 sections: Rated and Non-Rated. Rated section:4SS; 30/30, G/15; Non-Rated section 4SS; G/45; Entry fee: $25, $20 BCC members if received by 12/29, $5 extra on site. Registration: 10:30 to 11:15. Rounds: 11:30, 1:15, 3:00, 4:30. Free food and drink served all day long to tournament players. Send advance entries to: Boylston Chess/co Herb Healy Open House, 240B Elm St. Suite B9 Somerville, MA 02144

Photos: Steve Stepak

Slightly Askew

Since everyone has been offering their Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday greetings, I thought I'd mention the forgotten cousin of the holiday season -- Happy Boxing Day, all!

Just a reminder that the Annual BCF Herb Healy Open House is less than a week away on New Year's Day. Come work off your hangover with a day of tournament chess competition (chose rated or unrated depending on your post-celebration condition) and free food. Mike Griffin's spread of crabcake canapes, foie gras mousse, and platters of sushi are not to be missed (Legal Disclaimer: specific food selections are not guaranteed; substitutions are highly likely).

Click here for details of the event (note the new time controls), and here for photos from the 2004 Open House.

After Santa's visit

Link

Steve Stepak photographs the TNIS

Chess photographer Steve Stepak, who has long documented the New England chess world, including the Boylston club, visited the Thursday Illinois Swiss this week.

His photos are here.

At the site you can play, where's the blogger?

Traffic Jam

Here's the finish of my game from last night's 3rd round of the December Thursday Night Swiss. I am playing Black and while I'm not claiming that White necessarily put up the best defense, I think you may enjoy the final position.

Position after 22.Re5

22...Bf6 23.Rh5 g6 24.Rh3 Nc3 25.Qd2 Bxe4 26.Qh6 Ne2+ 27.Kh1 (27.Kf1 would have mitigated the back rank mate issues, but White should still have a won game after 27...Nxg3+ and 28...Bxa1) 27...Bxa1 White Resigns

Final Position

White is down a rook and his attack on Black's King is going nowhere since Black's Bishop on a1 controls h8. Black is also threatening mate on the back rank and (what I think makes the position interesting and somewhat amusing is that) White can't create any luft for his King since his pieces block all of his kingside pawns.

Cheating for Dummies

There has been a lot written recently in the chess blogosphere about cheating (see here, here, here and here) ... but not as much about how to do it!

More bad press coverage for chess

Source

A dominating positional advantage

Lee J. Yatlee from French Polynesia argues that the invasion of Iraq was all about the U.S. Government's pursuit of a policy of world domination. Further, he applauds President George W. Bush for engaging in the pursuit.

The U.S. is on the verge of becoming the first truly dominant world government, and Iraq was a moment to be seized. (Those who play chess can easily understand the stakes. When you can capture your opponent's queen with no risk to your own position, you do it!)

Forbidden Fruit

Comedian Abby Scott talks about how doing something you know is wrong can be really hot!

During chess, I'm going to advance my queen WAY too early. Yeah, baby, I dare you to attack!

Where ya from?

With BCC Weblog passing its 1st birthday in November, I now have access to over a year's worth of visitor data. For those of you interested in such things, here is a list of the top 15 website referrers to this blog:

1. Boylston Chess Club Website (21.3%) - No surprise here


2. The Chess Mind/Dennis M's Chess Site (7.2%) - BCC Weblog is one of a small number of chess blogs which Dennis links to. Combine this with his large audience and a substantial number of visitors is the result


3. Man de la Maza (6.1%) - Was #2 while Don was still blogging, but still generates traffic to this day


4. CelticDeath (5.9%) - I've always wondered how many of these visits are from someone other than CelticDeath himself :)


5. Bloglines (3.9%) - An RSS reader


6. 2+2 Forums (3.6%) - The premier poker discussion forums on the web -- amazingly, all this traffic is attributable to my post on Bryan Clark's journey to becoming a professional poker player


7. J'adoube (3.2%) - J'adoube and I have cross-linked posts frequently. It also helps to be at the top of someone's blogroll


8. DreadPirateJosh (3.1%) - See my comment for CelticDeath


9. Kenilworth Chess Club (2.5%) - The vast majority from their blog listings page, but also some from links in Michael's posts


10. Chess News and Events (1.9%) - It doesn't hurt when Goran calls you "the best chess blog"


11. Sancho Pawnza (1.8%) - Along with Man de la Maza, one of the first blogs that cross-linked here


12. Susan Polgar (1.6%) - Mostly from when she republishes the Blogshares Chess Industry list


13. US Chess League (1.5%) - Self-evident to anyone reading this blog during September and October


14. My Yahoo (1.5%) - RSS subscriptions


15. Nezha (1.5%) - Suspect his position will fall as he is no longer actively blogging

Others generating 1% or more of website referrals: Temposchluker, The Closet Grandmaster, Logis, Pawn Sensei, and Blue Devil.

Stupid Chess Tricks

Could this be the beginning of a new Late Show segment?

Tough Call

Josh has an interesting question for us to ponder:

Which bunch of people is more aware of their self hygiene: chess players or bingo players?