Melvin Zhang becomes a National Master

Melvin Zhang, who has played at the Boylston since he was a boy and had been active in Mass scholastic chess, attained the title of National Master at the Amateur Team East, probably becoming the most recent chess master from Massachusetts.

Melvin is a sophomore at Boston University and doesn't play tournament chess much these days. In fact, his last event was the AMATE in 2008 and he closed that year at 2198.

Playing board one for this year's version of the BU Terriers, he edged over that last hurdle to reach 2202. Close, but he gets the cigar. Congratulations Melvin. I am personally very proud of you, and I must say, relieved, since I have felt in suspension since last February.

The BU board two, WFM Roza Eynullayeva, also had a terrific result, earning 5.5 points and placing #23 of the 1201 players in Parsipanny.

BU freshman Ben Burkholder was on board 3;

BU engineering senior Barry Lai

and team advisor, chaufeur, and photographer Robert Oresick alternated on board 4.

Oddly enough, the BU team won the title of best team from Massachuessts. Considering all the great teams from MA, I can't believe this is correct. Maybe no one else signed-up on the sheet in the MA column. In any case, in the tradition of dis-investigative chess journalism, we will let sleeping dogs lie and stones-unturned and hope for the plaque in the next Fedex bag.

Voices in My Head

Voices in My Head

In the eighties my family did a great deal of camping in the Maine Woods and I purchased a Filson hat to keep my head dry in the worst of rain and snow. The Filson became most unsightly over the years. My kids called it "The Hat". One very rainy day when I was working in South Boston, commuting via the T, while preparing to slosh to Broadway Station amid a hellatious storm the owner of the company asked me: "Mike why do you wear that hat?" Answer: "To keep the voices away."

[Editor's note: The more traditional way to block the voices is the aluminum foil hat, the efficacy of which has been investigated at MIT (see abstract below): http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/]

But I digress...

When the first English version of "Think Like a GrandMaster" arrived in 1971 Alexander Kotov outlined how one should think during a chess game. Kotov suggests that one should select several "candidate moves" and explore these. Then describes the branching variations analysis analogous to the limbs of a tree. And then when one is about to move Kotov suggested that one should go into another mode, first write the move down (which currently varies from current USCF rules- BTW) and evaluate one last pass checking for blunders, checks, and opponent responses. Then make the move. Also he talked about what you should think about while waiting for your opponent who is "on the move"/WWOM. At that time I was greatly influenced by the book and actually worked hard to unlearn my self learned chess thinking approach and use this more disciplined way.

Returning to OTB from my 19 year sabbatical I didn't think much about how to think. Although Rolf Wetzell and many others have written about how one should approach thinking during a game; to me they are lightweights when compared to Kotov.

In regards to analysis during a game, probably the best not common knowledge advice I ever got (and I can't remember the name of the person): Only analyze down variations once, learn to be as precise as possible in one pass. Don't go back unless you feel the position has changed or some new idea pops into your head. At a maximum only check it once before you move, if you have time. Learn to have confidence in your analysis.

Today I find that if I'm to move I think in a loose Kotovian way, but while in WWOM state many times I hear voices: like Larry Christiansen: "Look for the violent forcing move." Chris Chase: "You've got to check every check. & Mike you've got to work harder." Harry Lyman: "Get your pieces on good squares." Irving Yaffee: "Ask. What is my opponent trying to do?" I have no strategic voice, and that's probably explains why I play the way I play.

And if you notice I never wear my Filson to tournaments no matter how hard it rains.

What are some of your suggestions and ideas on how to think during a chess game?

Please Comment.

Thank You.

Mike Griffin 02/25/2009

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On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets: An Empirical Study

Ali Rahimi¹, Ben Recht ², Jason Taylor ², Noah Vawter ²
17 Feb 2005

http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/]

Abstract

Among a fringe community of paranoids, aluminum helmets serve as the protective measure of choice against invasive radio signals. We investigate the efficacy of three aluminum helmet designs on a sample group of four individuals. Using a $250,000 network analyser, we find that although on average all helmets attenuate invasive radio frequencies in either directions (either emanating from an outside source, or emanating from the cranium of the subject), certain frequencies are in fact greatly amplified. These amplified frequencies coincide with radio bands reserved for government use according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Statistical evidence suggests the use of helmets may in fact enhance the government's invasive abilities. We speculate that the government may in fact have started the helmet craze for this reason.

10 th Annual Paramount

Monday, March 2 – May 4:

10th Annual Paramount

10 Rounds, 2RR,

Players divided into six player sections by rating.

40/120, G/50;

Entry fee: $25, $20 to BCF members;

Prizes: 50% EF

Registration: 6:15 to 6:55 PM

Round at 7PM.

Bryan Clark [spelling corrected] started this series as a fund raiser for the club. A couple of years ago cash prizes were added. This tournament is especially amusing since, aside from round one, you know your opponent and your color and have a slow time control in which to enact your home preparation. And you play both colors against your opponents.

