What does the increasing popularity of online chess mean for OTB (over-the-board) chess? This one is discussed often, but there's no way to prove anything. Between playing against their PCs and online chess, many players first encounter serious chess thanks...
August 2004 Archives
Back with another revisiting of recent posts and your comments. Regarding this much-commented entry on computer opening books, I got an e-mail from a man who knows, Chrilly Donninger. He came to fame as the programmer of Nimzo and is...
And with that tip of the hat to Mel Brooks... Oh what the hell, it's Friday. http://www.lovechess.nl/ (WARNING! Only for those not offended by erotic virtual marble statuary.) # A beautiful 3D board and state-of-the-art realistic models in an elegant...
If I'm not answering the phone it's because my new computer arrived today and I'm neck-deep in getting it ready to take over from my old workhorse desktop. The new one is a custom-made machine built by Monarch PC. It's...
I'm back home in humid New York after a week in the California sun. While staying at Mom's without my beloved TCM, I was left watching the 2004 Olympic Games all night. I really have to agree with the current...
The Scotsman newspaper, home of the well-known chess column by John Henderson, has an interesting if typically hyperbolic article on new UK champ Jonathan Rowson. His battles at the board are accompanied by a life-long battle against diabetes. Perhaps a...
The latest Fischer fun is that he might not be able to marry the Japanese woman he hopes will save him from deportation unless he has a valid passport, which he doesn't, which is why he was detained in the...
The ongoing Hydra-Shredder match is the latest example of why it's nonsense to use unregulated opening books in computer chess events. Instead of learning about the relative strengths of the top programs and hardware, we get the computers leaving their...
Two Colorado politicians were ensnared by the dark right-hand corner square mafia this month. That's the title Dutch author and chessplayer Tim Krabbe once bestowed on those who, infernally, set up chess boards turned 90 degrees in the public view....
Quick, in which country will Kasparov, Anand, and Karpov be playing next week? We're back with another edition of "great events with zero PR." That country is Brazil, but Kasparov won't be playing Anand and Karpov. As part of the...
The Olympics are underway in Athens, Greece. Chess is, as ever, absent, in line with an Olympic commission suggestion to prohibit mind sports a few years ago. Ilyumzhinov scored a coup in 2000 by wrangling an exhibition match at the...
Don't ask me, that's what they call it over there. That's the jinx or curse or karma that has kept a Scotsman from winning the British Championship since Combe did it in 1946. Even having the tournament in Scotland last...
Why is it so many of my stories about chess federations include the phrase "I'm not making this up"? First, the backstory. As mentioned in these pages here and later here, the United States Chess Federation was planning to move...
Continue reading Cross In Crossville.
On July 31 in Dortmund, GM Joel Lautier, the president of the Association of Chess Professionals, gave a statement to the press. It announced the creation of the ACP Tour, a grand prix of events culminating in a Masters event...
Remember when the construction of "Chess City" in Kalmykia for the 1998 Elista Olympiad was going to make FIDE president Ilyumzhinov's fiefdom the global capital of chess? Me neither, but that's what he said. Now Ilyumzhinov is saying it again...
Everyone's favorite science-fiction website, FIDE.com, recently posted Word documents related to the 2005 unification match between Garry Kasparov and new FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov. (Couldn't they find a photo of Kasparov from the last 10 years?) Bidding for sponsorship...
Former US Champion GM Alex Yermolinsky added some needed perspective to our discussion of the perceived problem of too many short draws at the top level. A shout-out to my Contra Costa roots.. "The absolute majority of 9-round tournaments are...
When an article about chess appears in the mainstream press, fans are usually so excited that they don't really mind that there is nothing new for them in the article. Occasionally an "outsider" author will cast new light on an...
Continue reading New Republic, Old News.
In the tradition of my beloved Slashdot's "Slashback", these sections will update past items and highlight useful reader comments. I'm also changing DD policy to not opening external links in a new browser. You can do that yourself by right-clicking...
National Public Radio (NPR) interviewed Garry Kasparov yesterday and the audio stream is available online. They called Kasparov at his annual training camp in Croatia for the five-minute interview. They started with Fischer, but, refreshingly, quickly moved on to talk...
