How many chess blogs are there anyway?

I'd been meaning to get to this topic for quite awhile, but with all the caption contests, chess poems, USCL expansion news, Wamala updates, chess pie recipes and obscure references only marginally related to chess, who can find the time?

This story begins at the end of December on Susan Polgar's blog where she posted "The chess blogging boom." Susan wrote:

If you go to google and type "Chess Blog", about 2,130,000 items come up. If you type "Chess Blogs", about 1,760,000 items come up!

Those are of course staggering numbers, but just like the discussion of how many chess players there are in the world, rational thought and rigorous analysis can be brought to bear. So when one of Susan's anonymous commenters said, "I'm amazed that there are so many chess blogs", I thought it would be helpful to provide some clarity on the issue. I wrote:

Don't confuse the number of Google hits with the number of chess blogs. Many of the pages Google is listing probably don't even have the two words next to each other.

I would estimate that there are about 250-350 active chess blogs (where active = at least one post in the last 30 days).

Mr. Anonymous would have none of it:

"Don't confuse the number of Google hits with the number of chess blogs."

I believe Susan more than you.

It was all I could do to stop laughing. For this guy, Susan Polgar was the oracle of all truth and knowledge. It was posted on her blog so it must be true. To be fair, Mr. Anonymous would have no reason to know who I am, but had he done just a bit of research (e.g., checked my blogger profile and clicked over to this blog) he would have realized that I'm probably one of a very small handful of people on the entire planet who is in a good position to try and answer the question in the title of this post. Besides, anyone with a rudimentary understanding of search engines would realize that they are not a particularly useful tool for measuring things like the number of chess blogs. I posted a response to that effect:

"I believe Susan more than you."

Then I'm sorry to say that you would be wrong. As a test, go to say page 30 of the Google results for chess blogs and randomly click on one of the listings. Odds are it will not be a chess blog.

Thankfully, both Susan and another commenter came to my defense.

I didn't think much more about this encounter until Mark Weeks continued the discussion at Chess for All Ages:

A post titled The chess blogging boom ... caught my eye because it showed some typical confusion about counts on Google searches. A comment by DG ... corrected the misunderstanding and continued, 'I would estimate that there are about 250-350 active chess blogs...'

This number seemed high to me. I typically count about 75 blogs updated in the previous month plus another 40 active in the past six months. Since DG usually knows what he is talking about, I'll have to compare the BCC blogroll with my database of blogs.

It occurred to me that I needed to provide some explanation and the methodology behind my estimate. Here goes: While I maintain a database of all the blogs listed on BCC Weblog and continuously update their active/inactive status, I do not assume that I have a complete list of all chess blogs at any point in time. Why? Because new chess blogs are created everyday and on any given day if I want to find a few new ones I have several surefire ways of doing so. In fact, I could probably win a few bar bets with the following proposition, "In the next two hours, I bet I can find 5 chess blogs you've never seen before." Any takers?

OK, so if my database isn't complete then I need to estimate how much of the total universe of chess blogs it likely represents. I put boundaries on the problem -- it seems to me unlikely that there are 50% more chess blogs than I have in the database (i.e., I have found only about 2 of every 3), but reasonably possible that I'm short by 20% (i.e., I've found close to 4 of every five). One can certainly quibble with my estimates, but I think they are plausible.

Now at the time of Susan Polgar's original post I had ~ 220 active chess blogs listed. 220 + 20% = 264 and + 50% = 330, so that's how I came up with the 250-350 estimate I used in my comment.

Where do we stand today? I currently have 243 active chess blogs in the listings. Using the 20-50% methodology results in a current estimate of ~ 290-365.

Mark also suggested that another difference between his list and mine might be that he only tracks English language chess blogs. Certainly non-English blogs (and here I mean the language, not blogs written by people with good dental hygiene :) ) do constitute a sizable part of my database. Of the current 243 active chess blogs, 86 are not written in English while 157 are.

And lest you think we're finally done with this discussion, 10 days later Mark wrote a follow-up post on the topic which included the following:

How do I know when an inactive blog is reactivated? I don't. I trust that someone maintaining an active blog will post a welcome back message or refer to one of the newest posts in a dialog.

I have a solution for this problem. In Bloglines I keep a folder of RSS feeds for all the Inactive chess blogs. If they start up again, their posts pop up immediately. However, I wait until they've posted at least twice in 30 days before moving them back to Active status.

Anyone still awake?

Chess Training - African Style

The Nigerian Chess Federation (NCF) is preparing its players for the upcoming All-Africa games in Algeria. Here are some strategies you might want to incorporate into your own training regimen:

The players according to coach Akintola normally have two hours of physical training every morning and by next month, the players would be on special diet with more of fruits which [NCF] chess president [ACP Sani Mohammed] said will eliminate stress-causing acids.

"If we put the athletes o[n] fruits meals daily between from morning till midday, it helps to give instant energy and eliminate waste just as it increases body metabolism," he explained.

Fulfilling a Pledge

As a BCC member, I've been asked to step up and post on the blog more than I currently do (which is never). Unfortunately, I'm still figuring out how to use chess-viewer, which means I have to annoy everyone with my crude notation. Hopefully I'll learn some blogging skills soon; in the meantime, I'll beg your indulgence and pose the following openings question. Last night on ICC, I saw a strong GM play the line 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.a3!? Bd6 7.g4!?. This is analogous to the "Latvian Gambit" in the Meran, with the difference that White has played a3 instead of Qc2. The question is, can White also get an effective version of this gambit by playing 6.Bd2!? Bd6 7.g4 ?

Some things to bear in mind:

1) In comparison with the 6.Qc2 line, White is not hitting the h7 pawn, which may improve some of black's defenses based on Nxg4, i.e. 7..Nxg4 8.Rg1 Nxh2 9.Nxh2 Bxh2 10.Rg7 and now black can play 10..Qf6 without dropping the h-pawn. In addition, White is not yet on the c-file, which might make black's ...e5 break (commonly met with cxd5 and Nb5) more palatable. On the other hand, defenses based on ..dxc4 followed by ..e5 allow White to play Qb3 without losing a tempo: 6.Bd2 Bd6 7.g4 dc 8.Bxc4 e5 9.Qb3 with the idea of 9..0-0 10.g5 and the d5 square is now unavailable (Black can sac a pawn on d5, but I doubt it's good).