The Eye of the Tiger

The Eye of The Tiger

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xolm3_survivor-eye-of-the-tiger_music

A boxer on the top of his game is said to have "the eye of the Tiger": The killer instinct, the edge.

I think of Bobby Fisher's 1971 incredible run of 6 - 0 against both Mark Taimanov and Bent Larsen and defeating Tigran Petrosian with 5 wins, 3 draws, and 1 loss to go on in defeating Boris Spassky becoming the work champ in 1972. Clearly Fisher was the best in the world and he and everyone else knew he was.

Gary Kasparov was world champion 1985–1993 (undisputed) and 1993–2000 (non-FIDE) his FIDE rating peaked at 2851 in July 1999 and at that time was clearly the strongest human chess player around for a long time. The strongest ever to date in my opinion. But In 1984 Kasparov's road to championship was a bitter struggle as he had to play Anatoly Karpov 31 games before he could beat the then world champ Karpov for the first time. But once Kasparov passed that threshold he never looked back. Similarly Anatoly Karpov never seemed to have the same strength just like a boxer, where often a single defeat causes the boxer to loose their edge/"eye of the tiger" never to have it return in quite the same way.

Sadly there are many American chess players both contemporary and in the past who essentially dropped out of world class chess once they realized that they were never going to gain enough strength to grab the world crown. Respect and hope requires that I don't mention them, but I bet you can think of several. And in effect Bobby Fischer lost the eye probably catalyzed because of psychological problems. In the early 1970's FIDE/Soviet Union knew they could rebuff just one of Fischer's demands and the Fischer Karpov match would fall through. Rumors were around that Bobby was afraid of losing his title. Given how strong Karpov was in the late 1970's and early 1980's I think Bobby would have had quite a battle on his hands. Also it's ironic that Kasparov pulled the world championship out of Fide and Fischer never did.

Clearly to be the absolute best requires all types of strengths in many areas, but motivation and self confidence are on the top of the list, and once lost are very difficult to retrieve.

What are your feelings about this? Please Comment

Thank You. Mike Griffin 02/19/2009

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Kasparov

Another Boston team wins at the AMATE

Paul MacIntyre, Brian Hulse, Libardo Rueda, and Alan Price won 6 of 6 to lead the 39th annual Amateur Team East in Parsippany, NJ.

Congratulations on a truly impressive achievement.

Many Bostonians traveled to the 39th AMATE. Several teams were loaded with Boylston players and in most rounds at least three BCF saturated teams were behind the velvet ropes.

In the sixth and final round, on board one was Paul's team, on two was Bill Kelleher's team, and on four was Marc Esserman's team. The team Paul McIntyre, Brian Hulse, Libardo Rueda, and Alan Price won with a perfect 6.0 in a typically strong AMATE field. LM Brian Hulse, I think, is from New York - the Marshall club, but Paul, Libardo, and Alan are familiar Boylston players. Paul said Alan has been on another winning AMATE team.

.
I took a few pictures to share the why this tournment has been a favorite of many chess players for almost four decades.

http://picasaweb.google.com/oresick/AmateurTeamEast2009#

Spiegel Cup Invitational - Photos by Tony Cortizas

The 2009 Spiegel Cup State Championship, organized by MACA and played at the Natick Senior Center, yielded a fine group of young champions (most of whom are familiar faces at the Boylston):


High School: Felix Yang, 3.5


14 Under: Winston Huang, 3.0

and James Lung, 3.0


11 Under: Mika Brattain, 3.5


8 Under: Michael Isakov, 4.0


Congratulations to the champions and all the competitors! And thanks to the organizers! Like TD Ken Ballou and George Mirijanian.



Tony Cortizas has shared some great photos - visit his website at

http://picasaweb.google.com/ChessJournal/2009SpiegelCupInvitationalScholasticChampionship#\

Boston Chess Community

Boston Chess Community

The future of OTB chess depends on the symbiotic relationships of many components where each part must contribute positively in order to guarantee a continued healthy existence of a Boston chess community. In contrast, the never ending squabbling and pettiness at the national level in the USCF, sometimes involving lawsuits by certain individuals, is a great example of how NOT to care and feed a chess community. This conflict may pull the USCF into bankruptcy.

My feeling is that in order for chess to be successful you need all of the following, equal in order of importance:

