Double Your Chess Analysis Powers

Have you read this article? Alien Hand Syndrome sees woman attacked by her own hand

In a nutshell, this woman suffered from epilepsy.  Doctors remedied her ailment by "cutting out a small section of her brain."  In her case, they did something a bit more drastic - they severed the corpus callosum - which is the link between the two halves of her brain.  This effectively, it would seem, create two brains and thereby doubling the processing power - your very own dual-core processor!

Of course I would imagine there is a little bit of re-conditioning and training you would have to do to get both halves to not only work properly and independently, but also to work towards the same goal.

That BBC series, by the way, looks absolutely fascinating.  I'll have to look it up and DVR it sometime.

via: Scott Adams blog
picture: DesktopNexus

BabasChess Background or Wallpaper for your Board

One of the commenters from my post "Configuring BabasChess to look like Fritz" noted that they were having issues with white space behind the playing board. I have seen this before when trying to apply a really nice background image.

BabasChess requires the background images be a bitmap.  You cannot load .png, or .jpeg .jpg or any other image type.  It must be .bmp

This doesn't present a big problem as long as you have the right image editing tools.

1) Google the image you want and save it. For me, it was 'dark wood'

2) Convert the image to bitmap (skip this step if your image is already in bitmap type)
2a) Open your image edit tool. For me, I use SnagIt. But any basic edit tool should work.
2b) Convert the image type. Depending on the tool you are using, this step may vary. But if you are using SnagIt, there is a 'Convert Image' option. Using the wizard, it walks you through ... at the right step, choose the .bmp option. Windows Paint program can also convert images to bitmaps. Open the image, and then simply choose, 'save as' and choose bitmap.

3) Save the bitmap (or copy it) to the Data/Backgrounds directory in the folder where BabasChess is stored. For me it is C:\Program Files\BabasChess\BabasChess\Data\Backgrounds

4) Open Preferences (F11) in BabasChess and choose the background.

Enjoy!

Avatar Review

Pocatar

First off - this is not a chess post.  I doubt anyone even looks at this blog very much, but I felt a little rant coming on and needed a place to release it.

I know - I'm a little late with this review.  I've yet to watch the other James Cameron movie (TITanic).  There's something about the raving mad crowds of people who gush over how great a movie is that just turns me off and I don't want to watch it.  Avatar was kind of like that as well.  So I never saw it in the theater.  I finally watched it over Thanksgiving after my brother in law got the blue-ray for a birthday present.

Don't worry - this rant won't be too long.

Point one: the American military general was insane.  I don't deny there may very well be insane soldiers, but those are exceptions in my opinion.

Point two: The business dude running the show was a bit insane too ... and dumb.  If that stuff was really worth that much money, I think the company could have been a little more patient.

Point three: the movie/story ended a bit prematurely.

Point three dot one: The military lost just one battle - the blue people kicked them off the planet.  The military, if indeed they wanted to pursue taking over the planet, would have come back much stronger and with much more force.

Point three dot two: As soon as the company/military/science officers found out that they could attempt to "transfer" human souls into blue-people bodies, I think they should have taken a different route than trying to destroy the planet and people.  They could have started charging humans to come to the planet to get a soul-transfer and start living on Pandora.  There's probably a lot more money in that market.  Plus, with the migration and influx of humans living in blue-people bodies, who's to say the company/military/science officers couldn't have pulled off the original plan - and that was to essentially put a spy in the midst of the blue-people.

Point four: Avatar was really just a re-vamped, slicked up re-do of Disney's Pocahontas.  That movie bombed because the story sucked.  Avatar would have flopped too if it weren't for the absolutely cool effects and 3D technology.

PS - as I was looking for a picture for this post, I found that there were already stored searches for "avatar pocahontas comparison"  The picture shows I'm not the first one to see the similarities.

HCA - RMS Tournament

My son and I played in the RMS tournament here in our hometown.  This was the first time I played chess in almost a month.  Work and family life have been so extremely busy, that I hardly have time to play, study or write about chess.  But things are starting to slow down again to normal speeds and my chess enthusiasm is starting to come back.

The HCA RMS tournament was a scholastic tournament, but adults are allowed to play in the advanced section.  I knew I would be playing against mostly kids and teenagers.  Time controls were G/45. I ended up playing three Asian kids (between the ages of 7 and 10) and one adult who I played against in the Class Championships.  It was nice seeing and talking to him.  Another adult in the section was the father who was helping his son cheat in the Class Championships.  The kid was also playing, but in a different section.