2) In comparison with the 6.a3 line, White is one move closer to castling queenside or to bringing a rook to c1, depending on the circumstances. On the other hand, Black is able to play a defense based on ..Bb4, which I personally think is one of the better tries against the g4 gambit. For example, a common position is 6.Qc2 Bd6 7.g4 Bb4, where white usually plays 8.Bd2. So the question becomes, after 6.Bd2 Bd6 7.g4 Bb4!?, does white have anything better than 8.Qc2 transposing into the above line?

3) The GM who played 6.a3 was using it in a 3-minute match, so all this may be irrelevant (for what it's worth, he had a great position out of the opening and converted it to a win).

Anyway, I think 6.Qc2 is still the best move order to get into the g4 gambit, but I don't see why 6.Bd2 is any less useful than 6.a3. Food for thought.

--CRR

p.s. Random survey -- if I can learn how to use Chessviewer, would people be interested in more of these types of posts?

The rest of the story

Like About Chess, I too have noticed a recent trend of defections from the chess blogosphere:

• Temposhlucker's decision to go on (permanent?) hiatus from the ranks of the Knights Errant is a monumental loss, perhaps second only to the day that Don Q did the same.


• Losing Goran at Chess News & Events was tempered by the fact that he continues to post at Chess Strategy. Since then, things have improved further with a new blogger taking over the reins of the original blog.


• Patrick at Chess For Blood has decided that he is "due for a break from chess and chess blogging for awhile" and the Underpromoted Knight has decided to make school a priority over chess.
  

Then there is the case of Strong In Mind's Fierabras. About Chess gave you the facts, but only here will you find the story behind the story (thanks to a tip from an unnamed Knight).

As many of you may be aware, J'adoube has been advocating the somewhat provocative position that endeavoring to play moves highly rated by top chess computers (specifically Rybka in his case) is a good path to improvement. This has resulted in some healthy and spirited debate across several posts. However, it seems that somewhere along the way Fierabras' and J'adoube's point counter-point turned heated, personal and anything but healthy. Shortly thereafter Fierabras announced his intent to leave the Knights. It isn't too hard to connect the dots.

Now, I'm certainly not here to point a finger of blame at anyone. You can read the thread and draw your own conclusions. In fact, I believe that a bit of controversy can often be a good thing in terms of generating interest and readership. Nevertheless, as a general rule it would be hard to go wrong taking to heart Sancho's previous "Can't we all just get along" appeal.

Update (3/7): Comment threads at J'adoube's blog are not currently no longer available.

Say it and it's so

Reykjavík, Iceland has declared itself the chess capital of the world.

Care to declare your city or town the world capital of something?

Ahead of the curve

It's been over a year since I first advocated the use of deli food to name US Chess League teams. While we've yet to see the Boston Blintzes or New York Bagels come to fruition, I am happy to report that one of the 2007 expansion teams has taken up the challenge. I'm extremely pleased to introduce the New Jersey Knockwursts.

Don't confuse these Knockwursts with your usual run of the mill hot dogs. They're short chubby sausages made from pork and beef with fresh garlic -- absolutely delicious! With a name like Knockwursts we can expect big things from New Jersey during their inaugural USCL sea...

Huh?...Oh, really?...Knockouts, not Knockwursts?...Seems rather derivative of Sluggers, don't you think?...Oh well...

Never mind.

Notes from 2006 Paramount

One of the most fun tournaments for me in 2006 was the double-round robin Paramount, held at the Boylston Chess Club. I bring a highlight from my games, just to bring attention to the unique situations the Paramount can offer.

Pre-game prepwork was nothing new for me, but I had never had an adjourned game in 15 years of tournament chess. In Clayton-Rihel, Paramount 2006, I had my first adjourned position, and I was able to turn a depressing loss into a miracle draw, thanks to my home analysis and a little luck.

The following position occured at move 40, when Kyle sealed his 41st move.

Clayton- Rihel adjourned position
White to move

For those playing along at home, this position looks hopeless for Black on almost all White moves. Up a pawn, White cruises with almost any queen move (Fritz calls it +4.7), and I thought about calling Kyle to resign on the spot. Yet, there was one move that looked natural enough to play over the board -- the simplifying 41. Qxg7. When analyzing at home, I saw a faint glimmer of hope in this line.... just a faint one. Given the tense time scramble we had just played, I gave Kyle a 20% chance of playing that very move. When we reconvened later in the week, I vowed that I would resign on the spot if Kyle had sealed any normal move other than 41. Qxg7.

When I sat down over the board and ripped open the sealed move, I was so thrilled to see 41. Qxg7 that I immediately left the board, canceled my dinner plans, and sat down to defend a bad position with my last idea, one cooked up from home.

After the moves, 41.Qxg7 Kxg7 42.Kg2 Nb1 43.Bxc4 Nxc3 44.Kf3 Kf6 45.g4 g5 46.fxg5 hxg5 47.h5 Ke5 48.Ke3 Nd1 49.Kd2 Nf2 50.Be2 Ne4+ 51.Ke3 Nd6 52.Bd3 Nf7 53.Bc4 Nh6, we have reached the following new position:

Clayton-Rihel after 53...Nh6

My idea in full bloom. The whole point of my previous moves was to work my knight to h6, where it hits the pawn on g4 and blockades the position together with my king. This situation was not forced, but even Fritz will often let it happen. I love this position because 1) I worked out this exact idea at home, 2) Without adjournments, I doubt I would have come up with such a cool blockade over the board and 3)Fritz still gives White a large winning advantage, all the way to the end of the game, when a draw is certain.

