Occupy Sydney Grammar

So these two boys are getting the boot for doing what they love and what they're good at. In the spirit of the times, there's only one thing to do.

Occupy Sydney Grammar. And tweet #occupysydneygrammar.

Kevin Willathgamuwa, 8, and his brother Rowan, 9, have also been excluded from Grammar's chess team competing in the Australian Schools Teams Championships at Knox Grammar this weekend, despite missing only one day of the long competition. The boys were away from school for 10 days. In Brazil, Kevin placed 10th out of 90 boys in the under 8s, and Rowan won half his matches. The Australian grand master, Ian Rogers, who was at the competition, said Kevin was clearly the best player of his age in Australia.

Read more in the SMH.

Still Breathin'!

Still breathing over here. Thank God.

Before hauling my ass over to Japan, I was totally aware of their working habits: long hours, sometimes over 6 or 7 days a week. But since I work for a US firm I thought I'd avoid all that. Turns out, I was wrong!

It's not only the marathon feeling of everyday existence, but the sheer pace of it, too. And it is the reason why I've hardly posted at all. Everytime I think of starting a post, there's always work. Pretty damn crazy.

Surprisingly, I can actually keep up with the locals, even outlasting most of them. I didn't think I had it.

Anyway, I think perhaps an OS break should be in order. Peter Long dropped in a couple of days ago and mentioned something about the KL Open. If nothing else, I gotta try out some of that Laksa. As good as Japanese food is, it's pretty boring compared to other Asian cuisine.

Beautiful Problems

Canadian playwright Andrew Laurenson has a new play.

...follows one man’s personal journey into learning what it means to take responsibility for his life. The story is inspired by one of the most famous chess games of all time: The 1997 Man versus Machine showdown in which Garry Kasparov, thought by many to be the best chess player in history, lost a match to Deep Blue, an IBM supercomputer.

It was considered a watershed moment in technological advancement, the humiliating defeat spelling doom for mankind. But the more Laurenson thought about it, the more he realized the Kasparov match — and his own games — weren’t so much a competition against machine, but a showdown against man and beyond that, himself.

I have a problem with my work hours which is the cause of my quietness of late. And, of course, there's nothing much beautiful about it. Once I'm done, I should be back to normal schedule. I'll even post a link to what I've been working on.

Mofo Chess Piece

U-huh. OK then.

Chess bosses have added two new pieces to the ancient game in response to the introduction of ‘cool’ slang words to Scrabble’s official dictionary.
The new pieces are the Gangsta and the Shorty.

The Worldwide Chess Federation made the announcement after 3,000 slang words including ‘innit’, ‘thang’ and ‘fo-shizzle’ were added to the Collins Official Scrabble Words reference guide – or Scrabble Bible – released today.

The Gangsta is a described in a press release from the Federation as “a sneaky mo-fo, for sure.”

Believe it or not.

Missing Chess

It's the only form of chess I play these days. It's bullet, the opponent's not very good, but at least he's an IM. And, as they say, a win is a win.

ICC 1 0
My Opponent (IM)
The Closet Grandmaster
A00

1. e3 c6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nf3 d6 4. g3 g6 5. Bg2 Bg7 6. O-O a6 7. c4 O-O 8. Nc3 Nbd7 9. Bd2 Re8 10. Qe2 e5 11. d5 Rb8 12. dxc6 bxc6 13. Rab1 Qc7 14. b3 Nc5 15. e4 Bg4 16. h3 Bd7 17. g4 Ne6 18. Be3 c5 19. Rfd1 Bc6 20. Ng5 Nd4 21. Bxd4 exd4 22. f3 dxc3 23. Rbc1 Nd7 24. h4 Bd4+ 25. Kh1 Ne5 26. Nh3 Qd7 27. Nf4 Re7 28. Nd3 Nxd3 29. Rxd3 Rbe8 30. Rcd1 Qe6 31. Rxd4 cxd4 32. Rxd4 Qe5 33. Qd3 c2 34. Rd5 c1=Q+ 35. Bf1 Bxd5 {White forfeits on time} 0-1

I miss chess.

On Holiday in Osaka

Normally I put up an out of office notice, but in my excitement, I totally forgot this time. The reason for the lack of updates over the last few days is that I've actually been on holiday in Osaka. It's Japan's second biggest city.

There's plenty of good food here and things to do, but I wouldn't recommend more than 2-3 days. It's a grittier and dirtier city than Tokyo with more drunks and homeless people, it seems to me. There's also plenty of yakuza.

For those seeking the Amsterdam-like experience, and I'm not talking about Mary Jane laced cookies, there's that too.

I'll be back in Tokyo this Friday.

Steadman's Lucky Win

A couple of very good results in today's SIO. First up, I'm so glad to see this win by my old mate FM Greg Canfell over Danish grandmaster Sune Berg Hansen. The Dane gets a bit too cute in the end with a silly move.