• 1. Players: if people don't want to show up, no one is going to stop them.
• 2. Organizers: either professional or clubs that have the resources and logistic skills to host tournaments example: the exit of Severine Wamala has created an obvious vacuum in Mass chess, MACA is having venue problems; what would happen to local chess if BCF or MetroWest clubs were to disappear?
• 3. Professionals: especially the superstars that attract attention and create enthusiasm, example: when six or more masters and IM's show up at the BCF on a random Saturday to play it's just plain cool (and that usually attracts a couple more masters/IM's who watch these titans with the rest of us (some IM's even have been known to hang out in the skittles room divulging to smith-morra aficionados some way cool non-intheory devastating line while just kibitzing with the junkies: IM Marc Esserman. Ilya Krasik, Paul MacIntyre, as well as others, have held court on many a Saturday in the skittles room as well while the tournament progresses.) And in addition we need those who teach chess; for they develop the talent of the future. Members of the Boston Blitz are a great example of these type folks. And I see that the Blitz, as do many other masters, reach out and contribute to the local chess community.
• 4. Volunteers: these folks have decided to give back time to chess and are necessary at the local and state level;( I can't name them all) but Bernardo Iglesias, Bob Oresick, and Chris Chase are at top of the BCF list where many others especially the BCF board members do their part to keep the BCF running. And we have Tony Cortizas' photos along with the MACA magazine edited by Mark Donlin to document the activity, not to mention the MACA board. Must be mentioned is the Boston Globe, Harold Dondis, and Patrick Wolff.
• 5. Philanthropists: there are some organizations and many people, big and small, that are making up the difference by donating to keep the BCF in the black. Operationally the BCF couldn't survive for long without this help.
• 6. Scholastic Chess: this is the future of chess, our future players and future masters all must come from the kids.
  7. Local Universities: the trail from Harvard, MIT, BU, (and the other 200 local universities) to the BCF for many a student player is short, and we welcome them all: example, a few weeks ago wicked solid IM Rico Zenklusen of Switzerland, now at MIT, dropped in to play and tied for 1st with IM/BCF co-champ David Vigorito (what fun to watch).
• 8. Clubs: BCF, MetroWest, as well as the 45 other chess clubs around the state. And I also add the Au Bon Pan to this group. Clubs are the culture dishes of the chess community where camaraderie, competition, knowledge, and sportsmanship grow.

Another way to look at this is to pull anyone of the above mentioned pieces out, or pour some poisonous vitriolic conflict over this, and you would have a different picture. We as a community should appreciate what we have and continue to invest our time, money, emotions, and competitiveness into it. And above all show up and play.

How can we grow and improve this community?

Please Comment. Thank You.

Mike Griffin 02/12/2009

The 100th RI Pawneater

Saturday, Feb 7 was the 100th Pawneater in the series started by Gus Gosselin in Rhode Island. With 65 players, it was also the largest. Frank Vogel was the chief TD, ably assisted by Eric Berkey.

In the Open Section, Dave Vigorito was 1st with 3.5. John Curdo, Miro Reverby, James Martin, and William Smirnov tied for 2nd with 3.0

In the U1900 Section Thomas Hartmayer won with 4.0 and Paul Sciarafa came in 2nd with 3.5.

The U1500 Section was won by Boris Zhevelycik with 4.0 and Charvdatta Deodas was 2nd with 3.5.

Chess and Drugs

Chess and Drugs

We were in a cold war several decades ago, and organizations like the CIA and NSA were working on ways to get every advantage over the USSR. With the help of Doctor Timothy Leary new types of drugs like LSD along with a new set of amphetamines were tested for their effectiveness in increasing a person's ability to think, especially in stressful situations. Early human guinea pigs for these drugs were prisoners like the notorious Whitey Bulger, then a resident of Alcatraz.

Later a group of Boston area chessplayers volunteered to do their patriotic duty to see if these drugs would improve performance. Results of demonstrated performance improvement were not obvious except in the case of one person who seemed to benefit: that was lawyer, columnist, philanthropist, author, Harold Dondis.

Harold Dondis with Klara Polgar at the Boylston Club in 1985 - photo: stepak.

Continued experimentation over following years indicated that there were no drugs that could enhance chess playing. In June 1999 the International Olympic Committee officially recognized chess as a sport, and being such, players were subject to drug testing.

Although the debate as to what drugs to test for went on. On Dec 11, 2008 Grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk refused to submit a urine sample for a drug test at the Chess Olympiad in Dresden and created a furor; but it was eventually decided, due to technicalities, that he would not be suspended for two years. Most players felt this testing was dumb.

Until very recently this has been everyone's belief relative to chess. But at this moment new research and some rogue student experimentation, have demonstrated that ADAH (Attention-Deficit Disorder) drugs do in fact enhance mental performance and focus of "normal" people. Adderal, Ritalin, and newer drugs are being used. What's even more interesting/controversial is that there is a group of scientists advocating the use of these drugs by normal people in order to improve their study or work?! (url below) In the last month, Martha J. Farah has been interviewed several times by NPR advocating this position. To wit, I think that chess has found its drugs to test for.

It's illegal to self prescribe these drugs, and I would advise you to check out the not so nice side effects of these drugs, like insomnia and lack of appetite. And the biggest risk is the increase of dopamine in the brain, which could cause addiction.

Doctors weigh the therapeutic advantages vs the side effects when prescribing drugs and clearly with some folks with ADAH, the benefits outweigh the risks. I hope that introduction into mainstream society of these drugs doesn't pressure any one to feel they have to take them to be competitive. Just like what has happened in the steroids situation; Where you have a huge youth athlete population taking them. I feel the real pluses and minuses to society should be weighed and opinion and law be formulated based on fact in dealing with health and social protection. I just see it as interesting that the people advocating it's use by everyone have capitalistic interests, but drugs for recreational use are bad. Just the hippy in me, I guess.