Kyle tried for many more moves, but cannot make progress:

54.Kf3 Kd4 55.Bb3 Kd3 56.Be6 Kd4 57.a4 Ke5 58.Bb3 Kd4 59.Bc2 Ke5 60.Bd1 Kd4 61.Be2 Ng8 62. Bb5 Nh6 63.Bd7 a5 64.Be6 Ke5 65.Bb3 Kd4 66.Bd1 Ng8 67.Bb3 Nh6 68.Ba2 Ke5 69.Bc4 Kd4 70.Bb5 Ke5 71.Bd7 Kd4 72.Bf5 Ng8 73.Bh7 Nh6 74.Bg6 Ng8 75.Bf7 Nh6 76.Bb3 draw agreed.

Of all my chess games, this one ranks as one of my absolute favorites. It was also a great moral victory (a moral draw?) for me and turned my tournament around. I went on to finish well, including a nice win against FIDE Master Chris Chase.

So, come and play this Monday!

Of the utmost importance

This Monday is the start of a very unique event on the Boylston Chess Club calendar. The 8th Annual Paramount, an original brainchild of former BCC president Bryan Clark, is a 10-week double round robin at slow time controls. Players are formed into groups of six by rating and each competitor plays their five other opponents once as White and once as Black. The groups ensure that players get consistently competitive opponents throughout the course of the tournament (unlike some Swisses where a win against a player rated 400 points below you is often followed by a game against a player 400 points above).

Since your schedule is known for the tournament after the first round, pre-game preparation can take on added significance. What does your opponent play against your favorite opening and will he stick with it this time or try to change things up? Also, the time controls of 40/2, SD/50 are the longest on the current BCC schedule and provide the opportunity for adjournments. Rather than ruining a well played game by being forced to blitz through the endgame at the end of the night, you just might get the opportunity to study the position in depth at home and return later to realize the fruits of your effort.

Your usual monthly Swiss will always be there, so why not try out something different? Play the Paramount!

Monday, March 5 – May 7: 8th Annual Paramount 10 Rounds, 2RR, Players divided into six player sections by rating; 40/2, SD/50; Entry fee: $24, $17 to BCF members; Prizes: 50% EF Registration: 6:00 to 6:45 PM Rounds at 7PM.

Presidential Pet Chess

From a very long list of Bill Clinton jokes:

Q: Did you know that Clinton's cat can play Chess?

A: Inside Information -- The cat isn't really all that good at Chess. The last time they played best of five, Clinton won three games to two.

Spring Training

"I like baseball because it requires highly specialized skill and strategic moves by either side, similar to chess but without the dorks." - Alan Gable at Life and Taxes

Caption Contest XIV

Rocky Rook wrote: "... this would be a good picture for a caption contest over at the Boylston CC blog." OK, here goes...

Here is the caption from the Associated Press:

Betty Bledsoe of Indianapolis, holds a box containing daily medications for her children as they receive a chess lesson in her Indianapolis home Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007. All 12 of Bledsoe's children receive Medicaid for various disabilities and she worries about Gov. Mitch Daniels plan to automate the processing of food stamps, Medicaid and other benefits. Daniels is leading the way among cash-strapped governors who are contracting out services states historically have handled themselves.

Post your caption in the comments.

Dialectical Chess History

At Kino Fist, a discussion on the seduction of chess:

The history of the 20th century is the history of the strategically necessary misrepresentation of chess. The defeat of left-wing politics, of reason and seriality, and its replacement by the flows of capital and the madness of markets informs us that whichever side chess was on, the game itself has lost, and lost badly, relegated to the status of whimsical pastime for the terminally intellectually aspirational, the insane and the incarcerated. The hustlers that sit in Washington Square Park, playing for the odd five bucks against business-folk on their lunch-break are the last remnants of the chess vanguard. But how did chess get beaten so badly? One solution to this question lies in the wilful misunderstanding of chess, by both its defenders and its critics, as primarily a game of war, and not as a game of seduction. The denial of the seductive qualities of chess is by extension a refusal any longer to acknowledge or even contemplate the seductive elements of the avant-garde as a whole.

Read more...

Most prefer buttons instead

Some support from elsewhere in the blogosphere for those of you who convinced me to remove the Snap Preview feature.

Chess in Belmont

Belmont High School
performing arts company
presents
CHESS The Musical
music by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA
lyrics by Tim Rice based on an idea by Tim Rice
Director ~ Liz Smith
Choreographers ~ Liz Smith, Leigh Lucey and John Duffy
Vocal Director ~ Jonathan Eldridge
Orchestra Director ~ Bridgid Bibbens

March 1, 2, 3, 2007 at 7:30 pm
and a matinee Sat. March 3 at 2:30 pm (with alternate cast)
BHS Auditorium

This Rock Musical premiered in London in May 1986 and made its Broadway debut in 1988. It's a tale of forbidden love, Cold War Intrigue and betrayal...

The game of Chess is used as a metaphor for romantic rivalries and the US-Soviet rivalry. The main characters form a love triangle: Freddie Trumper, the ill-mannered American challenger, Anatoly Sergievsky, the intense but charming Russian Champion who plans to defect to the West, and Florence Vassy, the Hungarian-born American Chess Second who must choose between love and patriotism. And the KGB and CIA are watching every move...

From Bangkok to Budapest, the players, lovers, politicians and spies all struggle to get the upper hand. The songs, "One Night in Bangkok" and "I Know him so Well" went on to become international hits. During three different scenes in the musical, the stage becomes a giant chess board, and members of the company become human chess pieces, moving through Four chess games created by International Chess Master Joe Fang (Belmont alumnus Class of 1977).

Tickets $12 general admission | $8 for students and seniors
Tickets available through Tickets Hotline (617-993-5844)
e-mail (ticketshotline@belmont.k12.ma.us) or at
Champions Sporting Goods in Belmont Center
& Ooh La La Fudge 381 Trapelo Road

For more details, please visit the website: www.belmonttheatre.org

Amateur Team East Photos

Bob Oresick has posted an album of pictures from the 2007 US Amateur Team (East) Championship. The photos include the Boston University team which took first place for teams under 2100, the Christiansen/MacIntyre team which took 2nd place overall, the G8 Predecessors who were unable to defend their 2006 Championship, and several other teams which featured Boylston/Boston area players.

