What you're missing without satellite radio

Highlights from the Howard Stern Radio Show:

Howard's Movie Review And Chess Playing. 06/26/06. 6:30am

Why we need better journalism schools

A case of partially burying the lead to point out a less than important part of the story:

Man killed at Pomona motel 'was pretty good at chess'

Tightening the screws

No more free rides at the Internet Chess Club. In a post about the recent price increase for membership, Daland mentions that the ICC is "doing away with Guest play too." Previously, they limited chess.fm access to members only and the same is now true for their video lectures as well.

Personally, I never felt compelled to purchase a membership though I have played as a guest on occasion and I did enjoy chess.fm and the videos when they were free. I suppose I'll miss the free services, but not enough to add an additional annual expense to my chess budget. What about you?

Product reviewers wanted

Daniel Borgmann is working on developing a new chess viewer named Chessmonk. He's looking for feedback on his project.

Thoughts on the "ideal" chess interface would be appreciated, but judging from the lack of replies to my last blog posting, I doubt that any chess players are reading my blog.

Let's send a few his way.

Brian Salomon wins the 2006 Reubens Landey Championship

In the 5th and decisive round Brian Salomon defeated Bryant Vernon to earn 4.5 points and the title.

Bryant with 3.5 points dropped into the third spot.

Jason Rihel nudged Simon Warfield to take 4 points and second place.

Following the Weaver Adams, the Reubens Landey is the second qualifier in the championship cycle. So, Brian will be invited to play in the BCC annual championship (initiated in 1919). Most likely Jason will be invited, and there is a possibility Bryant will also.

Congratulations to all the winners and thanks for all who played in this entertaining tournament.

Inside the US Open

I just came across a new chess blogger who is providing daily insider reports from the US Open (or the 107th as he prefers to call it). While DrewG is focusing primarily on his own games, he is providing some interesting background and color. For example:

....so I don't get this at all and have never seen it in a chess tournament before but, there was a group of younger players, I believe all female which is a rare sighting itself at a chess tourney, that had on complete kabuki-esque face and body paint. Some in white face paint and red arms, others in all red with sparkly crap in their hair. What the?? It was fun at first I'm sure as they walked into the hall and attracted a bit of attention.

And this:

I had the unfortunate luck of playing my game in the vicinity of someone working their "chessfunk" pretty strong. This round was brought to you by the letters "P" and "U". To generalize, some in the chess-playing community have a dubious relationship with soap and water. I happened to be seated near someone going through a divorce with their Lever2000.

Check out The Royal Game.

Lost

Heading to the Marriott in Springfield, Massachusetts this Labor Day weekend for the 2006 New England Open? Are you in for a surprise when you get there.

Harold Dondis of The Boston Globe reports that the venue has been changed, but not in time to update the publicity:

The New England Open, regularly held on Labor Day weekend, is having venue and publicity trouble. Originally the tourney was planned for the Marriott Hotel in Springfield but organizer Joe Sparks reported that he was unable to complete the arrangements. This left a gap in one of New England's most prestigious tourneys. The Massachusetts Chess Association (MACA) has jumped into the breach and rescheduled the competition to be held at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel, 99 Erdman Way, Leominister.

Unfortunately, publicity had already been issued for Springfield, including a detailed advertisement in the July issue of Chess Life. This cannot be changed, and it could be a serious matter for people journeying to Springfield only to find an empty playing site.

If you discover yourself in Springfield staring at an empty ballroom, you might find these directions helpful -- only 75 miles to cover before the first round begins.

Immigration Update

Following up on this post, Getting To 2000 reports that asylum seeking, illegal alien NM Alexander Stamnov is back in Chicago playing in the US Open. This got me thinking ... if you can play chess for a living, shouldn't unrated players be referred to as undocumented workers? :)

Knights sign 2005 MVP

In what can only be considered a move of Steinbrenner-esque proportions, it would appear that the New York Knights have secured the services of free agent GM Pascal Charbonneau for the upcoming US Chess League season. Pascal was named league MVP in 2005 after leading the Baltimore Kingfishers to the first ever USCL championship.

While final team rosters are not due until August 20th, the Knights' preliminary line-up includes Charbonneau at the top. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed, though it's worth keeping in mind the league's strict salary cap (i.e., no one has any money!).