What are your feelings about performance enhancing drugs? Please comment. Thank You, Mike Griffin 02/05/2009

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v456/n7223/full/456702a.html

http://chess.about.com/b/2009/01/24/ivanchuk-cleared-of-wrongdoing-in-drug-test-flap.htm

http://media.www.thepolypost.com/media/storage/paper1127/news/2008/03/11/News/Students.Abuse.Stimulants.Adderal.To.Stay.Up.Studying-3261876.shtml

Rico Zenklusen and Dave Vigorito win the FK Young tournament.

Rico Zenklusen (2440) and Dave Vigorito (2418) tied at 3.5 in the Open section of the Legends: Franklin Knowles Young tournament on Sat at the Boylston.

Lawyer Times (2248), Carey Theil (2202), Chris Chase (2363), Eric Dong (2190), Teddy Coleman (2323), and Eric Godin (2215) were among the players in this strong open section (for an ordinary weekend tournament.)

In the under 1800 section, Seth Lieberman won with 3.5. Bernardo Iglesias, Andrew Liu, and Robert Oresick tied for 2nd with 2.5.

Blitz's GM Christiansen wins USCL Game of the Year

Local top GM Larry Christiansen, who plays Board 1 for the Boston Blitz in the US Chess League, has just won the Game of the Year prize for his sacrificial gem against Dallas's Zivanic in the dramatic Final match. Worthy of a prize in any year, the heightened drama of the last round made the game an instant classic. As a testament of the game's broad appeal, the highly volatile panel of 5 judges awarded Christiansen-Zivanic two 1st place picks, two 2nd place picks, and a 3rd place pick.


The game is so fun to replay that I've added another link to the game here -- Christiansen-Zivanic.

Here is a Harper's Index- like recounting of the game.

# of positions where at least two White pieces are en prise: 8 (some are checks, though)
# of moves in a row a Bishop is en prise on b5 by a pawn: 9
# of moves in a row a Knight is en prise by a pawn: 9
# of moves White is down an exchange: 5
# of Blitz players who have earned Game of the Year in a row: 2 (Sammour-Hasbun in 2007)
# of Blitz games that were up for Game of the Year: 5
1st GM Larry Christiansen (BOS) vs IM Marko Zivanic (DAL)
3rd SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) vs IM David Pruess (SF) 1-0
9th GM Alex Shabalov (NY) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 0-1
12th GM Sergey Kudrin (PHI) vs GM Larry Christiansen (BOS) 1/2-1/2
19th FM Oleg Zaikov (CAR) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 1/2-1/2

# of Blitz losses that were up for Game of the Year (takes 2 to tango): 2
2nd GM Sergey Erenburg (BAL) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 1-0
18th IM Dmitry Schneider (QNS) vs GM Eugene Perelshteyn (BOS) 1-0

Number of top games in which Blitz players were involved: 3 (1st-3rd place)

Anyone willing to take that f-pawn from Larry again?

Senior Chess: That's Old Timers, not Alzheimers.

Senior Chess: That's Old Timers not Alzheimer's

My right of passage occurred in 2003 when George Mirijanian approached me and asked if I would be interested in playing in the NEW ENGLAND SENIOR OPEN to be played in MANCHESTER, NH since I just hit that prestigious category. Coincidently, George (who won the event) and I met the first round and I was bamboozled with his Blackmar-Diemer Gambit, being mated very quickly. What was even more remarkable was that I won the Class B under prize and technically I'm still the Senior New England Class B Champ because the tournament hasn't been held since 2003.

Regardless of the prestige of being a SENIOR chess player, it comes with a lot of impedimenta. Impedimentum is the Latin word for baggage. Mother nature has it's ways of adding more and more baggage.

For instance, there comes a time when you have to get either bifocals or progressive lenses to be able to play chess and keep score at the same time. Until you experience this first hand you will not understand the tennis game neck bobbing required to swing your focal length from piece, to clock, to pencil to paper, back to board,..... thank god for digital clocks.

One time because of visual segmentation, and it's amazing it happened only once, I grabbed the wrong piece to move. This fingerfelter stunk up my good game a little bit and gave my opponent the compulsion to punish me. Funny thing was that that his response was so aggressive, that he threw the game away in what had become a kamikaze attack: Lemonade from the lemon.

You have to shout at some of us: 'I OFFER YOU A DRAW!' because we might not be able to hear the whispered "draw" offer. I know this is an inconvenience to my neighbors in the tournament hall, but I see no other way to handle this. One suggestion is perhaps the USCF could create a red bean bag like the NFL uses to appeal calls; to be handed to the opponent meaning draw offer. But maybe declines would increase the chances of assault and battery during a chess game. It's probably a bad idea.

