Full house at Bury

Last evening there were five matches taking place at the Bury St Edmunds Chess Club, the most there has ever been.   40 players packed the room, with analysis boards also available in the bar area.

This was the last match at the Club for David Wood (pictured right), who is moving to live and work in Colchester.   David has been a mainstay of the Club for the past couple of years, running three teams and always willing to assist with setting up and packing away.   He enjoyed a brief period of celebrity last year when he was amongst a dozen or so nominations for ECF 'Player of the Year'.   Someone had noticed that his grade was the lowest 'A' grade in England; he ended up with as many votes as Alan Merry!

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This will be the last article for three weeks.   No more until 27 February!

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Seven Portieljes

This blog's most recent post about 'Top eBay Chess Items', The Kitten Theme, featured a painting by Gerard Portielje (Belgian, 1856-1929) and noted,

A search on 'chess Portielje' brings up two other works by the same artist.

Afterwards I noticed another painting and started to wonder how many different chess paintings there are by Portielje. Using the following image as a starting point...

Google image search on 'chess Portielje'

...I numbered the rows from top to bottom as 1 to 3 with the paintings from left to right in each row identified as A, B, etc.. The 'Kitten Theme' painting (first row, second from the left) is thereby identified as 1B.

That identification scheme reveals the following pairs of chess paintings: 1A & 1C are the same, 1D & 2B ditto (although certain details like the cabinet on the right of the painting are not identical), 1E & 1F ditto; plus two unpaired paintings: 2A and 2F.

2C and 3C show the same painting, but it's not a chess scene. The other Google images are either not by Portielje or not about chess.

That makes six different paintings on the first Google search page. I found a seventh on the second search page, which leads to valsur 274753.html - Valerij SURKOV, showing four Portielje images (among many others by other artists): 1A/1C, 1D, 2B, plus the new painting.

I wouldn't be surprised to find more.

***

Later: I found a second Valerij SURKOV collection of chess paintings: valsur 337769.html - Valerij SURKOV. This page also has four Portielje images -- 2A, *, 1E/1F, and 2F -- where '*' is a painting not identified above. Change the title of this post to 'Eight Portieljes'!

I also searched my collection of ~10.000 chess images (most of them from eBay) for Portielje. In addition to 'Kitten Theme' (1B), I found several variations of 1E/1F, the best of which had the accompanying text:-

The title is 'The Chess Players'. This print was issued by the Denver Post, December 7, 1902 (printed in the lower left corner). [...] This was printed by the American Colortype Company as a supplement to the Denver Post newspaper.

Another variation mentioned, 'Originally this print appeared as a supplement to the CHICAGO TRIBUNE on 2/2/1902'.

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Gibraltar Masters won by Nakamura

After the final round of the Tradewise Gibraltar Masters, two players finished on 8/10: top seed Hikaru Nakamura from the USA and French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (usually referred to as 'MVL').

The two then had to take part in a play-off.   After four close-fought draws, Nakamura eventually prevailed in the fifth (Armageddon) game.   He wins the first prize of £20,000.   He won this event last year too.

Anna Muzychuk from Ukraine won the women’s award, scoring 7/10.

Justin Tan finished on 6 points, with a performance rating (2463) just 17 points above his current rating.   David Spence had an excellent tournament, gaining 36 rating points, taking his live rating to 2176.   In the first six rounds David scored three points against five GMs!   He finished on 4½ points.

The best English performance was by Gawain Jones, who finished =3rd on 7½ points.




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Gibraltar latest

With just one round to play, the Tradewise Gibraltar Masters is heading for a dramatic finale.   No fewer than eight players share the lead on 7/9, with a further nine players (including England's Gawain Jones) on 6½ points.

Suffolk players:   Justin Tan is on 5½ and David Spence has 3½ points.

The final round starts early tomorrow (Thursday) at 10.00 GMT, with live games from the top players available here.   The final round pairings can be viewed here.

It seems highly likely that there will be a tie for first place, in which case there will be a play-off in the afternoon.   The tie-break rules state:

"In the event of a tie for first place, there shall be a speed play-off.   If there are four or fewer players tied for first place, there will be a speed knock-out play-off for the first prize of £20,000.   If three players tie for first place, the player with the highest performance rating will be seeded directly into the Final of the Play-Off; the other two players will contest the Semi-Final.   If more than four players tie for first place, the four players with the highest performance ratings shall qualify for the play-off to decide the first prize."

Top seed Hikaru Nakamura is amongst the players on seven points, and must be favourite to win the huge first prize.




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February 1966 'On the Cover'

Fifty years ago, chess photo credits were more haphazard than they are today. I imagine the photo on the left was taken during the 1963 Piatigorsky Cup in Los Angeles.

The issue of Chess Life had only 20 pages with surprisingly little content. Five of the pages showed only crosstables and game scores for non-U.S. tournaments.

Left: World Champion Petrosian
Right: 'WHAT AGAIN! (Photo by Robert Parent)'

Chess Life

Tigran Petrosian, who won the world chess championship by defeating Mikhail Botvinnik in 1963 by a score of 12.5-9.5, will defend his title against Boris Spassky in a 24-game match that will begin on April 11.

Chess Review

Robert J. Fischer stretched his record for winning the United States Championship to seven straight times at the Henry Hudson Hotel in New York city, December 12 to 30, 1965. As this tournament, directed by E.T.McCormick, was also the U.S. Zonal tournament, Fischer, along with Robert Byrne and Samuel Reshevsky who tied for second place, qualified to compete in the Interzonal Tournament later this year...

On my zonal pages, World Chess Championship Zonals, I've adopted the practice of numbering the World Championship cycles. The events mentioned here would have been in cycles no.6 and no.7.

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Tata Masters round-up

After 13 hard-fought rounds the super-strong Tata Steel Masters tournament ended on Sunday with World Champion Magnus Carlsen winning by a clear point from the rest of the field.   His nearest challenger, Fabiano Caruana, surprisingly lost in the final round, when a win would have drawn him level with Carlsen.   This is the fifth time that Carlsen has won this tournament.

The final table can be seen here.

Michael Adams, the only English participant, had a disappointing event, winning only one of his games (and losing four).

In Carlsen's final game, he reached the following theoretically drawn position after 57 moves.   Carlsen was White against Diren Ling.   It's Black to play (57... Re2+):

Carlsen now spent the next 42 moves, trying to force an error.   It finished amusingly (see following position):

97. Rg3+   Kf1   98. Kf3   Rf2+   99. Bxf2   Stalemate!





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Instructional Videos : Caruana

The three previous videos in this series on the players in the forthcoming 2016 Candidates tournament (see the previous post Instructional Videos : Aronianand follow the links back) have all shown analysis from recent editions of the Corus/Tata Wijk aan Zee tournaments. The current video is from the 2016 Tata event that finished yesterday. GM Caruana finished tied for 2nd/3rd, one point behind GM Carlsen. In this clip Caruana discusses his game with host GM Seirawan.