First off - all the games were very quick.  All my opponents played very quickly.  We had completed our first 20 moves and only 5 minutes would be gone off the clock.  The game went down to the wire and I was able to rattle off a few checks while the clock was beginning to expire.  I was able to mate him with 8 seconds on my clock.

The second two games were boring and both ended up on a draw.  In fact, the third game should have been a loss for me, but I was able to force a draw by repetition.  Afterward, a few other kids analyzed the game and showed us how the kid could have beaten me.

My last game was easy.  My opponent dropped a piece early on and I won no problem.  It was satisfying as this was the gentleman I drew with in the Class Championships.

My son did well for his first tournament.  I won a couple and drew one and lost the others.  He had fun.  His games got over much quicker than mine did.  He enjoyed it enough that he wants to do it again.

I need 10 more games to get the P to drop from my rating.  I'll be trying to find some time to play a few more rated games over the next few months.

*Update* Here is the crosstable for the section in which I played.  Looks like my new (provisional) rating will be 1244 ... up from 1114.

Still Need to Learn My Lesson

Serves me right for drawing.  What makes it more painful is that I knew I needed to slow down - the time pressure was all in my head.  Had I simply got up, walked out, breathed deeply and took my time to assess the position, I would have won (most likely).  Instead, I rushed into it and didn't even consider the perpetual check or even the loss.  I was still lucky to even get a draw out of it after my failure to take time to assess.

Anyway, here it is; and here is the key position (at least for me):

I've included in the screenshot the time left on our clocks.

It took me two days to finally come back to this game and look at this position - it was really burning me up inside.

Qa7+

...Kf6 ... the knight is pinned and I my queen is on the right diagonal to defend against the black queen check.  My pawn is then free to capture the knight and I'm up a full rook.

What puts a burr up my butt is my failure to even analyze the perpetual check and potential loss - instead I succumbed to the perceived time pressure and went with the immediate knight capture.

I know how to not be rattled.  I've got to learn how to recognize when I'm being rattled.  From there, I can just right the ship.

Configuring BabasChess to look like Fritz

I am constantly surprised, when talking on-line chess with people, how many haven't heard of FICS or BabasChess - one of the many clients that interfaces with FICS.  In the next few posts, I'll discuss setting up BabasChess to look like Fritz and then how to log onto to FICS and issue simple commands.  For me, having a nice interface really enhances the on-line playing experience.

A number of years ago, I found someone who was able to configure BabasChess to look like Fritz' board.  I really liked that setup.  I've had my set up the same ever since.

Step 1:
Download and install BabasChess (click here).

Step 2:
Download this zip file to get the data needed for this theme (click here)

Step 3:
Extract the files under the Data directory to their proper folders.  In other words, go to the Data directory where BabasChess was installed on your PC and then copy the data from the zip folder to the matching folder.  So the file in the Fonts directory in the zip file will go in the Fonts directory in the Data file.

Step 4:
Import the BabasFritz.bcpref theme from the zip file.  Click 'File' then 'Import Preferences' then choose the BabasFritz.bcpref file.

Step 5:
Click on the 'Preferences' button in BabasChess (or hit F11) and configure the board settings as per the screen shot below

If the setup worked it should look very similar to the Fritz Wood setup

The first screen shot is Fritz while the second is BabasChess configured to look like Fritz.

Final Thoughts on US Class Championship

The last time I played in an OTB tournament, I was in 6th grade.  The tournament was a lunch-time event involving a handful of students.  I won that tournament.  This tournament was essentially my first real-live chess event I've ever participated in.  To say the least, it was fascinating.

It amazes me that in all my interactions with so many people in my neighborhood, church, work and school that I don't regularly find serious chess players.  I mean, chess is a very popular game and has a huge following, but I've never found that one friend who will stay up til midnight playing chess with you.  When we moved to Houston, I began in earnest to ask more often if people actively played chess.  Miraculously, I've been able to find a couple of gentleman who play.  One goes to my church and the other I met at at chess meetup.

Then I go to this tournament and it's as if I've finally found the party after searching all these years.  The best thing I liked about the tournament was simply talking to others about the game - knowing that there are other people like me who have the same crazy delusions about getting better at this game.  Getting the prize money wasn't the most valuable thing I got - rather it was the experience of the event ... one that I'll never forget the rest of my life.  It was exchanging contact info with other people and meeting fellow chess bloggers.