Helen Keller, left, and her teacher Anne Sullivan play chess, in 1900.
Photo from the American Foundation for the Blind
Her play was unaffected by the aging process. More lemonade from lemons.

Slower reflexes in addition to focal length challenges make time scrambles against kids with catlike reflexes generate envy of days gone by when ...................

And even slower ambulation effects your chess because the biggest handicap is getting to and from the bathroom: Flowmax Factor.

I'm not napping, I've got you just where I want you. Yes another laimo French Defense. Just boring the crap out of you this game, waiting for you to spend all your time in the skittles room, or attack me out of the uncontrollable urge to get this game over with.

If you have any good comments because of you being, or playing against a senior player please comment.

Thank You, Mike Griffin 01/27/2009

Franklin K. Young Memorial

As Stephen Dann in the Worcester Telegram put it:

Pick of the week for open tourneys may well be Saturday’s Franklin K. Young Memorial at the Boylston Chess Club, 240B Elm St., in Somerville’s Davis Square. Young (1857-1931) authored a number of books on the military aspects of chess, some that were reprinted well after his death in Winthrop.

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Who was Franklin K Young?

From our club point of view, he was an early player. Starting in the 1850s the Boston Young Men's Christian Union (YMCU) maintained a small room for chess; John F. Barry, Harry Nelson Pillsbury, C.F. Burille, Franklin K. Young and Walcott frequented it in the 1890s.

Young was a strong player, with wins against Steinitz, Zukertort, Pillsbury, and MacKenzie (see games at the site below.)
.........................

http://www.didymus7.com/nost/franklin_knowles_young.htm

Stan Vaughan
Young is an interesting example. He had wins over World Champions Steinitz and Zukertort (twice), US Champion Pillsbury, and US Champion MacKenzie (twice). Here are three examples I have found of great games by Franklin Knowles Young. ...............................
He was also a member of the Order of the Mandarins of the Yellow Button.
The Order of the Mandarins of the Yellow Button In the second half of the 18th century, a group of chess players in the Boston area formed a somewhat informal, yet exclusive coterie called the Order of the Mandarins of the Yellow Button. What made this group exclusive was that in order to join, a prospective member must be an amateur chess player and must have beaten a recognized master, i.e. a professional international champion, in an even game of chess. Indeed, it wasn't an easy group to join. It was their custom to meet every Saturday afternoon for chess and spend Saturday evenings dining together, discussng chess. Supposedly, Mandarin points toward China where the Yellow Button was an insignia denoting rank in the Chinese civil service.The core members of this group included: Franklin Knowles Young, Constant Ferdinand Burille, F. H. Harlow, Dr. E.M. Harris, C. F. Howard, Major Otho.E. Michaelis, Gen. W. C. Paine, Dr. Horace Richardson, Charles B. Snow, Henry Nathan Stone, G.Preston Ware, jr. http://blog.chess.com/batgirl/the-order-of-the-mandarins-of-the-yellow-button

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He was also an inventor:

................................................

YOUNG, Franklin Knowles, author, inventor; b. Boston, Oct. 21, 1857; ed. there;
inventor automatic breech-action for small arms and field artillery. Author: The Minor
Tactics of Chess; The Major Tactics of Chess; The Grand Tactics of Chess; Chess Strategetics, Illustrated; Napoleon's Campaigns. Address: Press Club, Boston.
from WHO'S WHO? IN AMERICA , 1.2 ¿ A BiOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF NOTABLE LIVING MEN AND WOMEN OF THE UNITED STATES 1903-1905 ESTABLISHED, 1899, BY ALBERT NELSON MARQUIS EDITED BY JOHN W. LEONARD CHICAGO A. N. MARQUIS & COMPANY PUBLISHERS

............

He published the Chess Item a magazine about the Boston Chess scene at the turn of the century (and mentioned the Boylston Club) , though he was primarily a member of the Boston Chess Club.

He is also infamous for several early chess books on strategy and tactics from a curiously abstractly military point of view. We have several of his books in our BCF library, but you can download an ebook if you dare - Richard Shorman (below) says it could cost you hundreds of rating points.

..............................

Hayward Daily Review, Sunday, April 2, 1972 Chess by richard shorman WAR AND CHESS Franklin K. Young occupies a unique niche in the chess world because of his serious effort to reduce the royal game to a mathematically exact system formulated on the principles of military science. And though he received some recognition around the turn of the century from world champion Emanuel Lasker, who referred to one of his books as "replete with logic and common sense," today Young's work is invariable treated with ridicule and scorn. Indeed, taken out of context, his many abstract theorems do seem comically incomprehensible, e.g.: "Whenever a point of junction is the vertex of a mathematical figure formed by the union of the ligistic symbol of a pawn with an oblique, diagonal, horizontal, or vertical from the logistic symbol of any kindred piece; then the given combination of two kindred pieces wins any given adverse piece" ("The Major Tactics of Chess," Boston, 1898, pg. 147). Irrespective of his merits as an instructor, however, Franklin K. Young did possess deep insight into the nature of chess, as this abridged except from his "Chess Strategics" (Boston, 1900, pp. 3-6) illustrates:
He also wrote this endgame rule: "Whenever a pawn altitude is intersected by the periphery of an adverse Knight's octagon, then, if the pawn has not crossed the point intersection, the adverse Knight wins the given pawn."

