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| ChessWar XV A : classement final | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XV A 40c/40'
Classement final après la ronde 15 Le module classé 1er est Champion Le premier module non commercial est Champion Amateur Les modules classés 25e à 30e sont relégues dans ChessWar XVI B Encore une victoire pour Rybka ! Mais Stockfish n'était pas si loin, et s'adjuge le titre de champion Amateur. Maintenant c'est les vacances, rendez-vous en septembre 
Olivier Code:
Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t918-ChessWar-XV-A-classement-final.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 11 Jul 2010 15:49:14 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XV A : classement après la ronde 12 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XV A 40c/40'
Classement après la ronde 12 sur 15 Le module classé 1er est Champion Le premier module non commercial est Champion Amateur Les modules classés 25e à 30e sont relégues dans ChessWar XVI B Toutes les parties sont retransmises en direct sur chesswar.dyndns.org port 16043. Pour savoir comment voir les parties et participer au chat, et pour des informations générales sur ChessWar, consultez le site du tournoi : http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/indexfr.htm Olivier Code:
Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t915-ChessWar-XV-A-classement-apres-la-ronde-12.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mon, 05 Jul 2010 11:23:42 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XV A : classement après la ronde 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XV A 40c/40'
Classement après la ronde 8 sur 15 Le module classé 1er est Champion Le premier module non commercial est Champion Amateur Les modules classés 25e à 30e sont relégues dans ChessWar XVI B Toutes les parties sont retransmises en direct sur chesswar.dyndns.org port 16043. Pour savoir comment voir les parties et participer au chat, et pour des informations générales sur ChessWar, consultez le site du tournoi : http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/indexfr.htm Olivier Code:
Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t908-ChessWar-XV-A-classement-apres-la-ronde-8.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 27 Jun 2010 05:51:16 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XV A : classement après la ronde 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XV A 40c/40'
Classement après la ronde 4 sur 15 Le module classé 1er est Champion Le premier module non commercial est Champion Amateur Les modules classés 25e à 30e sont relégues dans ChessWar XVI B Toutes les parties sont retransmises en direct sur chesswar.dyndns.org port 16043. Pour savoir comment voir les parties et participer au chat, et pour des information générales sur ChessWar, consultez le site du tournoi : http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/indexfr.htm Olivier Code:
Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t900-ChessWar-XV-A-classement-apres-la-ronde-4.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 19 Jun 2010 05:56:29 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Re: ChessWar XV A : liste des participants | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Voici le post au sujet de Thinker :
http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=50017&p=18937… Kerwin n'a pas produit de nouvelle version depuis plus d'un an... j'en conclus qu'il est satisfait de 5.4D, et je garde celle-ci ! Olivier Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t893-ChessWar-XV-A-liste-des-participants.htm?p=2630 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 12 Jun 2010 19:44:47 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Re: ChessWar XV A : liste des participants | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jamal Bubker a écrit: Merci Jamal, en fait on dirait bien que l'info a été postée par Kerwin sur mon propre forum (Winboard Forum)... je n'y avais pas fait attention
Apparemment le site web de Thinker a disparu, et les auteurs ne semblent plus se soucier de l'avenir du module. A priori je vais garder la version 4.5d... mais je vais quand même poser la question à l'auteur de la biblio, Aleksander Shvachko. Merci en tout cas pour ton aide. Olivier Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t893-ChessWar-XV-A-liste-des-participants.htm?p=2628 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 12 Jun 2010 19:00:56 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Re: ChessWar XV A : liste des participants | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bonjour à tous
Les réponses à toutes ces bonnes questions
- Loop 2007 : cette version semble plus récente : mon exe de Loop M1 date de juin 2007 alors que le site de Loop indique que Loop 2007 date du mois d'août. - Thinker : Jamal, où as-tu vu cette citation ? Si c'est exact, je ferais peut-être mieux de laisser jouer 5.4c. De manière générale, je fais toujours jouer les versions les plus récentes. Si elles sont plus faibles, c'est le problème de l'auteur
- Fruit (question de Nicola Gotti sur le chat) : mes versions de Fruit, développées par Ryan Benitez, sont privées. Olivier Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t893-ChessWar-XV-A-liste-des-participants.htm?p=2621 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 12 Jun 2010 14:39:16 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Re: ChessWar XV A : liste des participants | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Salut Olivier !
Il paraît que Thinker Inert 5.4 C est plus fort que Thinker Inert 5.4 D. D'après son auteur la version 5.4 D est une version expérimental (en cours de rodage quoi ...). Mais je me trompe peut-ëtre ... Olivier, es-tu dans l'obligation de tester les versions les plus récentes de chaque module même parfois si elles semblent inférieures aux anciennes ? Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t893-ChessWar-XV-A-liste-des-participants.htm?p=2620 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 12 Jun 2010 13:06:58 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XV A : liste des participants | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XV A 40c/40'
Système suisse, 15 rondes Le module classé premier est Champion Le premier module non commercial est Champion Amateur Les modules classés 25e à 30e sont relégués dans ChessWar XVI B Les parties commencent aujourd'hui! Retransmission de la ronde 1 à partir de 10h (chesswar.dyndns.org port 16043). Plus d'infos sur le tournoi et comment se connecter aux transmissions : http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/indexfr.html Olivier Code:
Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t893-ChessWar-XV-A-liste-des-participants.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 12 Jun 2010 04:49:52 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Game whips mind into top shape | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 On Chess Game whips mind into top shape Saturday, March 20, 2010 2:52 AM In the age of video games, the ancient game of chess curiously maintains a special cachet. In particular, there is an increasing recognition of its effectiveness as an educational tool. Recently, the Rhode Island Senate passed a resolution "urging the state education commissioner to support chess instruction either in classrooms or clubs in Rhode Island's public schools." Actor and filmmaker Edward James Olmos recently urged the Brownsville, Texas, school board to do a documentary film about its successful school chess program. Olmos starred in the film Stand and Deliver, which documents the use of math in motivating underprivileged students to high academic achievement. "Look at what chess has done for these (Brownsville) students," he declared. "It breeds self-respect at the highest level. It infuses them with self-esteem and self-worth." Olmos, who was similarly motivated by baseball as a youth, wishes that he had instead concentrated on chess. Chess has been extolled by many renowned thinkers. Pascal described it as "the gymnasium of the mind"; Goethe, as "the touchstone of the intellect." Source: http://www.dispatch.com  Chess daily news from Susan Polgar  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-03-20T09:16:00.001-05:00 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Too smart for one's own good | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Avert brain drain By ANDY SOLTIS Last Updated: 7:38 AM, March 21, 2010 Posted: 1:12 AM, March 21, 2010 The world's top-rated player says you can be too smart to play chess. "Being too intelligent" can "get in your way," Magnus Carlsen, the 19-year-old Norwegian super-GM, told the magazine Der Spiegel. He cited the case of Britain's John Nunn, who at 15 became the youngest student at Oxford in 500 years. Nunn had considerable chess talent and became a solid grandmaster but never got close to the world championship. "His enormous powers of understanding and his constant search for knowledge distracted him from chess," said Carlsen. Carlsen, who said he memorizes episodes of "House," was repeating a theory of Sherlock Holmes, who helped inspire the TV series. Holmes told Dr. Watson, in "A Study in Scarlet," that he had never heard of the solar system and didn't want to know about it. There is just so much room in the human brain, and the additional information about planets and orbits was bound to push out something useful, he said. Carlsen, who said he isn't "a disciplined thinker," said he doesn't know his IQ -- and wouldn't want to know it. "It might turn out to be a nasty surprise," he said. Source: http://www.nypost.com Chess daily news from Susan Polgar  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-03-21T09:07:00.002-05:00 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Before the Sicilian .... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Due to my editing duties with Australian Correspondence Chess Quarterly, I spend some of my time digging through archives of old magazines. When I look at the games published in the late 40's and early 50's I am intrigued by the number of French Defence games. It seems like a very popular opening, although in must published games, Black gets smashed. There are probably a few reasons for this (in Australia at least). CJS Purdy recommended it for Black in a number of articles in Chess World (which much much later was turned into a book title "Action Chess" published by Thinkers Press). I also suspect that the subtleties of the Sicilian Defence had reached these shore post WWII, leaving the French and the Caro-Kan as the two main non-symmetrical defences to 1.e4. But as I said earlier, despite its popularity it seemed to take quite a beating. Of course this could simply be a matter of game selection, with snappy wins much more publishable than slow, positional grinds. Here is an earlier example of what was happening to the French from 1933. Dug up by Paul Dunn it is a quick win by Spencer Crakanthorp over Gary Koshnitsky from the NSW Championship. When the game was played, Koshnitsky was the reigning Australian Champion, but Crakanthorp both won this game, and the NSW Championship as well. Crakanthorp,Spencer - Koshnitsky,Gregory Simon [C01]  NSW ch Sydney (5.1), 29.05.1933 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Bd3 Ne7 6.Nge2 Bg4 7.0-0 Nbc6 8.f3 Be6 9.Re1 Qd7 10.a3 Bxc3 11.bxc3 0-0 12.Bf4 Na5 13.Ng3 Ng6 14.Qd2 Rfe8 15.Nh5 Re7 (D) 16.Bg5 f6 17.Bxf6 Rf7 18.Bxg7 Qe7 19.Qh6 Nc4 20.Bxg6 hxg6 21.Qh8# 1-0  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:46:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Black Chess Master | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
I quite like this article in the Cape Code Times by Sean Gonsalves. Here Sean talks about the role of chess in the education of black America. Even get the University of Sydney gets a mention.OK, so it may be overstating it a bit to say chess is a game that may help alleviate the education crisis troubling black America today. But it can't hurt to celebrate this new hero emerging out of communities of color — the black chess master; a strategic thinker and potent alternative to the drug dealer/rapper/basketball player ideal that holds the imagination of far too many black youth. As Fred Reinfeld said, "the pin is mightier than the sword."  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:40:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Re: Les Tournois Du Dan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Niveau: 40/10, 40/10, 5 - 11 rondes, système suisse.
Matériel: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHzDual 2793 MHz avec 2 040 MB mémoire Système d'exploitation: Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t677-Les-Tournois-Du-Dan.htm?p=2152 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:03:29 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Re: Bright 0.5c : 2753 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Salut,
Pour Bright 0.5c : "Un seul module par auteur est admis". Spark 0.3a est du même auteur. Le règlement en tête de la page de la UCI Engines Ligue. Pour Thinker: UEL eut dire UCI Engines Ligue. Je pense qu'il n'y a pas besoin d'autre explication sinon se reporter à la page de la UCI Engines Ligue pour le règlement. Cordialement, Patrick Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t740-Bright-0-5c-2753.htm?p=1915 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 16 Jan 2010 13:05:38 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Re: Bright 0.5c : 2753 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bonjour,
Pour ma compréhension, pourquoi ce module ne peut-il être inclut dans l'UEL ? même question pour Thinker qui d'après mes quelques tests se positionnerait aussi parmi les meilleurs. Cdlt Bruno Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t740-Bright-0-5c-2753.htm?p=1914 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 16 Jan 2010 12:11:45 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Interview with David Rudel, Author of "Zuke 'Em" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 David Rudel, author of Zuke 'Em When I was writing up my Review of Zuke 'Em and analyzing The Hybrid Zukertort Retort, I was in contact with David Rudel, who agreed to an email interview. ____________________Michael Goeller: It seems most chess players start to identify personally with the openings they play. How did you discover the Colle-Zukertort and why has that opening so appealed to you personally? David Rudel: My love of the Colle is mostly Irving Chernev’s fault. I felt he made a good case for the Colle-Koltanowski in his Logical Chess: Move by Move book [see games here]. It seemed like a natural set-up. I always like the idea of playing Nbd2 anyway, and as a youth I never really understood what was so hot about pushing c4. Wouldn’t you rather push e4 instead? Perhaps my interest in symmetry was partially to blame (believe it or not, I actually refuse to wear dress shirts with a single pocket over one breast. Either no pockets or two pockets for me!) The thing that made me switch over to the Colle-Zukertort was the “Boa-Constrictor-ness” of it. I like controlling the game completely, not allowing my opponent any counterplay. This aspect of my personality really came out when I played Magic: The Gathering, a collectible playing card game. I would create decks built on neutralizing and controlling my opponent and the game. The last thing I thought about was how I would actually kill my opponent. I would rather first make sure he couldn’t do what he wanted. I think the Zukertort, where White allows Black plenty of space but creates a “pinch” in his position due to the immobility of his e6-pawn, really reflects my preferences in this regard. Even more important than this “pinch” is the denial of easy transformation in the center. As long as White keeps his c-pawn back, it is hard for Black to change the center in a way that allows quick counterplay. People say that the Zukertort is not as tactical or attacking as other openings. In my view, the tactics and attacking just start a few moves later. ____________________ MG: What do you play as Black? Are there any other openings that seem to make a good fit with a Colle-Zukertort repertoire? DR: People are often surprised to hear that I play the Semi-Slav and the Najdorf as Black. Or, at least I did up until very recently. Given how “quiet” and “positional” the Colle has a reputation for being, they find these options, especially the Najdorf, rather odd. From my viewpoint, though, it is not a strange combination at all. First, the thing I love about the Colle is the control you have over the game and Black’s lack of dependable early counterplay. Obviously, there is no hope of having anything like that as Black. Thinking in those terms, sharp defenses that come with counterplay practically built in should be natural options. The second reason these defenses make sense is the very practical point that if you play a low-time-burden opening for White (such as the Colle), you have more time to work on your Black opening, so picking an option that requires more work is feasible. Recently, though, I have been attracted to an opening that I never, ever though I would want to play. Practically the last opening I would pick were I to have listed my options a decade ago. On some advice from a reader I picked up Tiger’s Modern. It is written in the same kind of laid-back style that I use, and people who thought Zuke ‘Em was tractable found Tiger’s book to be readable as well. Anyway, after looking at his work, I decided his Modern had the same kind of system-like quality that the Colle has. I like the idea of natural, harmonious configurations, and he made a case for Black being able to set up his formation and then just “play chess” in many cases. I had thought about looking at the hedgehog for the same reason, but Tiger’s writing really won me over. MG: What made you think that you could publish a chess book as an "amateur player," someone who most publishers think should be reading opening manuals rather than writing them? And do you think amateur players bring anything special to the writing of chess books? DR: There is an interesting story behind this. I had been playing with the idea of writing a book for a while -- for reasons I will get to in your next question -- and had worked up a good chunk of material. However, writing at a book is very different from writing a book…just like playing at the piano is different than playing a piano. Turns out, I’m a pretty gifted mathematician. It also turns out that if you can pass your exams and other qualifying work in grad school, the supervisors more or less leave you alone. These things contributed to my having a lot of free time in grad school. During that time I did a bunch of chess analysis, and I also did a lot of Bible reading. With regard to the latter, I had come to the conclusion that, when one simply reads the Bible for what it says rather than what people tell you it is supposed to say, it says something quite different from what most people think it does. So I also had begun writing a book on theology. Then it came time to write up my thesis. I had solved an open problem in mathematics regarding the dualization of Algebraic Quasi-varieties. I was the first person to find an algebraic Quasi-variety generated by a non-commutative, non-trivial ring that admitted a Natural duality. (My work was in the most theoretic subfield of one of math’s most theoretic fields, so I realize that mean almost nothing to most readers). Unfortunately, due to some political issues that led to my having problems finding an advisor in my field, I ended up not finishing my thesis by the time my time was up at Dartmouth. I still had the option of finishing it (or, rather, revising it and editing it so that someone else could understand it) later. This left me with three unfinished works: the chess writing I had done, the theology book, and my thesis. I actually had another one as well: some fiction I had started meant to be an allegory of the Christian faith. You can actually see a draft of the first few chapters on my myspace page. That story came from a plot I had had in my mind since high school but never actually wrote up. With four incomplete books, I made a decision to stop the madness. I realized that part of the issue may have been a fear of failure. I had never had much reason to doubt myself in high school or college. Other than not doing quite as well on the Putnam exam and the Math Olympiads as I would have liked, I pretty much won everything I did. I strongly believe people should face their own psychological demons, so I decided it was time to finish some of these works in case there was a fear of failure at work. It was probably the success I had had earlier in academics that gave me the arrogance and temerity to publish a chess book as a no-name player. I was a bit of a celebrity in high school and college among the nerd circles, and maybe the kind of delusions celebrities get helped me out in this case. As far as the second part of the question goes… no, I don’t think amateurs per se bring anything special to the writing. What is more important is the mindset of the player and their ability to know how class players think. Tiger Hillarp Persson is obviously no amateur, but he writes in a way that club players can understand. Depending on where the cut-off is for “amateur,” I’m not sure you can make a case for amateur’s writing less well than others. If you define “amateur” in the strict sense of “anyone who could not make a living actually playing chess,” then that label covers a vast number of players! ____________________ MG: What made you think that a book on the Colle-Zukertort would be popular? DR: The question of popularity never really entered the equation. I wanted to write a book on the Colle-Zukertort for the same reason I wanted to write my book on Christianity: I had some knowledge that others could benefit from. I had played the Colle-Zukertort more or less exclusively and had looked for answers to the problems that other books just didn’t want to address. It was when I found an answer to the Sneaky Gruenfeld that I decided I really had to let the chess community know what I had found. I was actually shocked by the response (both positive and negative) in