Tata Steel Tournament 2016 ! Fabiano Caruana Post Game Analysis After Round 2 (22:05) • 'American GM Fabiano Caruana giving analysis of his game against World Champion Magnus Carlsen, Wijk Aan Zee 2016.'

Which do I prefer : the click of wooden pieces on a wooden demo board as in the Aronian discussion or the click of a mouse as in the Caruana discussion? It's hard to say.

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Suffolk Juniors play in Surrey

Nine Suffolk Juniors travelled to Yateley Manor, near Camberley, in Surrey for the South of England Junior Championships.   This event attracts some of the strongest juniors in the country, many of whom are seeking a 'norm' to qualify for the National Junior Squad.

The best individual result was by 9-year old Adam John, who scored 3½/5 in the Under 11 section, gaining a half-norm.   His brother Alan also achieved a half-norm in the Under 13 section, scoring 3/5, as did Tom Roy, with 3/5 in the Under 11s.

Other scores were:
Ralph Martin (u13) - 2½/5
Toby Martin (u9) - 3/6
Amy John (u9) - 3/6
Tia Martin (u8) - 2/6
Tania Roy (u7) - 1½/6 (and 1/6 in the u8s)

The results for Alex Sheerin (u14) are not currently available.




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The Kitten Theme

I'm not sure when the evolution took place, but here on Top eBay Chess Items by Price, live auctions have become the standard method of selling artwork on eBay. The latest example, pictured below, was titled 'GÉRARD JOZEF PORTIELJE, (BELGIAN 1856-1929), CHESS MATCH Lot 185', and subtitled, 'Part of a live auction event on Tuesday, Jan 26'.

The title of the live auction was 'European Art & Old Masters offered by Freeman's, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA'. This chess painting sold for US $7500 after 15 bids, attracting more interest than some of the works by better known artists.

The description said,

Seller's Estimate: USD 2,000 - 4,000 • GÉRARD JOZEF PORTIELJE (Belgian 1856-1929); CHESS MATCH; Signed and located 'Gerard Portielje Antwerp' bottom right, oil on canvas; 18 1/4 x 23 in. (46.4 x 58.4cm); Provenance: Private Collection, New Jersey.

Condition Report: The relined canvas with visible surface craquelure; in fair overall condition with some areas that are difficult to accurately 'read' under u.v. light due to pigments used and varnish inconsistencies. There are some restored areas, including in background at left, center left, center and center right, and to parts of tablecloth.

A few common devices appear in the painting. The fellow on the left is sleeping, presumably after a few drinks from the bottle on the table; the fellow on the right, deep in concentration, is oblivious to his partner's condition; and kittens are playing with chess pieces on the floor. A search on 'chess Portielje' brings up two other works by the same artist.

In contrast to the live auction in the previous 'Top eBay Chess Items' post, Something Smells Fishy, this one looks normal.

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Suffolk Under 160s

The County Under 160 team faced Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire at the Turner Hall in Newmarket today.   Finding a team of 16 had proved very difficult, with no fewer than 36 potential players being contacted.   The eventual team was considerably lower-graded than usual.

The morning match was against Cambridgeshire, who outgraded Suffolk on every board!   But there were some excellent performances from some of our so-called 'weaker' players, with draws on the bottom four boards.   With just one game (mine) remaining, Cambridgeshire led 8 - 7, but my opponent eventually gave up the struggle when three pawns down.   This drawn match is Cambridgeshire's only flaw this season, having won all the other three matches they have played (they beat Norfolk 9 - 7 in the afternoon).   They head the league table with seven points.   Herts have 5, Suffolk 3 and Norfolk 1 point.

In the afternoon, Hertfordshire also outgraded us, this time on boards 3 to 16.   Unfortunately, Suffolk lost (again), having lost to them back in December.   The score this time was a convincing 5½-10½.

Stephen Lewis (Board 4) won both games, whilst Alan Watkins (Board 1) and John Barratt (Board 13) scored 1½ points.   Six other players scored one point.

John Lambert won an entertaining sacrificial game against Hertfordshire's Michael Flatt, reproduced below:

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22nd South of England Juniors

Eight children from the Bury Knights Junior Chess club are playing this weekend in the above tournament at Yateley Manor in Surrey.   It is one of the qualifying events for the National Junior Squad.

They are playing in the following age-group sections:

Alan John (117)   -   u13
Ralph Martin (72)   -   u13
Adam John (116)   -   u11
Tom Roy (87)   -   u11
Toby Martin (30R)   -   u9
Amy John (42R)   -   u8
Tia Martin (23R)   -   u8
Tania Roy (-)   -   u7 & u8

The results can be found on the Tournament Director website (not yet fully updated).   The Under 7 event was played today, whilst the Under 8 section is tomorrow.   The other sections are played over the two days.

Former BKJCC member Alex Sheerin is also playing, in the Under 14 section.





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Tata 2016 in Pictures

For the third year running, a January Flickr Friday features the annual Tata tournament, held at Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. Two years ago we had Knights of the Rijks (Museum), and last year saw 'Nice Jacket!'. This year I couldn't find any single photo that I preferred over the others, so I decided on a composite.

Center photo:Magnus Carlsen v Shakhryar Mamedyarov© Flickr user Frans Peeters under Creative Commons.

For the complete set of all photos, see Search: tatasteel chess tournament 2016. Note that many (all?) of the photos can be reused for noncommercial purposes. Thanks, Frans Peeters!

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Tournament updates

The 13-round all-plays-all Tata Steel Masters reaches its conclusion on Sunday, with World Champion Magnus Carlsen in a clear lead on 8 points out of 11.   Fabiana Caruana is second, a point behind, whilst Diren Ling is third on 6½ points.   Carlsen still has to play Ling, as well as Wesley So, over this weekend.

At the other end of the table, England's Michael Adams is propping up the table on 4 points.   In Round 9 he was beaten by Carlsen in a 66-move marathon.

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Meanwhile, over in Gibraltar, Suffolk's David Spence is enjoying the Tradewise Masters, having scored 2/4 against four GMs (+1, =2, -1). Provided he doesn't inbibe too much (don't look at the photograph - reproduced courtesy of Sophie Triay), he must be in with a chance of an IM norm.   His rating performance so far is 2447, just three points short of the required level (over 9 or 10 rounds).

IM Justin Tan is on 2½/4 and needs a few good wins if he is to acquire the sought-after GM norm.

The other Suffolk player in Gib is David Brown, who played in the Challengers A event which ended today.   He scored 1½/5, but lost 31 rating points.






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Thousands of Comments

Even before the most recent Video Friday post, No Comment-- about a video titled 'Saudi Arabia king (sic) Grand Mufti bans chess, says forbidden in Islam' -- I had already spotted a related Yahoo article. Its introduction is shown below.

Twitter erupts after Saudi cleric says chess is forbidden

The Grand Mufti and the Saudi cleric are one-and-the-same, but what exactly is a Grand Mufti?

