Psychology of chess

The Psychology of Chess Dr. Fernand Gobet is a professor of Cognitive Psychology and an International Master. He is a former Swiss Junior Champion and Swiss Champion, and was co-editor of the Swiss Chess Review from 1981 to 1989. In 1992, he wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on the memories of a chess player. He has written many books and articles about chess and psychology. He has been studying many aspects of chess psychology such as mental imagery, pattern recognition, and study and playing patterns of chess players. After studying hundreds of chess players, Gobet has found a strong correlation between the number of hours chess players have dedicated to chess (deliberate practice) and their current rating. In one study of 104 players (101 males and 3 females), including 39 untitled players without any rating, 39 untitled players with ratings, 13 FIDE masters (FM), 10 International Masters (IM), and 3 GMs, he found that the unrated players reported and average of 8,303 hours of dedication to chess; the rated, but untitled players reported 11,715 hours; the FMs reported 19,618 hours and the IMs reported 27,929 hours (no information on GMs). It took an average of 11,000 hours to reach 2200. One player needed around 3,000 hours to reach 2200, while another player spent more than 23,000 hours to achieve the same level. The average master (rated 2257) had 7.0 years of serious practice. The average expert (2174) had 1.03 years of serious practice. The masters increased their rating an average of 7 Elo (FIDE) points per year of serious practice, whereas the experts only increased their rating an average of 1 Elo point per year of serious practice. Experts increased their chess-playing skill level very little with time, whereas masters kept increasing theirs. In Gobet’s survey, 83% of the players reported playing blitz, 80% had a coach at some point, 67% used databases (game databases, but not playing programs), 66% played against chess programs; 56% followed chess games without using a chessboard, 23% played blindfold games. Stronger players were more likely to have a coach, use databases, and played blitz. Stronger players also tended to own more chess books (and read them) than weaker players. As an individual activity, reading chess books were the most important predictor of chess skill. For group activity, coaching and speed games were the most significant predictors of chess skill, but less a predictor with age. Dr. Gobet also found that group practice (including tournament games) was a better predictor of high-level performance than individual practice. It has been shown that non-professional players who started playing chess at a young age, show interest and commitment to chess until the late teens. This is when the amount of time devoted to chess peaks (about age 18). After this, players start work or attend university and/or get married, which reduces the time spent playing chess. By the mid-30s, when family and work issues are more stable, non-professional chess players return to the game and play more frequently. Gobet showed that there was a clear indication that the first three years of serious chess practice at early ages are much more advantageous than the first three years of serious practice at later ages. Most masters became serious about chess between 10 and 12. Most experts became serious about chess around 14. One important role in chess skill is pattern recognition (vs. the ability to search through the problem space). Through years of practice and study, masters have learned several hundred thousands of perceptual chess patterns (called chunking). When one of these patterns is recognized in a particular position, the master then has rapid access to information such as potential moves or move sequences, tactics, and strategies. This explains automatic and intuitive discovery of good moves by a master, as well as extraordinary memory for game-like chess positions. Search functions at a chess board, including the number of candidate moves visited and the depth of search, may not differ between masters and amateurs, according to Adrian de Groot (1914-2006), a Dutch chess master and psychologist. His findings were that Grandmasters do not search reliable deeper than amateurs. However, other studies (Holding 1989) show that strong players really do search deeper than weaker players. Holding argued that de Groot’s experiment wasn’t good enough to detect existing differences between Grandmasters and amateurs. In a classic study of chess visualization by de Groot at the University of Amsterdam, findings show that, on average, chess masters calculated no deeper than weaker players, and often examined fewer chess variations. However, the master almost always selected superior moves. De Groot found that there were four stages in the task of choosing a move. The first stage was the orientation phase, in which the player assessed the chess situation and determined a very general idea of what to do next. The second stage was the exploration phase, in which the player examined in his head some branches of the game tree. The third phase was the investigation phase, in which the player chose a probable best move. The fourth phase was the proof phase, in which the player confirmed that the results of his investigation of the best move were valid. In 1990, Pertti Saariluoma studied the search function of top players and suggested the International Masters and Grandmasters sometimes search less than master chess players. In tactical positions, he found that masters with a 2200 Elo rating looked at 52 nodes and at the largest depth of 5.1 moves. By comparison, the IM and GM searched, on average, 23 nodes with an average depth of 3.6 moves. Saarilouma showed that attention is an important notion in chess because chess players must be able to detect various kinds of possibilities and threats. Inattention over one move could destroy hours of good work in a chess game. This means that understanding a chess player’s information processing attention is a central topic in the psychology of chess. Masters are superior than average players in picking up information from a board position. They perceive faster all kinds of chess-specific perceptual cues such as whether one of the kings is checked or not, or if there is a mate in one move. Data from speed chess and simultaneous chess, show that limitations in thinking time do not impair chess master performance. Chess masters seem to be more highly selective of their moves and direct their attention rapidly to good moves. Grandmasters do not look at a lot of continuations of the game before choosing a move. It seems that chunking, recognition of known chess patterns, plays a key role in a master’s ability to play fast and accurate. So do strong players rely more on analyzing various alternatives, or do they rely on recognizing familiar chess patterns in the situation? Do chess players put most of their emphasis on their analytic skills or on building up a huge knowledge base in their heads? Perhaps it is a combination of search skills and pattern recognition. In 1986, Gobet tried to replicate de Groot’s 1946 experiment of Grandmaster vs. amateur examination of chess positions. Gobet was able to test four IMs, eight masters, and a total of 48 Swiss chess players on a series of chess quizzes in which the goal was to find the best move for White, without moving the pieces, with thinking time limited to 30 minutes. Both pattern recognition and search models predict that strong players choose better moves, that they select moves faster, and that they generate more nodes in one minute. Gobet showed that the first prediction was met, but the second and third were supported only weakly. Search models predict that strong players search more nodes and search deeper. The first prediction was not met, but the second was in that the difference lies in the average depth of search, not in the maximal depth of search. Finally, pattern recognition models predict that strong players mention fewer base moves, reinvestigate more often the same move, and jump less often between different moves. All these predictions were met. Gobet showed that another possible predictor of chess skill might be the starting age. The average age at which players of each group started playing seriously was the following: non-rated players – 18.6 years; rated players – 14.2 years; FMs – 11.6 years; IMs – 10.3 years; GMs (small sample) – 11.3 years. Almost all the players with titles started playing seriously no later than age 12. Becoming a master requires training activities that go beyond the type of repetitive and feedback-informed activities typically emphasized in earlier days. Chess theory and computer technology has changed the ways chess players prepare for their games. Masters try to memorize opening variations with the aid of chess databases, they investigate opening positions to find novelties to surprise their opponents, and they play tournament or training games against other players, or on the Internet, or against strong