50 Moves Magazine

Wow! This one's completely out of the blue. Some young Aussie chess guys just launched a digital startup called "50 Moves". Basically, it is an online chess magazine. From the very professionally designed website it looks like this is going to be  a well organised publication. It certainly looks like plenty of planning has gone into this venture before final rollout. But what's really impressive is the roster of contributors, consisting mainly of Australia's new masters and the legendary, GM Ian Rogers.

The first issue will be on 1 August, just in time for the Olympiad.

Now I have just had a quick look at the site. I don't see any mention of an app. Hopefully, these guys will release at least one for the iOS.

Aussie Olympiad Fund Appeal

For the last few years, especially in the months leading up to an Olympiad, the Australian Chess Federation has always run a very successful Olympiad Fund Appeal. Given the overall cost of travel for our men's and women's teams, the amounts collected are quite modest. But they help.

For example, about this same time two years ago, the ACF collected over $10,000 in donations. This year, however, they've garnered only a paltry $700! And we are only a little over a month out from the Olympiad in Norway.

What has happened? An economic dip Down Under that we don't know about?

Perhaps it is because of the much criticised Australian federal budget that Aussie chess fans have really tightened their wallets. Or perhaps it is because there is hardly any mention of the ACF's Olympiad Appeal that folks are just not aware of it.

I checked this year's ACF newsletters, where the Appeal is normally prominently mentioned, but there is nothing. Nada! On the other hand, newsletters from 2 years ago mention the Appeal right at the very top of every issue in the months leading up to the Olympiad event.

So all this makes me wonder: did the ACF just forget to promote the Olympiad Appeal? Or are they, in fact, angling for the Tromso Travel Fund? Frankly, I doubt the latter.

At any rate, there is still some time to donate. I know I'll be sending a few bucks to the ACF. Hopefully, that will get me one of those blow-by-blow accounts from the players. I think it's $50 or more and you get an exclusive newsletter direct from Tromso.

Shock Move. Wesley So Switches Federations

In a serious blow to Philippine chess, their numero uno and current world number fifteen (in the June 2014 list), GM Wesley So, will be switching to the US Federation. Not only is he switching feds, he is also becoming a US citizen.

But, as we might guess, the Philippines' national chess body isn't making it easy. The National Chess Federation of the Philippines boss, Butch Pichay, is apparently just stonewalling Wesley's request to be granted the move.

That leaves So with two choices.

Either he hands over a hefty compo to the Philippine federation of 50,000 euros, or he sits out 2 years before finally being listed in the US ranking and, therefore, competing as an American. That is going to be tough for the kid who could seriously, one day hopefully, challenge for the world championships.

Of course, while this is all obviously very bad for the Pinoy men's team, as they lose their main attack in team events, notably the Olympiad, the move by So to the US can only be good for his chess. And looking at comments on Susan Polgar's blog, one gets the impression that most So fans support his move. I certainly do. After all, why stick with a federation that isn't doing much for your chess?

For the NCFP, the flight of a top GM away from their fold may still continue. The second highest ranked Pinoy player, GM Julio Sadorra, only the third Pinoy player to break the magic 2600 mark, could also make a similar US-bound move. This wouldn't surprise me.

Data-driven Look at the Evolution of Chess

Somebody had to do this. This guy crunched up thousands of chess games from 1850 onwards to paint a picture of how chess has evolved since the middle of the nineteenth century. While some of these conclusions are to be expected, at least now we have some fancy graphs to go with them!

First Move Advantage

Draws Now More Common

For those who like yapping on about ratings, he also has a post on tournament games and ELO ratings.

Aussie Chess Behind Kasparov

Looks like ex-world champion Garry Kasparov's charm offensive on Aussie shores worked. In the latest news bulletin from the Australian Chess Fed, we read this: "The ACF decided at its May meeting that the ACF supports the candidacy for the FIDE Presidency of former World Champion GM Garry Kasparov. A week later Australia was one of 20 federations to formally nominate the Kasparov ticket (another three nominations were submitted for an earlier version of the Kasparov ticket.) With 54 nominations already, the incumbent President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has the early lead in declared voting for this election."

Chess is Really Bad For You

From Scientific American, 1859:

Persons engaged in sedentary occupations should never practice this cheerless game; they require out-door exercises for recreation — not the sort of mental gladiatorship. Those who are engaged in mental pursuits should avoid a chess-board as they would an adder’s nest, because chess misdirects and exhausts their intellectual energies. Rather let them dance, sing, play ball, perform gymnastics, roam in the woods or by the seashore, than play chess. 