I was a little apprehensive about the tournament at first, but now all that anxiety is gone and I'm planning which tournament I want to sign up for next.  This addiction has gone to the next level.

Rounds 4 & 5 US Class Championship (Unrated Section)

The 4th and 5th rounds were much better than the 2nd and 3rd.  After doing some calculating, I figured if I won both games and the gentleman who I drew with either loses or draws a game, then I'd earn 2nd place and $100.

The 9:30am game began.  Us unrated folk are sitting in the back of the hall - having to endure people constantly walking in and out of the hall (we were right by the doors).  We also had to deal with all the traffic that was getting water (we were right by the cups and water).  About 2 or 3 times during the game, the waiter would push his cart full of water into the hall and then dump all the ice water into the water dispensers - it was very loud.

So about 15 or 20 minutes into the game, I notice the kid next to me jumping up and down, moving around a lot, going back and forth between his board and his dad who was sitting in the back of the hall with his laptop - you know where this is going.  I kept an eye on the dad.  I couldn't see what was on his screen, but I am curious because the kid is constantly going back and forth.  A few more minutes pass and I notice the dad has now turned sideways - and plain as the noon day sun, I saw a computer board on the laptop screen!  I immediately went to the director and told her what I saw.  She promptly came over, made the dad shut the computer down.  Right when the dad was closing the lid on the laptop, the kid walks over and with a shocked look on his face, raised his hands as if to say "what?"  The director then told the kid that outside help was not allowed.

Now up to this point, the kid and the gentleman who he was playing were even.  After the computer was shut down, the gentleman won easily and quickly.

After the round, I told my fellow unrated players what happened and we were all angry to put it mildly.  We just couldn't believe in the unrated sections of all sections that cheating was going on.

I won my round 4 game and then had all morning and afternoon to think about round 5 and my next opponent who I had just caught cheating.  That's right - I was playing the kid next.  Two of the other unrated players and I discussed the next round quite a bit - especially what I would do if this kid was bouncing up and down during the match.

The time came for round 5 and the kid and the dad were all ready to go.  I sat down, looked behind me and noticed the dad was also taking notation of the game - great!  So the rest of us kept a sharp eye on the kid to see what he would do.  The first time he got up to walk over to his dad, I stopped looking at the board and deliberately followed him with my eyes.  Sure enough, he was going to his dad.  I decided that if he did that again, I'd stand up and actually follow the kid.  But he actually stayed put the rest of the game.  He made his moves in under a minute every time.  I took my time and made sure not to blunder.  Twenty-six moves later, I had him check-mated.  Again, I was the last one to finish my game - the other two games had ended quickly. A few minutes later, I mated the kid - all the unrated section was done in a matter of 20 minutes.

The cherry on the top ... the gentleman I was tied with lost his final game, which gave me sole possession of 2nd place and a hundred bucks!

I hung out in the hall observing other games for the next 90 minutes.  Then when I had had enough, I packed up and went home.  Then that same night, I played my first game of the new season in the team league and I won that game as well (click here and here for the game - there was a disconnect during the game, therefore there are two parts to the game).  3-0 in one day and a hundred bucks - not a bad day at chess at all.

I'll post some additional thoughts and comments on the tournament tomorrow.

Rounds 2 & 3 US Class Championship (Unrated Section)

I lost round 2.  It went 60 moves.  But ultimately it was me not seeing the knight fork after his rook sacrifice.  I'll post the games later after I load them in pgn.

The 2nd game was also 60 moves and resulted in a draw.  There were some very crucial positions and a lot of calculation involved on both sides.  I was up two pawns at one point, but then was just up a pawn with two pawns on the g and h files to his one and one pawn on the a file to his one.  He had a white-square bishop and I a knight.  I'm sure there was a win there somewhere, but 1) I suck at endgames and 2) I suck at endgames.  Anyway - he offered a draw, but I told him I'd prefer to play it out - heck, we're paying to play right?

Regardless - it was fun and I'm looking forward to rounds 4 and 5 today.

Donnie is cleaning house!  Good luck to him today.  Ivan had an interesting ending last night - after my game was over, I watched the end of his.  He won after his opponent's flag fell.

We had our picture taken ... Ivan's posted it here.