chess computer programs. Dr. Gobet has also looked into the personalities of chess players. Studies have found that adult chess players are more introverted and intuitive than the general population. However, it is the more energetic and extroverted children that are more likely to play chess. These children are, in general, more likely to try out activities such as chess than their less extroverted peers. Children players who were stronger in chess than their peers were more curious, had broader intellectual and cultural interests, and were more accomplished in school than children who were weaker chess players. In addition, stronger players also tend to me more intuitive than weaker ones. Chess players also scored higher than non-players on the measures of orderliness and unconventional thinking. Another consideration in chess thinking is the effect of aging among chess players. Studies have shown that in memory tasks where positions are briefly presented, for the same skill level, younger players recalled chess positions better than older players. In spite of producing worse performance than younger players of the same skill level in memory tasks, older players performed equally well in problem solving tasks where they had to choose the best move, and that they were also faster at choosing their move. In 1894, Alfred Binet (1857-1911), a French psychologist, carried out the first study on the mental abilities of chess masters. In 1903, he was the first psychologist to develop an intelligence test. He devised the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) tests, where the intelligence score was the quotient of mental age to physical age. Binet had done a number of experiments to see how well chess players played without looking at the chess board (known as blindfold chess). He found that only some of the master chess players could play from memory, and a few could play many games simultaneously without looking at the chess boards. To remember the positions of the pieces on the boards, some chess players envisioned exact replicas of specific chess sets. Other players envisioned an abstract schema of the game. In 1927, three Russian psychologists (Djakow, Petrowski and Rudik) studied eight of the best grandmasters of the time. The players included Emanuel Lasker, Richard Reti, Savielly Tartakower, Carlos Torre, Peter Romanovsky, Ernst Gurenfeld, and Rudolf Spielmann. They did not find any differences with a control sample on general intelligence or visuo-spatial memory, with the exception of memory tasks where the material to be recalled was closely related to chess. After a century of investigation, not a single study with adult chess players has managed to establish a link between chess skill and intelligence. Intellect had little predictive power among strong chess players. Another hypothesis states that people who become strong chess players have exceptional intelligence and/or memory. However, there is little evidence to support this viewpoint. Most researchers have found minimal correlations between measures of IQ and official chess ratings. What researchers have found out is that many top grandmasters have a very good memory when it comes to chess. They can recall a large number of games, move-b-move, and they can reproduce practical chess positions with very few mistakes on a new board and set. However, if the position is random, with chess pieces just dropped on a chess board, the master cannot reproduce the position any better than an amateur. General intelligence and memory by themselves do not appear to distinguish strong chess players from ordinary ones. Does all this matter? Well, to the best players in the world, perhaps not. It was Bobby Fischer who said, “I don’t believe in psychology. I believe in good moves.” –Bill Wall Be Sociable, Share! inShare 1

Chess prodigies

Chess Prodigies and Young Masters Chess prodigies are children who play chess so well that they are able to beat experienced adult players. They are usually master strength at an early age. Most prodigies and chess masters become masters by learning the game of chess at an early age. Seldom does a player become a master after learning the game later in life. There are a few exceptions. However, most strong masters began at a very early age. Hou Yifan (born Feb 27, 1994) learned chess at the age of three. She started taking chess lessons at the age of five. At age 9, she became a Woman FIDE master. At age 11, she qualified for the World Women’s Chess Championship. At age 13, she became China’s youngest ever women’s national champion. She became a GM at the age of 14 years, 6 months, the youngest ever. Former world champion Jose Capablanca (1888-1942) began to play chess at the age of four. He wrote that he learned chess by watching his father play when he had just passed his fourth birthday. He even beat his father in his first game at age four. At 13, he beat the Cuban chess champion in a match. At 18, he was recognized as the strongest chess player at the Manhattan Chess Club. He left Columbia University after one semester to devote himself to chess full time. Samuel Reshevsky (1911-1992) learned how to play chess at age four. In a few years, he was acclaimed as a chess prodigy. At age six he was giving simultaneous exhibitions throughout Europe. The family moved to the United States where Reshesvsky continued to give simuls around the United States. At age 10, he played in the New York Masters tournament, the youngest player to have competed in a strong, master tournament. He gave up competitive chess for 7 years to finish his education. He graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in accounting. Etienne Bacrot (born Jan 22, 1983) started playing chess at the age of four. At age 10, he won the Junior-Under 18 championship of France. Bacrot was also the youngest FIDE master at age 10. He became a GM at the age of 14 years, 2 months. Former world champion Anatoly Karpov (born May 23, 1951) was taught the moves of chess when he was four years old. By age 15 he was a master and later won the World Junior Championship. He became the world’s youngest grandmaster in 1970 at the age of 19. The Polgar (Susan, Sofia, and Judit) sisters began playing chess at age four. Judit Polgar was playing blindfold chess at the age of five. She was playing in chess tournament at the age of 6. At age 9, she was rated 2080. She beat her first International Master at age 10. She beat her first Grandmaster at age 11. She became a GM at age 15. She is by far the strongest female chess player in history. She was once ranked #8 in the world and has been #1 ranked woman in the world for the past 20 years. Former world champion Boris Spassky (born Jan 30, 1937) learned the game in the Urals at the age of five during World War II. After the war he joined the Pioneer Palace in Leningrad and spent five hours a day every day on chess. In college he took up journalism to give him the most time for chess. By age 18 he had won the World Junior Championship, took 3rd place in the USSR Championship, and qualified as a Candidate for the World championship. Former world woman champion Nona Gaprindashvili (born May 3, 1941) learned at age five after watching her five chess-playing brothers. She won the world’s women chess championship when she was 21. She was the first female Grandmaster. Alexanda Kosteniuk (born April 23, 1984) learned to play chess at five after being taught be her father. She became a women’s grandmaster (WGM) at age 14. She was an International Master at 16. She was the Challenger in the World Women’s Championship when she was 17. At 20, she was awarded the GM title. At 21, she was the Russian Women’s Champion. At 22, she was the Chess960 Women’s World Champion. At 24, she was women’s world champion. Koneru Humpy (born March 31, 1987) started playing chess at the age of five. She has won four World Championships, including the World Girls Under-10, Under-12, Under-14, and the World Girls Junior championships. She became a GM at the age of 15 years, 1 month, the youngest female to become a GM up to that time. Former world champion Bobby Fischer (1943-2008) began playing at the age of six, taught by his older sister and reading the rules that came with the game. He played in his first chess tournament at the age of 12. He became a master at age 13, US champion at 14, world’s youngest candidate for the world championship at 15, and world’s youngest grandmaster at 16. Former world champion Vasily Smyslov (1921-2010) learned the game at six by studying chess books in his father’s library. He started playing competitive chess at age 14. At 17, he won the USSR Junior Championship. Bent Larsen (1935-2010) learned the moves at age six. He started playing chess seriously at the age of 17. He gave up his civil engineering studies in school to become a full-time chess professional. He became an International Master at the age of 19. He became a GM at age 21. Wesley So (born Oct 9, 1993) learned chess from his father at the age of six. He was playing competitive chess at the age of 9. He won the