The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia is the most senior and most influential Muslim religious and legal authority in Saudi Arabia. The holder of the position is appointed by the King. The Grand Mufti is the head of the Permanent Committee for Islamic Research and Issuing Fatwas. • Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia[Wikipedia]

One reason I like Yahoo articles (last seen earlier this month in Hunk-o'-Junk Chess) is their comment section. A few years ago we had Mainstream Comments on Magnusand The Graffiti Wall - Is Chess a Sport?(both December 2013), and the 'Chess Is Forbidden' theme promised to be another trove of mainstream wisdom. Indeed, the number of comments swelled from around 500 when I first noted the Yahoo article to over 2300 when I started preparing this post.

Unfortunately, most of the comments that I read showed the same sort of intolerance for Islam that the Grand Mufti showed for chess. I'll continue to scroll through them as I watch the final rounds of the 2016 Tata tournament, but don't expect a follow-up on this subject.

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Gibraltar latest

The Tradewise Gibraltar Masters has reached the third round, which was played today.   The sensation of Round 1, as far as Suffolk is concerned, was David Spence's win against a 2506-rated female Chinese GM.   David (2140) is seeded 187 out of the 255 entrants.   You can play through the game, and read John Saunders' amusing police-related puns here.   For his efforts, he had to face another 2500 GM in Round 2 (which he lost) and a third GM in Round 3, which he drew.   He now faces yet another GM in Round 4, having gained 22 rating points so far.

Justin Tan had a default win in Round 1 (did his opponent fail to turn up?) but lost to a highly-rated GM in Round 2.   He beat a lower-rated opponent in Round 3 and now faces a WGM in Round 4.

Live games and commentary are available daily from 14.00 GMT.





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New January grades

The new January 2016 ECF grades were published this morning.   Suffolk Grader Dave Wild has worked his usual miracle: he has updated his website already to show all the new grades.   You can view them here.   To check out the full ECF grading database, click here.

The top grades (over 200 ECF) of those who either play in the Suffolk League or who represent Suffolk are:

Name	Club	July 2015	Jan 2016	+ / -
Justin Tan	(Suffolk)	238	235	-3
Adam Hunt	(Suffolk)	229	229	=
Alan Merry	(Suffolk)	221	226	+5
Dagne Ciuksyte	(Suffolk)	216	223	+7
Adam Taylor	Manningtree	214	217	+3
Andrew Lewis	Manningtree	215	216	+1
David Spence	(Suffolk)	216	215	-1
Francisco Garcia-Mendoza	Bury St Edmunds	e200	204	(+4)
Mike Harris	Bury St Edmunds	201	203	+2
Graham Moore	Ipswich	200	201	+1

There are few surprises, although the following lists show those players who have either improved (or declined) by ten points or more (Juniors = J):

Name	Club	July 2015	Jan 2016	+
Alan Watkins	Bury St Edmunds	e141	165	(+24)
Adam John (J)	Bury St Edmunds	93	116	+23
Ralph Martin (J)	Bury St Edmunds	50	72	+22
Richard Dickinson	Bury St Edmunds	85	105	+20
Tom Roy (J)	Bury St Edmunds	67	87	+20
William Moody (J)	Bury St Edmunds	96	111	+15
Martin Tomes	Ipswich	139	153	+14
Fraser Fallows (J)	Bury St Edmunds	68	79	+11
Bob Stephens	Manningtree	135	146	+11

Name	Club	July 2015	Jan 2016	-
Nathan Barnes	Clacton	158	146	-12
Ed Kirkham	Felixstowe	164	152	-12
Colin Roberts	Bury St Edmunds	135	124	-11
Hugo Brown	Saxmundham	107	97	-10
Ray Firman	Stowmarket	84	74	-10

In addition, there are a number of players who have their first-ever standard-play grade:

Name	Club	Jan 2016
Adam Leigh	Bury St Edmunds	141
Jaden Jermy (J)	Bury St Edmunds	94
Trevor Wright	Felixstowe	63
Michael Schalit	Ipswich	43

If you spot any errors or omissions, please let me know.




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FIDE's 'Not Rated' Players

Two weeks ago, when I first looked at the FIDE Rating List - January 2016, I noted,

The main download page, FIDE Download Rating List, offers six different lists:-
* Full list of players (not rated included)
* STANDARD rating list
[...]
Last year I decided to stick with the 'STANDARD rating list' and this year I'm doing the same. Some day I might look at the 'full list', but I don't have the time or the interest for that now.

I haven't found the time to take a proper look at the full list, but I have found the interest, so I downloaded it (Thanks again, FIDE!) into a database. The first thing I noticed was the size of the list. It has 560.640 players, while the STANDARD rating list has 231.238 players. How do those >300.000 unrated players break down by federation? The following table shows the federations with the largest number of 'not rated' players.

Count by federation of players with:
'S' = standard rating
'R' = rapid rating
'B' = blitz rating
'<>' = no rating

The counts of standard rating don't quite match the counts in the previous post -- they are a generally a little higher -- but I didn't download the lists at the same time. The difference isn't enough to bother me.

To double-check my results, I looked at the USA players with 'no rating'. None of the 8336 players were marked inactive and a few of them had CM/WCM titles. About 30 had FIDE Online Arena (FOA) titles. Many of the players had FIDE IDs that looked unusual to me.

Why is FIDE interested in keeping track of so many additional players? That is a question for which I have no answer unless it's something to do with FOA.

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Justin's best win?

Suffolk-based IM Justin Tan is hoping to gain some GM norms during his 'gap' year, before he starts university in September.

Back in September 2015 he played in the Illinois Open, in the USA.   After four rounds, Justin stood on 3½ points and in Round 5 faced Bulgarian GM Vladimir Georgiev (2541), now representing Macedonia.   He had won his three previous rounds (plus a bye in Round 4).

Justin won the game in 33 moves and followed up with a draw in the final round, to finish equal first on 5 points. He won $649 for his efforts.

For ease of viewing, the game has been uploaded to the Bury St Edmunds club's website.   You can play through the game here and see Justin's detailed annotations.




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Instructional Videos : Aronian

In last week's Instructional Videos : Anand, I decided to take the eight participants in the 2016 Candidates Tournamentin alphabetical order, so after GM Anand we have GM Aronian. It's a happy coincidence that the 2016 Tata Steel tournament is being played as I write this.

Tata Steel Chess 2012 - Analysis - Levon Aronian shows his win against Giri round 10 (17:10) • 'Uploaded on Jan 25, 2012'

The wooden demo board isn't as convenient as an electronic demo board, but I can live with its deficiencies. To follow the complete game, see Anish Giri vs Levon Aronian; Tata Steel 2012(chessgames.com).

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FIDE Student Membership

The FIDE Chess in Schools Commission (chaired by former Suffolk player Kevin O'Connell - right) is offering free Student Membership to all junior players.   When Kevin lived in Ipswich in the 1990s he played an important part in the success of Suffolk Junior Chess, which included national titles for the County at a number of age-groups for both boys and girls.   Kevin still writes a weekly chess column for the East Anglian Daily Times.

Student membership comes at two levels - Basic and Premium.   The latter only costs 10 euros a year.   Apparently, most of this fee goes back to the English Chess Federation (assuming you're English!).

Click here and then go to 'Registration'.