the chess playing community. I was saddened by the number of players who reacted so strongly (and very nastily) at the notion that I would have the gall to share my knowledge. I remember one person saying that my book had to either be plagiarized rip-offs from other publications and/or a database/engine dump. Obviously, this person had not taken a look at my book. I suppose the fact that it was a book on the Colle [ick!] didn’t help things. On the other hand, I was also shocked at the number of people who told me how much they appreciated the writing style of the book and how it gave them something that had proven elusive in their previous buys. I didn’t really expect any of that. I thought that the organization of the book and some of the things I threw in (the training exercises, new ideas index, grouping lines by ideas and themes, and moving a bunch of the denser stuff to a separate section) was maybe something others would find useful, but I was definitely not ready for the other notes of appreciation. ____________________ MG: How has your relationship been with Thinkers Press, and would you recommend that other amateur or professional chess authors take their work there? Was there much difficulty in convincing them of the value of your project -- and how did you pitch it? DR: I knew of Thinkers Press from back in their ChessCo days. I remember being impressed as a kid by their prices and offerings. I think they provided a real service to chessplayers on a budget. They were one of the first three or four publishers I went to. Bob Long now uses a model where the author has to invest more in a given book but also gets more of a return than he would from other publishers. I just found my original email to Bob, asking if he were even interested in a book on the Colle. It was pretty blunt. I had already received information from two other publishers that they were not interested on a book just on the Colle. Here was my first query to Bob: I am in the midst of writing a book on the Colle-Zukertort...hopefully a book that will revolutionize the opening.Remember what I said about arrogance and temerity? Anyway, after he replied, I gave him a list of reasons for the book. I noted that a bunch of books skip some of the most important lines, that the Zukertort deserves to have a book devoted just to it rather than packaged with other things, and noted that I had new, never-before-published solutions to lines. I sent him a manuscript, and he decided it was a worthwhile project after reading it. As far as my recommending Bob for other authors, it really depends on your goals and personality. I’ve now done three books with Bob even though I am an independent publisher myself. I could have self-published my second and third book, doing all the typography, etc. myself and chose not to. Bob Long is one of the fairest people you could ever hope to work with, and he makes very good looking books. It’s really rare to find a business partner with ethics, but Bob is one of them. Andy Martin and he have been making products together for quite a while, so I would venture to guess that IM Martin is also quite satisfied with Bob. Given the streamlined nature of Thinkers Press, my recommendation to authors is to have their work already carefully edited by an outside proofer. I learned this the hard way and let myself down by doing a poor job of editing my work the first time around. I’m actually an editor myself for ExploreLearning.com. Worse, I’m the line editor for them when they need it. Unfortunately, my ability to successfully edit my own work is evidently zilch! ____________________ MG: How do you balance the use of game research and your own analysis in what you present? DR: I don’t present many actual game lines because it’s never clear how close such a line is to best play. However, I used a ton of game analysis when doing the Bxh7+ book, looking at hundreds of positions from real games to determine common themes, motifs, and configurations to categorize and check when I was trying to nail down simple rules for that sacrifice. My presentation is mostly focused on trying to convey as nuanced and complete a picture for the first few moves as possible so that players have an idea of what to look for as their own games unfold. Obviously specific analysis is needed to support the theoretical validity of any new ideas I suggest, but I think there is a certain art to knowing when to snip a line and give general themes for the reader to know about rather than just more branches to learn. ____________________ MG: What computer program or programs do you use for analysis? and what limitations do they seem to have when analyzing typical Zuke lines? DR: Rybka is the only engine I trust in general. I will occasionally use Zappa or another if I’m really hard up and desperate in a position. One major problem with Rybka, however, is that its end-game evaluation capabilities are far behind its astounding middle-game. I’m not just talking about the general computation issues with doing endgame analysis. I’m referring to evaluations where other engines simply seem to have a more accurate understanding of what wins endgames. I don’t even own any of the modern Fritz programs. My proofers use Fritz, though, and in general it does not seem any more reliable than Zappa, Delphi, etc. The vast majority of the times Fritz disagrees with a line that Rybka has checked, I have found Rybka to be vindicated after future analysis. My proofers may have thrown up 15-20 flags, and only 1 or 2 were cases where Fritz’ concern proved warranted. One problem with using engines with the Zukertort is that the goal of an engine (to provide evaluation assuming perfect tactical play) is rather different from the goal of someone playing the Zukertort. The blocked-in Bishop on b2 and the relatively corralled Knight on d2 penalize White’s position from the very start. And this is not just me making excuses for the Zukertort. Try running the Najdorf by a computer and it will think White has a huge advantage from the beginning. Computers are also notoriously less skilled at evaluating blocked up positions (which the Colle-Zukertort leads to with great frequency) and have problems with calculating the theoretical value of vague threats (to say nothing of the practical value!) This was actually the basis for that “psychologist takes on Fritz” book where the silicon monster was tamed by amassing a bunch of pieces just a hop or two away from the King. That slow-building assault is common in the Zukertort because White naturally wants to make use of Black’s relative inability to add defenders to his kingside. A final limitation is that Zukertort players often use a g-pawn advance after suitable preparation. Computers generally hate this play, and not without reason. Still, from a practical perspective, that g-pawn push is often a crusher, and in many lines it won’t be adequately considered when determining White’s chances. All that being said, I would be lying if I indicated engine analysis was worthless to me. I am very much indebted to Rybka, and she has contributed critically to the quality of Zuke ‘Em. ____________________ MG: What are the main differences between the first edition (or revised edition) and the second edition, besides more pages? DR: Well, in addition to the typos now being (finally, I hope) thoroughly beaten back, the three main differences are: First, the mainline chapter has been completely redone. Earlier I developed an entire repertoire around playing 8.Ne5. I still suggest that move for a certain group of people, but IM Silman and John Dowling (a strong C-Z player) convinced me that it was not sound (though that is probably little comfort to the titled players who have been crushed by using the line I suggest; I could not find a single game White failed to win with the plan I gave). In the expanded version, I cover 4 options there and indicate which type of players might want to play each one. The chapter nearly doubled in size. One of these is the Zukertort-Phoenix (8.dxc5 Bxc5 9.a3) that I was unable to find anyone play but that I am positive is the future for the Colle-Zukertort. It turns out that some strong, mostly correspondence players have used this by transposition by taking on c5 a move earlier. There is a database of those lines at www.zukertort.com. Second, Chapter 2 has been greatly expanded by putting three high-quality illustrative games there to indicate what White’s general idea/setup is. One of these was Anand losing to Bruzon. Third, a fair amount of energy was expended against the early queenside fianchetto line, where Black holds back …c5. I bumbled this in the earlier book because I thought my solution when Black uses a Queen’s Indian move order matched up with my solution when Black played an early …d5. They didn’t match, leaving a few people confused. Anyway, I like the new solution I found: 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e3 e6 4.Bd3 b6 5.Qe2!? Things can get pretty rowdy if Black takes up the gauntlet with 5…Bb7 6.Nbd2 Ne4 7.Qf3. ____________________ MG: What do you do in your day job -- or what have you done, since you seem to have had more than one career? And do you think playing and studying chess has helped prepare you in any way for the work you do, or do you see the world of chess and the world of work as separate realms? DR: I came to Virginia for a private school teaching gig. My then-girlfriend saw that www.explorelearning.com was looking for a science editor. At the time she was looking for a job in this area for herself. It did not interest her, but she told me about it in case I wanted to do some side work. I applied for the job, but it had already been filled. However, the CEO liked my work and found other stuff for me to do. He eventually made a position for me. The company, ExploreLearning, is the leading producer of science/math online interactive learning software in the U.S. We have won the CODIE award for best science software solution for like the last five years and have won or been a finalist for best math solution. I’ve done lots of stuff for them over the four years I’ve been there. I’ve designed Gizmos, written the curriculum for them, and generally been a watchdog to make sure our Gizmos actually comport to real science. I shared winning honors in the 1999 world-wide collegiate math modeling competition, and I’ve specialized a bit in that field. We have, as far as I know, the most stable, accurate four-tier food chain model anywhere. I’ve done other ecology and thermodynamic modeling for them. There is always a balance between modeling reality and presenting what the textbook says. In fact, that is an upcoming book I’m writing: discussing the over-simplification and sometimes just-plain-wrong explanations given in science classes all around America. I also worked on the side doing mathematical modeling for www.academicbenchmarks.com. They are sort of like an internet dating service. Except they don’t find good matches between people seeking romantic partners. Instead, they look for matches between state education standards and the educational resources of their clients. I designed their next-generation matching algorithm. I don’t think chess has helped or is much linked to my other work. However, I did find some parallels between doing chess writing and working on my math degree. In both cases there is a lot of effort at finding creative solutions to problems others have already been trying to solve, and in both cases there may not be any solution. Most of a theoretic mathematician’s time is spent pounding his head against a wall. You never know if the problem you are trying to solve or the theorem you are trying to prove even has a solution. That’s similar to chess analysis. There are even more significant parallels between theoretic mathematics and theology. Theoretic mathematics is mostly a discipline concerned with taking certain assumptions and seeing what can be logically proven from them and/or applying what others have proven to a given problem. Theology is very similar. Instead of postulates like “For any two points, a unique exists containing them,” the postulates are whatever beliefs about God you have (including those revealed in scripture, if that is the way you roll). Similarly, applied theology can be seen as determining which of the various derived religious statements are most applicable when determining what is ethical or called for in a given situation. This is similar to applying theorems to problems. ____________________ MG: I see that you also write about religious topics. Do you see any connection between the way you analyze the Bible and the way you analyze chess? Both seem to rely on a combination of research and your own analysis, for example. DR: Unfortunately, the links between religious writing and chess are far more tenuous than those between each of those topics and theoretic math research. Theology, or at least the kind of theology I do, involves much more actual logic and reasoning than chess. It also requires more de-programming if you want to do it objectively. A century ago that might not have been quite as obviously true. Back when chess had not completed its hyper-modern revolution. Theology deals with very general abstract ideas and beliefs whereas chess analysis is very detailed and concrete. A single pawn moved a single square might change everything in a given position. Theology also is a trail fraught with apparent contradictions. Those apparent contradictions have to be addressed or at least understood and grappled with. “How can we have free will if God lies outside of time? How does one reconcile Jesus’ words recorded in Mark 9:43-49 with Paul’s dictum that we are saved by grace?” In fact, the richest areas of theological reasoning come from these apparent conflicts. Chess, on the other hand, is not fraught with conflict, but is rather fraught by imbalances. There is no chess law that says “If you have connected, passed pawns in a materially balanced endgame, you always win.” Nor is there a law that says “If there are pawns on both sides of the board, a Bishop and King will never lose to a Knight and King.” Instead, we have general claims on what is good and what is bad, and we have to balance them in a given position to determine an evaluation. In chess, if you have a position you want to analyze or a line you want to find an improvement for, you can work through line by line and at least feel you are getting closer to an answer -- or getting closer to realizing there is not one. In theology, after you have dismissed 20 possible answers to a question, there are just as many left as there were before. ______________________ MG: Earlier you said you decided to write on theology because: “I had come to the conclusion that, when one simply reads the Bible for what it says rather than what people tell you it is supposed to say, it says something quite different from what most people think it does.” Would you care to elaborate? DR: Do you have a few days? I guess the short answer would be something like this: First, the Bible clearly indicates Christ’s work accomplished the forgiveness of sins. Second, the Bible clearly teaches about a Judgment and life after death with God. However, some time in the fourth or fifth centuries, Christians began believing that the first of the above statements is the cause of the second. And eventually we wound up at the modern understanding of the Christian gospel, which is roughly… “Christ’s work allowed God to forgive my sins so I am no longer bound for hell due to God’s perfect sense of justice” (or something similar). At that point, Christians decided “salvation” meant “saved from God’s righteous wrath at the final Judgment.” But that isn’t a definition of “salvation” that any first century Jewish Christian (e.g., Paul) would have held. Nor is it the definition of “salvation” we see even as late as Athanasius writing 300 years later. Nor is that the understanding of “salvation” you see in the Jewish prophets that described what the Jewish Christ would do. Perhaps most pointedly, you won’t find any such description of the final Judgment described anywhere in the gospels, which in theory should be the first place you look if you wanted to know what Christianity is all about. There are about a dozen passages describing the Judgment in Matthew alone, and not a single time do you see this cinematic drama where everyone stands before God and those who were believers have their sins forgiven (or have already had their sins forgiven) and are admitted to heaven on that basis while everyone else is condemned because they did not lead a perfect life. Indeed, the descriptions of the Judgment found in the gospels look really strange and awkward if you believe Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were attempting to convey the gospel message we hear today. This inexplicable behavior continues in the book of Acts, where there are nearly twenty places giving summaries of the gospel shared by Jesus’ apostles with people of every background after Christ’s death. Nowhere will you find anything approaching “Jesus died to save me from hell” as a component of their message. The idea that Christ’s sacrifice was somehow designed to mitigate or meddle in his own righteous Judgment at the end of the age is biblically absurd and not to be found anywhere in scripture. Paul, Peter, John and the rest would have thought the whole notion laughable. The book I’ve written on this topic: Who Really Goes to Hell --- The Gospel You’ve Never Heard: What a Protestant Bible written by Jews says about God’s Work through Christ. The entire thing is available for free download online. ____________________ MG: Thank you for the interview and good luck with future publishing endeavors.  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:00:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top12 : classement final | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top12 1ère Edition
Contrôle de temps : 90' + 30" Hardware : Quad Q9300 GUI : Winboard_F Gestionnaire de tournoi : PSWBTM par Pradu Kannan Classement final après la ronde 11 Code:
Résultats : http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/Top12/01/pairings.txt Parties : http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/Top12/01/Top12.pgn Pour une fois, Rybka n'est pas vainqueur... Bravo à Naum ! Merci à Didier Duval qui a eu l'idée de ce tournoi ! On recommencera, c'est certain
Bientôt : - ChessWar XV Groupe F sur le port 16043 - ChessWar XV Promo sur le port 16044 Parties de test restransmises en ce moment. Olivier Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t613-Top12-classement-final.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:55:44 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top12 : classement après la ronde 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top12 1ère Edition
Contrôle de temps : 90' + 30" Hardware : Quad Q9300 GUI : Winboard_F Gestionnaire de tournoi : PSWBTM par Pradu Kannan Classement après la ronde 8 sur 11 Code:
Le dernier match de la ronde 8 (Fruit - Shredder) est en cours, mais je dois m'absenter jusqu'à lundi. Toutes les parties sont transmises en direct sur chesswar.dyndns.org port 16044. Pour savoir comment se connecter et participer au chat : http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/indexfr.htm Appariements et résultats : http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/Top12/01/pairings.txt Parties : http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/Top12/01/Top12.pgn Olivier Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t607-Top12-classement-apres-la-ronde-8.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:44:10 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top12 : classement après la ronde 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top12 1ère Edition
Contrôle de temps : 90' + 30" Hardware : Quad Q9300 GUI : Winboard_F Gestionnaire de tournoi : PSWBTM par Pradu Kannan Classement après la ronde 4 sur 11 Code:
Toutes les parties sont transmises en direct sur chesswar.dyndns.org port 16044. Pour savoir comment se connecter et participer au chat : http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/indexfr.htm Appariements et résultats : http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/Top12/01/pairings.txt Parties : http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/Top12/01/Top12.pgn Olivier Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t604-Top12-classement-apres-la-ronde-4.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:14:35 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Re: Les échecs sur PDA (Pocket Fritz 3, CEBoard, Thinker...) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Paul,
Merci pour tes infos sur les pda. Amicalement Eric Ghersengorin Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t585-Les-echecs-sur-PDA-Pocket-Fritz-3-CEBoard-Thinker.htm?p=1533 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:16:51 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Johnson launches chess-coach.net! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frank Johnson has been in the game for a long time. Now he will begin passing on his experiences and passion in the game of chess by launching chess-coach.net. Many may not remember Johnson’s successful e-mail chess program that was eventually snapped up by chess.net. The Chicago-area native and Morehouse graduate has moved on and launched his latest project designed to helped provide coaching and training services for at-risk youth. So far, chess-coach.net has been a success.
Of course, there have been many studies to link chess to improvement in many behavioral factors aiding in better cognition, analytical and spatial abilities. Johnson returned to Atlanta and decided to refocus the energy of his organization with an enhanced curriculum.
One of the key concepts of this program is not to focus so much on chess skills as much as helping to shape a child’s thinking. “Our goal at Chess-Coach.net is not to create champion chess players, but champion thinkers,” asserts Johnson.
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Sun, 18 Oct 2009 05:18:44 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top12 - nouvelle compétition ! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Un nouveau tournoi, suite à une suggestion de Didier Duval.
