Veterinary Chess

Apparently even the heroic attempts to save Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro's life depended on the good graces of Caissa.

"It's kind of like playing a chess game," Bramlage said. "Whenever you get confronted with something different, you have to make the right moves. You have to be impressed with the number of right moves Dr. Richardson made. They got close, and if not for a little bad luck they would have made it."

Read "Kentucky Derby Winner Barbaro Euthanized After Numerous Injuries" at FOXNews.com.

Police Blotter Chess

Porterville Police Department officers arrested several people suspected of attacking a South Chess Terrace man Saturday.

From "Suspects nabbed in stabbing" at The Porterville (CA) Recorder.

Women can't be bothered to play chess

At Pure Pedantry, Jake Young reviews a research paper by Christopher Chabris and Mark (not my cousin) Glickman entitled "Sex Differences in Intellectual Performance: Analysis of a Large Cohort of Competitive Chess Players." Mr. Young's post is a bit of a challenging read itself, so I didn't even try to read the research paper. However, the primary conclusion of the paper (as summarized by Young) is fairly interesting.

This data strongly argues that the difference in performance of women in chess is ... a problem of participation. The problem is not that women can't play chess well. The problem is that enough women who play chess well are not choosing to play chess.

Makes sense to me.

Different vocabulary, similar concepts

Yehuda returned to chess after many years of not playing. Since in the interim he had been focused on other types of abstract strategy games (he calls them "Euro-games"), he decided to apply principles from those games to chess.

Now, when you come back to chess after playing hundreds of Euro-games, you approach the game quite differently. Instead of seeing the game of chess as "chess", which has its own rules, patterns, and history, you approach the game like you approach any other tactical, area-control game.

Actually, not area-control. I approached the game as a resource game. Each turn I had one action resource, and I had sixteen meeples to play with, each with its own movement actions. The game ends when someone is about to lose their king meeple.

So my approach to the game was from an action point point-of-view. I figured that whenever I had more meeples, and more available actions from which to choose, then I was probably winning. And that meant that I could exchange pieces so long as I kept the upper-hand. Furthermore, when my opponent had less actions available, they were more likely to make bad ones.

Fascinating, really. When you cut through the new vocabulary, what he's taking about is material superiority and Temposhlucker's favorite piece activity. No mention of tactics though I suppose that might be implicit in achieving a material advantage.

So boring, they created a chess club

This should make you happy that you don't live in Florence, Kentucky (bold is mine):

Chess enthusiasts no longer have to leave Florence to meet other players for a casual game. A small group has been meeting the past four Wednesday evenings at the Florence Branch Library for play for all experience levels. Librarian Scott Beran, who oversees the group, said the chess club was created in response to popular demand. "Some people had ... expressed an interest because there's nothing else around here," he said.

From "Florence Library hosts chess club" at the Community Press.

If only we'd known

Years of war, tens of thousands dead and injured, and now it turns out that something as simple as chess could plant the seeds of capitalism in Vietnam.

Competitors in the 2007 World Chess Championship qualifiers (zone 3.3) on the southern Phu Quoc Island have been given an added incentive to do well – US$10,000 in prize money.

The Viet Nam Chess Federation (VCF)’s general secretary, Dang Tat Thang, said Dragon Capital from England, the tournament’s main sponsor, is providing the money. It will be the first time a chess tournament in Viet Nam has carried a cash prize.

US dollars, no less!

Kelleher gets 9th best game of the 2006 season

The Game of the Year contest continues on at the US Chess League website. The judges have selected Kelleher-Enkhbat from the Boston Blitz's week 10 win over the Baltimore Kingfishers as the 9th best game of the year. Bill's win helped knock the 2005 Champions out of 2006 playoff contention.

The judges appreciated Kelleher's rook sacrifice which ripped open Black's kingside and led directly to a mating attack. IM Shahade also mentioned that the contest has instructional value showing clear plans of attack and defense in an isolated queen pawn position.