Round 1 US Class Championships (Unrated Section)

Here it is - my first official USCF over-the-board game - and it's a win to boot!  I played with Black and I put my own annotations in. I'll run it through Fritz later to see how many missed opportunities my opponent and I had.

This was the longest time-controlled game I've played (120 mins).

Round 2 is today at 1:00pm, followed by round 3 at 6:30pm.



Also, I got to meet two fellow bloggers: Ivan and Donnie.  Both of them won their games too.

Deep Blue - the song

via Boylston Chess Club Weblog

Kubrick and Chess

I watched this video yesterday:



I did a little searching and found a few interesting tid-bits about George Scott and Stanley Kubrick.

Here's what wikipedia had to say about George Scott's performance in Dr. Strangelove. "Kubrick tricked Scott into playing the role of Gen. Turgidson far more ridiculously than Scott was comfortable doing. Kubrick talked Scott into doing "over the top" practice takes, which Kubrick told Scott would never be used, as a way to warm up for the "real" takes. Kubrick used these takes in the final film, causing Scott to swear never to work with Kubrick again."

The entry went on to state: "During the filming, Kubrick and Scott had different opinions regarding certain scenes, but Kubrick got Scott to conform largely by repeatedly beating Scott at chess, which they played frequently on the set. Scott, a skilled player himself, later said that while he and Kubrick may not have always seen eye to eye, he respected Kubrick immensely for his skill at chess."

Then I read another article in which the interviewer asked Kubrick about chess:

"Q: You are a chess-player and I wonder if chess-playing and its logic have parallels with what you are saying?

"A: First of all, even the greatest International Grandmasters, however deeply they analyse a position, can seldom see to the end of the game. So their decision about each move is partly based on intuition. I was a pretty good chess-player but, of course, not in that class. Before I had anything better to do (making movies) I played in chess tournaments at the Marshall and Manhattan Chess Clubs in New York, and for money in parks and elsewhere. Among a great many other things that chess teaches you is to control the initial excitement you feel when you see something that looks good. It trains you to think before grabbing, and to think just as objectively when you're in trouble. When you're making a film you have to make most of your decisions on the run, and there is a tendency to always shoot from the hip. It takes more discipline than you might imagine to think, even for thirty seconds, in the noisy, confusing, high-pressure atmosphere of a film set. But a few seconds' thought can often prevent a serious mistake being made about something that looks good at first glance. With respect to films, chess is more useful preventing you from making mistakes than giving you ideas. Ideas come spontaneously and the discipline required to evaluate and put them to use tends to be the real work.

Q: Did you play chess on the set of The Shining as you did on Dr. Strangelove (with George C. Scott) and on 2001?

I played a few games with Tony Burton, one of the actors in the film. He's a very good chess-player. It was very near the end of the picture and things had gotten to a fairly simple stage. I played quite a lot with George C. Scott during the making of Dr. Strangelove. George is a good player, too, but if I recall correctly he didn't win many games from me. This gave me a certain edge with him on everything else. If you fancy yourself as a good chess-player, you have an inordinate respect for people who can beat you."

source: Wikipedia: Dr. Strangelove and Kubrick on The Shining
image source: Playing Chess with Kubrick

Make Your Own Chess Board (the cheap way)

I ran accross this post today: Decorative Chess Sets.

She did a little dumster diving, some garage-sale hunting, cutting, glueing and painting.  Not sure I'd want to play with the set, but it would be a good conversation piece sitting in the guest room.

source & image source: Just Something I Made

2010 Class Championships

I tossed in my hat.  I joined the USCF and registered for the 2010 Class Championships October 1-3 in Houston.

Restlessness

Volcano in Eyjafjallajokul - what I saw in my dream

I was talking to my older brother.  He had some disease that made his fingertips look like they had leprosy.  His breath smelt badly too.  I felt so bad for him - but he was taking medication.  We were standing outside with hundreds of other people in the town.  This huge storm with really dark clouds was moving in.  Then there was an explosion in the clouds and lightening - red, firey lightening.  The clouds were moving more quickly - like they were going to collapse on us.  We all started running - the earth was quaking - then my alarm turned on.  I was in a sweat.  It was 4:30am.  The lengths I go to get in a good chess game online.