under-9 Philippine championship. At the age of 12, he was the youngest player in the 37th Chess Olympiad in Turin, Italy. Also at the age of 12, he won the Philippine championship, the youngest ever. At age 13, he won the gold medal on board one at the 2007 World Under 16 Team Championship, with nine wins and one draw. He became a GM at the age of 14 years, 1 month, and 28 days. Paul Morphy (1837-1884) seemed to have learned chess around age seven while watching others play. He was able to read and write at the age of four. By age 8 or 9, he was one of the best chess players in New Orleans and had already played hundreds of chess games. He was playing blindfold chess at the age of 12. When he was 12, he was able to beat Hungarian master Johann Jacob Lowenthal in a match. By the time he was 13, he was the best player in New Orleans and one of the best players in America. He entered college at 13 and graduated with a Bachelor Arts degree at the age of 17. He then entered law school at the University of Louisiana and earned his law degree at age 20. At age 20, he won the first American Chess Congress and was considered the strongest chess player in America. By age 21, he was considered the best chess player in the world. Former world champion Alexander Alekhine (1892-1946) learned chess at age seven by his mother, an heiress of an industrial fortune. He became addicted to the game and played the game in his head and by the light of a candle when in bed. By age 18 he was grandmaster strength. Magnus Carlsen (born Nov 30, 1990) learned chess at age seven and played in his first chess tournament at age eight. At age 13, he earned his first Grandmaster norm and achieved a performance rating of 2702. He became the 3rd youngest grandmaster in the world at the age of 13 years, 4 months, 27 days. Carlsen, at age 13, was the youngest player ever to participate in the World Chess Championship. At age 15, his rating was 2625, the youngest person to break the 2600 barrier at that time (record later beaten by Wesley So). At the age of 16, his rating was 2710, which made Carlsen the youngest person to break the 2700 barrier. At age 19, his rating was 2813, the second highest rating ever (behind Kasparov). By age 20, he was ranked #1 in the world. His current rating is 2835 and ranked #1 in the world. Former world champion Tigran Petrosian (1929-1984) learned the moves at age eight. When his parents died when he was 16, he found consolation in chess and soon began to win tournaments. He was playing grandmaster strength by age 20. Former world champion Mikhail Tal (1936-1992) became interested in chess at age eight after watching the game played by patients in the waiting room of his father, a doctor specializing in internal disorders. At age 10 he joined the Riga Palace of Young Pioneers. He won the Latvian championship at age 17. Former world champion Max Euwe (1901-1981) learned at age nine and was taught by his parents. He remained an amateur chessplayer, with his real profession being a professor of mathematics and mechanics. He won his first Dutch championship at age 20. He won the Dutch championship a record 12 times. Former world champion Emanuel Lasker (1868-1841) began to play at the age of 11. His older brother taught him the moves of chess. Emanael became a German master at the age of 21. Former world champion Mikhail Botvinnik (1911-1995) learned the game at age 12 from a school friend. At 14, he beat Capablanca in a simultaneous exhibiton. At 15, he became a candidate-master (equivalent to master in the U.S.). At 16, he qualified for the USSR championship, the youngest player to qualify at that time. Former world champion Wilhelm Steinitz (1836-1900) learned how to play chess at age 12 from school friends. He did not start playing seriously until his early 20s and he became quite good at blindfold chess. At age 22, he was a chess hustler in the cafes of Vienna. By age 25, he was champion of Vienna. Six-time U.S. champion Walter Browne (born Jan 10, 1949) learned the game at 13 after joining the Manhattan Chess Club. At 17, he was US Junior champion. By age 20, he had the Grandmaster title. Joseph Henry Blackburne (1841-1924), the leading English player of the late 19th century, didn’t learn the chess moves until he was 18. He learned the game from a two-pence chess book. Two years later he was giving blindfold simultaneous exhibitions. At age 26, he was British champion. Howard Staunton (1810-1874), the world’s leading player in the 1840s, took up chess at age 19 and didn’t become a serious player until age 26. Mir Sultan Khan didn’t learn the international game of chess (he knew Indian chess) until age 21. Two years later he was the All-India champion. A year later he won the British championship. He was illiterate, unable to read or write, and never studied any book on the game. Jordy Mont-Reynaud and Vinay Bhat starting playing chess, joined a chess club (the Palo Alto Chess Club run and coached by Bill Wall), and played in rated tournaments at age 7. By the time they were 10, they both became America’s youngest masters. Vinay Bhat became America’s youngest master in 1995 at the age of 10 years, 176 days. Jordy was a master in 1994 at the age of 10 years, 209 days. Other young masters include Stewart Rachels at 11 years, 10 months; Ilya Gurevich at 12 years, 3 months; John Jarecki at 12 years, 6 months; Jon Litvinchuk at 12 years, 7 months. In 1998 Hikaru Nakamura (born Dec 9, 1987) became America’s youngest master at that time at 10 years, 79 days. In 2001 he became America’s youngest International Master at age 13. In 2003, he became America’s youngest-ever grandmaster (15 years, 2 months). In 2004, he won the US Championship, the youngest since Fischer. In 2008, Nicholas Nip (born March 10, 1998) from the Bay Area became the youngest USCF Master at the age of nine years, 11 months and 26 days. In 2010, Damuel Sevian (born Dec 26, 2000), became the youngest USCF master at the age of 9 years, 11 months and 23 days. In January 2010, at the age of 9, he had a FIDE rating od 2119, the highest rated chess player in the world for his age. Sevian currently holds the record of America’s youngest master. The first list of grandmasters appeared in 1950, published by FIDE. There were 27 chess players nominated as the first grandmasters. The youngest GM on the list was David Bronstein, age 26. In 1955 Boris Spassky became the youngest GM in the world at age 18. In 1958, Bobby Fischer became the youngest GM in the world at age 15 years, 6 months, 1 day. In 1991, Judit Polgar became a GM at 15 years, 4 months, and 28 days. In 1994, Peter Leko became a GM at the age of 14 years, 4 months, 22 days. In 1997, Etienne Bacrot and Ruslan Ponomariov became GMS at 14. Bacrot was the youngest FIDE master at age 10. Bacrot was 14 years, 2 months when he earned the GM title. Ponomariov was 14 years, 17 days when he earned the GM title. Teimour Radjabov became a GM at 14 years, 14 days. In 1999, Bu Xiangzhi became a GM at 13 years, 10 months and 13 days. In 2006, Parimarjan Negi (born February 9, 1993) became a GM at 13 years, 4 months, and 22 days. In 2002, Sergey Karjakin (born Jan 12, 1990) became a GM at 12 years and 7 months. Also in 2002, Koneru Humpy became a GM at the age of 15 years, 1 month, and 27 days, making her the youngest female ever to become a Grandmaster up to that time. In 2008, Hou Yifan became a GM at the age of 14 years, 6 months, the youngest ever for a female. In 1999 David Howell, age 8, defeated Grandmaster John Nunn at the Mind Sports Chess Olympiad in London, becoming the youngest person to beat a Grandmaster at chess. In 2002 Fabiano Caruana, age 10, defeated GM Wojtkiewicz at the Marshall Chess Club in New York, becoming the youngest player to defeat a GM in the United States. He became a grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months. –Bill Wall Be Sociable, Share! inShare 2 Comments

Chess prodigies