Participants : les modules classés premier à douzième du dernier ChessWar A Contrôle de temps : 90' + 30" Tables de transposition : 1024Mo Double toutes rondes, Quad 9300. Ponder et 2 CPU par module Biblios perso quand c'est possible, sinon ma biblio polyglot Liste des participants : Code:
Quelques notes : Fritz ne joue pas, sinon je ne pourrais pas automatiser le tournoi. Junior ne joue pas non plus, c'est trop le bazar pour l'installer sur une nouvelle machine. Je n'ai que la version simple processeur de Hiarcs. La biblio de Thinker est par Aleksandr Shvachko. Les parties commencent aujourd'hui à 16h. Retransmission permanente avec chat sur chesswar.dyndns.org port 16044 (consulter le site ChessWar pour plus d'information). Olivier Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t595-Top12-nouvelle-competition.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:53:12 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Re: Les échecs sur PDA (Pocket Fritz 3, CEBoard, Thinker...) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Salut Paul,
C'est en ligne ici. Amicalement, Patrick Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t585-Les-echecs-sur-PDA-Pocket-Fritz-3-CEBoard-Thinker.htm?p=1494 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:13:09 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIV A : classement final | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIV A 40c/40'
Classement final après la ronde 15 Le module classé premier est Champion Le premier module non commercial est Champion Amateur Les modules classés 25e à 30e sont relégués dans ChessWar XV B Rybka était trop fort ! Bravo à Fruit, qui termine premier Amateur. En ce moment même, un tournoi de blitz sur le port 16043, et la semaine prochaine un Top20 avec un contrôle de temps plus long sur le port 16044. Olivier Code:
Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t587-ChessWar-XIV-A-classement-final.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:29:36 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Les échecs sur PDA (Pocket Fritz 3, CEBoard, Thinker...) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bonjour,
Il y a un certain temps même un temps certain je vous avais promis une mise à jour de mes articles sur les moteurs d'échecs sur PDA que je ne parviens pas à finir. En attendant j'envoie les parties de mes deux derniers tournois à Patrick. Mon opinion est que les meilleurs sont devenus vraiment très fort, au niveau des meilleurs joueurs du monde (sur la dernière liste SSDF Pocket Fritz 3 vaux 2749 point elos et ce n'est probablement pas le meilleur). Le meilleur est à mon avis Naum 4, un commercial à 25 euros disponible à la fois pour Pocket Fritz 3 et PocketGrandmaster (fonctionne au moins sur le 3 et 4). C'est ce programme qui à gagné mes deux tournois. D'autres sources, principalement un site russe qui fait un travail formidable sur le sujet (prudence avec les virus tout de même), semble confirmer ce fait. Il y a sur ce site une liste elo complète qui commence à devenir fiable. Alex Naumkov, l'auteur sympathique de Naum, m'a également livré deux bibliothèque maison (je suis fier d'y avoir participé). J'ai l'autorisation de l'auteur qui cherche un site pour rendre ses bibliothèques disponibles (environ 2 et 4 mb - appel du pied au webmestre). Les programmes qui jouent dans les deux tournois sont les meilleurs disponibles actuellement, manque juste Hiarcs sur Pocket Fritz 3 pour pas faire double emploi avec le CEBoard d'Alain Zanchetta. Les divers programmes Fruit et dérivés Toga sont certainement très fort aussi (et gratuit, notamment sur Pocket SCID qui ne participe pas à mes tournois). Mon choix commercial actuel serait incontestablement Pocket Fritz 3 (50 euros) avec Naum 4 en supplément. Vous pouvez compter alors sur un 'mini-Chessbase' sur votre PDA: lecture fichiers pgn, cbh et lecture multimédia de tous les derniers dvd Chessbase et Chessbase magazine depuis plus d'un an, upgrades régulier font de Pocket Fritz 3 un produit à maturité et incontournable. Le meilleur gratuit, Thinker, fait aussi partie de la crème des moteurs actuels mais son interface est un peu austère. Si vous avez une question, n'hésitez pas. Bonne journée, Paul De Man. Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t585-Les-echecs-sur-PDA-Pocket-Fritz-3-CEBoard-Thinker.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:06:44 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIV A : classement après la ronde 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIV A 40c/40'
Classement après la ronde 8 sur 15 Le module classé premier est Champion Le premier module non commercial est Champion Amateur Les modules classés 25e à 30e sont relégués dans ChessWar XV B Toutes les parties sont transmises en direct sur chesswar.dyndns.org port 16043. Pour savoir comment se connecter et pour des information générales sur ChessWar, consultez le site du tournoi : http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/indexfr.htm Olivier Code:
Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t569-ChessWar-XIV-A-classement-apres-la-ronde-8.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fri, 25 Sep 2009 09:19:41 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Katherine Butler: Iran, Russia and the missile chess game - Independent | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:05:00 GMT+00:00 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIV A : classement après la ronde 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIV A 40c/40'
Classement après la ronde 4 sur 15 Le module classé premier est Champion Le premier module non commercial est Champion Amateur Les modules classés 25e à 30e sont relégués dans ChessWar XV B Toutes les parties sont transmises en direct sur chesswar.dyndns.org port 16043. Pour savoir comment se connecter et pour des information générales sur ChessWar, consultez le site du tournoi : http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/indexfr.htm Olivier Code:
Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t560-ChessWar-XIV-A-classement-apres-la-ronde-4.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 17 Sep 2009 08:36:11 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIV A : liste des participants | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIV A 40c/40'
Système suisse, 15 rondes Le module classé premier est Champion Le premier module non commercial est Champion Amateur Les modules classés 25e à 30e sont relégués dans ChessWar XV B Les parties commencent aujourd'hui! Retransmission de la ronde 1 à partir de 18h (chesswar.dyndns.org port 16043). Plus d'infos sur le tournoi et comment se connecter aux transmissions : http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/indexfr.html Olivier Code:
Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t555-ChessWar-XIV-A-liste-des-participants.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:26:11 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nouveaux tournois sur PDA : Pocket Fritz 3 etc... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bonjour,
Je viens de terminer deux tournois sur 6 mois (!) avec 5 programmes d'échecs sur 5 interfaces différentes (des choix difficiles ont été necessaire). J'espère mettre à jour ma page d'invité (en bas à gauche) prochainement. Le paradoxe est que la force et le choix des programmes n'a jamais été aussi important malgré une perte de vitesse commerciale des PDA (remplacé petit à petit par les smartphones-un sujet intéressant pour qui veut se lancer-). Vous trouverez donc Hiarcs 12.1 sur CEBoard, Naum 4 sur PocketGrandmaster 4 (le programme existe aussi pour Pocket Fritz), Pocket Shredder 1.0, Thinker sur ThinkerBoard, Toga II 1.4.1SE sur Pocket Fritz 3 (probablement le plus fort Toga disponible sur PDA). Hiarcs (existe aussi sur Palm - le meilleur commercial dans ce cas -) et Naum 4 sont des commerciaux qui ont la particularité d'exister sur plusieurs interfaces et valent plus ou moins 25 euros. Pocket Shredder possède sa propre interface (40 euros), appuie un peu sur l'aspect pédagogique (un petit plus) mais la force de jeu me semble un peu moins bonne que les autres dans mes tournois (un petit moins). Toga II est disponible gratuitement sur plusieurs interfaces, la meilleure version est celle qui joue dans mes tournois. Thinker est sans doute le plus fort gratuit et est disponible sous sa propre interface (attention, il faut installer aussi un autre programme pour qu'il fonctionne). L'interface est par contre un peu austère. Il existe de nombreux autres petits commerciaux et gratuits. Un des meilleurs et gratuit est une version pocket de SCID qui possède plus de 10 moteurs sous son interface mais il n'a pas participé dans mes tournois (force des moteurs un peu moindre et l'installation d'un programme externe est necessaire). Pour ceux qui voudraient s'offrir un commercial en ce moment mon choix principal serait sans hésiter Pocket Fritz 3 (50 euros en magasin). Vous avez pour le prix un excellent programme principal Hiarcs 12.1 -plusieurs autres très bons gratuit sont également disponibles-, un système multimédia complet utilisable depuis plus ou moins un an avec les numéros de Chessbase magazine ainsi que les derniers Fritz Trainer (de Shirov, Davies etc...). Il y a en plus un bon service d'upgrade (3.3 à l'heure actuelle). En complément je m'offrirais Naum 4 qui d'après mes tournois serait le plus fort module actuel. Pour ceux qui n'ont pas envie de dépenser un denier il existe plusieurs très bons choix : CEBoard, Thinker et SCID sont sans doute les principaux. Paul De Man Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t503-Nouveaux-tournois-sur-PDA-Pocket-Fritz-3-etc.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:39:20 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Glek's Old Main Line King's Indian with 7...exd4, a Bibliography | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 For a brief period in the 1990s, Igor Glek became the chief proponent of a variation considered "The Old Main Line" of the King's Indian Defense: 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.Nc3 O-O 5.e4 d6 6.Be2 e5 7.O-O exd4 8.Nxd4 Re8 9.f3 Nc6. It is an attractive shortcut through the Classical Variation, presenting some interesting tactics and open piece play while skirting the immense thicket of theory associated with 7.O-O Nc6 8.d5 Ne7, and even making it easier to meet 7.Be3 since 7...exd4 8.Nxd4 Re8 9.f3 Nc6 basically transposes. This line has been especially attractive to me due to its similarities with my simplified Open Game repertoire built around ...g6, where it is even possible to reach it by transposition from the anti-Scotch line 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 g6 if White plays 5.c4!? However, as pointed out by Gary Lane in Opening Lanes #39 at ChessCafe and by John Emms in Dangerous Weapons: 1.e4 e5 (Everyman 2008), p. 157, Black can avoid the direct transposition to the King's Indian by delaying ...d6 as shown in Richter - Juergens, Dortmund 1993; Moiseenko - Odendahl, Netherlands 2001 (by an odd transposition); and Nakamura - Perelshteyn, New York 2001. Glek has since switched to 7...Na6 (which is what most people mean these days when they refer to "the Glek Variation of the King's Indian") and his old line with 7...exd4 and 9...Nc6 is only rarely seen at the highest levels, even though Glek himself had a great win/loss ratio with the Black side. The "old Glek" being out of fashion and nearly forgotten, however, should make it only more interesting for players 2200 and below looking for a surprise weapon or offbeat approach. It is quite playable and there is no silver bullet for White, though recent attention has focused on 10. Be3 Nh5 11. Qd2 f5!? (Black's most ambitious but also most risky alternative) 12. Nxc6! bxc6 13. c5! which appears to put Black in danger of heading into an ending with significant structural challenges. Joseph Gallagher (in Starting Out: King's Indian Defense) suggests that this line leads to a draw after 13...d5 14. exd5(?) Bxc3 15. bxc3 Qe7 16. Kf2 Qh4+ 17. Kg1 Qe7 18. Kf2 Qh4+ etc. (as in Piket - Nedev, Ohrid 2001), but analysis by Alexander Khalifman claims a big White edge after 13...d5 14.Bg5! as in Weetik - Kruschiov, St Petersburg 2001 or more recently Popov - Plenkovic, European Ch 2009. This seems hardly the end of the story, and Black can risk much less by 11...Nf4 or 11...Nxd4 as demonstrated, for example, in Topalov - Mamedyarov, Amber Rapid 2008. I have listed in reverse chronological order the few sources I own that discuss this line. As usual, I welcome reader additions and suggestions. Where possible, I have linked to games available at Chessgames.com or my new favorite site 365Chess.com (which really does have as huge a database as they advertise). Khalifman, Alexander (2006). Opening for White According to Kramnik, 1.Nf3: Modern Lines in the King's Indian Defence (Chess Stars): pp. 38-60. I have been thoroughly impressed by all of Khalifman's books from Chess Stars and this must be among the best. Anyone who plays the Classical KID as White or Black should own a copy. Written from the White perspective, Khalifman's analysis presents a significant challenge to Black in the Old Main Line, especially with the enterprising 11...f5 favored by Glek. However, Khalifman's analysis and even his selection of games seems biased toward White, so there are bound to be improvements by resourceful players. Games include Schermer - Meyerhold, Pinneberg 2002; Savinov - Johnsen, Tromsoe 2000; Ruzele - Royer, Cappelle la Grande 1997; Shneider - Gadjily, Linares 1998; Vukusic - Armanda, Split 1999; Trettin - Kassebaum, Germany 1995; Petschar - Rogetzer, Austria 2003; Shipov - Gelashvili, Internet 2002; Werle - Jianu, Heraklio 2002; Grigore - Nannelli, Montecatini Terme 2000; Hesse - Hoepfl, Germany 2004; Dornauer - Enoeckl, Austria 1999; Teloeken - Kassebaum, Germany 1997; Rasin - Braunlich, Boston 2001; Malakhatko - Kernazhitsky, Ukraine 2000; Peek - De Saegher, Amsterdam 2002; Savchenko - Taeger, Bad Wiessee 2002; Loseries - Kistella, Germany 1995; Arlandi - Gaido, Montacatini Terme 1999; Benkovic - Kosanovic, Backa Palanka 2001; Verduyn - De Wit, Belgium 2003; Jankovic - Ljubicic, Pula 2005; Ionov - DeJong, Wijk aan Zee 1998; Gustafson - Seibold, Fuerth 1998; Vitiugov - Khairullin, Cheboksary 2006; Strayer - Becerra Rivero, Dos Hermanas 2004; Le Quang - Nguyen Van Huy, Malaysia 2004; Nill - Lauterbach, England 2001; Galyas - Pachow, Budapest 2002; Landescheidt - Hamburg, Ruhrgebiet 1999; Tratar - Rezan, Rijeka 2001; Niederwieser - Rogetzer, Austria 2005; Pelletier - Reichenbacher, Germany 2000; Pedersen - Borbjerggaard, Denmark 1999; Farrago - Arribas, Balaguer 2005; Hoerstmann - Pachow, Germany 1999; Cifuentes Parada - Borbjerggaard, Malaga 2003; Summerscale - Littlewood, Telford 1997; Lindner - Schmaltz, St Ingbert 1995; Gavrikov - Dvoretzky, Bad Wiessee 1997; van Wely - Glek, Wijk aan Zee 1997; Gleizerov - Blehm, Cappelle la Grande 1998; Krivoshey - Lefranc, Sautron 2001; Belichev - Banikas, Tallinn 1997; Iskusnyh - Riazantsev, St. Petersburg 1997; Yermolinsky - Ashley, Philadelphia 1997; Atalik - Blehm, Cappelle la Grande 1999; Rau - Schlichthaar, Winterberg 2002; Ionov - Shliahtin, Smolensk 2000; Nadanian - Matikozian, Yerevan 1999; Krivoshey - Pihlajasalo, Polanica Zdroj 1999; Nielsen - Volokitin, Esbjerg 2002; Gyimesi - Kahn, Balatonlelle 2004; Farago - Heck, Bad Zwesten 2002; Weetik - Kruschiov, St Petersburg 2001; Mokos - Salai, Slovakia 2003; Akimov - Rybenko, Novokuznetsk 2001; Spiess - Hoffmann, Germany 1997; Kreiman - Maurer, Bad Wiessee 1997; Pelletier - Becerra, Lucerne 1997; Atalik - Kilicaslan, Istanbul 2006; Nikolov - Ciglic, Ljubljana 2000; Nosenko - Korobkov, Mariupol 2003; Malinin - Dashko, Krasnodar 2002; Maksimenko - Kilicaslan, Chalkidiki 2002; Kober - Hoffmann, Germany 2003; Giemsa - Juhnke, Germany 1997; Goldin - Khalifman, Elista 1997; Janssen - Golod, Dieren 1998; Shipov - Noritsyn, Guelph 2005; Psakhis - Manion, Chicago 1997. Martin, Andrew (2004). King's Indian Battle Plans. (Thinkers Press): pp. 283-313. Martin offers 240 annotated games focused on the ideas behind the opening. Highly praised by Steve Stoyko who thinks it offers good material on the Glek system -- though material that puts the line into question also. Gallagher, Joseph (2002). Starting Out: The King's Indian (Everyman): pp. 37-40. Clearly Gallagher only mentions the old main line KID for the sake of coverage. In other books he does not mention the line. Here he offers only Piket - Nedev, Ohrid 2001 and mentions Wells - Gallagher, England 2001 and Krivoshey - Gutman, Rovno 2000. Gallagher only intends a basic introduction to the line for a general reader, so this is an insufficient resource for anyone serious about learning the intricacies of the line. The book is otherwise quite good for its intended audience. Kalinin, Alexander (1999). King's Indian Defence, Modern Practice. (Convekta, Moscow): pp. 80-85. Annotated Informant style, this book offers an interesting repertoire and several interesting improvements on classic games in the Glek line. Games include Beliavsky - Miles, Biel 1992; Ruban - Poluljahov, Elista 1994; Gleizerov - Kovalev, Skorping 1994;Shirov - Sherzer, Paris 1995; Van der Sterren - Glek, Germany 1995; Greenfeld - Svidler, Haifa 1996; Bareev - Kingermann, Vienna 1996; Ivanchuk - Shirov, Yerevan 1996; Kramnik - Glek, Berlin 1996. Gufeld, Eduard and Nikolai Kalinichenko (1997). An Opening Repertoire for the Positional Player (Cardogan): pp. 145-153. Gufeld and Kalinichenko provide the most optimistic introduction to the old Glek system and their book is a worthwhile addition to your library even if it is not as detailed as other sources on this particular line. The rest of the repertoire is quite solid and includes the King's Indian and Classical Sicilian as Black and c3 Sicilian, Scotch Game, Tarrasch French, and Short System vs the Caro-Kann as White. Games with the Glek line include Rossetto-Larsen, Amsterdam 1964; Chuchelov - Glek, Leuven 1995; Vam der Sterren - Muehlebach, Zurich 1995; Sakaev - Glek, Elista 1995; Notkin - Nevostruev, Elista 1996; Cebalo - Lane, Cannes 1995; Sosonko - Ftacnik, Polanica Zdroj 1995; Pokorny - Manik, Lazne Bohdanec 1996; Ivanchuk - Shirov. Yerevan 1996; Van der Wely - Glek, Hoogovens 1997; Gyimesi - Miljanic, Mataruska Banja 1996; Khuzman - Svidler, Haifa 1996; Kramnik - Glek, Berlin 1996; Shirov - Sherzer, Paris 1995; Lobron - Glek, Germany 1995; Karpov - Glek, Biel 1996; Greenfeld - Glek, Haifa 1996; Alpert - Neuman, Ceske Budejovice 1996; Van der Sterren - Glek, Germany 1995; and Solozhenkin - Glek, France 1994. Nunn, John and Graham Burgess (1997). The New Classical King's Indian (International Chess Enterprises): pp. 73-83. In ten pages of densely packed text, Nunn and Burgess (though one presumes mostly Burgess for this chapter) offer some of the most balanced and wide-ranging coverage of the Glek Variation. I'd say this is practically a must-have resource for those serious about the line, especially since they have clearly reviewed all published material up to 1997 (including Informant and NIC Yearbook, from which they quote frequently). Games considered include Ftacnik - Glek, Bundesliga 1994-1995; Chuchelov - Glek, Leuven 1995; Sakaev - Glek, Elista 1995; Psakhis - Slutzky, Herzliya 1993; Zagorskis - Glek, Boblingen 1994; Epishin - Svidler, Russia 1996; Zlochevsky - Morozevich, Alushta 1993; Sosonko - Ftacnik, Polanica Zdroj 1995; Ftacnik - Hangweyrer, Vienna 1996; Tisdall - Hakki, Erevan Olympiad 1996; Sokolov - Piket, Groningen 1995; Trettin - Kassebaum, Germany 1995; Krivoshei - Golubev, Nikolaev 1995; Aseev - Moingt, European Clubs Cup 1996; Oliwa - Pedzich, Polish Ch 1996; Korchnoi - Gi. Hernandez, Merida 1996; Sakaev - Belov, Cappelle la Grande 1995; Ivanchuk - Shirov, Erevan Olympiad 1996; Schneider - Sokolov, Reykjavik 1994; Kalesis - Mastrokoukos, Karditsa 1994; Gyimesi - Miljanic, Mataruska Banja 1996; Kalesis - Banikas, Aegina 1996; Dautov - Glek, Bundesliga 1996; Kramnik - Glek, Berlin 1996; Azmaiparashvili - Jacimovic, Struga 1995; Ruban - Glek, Russican Ch Elista 1996; Shirov - Miles, Horgen 1994; Pigott - Horner, British Ch Portsmouth 1976; Lobron - Glek, Bundesliga 1994-1995; Novikov - Glek, Vilnius 1984; Karpov - Glek, Biel 1996; Van der Sterren - Glek, Germany 1995; Solozhenkin - Glek, France 1994; Halkias - Tzermiadianos, Kavala 1996; Piket - Svidler, Groningen 1995; Rechlis - Kantsler, Tel Aviv 1995; Haritakis - Banikas, Greek Ch 1996; Vaganian - Svidler, Erevan 1996; Ftacnik - Glek, Wijk aan Zee 1995; Bogdanovski - Haritakis, Kavala 1996; Greenfeld - Svidler, Haifa 1996; Bareev - Kindermann, Vienna 1996; and Greenfeld - Glek, Haifa 1996. Glek, Igor (1996). "King's Indian Defense, Classical System." New in Chess Yearbook 41: 161-165. A useful article by Glek, where he (or perhaps the editors) suggest that the variation be named after him. Main games include Greenfeld - Glek, Haifa 1996; Karpov - Glek, Biel 1996; Chuchelov - Glek, Leuven 1995; Van den Doel - Polzin, Dresden 1995; Sakaev - Glek, Elista 1995; Van der Sterren - Muhlebach, Zurich 1995; Epishin - Svidler, St Petersburg 1996; Sosonko - Ftacnik, Polanica Zdroj 1995; Michaelsen - Appel, Germany 1995; Pokorny - Manik, Lazne 1996; Sokolov - Piket, Groningen 1995; Sakaev - Belov, Cappelle la Grande 1995; Ivanchuk - Shirov, Erevan 1996; Gyimesi - Miljanic, Mataruska Banja 1996; Khuzman - Svidler, Haifa 1996. _______ (1995). "A Novelty - Ten years later - 7...exd4 8.Nxd4 Re8." New in Chess Yearbook 37. pp. 152-157. Ten years afer Novikov - Glek, Vilnius 1984, Glek revisits his system, focusing on the key idea of Nh5 to encourage f3-f4 weakening the e4 pawn, after which the Knight returns to its post at f6 to attack the weakened e-pawn and threaten a possible Ng4. Features Van der Sterren - Glek, Germany 1995; Ftacnik - Kovalev, Passau 1994; Gleizerov - Kovalev, Skorping 1994;Ruban - Poluliakhov, Elista 1994; Riemersma - Hvenekilde 1988; Halldorsson - Thorsson, Kopavogur 1994; Ftacnik - Glek, Germany 1994; Gunawan - Lodhi, London 1994; Chuchelov - Kovalev, Eupen 1994; Psakhis - Slutsky, Herzliya 1993; Taimanov - Kirpichnikov, Yumala 1978; Weglarz - Jaworski, Bielsko Biala 1991; Danielian - Miles, Cappelle la Grande 1994; Zlochevsky - Morozevich, Alushta 1994; Brglez - Bukic, Ljuljana 1994; Nowak - Pedzich, Lubniewice 1994; Schneider - Sokolov, Reykjavik 1994; Tisdall - Hagesaether, Gausdal 1995; Shirov - Miles, Horgen 1994; Stocek - Banikas, Hania 1994; Sosonko - De Saegher, Netherlands 1994; Solozhenkin - Glek, Le Tourquet 1994; Ftacnik - Glek, Wijk aan Zee 1995; Lukacs - Kjeldsen, Budapest 1995. I am sure there are other resources and welcome reader additions in the comments.  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mon, 06 Apr 2009 09:42:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This Week's ChessBase Show: Gligoric-Tolush, Leningrad (tt) 1957 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Svetozar Gligoric (b. 1923) was for many years in the world’s elite – three times a Candidate, for starters – and had he not lost about six years of his life to the ravages of World War II, it’s conceivable that the ultimate crown would have been his. Even so, he was a great player whose contributions to the game’s theory and praxis were considerable. Thanks to great players like Gligoric, our understanding of opening theory is far deeper than it would have been. Positions that might have been mysterious to masters 50 years ago now strike amateurs as if the right way to handle them were as obvious as the multiplication tables. Yet the depth of great players’ understanding is not only revealed by their having figured out for themselves what we have learned by their example, but also by what they do in positions that still haven’t been pre-packaged for the general public. The game we’ll look at this week, Gligoric-Tolush (from a Leningrad team tournament in 1957), puts both qualities on display. At some moments of this fine game, Gligoric’s play is recognizable to all (or almost all) of us. While attractive and very well calculated, the way he prosecutes the attack in the middle game will have a familiar look to most of us. Maybe we couldn’t have finished the job ourselves, but it will all make good sense. The real trick in this game is the way Gligoric set things up. It doesn’t take all that long, but the way he gets there is a brilliant combination of logic in the opening and non-stereotyped thinking a few moves later. It is here above all that he demonstrates his class as a chess thinker. Sound interesting? The details will be filled in tonight – Wednesday night – at 9 p.m. ET (or 3 a.m. CET Thursday morning, for my European viewers) on the Playchess server. To watch, log on at the appropriate time, go to the Broadcasts Room, and either double-click on my handle (“Initiative”) or on Gligoric-Tolush in the Games list. Hope to see you there! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
2009-06-03T08:06+00:00 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I am voting for ... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Many people have asked who I will vote for in the upcoming USCF Executive Board election. So far, I will vote for the following individuals and I will explain why:
They are desperately trying to hide many important facts about their wrong doings (which resulted in devastating consequences for this federation) from USCF members while using Chess Life and the USCF website for their political propaganda. And they want another 4 years along with "their candidates" Mike Atkins and Ruth Haring.