I walk to the guest bathroom, grabbing the eye drops on the way.  I turn on the light, put a few drops in my dry eyes and then I walk into the office.  He's not online.  I check my email - he's going to be 15 minutes late.  We finally play - and we're playing like it's a blitz game.  The game is 45 45, but we both end the game with more than 45 minutes on each of our clocks!  Of course I lost the game.  No surprise there.  But why is the question.

Like usual, I blunder in the opening moves.  After doing some post-game checking, I see I went out of book on move 5.  I lose a pawn.  I know it's over.  This guy is too good.

But why didn't I take time to think a bit more?  Sometimes I can get in the groove and really enjoy the thinking and analyzing.  Other times, like this morning, I am just restless and want to be moving - not thinking.  How do I combat this?  I need to find a solution to combat this anxiety when it occurs.  Deep breathing?  A bit of jogging in place or some exercise before or during the game?  Meditation?  I'll have to think of this a bit more.  I know in the past, I have gotten up and walked around a bit - not because of restlessness, but because I needed a drink or to go to the restroom.  When I did that, I became more settled.  Maybe I need to incorporate this into my start-of-the-game routine - force myself to walk around a bit - think about a move a bit longer.

With the loss, my rating dropped below 1600 for the first time since - I don't know - maybe 2004?  I ended up playing a couple of 15 0 games with a 1584 player (I was 1590ish).  I won both of them easily and my rating bumped up above 1640.  I don't even know why I care about the rating - consistency is what I desire.  And to know what the hell I should do in the opening so I can give myself a chance.

image source: The Big Picture

9-11-01

Inspired by wang's post, I figured I'd write a few thoughts as well.

I too remember that day.  Like most, I was going about my business at work.  I had been in my first career job out of college for 9 months.  I heard the secretary gasp - she said one of the towers had been hit.  In those first few hours, everyone was scrambling to find news and pictures on the Internet.  All the sites were swamped - I finally went to beethoven.com and found pictures.  It was shocking.  Many of us left work early.  I drove past DFW airport and didn't see one solitary plane in the sky - it was very creepy.  My wife and I just watched the news with our 1-year-old in our arms - then the 2nd plane hit and later both towers came tumbling down.  It was surreal.  Of course there was the attack on the pentagon and the other plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.  Wow ... it makes one speechless.

#39

This is out of the blue.  Susan Polgar featured another blog's post about 50 great chess blogs.  ROCKY ROOK is featured as #39 on the list.  This is how he described my blog: "Learn how to improve prowess by developing an appreciation for the rich history and eclectic culture of chess."

Go check it out - your blog is probably on the list too.

source: onlinemasters.org
via Susan Polgar

Chilean Miners and Chess Violence

The King is Dead

It should be no surprise by now that I regularly document chess violence.  Chess indeed is a game of egos and some people just can't handle losing - so they resort to violence.  I think losing with grace and dignity and also learning from lost games is a mark of maturity and civility.

I read a very fascinating article about those Chilean miners who are trapped 700 meters underground and are stuck there until December.  They've been trapped down there over a month now.  Due to their extreme conditions and isolation, there are worries now about their psychological well-being.  NASA has even sent a team to help them deal with the isolation.  The rescue team has been sending them provisions, but they are extremely careful not to send any games to them.  Read this:

Most of the miners remain upbeat, but there are ominous signs. Some of the men are already depressed, and a few refused to appear in a video the miners made. They will almost certainly have other problems, which is why officials were careful not to send down any games that might spark conflict. In the 1980s, the Soviet Union banned cosmonauts from playing chess in space after a Soviet researcher at an Antarctic station killed a colleague with an axe, after losing at chess.


It is only going to get worse as the weeks drag on, and the miners are going to have to come up with a set of rules and procedures for allocating scarce resources, resolving grievances, and dealing with deviant behaviour. What they need, in short, is a system of laws. As the 33 unfortunate Chilean miners will soon realize, even hell needs a government.

source: Chilean miners: That far down, who decides what's law?
image source: kalafudra.wordpress.com
other reading: Chess Related Deaths

*UPDATE*
Boston.com just posted a bunch of pictures of the rescue effort.  In photo #26, you can clearly see a bag of dice which is part of a "package" that was to be sent to the 33 miners.  The photo's caption mentions that games were going to be sent.  So there is some conflicting information out there as to whether games are going down there or not.  You can also see in photo #26 that a PSP is being sent down as well.
source: Trapped in a Chilean mine

Long Term Improvement Plan

Update: September 6, 2010

I've been thinking about my improvement plan a lot lately and when Thomas commented on it, I figured now is as good a time as any to update my plan.