Chess Prodigies and Young Masters Chess prodigies are children who play chess so well that they are able to beat experienced adult players. They are usually master strength at an early age. Most prodigies and chess masters become masters by learning the game of chess at an early age. Seldom does a player become a master after learning the game later in life. There are a few exceptions. However, most strong masters began at a very early age. Hou Yifan (born Feb 27, 1994) learned chess at the age of three. She started taking chess lessons at the age of five. At age 9, she became a Woman FIDE master. At age 11, she qualified for the World Women’s Chess Championship. At age 13, she became China’s youngest ever women’s national champion. She became a GM at the age of 14 years, 6 months, the youngest ever. Former world champion Jose Capablanca (1888-1942) began to play chess at the age of four. He wrote that he learned chess by watching his father play when he had just passed his fourth birthday. He even beat his father in his first game at age four. At 13, he beat the Cuban chess champion in a match. At 18, he was recognized as the strongest chess player at the Manhattan Chess Club. He left Columbia University after one semester to devote himself to chess full time. Samuel Reshevsky (1911-1992) learned how to play chess at age four. In a few years, he was acclaimed as a chess prodigy. At age six he was giving simultaneous exhibitions throughout Europe. The family moved to the United States where Reshesvsky continued to give simuls around the United States. At age 10, he played in the New York Masters tournament, the youngest player to have competed in a strong, master tournament. He gave up competitive chess for 7 years to finish his education. He graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in accounting. Etienne Bacrot (born Jan 22, 1983) started playing chess at the age of four. At age 10, he won the Junior-Under 18 championship of France. Bacrot was also the youngest FIDE master at age 10. He became a GM at the age of 14 years, 2 months. Former world champion Anatoly Karpov (born May 23, 1951) was taught the moves of chess when he was four years old. By age 15 he was a master and later won the World Junior Championship. He became the world’s youngest grandmaster in 1970 at the age of 19. The Polgar (Susan, Sofia, and Judit) sisters began playing chess at age four. Judit Polgar was playing blindfold chess at the age of five. She was playing in chess tournament at the age of 6. At age 9, she was rated 2080. She beat her first International Master at age 10. She beat her first Grandmaster at age 11. She became a GM at age 15. She is by far the strongest female chess player in history. She was once ranked #8 in the world and has been #1 ranked woman in the world for the past 20 years. Former world champion Boris Spassky (born Jan 30, 1937) learned the game in the Urals at the age of five during World War II. After the war he joined the Pioneer Palace in Leningrad and spent five hours a day every day on chess. In college he took up journalism to give him the most time for chess. By age 18 he had won the World Junior Championship, took 3rd place in the USSR Championship, and qualified as a Candidate for the World championship. Former world woman champion Nona Gaprindashvili (born May 3, 1941) learned at age five after watching her five chess-playing brothers. She won the world’s women chess championship when she was 21. She was the first female Grandmaster. Alexanda Kosteniuk (born April 23, 1984) learned to play chess at five after being taught be her father. She became a women’s grandmaster (WGM) at age 14. She was an International Master at 16. She was the Challenger in the World Women’s Championship when she was 17. At 20, she was awarded the GM title. At 21, she was the Russian Women’s Champion. At 22, she was the Chess960 Women’s World Champion. At 24, she was women’s world champion. Koneru Humpy (born March 31, 1987) started playing chess at the age of five. She has won four World Championships, including the World Girls Under-10, Under-12, Under-14, and the World Girls Junior championships. She became a GM at the age of 15 years, 1 month, the youngest female to become a GM up to that time. Former world champion Bobby Fischer (1943-2008) began playing at the age of six, taught by his older sister and reading the rules that came with the game. He played in his first chess tournament at the age of 12. He became a master at age 13, US champion at 14, world’s youngest candidate for the world championship at 15, and world’s youngest grandmaster at 16. Former world champion Vasily Smyslov (1921-2010) learned the game at six by studying chess books in his father’s library. He started playing competitive chess at age 14. At 17, he won the USSR Junior Championship. Bent Larsen (1935-2010) learned the moves at age six. He started playing chess seriously at the age of 17. He gave up his civil engineering studies in school to become a full-time chess professional. He became an International Master at the age of 19. He became a GM at age 21. Wesley So (born Oct 9, 1993) learned chess from his father at the age of six. He was playing competitive chess at the age of 9. He won the under-9 Philippine championship. At the age of 12, he was the youngest player in the 37th Chess Olympiad in Turin, Italy. Also at the age of 12, he won the Philippine championship, the youngest ever. At age 13, he won the gold medal on board one at the 2007 World Under 16 Team Championship, with nine wins and one draw. He became a GM at the age of 14 years, 1 month, and 28 days. Paul Morphy (1837-1884) seemed to have learned chess around age seven while watching others play. He was able to read and write at the age of four. By age 8 or 9, he was one of the best chess players in New Orleans and had already played hundreds of chess games. He was playing blindfold chess at the age of 12. When he was 12, he was able to beat Hungarian master Johann Jacob Lowenthal in a match. By the time he was 13, he was the best player in New Orleans and one of the best players in America. He entered college at 13 and graduated with a Bachelor Arts degree at the age of 17. He then entered law school at the University of Louisiana and earned his law degree at age 20. At age 20, he won the first American Chess Congress and was considered the strongest chess player in America. By age 21, he was considered the best chess player in the world. Former world champion Alexander Alekhine (1892-1946) learned chess at age seven by his mother, an heiress of an industrial fortune. He became addicted to the game and played the game in his head and by the light of a candle when in bed. By age 18 he was grandmaster strength. Magnus Carlsen (born Nov 30, 1990) learned chess at age seven and played in his first chess tournament at age eight. At age 13, he earned his first Grandmaster norm and achieved a performance rating of 2702. He became the 3rd youngest grandmaster in the world at the age of 13 years, 4 months, 27 days. Carlsen, at age 13, was the youngest player ever to participate in the World Chess Championship. At age 15, his rating was 2625, the youngest person to break the 2600 barrier at that time (record later beaten by Wesley So). At the age of 16, his rating was 2710, which made Carlsen the youngest person to break the 2700 barrier. At age 19, his rating was 2813, the second highest rating ever (behind Kasparov). By age 20, he was ranked #1 in the world. His current rating is 2835 and ranked #1 in the world. Former world champion Tigran Petrosian (1929-1984) learned the moves at age eight. When his parents died when he was 16, he found consolation in chess and soon began to win tournaments. He was playing grandmaster strength by age 20. Former world champion Mikhail Tal (1936-1992) became interested in chess at age eight after watching the game played by patients in the waiting room of his father, a doctor specializing in internal disorders. At age 10 he joined the Riga Palace of Young Pioneers. He won the Latvian championship at age 17. Former world champion Max Euwe (1901-1981) learned at age nine and was taught by his parents. He remained an amateur chessplayer, with his real profession being a professor of mathematics and mechanics. He won his first Dutch championship at age 20. He won the Dutch championship a record 12 times. Former world champion Emanuel Lasker (1868-1841) began to play at the age of 11. His older brother taught him the moves of chess. Emanael became a German master at the age of 21. Former world champion Mikhail Botvinnik (1911-1995) learned the game at age 12 from a school friend. At 14, he beat Capablanca in a simultaneous exhibiton. At 15, he became a candidate-master (equivalent to master in the U.S.). At 16, he qualified for the USSR championship, the youngest player to qualify at that time. Former world champion Wilhelm Steinitz (1836-1900) learned how to play chess at age 12 from school friends. He did not start playing seriously until his early 20s and he became quite good at blindfold chess. At age 22, he was a chess hustler in the cafes of Vienna. By age 25, he was champion of Vienna. Six-time U.S. champion Walter Browne (born Jan 10, 1949) learned the game at 13 after joining the Manhattan Chess Club. At 17, he was US Junior champion. By age 20, he had the Grandmaster title. Joseph Henry Blackburne (1841-1924), the leading English player of the late 19th century, didn’t learn the chess moves until he was 18. He learned the game from a two-pence chess book. Two years later he was giving blindfold simultaneous exhibitions. At age 26, he was British champion. Howard Staunton (1810-1874), the world’s leading player in the 1840s, took up chess at age 19 and didn’t become a serious player until age 26. Mir Sultan Khan didn’t learn the international game of chess (he knew Indian chess) until age 21. Two years later he was the All-India champion. A year later he won the British championship. He was illiterate, unable to read or write, and never studied any book on the game. Jordy Mont-Reynaud and Vinay Bhat starting playing chess, joined a chess club (the Palo Alto Chess Club run and coached by Bill Wall), and played in rated tournaments at age 