chess bits

[CosmicRocker]

early renaissanince players included Queen Isabella, and Lucrezia Borgia.
The queen on the chessboard was called a Counselor, and could only move 1 square diagonally.
Then the Quenn emerged in modern form , the most powerful piece on the board, combining the verticle and horizontal moves of the roook, with the diagonal moves of the bishop.

Chess clocks came after the American master Paul Morphy and an opponent once waited 5 hours between a move.
The modern chess clock was born, each opponent has their own timer that ends his time and starts the opponents by hitting a button.

The term world champion was first given to Wilhelm Steinitz, from Autro-Hungary.
Steinitz was the first player to reject the reckless attacks of the 19th century , for what he called "an accumulation of small advantages".
Positional chess now came into play.
Ther were 4 more world champions, Emanuel Lasker, Jose' Capablaca a Cuban child prodige', who ruled the turn of the century until Alexander Alekhine became the most powerful player, then the USSR chess machine of the cold war cranked out world champions ( Bottvinnik, Tal) in the 1950's

Until the championship was organized by the world governing body FIDE ( Federation International de Echesse') world championships were organized as a private affair, with the title holder holding out until enough cash prize was offered..
When Alekhine died in1947 there was no process to determine his sucessor.

Interzonals(playoffs) were established to get a challenger to the champion. elimination games between the Zones and Interzonals produced the fianal victor
Then Gary Kasparov and Nigel Short( British GMaster) left FIDE to start the Professional chess Federation.

Kirstan Ilumzhinoz is the president of Kalmykia, a poverty stricken semiautonomous Russian republic on the Caspian Sea..
He was into moey laundering , drugs, caviar smuggling,etc.
He was friends with most of the worlds brutal dictators, he was close to Saddam Hussein,amd was the last foreign leader to see Uday, Hussein;s son alive.
Ilumzhinov got Hussein to pledge the 1996 title money and place, between Anotoly Karpoz, and American Gata Kamsky, but the match never took place because the US State Dept refused to let Kamsky travel to Baghdad, or Tehran the back up site.

The FIDE World Champoinship of 1996 took place in Libya, funded by $1.5 million of Mummar Gadafis personal assets.

[CosmicRocker]

Tsarist Russians played chess, but only the political, and intellectual elites.
After the Revolution, the game exploded and became a national pastime.
Lenin believed chess was an activity to build discipline, and ordered the first Soviet Championship.

Chess became part of training for factory workers, and was considered a national sport. Soldiers were taught chess -considered to be an integral part of training, because it helped build willpower, but also the ability to think strategically.

By 1920 the slogan "take chess to the workers", and "every peasent must learn to play", because chess was found to increase litracy, so illeterate could read chess books ,and chess notaton ( the record of the moves)

Pravda acticle said of Lenin: "he saw it as a way of strengthening the will. a training ground for resolve. Lenin saw it as the stubborn struggle to make the best move, and in finding out a way of a difficult position"

Moscow began giviing stipends to grandmasters, enabling them to earn a living.
Grandmasters were also allowed to travel abroad, even during the cold war.

The Soviets dominated chess, because they had millions of players, at it's peak the Soviet Chess Federation had 4 million memebers in the early 1980's, the most EVER in the USA was 95,000.
Today there are only about 15 million Americans who play chess on a semi-regualar basis.

Modernrn Russian still dominate the game, though many emigree's have moved to the west.

Many of the world's top players are simply paranoid, they dont use trainers, or kibbitz with other players, because they are afraid someone would leak their analysis to another player.

Nakamuta ; the 2005 US champion never used a coach, because he feels like there is no-one he can trust.
Paranoia is common in chess, the strain of tournament play, is horrendous, sitting for up to 5 hours whle your heartbeat continues to rise.

After Spassky started to loose games to Bobby Fisher in the 1972 match, the normally level headed ( he also liked other activities) asked tht his chair be X-rayed and dismantled to make sure Fischer hadn' planted a radiation emitter inside in.

More on Fisher next.

[OldMercsRule]

I like ta play chess.... would luv ta spank a Queen at a good game..... 'course maybe she'd cut me head off..... :eek:

[Moby]

My favorite comment on chess

My name is Rustam Kamsky. You annoyed my son. Prepare to die.