I finished The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess 3rd ed. - as for Logical Chess, as I said in the comments section, I've read most of it.  Now I'm just going back and transposing the games.  I've got a whole separate post I'm going to write about the way one is supposed to study GM games.

Tactics - I was doing quite a bit clear up until May of this year.  Then I basically stopped.  I'm still wondering about the benefit of doing tactics on ChessTempo.  I was trying to do 30 a day.  Maybe 20 is about right.

The best update is that I'm playing much more often than before.  I still need a play more games - long games.  Teamleague has helped a lot with that - but I'd like like to play a bit more - perhaps twice a week.  Sometimes I think 45 45 is too quick for me.

I think the general idea for my long-term plan that I've outlined below is still valid, but I doubt the dates will be accurate.

Right now, I want to intensely focus on the following:
1) Play as many long games as possible - shooting for two a week - 45 45; 60 5 or longer

2) Analyse the games and analyse the games. Let Fritz analyse them.  Annotate them myself.  Use the whisper feature during the game.  Review the opening - see where I went out of book - learn how to stay in book longer.

3) Go over GM games - I've not been doing this - I need to let my brain absorb quality games.  As a side note, I should also watch my teamleage team play games - and comment and think about those games - as time permits.

4) Tactics - I think 20 a day is about right - shouldn't take too long (10 mins or so) to do 20.

First published January 1, 2009

The biggest obstacle I face is carving out time once a week to play a slow game. I figure if I can get at least one slow game in a week, then I'd make great improvements.

Redhotpawn has been a great resource for me. I enjoy being able to take as much time as possible to evaluate a position.

I continue to work on tactics almost every day. My goal is to do 20 tactics a day at chesstempo.

The other area that is lagging is finishing books I've started and going over as many GM games as possible. I'm mostly done with Wolff's book and I've dabbled a lot with Logical Chess Move by Move, but have yet to finish it.

At this point, let me back up a bit. The premise of my goals and improvment plan is based on Dan Heisman's article entitled "An Improvement Plan." Currently, I'm trying to finish steps 1 and 2. From there, I plan to complete the remaining steps and would hope to complete the whole "plan" by January 2015.

Here are the details:

Goals Without an End Date
Play one long game a week (60 5), review, annotate
Go over several annotated GM games a week (reading books)
At least 20 tactics every day

January 2009 to June 2009
Finish The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess 3rd ed.
Finish Logical Chess Move by Move
Read Everyone's 2nd Chess Book
Read or review archived Novice Nook articles

July 2009 to December 2010
Study positional play (I'll fill in the books later)

January 2011 to January 2013
Fill in the gaps ... enlist the help of a professional instructor

February 2013 to 2016
I would hope by the time I reach this phase, I would be around 1800 (2000 FICS) and would begin to fine tune my game and eventually reach a rating of 2000 (2200 FICS). As I write this post today, I do not know how reasonable this timeline is. It may take me an entire lifetime to reach 2200 FICS. But for now, I feel I need to set some goals and dates.

FICS Standard Ratings
Date................Rat. .....RD.........W.......L.....D.....T........Best (date)
12/19/07...... 1628.....110.6.... 102... 89.. 6.... 197.....1733 (04/17/07)
01/25/09...... 1668....134.8.....128....111..7.....246.....1733 (04/07/07)
09/06/10...... 1614....97.2......142....128..9....279.......1733 (04/07/07)
03/29/11.......1603....66.2......167....158..12....337.....1733 (04/07/07)

Punches Over Chess Game

Continuing with the chess violence theme, here is another reported incident:

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- A chess game led to an altercation between inmates at the Indian River County Jail.


Indian River County Sheriff's Office deputies said Christopher Brown was playing chess with another inmate in the cell block Wednesday when Christopher O'Neal interjected on the other inmate's behalf.


Brown said he told O'Neal to leave them alone, but O'Neal ignored him and began yelling at him. Brown said he left the table and walked back to his cell when O'Neal followed him.


Deputies said other inmates witnessed O'Neal punch Brown several times. It took several detention deputies to break up the fight.


According to the incident report, O'Neal told deputies it was simply "a misunderstanding between them."


O'Neal was arrested on charges of battery on a detained person and resisting arrest without violence.

source: Chess Game Leads to Fight At Indian River County Jail