Bill Goichberg has been involved with the USCF in various capacities for over 4 decades. He does not want to let go of his personal and political power even at the expense of the USCF and its members. He has his hands on nearly every election as far as I can remember. Do you want a different direction for the USCF or do you want the USCF to continue with the same old status quo?
Chess news from Susan Polgar  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fri, 29 May 2009 14:41:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chessing with the Stars | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ever wonder what Bobby Fischer was really like? I mean, what he was REALLY, REALLY LIKE, somewhere near the foundation of his being? How about Sammy Reshevsky? Now, thanks to AstroTheme.com ('Astrology: Horoscope, Natal Chart, Biography, Planets, Photo'; bio courtesy of Wikipedia), you can! Here are some excerpts.Your sensitivity: You love nature as much as your comfort, Bobby FISCHER, you are an Epicurean willing to enjoy life’s beautiful and good things within the family "clan" or with friends who value your conviviality and your kindness. Ummm, what was that about teamwork? Here's Reshevsky. Your sensitivity: Your sensitivity is devoid of infatuation or carelessness, Samuel RESHEVSKY; you belong to the cerebral type and, due to your needs for inner security and for freedom, you consider feelings and emotions as burdens. Are all chess players endowed with such super-human qualities? Let's take a look at some others.
On Bacrot: 'Your sensitivity: You love nature as much as your comfort, Etienne BACROT, you are an Epicurean willing to enjoy life’s beautiful and good things within the family "clan" or with friends who value your conviviality and your kindness.' • That's what was said about Fischer! In fact, the rest of the paragraph for both players is exactly the same: You are faithful, stable, with your feet rooted in the ground and you are reliable in all circumstances. You are attached to your affective and material security. You tend to be jealous and possessive and, although your nature is quite slow, you may be short-tempered and aggressive when you feel threatened. In such cases, you display an exceptional stubbornness and fury and it becomes impossible to make you change your mind. Although you are aware that your behaviour is wrong, you stick to your line and your grudge is persistent. However, you are so sensitive to tenderness and to concrete gestures of affection that a few presents or a few caresses are enough to make you see life through rose-coloured glasses again. Looks like I got sidetracked by computer generated twaddle while researching Fischer - Reshevsky, Match 1961 (Game 2). I'll return to the source game for my next post in that series.  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 18 Apr 2009 11:40:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chess Quote - Cecil Purdy on Pawn Endings & Golf | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 C.J.S. Purdy [Chess World, December 1951] "Pawn endings are to chess as putting is to golf." -- C.J.S. Purdy The Australian chessplayer Cecil John Seddon Purdy (1906-1979) was born in Port Said, Egypt. There is some debate about his birth year as discussed in Edward Winter's Chess Notes (here). His family moved to New Zealand, then to Hobart (Tasmania), before finally settling in Sydney (New South Wales) when he was aged 12 years. Whilst in Tasmania, Purdy apparently went to the same school as the future film star Errol Flynn (1909-1959). Purdy devoted his life to playing and writing about chess. He was the first World Champion in correspondence chess. He was also awarded the International Master title in over-the-board chess, and the Grandmaster title at correspondence chess. He was an very good chess writer and was described by Bobby Fischer as being an excellent chess teacher. Purdy is reported to have died of a heart attack whilst playing chess - his final words were allegedly "I have a win, but it will take some time" (Dunne 1991). References: Dunne, A (1991) - The Complete Guide to Correspondence Chess, Thinker's Press, ISBN 0-938650-52-1 Edward Winter (2007) - Chess Notes - 4924. Purdy’s year of birth (Link). Wikipedia - Cecil Purdy (Link)  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 04 Apr 2009 17:30:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| GM Ashley treks to South Africa! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 GM Maurice Ashley recently spent time in South Africa touring the schools and promoting chess. He was able to leave the students with some valuable life lessons. The host was David Berman who runs the program, “Chess for Change”. Ashley sent the following letter: Hey Daaim: I just came back from a deeply humbling yet hopeful experience in Cape Town, South Africa. I spent 8 days there giving talks to young people (both Black and White), playing in a simul, playing in a few blindfold games, doing radio interviews and meeting the chess community. As you know, Cape Town features some very strong players (IM Kenny Solomons, for one). It was a thrill to be soaked with love and appreciation for my role in chess. I also got to visit the infamous Robben Island where Nelson Mandela spent so many years. To see his prison cell and to move on the grounds on which he and other political prisoners planned the future of South African is mind-blowing. That his spirit was never broken despite spending 30 years of his life incarcerated for his beliefs is a truly astounding concept. The tour guides made it feel as though I was in church revisiting the spirit of trials and tribulations to cleanse the soul. I can’t imagine the strength it took to endure those difficult times. I can only feel blessed to live the life I’ve lived. I was in Cape Town under the auspices of a charity organization called Chess for Change. Created by a White South African named David Berman, the non-profit looks to bring the many benefits of chess to the children of South Africa. David not only talks the talk, but he walks to walk. It’s great to have truly sincere people who love chess and who put their time, energy and personal resources to see that all kids have opportunities to develop and excel. Chess for Change has been around for 3 years and is serving about 4,000 young people, a number that will be sure to grow exponentially in the next few years. What I really like is that the organization is not wasting its time trying to make GMs. They are about giving kids hope and opportunity to develop themselves as people and critical thinkers first. If these young people then take the skills they learn from chess and go into business, education, sports, whatever, it doesn’t matter. Of course, a few will become strong chess players, but it’s the bigger number that Chess for Change is and should be focused on. I look forward to returning to Africa again and again. I have to say I felt very much at home. Best, | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:04:12 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| CEGT - rating lists March 29th 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
This is very interesting as it's basically the match for best freeware to me. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:24:13 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| CEGT - rating lists March 29th 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hi all :-), our updated rating lists are now online and can be found under the attached links. 40 /120: We have an update of our Quad List with750 Naum 4-games and of our 2CPU-List with 583 Rybka 3 games. Here we can see the good scalings of Rybka and Naum: CEGT 40/120 Quad 1 Rybka 3 x64 4CPU 3166 +16 -16 1088 games 2 Naum 4 x64 4CPU 3105 +16 -16 757 games 3 Rybka 2.3.2a x64 4CPU +3070 -17 17 841games 4 Deep Fritz 11 4CPU 3014 +24 -24 342 games CEGT 40/120 Dual and Single 1 Rybka 3 x64 2CPU 3117 +22 -22 582 72.3 games 2 Rybka 2.3.2a x64 2CPU 3034 +15 -15 1344 games 3 Naum 4 x64 2CPU 3024 +28 -29 287 games 40 / 20: This week we added 1301 games made with 42 engines to our list. See more in our list "Games of the week". In total our corrected 40/20 list is based now on 315.720 games. New engines: We have included a lot of new engines into our list this week: 35 Thinker 5.4Di x64 2CPU has 2965 elos after 300 games. The 4CPU version is 19 points better at the moment. So we think, Kerwin found some ugly bugs in the 5.4A. 51 Rybka 2.2n2 w32 1CPU has a start-rating of 2946 (only 60 games) 66 Thinker 5.4Di w32 1CPU has a start-rating of2923 (only 60 games) 118 Onno 0.12.0 x64 is a version very close to the release candidate and is with 2876 elos neary 30 points over the previous version. 226 Crafty 23.0 x64 2CPU has after 100 games a very good start-rating: 2756 (+64 over 22.9) 432 Arasan 11.3 x64 2CPU fell back to 2531 elos after a good start. I think the rating will rise with more games. Updated engines: 24 Naum 4 w32 1CPU 2990 +18 -18 741 games (+1) 157 Stockfish 1.2def x64 1CPU 2835 +22 -22 610 games (=) 203 Twisted Logic 20090105 x64 2784 +24 -24 510 games (+3) 235 Twisted Logic 20090105 w32 2744 +23 -23 530 games (=; still 13 over prev. version) 40 / 4: No update this week. Results as usual in our forum. A big „Thank you“ to all testers as usual! :) links: 40/20: http://www.husvankempen.de/nunn/rating.htm Blitz: http://www.husvankempen.de/nunn/blitz.htm 40/120: http://www.husvankempen.de/nunn/rating120.htm Tester: http://www.husvankempen.de/nunn/testers/testers.htm Games of the week: http://www.husvankempen.de/nunn/40_40%20Rating%20List/Coordination/gow.JPG Elo-comparison: http://www.husvankempen.de/nunn/Replay/ELOcomparison.htm Werner | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 29 Mar 2009 12:36:51 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker 5.4? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
No. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 26 Mar 2009 12:51:25 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The return of Hydra? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thinker does this as well.
Naum 4 does that. So the way to beat Rybka does seem consistent :) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:20:39 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker 5.4D vs Bright 0.4! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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SpiderG Good to hear that Thinker 5.4D performed nice!. :) Thanks! CK | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:35:29 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker 5.4D vs Bright 0.4! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hey, another tournament finished. Here are the results: Engine Score Th Br S-B 1: Thinker 5.4D 34.5/50 ·················································· 0=011=1=1111==110011=1=001=101=11111101101=1111=01 534.75 2: Bright-0.4a [001] 15.5/50 1=100=0=0000==001100=0=110=010=00000010010=0000=10 ·················································· 534.75 The games can be downloaded Here: http://marriottmail.com/chess/Thinker54D_vs_Bright04A.pgn Thanks, SpiderG | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:43:16 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker vs Rybka! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
SpiderG
Sorry, mis-tell,Till now I could not beat Khadem and BlackDemon, both.
Is it by default? You may try this Thinker book HERE with Thinker5.4D, just simply unzip in Thinkers directory, that's all. CK | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 25 Mar 2009 04:31:09 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker vs Rybka! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sorry... I will run the Bright vs Thinker tourney... Bright will use the drdeebiii book. (I couldn't get the updated version to work) 3/0 50 game match. Thinker will use Main Book 8.0 Thanks, SpiderG P.S. Khadem on FICS uses Fritz 11 NOT Rybka 3. :) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 25 Mar 2009 04:09:01 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker vs Rybka! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
SpiderG
easy....man....easy....chill off....take it easy. B'coz everybody can express their ideas freely. We do not fight here. Better place would be on the board on Playchess or Yahoo or FICS. I love Rybka 3.0 is something like fantasy, but the results SpiderG posted here is reality. Aaron2chess4u I also agree with Aron2chess4u that Rybka3.0 or DeepRybka3.0 might be strongest engines at present on this planet and very tough to beat. I could not beat Rybka3.0 (Khadem on FICS) till now. I do love Rybka 3.0, but I always prefer better performing Free or open source engines, GUIs and DataBase(s). SpiderG Just in case you run thinker vs bright 0.4a please do not forget to post results and pgn here. If you have Rybka 3.0 as well, feel free to run similar tourney with both versions of Thinker 5.4C and 5.4D and post the performance difference. Result might be interesting b'coz I love analyzing good and strong games. CK | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 25 Mar 2009 03:40:02 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker vs Rybka! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I downloaded today thinker 5.4c but it did not work in my pc xp 64 bits. I install MPx64 Inert but nothing. Tell me why, please | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 25 Mar 2009 01:34:59 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker vs Rybka! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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i guess here we are talking in terms of FREE chess engines. and that might leads to the tourney Thinker vs. Rybka2.2n2mpw32. i guess. CK | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:28:45 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker vs Rybka! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Why would you use Rybka 2.2n2??? Very pathetic engine compared to Rybka 3 or even other engines like Naum 4 and Fritz 11 If you test using Rybka 3 and Thinker still wins, then I will be impressed; otherwise I find this tournament useless. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:19:46 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker vs Rybka! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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SpiderG Thanx for efforts. Results are interesting. Also try to run thinker vs bright 0.4a noctiferus the link is official site of thinker? CK | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 24 Mar 2009 21:24:50 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker vs Rybka! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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It is really not officially released... But it is 30+ elo better than Thinker 5.4A.. I did a match Thinker 5.4A vs Rybka 2.2n2 and the results came out 25/50!! So it is a pretty big change. Thanks, SpiderG | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:51:01 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker vs Rybka! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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enter here http://cid-2991af457de54bf0.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/Thinker54C.zip and look at your right: there's a link to 54d | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:24:51 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker vs Rybka! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Where did you find this Thinker 5.4D? I just found in Thinker site 5.4C. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:50:02 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker vs Rybka! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker version D?! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:37:16 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker vs Rybka! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Congrats to Thinker! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:57:06 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker vs Rybka! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hey, I did a match: Thinker 5.4D vs Rybka 2.2n2. 3/0, 50 games, MainBook 8.0... Here are the results: : Thinker 5.4D 30.0/50 ·················································· 111001==11===1=1===1111=11=1===110=00=10=====1=000 600.00 2: Rybka v2.2n2.mp.w32 20.0/50 000110==00===0=0===0000=00=0===001=11=01=====0=111 ·················································· 600.00 50 games played / Tournament is finished Name of the tournament: Thinker 5.4D vs Rybka 2.2n2!! Site/ Country: CHESSCOMP, United States Level: Blitz 3/0 Hardware: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz 2792 MHz with 480 MB Memory Operating system: Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 (Build 2600) Thinker killed Rybka!! winning with 1/5 of the games over Rybka! Here are the games! http://marriottmail.com/chess/Thinker54D_vs_Rybka2.pgn Thanks, SpiderG | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:37:41 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a new about thinker!? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Yes. I suspected as much since the release of Inert-Thinker versions as his name - Lance Perkin was/is no longer mentioned in those versions. We'll miss him for sure. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 22 Mar 2009 22:30:31 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| CCT11 - Blitc Tournament | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Lisebeth(*)(64): Rybka has won the tournament!!! Let us all raise our glasses, and clap our hands to salute this awesome achievement !!! -> Thank you everyone for playing in this event, and I hope to see you all again soon! DIEP(C)(64): thanks lisebeth Gaviota-CCT(C)(64): great participating!!! congrats Rybka! thanks Roberson(64): thanks to the TD's great fun zwegner(64): lots of fun everyone RAllbert(64): Thanks Lisebeth zwegner(64): see you all next year, or at an ACCA, or somewhere else... Lisebeth(*)(64): You're welcome :) Gaviota-CCT(C)(64): lot of work oto improve... for the next one IkarusX(C)(64): I raise my glass and clap my hands to salute Rybka's awesome achievement! ROBOadmin(* C) s-shouts: *** GRANDMASTER versus INTERNATIONAL MASTER!! GM denmanisgod is playing IM TheDuns! Type "observe denmanisgod" to watch the rated blitz 3 0 game. uchch(64): thanks Roberson(64): all look for the ACCA WCRCC in August ChessThinkerX(C)(64): thanks everyone; great tournament Timea(C)(64): Many thanks for Peter, see you all next time! ROBOadmin(* C) s-shouts: *** GRANDMASTER legko is playing TheGratefulDead!! Type "observe legko" to watch the rated 5-minute 5 0 game. Clarabit(C)(64): congrats rybks team. See you next year! Gaviota-CCT(C)(64): looking forward to it ChessThinkerX(C)(64): rybka really dominated IkarusX(C)(64): Thanks everyone, especially Peter for TDing, and see you next time around! TriviaBot(TD) shouts: Congratulations to PaulFranklin for winning the trivia game with a score of 15000 points. snowdonkey(64): When's the next tourney? zwegner(64): good night/morning everyone! zwegner(64): or day, whatever ChessThinkerX(C)(64): have a great day everyone; kerwin here, signing off... zwegner(64): see you later Swaminathan(C)(226): see ya later guys Swaminathan(C)(64): good tourney overall. thanks Peter! Deuterium2009(C)(64): good bye to all, thanks Peter, Congratz to the winners ROBOadmin(* C) s-shouts: *** GRANDMASTER versus INTERNATIONAL MASTER!! GM Tiko | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 22 Mar 2009 21:48:06 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| CCT11 - Blitc Tournament | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sun, 22 Mar 2009 21:43:35 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| CEGT - rating lists March 22nd 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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I am surprised that Thinker 5.4D is 30+ elo better than Thinker 5.4A!! (only 3 letters better) :) I don't know why Lance isn't releasing it to public... Thanks, SpiderG | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 22 Mar 2009 16:13:11 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| CEGT - rating lists March 22nd 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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You Saw that Vitu...?! Our Thinker finally crossed 3000 Elo Mark! Personally I am very satisfied with that! regards, priyanvada | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 22 Mar 2009 16:05:08 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| CCT11 - Day 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Top standings after round 7, in Round 8 we are black against Fruit (which drew IkarusX). Place Name Feder Rtg Loc Score M-Buch. Buch. 1-2 Fruit/Fruit-CCT11, 5.5 22.0 29.5 Rybka, 5.5 20.5 27.5 3-5 Bright/Swaminathan, 5 20.5 29.0 Ikarus/IkarusX, 5 19.5 27.5 Twisted Logic/TwistedLogi, 5 18.0 24.5 6-10 Glaurung/GlaurungCCT11, 4.5 24.0 32.5 Deep Sjeng/Sjeng, 4.5 22.5 31.5 Thinker/ChessThinkerX, 4.5 22.0 29.5 Arasan/ArasanX, 4.5 20.5 26.0 The Baron/thebaron, 4.5 19.5 27.0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 22 Mar 2009 15:05:04 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| CCT 11 Other Engines Watch... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Well My thinker is better than Ikarus :)! [Event "CCT 11"] [Site "Internet Chess Club"] [Date "2009.03.21"] [Round "3"] [White "ChessThinkerX"] [Black "IkarusX"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D24"] [WhiteElo "2910"] [BlackElo "2136"] [PlyCount "105"] [EventDate "2009.??.??"] [TimeControl "3000+3"] 1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. c4 dxc4 4. Nc3 Nd5 5. e4 Nb6 6. Bxc4 Nxc4 7. Qa4+ c6 8. Qxc4 b5 9. Qb3 a5 10. O-O a4 11. Qc2 Qa5 12. Bd2 b4 13. Ne2 Bg4 14. Rfc1 e6 15. d5 Bxf3 16. gxf3 c5 17. a3 Qa6 18. axb4 Qxe2 19. Rxa4 Na6 20. Re1 Qb5 21. Ra5 Qd7 22. Rea1 Be7 23. Rxa6 Rxa6 24. Rxa6 O-O 25. bxc5 exd5 26. c6 Qe6 27. Qd3 Qg6+ 28. Kf1 Qh5 29. Qxd5 Qxf3 30. Ra7 Bh4 31. Be3 Qh3+ 32. Ke2 h6 33. c7 Qg4+ 34. Kd2 Qc8 35. b4 Bf6 36. b5 Qe6 37. Bc5 Re8 38. Qxe6 fxe6 39. f4 Bd8 40. Ra8 Bxc7 41. Rxe8+ Kh7 42. Ke3 Ba5 43. Rxe6 Kg8 44. b6 h5 45. b7 Bc7 46. Rc6 Bb8 47. Rc8+ Kh7 48. Rxb8 g5 49. f5 Kg7 50. Re8 g4 51. b8=Q h4 52. Qb6 Kh7 53. Qg6# {Black checkmated} 1-0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 22 Mar 2009 06:11:59 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| CCT 11 Other Engines Watch... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hi Friends, If you are watching out CCT 11 which is going on currently... Here's a game from my personal favorite Thinker!!! One feels as if Thinker is really making really FUN of opponents speculative attack ... Also it is is really cool the way thinker finishes off the opponent engine! [Event "CCT 11"] [Site "Internet Chess Club"] [Date "2009.03.21"] [Round "1"] [White "ChessThinkerX"] [Black "zct"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D47"] [WhiteElo "2910"] [BlackElo "2237"] [PlyCount "113"] [EventDate "2009.??.??"] [TimeControl "3000+3"] 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. d4 d5 3. c4 e6 4. Nc3 c6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Bd3 dxc4 7. Bxc4 b5 8. Bd3 Bd6 9. Bd2 Be7 10. e4 b4 11. Na4 e5 12. O-O exd4 13. e5 Nd5 14. e6 fxe6 15. Nxd4 N7f6 16. Nxc6 Qd6 17. Rc1 O-O 18. Nxe7+ Nxe7 19. Nc5 Qd4 20. Bc3 Qh4 21. g3 Qh3 22. Bxf6 Rxf6 23. f4 Nd5 24. Be4 Ne3 25. Qd6 Nxf1 26. Rxf1 Ba6 27. Qxa6 Rh6 28. Rf2 Rd8 29. Nd7 Qh5 30. Rd2 Qe8 31. Qxa7 Rh5 32. Rd4 Qe7 33. Qc7 Rf8 34. Qc2 Re8 35. Kg2 Qd8 36. g4 Rh4 37. g5 b3 38. axb3 Kh8 39. Qf2 Rg4+ 40. Kh3 Rxg5 41. fxg5 Qxg5 42. Bd3 e5 43. Rh4 h6 44. Rg4 Qh5+ 45. Kg3 e4 46. Bxe4 Rg8 47. Nf8 Qe5+ 48. Kh3 Qh5+ 49. Rh4 Qg5 50. b4 Qc1 51. Ng6+ Kh7 52. Ne5+ g6 53. Qf7+ Kh8 54. Qf6+ Rg7 55. Nf7+ Kg8 56. Qd8+ Kh7 57. Qh8# {Black checkmated} 1-0 do have your thoughts on good performances of engines other than Champ. Rybka... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 22 Mar 2009 05:41:45 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| CCT 11 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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3 Fruit/Fruit-CCT11, (6) 1:0 Arasan/ArasanX, (14) 4 The Baron/thebaron, (9) ½:½ Thinker/ChessThinkerX, (3) We're a pawn up, but there's always the dreaded opposite bishops ending threat. Edit: oops, we post at the same time :-) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 21 Mar 2009 19:41:50 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Asking Obama to play chess | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Why my students asked Obama to play chess with them It could help keep them and students like them in school. By Lisa Suhay Source: http://www.csmonitor.comfrom the March 20, 2009 edition Norfolk, Va. - Six months of chess in the classroom as a learning platform transformed 40 of my students, many of whom are labeled "underachievers," from victims into victors – at no cost to the taxpayer or school. Now that success is at risk because of the ailing economy. Too often "private school" is automatically associated with well-heeled students and a posh environment. In reality, many tiny private schools exist to serve students who have been left behind by harsh, large public school classes due to a wide variety of issues ranging from sheer sensitive brilliance to serious family issues. Like many public schools these private schools often struggle to meet the needs of their students. Our small private school, for example, is little more than four walls; no computers in the classrooms and blue-collar families working multiple jobs to educate their children. Our children come from single-parent families and many students work after school to pay their own tuition. It's the same story at hundreds of schools across the nation. I teach five totally different classes each day: American government, English composition, British literature, journalism, and creative writing while earning less than $16,000 a year before taxes. I obviously love this job at Ryan Academy High School and find the challenge of pushing students to learn important, to say the least. While schools nationwide cool their fiscal jets and big businesses retool their corporate jets, teachers everywhere are learning to make educational bricks without straw. To connect with the unique minds in my classes, I had to step out of the box and onto the chess board. And it worked. My students successfully solicited free chess sets and learning materials from: The Hip-Hop Chess Federation (HHCF), The US Chess Trust, the Josh Waitzkin Foundation, The House of Staunton, and the Virginia Scholastic Chess Association. Intel may even be sending a laptop so students can play online for chess scholarships. The only other classroom using Hip-Hop Chess – which stresses unity, life strategy, and nonviolence in the classroom – for daily teaching, is John J. O'Connell High School in San Francisco. Both have seen students transform from underachievers (in some cases juvenile delinquents) to students eager to learn and think. Every one of my students learned to play chess this year. What's more, they all began to think more clearly and often, and think before they acted. Achievers blossomed and borderline drop-outs are now making the honor roll and are seriously thinking about college and jobs that do not involve fries or result in an orange jumpsuit and leg irons. Think of the potential. During a time when funds are running dry, if they've not already evaporated, and handwringing about how to turn children into thinkers seems to be growing, a chess movement in education could be just what we need to begin to revive education. Many of my students face the threat of expulsion for not being able to pay their tuition. Other students have been accepted to college, but have failed to find any funding. This is absurd and sad. But, thanks to chess, these children have become critical thinkers. Determined, they held a mini "war room" discussion. They decided that their best strategy to get out of this corner, and help others do the same, was to promote awareness, raise money, and to "go for the king." Their move? Challenge President Obama and the White House staff to play them and the students at O'Connell School in a game of chess – at The White House. This benefit they've concocted may seem like a bit of a stretch, but it's a risk worth taking. Last week Rahm Emanuel received a long cardboard tube packed with their essays, letters of request, and one precious possession: a scholastic tournament set with "Mr. Prez" scrawled in Sharpie marker on the underside of a king. Money raised for this benefit will go to a new fund for chess scholars providing scholarships any kid can have a chance at winning by playing chess in an HHCF-sponsored, Ryan Academy, or O'Connell School tournament. Hopefully this will also inspire individuals to donate to the schools or HHCF. Students will work with the CEO of Hip Hop Chess to create a guide and DVD to be given to schools interested in how they can bring chess into the classroom, without expense to the school or taxpayer. In six months these two pilot schools working with the HHCF have built self-esteem, raised standardized test scores, and reached those thought to be lost causes. It's possible for this success to reach children across the US. It's riding on one spectacularly out-of-the-box strategy and a new administration that is being given the opportunity to help create change without an act of Congress. Lisa Suhay writes from Norfolk, Va., and is the author of eight children's books. Chess news from Susan Polgar  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
2009-03-19T12:19:00.001-05:00 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Making Tablebase users open source | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Vegan
It seems like a great Idea coz if it is open source, some interested genius can contribute even more with new ideas. As a matter of fact, 3-4-5 piece Nalimov Tablebases are just sufficient for chess enthusiastic and all other tourney operators due to ... 1) Expensive System Requirements. 2) Top chess engines like Thinker, Toga-II and Glaurung do not depend on Nalimov Tablebase for end-game. 3) Still many chess engines are fumbling to support 6 men tablebases. Most of them need to re-write codes. 6 piece complete set might be a requirement for chess engine developers or may be for research/analysis. switching from 3-4-5 to 6 piece does not make significant difference in endgame performance as compared to investment in hardware. Due to very high system resources requirements, many tourney operators may not allow use of 6 men tablebase, they may restrict or limit upto 3-4-5 men table bases only. Newly release bitbases seems to be compact in size as compared to previous version. Only matter is how much long it takes to implement necessary features as compared with Nalimov. ChessKnight | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:42:42 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| CCT 11: Your Top 6 Guesses? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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In my estimation: ---------------------- 1 Rybka 2 Thinker 3 Deep Sjeng 4 Fruit 5 Bright 6 Glaurung Regards, Sedat | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 18 Mar 2009 06:41:09 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| GREGUERÍA | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Una de las greguerías de Ramón Gómez de la Serna dice que "El Pensador de Rodin es un ajedrecista a quien le han quitado la mesa".  Lo mismo debió pensar el diseñador de la camiseta que les enseño sobre estas líneas por lo que decidió restituirsela, añadiendo de paso un mate en dos. El mate es bastante simple pero para evitar que fuercen la vista les muestro la posición en el diagrama que les enseño bajo estas líneas. Y siguiendo con Ramón: la lectura de su prólogo a la edición de sus "Greguerías selectas", publicadas por Saturnino Calleja en 1919, me ha ayudado muchísimo a reconocer la raíz del mal que me aqueja. Juzgue el lector: "El ajedrezado blanco y negro es una obsesión para nuestros ojos... ¿Qué misteriosa persuasión hay en él?... Caza nuestras miradas, las liga a él, las marea, las fascina, las retiene... Los pisos ajedrezados distraen nuestras miradas, que se quedan fijas en el suelo largos ratos sin poder levantarse, aunque la pizarra de los suelos, ya un poco gris y descolorida, no logra el contraste del negro que se necesita junto al blanco alternante... Así, en el juego del ajedrez también, lo que aficiona, lo que hace no levantar la cabeza del tablero, no es la pueril diversión de ese juego, sino el ajedrezado blanco y negro, la visualidad, la exaltación, la destreza, la emoción que hay en él... ¡El magnetismo, la clave, la gracia formidable que hay en el ajedrezado, es algo misterioso y absorvente, cuyo oscuro dominio nos somete! Es el contraste entre la vida y la muerte, es la absorvancia de las viudas blancas y negras, es el sí y el no"  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:28:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIII A : classement final | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIII A 40c/40'
Classement final après la ronde 15 Le module classé premier est Champion Le premier module non commercial est Champion Amateur Les modules classés 25e à 30e sont relégués dans ChessWar XIV B Et voilà, c'est fini Rybka était vraiment trop fort. Et Thinker remporte le titre Amateur sans discussion.
ChessWar XIV commence en avril. Olivier Code:
Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t375-ChessWar-XIII-A-classement-final.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:23:53 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Smaug: a slightly customized version of glaurung | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hey Christopher, on the Talk Chess forum, Marco said that he changed Stockfish 1.2 and got a +30 rating!! That would mean Stockfish would be like top-5! That is why I am waiting for more info, I want to see how Stockfish plays against Rybka 2.2n2 and Thinker 5.4A etc. Thanks, SpiderG | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:23:28 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Les échecs sur PDA Pocket Fritz PocketGrandmaster etc... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bonjour,
J'ai effectué fin 2008 jusqu'à maintenant des tests avec les (nombreux!) nouveaux moteurs disponibles cad entre autre Hiarcs 12, Naum 4 pour les commerciaux (Rybka serait annoncé par son auteur comme un des 3 buts prioritaire pour cette année 2009 chez Convekta mais utilisable aussi sous d'autres interfaces infos dispo sur le site de l'auteur). Certains non-commerciaux sont également très forts comme Glaurung 2.2 et Toga II 1.4.1SE chez Pocket Fritz 3 par exemple. Le plus fort non-commercial est probablement Thinker sur sa propre interface ThinkerBoard (actuellement version 0027 avec Thinker 5.4). Les trois plus fort programmes actuels sur PDA à mon avis sont donc Naum 4 (existe sur Pocket Fritz 3 et PocketGrandmaster 4 - fonctionnerait aussi sur les versions antérieures - environ 20 euros), Hiarcs 12.1 (qui existe en version commerciale CEBoard d'Alain Zanchetta et avec Pocket Fritz 3 environ 30 et 50 euros) et Thinker sur sa propre interface ThinkerBoard (gratuit mais interface un peu rebarbative). Ajoutons encore à cela l'interessant Scid Pocket qui fonctionne avec pas moins de 11 programmes et permet même des matches entre ses moteurs (gratuit). Il s'agit principalement de portages de versions relativement anciennes de Fruit et quelques autres moteurs moins forts (un peu dommage). Malgré un nombre relativement important de parties (j'espère avoir le temps de mettre 'à jour' mes articles) il m'est difficile de dire quel est le meilleur actuellement mais les 3 cités plus haut devraient satisfaire même un grand-maître. Résultat de mon dernier tournoi (25 minutes plus 10 secondes 4mb hash, iPaq 2490 520 mhz) : Naum 4 PocketGrandmaster (bibliothèque spéciale nettement meilleure que la bibliothèque standard de PGM sur le site) : 8 points sur 12 devant ThinkerBoard 0026 (Thinker 5.3B avec bibliothèque Polyglot) 7 points, Hiarcs 12 sur CEBoard (bibliothèque de tournoi) 5 points et Toga II 1.4.1SE sur Pocket Fritz 3 (même bibliothèque) 4 points sur 12. Par contre, en match 10 parties en 30 minutes Hiarcs CEBoard a gagné tout les matchs joués - sauf un match nul contre Naum 4. En résumé: si vous voulez acheter un programme je vous conseille Pocket Fritz 3 (2 des 3 meilleurs disponible ici, depuis quelques mois un multimédia très performant (depuis 3 numéros le Chessbase magazine fourni pleins de matériel pour Pocket Fritz ainsi que les derniers Fritz Trainer ont une compatibilité totale avec PF3). Les leçons sont les mêmes sans la vidéo!. Le CEBoard (moins cher) à pour lui une très bonne lisibilité des fichiers PGN et quelques très bons programmes aussi bien sûr. Scid (attention de charger également un autre programme afin de pouvoir le lire sur votre PDA - utilise beaucoup de mégas de mémoire, voir le site de l'auteur version 1.3 actuellement -) et Thinker (plutôt orienté jeu sur internet) sont très valables aussi. Bon j'arrête sinon vous ne lirez pas mon article (?). Paul De Man. Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t373-Les-echecs-sur-PDA-Pocket-Fritz-PocketGrandmaster-etc.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:16:28 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Smaug: a slightly customized version of glaurung | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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I tested 50 game match (2') with Smaug against Hiarcs12 MP and 50 against MP Thinker i54A, ...results: Smaug 24.5/50 - Hiarcs12MP 25.5/50 Smaug 23/50 - MP Thinker i54A 27/50 .......not too bad! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:01:16 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| CEGT - rating lists February 15th 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hi all :-), our updated rating lists are now online and can be found under the attached links. 40 /120: New results for CEGT 40/400 repeated in our forum: http://cegt.foren-city.de/topic,175,-40-400-rep-r3-x64-4cpu-r3-h-x64-4cpu-vs-naum-4-x64-4cpu.html 1 Rybka 3 x64 4CPU ½1½½½1½½½½½½½½½1½½½½0½1½½½½½½½1½1½1½½½½0½½½½½101 27.0/48 2 Naum 4 x64 4CPU ½0½½½0½½½½½½½½½0½½½½1½0½½½½½½½0½0½0½½½½1½½½½½010 21.0/48[/code] 1 Rybka 3 Human x64 4CPU ½½½1½10½½½½½1½½1½½½½½½½10½½½½½01½½½½½11½½½½111 27.0/46 2 Naum 4 x64 4CPU ½½½0½01½½½½½0½½0½½½½½½½01½½½½½10½½½½½00½½½½000 19.0/46 Final results and download next weekend. 40 / 20: This week we added 1006 games made with 29 engines to our list. See more in our list "Games of the week". In total our 40/20 list is based now on 313.170 games. New engines: The only new engine is Thinker 5.4D inert x64 4CPU. We started to test this version after Kerwin went through the code to repair some bugs where the search ended too early. The engine has a rating of 2980 after 128 ganes. The result is better, but more games are needed and of course we have no games for the new version with 2CPU to compare the success. Updated engines: 109 Fruit 2.3.5m p15 w32 1CPU 2878 +36 -36 200 games (+1) 122 Toga II 1.4.3 JDb19a 1CPU 2866 +38 -38 200 games (-21) 126 Cyclone 3.4 1CPU 2863 +35 -35 200 games (+14) 140 Grapefruit 1.0 1CPU 2845 +37 -37 200 games (+21) (all played the same openings against the same opponents) 198 Twisted Logic 20090105 x64 2782 +33 -33 260 games (+25) 230 Twisted Logic 20090105 w32 2737 +38 -38 210 games (-7) 236 Twisted Logic 20080620 2729 17 17 1052 games (comparison) Similar result as in our Blitz-List! 40 / 4: New games: 6.030; Games in the list: 445.690 Games of the week: http://cegt.foren-city.de/topic,67,-update-saturday-14th-of-march-2009-is-online.html New engines Thinker 5.4A Inert x64 4CPU: 2980 (1200 games), only +11 to 2CPU Thinker 5.4C Inert w32 2CPU: 2917 (200 games), only +6 to 1CPU, more games needed. Thinker 5.4C Inert w32 1CPU: 2911 (400 games), till now no improvement to A-Version. Hope the 5.4D improvements will help. TwistedLogic 20090105 (only 1CPU) x64: 2752 (450 games), +34 to w32 w32: 2718 (800 games), still behind 20080620 (-9). Scorpio 2.0.5 beta 1+2CPU: both versions are clear (-42 or. -43) behnind previous versions 2.0 or 1.91. The difference between 1 + 2CPU is 60 ELO. Test stopped here. Philou 2.70: 2302 (150 games), till now no improvements to 2.50 (+4), but more games are necessary. Updates Booot 4.15.0 2718 – 1090 2713 – 590 -5 Onno 0.12.0 x64 1CPU 2888 – 700 2890 – 900 +2 Tornado 2.2 x64 2CPU 2602 – 240 2607 – 540 +5 Tornado 2.2 w32 2CPU 2610 – 240 2602 – 420 -8 Philou 2.5.0 2318 – 200 2298 – 450 -20 Fritz 5.32 Oldie 2631 – 1236 2631 – 1436 +/- 0 Shredder 5 Oldie 2630 – 609 2634 – 909 +4 A big „Thank you“ to all testers as usual! :) links: 40/20: http://www.husvankempen.de/nunn/rating.htm Blitz: http://www.husvankempen.de/nunn/blitz.htm 40/120: http://www.husvankempen.de/nunn/rating120.htm Tester: http://www.husvankempen.de/nunn/testers/testers.htm Games of the week: http://www.husvankempen.de/nunn/40_40%20Rating%20List/Coordination/gow.JPG Elo-comparison: http://www.husvankempen.de/nunn/Replay/ELOcomparison.htm Werner | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:30:26 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I want new thinker UCI... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Did you notice better playing style from Thinker Passive? (even if it's much weaker) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:57:41 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Who were the first... Winboard or UCI? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Winboard.
