TL41 Starts in January 2010

I just read that TL41 starts in January 2010. If you are currently on a team in the U1800 section and need a player, please post a comment letting me know.

If any of you want to start a team in the U1800 section, let me know ... maybe there is enough interest to form a team before January.

*Update*
Farbror the Guru would love to form a team. That makes two. Are there at least two more who'd like to join?

A Glimmer

Maybe there is a glimmer of hope for the Knights. I just read at Blue Devil's blog of a person requesting to join the Knights.

Check him out at smiteknight.blogspot.com.

Nerd Factor and Chess

Half Sigma discusses chess and the nerd factor in his post today. He cites the Peter Principle (or perhaps more accurate the Peter Rule) which is "non-athletic activities which only men participate in, yet are not viewed as traditionally masculaine, are the nerdiest activities."

From my experience, I agree that non-athletic, male-dominated, non-traditionally-masculine activities are nerdy. I also think an activity is nerdy if it has no real economic, pratical or intelligent value.

True, the argument could be made that many board games and computer games have some intelligent value, but I think chess tends to be associated with greater value than D&D and MMORPGs. And the reason I think that chess has the greater value is because in chess, you the player control all the pieces and are in charge of all operations, strategy and tactics on the board. In D&D and MMORPGs, you are one of many players and relinquish the "big picture". In chess, you're above the fray and not so caught up in the game while in D&D and MMORPGs you could get lost in time and reality.

And maybe that is another factor in the nerd factor: how detached are you from reality? The less detached from reality, the less nerdy.

Grumpy Chess Players

Generally speaking, it seems that chess players are either grumpy or just wierd. Personally, I think I tend to be in the grumpy camp. In fact, my wife has to remind me to not be so negative all the time.

Now comes a study about the benefits of being negative. This article explains some of the findings of the study such as being in a bad mood makes you less gulliable, improves your ability to judge others and boosts memory. Negativity can also "trigger more attentive, careful thinking paying greater attention to the external world."

A couple of other good things about being in a bad mood are: less likely to make quick decisions and less likely to make mistakes during recall.

That's all good for chess improvement!

It's good to be in a bad mood.

Paper Chess

I vaguely remember, as a child, building Christmas villages out of paper.

Now comes Paper Chess ... same idea, but with chess pieces.

Now on sale at amazon.com for $13.57 ... a perfect gift for friends or relatives who travel to South America (these guys sure could have used the book too).

Where have all the Knights gone?

While perusing the blogs this morning, I read two posts (Nezha and tanc (happyhippo)) in a row about chess players with tactics on their minds. As I kept reading through their posts, I was almost anticipating them saying something about a new Knights Errant quest, but no mention was made.

After looking at the Knights Errant blog, I counted only eight Knights in the heat of battle. And I wonder if they are really in the heat of battle or if the blog is even being kept up to date at all.

Anyone know who the current secratary is? Are there people out there who are still convinced the Michael de la Maza method really works? Back in the hey day, it seemed like there was a lot of discussion about the effectiveness of the MDLM method. But that discussion seems to have dried up.

I was also curious about the man who started it all - the original Don Quixote - and his last post still remains as of June 20, 2007 wherein he says he's done nothing with chess since November 2006 and that he was in the middle of a career change.

Chess Player Look-a-Likes: Zatonskih-Thurman

Well, at least in these two pictures the two look a-like.

WIM Anna Zatonskih and Uma Thurman

The Up Days

You gotta love the ups when they finally come.

These stats by no means represent anything other than the love of the game. I usually lose and I usually suck at tactics, so when I correctly answer 34 out of the last 40 problems at ChessTempo and I won two blitz games in a row at FICS (look at this beauty), I have to celebrate. Of course I also have to celebrate whenever I actually log onto FICS and play these days. I hadn't played a game there since August!

I also played Greg last weekend. It wasn't anything spectacular ... we drew. But I look forward to future games and I hope I can put up a good fight for him.

The Best Chess Analogy I've Seen Yet

As we all have seen, the media compares things to chess: baseball (ad naseum during the playoffs), football, politics, financial transactions and the list goes on and on.

But this time, someone actually made a comparison to chess that is better than I've ever seen.

An FBI counterintelligence agent compared her line of work to chess, "Counterintelligence is like chess -- you have the foundation of a crime, the trunk of the tree, with a lot of branches. In terrorism cases, you look at the intelligence and the potential crime to stop the threat before it actually happens."

Not only is that pretty cool to think about (her line of work), but the analogy is a breath of fresh air from all the banal analogies and comparisons that usually bombard news reports.

Next-Gen Chess

Here's another chess-type variant. We've seen multi-layered chess, Fischer Random, multi-player chess, crazy and bughouse and who knows how many others. Now comes Arimaa. It's been around 7 years, but I heard of it for the first time today.