Sydney Interntional Open 2011
Berg Hansen, Sune
Canfell, Gregory
A26

1. c4 g6 2. g3 Bg7 3. Bg2 d6 4. Nc3 e5 5. d3 Nc6 6. e4 Nd4 7. Nge2 Nxe2 8. Nxe2 h5 9. h4 Bg4 10. f3 Be6 11. Be3 c6 12. Rc1 Ne7 13. d4 Qa5+ 14. Qd2 Qxd2+ 15. Kxd2 d5 16. cxd5 cxd5 17. dxe5 dxe4 18. f4 Rd8+ 19. Ke1 Nd5 20. Bc5 b6 21. Ba3 Bf5 22. Nc3 Nxc3 23. Rxc3 Bf8 24. Bxf8 Kxf8 25. Ke2 Kg7 26. Rhc1 Rd4 27. Ke3 Rhd8 28. Bf1 Bg4 29. Ra3 Rd2 30. Kxe4 Rxb2 31. Rxa7 Be6 32. Bc4 Rb4 0-1

But my pick from today's live games is this win by that man, again, Kiwi FIDE master Michael Steadman. Here he whips out the so-called Shirov-Shabalov Attack (one of my personal favourite variations) against Raul Samar. Visually, it seemed like Raul was a dead duck. But take a closer look!

Sydney Interntional Open 2011
Steadman, Michael
Samar, Raul
D45

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. e3 Bd6 6. Qc2 Nbd7 7. g4 h6 8. Rg1 e5 9. h4 e4 10. Nd2 g5 11. hxg5 hxg5 12. f3 exf3 13. Nxf3 dxc4 14. e4 Bf4 15. Bxf4 gxf4 16. g5 Nh5 17. O-O-O Ng3 18. d5 Qb6 19. dxc6 bxc6 20. Bxc4 Qe3+ 21. Nd2 Ne5 22. Qa4 Bd7 23. Rge1 Qc5 24. Ba6 Rh2 25. Nf1 Nxf1 26. Bxf1 Bg4 27. Rd5 Qf2 28. Rxe5+ Kf8 29. Qb4+ Kg8 30. Ne2 Rh1 31. g6 Rxf1 32. gxf7+


32...Kh7 33. f8=N+ Rxf8 34. Qe7+ 1-0

Quite appropriately, Canfell and Steadman will now meet in the last round tomorrow.

Another SIO, But No Games

A day off today. The start of a week long holiday, the so-called "Golden Week" in Japan. Now I actually have a little bit of time to catch up on some chess, like the ongoing SIO in Parramatta. Nice to see a favourite event make it to a fifth edition after running into some financial challenges earlier.

And very nice to see an easy to navigate website. The live games implementation is quite basic but good to see that additional chat feature. Now all we need is somebody over there to figure out how to actually update the site with downloadable games and I'm sweet.

Anyway, here's one I just copied from the live site. Steadman will be happy with that. Walloping a GM, no less.

Sydney Interntional Open 2011
Steadman, M.
Berg Hansen, Sune
E20

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. f3 c5 5. d5 O-O 6. e4 Re8 7. Nge2 d6 8. Bd2 a6 9. Ng3 b5 10. dxe6 Bxe6 11. cxb5 d5 12. bxa6 c4 13. exd5 Bh3+ 14. Nce4 Nxd5 15. Bxb4 Nxb4 16. gxh3 Qa5 17. Kf2 N8c6 18. Bxc4 Ne5 19. Qb3 Nxc4 20. Qxc4 Rac8 21. Qb3 Rc2+ 22. Ne2 Rxb2 23. Qe3 Nc2 24. Nf6+ 1-0

Russian Bags Doeberl

Some guy named Andrei Deviatkin has won the 2011 Doeberl Cup, scoring 7.5 and winning the thing outright. Never heard of this bloke and, to be quite honest, there was nothing much that impressed me about his play.

The one game that made me think to myself, "what the f**k", was the awful round 6 outing by WIM Arianne Caoili against FM Bobby Cheng. Cheng made her look like a beginner.


2011 Doeberl Cup Premier
Cheng, Bobby
Caoili, Arianne B
A04

1. Nf3 f5 2. d3 Nf6 3. e4 fxe4 4. dxe4 Nxe4 5. Bd3 Nf6 6. Ng5 g6 7. Nxh7 Rxh7 8. Bxg6+ Rf7 9. g4 e6 10. h4 Qe7 11. g5 Nd5 12. h5 Nc6 13. h6 Ne5 14. Bxf7+ Qxf7 15. h7 Nf3+ 16. Kf1 Bg7 17. h8=Q+ Bxh8 18. Rxh8+ Ke7 19. g6 Qf6 20. Rh7+ Kd6 21. Nc3 Qxg6 22. Qxf3 Qxh7 23. Nxd5 exd5 24. Qf6+ Kc5 25. Be3+ Kb4 26. a3+ Ka5 27. Bd2+ Kb5 28. a4+ Kc5 29. b4+ 1-0

When Ignorance is a Virtue

Eight year old reinvents chess. There's a deep and meaningful message here.

I was understandably touched when she came to me the next day wishing to play chess. “Of course!” I replied. “Great,” she said. “Here are the rules.”

She handed me a packet of papers, and at the top of the first she had written, “Plastic Animal Chess.” Below this was an enumeration of the kinds of pieces to be used (with blanks where we would record which plastic animals would be the stand-ins for each type), along with what each kind of piece does.

“This is complicated, Honey,” I wondered aloud, worried it would be far too difficult for her — and me. There were, by the end of her four hand-written pages, 10 distinct piece types and 18 pieces in all. “Chess only has six types, and it is already immensely difficult!” I said.

But more than my fright at the complexity of her game was another reaction, this one in my gut. Wasn’t there something mildly wrong about this new game of hers? Chess is a revered institution. What kind of heretic plays chess once and immediately presumes to do better?