7. By the time they were 10, they both became America’s youngest masters. Vinay Bhat became America’s youngest master in 1995 at the age of 10 years, 176 days. Jordy was a master in 1994 at the age of 10 years, 209 days. Other young masters include Stewart Rachels at 11 years, 10 months; Ilya Gurevich at 12 years, 3 months; John Jarecki at 12 years, 6 months; Jon Litvinchuk at 12 years, 7 months. In 1998 Hikaru Nakamura (born Dec 9, 1987) became America’s youngest master at that time at 10 years, 79 days. In 2001 he became America’s youngest International Master at age 13. In 2003, he became America’s youngest-ever grandmaster (15 years, 2 months). In 2004, he won the US Championship, the youngest since Fischer. In 2008, Nicholas Nip (born March 10, 1998) from the Bay Area became the youngest USCF Master at the age of nine years, 11 months and 26 days. In 2010, Damuel Sevian (born Dec 26, 2000), became the youngest USCF master at the age of 9 years, 11 months and 23 days. In January 2010, at the age of 9, he had a FIDE rating od 2119, the highest rated chess player in the world for his age. Sevian currently holds the record of America’s youngest master. The first list of grandmasters appeared in 1950, published by FIDE. There were 27 chess players nominated as the first grandmasters. The youngest GM on the list was David Bronstein, age 26. In 1955 Boris Spassky became the youngest GM in the world at age 18. In 1958, Bobby Fischer became the youngest GM in the world at age 15 years, 6 months, 1 day. In 1991, Judit Polgar became a GM at 15 years, 4 months, and 28 days. In 1994, Peter Leko became a GM at the age of 14 years, 4 months, 22 days. In 1997, Etienne Bacrot and Ruslan Ponomariov became GMS at 14. Bacrot was the youngest FIDE master at age 10. Bacrot was 14 years, 2 months when he earned the GM title. Ponomariov was 14 years, 17 days when he earned the GM title. Teimour Radjabov became a GM at 14 years, 14 days. In 1999, Bu Xiangzhi became a GM at 13 years, 10 months and 13 days. In 2006, Parimarjan Negi (born February 9, 1993) became a GM at 13 years, 4 months, and 22 days. In 2002, Sergey Karjakin (born Jan 12, 1990) became a GM at 12 years and 7 months. Also in 2002, Koneru Humpy became a GM at the age of 15 years, 1 month, and 27 days, making her the youngest female ever to become a Grandmaster up to that time. In 2008, Hou Yifan became a GM at the age of 14 years, 6 months, the youngest ever for a female. In 1999 David Howell, age 8, defeated Grandmaster John Nunn at the Mind Sports Chess Olympiad in London, becoming the youngest person to beat a Grandmaster at chess. In 2002 Fabiano Caruana, age 10, defeated GM Wojtkiewicz at the Marshall Chess Club in New York, becoming the youngest player to defeat a GM in the United States. He became a grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months. –Bill Wall Be Sociable, Share! inShare 2 Comments

History of US Chess Championship

In December 1845, Charles Henry Stanley (1819-1901) beat Eugene Rousseau (1810-1870) in a match in what was considered the first unofficial U.S. chess championship. It was played at the Sazerac Coffee House in New Orleans. The match was played for a stake of $1,000, winner-take-all. That would be worth over $23,000 in today’s currency. The winner would be the first to win 15 games, draws not counting. There was no time limit. The chess match was the first organized chess event in the country. Stanley won with 15 wins, 8 losses, and 8 draws. 8-year-old Paul Morphy was a spectator at the event. In February 1850, Stanley defended his title and defeated John H. Turner in a match in Washington, D.C. for the U.S. championship. At the time, it was called the “Great Match.” The match was played for a stake of $1,000 to the first who won 11 games. Stanley won 11 games, lost 5, and drew 1. The whole match of 17 games was played in four days. In 1857, Paul Morphy (1837-1884) won the first American Chess Congress and was considered the U.S. champion. No one challenged Morphy in his lifetime. Some consider him the U.S. champion from 1857 to his death in 1884. In 1866, George Mackenzie (1837-1891) defeated Gustavus Reichhelm in a match, held in Philadelphia. The British Chess Magazine wrote that the match was for the U.S. title. In December 1871, George Mackenzie won the 2nd American Chess Congress, held at the Kennard Hotel in Cleveland and was considered the U.S. champion. He won $100 (equivalent to $1,700 in today’s currency) for 1st prize. Mackenzie finished two points ahead of his next rival. In 1874, Mackenzie won the 3rd American Chess Congress in Chicago and retained his U.S. champion title. He won 8 games, drew 1, and lost 1. Time control was 15 moves an hour. In 1876, the 4th American Chess Congress was held in Philadelphia. James Mason won the event, but he was not a U.S. citizen. The tournament was designed to attract foreign players and was never intended to be for any U.S. championship title. Mackenzie did not play in this event. In 1880, Mackenzie won the 5th American Chess Congress in New York after winning a two-game playoff against James Grundy, who also tied for 1st place. In 1881, Mackenzie defeated Max Judd in Saint Louis in a match for the U.S. championship. He won 7, lost 5, and drew 1. In 1886, Mackenzie beat Samuel (Solomon) Lipschuetz in a match for the U.S. championship, played in New York. In 1887, Max Judd defeated Albert Hodges in a match and claimed the U.S. chess champion title. In 1889, Samuel Lipschuetz (1863-1905) was the top scoring American (6th place, with 5 foreigners ahead of him) at the 6th American Chess Congress (New York International) in New York and was regarded as the de facto U.S. champion. Mackenzie did not play, was ill, and may have retired from chess. In 1890, Jackson Whipps Showalter (1860-1935) defeated Lipschuetz in a match in Louisville. Showalter claimed the U.S. championship title. In 1890, Max Judd (1851-1906) defeated Jackson Showalter in a match in Saint Louis (+7 -2 =2), but did not claim the US championship title. In 1891-92, Showalter defeated Max Judd in a match. In 1892, Lipschuetz defeated Showalter in a match. Lipshuetz then retired from chess and moved to California, The U.S. title reverted back to Showalter. In 1893-94, Showalter defended his title against Jacob Halpern (1845-1924) in a match in New York. In 1894, Showalter defeated Albert Hodges (1861-1944) in a match, scoring 8-6. Hodges demanded a rematch, then beat Showalter in a return match, and then retired. He said that his ambitions in chess had been fulfilled, and that he was retiring to pursue a career in business. The title reverted back to Showalter. In early 1895, Lipschuetz returned from California and claimed he never relinquished the title. In 1895, Showalter defeated Lipschuetz in a match, with a 7-4 score. In 1896, Showalter defeated Emil Kemeny (1860-1925) in a match held in Philadelphia. The match was clearly defined as a match for the U.S. title. In 1896, Showalter beat John Finan Barry (1873-1940) in a U.S. championship match. In 1897, Harry Pillsbury (1872-1906) beat Showalter in a match. The stakes were for $1,000. Pillsbury won with 10 wins, 8 losses, and 3 draws. In February 1898, Pillsbury defended his title and defeated Showalter. Pillsbury won with 7 wins, 3 losses, and 2 draws. In 1904, Frank Marshall won the 7th American Chess Congress in St. Louis. The tournament announcements said that the top American finisher in the event would be U.S. champion. But by the time of the tournament, the organizers just said that this event was only the “American Chess Tourney Championship.” Marshall acknowledged that Pillsbury was still the U.S. chess champion. On June 17, 1906, Pillsbury died and the title revered to Showalter, who was now a 5-time U.S. champion. In early 1909, Capablanca defeated Marshall in a match, 8-1. The organizers called said it was for the U.S. championship title. After Marshall lost, he complained that it was not for the U.S. championship because Capablanca was not a U.S. citizen. However, at the time, Cuba was a U.S. territory. Furthermore, Capablanca had been living in the USA for the past three years and planned to take out citizenship papers as soon as he turned 21 in a few months. In November 1909, Frank Marshall (1877-1944) defeated Showalter in a match, held in Lexington, Kentucky. The prize was $500 a side. Marshall was now officially the U.S. chess champion. In 1923, Marshall defended his title against Edward Lasker (1885-1981) and won. The match was played in 9 different cities over two months. Marshal won 9.5 to 8.5. In 1936, Frank Marshall gave up his title and declined to play in the U.S. invitational tournament. He was U.S. champion for a record 27 years, but only defended his title once. In 1936, Samuel Reshevsky (1911-1992) became U.S. champion after winning the first U.S. championship tournament, held in New York. The first women’s U.S. chess championship was held in 1937. In 1938, Reshevsky won the U.S. championship. In 1940, Reshevsky won the U.S. championship. In 1941, Reshevsky defeated I.A. Horowitz in a