[OldMercsRule]

My favorite comment on chess

LOLOLOLOL :lmao2:

[CosmicRocker]

My favorite comment on chess
I know of Gata Kamsky, but never heard of Rustam.

Yep. Grandmaster Chess is a war of wills, Kasparov and Karpov prolly played the longest match, something like 25 games, then they had to call it off because of health reason.
Tournament chess ( any chess) looks boring, but if you understand the game, you understand the pressures, one small move can win or lose
( although hopefully your opponent will blunder too)

I want to talk about the Supercomputers soon, they have never been beaten in a match, though Kasparov tied one ( Deep Fritz) that had about 250 microprocesors in it.
( Of course Kasparov claimed IBM the sponser of the match preloaded Kasparov's openings, into it, a charge IBM denied. Chess madness is common -another topic for another day.)

They are capable of making millions of move possiblities/ second
Humans, maybe 2 or 3, but humans are better at strategy, since the computer is mindless, and searches everything, even ridiculous moves.

Kasparov is the hghest rated player, I think he hit around 2800.
God is rated at 3000.

[hotair]

If you were to make a study of the worlds grand masters of chess, you will discover that all of them have one thing in common. They all have a total recall memory. At the grand master level, people do not play strategic chess (planning their moves) they all play positional chess.
(See: “The Fireside Book of Chess.” if you can still find it in print?)

They study every game that they can find, and then they memorize them. There is a finite number of positions that can be achieved in a chess game, once you memorize them, it becomes very easy. It simply becomes the matter of making the move (from any particular position) that won the most games.

This is how supercomputers are programed. It is also how grandmasters play. So it becomes the question of who has the deepest memory bank.

BF was a savant. He could process millions of games in seconds, anticipate his opponents move, and formulate his reply, all before it was his turn to move. It drove opponents crazy (the so called Fischer illness) that he could anticipate them so easily.


Imagination only helps in the lower levels.

[CosmicRocker]

If you were to make a study of the worlds grand masters of chess, you will discover that all of them have one thing in common. They all have a total recall memory. At the grand master level, people do not play strategic chess (planning their moves) they all play positional chess.
(See: “The Fireside Book of Chess.” if you can still find it in print?)

They study every game that they can find, and then they memorize them. There is a finite number of positions that can be achieved in a chess game, once you memorize them, it becomes very easy. It simply becomes the matter of making the move (from any particular position) that won the most games.

This is how supercomputers are programed. It is also how grandmasters play. So it becomes the question of who has the deepest memory bank.

BF was a savant. He could process millions of games in seconds, anticipate his opponents move, and formulate his reply, all before it was his turn to move. It drove opponents crazy (the so called Fischer illness) that he could anticipate them so easily.


Imagination only helps in the lower levels.
Many are young, the true geniuses,( Polgar sisters. Fischer) some were taught blindfold chess, now with some simply study databases of openings. It's rare for Gm's not to play by the age of at least 7. Many really good players still learn later, but it's like any master activity, it takes complete dedication to get there.


There are so many sites now, anyone can literally learn GM chess, if one had the discipline to folow the sites. http://www.thechesswebsite.com/ (ex).

Here's the best description of the infinate# of positions :

Chess is infinite: There are 400 different positions after each player makes one move apiece.
There are 72,084 positions after two moves apiece.
There are 9+ million positions after three moves apiece.
There are 288+ billion different possible positions after four moves apiece.
There are more 40-move games on Level-1 than the number of electrons in our universe.
There are more game-trees of Chess than the number of galaxies (100+ billion), and more openings, defences, gambits, etc. than the number of quarks in our universehttp://blog.chess.com/windward62/how-many-chess-games
BF was a savant. He could process millions of games in seconds, anticipate his opponents move, and formulate his reply, all before it was his turn to move. It drove opponents crazy (the so called Fischer illness) that he could anticipate them so easily.No human can "process millions of positions in seconds" - humans have the ability to exclude most but a handful of moves in a second, they can see(focus on) what real possible combinations are possible,( good variations) or not while the supercomputers - no matter how many processors, are nothing but number chrunching monsters.

Yes GM's Fisher , and Kasparov, and Karpov, Korchnoi, and Alekekhine ( 1st true postional player) and Capablanca, et all have the power to "crush their opponents will" which is the state of mind once must hold while playing GM level tournaments.

