OK, it's only bullet, but the guy was an IM and since it's about the only chess I play these days, I thought I'd share it. I think it's called the "Shirov-Shabalov Attack", I can't remember, but it's definitely one that gets the adrenaline going, whether in OTB chess or online.
I remember once being on the white side of this opening against Tomek Rej when I decided to offer him a draw, just to see how he'd react. He said, "you gotta be joking!"
ICC 1 0 Internet Chess Club The Closet GM {my opponent} D43
Queensland chess fanatics should head off to the University of Queensland's Art Museum to check out "The Art of Chess". It's that same travelling exhibit that visited Bendigo last year.
There's more information here in the university's news section.
I've just noticed that GM Nigel Davies' blog is pointing to me. After a quick look around, I can tell you, The Chess Improver blog is worth following. His content is instructive but sometimes he veers off into the most unexpected and makes you wonder. Take his recent musing over the possible connection between posture and thinking.
This relationship between posture and thought has been highlighted more recently as I’ve become involved in Tai Chi. In this case proper intent is the key to a stronger posture, and it’s amazing the difference it makes.
This leads me to wonder if people can improve the quality of their thinking by improving their posture. I’ve tried googling for this and only come up with some studies showing a change in brain waves in people who meditate. Also intriguing is a recent finding that visiting a chiropracter (sic) can reduce blood pressure.
Since moving to Tokyo, I do now get my fair share of tremors. Most are barely noticeable. After the first time I felt a real shake, I logged onto Facebook and made a joke about it. But the 6.3 magnitude quake that struck the New Zealand city of Christchurch yesterday was no joke.
By the latest count, some 75 people have perished. Roughly two hundred or so are still missing.
I understand that there are quite a few members of the NZ chess community who are based out of Chrischurch or around the surrounding areas, among them being the affable FM Steven Lukey. Yesterday I saw that he posted a message on Australia's chess bulletin board, Chess Chat. I'm glad he's alright. Still, no news has been heard of other chessers in the area. But I'm hoping, as I'm sure we all are, that they escaped.
For many Australian chess players, of course, Christchurch is actually an important stop en route to and from New Zealand tournaments. I've been there twice myself for Queenstown. While very small compared to many other cities, Christchurch is stunningly beautiful.
I also remember well the giant outdoor chess set just outside the famous cathedral that now stands half destroyed. I can only imagine what it must have been like for the regular chess folks when the temblor struck.
If you want to help, please contact the usual charities.
If WIM Caoili ever gets tired of chess as well as the politics, and this week's excitement may just push her over the edge, there's always the alternative career popular among many of her fellow women players. Poker.
Almira Skripchenko and Dinara Khaziyeva are today making the headlines in the world of poker for making it into the finals of something called the World Poker Tour Celebrity Invitational in Los Angeles.
I had no idea those two were celebs. But anyway, there you have it.
If Caoili does defect, there's always the prospect of earning a lot of money, but I don't know if she'll ever get away from those pesky photographers. Poker does like its women.
And by the way, just so we're clear here: I never had to give her the "command" to smile. She always smiled at me.
This current spat between WIM Arianne Caoili and the Australian Chess Federation ought to serve as ample opportunity for the ACF's opposite number in the Philippines, the NCFP, to snag back their prodigal daughter. In case we need reminding, Caoili actually began her Olympiad career in RP colours, appearing for that country in 2000 and 2002, before switching allegiance to Australia from 2004 onwards.
If Caoili does return to the RP fold, I see it only as a win-win, albeit obviously a loss for Australia. The WIM gets to play in a stronger zone (plus a fair few other Asian events if she makes herself available for those), while the Philippines' women squad receives the services of a reliable point-scorer.
The only question really here is: just how serious is WIM Arianne Caoili? Or was all that just an empty rant?
I hereby challenge her to switch!
While many in Aussie chess will no doubt greet such a move with a derisive, "good riddance", the NCFP and Pinoy fans will surely greet Caoili with a heart-warming embrace.
In a tandem attack, IM Alex Wohl and WIM Arianne Caoili deliver some very harsh words on Australian chess politicians. Alex has a problem with information, while Ari has a problem with, well, a lot of things.
Arianne:
Let me sum up my argument by giving an example of a piece of oration Levon once gave me over some gambas a la plancha: ‘Arianne, you’re playing men here. You can’t rely on tricks, yoyo emotions and crappy openings. These guys know their theory, and they fight. You can’t possibly compare a 2400 female and a 2400 guy – just have a look at the source of their rating points’.