A download of one of his books, The Grand Tactics of Chess, can be obtained here.
Chessville - Free Downloadable eBooks - electronic chess books

Read at your own risk…reading it could cost you several hundred rating points. As for what he meant by it. Who knows? I’m hoping somebody can tell me...

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Another quote:

...............................

Always deploy so that the right oblique can be readily established in case the objective plane remains open or becomes permanently located on the centre or on the King's wing, or that the crochet aligned may readily be established if the objective plane becomes permanently located otherwise than at the extremity of the strategic front.- Franklin K. Young
http://www.chessville.com/downloads/ebooks.htm
The Major Tactics of Chess by Franklin Knowles Young

Monday Night Swiss -- February

The Monday Night Swiss for January concluded with a tie between Chris Chase and Lawyer Times. Congratulations.

There will be a February MNS, by popular demand. It was not originally scheduled but Chris Chase will TD it, beginning Feb 2.

Amateur Team East board one needed

Andrew's team (Stuart Finney, Andrew Wang, and Michelle Chen) is looking for a 4th player to make a team for the Amateur East. They are hoping for someone that can lead them at board 1.

Do you know if anyone from BCC is available? Please let the word out that they are looking.

Thanks,

Tiffany from Taiwan

Chess Study: Shades of Mediocrity

Chess Study: Shades of Mediocrity

As a young man there was a time that I would try to be the best I could be at everything I did; from being a student, playing board games, sports, the social graces, to what have you. Then several decades ago, at a family reunion - an epiphany, I learned to revel in casting mediocrity: I decided that I was going to be a bad fresh water fisherman, to the consternation of my crazy brother in law. Subsequently this philosophy has crept into other areas of my life. Leisure time is for my enjoyment.

Also I think over time one's ambitions for success get tempered by the realization that one is stuck on one plateau or another of ability, with no probability of a DeLaMaza* bust out.

Chess is what I do for fun; an avocation of mine where I use a "higgily piggily" chaotic approach of sampling this that or the other thing; so I wouldn't call it study. Spending only enough time on any subject so it doesn't resemble anything like work. It's a fair to poor job, contrasting my methodologies with the way I do research in my real job. Occasionally I will work through a whole chess book, but I'm more apt to hunt and peck through a chess book, (as previously described by Ken Ho). Also I have found that I really like the ICC lectures by the likes of Larry Christiansen and Joel Benjamin that analyze a game in a fun way, typically using 30 to 50 minutes, and you are as passive as can be just watching; you don't even have to move the pieces, or turn any pages, or even point and click more than a few times.

So what's the best way for a guy like me to learn anything about chess? Probably by getting a chess coach; but coaches cost money, are critical, give homework, would want me to change my stylin way of playing; all painful stuff like that. And well I'm not having any of that for my recreation.

Above all else I love the competitiveness that OTB brings. I can no longer play basketball or football without serious consequences, but I can have a slugfest via chess. Personally, the pain of a loss is the best motivation for me to want to fix my play. While trying to be a sportsman and understanding that losses are part of the game, some losses go deep and stay around a long time. Frank Wang says that such feelings make chess important to you.

I try to review every loss and determine why I lost the game. I have a better chance in learning something and remembering the lesson when it contains an associated sting of pain. I first enter the game into my old version of ChessBase Light (ver 4) and then cut and paste my game score into Fritz (ver 6.5) and run it through Blunder Check which usually takes a dozen or so minutes to look for major tactical blunders. Then I play through the analysis. If the game is interesting I will ask for a deep analysis which I run through the night, so I can review it the next day. I may look up the theory in one of my chess books or try to find grandmaster games in a chess database with the position (or similar ones derived from the same line.) This methodology is a far greater improvement from the old days when the best you could do was maybe have a chess buddy to work with. Using the computer you catch more of what you missed tactically than ever before, although strategically a coach would lend more guidance than any computer could. And you can use Fritz as a lab/strawman and play against it. Probably this approach is myopic: there may be fundamentals unknown to me that if learned might be helpful.

BTW I keep ChessBase Light (ver 4) because it was free and it appears you have to pay for newer versions (maybe I'm wrong). Also there are free open source chess databases out there to store your gamesl. And if you don't have analytical software like Fritz buy the previous to current version for much less money than the latest and greatest. It will kick your butt anyways. You want to use it as an analysis tool.

What is your approach to chess study? What do you think the best approach? Do you know of any good software that is helpful? Please Comment. Thank You. Mike Griffin 01/21/2009

*Michael DeLaMaza's story on 400 points in 400 days.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1857442695/ref=sib_dp_pt#reade r-link

Outside of a dog, a chess book is a tournament player's best friend.

Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. (with a tip of the cigar to Groucho Marx)

Recently in the Harvard Coop bookstore (where, in 2008, in my last, desperate days before the final round of the club's Weaver Adams tournament, I bought Andrew Greet's excellent Play the Ruy Lopez as part of an unsuccessful bid to beat Jon Lee in order to advance to the club championship's next qualification stage), I noticed Glenn Flear's interesting 2007 book Practical Endgame Play - beyond the basics. This 544 page work contains a huge collection of endgame or "nuckie" (NQE -- "Not Quite an Endgame") positions.

Now, I probably love endgames more than the typical chess player, but when I saw this ginormous book, which I later found described as "a brick" by an amazon.com reviewer, I couldn't help but think of two particular used books which I bought quite a number of years ago. One is a collection of Spassky's games, where a former owner had penciled in a check mark next to games that (s)he had presumably gone over. Total check marks? 3. One next to each of the first 3 out of 70 games. The second book is a collection of endgame positions, where a former owner had done the same kind of thing, placing a check mark next to each position diagram which (s)he had presumably gone over. Total check marks? 1. Right next to the first position diagram of 204. I laughed a bit to myself about the feeble efforts made by those previous owners, until I realized that to date I have probably only done about as well as they had. Not sure if I should punctuate that with :-( or ;-).

Anyway, with thoughts of spending many days primarily viewing the spine of Flear's book, I couldn't see paying the full price of $32.95, and I left the store.

My curiosity had been piqued, though. I looked for online reviews. In addition to some on Amazon, Jeremy Silman and John Donaldson felt "it would be best appreciated by players 2300 and above" (Silman's words, explicitly mentioning Donaldson's earlier review). Okay, from my 1700-ish rating, that was further disincentive to purchase.

But my curiosity was not yet dead (chess book curiosity can be like that). I found it selling on half.com for $9.95 in "like new" or better condition from two sellers. One of those was the Strand Book Store, which was also selling it at the same price through their own website. I remember visiting their NYC store years ago, where I recall noticing some overstock copies of Joe Gallagher's excellent The Saemisch King's Indian -- ah, if I could only recall chess theory as well...).

Well, it wasn't much of a struggle to persuade myself that a good view of the spine was worth $9.95. :-)

Actually, so far it looks like a great book if you enjoy endgames. Plus it's so huge it would be great for a desert island, though you probably wouldn't need a doorstop there....

A tidbit about half.com and http://www.strandbooks.com: Although the latter provides the count of how many copies of a book are in stock, within the Games subject they hadn't yet provided a way to search for just chess books. However, you can find that list through their shop on half.com.

Chess Do Over: Re-entry Revisited

Chess Do Over: Re-entry
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In the summers of childhood we spent every day we could playing pickup baseball in the ball fields (or in the street) and tag football in the street. Ground rules were fluid: occasionally a situation would occur that would completely upset the game mid play: like a car plowing down the street interfering with your pass routs. Kids would shout "Do Over!","Do Over!" Stating that the play was busted and should be replayed.
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We are coming to the second anniversary of the infamous BCF Reentry Incident where Alexander Paphitis reentered in the third round of a Thursday Night Swiss in order to avoid a bye, thus pushing the bye onto another player: Jason Rihel. Alexander could have warned the director a week earlier of his intent, or the day before, and the director was nice enough to call Alexander to warn him that he probably wouldn't be playing. Thus the player receiving the bye would be warned not to show up.
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Subsequently the BCF Board made a bylaw stating that people could only enter one time per section of a BCF tournament. So you can only enter a BCF tournament once, unless there were multiple routes of entry into the tournament (something the BCF never does). Reentry is the brainchild of Bill Goichberg and was first invented when Continental Chess swiss tournaments were created, where you have multiple routes of entry of players in different sections having varying time controls that eventually merge into single event.
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But people soon caught on that for a fee they could "re-enter" via another section after losing their first round in order to avoid the first round goose egg. This mechanism is simply a money maker for Bill Goichberg and using reentry isn't true sportsmanship in my opinion.
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Could the Red Sox ask for a "Do over" in 2003 when Boston when manager Grady Little kept Pedro Martinez pitching? Some how it would cheapen the game. As I think the re-entry cheapens chess.
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There was a huge response to the original blog article (below). And I was wondering if anyone has any additional stories or comments about people using reentry to better or change their outcome of a tournament?
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Thank You.
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Mike Griffin
01/13/2009
http://boylston-chess-club.blogspot.com/2006/01/thursday-night-controversy.html

Legends of Chess: Edgar Colle

Saturday, January 17: BCC Legends of Chess: Edgar Colle 4SS; G/65. EF: $27, $17 to BCF members. Two sections: Open & U1800; Prizes: b/entries. Reg: 9:15 – 9:50. Rounds: 10, 12:40, 3:00, 5:10

Edgard Colle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Edgard Colle (Ghent, May 18, 1897 – Ghent, April 20, 1932) was a Belgian chess master, who pioneered the chess opening termed the Colle System.