What is fascinating is to watch the actual game,no matter how many variations one preps for against his opponent ( searching thru databases for their preferences, and traps), one STILL has to play the game.

"Blunders happen" inferior moves have to be tried to improve, very few can always gain an advantaged position, and always win the game.
Fischer had Spassky so whacked, he played poorly,but Fisher games are still popular (e5) P-k4 openings.

And that is the intelectual beauty of chess, it is solely your decision how to play the 64 squares, not lady luck.

[Udo Dirkschneider]

57jOssjTbWw

[CosmicRocker]

Paul Morphy was a pre-cival war prodigy, from New Orleans.
He always wore a bow tie, and was short and dapper in appearence. ( He could also play blindfold chess)


Previously; players prefered cheap tactical traps, without piece development (moving to advance a co--ordinated attack).
Morphy used all his pieces in co-ordination to side step these traps, and win because the opponents pieces were left unorganized, or over-extended, which Morphy now was free to lauch a full scale counter attack.

He also was capable of sitting for hours, wthout food or drink, while other players usually left the board ( pre-chess clock).

Morphy would be thinking thru possible combination finding the key moves, and win..he layed as well on white, as black, both his attacking and defending was superior.
He won the First American Chess Congress, and arrived in Europe on his 21st birthday, to slaughter the top club players in London and Paris.

His moves were front page of the New York Times, and praised by Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes.

europeans were also entranced with him, but when a match beween Englishman Howard Stauton kept being delayed, Morphy went around europe wiping out the rest of the players of the Romantic period.
( the end of the slash and burn wild sacrifing of pieces, to attempt checkmate)

Staunton finally refuse to play, claiming he couldnt take time from being a Shakepearen scholor, "for a mere game"

Morphy went back to the US -there was nothing more for him t oaccomplish in Europe without the Staunton match, and retired from chess the next year. slipping into a paranoid stae he never recovered from.

(Sound familiar? Bobby Fisher, another top player retired and went bonkers)


He died in 1874, in a bathtub, after coming home from a afternoon summer walk in the New Orleans afternoon.

[CosmicRocker]

I was reading a post about golf, AK GANDY said among other things about golf there "is there is no perfect score".
There is no perfect game, but there are gems called "miniatures" short briliant games.

Sme in chess, no person / supercomputer can be counted on to always win.There is always a better program or a better player possible.
Kasparovthe highest ever rated is so well known - unlike the rest of the chess world Pepsi made a Superbowl commercial im which he was acting as himself in character.

Kasparov is never of unsound mind, but he can be a pig at the board, Scowling pacing out of the room,glowering at a bad move.

The Kasparov/Karpov match went on for 65 games, hours with their foreheads inches apart at times.

The mental warfare cannot be understated, once soon after Kasparov lost the championship(2000) to Victor Krammick, an extremely uninteresting personality, Kasparov played a Manhattan Chess Club charity event.

It was not rated, it was a simultaneous expedition, where a master of GM goes around around a room playing 50 or more ppl.

He comes to your board, you must move as he gets there, or beforeheand.
Then you can think, while the simultaneous rotation comes back to your board.

Kasparov was beating everyone, except an atorney, who manuevered a draw position, with careful defensive play to Kasparov's trademark flashy attacks ( sacrifices of pieces for position, pieces left in capture, multiple threats on the board, etc)

Kasparov stopped and stood threre and stared at the ceiling for about 15 minutes. the attorney had to sit there, while Kasparov used time on Kasparov's clock.

It un-nerved the challenger, and he blundered, and Kasparov won. Kasparov gave him a wide grin an pumped his hand .

Kasparov later said " After he blundered i thought of offering a draw, but i didn't like the way he looked -like he was actually trying to win.

"He was too smug, and I had to crush him."

Chess is won by superior logic, and superior psychological warfare.

[CosmicRocker]

If you were to make a study of the worlds grand masters of chess, you will discover that all of them have one thing in common. They all have a total recall memory. At the grand master level, people do not play strategic chess (planning their moves) they all play positional chess.
(See: “The Fireside Book of Chess.” if you can still find it in print?)

They study every game that they can find, and then they memorize them. There is a finite number of positions that can be achieved in a chess game, once you memorize them, it becomes very easy. It simply becomes the matter of making the move (from any particular position) that won the most games.

