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My Big Brother, David
Published on 2011-11-02 08:37:00
My Big Brother, David Regrettably, this entry is written in the past tense as my elder brother, David, died in 2005. For some reason, he seems to be "in the air" quite a bit of late (hence this post about him). For example, I just had an email from an old friend of his who has invited me for a chess game (or three - I'm not not sure yet). Let me introduce David Bernard to you - by way of a photo and a few words I wrote about him at the time of his passing. If you have been following this blog [..] > read more
As a chessplayer, you have the attributes of a Wall Street trader
Published on 2011-10-13 13:11:00
Boaz Weinstein’s opening move on Wall Street came as a result of chess. A bold statement which is worth thinking about! "Chess helps in trading, Mr. Weinstein said. To become a good chess player, he learned to focus on how he made decisions because he could not calculate the results of all his possible moves. Learning to deal with that uncertainty or risk has been useful. When you make an investment, “you can have an 80 percent chance of being right. And then the 20 percent comes up. But r [..] > read more
The Chess Gods - Part 2
Published on 2011-10-08 17:20:00
2011 Grand Slam chess tournament - the São Paulo first leg I have already given some my own impressions during the tournament here. Now that the first leg is over, I have more things to tell you. When I was there I managed to get Vasily Ivanchuk's autograph - quite a good choice in view of the fact that he was the tournament leader after the games in São Paulo had finished ie he was ahead of Anand and Carlsen at the half way stage of the 2011 Grand Slam. 1. Vasily Ivanchuk - 10 2. Hikaru Na [..] > read more
The Chess Gods arrive in town - my home town!
Published on 2011-09-29 15:43:00
I was privileged to attend the 2011 Grand Slam chess tournament, the first leg of which was played in Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo - my home town. That's a misnomer of course, São Paulo is actually the largest city in Brazil, with a city population of about 11 million and almost 20 million in its metropolitan region (Wiki) The world's elite were playing, including all three 2800+ players. So I was able to see World Champion Viswanathan Anand, World Number One Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Hika [..] > read more
Big Brother is on my side
Published on 2011-09-22 20:34:00
I just won a game of Blitz on the ICC site. Well, not exactly 'win' as in checkmate or resign. In fact I was awarded the win by "JudgeBot". It thought that my queen looked pretty strong against a bishop and a knight and that I would have had plenty of time on the clock to eventually deliver a fatal blow - if my opponent hadn't bailed out and disconnected. Here's how "JudgeBot" describes itself: "JudgeBot is a computer program that monitors every game in which your opponent disconnects. If Judge [..] > read more
Everything you need to know about Armenia
Published on 2011-06-19 11:03:00
Oh, I think I want to emigrate to Armenia! One of the world's oldest civilizations, Armenia once included Mount Ararat, which biblical tradition identifies as the mountain that Noah's ark rested on after the flood. It was the first countr > read more
Time line - Chess variants, Higher Mathematics
Published on 2011-06-10 10:07:00
Games are noise-free, cheap and easily replicable environments where the concepts of tactics, strategy, searching, learning and other relevant features of Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be tested in their purest state. Games, due to their conceptua > read more
Shadowy, unhappy, unreal-looking men
Published on 2011-05-08 10:32:00
So - what is a chess player? According to H.G.Wells (in an nice long and interesting article in Times magazine from 1972, relating to the Fischer-Spassky match) a chessplayer can be described in the following way: "There is a class of men — shadow > read more
Warning - this post could change the way you play chess!
Published on 2011-05-07 11:31:00
A bold claim. But consider this position in which Black has just played e5. Come on, be honest, it's not a move you'd ever play, is it? Those who disagree, please comment - SO WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE, LOL! You may well be reluctant to play such a move be > read more
Blitz games - Part 2
Published on 2011-03-30 16:41:00
Since writing 'Blitz Games - Part 1' I have changed my attitude to playing blitz games. It is of course possible that I was a little worried about my ability in this type of chess - which may be the reason for the slightly dismissive phrase "I don't > read more
Don't Try This At Home!
Published on 2011-03-16 10:21:00
I found the video below indirectly - while reading a Chess.com review for a new book called "Play Like a Girl!"- a fragment of which I reproduce here, thus: 'Jennifer Shahade refrains from lecturing men about what they should and should not do. Inst > read more
All things be ready if our minds be so
Published on 2011-01-30 08:49:00
Chess is not exactly thought of as a co-operative activity, more likely as a competitive activity. We are not exactly trying to work with our opponent to achieve a common goal. It is competitive, yet hopefully not destructive. We assume that competit > read more
Chess Humour and a little Magik
Published on 2011-01-10 07:05:00
The magic is supplied by Derren Brown who beats 9 chess players simultaneously in this YouTube video which can be found here. And the humour ... > read more
Da Vinci, Mathematics and Chess
Published on 2010-12-11 10:56:00
This post is based on the premise that Leonardo Da Vinci, along with many other artists, used a particular number ratio (the Golden Ratio or Golden Mean) in his work - even extending to the ratio between the dimensions of the surrounding picture fram > read more
Chess Intelligence
Published on 2010-11-23 15:05:00
Amongst the many reasons that I feel chess to be an important illustration of our mental processes is because it combines a whole lot of ideas such as patterns (structural patterns relating to the positions and inter-relations between objects), posi > read more
Bent Larsen - remembered
Published on 2010-09-20 16:11:00
We note with regret the passing of one of the greats in chess - Bent Larsen. As reported in ICC (Internet Chess Club): "The six-time Danish Champion and four-time world championship candidate (in 1965, 1968, 1971, and 1977) won three Interzonal tour > read more
Mr_Toad's wonderful and exhilarating games
Published on 2010-09-14 14:20:00
It's time for you to to have the opportunity of looking some of the blog owner's games. If you know anything about Mr_Toad's personality from reading 'Wind in the Willows' then you will know that he only wants to brag about the games that he actuall > read more
2 Fischer - the Opening and the End games
Published on 2010-08-30 22:00:00
Over 50 years ago now, Bobby Fischer exploded onto the chess world with what was described as the "the Game of the Century". This was the 'Opening game' referred to in the title. Let me begin by quoting from an article by Rene Chun in the Atlantic Mo > read more
1 Fischer - compared to John Lennon
Published on 2010-08-08 08:44:00
Fischer - comparisons with other celebrities I am not alone in comparing Bobby Fischer's behaviour with that of other celebrities - though John Nash is perhaps more appropriate from a psychological point of view, thus: "In many ways Fischer's stor > read more
Driven to bad behaviour
Published on 2010-07-26 13:58:00
Brazil is in 'mourning'. First there was Barricello. Now Massa has joined the pantheon of fallen idols. Still - we should not commit the sin of worshipping at the feet of idols of any description should we? Let me clarify why Brazil is up in arms wit > read more
Manage your own Opening Repertoire
Published on 2010-07-20 07:47:00
What I have been looking for is an easy way to visualise and to keep track of the opening moves that I tend to use the most. In this context I am not looking for other chessplayer's games in databases, nor am I particularly interested in the facility > read more