WB.
SMIRF (I forget the name of the protocol), Pocket-UCI, ... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 14 Mar 2009 10:03:32 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Who were the first... Winboard or UCI? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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I am just curious ... Who were the first... Winboard protocol makers or UCI protocol makers? Why second protocol was made? Who started usiig each one first? What is thinkers protocol...since I don't see his variation at all! Is there any other protocol existing other than this? regards, priyanvada | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 14 Mar 2009 09:58:27 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| CCRL rating lists and statistics (13th March 2009) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The latest CCRL Rating Lists and Statistics are available for viewing from the following links: http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/4040/ (40/40) http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/404/ (40/4) http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/404FRC/ (FRC 40/4) Please note that the three lists are updated separately to each other. The links to the various rating lists can be found just beneath the default Best Versions list. For example there is a 32-bit Single CPU list. Our 40 moves in 40 minutes repeating and 40 moves in 4 minutes repeating are both adjusted to the AMD64 X2 4600+ (2.4GHz). Currently active testers are: Graham Banks, Ray Banks (FRC only), Shaun Brewer, Kirill Kryukov, Dom Leste, Tom Logan, Denis Mendoza, Wassim Saeed, Charles Smith, George Speight and Gabor Szots. Be aware that in the early stages of testing, an engine's rating can often fluctuate a lot. It is strongly advised to look at the many other rating lists available in order to get a more accurate overall picture of an engine's rating relative to others. 40/40 NOTES There are currently over 171,000 games in our 40/40 database. 4CPU 64-bit Engines Rybka 3 is clearly stronger than second placed Naum 4, which in turn is clearly stronger than third placed Deep Fritz 11. Zappa Mexico II isn't too far back in fourth, comfortably ahead of Deep Sjeng WC2008 and Deep Shredder 11. Thinker 5.4a Inert, Hiarcs 12, Toga II 1.4.1SE, Bright 0.4a (private) and Glaurung 2.2 come in next and are very evenly matched in strength. None of the strong Toga or Glaurung derivatives have been tested in this category. The relative ratings of the 2CPU engines that have been well tested are pretty much the same as their 4CPU counterparts. Single CPU Engines A similar situation exists at the top in this category with Rybka 3 holding a huge lead over second placed Naum 4, which in turn has a huge lead over the evenly matched Fritz 11, Zappa Mexico II and Thinker 5.4a Inert. Thinker 5.4c has not been tested yet. Grapefruit 1.0, Deep Sjeng WC2008, Shredder 11, Toga II 1.4.1SE and Cyclone 3.4 aren't too far further back. Hiarcs 12.1 and TheMadPrune 1.1.25 come in next, ahead of Onno 0.12.0 (private), Fruit 2.3.1, Loop 13.6, Glaurung 2.2, Bright 0.4a (private) and Stockfish 1.2. Onno is still in the early stages of testing and is likely to be sold as a commercial engine sometime in the near future. Free Single CPU Engines Rybka 2.2n2 holds onto its spot as the top free engine, comfortably ahead of Thinker 5.4a Inert ang Grapefruit 1.0. Thinker 5.4c has not been tested yet, but could narrow the gap further. There is a narrow gap back toToga II 1.4.1SE and Cyclone 3.4. TheMadPrune 1.1.25 bridges the gap between the previous group and the next, which includes Fruit 2.3.1, Glaurung 2.2 and Stockfish 1.2. Spike 1.2 Turin and Bright 0.3a are further back, with a clear edge over Twisted Logic 20080620, Booot 4.15.0, Frenzee Feb08 and Delfi 5.4. CCRL tests a wide range of free engines, ranging right down to the 2000 elo level. The intention is to get well over 200 games for each of these engines. Tournaments involving these engines can be followed in our public forum. BLITZ NOTES There are over 413,000 games in the 40/4 database and it is well worth a visit. Shaun, Gabor, Kirill, Denis and Dom put a lot of work into this list. FRC NOTES Ray currently restricts his testing to FRC only. Thanks to the much appreciated efforts of Matthias Gemuh, ChessGUI is now able to be used to test all FRC engines, both Winboard/UCI plus Shredder/Arena specific. There are currently 44,100 games in the database. Rybka 3 has a big lead over Naum 4, which in turn has a similarly big lead over the evenly matched Shredder 11 and Deep Sjeng WC2008. Hiarcs 12.1 comes in next, comfortably ahead of Glaurung 2.2. For FRC the best list to look at is the pure list. http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/404FRC/ STATS/PRESENTATION NOTES The LOS (likelihood of superiority) stats to the right hand side of each rating list tell you the likelihood in percentage terms of each engine being superior to the engine directly below them. All games are available for download by engine, by month or by ECO code. ELO ratings are now saved in all game databases for those engines that have 200 games or more. Clicking on an engine name will give details as to opponents played plus homepage links where applicable. Custom lists of engines can be selected for comparison. An openings report page lists the number of games played by ECO codes with draw percentage and White win percentage. Clicking on a column heading will sort the list by that column. A future development will be the optional inclusion of engine logos, flags and continent pictures beside each engine name in the rating lists. An example of what this will look can be seen here in Kirill's special free engines project - KCEC site The engine logo will function as a link to selection of all engines from the same family. The country flag will be a link to selection of all engines from the same country. The continent picture is a link to selection of all engines from the same continent. This feature will be implemented once Kirill can find the time to do it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fri, 13 Mar 2009 20:43:15 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker's Gems... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
I am officially embarassed :-D Thanks Debaser | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fri, 13 Mar 2009 07:40:38 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I want new thinker UCI... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hi- I tried all the above steps but after creating the UCI engine in F11 GUI, when I'm trying to load Thinker I'm getting engine load error and cant load Thinker. I'm using Thinker 5.4C Inertx64 UCI btw. Please suggest | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:11:11 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker's Gems... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Whoa there!! I am doing a tournament: Thinker 5.4A vs Rybka 2.2n2 and on the 2nd game Thinker got a draw with Rybka's score at +5.00 in the endgame!! Thinker is waaaay good at tricking his opp into draws ;) I'll show you the game once the tournament is over! Thanks, SpiderG | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:14:03 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker's Gems... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Unbelivable domination agaist Giat Rybka!...Do watch this!! [Event "CCRL 40/40"] [Site "CCRL"] [Date "2008.11.21"] [Round "152.2.161"] [White "Thinker 5.3b Passive 64-bit"] [Black "Rybka 3 64-bit"] [Result "1-0"] [BlackElo "3153"] [WhiteElo "2870"] [TimeControl "60+2"] [Termination "normal"] [PlyCount "65"] [WhiteType "human"] [BlackType "human"] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 a6 5. e4 b5 6. e5 Nd5 7. a4 Bb7 8. e6 f6 9. Be2 Qd6 10. O-O Qxe6 11. Re1 Qc8 12. Nh4 Nd7 13. Bg4 Nb4 14. Re6 g6 15. Bd2 f5 16. Nxf5 gxf5 17. Bxf5 Rg8 18. Ne4 Bxe4 19. Qh5 Kd8 20. Bxe4 a5 21. axb5 Rb8 22. Qxh7 Rg7 23. Qf5 Rb6 24. Rxa5 Rxe6 25. Qxe6 Nb6 26. Qxc8 Kxc8 27. Bxb4 Rg8 28. Bc5 Kb8 29. Ra6 Kc8 30. Bxb6 cxb6 31. Rxb6 Kd7 32. Rb7 Kd6 33. Bf5 1-0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:07:46 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker's Gems... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Such Fantastic endgame you might haven't seen long time! [Event "CCRL 40/40"] [Site "CCRL"] [Date "2009.01.22"] [Round "159.1.80"] [White "Hiarcs 12.1 4CPU"] [Black "Thinker 5.4a Inert 64-bit 4CPU"] [Result "0-1"] [BlackElo "3005"] [Variation "closed, Bogolyubov variation"] [TimeControl "60+2"] [Termination "normal"] [PlyCount "82"] [WhiteType "human"] [BlackType "human"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3 O-O 9. d4 Bg4 10. Be3 Qd7 11. dxe5 dxe5 12. Qxd7 Bxd7 13. Nbd2 Bd6 14. Rad1 h6 15. Nh4 Be6 16. Nf5 Rfd8 17. f3 Bf8 18. Bxe6 fxe6 19. Ng3 a5 20. Nb3 Nd7 21. Nc1 b4 22. Nce2 a4 23. Nf1 bxc3 24. Nxc3 Nd4 25. Kh1 Bb4 26. a3 Bxc3 27. bxc3 Nc2 28. Re2 Nxa3 29. Red2 Nc4 30. Rxd7 Rxd7 31. Rxd7 a3 32. Rd1 a2 33. Ra1 Nxe3 34. Nxe3 Rb8 35. Rg1 Rb1 36. Nc2 Kf7 37. f4 exf4 38. Na1 Kf6 39. h3 Ke5 40. Kh2 Kxe4 41. c4 Kd3 0-1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:54:12 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker's Gems... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The knight trying to make suicide is really worth watch here... still shredder never toches it! [Event "CCRL 40/40"] [Site "CCRL"] [Date "2009.01.16"] [Round "158.2.45"] [White "Thinker 5.4a Inert 64-bit 4CPU"] [Black "Deep Shredder 11 64-bit 4CPU"] [Result "1-0"] [BlackElo "3018"] [Variation "Tarrasch, closed variation"] [WhiteElo "3005"] [TimeControl "60+2"] [Termination "normal"] [PlyCount "75"] [WhiteType "human"] [BlackType "human"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. c3 c5 6. f4 Nc6 7. Ndf3 Qb6 8. g3 cxd4 9. cxd4 Bb4 10. Kf2 g5 11. fxg5 Ndxe5 12. Nxe5 Nxe5 13. Kg2 Nc6 14. Nf3 Bd7 15. Bf4 Bf8 16. Qd2 Bg7 17. Be3 Qb4 18. Qf2 h6 19. Bd3 hxg5 20. Nxg5 f6 21. a3 Qb6 22. Rhf1 Ne7 23. Rae1 Qb3 24. Bb1 a5 25. Bd2 Ra6 26. Bc3 Rh6 27. Bd3 Rd6 28. Nf3 Rh8 29. Ne5 Qb6 30. b4 Qc7 31. Bd2 Rb6 32. b5 Rd6 33. Qf3 f5 34. Ng6 Rf8 35. Qh5 Rf6 36. Nxe7 Kxe7 37. Rxf5 Be8 38. Qg5 1-0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:49:16 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker's Gems... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| It is in the header Thinker 5.4a Inert 64-bit | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:45:28 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker's Gems... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This reminds me of KASPAROV... really worth to watch! [Event "CCRL 40/40"] [Site "CCRL"] [Date "2009.02.09"] [Round "161.1.997"] [White "Thinker 5.4a Inert 64-bit 4CPU"] [Black "Hiarcs 12 4CPU"] [Result "1-0"] [BlackElo "3004"] [Variation "Kan, 5.Nc3"] [WhiteElo "3005"] [TimeControl "60+2"] [Termination "normal"] [PlyCount "73"] [WhiteType "human"] [BlackType "human"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Nc3 b5 6. Bd3 Qb6 7. Nf3 Qc7 8. O-O Bb7 9. e5 f5 10. Re1 Nc6 11. Bxf5 exf5 12. Nd5 Qb8 13. e6 d6 14. Bg5 Be7 15. Nh4 g6 16. Bxe7 Ngxe7 17. Nf6 Kd8 18. c4 bxc4 19. Nf3 Kc7 20. b3 cxb3 21. Qxb3 h6 22. Rec1 Rf8 23. Nd7 Qa7 24. Rab1 Rg8 25. Qa4 Kd8 26. Rd1 Nc8 27. Nf6 Rf8 28. Qh4 Rb8 29. Nd7 g5 30. Qxh6 Re8 31. Qf6 Kc7 32. Nxg5 a5 33. Qxf5 Re7 34. Nf7 Qa6 35. Rdc1 Ra8 36. Nc5 Kb8 37. Nxa6 1-0 r3kbnr/1bqp2pp/p1n1p3/1p2Pp2/8/2NB1N2/PPP2PPP/R1BQR1K1 w kq - 2 11 what will you play as white here... ...n see what Thinker played! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:44:33 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker's Gems... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Which version of Thinker were you using? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:09:44 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker's Gems... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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this game is a GEM... you won't forget this...! [Event "CCRL 40/40"] [Site "CCRL"] [Date "2009.01.05"] [Round "156.2.314"] [White "Thinker 5.4a Inert 64-bit"] [Black "Stockfish 1.1a 64-bit"] [Result "1-0"] [Variation "Stoltz variation"] [TimeControl "60+2"] [Termination "normal"] [PlyCount "79"] [WhiteType "human"] [BlackType "human"] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 c6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Qc2 Bd6 7. Be2 O-O 8. O-O dxc4 9. Bxc4 b6 10. Rd1 Qc7 11. h3 Bb7 12. e4 e5 13. Be3 Rae8 14. Rac1 exd4 15. Nxd4 Nc5 16. f3 a5 17. a3 Nh5 18. Nce2 a4 19. Nf5 Bh2 20. Kh1 Bc8 21. Ned4 Be5 22. Rd2 Bd7 23. Rcd1 Bc8 24. Kg1 Bh2 25. Kf1 Be5 26. Qc1 Kh8 27. Qc2 Bxd4 28. Bxd4 Bxf5 29. exf5 Qh2 30. Bf2 Qh1 31. Bg1 g6 32. Kf2 Kg7 33. Rd4 b5 34. Bf1 Nb3 35. Re4 Rxe4 36. Qxe4 Kg8 37. g4 Nc5 38. Qe5 f6 39. Qe3 gxf5 40. Bg2 1-0 see the position in the end... 5rk1/7p/2p2p2/1pn2p1n/p5P1/P3QP1P/1P3KB1/3R2Bq b - - 1 40
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Thu, 12 Mar 2009 09:01:45 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker's Gems... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This is as if Anand is playing white here... [Event "CCRL 40/40"] [Site "CCRL"] [Date "2009.01.10"] [Round "159.1.757"] [White "Thinker 5.4a Inert 64-bit"] [Black "Fritz 11"] [Result "1-0"] [BlackElo "2960"] [Variation "classical with e4 and Nf3"] [TimeControl "60+2"] [Termination "normal"] [PlyCount "75"] [WhiteType "human"] [BlackType "human"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 e6 4. Nf3 exd5 5. cxd5 d6 6. Nc3 g6 7. e4 Bg7 8. h3 O-O 9. Bd3 Nbd7 10. O-O Re8 11. Re1 a6 12. a4 b6 13. Bc4 Qc7 14. Bg5 Bb7 15. Qd2 Rad8 16. Rad1 Rc8 17. Bf4 Nh5 18. Bh2 Ra8 19. g4 Nhf6 20. Re3 Rad8 21. Qd3 Ra8 22. Rde1 Bf8 23. Bg3 Qd8 24. e5 dxe5 25. Nxe5 Nxe5 26. Bxe5 Nd7 27. f4 Bh6 28. d6 a5 29. g5 Nxe5 30. Rxe5 Rxe5 31. Rxe5 Bg7 32. Re7 Bd4 33. Kf1 Ba6 34. Rxf7 Kh8 35. Bxa6 Qxd6 36. Qe4 Qd8 37. f5 Rxa6 38. Qb7 1-0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 12 Mar 2009 08:59:24 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker's Gems... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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I always like watch Thinker engine's wins... So I appeal to all 'Thinker-fans' please post Thinker fantastic victories you have came across ... I will start my-self 1. against Glaurung its play reminds me somehow as if Lasker is playing black here!...worth to watch! [Event "CCRL 40/40"] [Site "CCRL"] [Date "2008.12.30"] [Round "156.2.234"] [White "Glaurung 2.2 64-bit"] [Black "Thinker 5.4a Inert 64-bit"] [Result "0-1"] [Variation "Orthodox defence"] [WhiteElo "2876"] [TimeControl "60+2"] [Termination "normal"] [PlyCount "68"] [WhiteType "human"] [BlackType "human"] 1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bg5 O-O 6. e3 Nbd7 7. cxd5 exd5 8. Bd3 c6 9. O-O h6 10. Bh4 Ne4 11. Bxe7 Qxe7 12. Qc2 Re8 13. Ne2 Ng5 14. Nxg5 hxg5 15. Rac1 Nf6 16. Qb3 g6 17. Ng3 a5 18. Rc3 Kg7 19. Rfc1 Rh8 20. Qa3 Qc7 21. Bb1 Bd7 22. Qc5 Rh6 23. Rb3 Rah8 24. h3 Bxh3 25. e4 Bxg2 26. e5 a4 27. Rbc3 Rh2 28. f3 Bh1 29. R1c2 R2h3 30. Kf2 g4 31. Re2 Rxg3 32. Kxg3 Nh5 33. Kf2 Qd8 34. Ke1 Qh4 0-1 7r/1pqb1pk1/2p2npr/p1Qp2p1/3P4/1R2P1NP/PP3PP1/1BR3K1 b - - 0 24 7r/1pq2pk1/2p2npr/p1Qp2p1/3P4/1R2P1Nb/PP3PP1/1BR3K1 w - - 1 25 7r/1pq2pk1/2p2npr/p1Qp2p1/3PP3/1R4Nb/PP3PP1/1BR3K1 b - - 0 25 7r/1pq2pk1/2p2npr/p1Qp2p1/3PP3/1R4N1/PP3Pb1/1BR3K1 w - - 1 26
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Thu, 12 Mar 2009 08:57:11 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Re: ChessWar XIII A - Quel suspens....!!! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bonjour Thierry
Thinker est un module winboard (avec également sa propre interface) commencé en 2002 par Lance Perkins (Canada). Le projet est actuellement développé par Kerwin (je n'ai pas son nom complet sous la main). La page est ici : http://www.geocities.com/thechessthinker/ Olivier Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t369-ChessWar-XIII-A-Quel-suspens.htm?p=853 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:04:51 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Another Thinker (54D) released | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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I don't think I am going to use the Thinker 5.4D version. I don't think that Lance is very happy about it. It is not supposed to be public. Thanks, SpiderG | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:18:30 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Another Thinker (54D) released | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Is it even better than Thinker 5.4C? It is just one letter replaced... I wonder if I should even bother switching it in my tournaments? Thanks | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:14:00 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Another Thinker (54D) released | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I got it here http://cid-2991af457de54bf0.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/Thinker54D.zip?wa=wsignin1.0&sa=216941331 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:06:43 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Another Thinker (54D) released | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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in http://www.geocities.com/thechessthinker/download.html I still find 54C. Where did you find the D? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:28:16 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Re: ChessWar XIII A - Quel suspens....!!! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ce tournoi chesswar 13 , regroupant les meilleurs logiciels actuels est vraiment interessant ..et instructif .! j'apprecie particulierement la présence de vieux programmes aux cotés des plus recents , car cela permet d'avoir à l'esprit une hierarchie " temporelle" au fil des années . Je croyais connaitre au moins de nom les principaux programmes , et je suis surpris de découvrir un inconnu pour moi classé à la 3 eme place : THINKER . je ne connais pas du tout ce programme, est ce un programme recent , amateur ? commercial ? ses auteurs sont connus ? dérive t il d'un autre logiciel ( comme fruit ou crafty ou meme rybka 1 ?) j'ai bien regardé la page de telechargement du programme , mais je n'ai pas trouvé d'infos sur " la vie " de ce programme. Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t369-ChessWar-XIII-A-Quel-suspens.htm?p=851 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:34:26 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thinker Testing Tournament! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Yeah, Thinker may ignore when the GUI tells it to not ponder, so just check that it isn't doing it, just in case. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 10 Mar 2009 04:49:23 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sunday of a Thousand Shotguns | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| As befitting Australia's capital city, Canberra has been the home of some of the finest political thinkers in the country. And before he gave up politics for chess, Ian Rout was one of those thinkers. Thirty years ago, Ian was one of the people behind the "Deadly Serious Party", which contested a number of local government elections. While the DSP might not have formed government in their own right, they did have at least one policy which was very popular with the voting public. Canberra is a "garden city", with a large number of trees throughout the city and suburbs. Indeed it is commonly known as "The Bush Capital", although usage of that term seems to have declined over the last 8 years. Now along with trees comes birds, especially magpies. Now magpies are very protective of their young, and every spring large numbers of magpies would begin swooping the residents of Canberra, as a method of protecting their nests. While this is perfectly understandable from a magpies point of view, it annoyed large numbers of Canberran's. The policy suggestion from the DSP was that everyone over the age of 18 on one day of the year be issued with a shotgun and deal with the problem in the obvious way. This policy was known as "The Sunday of a Thousand Shotguns". It was never implemented as public policy, mainly because the DSP never got elected to anything, but the need for the policy hasn't completely gone away. The tree covered beer garden where we play Street Chess every Saturday is also home to an aggressive flock of magpies, who spend most of their time scavenging food from the tables, and regurgitating it from a great height. The bombing tally from today included the side of my head, the tournament pairing cards, one player who happened to be in time trouble at the time, and at least one other chess set. Attempts to deal with the problem by applying anti-magpie spikes to areas where they congregate have proved unsuccessful, leaving me to think that the DSP may need to make a comeback at the next ACT Government election. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 07 Mar 2009 12:34:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIII A : classement après la ronde 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIII A 40c/30'