New chess tools

Susan Polgar on the MSA data program - useful for USCF members only.

Atomic Patzer on the Yahoo! Chess Blogs Search Pipe - what do you smoke with it?

Penultimate

FM Paul MacIntyre reports that his team, representing the Boylston Chess Club, took second place in last weekend's US Amateur Team Championship (East) in New Jersey -- not quite as impressive as last year's team, but not too shabby.

He didn't mention the names of the other team members, but if you know them leave a comment.

Speaking of bishops...

One of the diagonal movers is terrorizing the US investment management industry:

While full-fledged investigations are under way into the pipe bombs sent to industry shops last month and a string of earlier threatening letters, the key to thwarting future attacks may be in decoding "the Bishop."

Some speculate the culprit could be from the industry, but federal authorities are tight-lipped about their progress in the investigation and their profiling of the person, or persons, responsible. However, observers say there are likely some distinguishing characteristics to be on the lookout for to help unmask the Bishop, the name used by the individual who sent the packages.

Last month packages containing explosive devices and threatening letters were sent via U.S. mail to an American Century facility in Kansas City and Janus in Denver. The Janus package was forwarded to the Chicago office of Perkins Wolf McDonnell, a brokerage and advisory firm with which it does business. Both parcels were defused.

The pipe-bomb packages were the latest in a string of threats by the Bishop sent to financial institutions. Past letters contained references to the Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski, and D.C. sniper Lee Boyd Malvo as well as demands that firms manipulate stock prices to equal $6.66. They also discussed kidnappings and killing.

From "Who Is the Mysterious Fund-Bombing Bishop?" at Ignites.

Related article

The perfect name for chess

"Central Catholic school is famous for chess," said Bishop Edmond Carmody.

From "Game of royalty popular with area kids" at the Corpus Christi (TX) Caller Times (bold italics are mine).

Wamala claims police verbal abuse, racism

From the Boston Herald:

NASHUA, N.H. - A former Lowell High School math teacher claims city detectives called him racist, derogatory names while urging him to admit to sexually assaulting three young women.

Prosecutors and police dispute the claims made by Severine Wamala, 45, of Nashua.

Wamala faces 34 felony sexual assault charges, each of which carries up to 10 to 20 years in prison. He has been jailed since his arrest in September, unable to post $1 million bail.

Police charge Wamala repeatedly raped three young women, ranging in age from their teens to early 20s, in Nashua over the past year. Lowell police also are investigating allegations of additional assaults, police have said.

Wamala's lawyer, public defender Scott Rankin, made the allegations in a motion filed earlier this month, seeking to suppress statements Wamala made during the interview.

If they were actually used, such words would land detectives in trouble, Detective Capt. Scott Howe, supervisor of the detectives division, said Tuesday. "That is not and would never be tolerated by the Nashua Police Department," he said.

"We intend to call as many people as we can to say that that didn't happen," said Patricia LaFrance, assistant Hillsborough County attorney. "The defendant makes some assertions, and we're obviously going to respond to them. It will be up to the judge to decide what was or wasn't said."

A hearing on the matter is scheduled March 12 in Hillsborough County Superior Court.

Detectives Robert Page and Jonathan Lehto questioned Wamala after one of the women reported the alleged assaults in September, Rankin's motion said. Wamala claims Lehto told him he would be allowed to go home if he admitted to having sex with the women, and showed Wamala a letter one of them had written, in which she stated that Wamala had raped her. Wamala claims the detectives became increasingly hostile as he persisted in denying the allegations and began yelling at him.

Police recorded only "a small portion" of their interview with Wamala, LaFrance said.
The state Supreme Court has ruled that recordings of a defendant's confessions or statements can't be used as evidence unless police record the whole interview, starting when police read defendants their rights.

Wamala argues that detectives questioned him at length without advising him of his constitutional rights to remain silent and consult a lawyer. Once they read him his Miranda rights, Wamala requested a lawyer and the interview ended, Rankin's motion states.

Bringing two quests together

Don Q has managed to build thriving blogging communities around two different quests, Chess - The Knights Errant and Weight Loss - The Knights of the Round Bottoms. While the two groups do share several members in common, the quests have never been fully integrated. Not so for Gretchen Zaitzeff of Normal, Illinois:

Gretchen ... had two problems: how to stick to her diet and how to raise money for the state chess championships....

"Chess season is hard, you tend to eat more," said Gretchen Zaitzeff. "At tournaments, the kids play chess all day while the parents sit and wait and snack. I had lost a total of 12 inches ... since the beginning of the chess season, but I needed more motivation to stick to it all winter."

... she decided to donate $10 for every inch she lost since the beginning of chess season until March 1 to the local chess association to help its fundraising efforts.

"I knew that the Bloomington Normal Area Scholastic Chess Association (BNASC) was trying to raise money to buy additional chess boards for the IL State K-8 Chess Tournament at ISU in March," said Gretchen Zaitzeff. "It seemed the natural thing to do. $10 would buy one chessboard, and they need four hundred more. I know I can't lose 388 inches in a month. My goal is six to eight more inches. It's not a lot of money, but maybe kids from our Grove team will play on a board I helped pay for."

I wonder if Gretchen is a neighbor of CD's.

What Chessdad64 has to look forward to

MJ explains how teaching her son to play chess has come back to haunt her:

I taught my son to play chess when he was three. We used to play chess all the time. He just really fell in love with the game. So he read umpteen books on how to play it really well, he went to camp for it, and he played a million phantom games with himself. He played it constantly for years. So he got really good. Now he can totally clean my clock in like five seconds flat. I stopped playing chess with my son. It's not because I am bad sport and I can't take getting beat. It's just not good for him. He has started to think that because he can beat me at chess that he is smarter than me and can question my thinking. That's not the only reason for it, but it doesn't help. He is just starting to enter the Know-it-all phase of his existence and playing a game where he can whoop me is not helping him to avoid becoming an arrogant little punk. So I don't play chess with him anymore.