If you don't have a FIDE number (most juniors don't) then you will need to go for Basic membership first.   You will then be given a number which you can then use to upgrade to Premium membership.

There are several benefits available for both types of membership.   At the Basic level, you get a monthly newsletter and a membership card.   At Premium level you get a 'Student' rating, a weekly newsletter, a free gift (?) and access to a website which has various training resources.

I will be interested to hear if any Suffolk juniors take up this offer.





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FIDE's CIS Chairman O'Connell

Earlier this month Chessdom.com posted an Interview with CIS Commission Chairman Kevin O'Connell, a good read for anyone interested in the Chess in School movement. It lists O'Connell's accomplishments, then opens with some historical background.

I was one of the founders of the Commission in 1984. Despite the hard work and financial support of founding chairman Nicola Palladino, few of the initial goals were achieved. It seems that the time was not quite right, with too much emphasis on chess development and not enough on using chess to help children develop educational and life skills.

Since 2010 we have refocused on using chess for education, for absolute beginners, mainly in the age range 4-12. The appearance of chess players from these programs (about 5% of those in CiS programs go on to play some sort of competitive chess, joining chess clubs and their national federation) is a happy by-product, but not the principal objective. This is in contrast to the previous focus (and current TRG – Trainers’ Commission – focus) on developing chess players, coaches and trainers.

There's much more, including a discussion of the materials I included in Chess Curriculum - Summary(December 2015).

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4NCL report (Divs 1 & 2)

Divisions 1 and 2 of the 4NCL played this weekend at the Holiday Inn, Birmingham Airport.

In Division 1, FM Alan Merry scored 1½/2, playing on Board 4 for Barbican 1.   IM Justin Tan also scored 1½/2 on Board 2 for Oxford 1 and IM Dagne Ciuksyte scored ½/2 on Board 8 for Guildford 1.

Meanwhile, the Anglian Avengers team, in Division 2, included five Suffolk players:

Andy Lewis   -   1½
Ed Player   -   1½
Graham Moore   -   ½
Steve Gregory   -   ½
Alex Sheerin   -   1

This was Alex's first outing for the Anglian Avengers first team, and he didn't disappoint, beating an 1890-rated player in the second game today.

Anglian Avengers won both their matches: 4½-3½ against Hackney 1, and 6½-1½ against CSC Dragons.   They now lead Pool B with seven match points (out of a possible 8).   They still have to play the third and fourth-placed teams, who stand just behind on 6 points.




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Norwich come to Bury

The Bury Knights Junior Chess Club entertained 24 members of the Norwich Junior Chess Club today, at Horringer Court Middle School, the 'home' of the Bury Knights.

This is the Norwich team, together with coach Stephen Orton hiding at the rear and parent Liam Dolder (right):

The Norwich players were, on average, considerably older that Bury's, with many of them of secondary school age.   They also had strength in depth, whilst most of Bury's lower boards were very young and inexperienced.   Bury Knights' bottom two boards (Dylan Rajayogan and Harry Butterworth) were both only six years old.

The final score was 62 - 34 to Norwich.   However, over the top 15 boards, Bury would have won narrowly by 30½ to 29½!   Bury only scored 3½ points out of a possible 36 on the lower nine boards, but won 8 - 4 on the top six boards.

Bury players scoring the maximum 4 points were Alan John (Board 1), Jaden Jermy (Board 3), Tom Roy (Board 4) and Mario Saenz de Villaverde (Board 7).   Adam John (Board 3) scored 3 points, whilst his sister Amy, still only 7, scored 2½ points.

Two Bury members scored 2 points: Aaron Saenz de Villaverde (Board 8) and Aidan Myerscough (Board 12),

The top six boards played two games each with 40 minutes on the clocks, whilst the remaining 18 boards played four games each with 20 minutes on the clocks.   The top six boards scored double (a win = 2 points etc).

Norwich JCC have invited the Bury Knights to a return (revenge?) match on a Saturday in the summer term.




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Forthcoming tournaments

There are a number of events coming up in the next few months within easy reach.

Sunday 7 February   -   Norfolk Rapidplay

Sunday 6 March   -   Bury St Edmunds Junior Congress

Fri/Mon 25 - 28 March   -   Southend Easter Congress

Sat/Sun 9 - 10 April   -   34th St Albans Congress

Sat/Sun 23 - 24 April   -   Great Yarmouth Congress

Details and entry forms for all the above can be found on the ECF Calendar.




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No Comment

Saudi Arabia king Grand Mufti bans chess, says forbidden in Islam (1:14) • 'The highest official of Saudi Arabia Grand Mufti has banned chess in the country quoting that playing chess is forbidden in Islam. he said it is a waste of time, promotes gambling and causes hatred among players. Grand mufti Abdul Aziz bin-Abdullah issued the fatwa ahead of a major chess tournament in Mecca tomorrow.'

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Justin goes home

Justin Tan (2446) recently returned to Australia to take part in the 2016 Australian Chess Championships, held in Melbourne from 2 to 12 January.

Seeded fourth, Justin finished in equal fourth place.   He had a disappointing start, scoring only 2/5, but finished strongly with four wins and two draws.   His score of 7/11 was a point and a half behind the eventual winner and joint top seed, IM Kanan Izzat (2480).

Justin is now back in the UK, having spent a few days with family and friends.   He will be playing in the Tradewise Gibraltar Masters, which starts next Monday (25th).

He plans to return to Australia in August, before starting university in Edinburgh in September.




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Still There After All These Years

What's the first thing everyone does when they get a new rating list? They look up their own name. That's exactly what I did when I downloaded the FIDE Rating List - January 2016, even though my rating history can be summed up in three bullets.

• 'The last time I played a rated FIDE game was at the 1990 Paris Open in Paris, France.' (Where I Play, May 2006)
• In 1998, 'I took a hit for 30 rating points even though I hadn't played a FIDE event in years.' (The Other M.Weeks, May 2006)
• 'FIDE IDs were introduced in the [rating] data for 1999. For example, I was assigned FIDE ID 2003740, even though I hadn't played a FIDE event since 1990.' (FIDE Struggles with the Growing Popularity of Ratings, June 2008)

Seventeen years later I'm still on the FIDE Rating List. I wonder which player holds the record for being on the list the longest without having played?

I was reminded of all this while preparing the last post of 2015, More Rummaging, when I found the photo shown below. While not from the 1990 Paris Open, it does show the 1989 Paris Open, where I also played. There are even a couple of players in the photo that might be me. Then again, they might be someone else.

Europe Echecs, June 1989 p.10

My purpose in writing this isn't to rattle on about my long gone, active playing days. It's an introduction to the photographer listed beneath the photo, Catherine Jaeg. I'll come back to her in another post.

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Tata Masters latest

After four rounds of the Category 20 Tata Steel Masters in Wijk-aan-See, the lead is held by Fabiano Caruana, on three points.   A further five players are on 2½, with World Champion Magnus Carlsen lagging behind on two points (four draws).

England's Michael Adams is in last place, having drawn two and lost two of his games.