Classement après la ronde 8 sur 15 Les modules classés 1er à 6e sont promus dans ChessWar XIII A Les modules classés 37e à 50e sont relégués dans ChessWar XIV C Toutes les parties sont transmises en direct sur chesswar.dyndns.org port 16043. Pour savoir comment se connecter et pour des information générales sur ChessWar, consultez le site du tournoi : http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/indexfr.htm Olivier Code:
Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t359-ChessWar-XIII-A-classement-apres-la-ronde-8.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:43:15 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIII A : classement après la ronde 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIII A 40c/30'
Classement après la ronde 4 sur 15 Les modules classés 1er à 6e sont promus dans ChessWar XIII A Les modules classés 37e à 50e sont relégués dans ChessWar XIV C Toutes les parties sont transmises en direct sur chesswar.dyndns.org port 16043. Pour savoir comment se connecter et pour des information générales sur ChessWar, consultez le site du tournoi : http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/indexfr.htm Olivier Code:
Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t356-ChessWar-XIII-A-classement-apres-la-ronde-4.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:51:20 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIII A : liste des participants | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIII A 40c/40'
Système suisse, 15 rondes Liste des participants Le module classé premier est Champion Le premier module non commercial est Champion Amateur Les modules classés 25e à 30e sont relégués dans ChessWar XIV B Les classements de plusieurs modules (Rybka, Naum, etc) sont ceux des versions prédécentes. Crafty 22.10 ne supporte pas la cadence 40/40. En attendant la prochaine version, j'utilise celle d'il y a 6 mois. Les parties commencent aujourd'hui! Retransmission de la ronde 1 à partir de 10h (chesswar.dyndns.org port 16043). Plus d'infos sur le tournoi et comment se connecter aux transmissions : http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/indexfr.htm Olivier Code:
Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t348-ChessWar-XIII-A-liste-des-participants.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:19:40 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chess Grandmasters at the Davos conference | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| As the World Economic Forum held its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, two chess grandmasters weighed in on the crisis that has hit the economies of industrialised nations. One was Chess World Champion Vishy Anand, the other one of the leading economic thinkers in the world, Ken Rogoff – who in his day was listed in 40th place in the world chess rankings. Articles and videos. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIII B : classement final | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIII B 40c/30'
Classement final après la ronde 11 Les modules classés 1er à 6e sont promus dans ChessWar XIII A Les modules classés 37e à 50e sont relégués dans ChessWar XIV C Toutes les parties sont transmises en direct sur chesswar.dyndns.org port 16043. Pour savoir comment se connecter et pour des information générales sur ChessWar, consultez le site du tournoi : http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/indexfr.htm Olivier Code:
Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t343-ChessWar-XIII-B-classement-final.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 01 Feb 2009 20:45:02 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Stupid Bowl: When A Win Feels Like A Loss | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I was rooting for the Pittsburgh Steelers to win the "Super" Bowl over the Arizona Cardinals, and win they did - barely - by a 27-23 score. Yet their players consistently exhibited such stupid and undisciplined behavior in the game that I find myself unable to enjoy the victory. Why is it so hard for professionals to behave like professionals? Any one or any team can lose a competition. The opponent can be stronger or in better form, may have achieved an edge in preparation - you name it. And we all make mistakes. It's painful, though, to see a loss that results from self-inflicted stupidity. There's a lot we can't control, but we shouldn't allow ourselves to falter over areas where we do have control. The chess lesson? Here's one. When you lose games, think not only about the particular chess reason why the game got away, but about what kind of error you made. Categorize it. In Edmar Mednis's book How to Beat Bobby Fischer, he presents all of Fischer's losses (in serious games) from 1958-1972 and creates a brief taxonomy of losing factors. Sometimes Fischer lost because he tried too hard to win and sometimes he was careless, but usually he was simply outplayed. What about us? It's a good exercise to think about how we lose games - what are the trends there? (Alex Yermolinsky has a good discussion of this in The Road To Chess Improvement.) If one is outplayed, that's fine. As Fischer said after a loss to Spassky in 1992, sometimes you give the lesson and sometimes you get one. If the culprit isn't the opponent so much as ourselves, then we have something serious to work on. I've known players who shrug off losses by saying that their opponent was lucky. That's a good coping strategy during a tournament, and it may even be true that the opponent was lucky. But a person who is consistently losing games and "explaining" them as bad luck is going to continue losing games he shouldn't. So what's the real explanation? If one tends to underestimate the opponent, then cultivate a more respectful attitude. Huge upsets are possible in chess and happen on a regular basis. One strategy is to get into the habit of asking what one's opponent is up to, what the point of their last move happened to be. If the problem is time trouble, there are ways of combating that too. If it's regularly blowing endgames, study endgames. In short, one should strive to be a meta-thinker - someone who thinks about one's thinking. (And not only about one's mistakes and weaknesses, but about one's strengths, too, as well as the opponent's strengths and weaknesses.) Of course, this is a great lesson outside of chess, too, but that's a sermon for another day. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
2009-02-02T04:02+00:00 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIII B : classement après la ronde 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIII B 40c/30'
Classement après la ronde 8 sur 11 Les modules classés 1er à 6e sont promus dans ChessWar XIII A Les modules classés 37e à 50e sont relégués dans ChessWar XIV C Toutes les parties sont transmises en direct sur chesswar.dyndns.org port 16043. Pour savoir comment se connecter et pour des information générales sur ChessWar, consultez le site du tournoi : http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/indexfr.htm Olivier Code:
Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t336-ChessWar-XIII-B-classement-apres-la-ronde-8.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 25 Jan 2009 06:28:31 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pocket Grandmaster | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bonjour,
Je cherche a telecharger le programme pour pocket pc 'Pocket Grandmaster' sur le site de Pocketgrandmaster.com depuis deux jours (depuis le Perou) mais le lien ne semble plus fonctionner. Si quelqu'un a un tuyau? J'en profite pour signaler que Naum 4 est sorti justement chez Pocket Grandmaster et risque de rendre la vie dure a Hiarcs 12.1. Premiers tests de Hiarcs 12.1 CEBoard contre Thinker 30 min 4 gb hash : 7.5-2.5 contre Toga 1.3.1 sur Pocket Fritz 3: 7.5-2.5 contre Toga 1.4.1SE sur Pocket Fritz 3: 6-4 (match tres serre et interessant) victoire donc chaque fois pour Hiarcs. PGN sera disponible dans quelques jours ou semaines sur votre site favori. Pour le moment donc je cherche a acquerir desesperement Pocket Grandmaster mais le lien vers le site semble coupe. Votre serviteur, Paul De Man. Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t333-Pocket-Grandmaster.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 22 Jan 2009 22:00:17 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIII B : classement après la ronde 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIII B 40c/30'
Classement après la ronde 4 sur 11 Les modules classés 1er à 6e sont promus dans ChessWar XIII A Les modules classés 37e à 50e sont relégués dans ChessWar XIV C Toutes les parties sont transmises en direct sur chesswar.dyndns.org port 16043. Pour savoir comment se connecter et pour des information générales sur ChessWar, consultez le site du tournoi : http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/indexfr.htm Olivier Code:
Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t319-ChessWar-XIII-B-classement-apres-la-ronde-4.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:20:35 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIII B : liste des participants | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ChessWar XIII B 40c/30'
Système suisse, 11 rondes Liste des participants Les modules classés 1er à 6e sont promus dans ChessWar XIII A Les modules classés 51e à 70e sont relégués dans ChessWar XIV C Les parties commencent aujourd'hui! Retransmission de la ronde 1 à partir de 10h (chesswar.dyndns.org port 16043). Plus d'infos sur le tournoi et comment se connecter aux transmissions : http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/indexfr.htm Olivier Code:
Message: http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/t308-ChessWar-XIII-B-liste-des-participants.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 04 Jan 2009 07:43:09 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The surge of Jamaican Chess | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Ministry of Education Jamaicans Encouraged to Play Chess By: Don Dobson KINGSTON(JIS):Wednesday, December 17, 2008 As Christmas approaches, a number of youngsters may be wishing for gift-wrapped packages of popular electronic games such as Wii, Play Station, or X-box under their Christmas trees. But there is one board game, which not only provides hours of entertainment, but exercises the mind and brings a sense of satisfaction for both the victor and the loser. This is the battle of wits known as chess. "The game of chess is a battle of wits so to speak, where two persons try to outthink each other. It is a board game in which each person starts with 16 pieces - 8 pawns, 2 rooks, 2 bishops, 2 knights, a king and a queen," President of the Jamaica Chess Federation Attorney-at-Law Ian Wilkinson, explains in an interview with JIS News. He says that "the objective of chess is to checkmate the king and you do this using various strategies, tactics and techniques. This is how you get to use your pieces. Once you checkmate the king, which is priceless, it is the most valuable piece, the game is at an end and you win". The word checkmate in the English Language means to defeat someone or put them in a position where they are helpless. Mr. Wilkinson states that contrary to popular belief, one does not have to be brilliant or bright to play the game of chess. "Even though chess is a thinker's game, it's not very hard. A lot of people sometimes think that only brilliant or bright people have to play chess. It's not so at all", he affirms. "I keep telling people that chess makes you brighter or better, it's not the other way around. Clearly, if you are very gifted in terms of a good memory that is going to help, not just in chess, but with anything...however playing chess helps to make you into a better thinker". Far from being just a board game, chess is actually a competitive sport with its own Olympic tournament, which occurs every two years under the auspices of governing body, Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE). At the recently concluded 38th Olympiad in Dresden, Germany, Jamaica recorded its best ever performance. "We tied at 64th position with a number of other countries and so we did exceedingly well because we are amateur players", Mr. Wilkinson informs, noting that the country finished some 50 places above Caribbean neighbours Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados. "The highest we were supposed to finish based on our rating is 104. We created a bit of a stir as we beat countries with International Masters and Grand Masters," he boasts. In the game of chess, apart from World Champion, Grand Master and International Master are the next two highest titles that a chess player can attain. Two of the teams with such players that Jamaica defeated were Palestine and Yemen. Mr. Wilkinson notes however that if Jamaica is to continue to develop local talent and improve upon future performances, then there are a number of things that must be put in place. "We need sponsorship, we need a steady programme, where we have a full time coach," he says, pointing out that "we could even get someone very good from Cuba, which has a lot of Grand and International Masters and strong chess players". He notes further that Jamaica needs "an infrastructure to be put in place so that there is a steady feeding-tree of players into chess and therefore it is going to be viewed as a real national sporting event and not just something that people do by the way". An official headquarters is needed, he says, in addition to funding to increase the exposure of players by allowing them to travel to international tournaments or to bring players to the island. Mr. Wilkinson emphasises that it is not a coincidence that Jamaica's best performer at the Olympiad, Jomo Pitterson, who went undefeated, travelled and competed against a number of high quality players in the past couple of years. "Jomo travelled in 2007 and played chess and he beat Grand Masters and drew with International Masters. He performed very well and he was Jamaica's player of the year in 2007. It's no surprise that in 2008, he was our best performer at the Olympics. Jomo had a lot of exposure; he was playing top notch players," he remarks, noting that players often have to pay out of their own pockets to play abroad. Despite all the constraints, Mr. Wilkinson says that game of chess in Jamaica is in the healthiest state that it has ever been. "In fact, I like to call this period the golden age of Jamaican chess," he gushes, while highlighting that since he became President of the Federation, there has been a significant increase in membership. "When I first became president in 2003 I remember a tournament was held and the total number of participants in that tournament was like 35. That similar tournament we held in 2007 and the total number of participants was approximately 200, so it has gone up significantly," he says. In the meantime, Mr. Wilkinson says that if persons need another incentive to play the game other than having fun and developing one's intellectual capacity, they would be wise to take note of the health benefits to be derived. "Tests have shown that children or people who play chess hardly ever suffer brain diseases later down in life, degenerative brain diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's," he informs. He cites a test of 4,000 to 5,000 chess players, done a few months ago in Spain, and "only two or three, believe me, showed any signs of Alzheimer's or any such illnesses and they did similar tests with thousands of other people that did not play chess and if you saw the numbers. A whole lot of people showed signs of the aforementioned diseases." Based on these findings, the Chess Federation President says: "they made the correlation that when you play chess you use certain parts of your brain, which normally help to retard the development of those diseases". Source: http://www.jis.gov.jm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:06:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The surge of Jamaican Chess | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ministry of Education Jamaicans Encouraged to Play Chess By: Don Dobson KINGSTON(JIS):Wednesday, December 17, 2008 As Christmas approaches, a number of youngsters may be wishing for gift-wrapped packages of popular electronic games such as Wii, Play Station, or X-box under their Christmas trees. But there is one board game, which not only provides hours of entertainment, but exercises the mind and brings a sense of satisfaction for both the victor and the loser. This is the battle of wits known as chess. "The game of chess is a battle of wits so to speak, where two persons try to outthink each other. It is a board game in which each person starts with 16 pieces - 8 pawns, 2 rooks, 2 bishops, 2 knights, a king and a queen," President of the Jamaica Chess Federation Attorney-at-Law Ian Wilkinson, explains in an interview with JIS News. He says that "the objective of chess is to checkmate the king and you do this using various strategies, tactics and techniques. This is how you get to use your pieces. Once you checkmate the king, which is priceless, it is the most valuable piece, the game is at an end and you win". The word checkmate in the English Language means to defeat someone or put them in a position where they are helpless. Mr. Wilkinson states that contrary to popular belief, one does not have to be brilliant or bright to play the game of chess. "Even though chess is a thinker's game, it's not very hard. A lot of people sometimes think that only brilliant or bright people have to play chess. It's not so at all", he affirms. "I keep telling people that chess makes you brighter or better, it's not the other way around. Clearly, if you are very gifted in terms of a good memory that is going to help, not just in chess, but with anything...however playing chess helps to make you into a better thinker". Far from being just a board game, chess is actually a competitive sport with its own Olympic tournament, which occurs every two years under the auspices of governing body, Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE). At the recently concluded 38th Olympiad in Dresden, Germany, Jamaica recorded its best ever performance. "We tied at 64th position with a number of other countries and so we did exceedingly well because we are amateur players", Mr. Wilkinson informs, noting that the country finished some 50 places above Caribbean neighbours Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados. "The highest we were supposed to finish based on our rating is 104. We created a bit of a stir as we beat countries with International Masters and Grand Masters," he boasts. In the game of chess, apart from World Champion, Grand Master and International Master are the next two highest titles that a chess player can attain. Two of the teams with such players that Jamaica defeated were Palestine and Yemen. Mr. Wilkinson notes however that if Jamaica is to continue to develop local talent and improve upon future performances, then there are a number of things that must be put in place. "We need sponsorship, we need a steady programme, where we have a full time coach," he says, pointing out that "we could even get someone very good from Cuba, which has a lot of Grand and International Masters and strong chess players". He notes further that Jamaica needs "an infrastructure to be put in place so that there is a steady feeding-tree of players into chess and therefore it is going to be viewed as a real national sporting event and not just something that people do by the way". An official headquarters is needed, he says, in addition to funding to increase the exposure of players by allowing them to travel to international tournaments or to bring players to the island. Mr. Wilkinson emphasises that it is not a coincidence that Jamaica's best performer at the Olympiad, Jomo Pitterson, who went undefeated, travelled and competed against a number of high quality players in the past couple of years. "Jomo travelled in 2007 and played chess and he beat Grand Masters and drew with International Masters. He performed very well and he was Jamaica's player of the year in 2007. It's no surprise that in 2008, he was our best performer at the Olympics. Jomo had a lot of exposure; he was playing top notch players," he remarks, noting that players often have to pay out of their own pockets to play abroad. Despite all the constraints, Mr. Wilkinson says that game of chess in Jamaica is in the healthiest state that it has ever been. "In fact, I like to call this period the golden age of Jamaican chess," he gushes, while highlighting that since he became President of the Federation, there has been a significant increase in membership. "When I first became president in 2003 I remember a tournament was held and the total number of participants in that tournament was like 35. That similar tournament we held in 2007 and the total number of participants was approximately 200, so it has gone up significantly," he says. In the meantime, Mr. Wilkinson says that if persons need another incentive to play the game other than having fun and developing one's intellectual capacity, they would be wise to take note of the health benefits to be derived. "Tests have shown that children or people who play chess hardly ever suffer brain diseases later down in life, degenerative brain diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's," he informs. He cites a test of 4,000 to 5,000 chess players, done a few months ago in Spain, and "only two or three, believe me, showed any signs of Alzheimer's or any such illnesses and they did similar tests with thousands of other people that did not play chess and if you saw the numbers. A whole lot of people showed signs of the aforementioned diseases." Based on these findings, the Chess Federation President says: "they made the correlation that when you play chess you use certain parts of your brain, which normally help to retard the development of those diseases". Source: http://www.jis.gov.jm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