AI computers have yet to soundly beat humans at this game. The inventor of the game, Omar Syed, has offered a $10,000 prize to the computer developer who can design a program that can beat a human at this game.

The reason computers have a hard time winning is because of the incredible branch factor in Arimaa. According to the wikipedia article, "the average branching factor in a game of Chess is about 35, whereas in Arimaa it is about 17,281." WOW!

You don't have to buy the game to play it. You can simply use a standard chess board and pieces to play. But if you really want the real deal, the game is finally being published.

Have any of you heard of this game before? Have any of you played?

Deadly Chess

Yet another news story of a chess game getting out of control.

"Guilty Plea Entered in Chess-Game Death"

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- An Iowa City man has pleaded guilty in the death of his opponent in a chess game.

David Christian was originally charged with second-degree murder. However, on Friday the 30-year-old pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in Johnson County District Court.

Assistant Johnson County Attorney David Tiffany said the plea deal was influenced by the victim's family, who wanted Christian to receive help for his psychological problems.

Police said Christian and Michael Alan Steward were playing chess and drinking at Christian's residence on Oct. 19, 2008, when a quarrel turned violent. They say Christian apparently trapped Steward's neck between his legs and squeezed until Steward was dead.

Although a sentencing date hasn't been determined, the plea agreement includes a recommendation for the mandatory 10-year sentence.

Biggest Chess Set in the World?

Check it out. Though, I'm not sure if the pieces can be moved.


Aug 31 UPDATE: Just found this link at Chessbase explaining what this is all about.

Chainmail Chess

Tired of cheap, flimsy chess pieces and boards?

Consider a chainmail chess set.

Source: Chainmail Chess Set Is Suited For Battle (GIZMODO)

FSC: 25 Aug 2009

I'm hoping that now school is back in session people's schedules (including mine) will be more regular. Perhaps more can join in the fun at the FSC every Tuesday and Thursday evening.

I logged into FICS just after 18:00 FICS time and checked channel 111. There were only a handful of people there. I asked if anyone was there for FSC, but no one responded. I posted a 60 0 seek and then fired up some music ... Vince Guaraldi ... to calm my nerves a bit.

I saw chessloser log on. Looked like he played three 5 o's and logged off. Someone finally accepted my seek. It went to 37 moves before I finished it off.

I'll try to be there again Thursday night. Stop on by to play or chat or just to say 'hey'

Chess Player Look-a-Likes: Tomilova-Green

It's been awhile since I've done this, but I found one while reading Chessbase this morning.


WIM Elena Tomilova & Eva Green.

The Results Are Out

Did you participate in the Beauty Contest advertised at Chessbase?

The results are in.

Tuesday Nights

After two weeks of crazy chaos at work with Wednesdays and Thursdays being the busiest, and with no end in sight, I decided that Tuesdays would be better for me to play at the FSC. I'll keep Thursdays open for the club, but I'll play on Tuesdays.

I'm sorry if you've stopped by on FICS and didn't find me the last couple of weeks. But I'll be there regularly on Tuesdays from now on.

At Least It Got Off the Ground

OK ... so it may not have been a resounding success and there was a brain fart on my part. After a busy day at work, I get home around 6pm Central time and suddenly realize that I may have noted the wrong hours for the FSC. So I log into FICS and check the FSC site and realized indeed that I noted the hours as 16:00-21:00 Pacific time (18:00-23:00 Central). I saw about 5 or 6 people in channel 111. I asked the channel if anyone was there for the FSC but got no response. So I updated the FSC site to note the correct hours of 18:00 - 22:00 FICS/Pacific time (which of course is 20:00 - 00:00 Central).

I then ate dinner, spent time with the fam and then put the kiddos to bed and logged back on to FICS around 20:00 Central and no one but me and some computer account is in channel 111. Amazingly I see a seek for a 60 0 game and I immediately accept. It was a really good game (see here).

After I finish the game, I check channel 111 again and see one lone comment from chezzznut: 'hello?' I feel bad because I know it was Chessaholic and he was the only one to originally respond to my idea about the FICS chess club. So I'm sorry Chessaholic! I would have said hello if I had seen you on FICS, but I was in the middle of a game at the time. Please come back again next week though!

So the FICS Standard Club has at least started. Hopefully turnout will be better next week and I can at least give a welcome to everyone.

FICS Standard Club

Go visit the site for more details!

Come join the fun on FICS starting July 9, 2009 and every Thursday thereafter.

EnglishRussia Features Ivory Chess Sets

The picture blog EnglishRussia had a post featuring several ivory chess sets. Some of the 'themes' of the chess sets were Greek, Persian, Men vs. Women and a very odd one ... fingers.

It looks like all the pieces are chopped-off fingers while the rook is something else. Perhaps it represents the mechanism that chops off the digits. Can anyone shed some light on what message this chess set is trying to convey?