As for the Boston Blitz, their preliminary roster includes five names:

1. GM Larry Christiansen - Larry will again be leading the Blitz into action


2. IM Igor Foygel - An original member of last year's team, Igor was unable to play in any of team's matches due to family circumstances


3. FM Steven Winer - The Blitz introduced their "Secret Weapon" late last season to take Foygel's place on the roster


4. NM Charles Riordan - The current BCC Champion had a solid season in 2005, playing mostly on Board 3


5. NM Ilya Krasik - Last season there was much talk about Ilya being of master strength. Now he has the initials to prove it

Several names from last season's roster are missing. In particular, newly minted GM Eugene Perelshteyn was the Blitz's most consistent performer last year going 2.5-0.5 with a performance rating 247 points above his USCL rating. Others on last year's squad but not on the 2006 preliminary roster are IM Josh Freidel, FM Bill Kelleher, and BCC president FM Paul MacIntyre.

Disclaimer: BCC Weblog provides independent coverage of the United States Chess League. It is not affiliated with the USCL or the Boston Blitz.

Don't forget to flush

From Alaska, a chess set made entirely from plumbing supplies...

Reubens-Landey leaders after Round 4

3.5 Brian Salomon (2020)
3.5 Bryant Vernon (1909)

3.0 Jason Rihel (1903)

2.5 Simon Warfield (2179)
2.5 Daniel Schmidt (1824)

Six others with 2 or less points

Preliminary pairings for the final round

Vernon vs. Salomon
Rihel vs. Warfield
Schmidt vs. Lee
Nutzman vs. Christiansen
Rozhansky vs. Oresick

Notes from the 'sphere

1. zenpawn shares his strategy for eating vegan during a four-day chess tournament.


2. The Hungarian Knight continues the discussion on children's chess, competitiveness and whether it's important to have winners and losers with "Winning Isn't Everything." You may want to read the preceding posts first -- from BCC Weblog "With no winners, isn't everyone a loser?" and from The Chess Mind "You're All Winners! All of You! (Or are You?)."


3. J'adoube confirms that "400 points in 400 days" isn't just a marketing slogan. In fact, he's entitled to a 72 day vacation if he so pleases.


4. What do you suppose James Wilson is going to blog about now that he has reached "Z"?


5. With Castro in the news again, Michael Goeller attempts to clarify the historical record regarding the Cuban Dictator's game with Bobby Fisher -- fascinating pictures and analysis.


6. His days as an e-mail spammer presumably past, Braden Bournival has returned to the local tournament circuit with a tie for first in the 56th New Hampshire Open.


7. There has been lots of action in the chess blog listings as of late. Among the new additions you'll find two blogs named Chess Improvement, The Center Square (a Kenilworth Chess Club member), Chess Crusade (seeking the holy grail of chess excellence, no doubt), My Chess Games (which three days in, doesn't include any games), and several Spanish blogs primarily from Uruguay (some of which can be found in the new Non-English Chess Blogs section of the sidebar).


8. Like last summer, many blogs have also been heading in the opposite direction -- to inactive status, e.g, Bobby Fischer Chess Blog, Chess Corner, JDK Blog and Chess Vault. Most notably, after showing quite a bit of patience, I finally removed GMs Chabanon and Charbonneau from the sidebar.

Minor League Chess

From an interview with Grant Johnson, pitcher for the Daytona Cubs -- a Chicago Cubs Class A affiliate:

Chess? How many guys in the clubhouse play chess?

There's probably about five of us right now. It's like anything else. The more you play, the better you get. Some guys are coming around and playing a lot better.

Who's the best?

When Jake was here, I'd say it was me or Olin Wick, but since (Paul) Schappert came on the team I'd have to say he's the best.

So you guys are the cerebral type?

Yeah, we're the brain trust of the clubhouse.

Two arrested for transporting chess set

It's actually true, but I may have left out part of the story. Let's see.

Sudesh and Deo Rampersad of Bedasie Street in Enterprise, Chaguanas, appeared before Magistrate Avason Quinlan in the Port-of-Spain Fourth Court charged with trafficking cocaine....

