Wilderness Chess

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US Amateur Team Championship

There will be a playoff among the four regional winners this Sunday, April 2nd at 1pm EDT on the ICC. The East will be represented by Boylston Chess Club members NM Charles Riordan, NM Alex Cherniack, Lawyer Times and Charlie Mays. Log on and cheer them on!

Related post: Boylston invades New Jersey...

Encounters in Kalmykia

Howard Goldowsky gave me a heads-up to a new book which is coming out soon. Lost Cosmonaut by Daniel Kalder was published recently in the UK and is coming to the States in August. Here is Amazon.com's synopsis:

Lost Cosmonaut documents Daniel Kalder's travels in the bizarre and mysterious worlds of Russia's ethnic republics. Obsessed with a quest he never fully understands, Kalder boldly goes where no man has gone before: in the deserts of Kalmykia, he stumbles upon a city dedicated to chess and a forgotten tribe of Mongols; in Mari El, home to Europe's last pagan nation, he meets the Chief Druid and participates in an ancient rite; while in the bleak industrial badlands of Udmurtia, Kalder looks for Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor of the AK-47, and accidentally becomes a TV star. Profane yet wise, utterly honest and yet full of lies, "Lost Cosmonaut" is an eye-opening, blackly comic tour of the most alien planet in our cosmos: Earth.

Howard expressed the hope that "by the time Lost Cosmonaut comes out, Kirsan and Chess City will be history."

Resistance is still futile

From toparelthon's Live Journal:

Chess, my on-again off-again obsession, is off again after a couple of months of constant playing and studying the game. The last two weeks I have no desire to even look at a chess board, let alone play a competitive game. A part of me hopes that I have gotten chess out of my system for good, it is a game that requires far too much work and eats up way too much of my time when it occupies my attention. I fear this is just wishful thinking though; I have gotten rid of the chess monster before, and sooner or later it always returns.

That's because you've already been assimilated.

1K

According to Blogger, this is the 1000th post on Boylston Chess Club Weblog. Not much of a post I admit, but certainly a worthy milestone* to celebrate.

* Do Canadians use the term 'kilometerstone' instead?

What's in a name?

From "Bored? Try this chess group at Coastal Carolina" at The Charleston (SC) Post and Courier:

Andrew Incognito, assistant professor of math and statistics, placed seventh in a national chess competition when he was in the ninth grade.

Since then he has played things very low key and now goes totally unnoticed in the chess community.

Dawn of the Dead Down Under

The Amazing Human Body Exhibition is currently on display at Sydney Olympic Park until April 2nd. The Exhibition features "more than 20 aesthetically posed whole body specimens, transparent vertical and horizontal body slices together with more than 400 anatomical specimens."

Oz-Blog visited last weekend and provided the following report:

For $20, we got to see plasticized humans in poses like skiing, tennis and archery. Oh, there was also a cadaver playing chess, but he was taking forever to move!

For 24 fans only

From a list of Jack Bauer-isms:

• In chess, Jack Bauer can checkmate you in 1 move.

Wandering Minds

Kansas 4th grader Griffin Jacobson relies on distracted opponents to score points in scholastic tournaments.

"Sometimes people don't notice their moves, and they will just do something when they aren't paying attention," he said. "That's how I won one of my games."

Read "Chess players converge on KU" from the Lawrence Journal-World.

The Burdens of Knighthood

Many of the Knights have rightly pointed out that Michael De La Maza was unemployed during the period when he was pursuing his 7 circles training. I suppose it is also worth pointing out that he didn't have blogging as a time sink either. Most of today's Knights Errant don't find themselves under such favorable chess training circumstances, though I'm sure having an income is considered by most to be adequate compensation. Instead, now and again a Knight concludes that Caissa's (or MDLM's) call must be forsaken for other priorities. In the past few days, two such declarations have been made.

Mousetrapper has indicated that life and work preclude him from actively blogging for an indeterminate amount of time. Since he is already an MDLM graduate, I have listed his blog as such on the Other Knights Errant list.

DutchDefence plans to keep blogging but has concluded that it no longer makes sense to call himself a Knight.

Since i am doing nothing really de la Maza like, as in circlish, concentric squarish things and all that, i really do not see much of a reason for me to stay on.

Back in the day, when a Knight threatened to quit others would rally around and encourage him to continue (J'adoube comes to mind). But times apparently have changed; no one has yet appealed to Edwin to remain a Knight. For now, I have removed him from the list of active Knights and added his blog to the general sidebar.

Damaged Goods

Imagine you are 18 years old and ever since you were in third grade you've won every year's State Championship for your grade. Not only have you never lost a game during this streak, you've never even drawn one! Now imagine in your last Scholastic Championship Tournament it all comes crashing down.