Corporate Tactics

From "Icahn will do whatever it takes to win" at the Chicago Sun Times:

Author Mark Stevens has some advice for Motorola executives about corporate activist and multibillionaire Carl Icahn, the subject of his 1993 biography, King Icahn:
....
• Brush up on your chess. "Icahn was a top chess player at Princeton. He will do whatever it takes to win. He will surprise. He will come back from the dead. He will not go away until he wins. Motorola management is on the second move in the game, but Carl is already on his 10th."
....
• Even if you think you're a crack chess player, chances are Icahn will have his way and will win. "He almost always takes the value of the shares he bought and drives them up," Stevens said.

Queens chooses a name

The new US Chess League expansion team from Queens, New York has chosen "Pioneers" as their nickname. Here is a photo from their first training session.

Not all chess analogies work well

I'm not really sure what the connection to chess is in this one:

...here in Ontario, buying gas is like a game of chess. At-the-pump prices go up and down like yo-yos, with ten cent per liter (think thirty cents per gallon) daily swings a common occurrence. So when gas is running about eighty-one cents per liter (USD$2.60/gal.), and you see it drop to seventy-four cents, you pull in and fill up. It doesn't matter if the tank is full, and it's all you can do to squeeze three bucks worth in.

Maybe they play chess differently in Canada?

Tired of posts about Chess Pie?

Here's a recipe for Chess Cake.

USCL folds! NY Metro Chess League announced

I can imagine what they might be saying on Washington State's Bainbridge Island:

"For two years, despite his best efforts the commissioner has been unable to swing a Championship over to his beloved New York Knights. So in desperation he has decided to stack the deck by having 25% of the league hail from the Big Apple and its surrounding environs."

I'm not sure if I could get behind such "Clint"onian thinking, but it is interesting to note that the two new US Chess League expansion teams share the same subway and commuter rail systems as the Knights. Welcome Queens and New Jersey.

First off, let's forget the idea that the league is intended to pit players from different cities against each other. This notion had already been stretched thin by teams like Tennessee, which needed to scour an entire state to put together a competitively challenged team, and Carolina, which while still probably in James Taylor's mind is nonetheless not even a state at all. So now we can add New Jersey (wink! wink!) to the mix -- as if players from Cherry Hill will be making the weekly trek to the team's playing site.

And what about Queens? It's a borough! That's a New York term for a big neighborhood, for those of you in flyover country. It's like forming a second Boston team in Dorchester or Allston. Yes, I know all about the Brooklyn Dodgers, but where are they now?
The geographic centricity of the new teams also required a realignment of the division structure. For 2007, Carolina will be moving back to the Western Division. Now I ask you, how can a division with teams from Miami and Carolina be called the Western Division? West of what? Bermuda? Nova Scotia? Even the Tennesseans realize that their patch of land hasn't been considered the frontier for over 150 years.

Perhaps the commissioner should consider some alternative Division naming conventions:

1. Refined Geographic - The Northeast Division and the South & West Division


2. Political - The Blue Division and the Purple Division (Purple? It comprises both red and blue states)


3. "Ballard"ian - The Biased For Division and the Biased Against Division

And while we're on the topic of names, Globular has posted some suggestions for the new teams. I was thinking Queens could play off of old descriptive notation and try something like Queens Bishop, Queens Rook or Queens Knight Pawn. Frankly Queens Knight sounds best to me though obviously this would be a problem. But come to think of it, with a new team in Queens shouldn't New York be changing their name to Manhattan anyway? So if New York gives Knight to Queens, they can call themselves the Manhattan Transfer. Don't like that one? They could move their playing site to Wall Street and call themselves the Manhattan Exchange.

As for the Garden Staters, why not use their most famous export? The New Jersey Barriers!

On the chess frontier

At Sentient Developments, George Dvorsky takes the topics of chess computers, cheating and doping to the next level:

What will happen when the first genetically modified competitors emerge? Will there be a stratification of competitions, ones featuring unaugmented players and ones featuring those with genetic mods? Thinking more philosophically, what is the qualitative difference between an unmodified player who was born with a genetic advantage versus a player who had that advantage given to them via assistive reprotech?

The life and times of chess computers

What did Deep Fritz do after winning its match with Kramnik?

Initial reports suggest that the chess-playing computer went on a massive drugs&sex&booze session to celebrate.... Onlookers were amazed to see Fritz (or "the Fritz-Meister General" as he prefers to be called) totally off his face in the bar of his hotel just hours after his marathon chess challenge.

Read "Deep Fritz goes on 5 day bender after claiming chess crown" from Robots Will Take Over!

After school activities

Tracy Curtis introduces us to carpool chess.

More chess in the square

Here's another photo of the chess scene outside Au Bon Pain in Cambridge.

Chess Poetry X

A game of chess
Black and white.
Pieces are black, pieces are white, squares are black squares are white
the cosmos is painted just black n white
Black and black are never together, white n white are never together
Still they say they are always together....

Read "Black and White - Chess" from Clear Like Clarity.

Style over Substance

From "Scrappy chess team holds own against nation's best" at the Akron (OH) Beacon Journal:

And senior Rick Marshall, 16, worked on perfecting not only strategy, but his aggressive flick of the wrist when capturing a piece.

Wouldn't you rather live in England?

When the Boylston Chess Club went looking for a new location, the Board focused on things like an urban location, access to public transportation, affordable rent and availability of parking. So when the Streatham & Brixton Chess Club moves from a local pub to their new digs at the Woodfield Grove Tennis Club, what do you suppose is one their most important priorities?

Access to a licensed bar on the premises.

Gridiron Chess

Link

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.

Hang ten, not pieces

Here's a story from Hawaii about Surfers and Chess.

A puzzle, but not a chess puzzle

The disposition of the Robert Snyder case has me wondering what it is about our society that we impose mandatory sentences on drug dealers but let habitual child molesters plead out and avoid prison time.