Those who have previously questioned WFM Vicary's role on the panel of judges will find more fodder in her comments about this game:

"This game looks similar to a dream I had last night about a horse and a real estate agent."

Gangs of Hastings

I've never been to Hastings, but based on everything I'd previously read I was quite surprised to learn how much it must have in common with the back alleys of Manchester.

From The Argus:

A teenage chess sensation was mugged by an eight-strong gang shortly after taking part in a major competition.

Grandmaster Farhad Tahirov, 19, was kicked and punched and had £1,000 stolen from him by the gang after the 82nd Hastings International Chess Congress.

Where was Jane Tennison?

Casting Call

Who will be playing Severine Wamala in the made-for-TV movie?

Bow down and recognize his talent!

Do you have the courage to take on the Chess Kingpin?

Holiday Greetings from South America

Fellow blogger Daniel of Pawn To Rook 4 sent this postcard to the club.

Why Kramnik was hiding in the bathroom

The french blog Echecs, cinéma, TV et DVD... léger presents photographic evidence that Veselin Topalov is the reincarnation of horror film legend Bela Lugosi.

Caption Contest XIII

Timmy always thought that being Siamese
twinned with a table was a major drag,
until he discovered chess, that is.

Post your caption in the comments.

Source

Using human chess to help the local economy

From "Live chess tourney proposed" at The Beacon:

...a Stockton businessman.... Fred Strackhouse plans to set up a human chess tournament on squares marked off in the parking lot of his Stockton Inn to help the town's businesses get over the winter slump.

High school students will move around the board as life-size pawns, knights, rooks, queens, kings and bishops. Participating schools would appoint their own respective chess masters to direct the moves of the "game pieces." Possibly they'll be costumed or wear their school colors or hold an emblem of the game piece they represent....

He is working out a plan to coordinate a months-long elimination tournament featuring schools from Bucks, Hunterdon and Mercer counties. If it works, he says he believes the weeknight games could be a boost for local businesses in the quieter winter months.

Does standing around a parking lot in New Jersey at night in the middle of winter dressed up like a chess piece sound like fun to you?

Does Mrs. J'adoube know?

my coffee guy asked me to play chess sometime. i agreed, but didn't set a date. i don't think i will now, even though i was excited when he asked. he's nice and all, cute too....

From "a date?" at [name removed to protect the innocent]'s Live Journal.

Update (1/27): In order to cover up the alleged affair, someone went as far as to delete the entire Live Journal. Suspects?

And you thought biathalon was strange

First it was Moscow-London ice chess and now this:

The Hudson Valley Snowball Chess Championship will be held on Sunday, Jan. 21. Featuring both adult and scholastic chess tournaments, as well as a snowball-eating contest for scholastic chess players, this event will be hosted by the Coldenham Fire Department.

More Knight Moves

As Blue Devil points out, change is constant among the Knights Errant. Some come, some go, some finish, some quit, some disappear, and some get hijacked. In particular, many of the foundational Knights' blogs are now inactive. Of what I generally think of as the original six -- Mandelamaza, Sancho Pawnza, Pale Morning Dun, Generalkaia, Pawn Sensei and J'adoube -- only three remain on the active list (including the General who was just added back after a long period of inactivity). We have not heard from either of the original founders -- The Man and Sancho -- in several months.

Here's a summary of recent changes among the Knights:

• Recently added to the inactive list: Mandelamaza
• Recently moved from inactive to active: Generalkaia
• New Knight: Underpromoted
• Recently hijacked: Grande Merda
  

Chess in Paradise

Link

Another LaMazan tests his mettle at the club

Knight Errant Blunder Prone journeyed in from the safety of the MetroWest suburbs to play in this past Saturday's BCC $10 Open. Here is his report.

Related Post: Takchess at the Herb Healy

Chess Jewelery

It's a little late for the holidays, but here's a gift for her that shows that you love her almost as much as your favorite board game.

Though, I'm not sure what to make of scary looking skeleton face.