If we get rid of gender related divisions/prizes/conditions altogether, then the ‘market’ for women to garner their rating points and experience will be larger and more competitive, and thus over time Oceania women chess players in general will not only be stronger but also more interesting to talk about in chess terms.
Firstly, if you're wondering what "gambas a la plancha" is, that's grilled prawns. I'm partial to gambas al ajillo myself and the best ones I've had were back in Valencia. Secondly, if you're wondering why Arianne never made it to the last Zonal in Rotorua, it's possibly because the ACF pissed her off!
You can read more of this, including Arianne Caoili's letter of protest to the ACF/NZCF over on IM Wohl's blog, Doubleroo.
UPDATE (20 Feb. 11.09AM): The Australian Chess Federation's Dr Kevin Bonham responds to WIM Caoili on Chesschat.
A couple of students from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, in Spain, have just come up with a novel way to teach chess. All you apparently need is a PC with a webcam, a chess set and a specialised software to make the whole AR thing happen.
To use the system, learners play with an ordinary chess board but move the cardboard markers instead of standard pieces. The table is lit from above and the webcam focuses on the board, and every time the player moves one of the markers the system recognises the piece and reproduces the move in 3D on the computer screen, creating a virtual representation of the game.
For example, if the learner moves the marker P (pawn), the corresponding piece will be displayed on the screen in 3D, with all of the possible moves indicated. This is a simple and attractive way of showing novices the permitted movements of each piece, making the system particularly suitable for children learning the basics of this board game.
Maybe I'm just not seeing it, but I don't see the point in this.
Well, how about that? Laylo bags a crucial last round win over Gavrilov to raise his total to 7 points and finish in second place overall on tiebreak. The last game had plenty of very nice moves. Laylo's attack is just so free-flowing, it's beautiful.
Aeroflot Open 2011 B Laylo, Darwin Gavrilov, Alexei E62
The Philippines currently only has reps in the B and C groups of the ongoing Aeroflot Open after the country's number one, Wesley So, withdrew from the A section. Six rounds in, Wesley, who made his way to Russia after Corus, managed only 2.5 points, including a second round loss to the 2557-rated Shomoev.
Meanwhile, in the B section, GM Darwin Laylo is having one of his best outings. So far he hasn't dropped a game! Going into today's final round, Laylo is one of 4 players on six points, just a half point behind joint leaders Kobanov and Kotanjian.
Aeroflot Open 2011 B Laylo, Darwin Kalegin, Evgenij E68
Maybe I read this somewhere or perhaps somebody told me, but apparently more books are published under the letter "C" thanks to chess. Which is probably right considering the amount of printed matter that exist today under the subject of "chess". By sheer book count chess is arguably very popular.
Which made me wonder: what about online? How many blogs out there are about chess? Or news sites, e-zines, Facebook pages - basically, websites of any kind talking about chess? I don't know and I'm not inclined to find out any time soon. For imagine how much work that will take.
But I did find out the number of times in a month that "chess" is entered into Google by people searching for chess or anything related to chess.
6,120,000!
That's according to Google's Keyword Tool which actually also tells you the relevant search phrases containing "chess".
And who, you may ask, are the most avid seekers of all things chess? The Mongolians!
Now, 6M searches for chess might seem like a high number, but this doesn't even come close to "sex", at 338M searches, or "facebook" which comes in at a staggering 2.5 billion!
The light snowfall over Tokyo during the last few days seemed like a good reason to stay indoors. The skies are dark and the streets wet. Snow looks pretty atop houses and by the sides of alleyways, but I really hate snow.
So yesterday, I decided to drop in again at the Kichijoji Chess Club. To my delight they were running a 3-day long weekend tournament. Unfortunately I arrived too late and, at any rate, Sunday, the last day, just happens to be the Tokyo Real Ale Festival in Asakusa, and there's no way I was going to miss that!
I did stay for bit and took a couple of photos (with the iPhone), however, and here's one of them. The rest are in my flickr stream.
Pissing contests between the Jewish State and the Iranians are almost a weekly headline. Much of it provoked by the Iranian leader's vitriol (including a denial of the Holocaust), not to mention, their alleged nuclear programme. Luckily, neither side has made any sudden movements. For who knows how nasty that could turn out to be?