Live games can be followed from 12.30 daily on the tournament website.

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A good number of Suffolk chess players attended Peter Keffler's funeral on Monday, held at Weeley Crematorium near Clacton.   Appropriately, the flowers on the coffin were in the form of a chess board.   Peter's three children, Raymond, Andy and Sue, were all pleased to see so many chess-players present.





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Hunk-o'-Junk Chess

Don't you just love Yahoo articles that have something to do with chess? Just last month we had Propaganda Is Awesomeand a few days ago I noted 22 Ingenious Ways To Repurpose Old Junk. The third of the 22 ways was:-

(5/44) Before: Random Pipe Fittings • An old pile of rusted pipe ends and fittings destined for the junk pile.

(6/44) After: Steampunk Chess Set • With a bit of rust remover to make them shine, you can transform your old fittings into a steampunk chess set. Source: 9 Bizarrely Beautiful DIY Chess Sets

Better understood in photos as...

...The 'Source:' in the 'After:' photo wasn't actually linked to anything, but with the usual search engine magic I found 9 Bizarrely Beautiful DIY Chess Sets(pinterest.com), which references an article from Popular Mechanicssupplemented with dozens of other examples.

Now that I've documented that bit of Yahoo for posterity, I can move on to the other 19 'ways to repurpose old junk'. Nice word there -- repurpose.

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A game from the 4NCL

Steve Lovell (right), playing on Board 4 for Iceni 2 on Saturday, faced 17-year old Barnet Knight Jake Hung (1892 / ECF 159) with the Black pieces.   Steve had a poor start to the current league season, failing to win in his first seven games.   But then in November he beat Ted Matthewson, sparking a recovery in his performance.   Steve drew his 4NCL game on Sunday.

Here is the game, annotated by the winner:

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Instructional Videos : Anand

Continuing with this short series of instructional videos by each of the eight participants in the forthcoming Moscow Candidates Tournament, in what order should I take them? After the previous clip from the player they hope to challenge -- Instructional Videos : Carlsen-- I could take them in order of current rating (which in many people's mind is equivalent to ranking) or I could take them in alphabetical order (as listed in the Carlsen post).

Taking them in alphabetical order puts GM Viswanathan Anand next. This is doubly appropriate since he was the previous World Champion and battled Magnus Carlsen in the last two title bouts: 2013 Chennai (India)and 2014 Sochi (Russia).

Anand shows his win against Wang Hao (8:57) • 'A smooth victory for Viswanathan Anand got the World Champion into shared first place after four rounds at the 2011 Tata Steel Chess Tournament.'

The video by Chessvibes.com is similar in style to the Carlsen video. To follow the complete game, see Viswanathan Anand vs Wang Hao; 2011 Tata Steel(chessgames.com).

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New ECF President

The English Chess Federation has been without a Chief Executive for the past three months, following the vote of no confidence in Phil Ehr at the AGM in October last year.   On Friday, a new CEO was appointed.   This is the well-respected Mike Truran (left), formerly Chairman of the ECF Finance Committee.   Mike is also on the management board of the 4NCL.

Hailing from Witney in Oxfordshire, Mike was appointed an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to bioscience in the 2013 New Year's Honours List.

The ECF has been through a torrid period in the past few years, going back as far as 2008.   From comments posted on the chess forums, it appears that this appointment has met with considerable approval.   Let's hope he can restore pride and faith in the ECF.




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Something Smells Fishy

This series on Top eBay Chess Items by Priceisn't just about pricey chess auctions. It's also about eBay. Since the annual post-Christmas drought -- also seen in Bak to Basics-- continues, I looked into an unusual item that caught my attention, pictured below.

Three times the same item, titled 'James C. Christensen - The Chess Match', sold at live auction (as did 'Bak to Basics') during a two month time span? That's definitely unusual.

The description for the first item -- Nov 8, $2,960.00 -- said,

Hand Signed - Extra Large Canvas Edition - Image Size: 72"w X 48"h. Limited Edition Of: 40

The description for the second item -- Jan 9, $2,950.00 -- said the same, followed by a long, long paragraph (*) that started,

There Are 1,327 Named Openings And Variations To A Match In The Oxford Companion To Chess, But How Can A Player Remember Any Of Them When The Days Spectators Include A Pair Of Dragons?

The third item -- Jan 14, $2,950.00 -- went missing. Its auction detail page said only,

We had trouble finding some information about this item. Please come back to try again in a few minutes.

And the message persisted. What does all this mean? It means that something smells fishy.

(*) The same text -- with normal word capitalization, the grammatically correct "when the day’s spectators", and properly formatted in multiple paragraphs -- can be found at James C. Christensen - The Chess Match(greenwichworkshop.com), along with prices for the different editions. The most expensive is 'MUSEUMEDITION CANVAS; Image size: 72"w x 48"h.; Limited Edition of: 40; $2,950.00'.

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4NCL report

Three Suffolk-based 4NCL teams were in action this weekend in Rounds 3 and 4.   The excellent new venue (for this season) was the Radisson Park Inn, Telford (see photo above).

In Division 3 South, Anglian Avengers 2 faced probably their strongest opponents in Round 3, West is Best 1 (average rating 2134) and lost 1½-4½ despite an excellent win by their captain, Ian Wallis.   In their second match they faced Welsh team Rhyfelwyr Essyllwg (which means 'heavy infantry from Monmouthshire') and lost again, this time 2 - 4.

Over the two matches, Suffolk players scored:

Tim Lunn   -   0
Ian Wallis   -   1
Martin Fogg   -   ½
Richard Lamont   -   ½
Keith Woodcock   -   ½

In Division 4, the two Iceni teams were in action.   Iceni 1 and Iceni 2 won both their matches.   Iceni 1 won 3½-2½ against Ashfield-Breadsall 2, and by 5½ - minus ½ against Cambridge University 3.   More on this strange result below.

Suffolk scores:

Paul Botham   -   2
John Feavyour   -   ½ (from one game)

Iceni 2 won 4 - 2 against Barnet Knights 1 and by 3½ - 2½ against Shropshire 2.   The average rating of both their opponents was 100 points higher, so these were excellent results.

Suffolk scores (including former Suffolk players)

Somton Ukken   -   ½
Bob Jones   -   1 (two draws)
Steve Lovell   -   1½
Laurie Pott   -   1 (two draws)
Anita Somton   -   2

In the Division 4 league table only one team (Sussex Martlets) have won all four matches.   Three teams are on six points (three wins), including both Iceni teams.

Anita is ridiculously under-rated at 1488.   This is a legacy of her first rating from a couple of years ago, when she was only 9.   Since then she has not played many FIDE-rated games.   Meanwhile her ECF grade has improved to 148 and is likely to be in the region of 160 when the new grades are published soon.   There is a strong case for a radical revision - perhaps to about 1900 - but I don't think FIDE allow this sort of thing.

Now about that strange result, when Iceni 1's opponents Cambridge University 3 recorded a 'minus ½' score.   This is because they defaulted on two boards, resulting in the penalty of the loss of one point.   Their four remaining players scored just half a point between them, so when the penalty is deducted, the minus score results.