U.S. championship match. In 1942, Reshevsky and Isaac Kashdan tied for 1st in the U.S. championship. Reshevsky later won the playoff match. Reshevsky was awarded a win by tournament director Walter Stephens who forfeited Denker on time. The game should have been a draw, but Stephens flipped over the chess clock and called the wrong player for the time forefeit. In 1944, Arnold Denker (1914-2005) won the U.S. championship. In 1946, Denker defeated Herman Steiner (1905-1955) in a U.S. championship match. In 1946, Reshevsky won the U.S. championship. In 1948, Herman Steiner won the U.S. championship. In 1951, Larry Evans (1932-2010), age 19, won the U.S. championship. In 1952, Evans defeated Herman Steiner in a U.S. championship match. In 1954, Arthur Bisguier (1929- ), age 23, won the U.S. championship. In 1957, Reshevsky beat Bisguier in a match. In 1957/58, Bobby Fischer (1943-2008) won the U.S. championship at the age of 14, the youngest ever. In 1958/59, Fischer won the U.S. championship. In 1959/60, Fischer won the U.S. championship. His 1st place prize was $1,000. In 1960/61, Fischer won the U.S. championship. In 1961/62, Evans won the U.S. championship. Fischer did not play. In 1962/63, Fischer won the US. championship. In 1963/64, Fischer won the U.S. championship with a perfect 11-0 score. He was 3.5 points ahead of his nearest rival. He made 415 moves total. In 1965/66, Fischer won the U.S. championship. In 1966/67, Fischer won his 8th U.S. chess championship. In 1968, Larry Evans won the U.S. championship. In 1969, Reshevsky won the U.S. championship. In 1972, Robert Byrne (1928- ) won the U.S. championship after a playoff with Reshevsky and Lubomir Kavalek. It was Reshevsky’s 8th U.S. championship first or tied for first place. Reshevsky competed in a record 21 U.S. championships. He was among the top 3 in 15 U.S. championships, played the most games in U.S. championships (269) and won the most games (127). In 1973, Kavalek and John Grefe tied for 1st in the U.S. championship, held in El Paso. In 1974, Walter Browne won the U.S. championship, held in Chicago. In 1975, Walter Browne won the U.S. championship, held at Oberlin College in Ohio. In 1977, Walter Browne won the U.S. championship, held in Mentor, Ohio. In 1978, Kavalek won the U.S. championship, held in Pasadena, California. Tournament favorite Walter Browne withdrew from the event. In 1980, Browne, Evans, and Larry Christiansen tied for 1st in the U.S. championship, held in Greenville, Pennsylvania. In 1981, Browne and Yasser Seirawan tied for 1st in the U.S. championship, held in South Bend, Indiana. In 1983, Browne, Christiansen, and Roman Dzindzichashvili tied for 1st in the U.S. championship, held in Greenville, Pennsylvania. In 1984, Lev Alburt won the U.S. championship, held in Berkeley. In 1985, Lev Alburt won the U.S. championship, held in Estes Park, Colorado. In 1986, Seirwan won the U.S. championship, held in Estes Park. In 1987, Joel Benjamin and Nick de Firmian won the U.S. championship, held in Estes Park. In 1988, Michael Wilder won the U.S. championship, held in Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania. In 1989, Dzindzichashvile, Seirawan, and Stuart Rachels tied for 1st in the U.S. championship, held in Long Beach, California. In 1990, Lev Alburt won the U.S. championship knockout tournament, held in Jacksonville, Florida. In 1991, Gata Kamsky won the U.S. championship knockout tournament, held in Los Angeles. In 1992, Patrick Wolff won the U.S. championship, held in Durango, Colorado. In 1993, Alexander Shabalov and Alex Yermolinsky tied for 1st in the U.S. championship, held in Long Beach. In 1994, former Soviet champion Boris Gulko won the U.S. championship, held in Key West, Florida. In 1995, de Firmian, Wolff, and Alexander Ivanov won the U.S. championship, held in Modesto, California. In 1995, Irina Krush, age 11, played in the U.S. Women’s championship, the youngest ever. In 1996, Yermollinsky won the U.S. championship, held in Parsippany, New Jersey. In 1997, Joel Benjamin won the U.S. championship, held in Chandler, Arizona. In 1998, Nick de Firmian won the U.S. championship, held in Denver, Colorado. In 1999, Gulko won the U.S. championship, held in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 2000, Benjamin, Seirawan, and Shabalov tied for 1st in the U.S. championship, held in Seattle. In 2002, Larry Christiansen won the U.S. championship. He would be the last person born in the United States to win the U.S. championship, held in Seattle. In 2003, Alexander Shabalov won the U.S. championship, held in Seattle. In 2004, Hikaru Nakamura, age 16, won the 2005 U.S. championship, held in San Diego. He is the youngest player since Fischer to win the U.S. championship. In 2006, Alexander Onischuk won the U.S. championship, held in San Diego. In 2007, Shabalov won the U.S. championship, held in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In 2008, Yury Shulman won the U.S. championship, held in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 2009, Gata Kamsky won the U.S. championship after an Armageddon tie-break against Shulman. The event was held in Saint Louis. In 2010, Gata Kamsky won the U.S. championship, held in Saint Louis. In 2011, Gata Kamsky won the U.S. championship, held in Saint Louis. In 2012, Hikaru Nakamura won the U.S. championship. For the fourth consecutive year, the tournament was held at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (CCSCSL). The prize fund was $160,000. The average USCF rating was 2714, making it the strongest U.S. championship ever. Irina Krush won two playoff games against Anna Zatonskih to win the 2012 U.S. women’s championship. Fischer won the US championship a record 8 times in 8 appearances. Gisela Gresser (1906-2000) won the women’s U.S. championship a record 9 times. –Bill Wall Be Sociable, Share! inShare 1 Comments

Arpad Elo

Arpad Elo (1903-1992) Arpad Emrick Elo was born in Egyhazaskeszo, Austro-Hungarian Empire, on August 25, 1903. In 1913, his family moved to the United States. He learned chess in his teens while attending high school in Cleveland, Ohio. He saw a set of chessmen in a department store and learned the rules of the game from the Encyclopedia Britannica. By the 1930s, he was the strongest chess player in Milwaukee. He won the Wisconsin State Chess Championship 8 times from 1935 (at age 32) to 1961 (at the age of 58). He played in 37 consecutive state championships in Wisconsin from 1933 to 1969. He won over 40 tournaments during his playing days. In 1935, he was president of the American Chess Federation, which later merged with the National Chess Federation and became part of the USCF in 1939. Elo was among the first to organize Swiss-system chess tournaments in the United States on a regular basis. He earned his BS and MS degrees, in Physics, from the University of Chicago. He never earned a PhD. Elo was a professor of physics and astronomy at Marquette University in Milwaukee from 1926 to 1972. He also taught at the University of Wisconsin. In the 1950s, Elo developed his own formula for a chess rating system base on the normal distribution curve, or function (Bell curve). The new rating system was used by the USCF in 1960, replacing the old Harkness system that had been used since 1950. One of the flaws with the Harkness system was that you could lose rating points even if you won every game and had a perfect score. Elo’s rating system was adopted by FIDE in 1970. Elo was the Chairman of the USCF Rating Committee from 1959 to 1976. From 1970 to 1980, Elo did all the rating calculations for FIDE using paper and pencil until he was able to buy a Hewlett-Packard calculator with enough memory to do the calculations. In 1978, he published The Rating of Chessplayers: Past & Present. His list of top players were Fischer (2780), Karpov (2775), Capablanca (2725), Botvinnik (2720), Lasker (2720), Tal (2700), Alekhine (2690), Morphy (2690), Smyslov (2690), Petrosian (2680), Reshevsky (2680), Spassky (2680), Bronstein (2670), Keres (2670), Korchnoi (2665), Fine (2660), Geller (2655), Boleslavsky (2650), Euwe (2650), Steinitz (2650), Rubinstein (2640), Najdorf (2635), Pillsbury (2630), Portisch (2630), Timman (2630), Flohr (2620), Gligoric (2620), Kholmov (2620), Kotov (2620), Larsen (2620), Maroczy (2620), Stein (2620), Averbakh (2615), Nimzovich (2615), Ulf Andersson (2610), Bogoljubow (2610), Furman (2610), Ljubojevic (2610), Szabo (2610), Tarrasch (2610), Mecking (2608), Polugaevsky (2605), Adolph Anderssen (2600), Chigorin (2600), Schlechter (2600), Taimanov (2600), Vidmar (2600), von der Lasa (2600),and Zukertort (2600). This was all before Carlsen, Kasparov, Anand, Kramnik, and Topalov. In 1988, Elo was inducted in the US Chess Hall of Fame. Other than chess (he gave it up in his later years because he said it was too much hard work), his hobbies were bridge, beekeeping, wine-making, gardening, classical music, and grinding his own telescope lenses for stargazing. He died of a heart attack in Brookfield, Wisconsin on November 5, 1992 at the age of 89. – Bill Wall Be Sociable, Share!