This is how supercomputers are programed. It is also how grandmasters play. So it becomes the question of who has the deepest memory bank.BF was a savant. He could process millions of games in seconds, anticipate his opponents move, and formulate his reply, all before it was his turn to move. It drove opponents crazy (the so called Fischer illness) that he could anticipate them so easily.


Imagination only helps in the lower levels.
There is something to deepest memory, especially for humans.
Supercomputers now can be loaded with a players games ( which indicates what lines of play he prefers) and make an alowance to try to play somethign that takes th opponent off his normal sequence of moves.

"Cookers" are also common -finding a new set of moves that refute an obvious reply. The human way of taking a player out of his preperation.

If a player throws away his queen on a lessor piece; the tendency is to re-take it - a player down a queen, is usualy fatal -a but a "cooker" is a deliberate sacrifice, for an immediate gain. A gambit is a sacrifice for future gain.
While sacrificing a queen is rare, sacrificing lessor pieces is a common way to gain a positional advantage.


Both set of moves either results in gain of position or material, or both.
Unsucesful gambit/sacrifices leaves the loss of material* should result in a loss, by trading down the remaining pieces.
Simple trade down all the pieces, and the more powerful piece left controls the endgame.( called "simplification" of the position)
The piece ( say a rook) has more power then a knight, but if a rook is sacrificed on a king's castle formation, it can open the pawns in front of the king.
It either leads to an attack that wins the piece back, with the advantge of destroying the castle scructure - or to indirect checkmate.
So positional or material advantage is accomplished by a initial loss of material in the retaking of the piece ( exchanges).

You can't play just to number crunch, you have to see the dynamic strenghts, and weaknesses by each side.

Then you can either just parry a threat, or if you can exploit ( not always possible) the inferior position -yields win, or a better endgame position.
Better endgame can force a win, but it's not a guaranteee.
Games have been won and lost over 1 pawn promotion
Every game as to actualy be played. Tournaments reward wininng only but playing the game well is it's it's own reward.
You have to like the play, win or lose. Winning is especiall rewarding for a well played game ( relatively free of gross blunders)

* material is point count of current pieces on the board.
A queen is 9 points, rooks are 5 each, so giving up a queen (9 material points) for 2 rooks ( total of 10 points) is a point gain in material.

[bonerslap]

Kasparov is the hghest rated player, I think he hit around 2800.
God is rated at 3000.

:lmao2: :lmao2:


It is hard to kick chess habit

[CosmicRocker]

:lmao2: :lmao2:


It is hard to kick chess habit
I get a feeling when I play if I REALLY concentrate,,.. I could steal God's Bishops.

[bonerslap]

I get a feeling when I play if I REALLY concentrate,,.. I could steal God's Bishops.
:lmao2:
You are on a roll cosmic-too funny!

I believe somewhere in the future some programme will prove that white wins by virtue of being the first to make a move and discredit the notion that chess is a drawn game.

Chess is like a huge ocean where elephants and gnats bath.

[CosmicRocker]

:lmao2:
You are on a roll cosmic-too funny!

I believe somewhere in the future some programme will prove that white wins by virtue of being the first to make a move and discredit the notion that chess is a drawn game.

Chess is like a huge ocean where elephants and gnats bath.
Amazing we still don't know if an opening for white can force a win every time.

The equality and symetry of the board and the pieces give it the balance, -that all other considerations, leads drawish endings.

fr. post 8
There are more game-trees of Chess than the number of galaxies (100+ billion), and more openings, defences, gambits, etc. than the number of quarks in our universe http://blog.chess.com/windward62/how-many-chess-games

[bonerslap]

Amazing we still don't know if an opening for white can force a win every time.

The equality and symetry of the board and the pieces give it the balance, -that all other considerations, leads drawish endings.

fr. post 8
There are more game-trees of Chess than the number of galaxies (100+ billion), and more openings, defences, gambits, etc. than the number of quarks in our universe http://blog.chess.com/windward62/how-many-chess-games

That is definately a logical analysis;we will see what the future brings!

At this era I find it incoceivable that Anand can keep the title for that long(Since 2003 I think). Sh*t should change hands every year or at least a couple at most; considering the huge talent floating around!

For a start I think Gelfand will snatch it very soon!

[CosmicRocker]

http://www.chessgames.com/history/kasparov-anand.jpg

This is the way to play !! On top the now gone World Trade Center

This was the Professional Chess Association ( split off from FIDE) in 1995 when Anand lost to Kasparov.