Cited in Why Chess Will Destroy Your Mind.

Norway Olympiad To Be Cancelled?

What is this, German calmness in the face of adversity? Chessbase reports that the upcoming Olympiad in Norway is underfunded by a whopping US$2.5m! Worse is that the organisers have apparently aired the possibility that the whole thing may not happen at all. Yet, Chessbase can manage to ask if we should be worried.

Well, shit yeah!

But at any rate, it sounds like the Norwegian Olympiad organisers are just playing a game of chicken with their own government. The real question now is: who will blink first?

Chessbase on a Mac

Here is a useful post by GM David Smerdon on how to install and run Chessbase on your Mac. But, of course, the steps he describes will probably apply to most other Windows based software that you want to run on the Mac OS as well.

If I have any additional tips, it is that if you're planning on switching to a Mac and then running Windows simultaneously, consider upsizing the specs on memory. Say, from 500Gb HD to 1Tb; and from 4Gb SDRAM to 8Gb. The cost of doing so is really quite minimal and very worth it.

By the way, I found this comment by GM Smerdon interesting: "ChessBase as a program is objectively really terrible: it’s buggy, barely developed between versions, and gives the user neither decent control nor innovation. However, there’s simply no alternative out there for the serious player."

Since I don't personally use Chessbase all that much, I haven't really noticed these shortcomings that David talks about. But one thing is obvious. Chessbase is clearly the undisputed name in chess database. Given all their apparent deficiencies, it seems to me that they are just ripe for a bit of disruption! How hard can it be to design and build a better chess database?

2014 Aussie Olympiad Team

It is an Olympiad year again and this time the party is heading off to Norway. I had actually planned to head over, but the cost of getting there from Tokyo was going to seriously put me in the red, especially since I already have two OS trips scheduled for later in the year. So I shall have to put off my next Olympiad holiday until 2016. Although, I am not too hot about going to Baku if I'm honest!

Anyway, about this time the Australian Chess Federation begins the selection process for captains and players. For the pundits, like yours truly (yep, I still follow the Australians whenever they play), it is always fun to speculate and nominate as to who should put on the Aussie colours.

Thankfully the ACF actually publishes the names of applicants and you can see their names here. Without further ado, here is my pick.

Men's
David Smerdon
Max Illingworth
Moulthun Ly
Junta Ikeda
Stephen Solomon

Captain: Manuel Weeks

All in all, I really like the names in this lineup. Except for Solo, these are young guys who have recently been in hot form. I'm only picking Solo over IM Ari Dale for a couple of reasons. First, looking at Solo's results over the past year, I see that he can still handle himself. He finished high'ish in this year's just completed Doeberl Cup and took out a couple of big guns in last year's edition as well. And secondly, Solo is a veteran campaigner and I think the team can do a bit of his presence there.


Women's
Irina Berezina
Arianne Caoili
Giang Nguyen
Emma Guo
Biljana Dekic

Captain: Ian Rogers

I think that this is pretty much a safe selection. The only question is who gets to be board one. If we go with ACF ratings, which I suspect is more reliable than these gals' FIDE, I reckon the ACF will go with Giang. She's currently top female with a local rating of 2281 (although no recent games). Give Giang a go on top board, I say; or at least back up to board 2, which she had already managed back in 2008 (her debut for Australia) and again in 2010.

Are Aussie Girls Bad at Chess?

Just the other day, I read a blog post by GM Ian Rogers in which he observed the differences between the performances of Aussie female chess players and their Indonesian sisters.

Australia currently has more stand-out male juniors – though we lost 3.5-6.5 in an internet match against the Academy students in 2012 – but there is a chasm between the two countries in the development of girl players and Australia is falling further behind.  

A major difference appears to be cultural factors – something which is evident in the attitude of the girls players at the Academy. In Indonesia there is no stigma for a teenage girl to enjoy chess (or mathematics for that matter); in Australia plenty of our strongest young female players have succumbed to peer pressure and quit rather than lose friends. [The emphasis is mine].

It turns out that now GM Rogers can turn to something called "stereotype threat" in explaining why Aussie females perform suboptimally, or at least not as well as the Indonesian females."Stereotype threat" is a very interesting concept and could have practical applications. For example, coaches need to be wary and, in fact, proactively maintain teaching environments that avoid female stereotypes. But, of course, there is only so much coaches like GM Rogers can do. Society's pressures are often hard to resist, more so for girls.