This is far from the first time that Iceni teams have suffered from defaulting opponents.   Last season it happened on a number of occasions.   When it takes more than three hours for some players to travel to Telford, it is galling when opponents default without notice.   In today's incident, the opponents were not known until late on Saturday evening, when the pairings were made.   So it was impossible to prevent two of Iceni's players from spending a lot of money on travel, accommodation and food.   Captain John Feavyour nobly stood down to allow other team members to play, but he shouldn't have had to do that.

There's a strong case to increase the penalties for defaults, and for financial compensation to be paid to the offended team(s).   Also, perhaps, teams with two or more defaults should not be allowed to compete in that round.   If you have any thoughts on this issue, please respond via 'comments'.




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4NCL this weekend

Rounds 3 and 4 of the 4NCL take place in Telford, Shropshire, this weekend for teams in Division 3 South and Division 4.

In Division 3, Anglian Avengers 2 face West is Best 1 in Round 3 and an unpronounceable Welsh team in Round 4.   In Division 4, Iceni 1 and Iceni 2 are drawn in Round 3 against Ashfield-Breadsall and Barnet Knights 1 respectively.   The pairings for Round 4 will not be known until Saturday evening.

All results for Suffolk players will be reported here tomorrow evening.

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Peter Keffler's funeral is taking place on Monday 18th January, at 2.00 pm, at Weeley Crematorium, CO16 9JP.   I'm hoping that there will be a strong contingent of Suffolk chessplayers and if anyone who like a lift, please contact me.







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Busy night at the Knights

31 children turned up this evening for the weekly meeting of the Bury Knights Junior Chess Club.   As well as the usual rated games, members played the third round of the Delancey UK Chess Challenge.   The lead in this competition is held by four players, Alex Sheerin, Tom Roy, Alan John and Alwin Jose, all on the maximum score of nine points.

Ed Player (right) was also in attendance, giving a demonstration to the club's top players of how he shouldn't have lost his game the previous day against Steve Gregory, when both were in mutual time trouble and relying on 15-second increments!

The club's membership currently stands at 40, of whom eight are girls.





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U.S. Chess Hall of Fame

The endless Video Friday series returns after a one month hiatus with a photo from the World Chess Hall of Fame(worldchesshof.org) St.Louis, Missouri. The wall appears to be decorated with plaques honoring inductees into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame.

Chess Hall of Fame© Flickr user Nick Normal under Creative Commons.

For the complete set of HOF photos from the same photographer, see World Chess Hall of Fame. (NB: There are a few photos there that aren't typical chess material and aren't really suitable 'For All Ages'!)

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Fischer - Keres, 1962 Curacao

I wanted to use this photo for the recent post on the Paul Keres Centenary, but decided against it because it shows more than Keres. It's still a great photo

I found it on eBay a few years ago (August 2013 to be exact), where the description said,

7" x 5" black and white photograph of Fischer during a match, signed on the reverse: "Here I am playing Paul Keres of the USSR in Curacao, Dutch West Indies. Yours truly, Robert Fischer." There is a vertical fold.

The position the players are analyzing is around move 40 of the game Robert James Fischer vs Paul Keres; Curacao Candidates 1962(chessgames.com). Keres won that game.

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Tata Steel Masters

The 78th Tata Steel Chess Tournament starts tomorrow in Wijk-aan-See in Holland.   Amongst the Grandmasters competing in the Masters section is ninth seed Michael Adams, the only English entrant.   With nine of the top 20-rated players in the world, this category 20 tournament is one of the strongest ever.   The average rating of the 14 GMs is 2748.

They will play 13 rounds (all-plays-all) over the following 15 days, with Round 1 on Saturday (start time 12.30 UK time).   Live games and commentary can be followed on the tournament website.

There is also a 14-player Challengers section and other sections for 'amateurs'.   The amateur sections start tomorrow.




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Shropshire Congress report

Alan Merry travelled to Telford in Shropshire last weekend to play in the Open section of the FIDE-Rated Shropshire Congress.

The event attracted a strong field, which included five Grandmasters, three IMs and three FMs.   Predictably, the five GMs finished in joint first place on four points each, with none having lost a single game (all recorded two draws).

Seventh seed Alan was on his own on 3½ points, finishing in sixth place.   His best result was in the final round, when he ignored the obvious charms of French IM Sophie Milliet (right)) to record a draw.   Alan was a little lucky to survive.   In the position below Sophie (Black) could have won the exchange with ...Bf2 (there are other good moves too), but she went all passive with ...Be6, and followed up with several other sub-optimal moves.   Alan failed to gain any rating points (he lost 2), so remains 26 points short of the elusive IM title.

Also playing, in the Major (u160) section, was former Suffolk junior Anita Somton.   She scored 3½ points, including wins against a 153 and a 155.   Her grading performance for the four rounds she played (she took a bye in Round 1) was 167.   It surely won't be long before 11-year old Anita is playing regularly in Open sections.





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FIDE Rating List - January 2016

It's that time of year time again, when I download the January edition of the FIDE rating list, load it into a database, and do some simple queries. Last year I did a series of nine posts, starting with FIDE Rating Lists Restored(January 2015) and ending with Into the Melting Pot(February 2015; including a summary of the other posts).

Through the years, the FIDE rating lists (FRL) have become more complicated. The main download page, FIDE Download Rating List, offers six different lists (the following bullets are copied from that page):-

• Full list of players (not rated included) STD, RPD, BLZ combined
• FIDE rating list in old format (not rated included - only Standard rating)
• Full list of players LEGACY format (not rated included with only over the board titles) STD, RPD, BLZ combined
• STANDARD rating list
• RAPID rating list
• BLITZ rating list

Last year I decided to stick with the 'STANDARD rating list' and this year I'm doing the same. Some day I might look at the 'full list', but I don't have the time or the interest for that now.

In 2015, the FRL listed 197.590 players, of which 82.407 were marked inactive; in 2016, the FRL has 231.238 names, of which 96.535 are marked inactive. The following chart shows which of the 180 federations had the largest increase in the number of players, whether active or inactive.

FIDE Rating Lists: Jan 2015 & Jan 2016

Left: Increase in players; Right: New federations

The four federations on the right did not appear on the 2015 list. They should be merged into my table of FIDE Country and Federation Codes, but I'll save that task for another day.

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Gibraltar

The Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival takes place between 25 January and 4 February.   This event usually attracts a number of Suffolk players.

To date, IM Justin Tan and David Spence have entered the Masters section.   David is also playing in the Challengers (u2250) section during the first week.

The deadline for entries (avoiding a £50 late entry fee) is this coming Friday (15th), so if you plan to go, get your entry in now!

The Masters section has an amazing 245 entries, of which 76 are Grandmasters.   The popularity of this event seems to be increasing year on year.




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Instructional Videos : Carlsen

The 2016 Candidates Tournament(Moscow, 10-30 March) starts in two months, which gives me just enough time to run a weekly video series featuring the eight participants: Anand, Aronian, Caruana, Giri, Karjakin, Nakamura, Svidler, and Topalov. I'll be looking for clips that show the players explaining one of their own games. Let's start with a presentation by the man they hope to challenge, World Champion Carlsen.