He was born in 1980 ( Annand) - so he's in his prime now.

I haven't followed the World Championship closely since Krammick / Topalov 2007.

So I was surprised to see ( from your post) that Anand has come back so well,holding the Championship since 2007, and last year beating Topalov again.

From the 2010 Championship:

In a post-match interview Anand mentioned that in addition to his normal team of seconds, he also received help in preparation from Magnus Carlsen, Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik. LOL

as to Gelfand, though he's in his 40's that's not too old - but it's prolly his last chance.
I would agree he's the only other player capable of beating Anand now.

[CosmicRocker]

http://www.chessgames.com/portraits/luisramirezdelucena.jpg

One of the chess problems from the oldest known chess book
Repetición de Amores y Arte de Ajedrez con ci Iuegos de Partido

LUIS RAMIREZ DE LUCENA
(born 1465, died 1530) Spain

Luis Ramirez de Lucena was a leading Spanish chess player and the author of the oldest existing chess book, Repetición de Amores y Arte de Ajedrez con cl Iuegos de Partido, published in Salamanca in 1497.
His name is associated with a fundamental rook ending, commonly called "the Lucena Position", although this attribution may be a misnomer, as it does not appear in his book.However, the smothered mate often referred to as Philidor's Legacy is in the book.

http://www.chesscorner.com/tutorial/ruy_lopez/ruy.gif
ROY LOPEZ Opening ( deveveloped by Roy Lopez -still very common in High level chess games
The opening is named after the 16th century Spanish priest Ruy López de Segura, who made a systematic study of this and other openings in the 150-page book on chess Libro del Ajedrez written in 1561.
Though it bears his name, this particular opening was included in the Göttingen manuscript, which dates from around 1490.
Popular use of the Ruy Lopez opening did not develop, however, until the mid-19th century when Carl Jaenisch, a Russian theoretician, "rediscovered" its potential.
The opening remains the most commonly used amongst the open games in master play; it has been adopted by almost all players during their careers, many of whom have played it with both colours

[Big Dog]

Hey Cosmo, here's a fun chess bit ...


Arnold Schwarzenegger loves passing time on film sets playing chess – and he takes the game very seriously. Co-star Nick Stahl reveals that Arnie set up a chess playing haven in his trailer during the shoot of the sci-fi sequel – but he was too intimidated to take on Schwarzenegger at the intellectual game. "Arnold is a huge chess player. I was too freaked out to play with him, but I was in his trailer and he has two chairs around his chess table, one of which says 'Winner' and one of which says 'Loser'. (LOL) And anyone who comes in has to sit in the 'Loser' chair. He takes it quite seriously."

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=1100

http://www.chessbase.com/images2/2003/schwarzenegger02.jpg

Spanish journalist David Llada found the details of Schwarzenegger's chess affinity in an interview carried by the newspaper El Periódico in which the third version of the Terminator explains how he keeps fit after massive heart surgery. 25 years ago he would slip into the gym and work out during every break, just to keep awake. But at 56 this is no longer possible. So what does he do? "I play chess. If I read I fall asleep. So I use chess to keep my mind awake. Every game is a stimulation of my brain cells, it feeds my mind."

[Big Dog]

This is the thread I was talking about, Cosmo. I don't know why this second pic looks photo shopped, but I know Arnie is a big chess enthusiast.



http://www.chessbase.com/images2/2003/schwarzenegger03.jpg

.

[CosmicRocker]

This is the thread I was talking about, Cosmo. I don't know why this second pic looks photo shopped, but I know Arnie is a big chess enthusiast.



http://www.chessbase.com/images2/2003/schwarzenegger03.jpg

.
Cools. i recall this thread. I'll drop the other thread, use this to communicate,
There is also private chat across the board at gameknot.

You're up !! ( 3 day time control)
EDIT: LMAO at "winner and loser" chairs -what is with ppl? it's just a game ( though I hate to lose too)


EDIT2: 2000 views? maybe just leave tis one alone. anyways 3 days, and I'll Pm you, if you're out of time, you also get an Email warning you. Talkto you across the board from now.

[CosmicRocker]

http://gameknot.com/analyze-board.pl?bd=17473277&fb=1&rnd=0.09410634283794633 :disbelief:

[tutonic]

Check and mate