Poor Harvard

Believe it or not, I'm actually starting to feel bad for Harvard University. It's hard to come across a mention of the Pan-Am Collegiate Chess Championships which doesn't mention that this or that school beat/ out-scored the Crimson. The idea that "all things being equal" Harvard should have the best chess team in the nation is, of course, absurd. Harvard doesn't recruit chess players, and while they do attract high achieving high school students there's no reason to think that their entering class should have a disproportionate share of outstanding chess players. We have some folks from Harvard who play at the club but they definitely don't constitute all the best players.

Nevertheless, if your chess team beats Harvard you'll hear it shouted from the rooftops. This time it's the press in Miami lauding the accomplishments of Miami Dade College. The article includes a nice video which is well worth watching (though I should point out that the University of Texas Longhorns did not qualify for the College World Series of Chess -- UTD's nickname is the Comets).

*NBlitz

What do you think Matt should name his new boy band?

A new one for Goldowsky's library

Chess Rumble
By G. Neri
An illustrated novella
For ages 10 and up
Coming in Spring of '08
From Lee and Low Books

Terrell is an angry young man. His sister died. His father left. His mother works two jobs. He's overweight and pushed to the limits by his enemy, LeAlan. His only recourse for his anger is to use his fists. But his fists only get him in trouble. He's one fight away from getting kicked out of school when he meets a mysterious chess master named CM who challenges Terrell to fight his battles on the chess board.

So begins Terrell's journey as he fights to regain control of his life through chess....

From Teen Fiction From The Mind Of G. Neri

Can't we all just get along?

I just love this story about feuding chess parents in Gilbert, Arizona. It makes USCF politics seem tame.

During the Arizona Scholastic State Chess Championship last April at Gilbert High School, feuding Gilbert parents argued about everything from the display of banners to the proper place to eat snacks.

"The bickering has gone on so long," said Jill McKeever, a Finley Farms Elementary School chess mom, former association president and chess coach at Islands Elementary School. "It's gotten to this point now where we almost can't talk to each other."

What are they arguing about? Believe it or not, philosophy. Should scholastic chess emphasize fun and participation or winning?

"The philosophies of the organizations were always so different," said Christy Veit, a chess mom at Canyon Rim Elementary School. "They didn't get where we were coming from, and we didn't get where they were coming from."

The Burk club, which has won four consecutive state championships, trains with its own coach and focuses on winning. Other Gilbert schools take a more casual approach to chess.

Their coaches juggle eight or more clubs at the same time and root for all their players to do well at tournaments — even when the teams compete against each other. That has never made sense to the Burk parents.

"We don't see football, baseball or basketball coaches floating across schools in this district coaching at multiple schools," former Burk parent Lisa Haisley wrote in an e-mail. "I don’t think chess should either."

But now there are accusations of vote rigging and hostile takeovers.

Some chess parents say Burk families flooded the meeting. When they realized they didn't have enough votes to win, they stepped outside and called more friends on their cell phones.

Maneth, who earned a board position that night and now serves as president, said allegations that Burk staged a hostile takeover are false. He said Burk parents won the election because they offered the best vision for the future of Gilbert chess....

In the end, Burk parents emerged with control of the association they had previously shunned. And parents who had spent years building the association suddenly wanted nothing to do with it. The Gilbert chess world had turned upside down.

And who might you guess finds himself in the middle of this mess?

Many parents now take their children to tournaments organized by a rival group called SMARTChess. McKeever and three other Gilbert chess coaches started the nonprofit organization this summer.

One SMARTChess founder is Robert Tanner, the Gilbert coach who resigned this month from the U.S. Chess Federation executive board following an ethics reprimand. Tanner was disciplined in November following allegations that he manipulated tournament results in the early 1990s to boost his chess rating.

I can think of several directions this discussion might take. Here are a few questions you might want to ponder and comment on:

1. Should scholastic chess be casual or highly competitive?
2. Is parental involvement in organizing scholastic events a good thing? In the Boston area many scholastic events are organized by clubs (like the BCC) and independent organizers (e.g., Gus Gosselin).
3. What do you think about limiting coaches to working at only one school? Seems to me they find it hard enough to make a living working at several.
4. What's with Robert Tanner and controversy? I'd never heard of this guy until a few weeks ago and now suddenly he's everywhere.

*****
In a related note - At the Herb Healy, Harold Dondis mentioned that he had heard that Gus Gosselin was very ill. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery.

Takchess at the Herb Healy

Chess bloggers don't naturally congregate in groups, at least in the "real" world, though a few were sighted on New Year's day at the Boylston Chess Club. The larger of the two people wearing red in the picture above is Knight Errant Takchess. Jim again found the competition at the club a bit stiffer than his typical PlayChess opponents. Check out his report on his day at the BCC.

Susan and the BCC

Susan Polgar has a new blog where she is posting hundreds of photographs (why she's using Blogger instead of a photo sharing site like Flickr is beyond me, but whatever). I noticed two shots which have a Boylston Chess Club connection:

1. Susan with Boston Globe chess columnist and long-time BCC member Harold Dondis
   
2. A picture from one of her chess cruises including BCC member GM Larry Christiansen
   

USCL ranks 2006 Games of the Week

At the US Chess League website, they have started a series ranking the 2006 Games of the Week from 1 through 13. The rankings are a group effort reflecting the opinions of League Commissioner IM Greg Shahade, NM Arun Sharma, NM Dennis Monokroussos and GM Alex Shabalov+WFM Elizabeth Vicary (working as a duo).

Number 12 on the list is Privman-Krasik from the Blitz's week 3 win over the New York Knights. The game featured Krasik's exciting Rook sacrifice 17...Rxe4!?

JG of JG's Master Quest fame takes exception to the ranking and argues that Ilya deserved better:

...I really think this really deserved some more credit in the voting. Imagine the match situation: Boston only won this match 3-1 so a loss for Krasik would have meant only a tie for the Blitz and Krasik still has the confidence to play the fantastic move Rxe4 when the consequences of a miscalculation would completely change the outcome of the match. I think it's a little strange not to take the situation in the match into serious consideration.

Strangely, in the USCL piece, the comments on this game from Shabalov/Vicary were censored by the league. While we'll probably never know why, JG speculates on a couple of possible explanations. My favorite is:

[Seattle Slugger's team manager] Clint Ballard pa[i]d off the judges to make sure Krasik would not finish near the top, but unfortunately this was included in the comment.