Carlsen Smeets 10 rd Corus 2009 (14:25) • 'Published on Nov 29, 2012'

I recall that this was first published by Chessvibes.com around the time of the 2009 Corus tournament, but I couldn't find the original version. For the full game, see Magnus Carlsen vs Jan Smeets; Corus 2009on Chessgames.com.

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Four go to Yorkshire

Four Suffolk players travelled to Wetherby in West Yorkshire at the weekend to take part in the 6th 4NCL Congress.   All four played in the Open section (38 entries).

4th-seeded Ed Player finished in equal second place, losing only to the eventual winner, Martin Brown.   Both players are pictured above in their top board Round 4 match.

David Spence, Steve Gregory and Nick Savage all finished on three points.   Both Steve and Nick played (and lost to) Ed.

Ed won £100 for his efforts (probably barely covering entry fee, travel and accommodation!).   He also gained 14 rating points to take his live rating to just short of 2200.

There were two other sections (u1900 and u130), attracting a total of 52 players.   It's surprising how few people entered, especially as the venue (the Mercure Hotel at Wetherby) was easily accessible to thousands of chess-players in the Midlands and North of England.   The prize-money was good too, with £750 paid in each section.





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London Chess Conference 2015

For the third year running -- last year's post was London Chess and Education Conference 2014(January 2015) -- I'll use this blog's 'Chess in School' series to feature a video from the recent London Chess Conference, held in conjunction with the London Chess Classic 2015. At the beginning of the clip, Malcolm Pein introduces himself as

Chief Executive of 'Chess in Schools and Communities', a U.K. charity that organizes, hosts, and facilitates the conference.

IM Pein goes on to explain, 'This year we're going to look at projects that use chess not just as a development tool for children but also as a positive force that impacts both the individual and society as a whole'.

London Chess Conference 2015 Opening Session extract (5:20) • 'Opening session introduction by Conference Director John Foley introducing Chess Festival Director Malcolm Pein.'

For more videos from the same Youtube channel, see London Chess Conference, 'Presentations and interviews from the London Chess Conference 2015: Chess and Society held at the Hilton Olympia'. For another video on the same conference, see KVDC London Chess Conference 2015 workshop impressions, which leads to a different Youtube channel highlighting other conference sessions. For more about the conference itself, see London Chess Conference - Making Chess Work for Society(londonchessconference.com).

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Bury Junior Congress

This annual Junior Congress, organised by the Bury Knights Junior Chess Club, will take place this year on Sunday 6 March - that's just eight weeks today.

Entry forms can be downloaded from the ECF website (calendar page).

The tournament takes place at the Moreton Hall Community Centre IP32 7EE (home of the Bury St Edmunds Chess Club).   The Centre sponsors the event by providing the hall free of charge, which enables more prize money to be provided.

There are sections for Under 9s, Under 11s, Under 14s and Under 18s.   A maximum of 100 entrants can be accommodated.

Last year 73 children entered.   The section winners were:

Under 18   -   William Sait (Bury St Edmunds)
Under 14   -   Karthik Saravanan (Lowestoft)
Under 11   -   Tristian See and Julia Volovich (both Cambridge)
Under 9   -   Adam John (Bury St Edmunds)





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UK Chess Challenge underway

This annual tournament, sponsored by Delancey and organised by IM Mike Basman, takes place in many schools and clubs across the UK during the Spring Term.   Those who score well in the local rounds progress to the 'Megafinal', a county-wide tournament.   There are then two further stages, the 'Gigafinal', usually in Manchester and the 'Terafinal', which takes place in the Midlands.

Bury's juniors have a proud record in this event, first with Alan Merry and more recently with Anita Somton and Adam John; all three progressed to the Terafinal stage, where fewer than 70 players compete for the 'Strat' title from more than 50,000 original competitors.

Yesterday, the Bury Knights Junior Club held the first two rounds (of seven).   In the first round, William Moody (ECF 96) was paired against Amy John (left), who is just half his age. Amy is the third chess-playing member of the John family (Alan and Adam already play regularly in the adult leagues).   Below is the position with Amy (Black) to play.   The clocks were set at 25 minutes each and Amy was down to two minutes whilst William had about five minutes remaining.

Although only 7½ years old, Amy is a deep thinker and seemed unaware that her time was rapidly running out.   The following moves were played, but at the end, with Amy having a mate in one, her time expired, leaving a most relieved William to reflect on his good fortune.

1... Qd5   2. Rf3   Ree2   3. Rg1   Bf2   4. Rf1   Bxd4   5. Rg3   Rxg2   6. Be4?   and Amy's flag fell before she could make a move.   William had played Be4 instantly, with less than two minutes remaining on his clock.   At first glance it looks good, forking queen and rook, but in fact he could not have avoided mate, even if he had played a different move.   Given a few more seconds, Amy would have surely spotted ... Rh2 mate!

Incidentally, there's a rather neat line (thanks computer) if William had played 6. Rf2 instead of Be4.   It goes: 6... Rgxf2+   7. Kg1   Qh1+!   8. Kxh1   Rh2 mate.





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Answers to Christmas puzzles

Five sets of answers were received by the deadline of 3 January, although one (Stephen Lewis) had only provided three answers.   He did find the answer to the fourth one, but three days too late!

So that leaves four contenders for the prize, in alphabetical order: Nathan Barnes, Chris Chambers, Kevin Greenacre and Steve Lovell.

All four provided correct answers, but only one person had them absolutely correct.   For the winner, see the foot of this article.

Here are the answers:

Puzzle 1

From this position (left), the moves were:   1... Ne5+,   2. g4   fxg3   3. Kxe5, which gives us the position in the problem (right):

Puzzle 2

There appear to be two possible alternatives for White's last move: e4 and c4. As all eight black pawns are still on the board, they can only have reached the given position by making at least ten captures.   As there are only six white pieces remaining, all the captures of white pieces must have been made by the black pawns.   White's f1 bishop cannot have been taken on its starting square by a black pawn, so it must have been allowed to move.  This would only be possible by the e-pawn having moved some time before.   Therefore the only move is c4, with mate following by bxc3 abd c2.

Puzzle 3

This was the easiest of the four puzzles, and everyone got it right.   1. Qd6, maintaining the symmetry.   If the Black king takes a pawn, then Qa3 or Qg3.   If ...d4, then Qxd4.

Puzzle 4

Whilst everyone found the correct answer, only one person had it exactly right.   Black's last move must have been g7-g5.   It couldn't have been g6-g5, or Kg7-h6, as checks would've been involved.   Steve Lovell said the only two-move mate would be if the last Black move was g7-g5.   Kevin Greenacre said that he 'thought' Black's last move was g7-g5.   Nathan Barnes thought the previous Black move was one of three possibles. So, after Black played g7-g5, White took en passant hxg6.   After Black's only move Kh5, Rxh7 is mate.