In court yesterday, four packets with the cocaine were produced along with a wooden chess set. The cocaine, which weighed 6.8 kilos was valued at $3 million.

Read "Drugs in chess set" from Trinidad Newsday.

Why chess and religion are not the same

The blog Disputations points out that while "...in chess, a bishop can only move diagonally," in the church, bishops can move both up and sideways. Sideways, you ask?

The post provides the following explanation:

At this point, I'm only interested in one possibility for such a sideways move. Bishop Edward Dominic Fenwick, OP -- founder of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph in the United States, first Bishop of Cincinnati, and namesake of my Lay Dominican chapter -- is currently buried in a cemetery associated with neither the Archdiocese of Cincinnati nor the Dominicans, and there has been some talk of a more fitting resting place...

Does Chess disprove feminist doctrine?

In "Womenism, Chess Fairness and Sinisterism", Bruce Walker argues that women's relative lack of success in chess versus men challenges the philosophical underpinnings of the feminist movement:

In January 2003, I wrote an article "Womenism and Chess Fairness" in which I noted that because men have a strong innate superiority over women in purely spatial analytical activities like chess, no woman would ever become the best chess player in the world....

In October 2004, I wrote a follow-up article "Womenism and Chess Fairness - Redux." In this I observed that the differences between men and women accounted for the social differences between men and women. In short, I utterly repudiated the totalitarian doctrine that the reason women have not "succeeded" is because men have "oppressed" then. Chess is immune to such oppression. It is pure logic. It can be played anonymously by mail. Persecuted groups often do better, not worse, than privileged groups in playing chess.

We report; you decide.

The Expert Mind

Philip E. Ross has a very readable and informative article on the nature of expertise in chess in Scientific American (August, 2006).

Effortful study seems to be the critical line.

It is a feature article available online at Scientific American.

The smell must be just awful

Based on this article from Trend - The Azerbaijan News Agency, it seems that some Grandmasters not invited to the Biel Chess Festival are participating in an alternative event in the Swiss city of Bile.

What do you suppose they served for dinner at the opening ceremony of the Bile event? I'm guessing liver and onions.

USCL announces 2006 schedule

Clocks will start for the second season of the United States Chess League on Monday, August 28th at 9:00pm EDT with the two expansion teams -- the Tennessee Tempo and the Seattle Sluggers -- facing off. The rest of the league begins their season two days later on Wednesday, August 30th. All matches will be broadcast at the Internet Chess Club.

Two notable changes in this year's schedule:

1. While most matches will be played on Wednesday evenings, each week a single match is scheduled for Monday Night. Perhaps the commissioner is looking to resurrect Howard Cossell to provide the play by play.

2. With a larger league this year, inter-divisional play will be more limited prior to the playoffs. Each team will play their divisional rivals twice and face-off against only two opponents from the other division. Depending on the relative strength of the teams, this may confer an advantage to some teams in their divisional races.

Highlights of the Boston Blitz season include a Monday Night matchup against the New York Knights in week 3, a season finale against the defending champion Baltimore Kingfishers, and inter-divisional matches against Miami and Tennessee:

2006 Boston Blitz Schedule
(bold indicates team has White on boards 1 and 3; all ET [GMT-5])

Wed. 8/30 7:30pm - Miami Sharks
Wed. 9/06 7:00pm - Philadelphia Masterminds
Mon. 9/11 7:00pm - New York Knights
Wed. 9/20 7:15pm - Philadelphia Masterminds
Wed. 9/27 7:00pm - Carolina Cobras
Wed. 10/04 7:15pm - Baltimore Kingfishers
Wed. 10/11 8:15pm - Tennessee Tempo
Wed. 10/18 7:00pm - New York Knights
Wed. 10/25 7:00pm - Carolina Cobras
Wed. 11/01 7:15pm - Baltimore Kingfishers

Disclaimer: BCC Weblog provides independent coverage of the United States Chess League. It is not affiliated with the USCL or the Boston Blitz.

Note to Bloggers: Let me know if you are planning to provide coverage of the USCL in general or any team in particular. If there is a critical mass of coverage in the blogosphere this year, I'll make some efforts to generate outside publicity for it.

Breaking News

Caissa's Confabulations (wolfganguschess.blogspot.com) appears to be the most recent victim of a blog highjacking.