Chess files

http://hotfile.com/dl/185269531/6d3a09d/How_to_Play_Openings_Better.mp4.html How to Avoid Positional Mistakes http://hotfile.com/dl/185269475/8c97ecb/How_to_Avoid_Positional_Mistakes.mp4.html How to Attack on the Right Side http://hotfile.com/dl/185269473/832a2a5/How_to_Attack_on_Right_Side.mp4.html How to Defend More Successfully http://hotfile.com/dl/185269509/c13e481/How_to_Defend_More_Successfully.mp4.htm

Cheating in Chess

Bad Luck, Bad Ethics, and Cheating in Chess In the 1561, Ruy Lopez de Segura (c. 1540- c. 1580), in his treatise on chess, advised his chess students to “place your opponent with the sun in his eyes if you play by day, and with the candle at his right side if you play at night.” In 1851, at the first international chess tournament held in London, Adolf Anderssen (1818-1879) of Germany and Jozsef Szen (1805-1857) of Hungary agreed that if either player took 1st place, he would pay 1/3 of his prize money to the other person. Anderssen easily won his game from Szen in round 2. Szen took 5th place. This may not have been considered unethical. First place was 183 British pounds and a silver cup. In January 1880, at the 5th American Chess Congress in New York, Preston Ware (1821-1890), a wealthy banker of Boston, testified to the tournament committee that his last-round opponent, James Grundy (1855-1919) of England, offered him $20 if he agreed to play for a draw in their game that had been adjourned. A draw would give Grundy, who needed the money, at least 2nd place prize money. Ware agreed, but complained that Grundy then reneged on the deal and went on to win the game in 64 moves, and tied for 1st place (with George Mackenzie). 1st place was $500 and 2nd place was $300. Grundy lost the playoff match with Mackenzie to take 2nd. When Grundy admitted his guilt, he was forbidden from ever again taking part in an American tournament. Grundy played in other tournaments, but under false names. Ware was suspended for one year from playing chess. Preston Ware didn’t need the money, but agreed to the shady deal because he wanted his friend, Captain George Mackenzie, to take first place. In 1913, at a tournament in Havana, Charles Jaffe (1879-1941) drew his game with Frank Marshall (1877-1944) in the first round, and later, lost his next game to Marshall, blundering away his queen for a rook and then promptly resigned. Jose Capablanca (1888-1942), who lost to Marshall and Jaffe, charged that Jaffe intentionally lost his game to Marshall so that Marshall would win the tournament ahead of Capablanca. It was alleged that Capablanca influenced tournament organizers in the USA and Cuba so that Jaffe would be unable to be invited or play in major tournaments after this, especially tournaments in which Capablanca was playing. Jaffe never played again in a tournament where Capablanca also participated. In 1916, Jaffe was involved in a court battle involving non-inclusion for publication of some of his chess analysis. Jaffe brought suit to recover $750 for work alleged to have been done in analyzing the Rice Gambit that was never published for a book called “Twenty Years of the Rice Gambit.” Jaffe lost the case, since the publisher never asked Jaffe to do any analytical work for him. In 1935, Ilya Rabinovich (1891-1942) was ordered to lose against Mikhail Botvinnik (1911-1995), to ensure that Botvinnik took 1st place at a Moscow tournament. Botvinnik refused to go along with the plan, saying, “…then I will myself put a piece en prise and resign.” The plan was aborted, the game was drawn, and Botvinnik shared 1st place with Salo Flohr (1908-1983) of Czechoslovakia. Rabinovich tied for 11th-14th. Earlier, Flohr had proposed to Botvinnik that they both draw their final game and share 1st place. It was Botvinnik’s first success in international chess. In 1937, Botvinnik was playing a match with Grigory Levenfish (1889-1961). In his adjourned 13th game, Botvinnik called the arbiter, Nikolai Grigoriev (1895-1938), saying that Botvinnik was going to resign his adjourned game. Grigoriev, one of the strongest endgame composers in the world, told Botvinnik not to resign and that he, Grigoriev, found some defensive moves that could lead to a draw or even a win. Grigoriev then started telling Botvinnik his analysis of the adjourned position. Botvinnik tried to cut Grigoriev off, saying an arbitrator, of all people, should not be giving analysis to a player during adjournment. Grigoriev replied that is was OK, since Levenfish was getting help from several other masters. In 1942, during the U.S. chess championship in New York, Samuel Reshevsky was playing Arnold Denker when Reshevky’s flag fell. The tournament director (Walter Stephens), who was standing behind the clock, flipped it around and, looking at Reshevsky’s side of the clock (which he mistakenly thought was Denker’s), announce “Denker forfeits!” He refused to correct his error. This erroneous ruling by the director allowed Reshevsky to tie for first with Isaac Kashdan. Reshevsky then won the playoff match against Kashdan 6 months later. After World War II, there may have been an effort by the Russians to execute Paul Keres for playing in German tournaments during the war, but Mikhail Botvinnik may have intervened to prevent this. Keres may have owed Botvinnik his life. In 1948, in the world championship match-tournament, Paul Keres (1916-1975) may have been ordered by the Soviets to throw his games to Mikhail Botvinnik for the world championship. Keres played well against his three other rivals, but lost his first four games to Botvinnik. Years later, Botvinnik gave an interview stating that Stalin had given orders for Keres and Smyslov to lose to Botvinnik so that Botvinnik would become world champion. In 1950, Samuel Reshevsky (1911-1992) was playing Fotis Mastichiadis, a minor master from Greece, at the chess Olympiad in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia. Reshevsky made his 24th move too fast, then noticed that the move was a blunder and that it would lose immediately. Without hesitation, as his opponent was busy writing down the move on his score sheet, Reshevsky offered a draw. His opponent, happy to draw with Grandmaster Reshevsky, accepted the draw immediately without examining the position before accepting the draw. Of course, there is nothing unethical or illegal in offering a draw from a clearly lost position. In the 1950s, Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957) played a chess game against a friend at a restaurant and lost. He then went home, phoned his friend and bet some money on a new game played over the phone. Bogart won the game, but then admitted he cheated. At the time, U.S. Champion Herman Steiner (1905-1955) was visiting Bogart at his house, who helped Bogart with the moves. Bogart himself said that he liked chess better than poker because you couldn’t cheat at chess. In 1959, the Candidates’ tournament was held in Bled. Mikhail Tal (1936-1992) tried to unnerve his opponents by staring at them while they were thinking. Some players thought he was trying to hypnotize his opponents. When he had to play Pal Benko, Benko brought a pair of dark sunglasses to wear during their game. Later, Benko explained that he wore the glasses not to ward of Tal’s “evil eye,” but as a stunt. A couple of Yugoslav reporters asked Benko to wear them to provide an eye-catching photo and a lively story for their newspapers. In 1962, Bobby Fischer (1943-2008) complained that the Russian prearranged draws against each other in order to conserve energy for play against him. Fischer’s article “The Russian Have Fixed World Chess,” appeared in Sports Illustrated. This led to the tournament system being scrapped in favor of a series of elimination matches. Years later, Viktor Korchnoi, after he defected, accused Soviet players of cheating, of ganging up on Westerners in tournaments and throwing key games when necessary. In the early 1960s, the first recorded computer chess cheating occurred at MIT. Some MIT students went to Professor John McCarthy and another professor (both chess players), stating that they had a breakthrough in chess algorithms and that they should come to the lab immediately to see their discovery. McCarthy was led into one lab room and the other professor was led into another lab room. One of the professors was placed in from in a TX-0 computer, and the other in front of a PDP-1 computer. They were then asked to enter chess moves. Unknown to them, their computers were connected to each other by a single wire and the two professors were playing each other. In 1967, Grandmaster