But perhaps luckier still is that both sides seem perfectly happy to conduct a sort of proxy contest away from the battlefield and onto the chess board.
When an Israeli broke Morteza Mahjoub's record for the number of simul games, the question was immediately put back to the Iranians. That question has just been answered emphatically, this time by another Iranian, GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami. The AFP has the details.
Just as well, really. In a real war, the Iranians have no chance.
Discussion of natural genius irritated him; he insisted that immense hard work separated first rank mathematicians from many of those who fell short. Recent accolades, from the 2003 Karp prize to last year's Tarski lectures underlined that commitment. Widely regarded by colleagues as among the best mathematical logicians under the age of 50 in the world, he would have been a potential contender for any of the great mathematical prizes on offer. Yet his modesty was total. The only time he got excited about an award was when a fellow Australian won the Fields medal, the maths Nobel.
Hard work was also an approach he had taken to chess, something that had been a passion since he first became interested at the age of six, when he and his parents, Robert, a neurologist, and Noela, an artist, were living in London. Once he'd learnt the basics, his father remembers, ''there was no stopping him''.
UPDATE: The UCLA's Mathematics department also has a tribute to Greg Hjorth including a PDF file that contains pictures of the man while in action, both inside the classroom and over-the-board.
International master Oliver Barbosa of the Philippines has turned in what must be a highlight performance of his career so far. Twenty-four year old Barbosa collected 7.5 points over nine encounters in the just concluded Moscow Open (section E). His last 2 round kills against a pair of grandmasters were absolutely crucial. Here's one of them.
Moscow Open 2011 - E Kotsur, Pavel Barbosa, Oliver B19
John Paul Gomez garnered 6.5 points while lone Aussie, the little kid, Anton Smirnov collected 4 points. Young Anton's most impressive win was in the third round over Denis Vorobjov, rated 2248.
The untitled Vladimir Belous won the section E event with 8 points overall.
A quiet day in Tokyo, so I decided to walk around my hometown and stop by over in the Kichijoji Chess Club. It's been months since my last visit and a few weeks since I touched real-live pieces. I'd had enough of ICC bullet games.
For 800 yen (roughly $10) I got to play a few rounds of 5-minute blitz and for another 100 yen, a rated game! Yes, pretty expensive by Australian standards. It's basically a pay-per-visit model. But folks don't seem to complain. And it's the sort of revenue raising that let's them rent the third floor of this building.
Part of the fees probably also went into the payment for one of Japan's top players (can't remember his name) to drop in a deliver a lecture. Roughly a dozen eager listeners, mostly young, attended. Of course, I couldn't understand a word of it.
If you happen to visit Tokyo, the Kichijoji CC is on the Chuo line and just a 3-minute walk from Kichijoji station.
Kichijoji Club game Kobayashi The Closet Grandmaster B01
Super GM Vassily Ivanchuk is the winner in Gibraltar with a powerhouse output of 9 points from ten games. He conquered all, never dropping a point. Nigel Short was in second place with the equally impressive finish of eight and a half. The British man's only blemish was his loss to Chukky.
The only Australian in the event, IM Wohl, performed to his level finishing with 6 points overall. His ten games included a run-in with no less than legend Viktor Korchnoi. The game was a KID with Viktor on the white side. Of course, the old-timer won the encounter and after which told Alex, "Against some people you should not play the Kings Indian". Ouch!
Finally, while I didn't exactly cover this event regularly, I have to thank the Gibraltar press office for their daily media releases. Very professional, indeed, and some top-notch reporting.
The Moscow International Open Festival is a massive event. While the open is the feature tournament, there are actually a couple of round robins that include some impressive names - Kosteniuk in the women's, Alexeev, rated 2701, and Ivan Cheparinov in the men's.
But of interest to our readers is the main tournament because of some familiar names - Australia's Anton Smirnov as well as Pinoys GM John Paul Gomez and IM Oliver Barbosa.
Barbosa, especially, had an electric start. He got up to 4/4 before going down to Alexander Beliavsky in the fifth!
Moscow Open 2011 - E Barbosa, Oliver"] Beliavsky, Alexander G A87
Obviously as a follow-up to yesterday's post, one of our avid readers just sent in a tip about the latest doco on Bobby Fischer. This one called "Bobby Fischer Against the World", directed by Liz Garbus, recently premiered at Sundance.
I couldn't find the trailer, but here's Liz briefly talking about the film plus a brief clip.