Read the story of Michael Lostritto and watch him crack under the pressure before your very eyes.

Memphis-style dry rub chess

The BBQ Blog argues that tournament chess and competitive barbecue have much in common:

As anyone who has ever played the game of chess more than a few times can attest, it may take 10 or 15 minutes to learn the basics of the game, but....it's something that might never be mastered after a lifetime of dedication.

The concentration and dedication required are enormous. It's a game that you might be able to win against mediocre players, who haven't played much, but when you're up against more experienced players, it can be very, very humbling and very frustrating....

Competitive barbecue is very similar. It's a grassroots sport that is rewarding and fun, but long term success in the sport is not easy. I know more than a few teams that have been competing for years that have never won a grand championship or a reserve grand championship award. I know other teams that have won a few awards, but when the winning didn't continue, the teams chose to stop competing altogether. I know other teams that have had some success in specific categories here and there, but for whatever reason haven't been able to put together consistent results in all four categories enough to win consistently.

I'm thinking about a combined competition -- rounds of chess interspersed with pork ribs, chicken and brisket. Win or lose, you'll never go home hungry.

Chess Nuts

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A paramount Paramount

I'm sure it wasn't the BCC Weblog post, but it may have been Bob Oresick's e-mail ... in any case, we've had a nice turnout for this year's Paramount Double Round Robin tournament. Three 6-player sections are currently running. The first is topped by FM Chris Chase and includes 5 Experts/A-players. The second section is comprised of players rated from 1589 to 1782.

You can follow the results on the BCC News page.

Multi-Purpose Facilities

There is a legal battle shaping up over whether nine Los Angeles bathhouses and sex clubs are subject to new regulations on "commercial sex venues."

We “are not commercial sex venues at all,” nine gay bathhouses and sex clubs said in a lawsuit filed March 3 against Los Angeles County.

“That’s a lie,” said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, who has been pushing county health officials to step up oversight over such businesses. “What are people going [there] to do? Play chess?”

Towards improved Championship blogging

The Patzer's Tale has some recommendations for improving the US Championship, including blogging-related ones:

• The champblog was a good idea, but needs to be expanded. A couple of interested players could be drafted as featured star bloggers, updating several times a day.

• Add multimedia content. Have a couple of people taking photos all day, everyday. Post the photos online. Record some audio or video in the skittles after each round and post it to the website (maybe as a podcast). You could even have a video confessional booth like on reality TV shows.

War of the Roses Quote of the Day

When asked if chess is a male-dominated game, 11-year-old Kao Smith scoffs, "No, it's just overpopulated by boys."

Read "Young female chess champions vanquish foes, take no prisoners" from the East Valley (AZ) Tribune.

Chess Poetry VI

Bangkok!
Oriental setting
And the city don't know what the city is getting
The creme de la creme of the chess world in a
Show with everything but Yul Brynner

Time flies doesn't seem a minute
Since the Tyrolean spa has the chess boys in it
All change don't you know that when you
Play at this level there's no ordinary venue

It's Iceland or the Philippines or Hastings or this place

Read more...

Defending Chess in Bikinis

Clint Ballard has responded again to complaints about his use of bikini-clad models to promote chess:

Of course, I keep getting flamed for what a horrible person I am for using girls in bikinis to promote chess. The horrors. People who have not even seen the current pictures are saying that I am like a drug deal[er] in adultery. Or that I am just like all the other big TV advertisers (which doesn't seem so bad, until they say it is soft porn) using pretty girls to sell stuff.

Sigh. Flipping through late night TV, I go from a gun shootout on a street, fist fight that ends when crowbar cuts through skull and lodges in brain, some sort of "comedy" that portrays women as mindless inflated barbie dolls, slasher movie where slasher suddenly slashes slashees, etc. Sound familiar? That's what seems to be on 24/7. Would girls in bikinis teaching chess really be such a bad thing compared to all that? I think not.

I don't know if I really buy this argument or not. It sounds like one my kids justifying their actions by pointing out that their friends behave even worse. Besides, how can you tell what's "on 24/7" based on "late night TV"? Many of the more recent pictures are too risque for me to even consider reposting here -- chess rarely comes to mind when I'm looking at them (which is not to say that I don't enjoy them).

Exchanged

Boston Red Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo reacting to the news that he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds:

"[Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein and I] were pretty close. Probably as close as you can get to a GM as a player, but you know, the game is business, man, that's what it's about. It doesn't matter how you feel personally about somebody. You just make the best move. It's like playing a chess match, man. Just pieces on the freaking board."