Herb Healy Results

The final crosstables for the 2007 BCC Herb Healy Open House have been posted in the news section of the Boylston Chess club website.

In the rated section, IM David Vigorito and Expert Joe Perl tied for 1st with perfect 4-0 records. While Vigorito didn't face a player rated over 2200 all day, Perl defeated both FM Chase and NM Shmelov. Jason Rihel also had a nice day scoring 3.5-0.5 including a draw with LM Godin and a last round win over young phenom Stuart Finney (who was undefeated after 3 rounds).

There was also a tie for first in the unrated section where GM Larry Christiansen and NM Alex Cherniack both scored 3.5 points. The two met in Round 3 and drew.

Several players claimed master scalps throughout the day including: Joe Perl (over FM Chase & NM Shmelov), Lawyer Times (over FM MacIntyre), Carey Theil (over NM Riordan), Stuart Finney (over LM Godin), David Glickman (over IM Fang), and Yogesh Raghunathan (over NM Enkin).

Grandmaster Kidnapped!

In a virtual sense anyway...

GM Nigel Davies' blog GM Growl (gmgrowl.blogspot.com) has been hijacked.

University of Maryland, Warsaw County

What with red shirt freshman, no show classes and "special" tutoring, big time college athletics strays far from the ideal of inter-school amateur competition. While most everyone knows that this is the case when watching football, basketball and hockey there's been little mainstream discussion of the problems which have plagued college chess. Instead, most of the coverage of college championships over the past few years has used the "little school from nowhere beats Harvard" theme. Of course the "little school", more often than not, is from Baltimore or Dallas.

This article in the Washington Post on the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship starts with the same "beating up on the Ivies" premise, but does afford a couple of paragraphs to the somewhat questionable practices which were used to build UMBC and UTD into chess powerhouses:

The room is thick with tension and intrigue, born partly of the controversy that has surrounded some of the more excessive recruiting practices. As recently as three years ago, several teams, particularly UMBC and UT Dallas, were paying full scholarships, plus cash stipends, to grandmasters as old as 40. Players had nominal course loads and took as long as eight years to graduate.

The overlords of collegiate chess introduced reforms, including a rule against grandmasters over age 25, a six-year limit on competing and a requirement that players maintain a grade-point average of at least 2.0 and at least a half-time course schedule. But UMBC and UT Dallas have stayed dominant by recruiting players from countries including Russia, Poland and India. UMBC's top two players are over 25, grandfathered in under the old rules.

Some players still think the game is rigged. "It's just buying players and championships, and that's not appropriate," said Johnny Sadoff, a Harvard student from Silver Spring. "They should be legitimate students."

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?

*****
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

It's all downhill from here

Only one day into the new year and I can already declare that from a chess point of view 2007 is a major success. At yesterday's Herb Healy Open I defeated International Master Joe Fang in the second round. Of course there were mitigating factors -- it was an unrated section; the time control was G/45; after achieving an easily winning position I played pathetically during the time scramble and gave my opponent all sorts of unnecessary chances; I had just six seconds left on my clock when my opponent walked into a mate. Who cares? I defeated an IM!

Because of the time scramble I don't have a complete score of the game, but I do have the part where I played well:

[Event "2007 BCC Herb Healy Open - Unrated"]
[Site "Somerville, MA"]
[Date "1/1/2007"]
[Round "2"]
[White "IM Joe Fang"]
[Black "DG"]
[Result "0-1"]

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 c6 4. e3 e6 5. Nbd2 Nbd7 6. Bd3 Bd6 7. e4 e5 8. cxd5 cxd5 9. dxe5 Nxe5 10. Nxe5 Bxe5 11. O-O O-O 12. exd5 Qxd5 13. Nc4 Bd4 14. Be3 Rd8 15. Be2 Be6 16. Qa4 b5 17. Qa5 bxc4 18. Qxd5 Rxd5 19. Bf3 Bxb2 20. Rab1 c3 21. Bxd5 Bxd5 22. a4 Be4 23. Rbd1 Nd5 24. Bd4 Bc2 25. Bxc3 Bxd1 26. Bxb2 Bxa4 [and Black won after a time scramble] 0-1

P.S. The picture in Bob Oresick's Herb Healy post below is from IM Fang-DG.

Annual BCC Herb Healy Open House 2007

The new year was ushered in with the annual Herb Healy Open House at the Boylston. Bernardo Iglesias and Mike Griffin (head chef) organized the party and tournament, for which Bernardo and Walter Driscoll were TDs.

It was a great turn-out, in numbers (67), in chess friends new and old, and in player strength, with 13 masters playing and FM Jacob Rasin and IM Satea al Husari visiting and observing.

The masters included FM Chris Chase, IM David Vigorito, FM Paul MacIntyre, FM Denys Shmelov, NM Lawyer Times, LM Eric Godin, NM Charles Riordan, GM Larry Christiansen, FM William Kelleher, NM Alex Cherniack, NM Max Enkin, NM Chris Williams, and IM Joe Fang.

Click here for photos by Robert Oresick.

A Resurrection?

Back in October Dennis Monokroussos declared his blog closed. Since then we've heard nothing ... until today! Check out four new posts on schedule changes for his ChessBase shows, Blogroll changes, new products, and the current state of the World Championship.

Is this just a last gasp or has The Chess Mind been revived? Dennis, care to enlighten us?

The Chess Bitch and the Beauty Salon

A few bloggers have already commented on the Gothamist's interview with Jennifer Shahade. The Hungarian focused on her thoughts regarding what poker can teach chess about promoting itself, while The Kenilworthian was more interested in her comments on how to make the uschess.org website more popular. For my part, this is the question and answer that caught my eye:

On your website, you have photos of various friends and family members modeling the same pink wig you wear on the cover of your book, and you sporting an assortment of other wigs. What's so appealing about wigs, and which one's your favorite?