That leaves just one person, Chris Chambers (who appreciated that g7-g5 had to be the last Black move).   Chris wins the book prize!

For those who don't know Chris, he was a strong player back in the '80s, who left chess to concentrate on the game of Bridge.   Now to find out where he lives...




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Chess Kids in Somerset

After the previous Video Friday post, Nakamura on the Grand Chess Tour, I took a short break for the Christmas holiday. There was plenty to choose from in the intervening month, including more from the 'London Chess Classic' (aka 'Grand Chess Tour'), but this next clip was my favorite.

Chess Kids: Checks & Balances (7:28) • 'Short film about a day long kids' chess tournament.'

The filmmaker, Gabriel Gilson, added,

Something about chess fits perfectly in to the childhood tendency for obsession. I wanted to explore how the children think about chess and how parents and children cope with the competitive pressure you get even at a small local tournament like this.

Other, non-chess clips on the same Youtube channel feature Bath, UK.

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A new Junior Club!

At long last, there is another junior chess club in Suffolk.   Martlesham Junior Chess Club held their first meeting last Saturday, when 12 children turned up.

This is the brainchild of Dagne Ciuksyte, who is assisted by Graham Moore.   With two strong players available to coach the children, there are high hopes for this new club.

To assist this start-up, Bury Knights JCC has provided six boards and sets for their use.   These were handed over recently to Graham Moore - see photo left.

Dagne and Graham are hoping that there will be as many as 17 attending next Saturday.

The club meets at the Scout Headquarters on Martlesham Heath (IP5 3PL), from 14.00 to 15.30 every Saturday.   For more information, contact Dagne on 07574 936810 or email her.




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Paul Keres Centenary

Paul Keres (Estonian, 7 January 1916 - 5 June 1975) was born 100 years ago today.

'Chess prop photo of Paul Keres with title "Grandmaster of USSR".
Press photo with mintage, made by LENPHOTO photo laboratory in Leningrad in year 1950.'

See also The Soviet Grandmaster Title. I once annotated a vintage Keres games in Every Move Explained - A Keres Game

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Suffolk Cup & Plate semi-finals

The draw has been made for the semi-finals of the Cup and Plate competition, as follows:

Cup:

Manningtree A v Felixstowe A   (to be played 2 March)
Sudbury v Ipswich B   (to be played 7 March)

Plate:

Saxmundham B v Ipswich F   (to be played 23 February)
Bury St Edmunds D v Manningtree B   (to be played 25 February)

If there are any clashes with these dates, please notify David Green, the Competitions Secretary, immediately.





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January 1966 'On the Cover'

We start a new year of American chess magazines from 50 years ago with echoes of the previous year. The January 1965 'On the Cover'also highlighted Chess Life's 'See you at the NATIONAL OPEN!' -- for that initial event the cover girl was named. The same magazine, for its December 1965 'On the Cover', showed Pal Benko as 'First American Open Champion'.

Left: 'See you at the NATIONAL OPEN!'
Right: 'Winner of American Open at Santa Monica'

Chess Life (two page ad)

Announcing the Great Second Annual
NATIONAL OPEN
THE STARDUST HOTEL, LAS VEGAS
FEBRUARY 27 - MARCH 4, 1966
$4,600 IN CASH PRIZES
Biggest Ever in an 8-Round Swiss!

Chess Review

ON THE COVER:The Mission Bay Open at the Steiner Chess Group of San Diego, which drew 30 participants and about 100 spectators, was won, not surprisingly, by grandmaster Pal Benko of San Diego with a 5-0 sweep. [...] Benko later won the American Open.

The equivalent CL ad for the 1965 National Open had announced '$4,500 IN CASH PRIZES!'. The 1966 event offered early-bird hotel rooms at the Stardust for $8 single and $10 double.

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Chess Engine Summary

For the last three months of Mondays I've been running a series on chess engines. It started with a long video overviewing basic engine concepts.

• 2015-09-04: How Stockfish Works
• 2015-09-14: Modern Chess Engines

Then I looked at some technical aspects introduced in the video. These were areas which were largely new to me.

• 2015-09-21: Chess Engines : Advanced Evaluation
• 2015-09-28: Chess Engines : Pruning
• 2015-10-05: Chess Engines : LMR
• 2015-10-12: Chess Engines : Bitboards
• 2015-10-19: Chess Engines : Fishtest
• 2015-10-26: Chess Engines : FishCooking
• 2015-11-02: Chess Engines : Parallel Search

By coincidence, the Thoresen (or 'Top') Chess Engines Competition (TCEC) was running at the same time. Stockfish, the star of the video, was playing Komodo, another super-engine in the final match ('superfinal').

• 2015-11-09: TCEC Season 8 Superfinal in Progress
• 2015-11-16: TCEC Season 8 Superfinal Week 2
• 2015-11-23: TCEC Season 8 Superfinal Week 3
• 2015-11-30: TCEC Season 8 Superfinal Week 4

After 100 games Komodo emerged with a convincing victory. I spent a few weeks looking at specific games that promised insights into the engines' play.

• 2015-12-07: TCEC Season 8 - Evaluation Anomalies
• 2015-12-14: Evaluation Anomaly - Long Combination
• 2015-12-21: Evaluation Anomaly - Mass Exchange
• 2015-12-28: Evaluation Anomalies - Engines Behaving Badly

Where do we go from here? I haven't decided yet, but I'll certainly come back to chess engines at some time in the future.

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Bak to Basics

How is it possible that after nearly 200 posts in this blog's eBay category, including dozens of artists, I've never featured a work by one of the best known chess artists of our time? This current edition of Top eBay Chess Items by Pricegives me the chance to rectify that. Good thing, too, because just like last year's post-Christmas eBay auction, Chess Stone Lithograph, there was little else to choose from.

The item below, titled 'Samuel Bak b.1933 (Israeli) Chess oil on canvas Lot 69', subtitled 'Part of a live auction event on Sunday, Dec 20', sold for US $3600 after five bids on a starting price of $3000. As with other eBay live auctions (last seen on this blog in Chess Charcoal Drawing), there is no information on the number of distinct bidders.

The description added somewhat cursorily,

Samuel Bak; b.1933 (Israeli); Chess; oil on canvas; H:33 W:24 cm.; signed lower right • Seller's estimate: USD 3500 - 4000

A page titled Chess in the Art of Samuel Bak(chgs.umn.edu: 'Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies - University of Minnesota'), subtitled 'A Question of Survival', informs,

Bak's paintings of battlefields of chess pieces and chessboards seem to describe our world today. The terminology of battle – sacrifice, foot soldiers, construct lines of defense, destroy the enemies, command centers and leaders is represented in these works.

In the dozens of Bak's paintings displayed on that page, the blue Pawn from our eBay auction does not appear. The auctioneer's catalog page Israeli & International Fine Art Auction, offered by Matsart Auctioneers & Appraisers, Tel Aviv, Israel, shows four works by Bak. The only work featuring chess sold for the lowest amount among the four. Someone got a bargain.

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Welcome to 2016!

http://cooltext.com/

It's already the future!

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