The Colle System, 1. d4 d5, 2. Nf3 Nf6, 3. e3 followed by Bd3, c3, and Nbd2, is a form of reversed Semi-Slav opening. This system achieved the greatest use during the era from the late 1920s into the 1930s. Colle himself played the opening from 1925 until his death, scoring excellent results in major international tournaments (first in Amsterdam in 1926, ahead of Tartakower and future world champion Euwe; first in the tournament at Merano in 1926 ahead of Canal; and first in the tournament in Scarborough in 1930 (ahead of Maroczy and Rubinstein). Colle scored a number of notable successes with this opening, including a number of brilliancies (Colle - O'Hanlon, Nice 1930, featuring one of the best known example of a Greek gift sacrifice, is especially famous).

Because of its solid pawn structure, logical piece placement, and coherent strategic aims, this opening is often taught to new players as a safe and dependable way to reach a playable middlegame. Thus, the Colle System is frequently seen in amateur or scholastic tournaments, but it is not seen as often in professional play. This is often attributed to the fact that this system is safe but somewhat passive. According to modern opening theory, White can get a solid position but cannot force an edge against a well-prepared opponent.

The opening gained popularity, especially in the United States, through the efforts of Belgian/American grandmaster George Koltanowski who remained faithful to this system throughout his long career. He said he played it as a tribute to his friend Colle who died at a young age (in fact, it is sometimes referred to as the Colle-Koltanowski). The Colle System has been used in recent times by grandmasters Pia Cramling, Susan Polgar, and most notably Artur Yusupov, who prefers to play with b3 and a queenside fianchetto (this particular setup is known as the Colle-Zukertort).

Colle's playing career was hampered by ill health. He survived three difficult operations for a gastric ulcer and died after a fourth, at the age of 34.

Colle, standing 2nd left.

.........

Edgar Colle was born in Gent, Belgium, in 1897. He won the Belgium championship in 1922, 1924 and 1926-1929. His international breakthrough was in Scheveningen 1923 before a.o. Euwe. In 1924, he came third in the unofficial Paris Olympiad.

1926 was perhaps his best year. He won in Amsterdam (before Tartakower and Euwe) and in Merano (before Spielmann, Tartakower, Yates.). Apart of these sucesses, he also managed to finish second in Weston Super Marne. Afterwards, he participated in many international tournaments. This resulted in a victory in Scarborough 1927, Hastings 1928/29, Scarborough 1930.

His health was not as good as his results; he survived three difficult operations, only to die as a result of the fourth. He is most known for the Colle-opening: 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 e6 4.Bd3 c5.

Chain of Influences

Chain of Chess Influences.

As an undergrad at Westfield State College, having co-majored in Secondary Education, I was required to take a great many psychology courses. And in the early 70's, each doctor and psychology professor could describe in detail their lineage of teachers to themselves all the way from Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Behaviorists always somehow get back to John Watson or BF. Skinner.
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I thought this was a really cool process, listening to each professor's narration emphasizing the trail of specific teachers that had the most influence on their personal thinking. Psychology being a "new" science, having each university teacher degreed in the field, so the "chain of influence" is unbroken and is easily recognizable.
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To chess: Today if you are an OTB player you are the product of receiving parts of information about a 1,500 year old game from some sources. Because more than thirty preceding generations have been buried, knowledge of your particular "chain" has been buried. The lack of documentation still exists.
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Nonetheless theories like the "six degrees of separation" or http://ibeatgarry.com/; with the attempt to measure how many steps a player is separated from beating Gary Kasparov; bring to mind that in time there will be the capability to recognize the connections with respect to games played and opponents faced. Although ibeatgarry.com is based on one limited chess database, I foresee a day when there will exist a superdatabase where all known will games exist and interesting facts harvested. So the chain of who in mankind influenced a chess player is not be formally documented.
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Still I like to play with thoughts about the chain to Harry Lyman, my biggest influence on chess thinking. And Harry being so well connected was a node of wisdom gathering and disseminating huge amounts of information and getting people together - what Malcolm Gladwell calls "a connector" in The Tipping Point. Harry was a byproduct of the swashbucklers of Boston like Weaver Adams, Harlow Daly, of which John Curdo still personifies. An attitude that can be traced back to Harry Nelson Pillsbury. I call it Pre-Soviet American chess: before the coaches from the School of Botvinik came to Boston. Players were brawlers heralding tactics - not considering strategy the way most players do today.
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So the connections of my chess background are much different than that of a 12 year old studying the game today.
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Another way to look at this is to ask: who arrived on the chess scene self taught? Gladwell's new book Outliers would say that success in any area requires basic intelligence in combination with many other factors including luck. In the book he refers to successful chess players having had to study 10,000 hours.
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How far back can you trace your chess lineage.
Excluding legend, do you know of any chess geniuses who were self taught or were very successful with little study or formal training? They in fact created their own chain of influence.
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Please Comment Mike Griffin 01/07/2008
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation
http://ibeatgarry.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tipping_Point