Well, changing your hair changes your personality. My hair is naturally very curly, but I used to get it straightened a lot. I’d immediately feel like a different person. Neater, more organized, more together and ready to attack life.

Wigs can give you the same kind of feeling, but it’s not permanent and it doesn’t damage your hair like too many blow dries does.

Maybe my next assault on Expert/Masterdom should be accompanied by a new 'do?

I can't think of anything wittty to say

Better wear gloves

The city of Moscow is planning a telephone match with London to be played in Pushkin Square on a chess set fashioned out of ice.

What are you doing for New Year's?

Start your new year right at the annual Herb Healy Open House on New Year's day (the Boylston Chess Club's annual party and fund raiser).

• If you were up late celebrating on New Year's eve, not to worry - first round is 11:45


• If you don't feel like rated games in the rated section, play in the unrated section


• If game 30 is too quick for your taste, this year the time control is changed to G/45


• If you are not a member of the BCF, no problem -- you do not need to be a BCF member to enjoy the tournament and food and fellowship, though it is a traditional time for many to join or rejoin

Monday, January 1st: BCF Herb Healy Open House 4SS; G/45; 2 sections: Rated and Non-Rated; Entry fee: $25, $20 BCF members if received by 12/30, $5 extra on site. Registration: 10:45 to 11:40. Rounds: 11:45, 1:20, 3:00, 4:40. Free food and drink served all day long to tournament players. Send advance entries to: Herb Healy Open House, 240B Elm St. Suite B9 Somerville, MA 02144

Adapted from a Bob Oresick e-mail
*****
P.S. At past years' events, more than one chess blogger has been known to show up.

Four!

Over the past couple months, I've read a few posts about the IbeatGarry.com website which applies the six degrees of separation model to the 2005 Megabase to determine how many defeated opponents stand between you and Garry Kasparov. The most recent post at the Streatham & Brixton Chess Club blog finally motivated me to try it on myself.

Since I don't have any won games in the database, I approached the problem by entering the names of the best opponents I've beaten and then added one to their number. I started with Masters that I've defeated.

Shapiro, Daniel E vs. Riordan, Charles 0-1, US op swiss USA 2001
Shapiro, Daniel E vs. Kreiman, Boris 1-0, Nassau CC-ch swiss USA 1995
Yermolinsky, Alex vs. Kreiman, Boris 0-1, World op swiss USA 1997
Kasparov, Garry vs. Yermolinsky, Alex 0-1, Leningrad game URS 1975

Charles' Kasparov Number = 4; My Kasparov Number = 5

Cherniack, Alex vs. Godin, Eric J 0-1, Boylston CC-ch tourn USA 1997
Cherniack, Alex vs. Paschall, William M 1-0, Boylston CC-ch tourn USA 1994
Yermolinsky, Alex vs. Paschall, William M 0-1, New York Syracuse swiss USA 1995
Kasparov, Garry vs. Yermolinsky, Alex 0-1, Leningrad game URS 1975

Eric's Kasparov Number = 4; My Kasparov Number = 5

But surprisingly my lowest Kasparov Number comes from an expert, my friend and clubmate Alex Slive.

Slive, Alex vs. Paschall, William M 1-0, Boylston CC-ch tourn USA 1994
Yermolinsky, Alex vs. Paschall, William M 0-1, New York Syracuse swiss USA 1995
Kasparov, Garry vs. Yermolinsky, Alex 0-1, Leningrad game URS 1975

Alex's Kasparov Number = 3; My Kasparov Number = 4

Happy Returns

It's the age old question, naming your worst Christmas gift. 'Paintbrushes' was one response on the street Wednesday. As was 'having my truck burn,' or 'getting a Charlie Brown sweater in Grade 6' or 'getting a chess board'.

Read "Bad gifts are very personal" from Thunder Bay's Source.

Yet another list of top chess blogs

At Chess Cafe, Steve Goldberg includes chess blogs in his "Survey of Interesting Websites." His picks -- 64 Square Jungle, Boylston Chess Club, ChessBase News, Daily Dirt, Scholastic Chess Gateway, Susan Polgar, Chess Life Online, and The Chess Drum.

A few notes:

• Scholastic Chess Gateway is his own blog (not that there's anything wrong with self-promotion).
• The Chess Drum is a fine site, though I don't consider it a blog.
• About Chess is included in the Instruction & Training category.
• While I am certainly pleased to see BCC Weblog on the list, it only gets credit for "maintain[ing] an extensive set of chess links."
  (Don't worry, I'll get over it.)

Chess more challenging than watching TV

It may only be one piece of anecdotal evidence but I'm sure the long-term double-blind studies will show that it is true:

"I like to think out of the box," said Mastin as she gazed over the chess board looking for her next move. "It challenges me more than sitting around watching T.V."

Read "Mates check-in at school chess club" from the Henry (County, GA) Daily Herald.

The Robert Tanner chess improvement program

Maybe I missed it, but I don't remember anyone writing about this bit of US Chess politics:

A chess coach at 10 schools in the Phoenix metro area has resigned from the U.S. Chess Federation executive board under accusations he manipulated tournament results to gain his title as a chess master....

[Current USCF Executive Board Member Sam] Sloan's complaint alleges that [Robert] Tanner achieved the titles of master and "original life master" by playing repeated games in 1991 and 1992 within a closed group of friends that moved together among remote places such as Teton, Wyo., Wendover, Nev., and Ceres, Calif....

Sloan said the players in the group shared Tanner's home address, and none of the nine men except Tanner ever competed outside the group.

"They are quite clearly fake people," Sloan said. "They don't exist."

Tanner maintains he did nothing illegal. He said the matches actually occurred, and the ethics committee supported his claim that the opponents were real people.

However, Tanner acknowledges in his Sept. 15 response to the committee that he circumvented the "spirit of the regulations" in the early 1990s while working to regain the master title he held in the 1980s. None of the opponents, he said, were legitimate masters or even expert-level players.

As distasteful as it is to agree with an convicted alleged pedophile, it does seem that Mr. Tanner got caught with his hand in the "ratings" cookie jar. Here's another more detailed article.