2008-12-18T10:06:00.001-06:00 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bukhuti Gurgenidze 1933-2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A few weeks ago I learned from a Chessbase article that chess legend Bukhuti Gurgenidze was dead. Although a very strong player he was more noted as an original chess thinker and a trainer for several women world champions. Below is a game he played in one of the opening lines that are named after him. Actually he didn't play it very frequently himself but his student Nona Gaprindashvili did. Honfi - Gurgenidze, Kislovodsk 1968 1.e4 g6 Gurgenidze also played the Caro Kann version of his defence: 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 g6!? 4.e5 (4.h3!? Nh6 5.Nf3 f6 was a Gaprindashvili specialty) when 4...h5 may be better than 4...Bg7. However, when he played that opening he seemed to prefer another pet variation: 3...b5!? 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c6 This is the characteristic move of the Gurgenidze system. 4.f4 d5 In contrast to many other lines of the Modern, Black immediately claims a foothold in the centre. 5.e5 h5! (Dia)  I met this defence in one of my first tournament games and was convinced that Black had gone mad. But only 10 moves later I was very happy to accept a draw offer; I simply could find no active plan.6.Nf3 Nh6! Black is breaking all the rules but he has a plan: He wants to block White's pawns on the dark squares in order to gain total dominance of the light squares. 7.Be3 Bg4 8.Be2 e6 Quite frequently Black tries to hold back this move as ...Nd7-f8-e6 can be an interesting option. 9.Qd2 Nd7 10.0–0–0 b5 11.h3 Bxf3 12.Bxf3 h4 13.Bf2 (Dia)  13...Bf8 This move occurs surprisingly frequently in this system - the bishop is biting on granite and needs to change diagonal to find active opportunities. Consequently Black has been investigating move-orders where the bishop never leaves f8. I already have mentioned the Caro-Kann version. A paradoxical option is the so-called 'Accelerated Gurgenidze' 1.e4 g6 2.d4 d6 3.Nc3 c6 4.f4 d5?!?. Black's idea is that while he loses a tempo on ...d6-d5 he saves two by not playing ...Bf8-g7-f8. As far as I know it's now considered close to refuted but I will have to check that more closely. 14.Ne2 Nf5 This knight is the pride of Black's position. 15.Kb1 Nb6 16.Bg4 Nc4 17.Qe1 a5 18.Bxf5 gxf5 19.Ng1 Bb4 20.Qe2 a4 21.Nf3 (Dia)  21...Bc3! Even modern software needs some thinking time to appreciate this move. It's easier for Black than for White to bring his troops to the queenside. 22.bxc3 Qe7 23.Be3 b4 There is no way to stop Black opening the b-file against White's king. 24.Qe1 b3 25.cxb3 axb3 26.Bc1 Rxa2 27.Rd2 Qa7 0–1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:33:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chess Book Covers Revolutionized | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Thinkers' Press announces a new book on the Colle Zukertort. The cover and the title "Zuke 'Em, The Colle-Zukertort Revolutionized" certainly promise something special. I have found no high resolution picture so it's hard to judge the artistic quality but the book certainly will stand out in my book shelves. Only Basman's "The Killer Grob" (Pergamon 1991) may stand up in comparison. Probably the best book on the Zukertort (and some complementary lines) is Aaron Summerscale's "A Killer Opening Repertoire". I really wonder what exactly Summerscale means when he admits that Rudel "solved a problem that had vexed him" and says that he is "Very impressed by the sheer amount of brain power." Could this actually be a good book? Until further notice I remain sceptical about the content as in this case the playing strength of the author seems to be a legitimate concern. No matter what the book actually delivers, the Zukertort in my opinion is a valid try for a small pull with White - at least against set-ups with an early ...e6. I have played the system myself on occasion and have my own small ideas about White's optimal move-orders - but I honestly don't see the potential for a Zukertort Revolution. Addendum May 29th. There now is an ad for the book at Chessco's homepage. Many big words but not that much new information. I replaced the previous picture with one with a higher resolution. Addendum June 1st. In a comment (below) the author, David Rudel, points to the book's website which contains a lot of excerpts from the book. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mon, 26 May 2008 08:34:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Review: Philosophy Looks at Chess | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Let me start by telling you how to judge a non-fiction book in ten seconds: you simply look up your heroes, i.e. favourite writers, chess players, philosophers etc. in the index, and see how many ‘hits’ you score. It’s simple, but very effective, especially if you don’t know the author(s). When I read a book on philosophy and chess, I want it to at least mention Jonathan Rowson’s book Chess for Zebras. I want it to discuss Dennett’s and Searle’s views on artificial intelligence. I want it to mention Kasparov and Deep Blue and Rybka or Fritz. And hey, let’s toss in some Plato as well. Otherwise, it’s simply not a book on philosophy and chess. In fact, all of these names are indeed mentioned in Philosophy Looks at Chess (published this year by Open Court Publishing) and this made me a fairly happy man within ten seconds … all of them, except two: the Dutch writer Tim Krabbé, and the father of the phrase that ends this review. Several authors, including the editor, have failed to mention Krabbé’s monumental work Chess Curiosities (1985) which deals, among much else, with retrograde chess analysis and computer chess – two topics that are also discussed extensively in the book we’re discussing here. Indeed, the first essay, written by Bernd Graefrath, is about retrograde chess. In brisk and crystal-clear prose, and with equally effective examples, the author introduces us to the ideas of the logician Raymond Smullyan, who has composed many retrograde problems to illustrate crucial philosophical questions, such as: can something be true yet unproveable? Well, using retrograde analysis, this has indeed be shown in brilliant and funny way by Smullyan. It’s a great and highly accessible article to start with, and serves as a nice appetizer for the rest of the book. As could be expected, most articles in the volume deal with computer chess and artificial intelligence. I guess one of the problems the authors of these articles had to overcome is that there has been written so much about it already. The articles by Andy Miah and Tama Coutts are pretty good, but also pretty technical. They deal wiith questions such as: is chess suitable as an indication of machine intelligence, and is there a difference between how humans and machines understand chess? Important ideas like the Turing Test, the importance of the Kasparov-Deep Blue matches, weak and strong Artificial Intelligence and the Chinese room argument are explained nicely. Another good overview article is Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen’s ‘who’s who’ of philosophy and chess (or, more generally: games). What did philosophers like Saussure, Wittgenstein and Habermas have to say about chess? For anyone who’s always wanted to know, this is the article to read. However, I should also mention that in all these three essays, I somehow missed a ’spicy’ bit of love for the game, which was definitely present in Graefrath’s article.  Kasparov playing with 3D glasses against the program X3D Fritz | Photo © Owen Williams On the other hand, John Hartmann’s love for the game and the practical problems that players have to deal with in everyday chess life is undeniable. His article (with the great title Garry Kasparov Is A Cyborg) elaborates on the idea that ever since we started using chess engines to analyse our games and – most vividly – to prepare our novelties, we have all really changed. When Kasparov unleashed his partly Fritz-based home preparation upon Anand in the 10th match game of their 1995 World Championship match, that wasn’t really Kasparov playing – it was a, well, a kind of cyborg. What I like about Hartmann’s approach is his down-to-earth style of writing about chess. He gives several simple and recognizable examples from his own experience and still manages to cram a lot of philosophical ideas into his article, as well as a good overview of John Watson’s and Jacob Aagaard’s recent ideas on modern chess. I now come to the two ‘heaviest’ essays in the book – sometimes a bit too heavy if you ask me, but hey, what’s a philosophy book without difficult sentences and references to people you’ve never heard of? Let’s start with the article that had me gripped despite the occasional lack of understanding: Prof. Evan Selinger’s article on ‘Chess-playing computers and embodied grandmasters‘.  The character Max von Sydow playing chess against Death in Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal Selinger compares two existential depictions of chess: one from Hubert Dreyfuss (who was introduced to us already by John Hartmann) and one from the movie director Ingmar Bergman (in his movie The Seventh Seal). Selinger’s general point is clear enough: playing against another human is different from playing against a machine. The reason is that humans also play against themselves (who hasn’t hated himself after a stupidly lost game?), and also against nature (not only because humans are mortal, and therefore time is an important factor in chess, but also because humans are biological entities which evolved to react to things like body language and so on.) Well, you should really read the article yourself. It took me quite some time to appreciate it, but even when I didn’t understand everything, I still liked the way Selinger illustrates his ideas not only with ‘learned’ philosophical theories but also with concrete and modern examples, for instance Jennifer Shahade’s book Chess Bitch and psychologist Malcolm Gladwell’s best-seller Blink. The article I had most problems with, was Bill Martin’s ambitiously titled The Difficult Ways of God and Caïssa: Chess, Theodicy, and Determinism in Gadamar. This essay was simply one bridge too far for me. While I felt Martin does make some good and interesting points, he just tried to write about too much in this article. In fact, I sometimes got the idea he seemed to want to incorporate all of philosophy in his article. His name-dropping really got to me at some point, not to mention his overlong sentences and his many ‘asides’. Here’s an example:
You still there? Further on, we get musings like these:
At this point I desperately started searching where I had missed the introduction of the concepts of ‘the good and the beautiful’, but I found nothing. I’m not saying Martin doesn’t have a point (I think his point is that if chess cannot be ’solved’ by calculations, then ‘absurd’ moves which are still good, are a real possibility, and so there can be a kind of ‘godly justice’ in chess!), but I wonder how many readers will follow his argument until the end, even if he sometimes does make nice points. On a more serious note, I have the feeling Martin’s theories are not only vague, but simply based on a wrong assumption of how chess works. For instance, he gives the example of a player opening with an theoretically ‘absurd’ opening move (1.h3), who nevertheless wins the game. If I understand Martin correctly, he thinks that winning the game could somehow tell us something about the perceived absurdity of this opening move. This is clearly incorrect: winning (i.e. a practical game) is completely irrelevant since any chess game is full of mistakes. Only analysis can really tell us anything about the absurdity or correctness of a move. This may sound futile, but Martin stresses this practical winning of a game time and again. Perhaps I’m being unfair to Martin and readers can point out what I’m missing in this article? Finally, I found Martin’s ‘name dropping’ of (of all people) Eric Schiller as ‘renowned opening specialist’ a bit embarrassing, to say the least. To find Schiller’s name in the company of – in the same article! – names like Socrates, Wittgenstein, Bach, Fischer and, indeed, God himself, is really more than I can handle. It would go too far to discuss all essays in the book, but I just have to mention two more. First, by far the funniest (and weirdest) essay in the book. It’s written by Tommy J. Curry, who does research in ‘critical race theory’ and ‘africana philosophy’, and is about … chess and hip-hop. I agreed with virtually nothing in his article (I can’t imagine any sensible person who would) but that’s just a minor point really. His description of, for instance, the ‘Black players on the south of Chicago’ is simply hilarious, and, well, so are his theories about race and chess psychology. This article is a huge relief after the tough theories of Martin and Selinger!  Stuart Rachels Okay, I’ve saved the best for last. Stuart Rachels’ essay The Reviled Art is a real gem. It’s a personal story about Rachels’ love for chess, his experience in the U.S. chess scene and his ideas about beauty and justice in chess, and its (lack of) popularity to the ‘great public’. I don’t think it really qualifies as a ‘philosophical’ essay (it has more of a cultural-sociologicial critique) but who cares what it’s about if it’s so well written? His analysis of the U.S. chess climate (’our country’s deeply engrained anti-intellectualism’) seems pretty accurate to me, and here’s what he has to say about boxing:
I cannot resist to toss in a few more quotes from Rachels:
How I love writers like Rachels who can not only write well and clearly, but who can also make a deeper point without sounding pompous or using difficult words. In Philosophy Looks At Chess, many deep points are made, and most articles are extremely well and clearly written. This book is highly recommended to anyone who is interested in chess – not as a sport, not even only as an art. But as a way to think about life, the universe, and everything. Link: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:11:17 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| We don’t like to show off, but… | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
“This is simply a great opening book (..) I prefer to delve deep into the IDEAS of this beautiful opening, and I can’t think of a better guide than Viktor Moskalenko.” Arne Moll, ChessVibes “This volume has opened my eyes to numerous new ideas and possibilities. It is the most interesting English-language opening book I have seen for years.” Steve Giddins, author of ‘50 Ways to Win at Chess’ “The book has all the right ingredients: lots of explanations of typical plans and problems, relevant and recent game citations, original analysis, some statistics, chapter summaries, lists of relevant ideas and other occasional bells and whistles (..) An excellent book.” Dennis Monokroussos, Chess Today “The book simply sparkles with origial ideas and has convinced me to start playing the French again.” John Anderson, Correspondence Chess Magazine “Be glad I didn’t publish this book or I would have charged you $40 for it!” Bob Long, Thinkers Press Make a great move, have a look here. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:06:35 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Philosophy and Chess | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
* Do chess players think in words? This book will definitely give you some food for thought with chapters on technology, ethics, hip-hop and backward analysis. For a list of authors and more information, check our website. A book with almost the same title but quite a different content is The Philosophy of Chess, a 2007 reprint of an 1857 original by William Cluley. Here you can find a long essay on the mid-19th century thinking on chess and on contemporary chess openings, mainly king’s pawn openings. More information here. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:59:30 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Top Five Chess Blogs (That Aren't Chessvine) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| On Franco Romagnoli's Facebook Group called "Chess Bloggers" (which may predate my efforts in the venue but hasn't been very active due no doubt to Franco's lack of time) Franco posted his personal list of top five chess blogs. http://www.chessbase.com/ http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com http://www.chessdom.com/ http://www.chessvibes.com/ http://www.echecs.com/ I think this list is probably correct although I must admit my ignorance of echecs (which is no doubt more European focused than other chess sites ... I'd probably put the Streatham & Brixton blog as number five ... but some might disagree). Franco has asked me to take over Admin duties for his group and I reluctantly accepted. I had hoped that the presence of two groups on facebook might create the grounds of a friendly competition but that may not be agrreable if I become the head Admin of both groups. Anyway, I don't know what I'll do with my newfound powers but I'm thinking it's coming time to start the carnival back up again and I have a base of operations complete with 250 members. I'm a devious thinker ... it's why I love chess. 
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| Chess Psychology | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 More recent research has focused on the respective roles of knowledge and look-ahead search; brain imaging studies of chess masters and novices; blindfold chess; the role of personality and intelligence in chess skill, gender differences, and computational models of chess expertise. In addition, the role of practice and talent in the development of chess and other domains of expertise has led to a lot of research recently. Ericsson and colleagues have argued that deliberate practice is sufficient for reaching high levels of expertise, like master in chess. However, more recent research indicates that factors other than practice are important. For example, Gobet and colleagues have shown that stronger players start playing chess earlier, that they are more likely to be left-handed, and that they are more likely to be born in late winter and early spring. source | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
2008-01-11T00:08:00.000-08:00 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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On doit normalement les trouver sur Talkchess (j'avais vu l'info de la part de testeurs sur ce site ...)
From time to time on this site I have tried to discuss chess from a philosophical point of view. No wonder: chess is very often the subject of philosophical discussions. In the past, famous philosophers like Rousseau and Wittgenstein have used chess in their thinking. In the recent book Philosophy Looks at Chess (edited by Benjamin Hale) twelve contemporary professional thinkers discuss various aspects of our royal game.
This is what some of the critics had to say about 