Milan Matulovic of Yugoslavia was playing against Istvan Bilek in the 9th round at the Interzonal in Sousse, Tunisia. Matulovic moved his bishop (38.Bf3??), pressed his chess clock, and soon realized he had made a mistake. So he took back his bishop move, moved his king (38.Kg1), and only then said “J’Adoube” (“I adjust” – which is said before adjusting pieces on a square). Matulovic then wrote his move on his score sheet as if nothing happened. Bilek went to the tournament director to protest, but Matulovic replied, “But I said j’adoube!” There was an argument, but the tournament director, having only Bilek’s word against Matulovic, refused to require Matulovic to make his original move with his bishop, as the rules of chess state. Bilek protested three times to the tournament director, but was ignored. The game ended in a draw. After this incident, even the Yugoslav players shunned Matulovic. Ever since this incident, Matulovic has been referred as “J’adoubovic.” A few days after the game with Bilek, Matulovic choked on a bone and had to be taken to a doctor. From then on, the joke in the tournament was that the doctor couldn’t find a bone, but the world “j’adoube” was found stuck in Matulovic’s throat. In 1968, at a tournament in Athens, two Greek players were trying to qualify for International Master at the event. During the opening ceremony, invited players to the tournament were asked to draw or lose their games to the Greek players. In return, they would be paid a sum of money or points would be thrown in their direction by other accommodating players. Some players cooperated, others refused. The two Greek players did get their International Master title. In 1970, at the Palma de Mallorca Interzonal, Mark Taimanov was paired with Milan (J’adoubovic) Matulovic in the final round. It was alleged that Taimanov or his Soviet Federation paid Matulovic $300 to lose the game so that Taimanov would qualify for the 1971 Candidates matches. Taimanov needed a win to qualify. Matulovic showed up 20 minutes late, lingered at the board, looked at the previous day’s tournament bulletin, then finally made a move. Matulovic, normally a slow player, played at a fast pace and lost after about an hour of play. Taimanov qualified for the Candidates match and then lost to Bobby Fischer in Vancouver, with a 0-6 score. In 1971, Matulovic was sentenced to 9 months for killing a woman by dangerous driving. No evidence that he said “J’adoube” before hitting her. In 1970, Bobby Fischer was playing White against Vlatko Kovacevic at a tournament in Zagreb. On his 18th move, Fischer had a chance to win if Black made the obvious move. Petrosian and Korchnoi, who were watching the game, spotted Fischer’s deadly intention and were analyzing the position in a different room. Petrosian’s wife had followed the analysis of the Petrosian and Korchnoi, then walked across to the board and whispered the lines to Kovacevic. Kovacevic then played another, less obvious, but stronger move, and actually won the game. It was Fischer’s only loss in the 17-round tournament. In 1972, the Soviets claimed that Bobby Fischer was using an electronic “brain disruption” device in his chair that affected Boris Spassky. The device was supposedly activated when Fischer got up to walk around during Spassky’s turn to move. The Soviets ordered that Fischer’s chair be dismantled and examined, but the Soviet technician did not find any device. In 1973, the police raided a chess tournament in Cleveland, Ohio. The arrested the tournament director and confiscated the chess sets on charges of allowing gambling (cash prizes to winners) and possession of gambling devices (the chess sets). In 1974, the candidates match between Henrique Mecking and Tigran Petrosian was played in Augusta, Georgia. During the match, Mecking made a formal protest. He accused the former world champion of kicking the table, shaking the chessboard, stirring the coffee too loudly, and rolling a coin on the table. Mecking went to the arbiter twice to complain that Petrosian was breathing too loudly. Mecking kicked back at the table and made noises of his own. Petrosian responded by turning his hearing aid off. At the 1976 World Open in New York, a stronger player used the identity of a weaker friend in one of the lower sections. The stronger player was winning all his games until his identity was found out. Director Bill Goichberg had a talk with the person who disappeared before the end of the tournament. In 1978, Anatoly Karpov had a parapsychologist in the audience against his world championship match with Korchnoi in Baguio, Philippines. Korchnoi claimed the parapsychologist was distorting his brain waves. Korchnoi then hired his own psychics to counteract the negative vibrations. During the match, Korchnoi also accused Karpov of cheating by receiving different flavors of yogurt during the game. The different flavors were part of coded instructions that Karpov followed. The arbiter treated the accusation seriously and imposed a fixed time of sending yogurt to Karpov. The flavors had to be in writing from Karpov to the arbiter. In 1980, a chess computer was used for the first time to clandestinely help a human player during a game. It occurred in Hamburg, Germany. German grandmaster Helmut Pfleger was giving a simultaneous exhibition at the Hamburg chess festival. One of the players who was playing in the simul hid a radio receiver on himself while he received moves from BELLE. As soon as Pfleger mad a move, the move was immediately relayed by phone to Ken Thompson, who entered it into the computer BELLE. When Pfleger approached the board again, a move was dictated by radio transmission to the player’s earphone. The computer won in 68 moves. It was Pfleger’s only loss. The game was not strictly an example of cheating. It was an experiment in which the deception was immediately revealed. Immediately after the game, Pfleger was asked if he noticed anything unusual in the games. He had not. He was then told that one of the games was played by a machine, surprising Pfleger. He was amazed to hear that it was the game he lost. In 1981, at the Lone Pine tournament in California, Sammy Reshevsky offered a draw to John Fedorowicz. After letting his time tick down, Fedorowicz accepted. Reshevsky then denied he made the offer. There were several witnesses to Reshevsky’s offers, but the tournament director, Isaac Kashdan, eliminated all the witnesses, saying they were all Fedorowicz’s friends, and upheld Reshevsky’s fabrication. However, the game was resumed with Fedorowicz almost out of time and Reshevsky lost! In 1983, Anna Akhsharumova was playing the final round of the Soviet Women’s Chess championship against her main competitor, Nana Ioseliani. Anna won the game on time forfeit and should have won the title. But the next day, Ioseliani filed a protest alleging a malfunction in the chess clock. Ioseliani demanded a new game be played. Anna refused to play, so the result of her game with Ioseliani was reversed by the All-Union Board of Referees in Moscow (the tournament itself was being played in Tallinn), thereby forfeiting her title. Anna went from 1st place to 3rd place over this decision. In 1985, Nick Down, a former British Junior Correspondence champion, entered the British Ladies Correspondence Championship as Miss Leigh Strange and won the event (and 15 British pounds along with the Lady Herbert trophy). He then signed up to represent Britain in the Ladies Postal Olympiad. He was later caught when one of his friends mouthed off about it and Nick confessed. The whole thing had been cooked up by Nick Down and a group of undergraduates at Cambridge, where Nick was a student. Nick returned the Lady Herbert trophy and was banned from the British Correspondence Chess Association for two years. In 1986, at the New York Open, Pal Benko was playing Hungarian Grandmaster Gyula Sax in the final round. If Benko won, he would have earned $12,000. If Benko drew, he would only get $3,000. Sax offered Benko a draw at a critical position. Benko turned it down, blundered in time pressure, and lost. He got nothing. In 1988, undercover police arrested a chess player at a park in New York City after he won a marked $5 bill against a cop posing as a construction worker during a blitz game. The chess player was jailed for 3 days, his medication was confiscated, and he had a heart attack. The arrest was finally tossed out by a judge. Five years later, the city settled the wrongful arrest lawsuit out of court for $100,000. In 1989, the police raided a chess a chess tournament in Los Angeles. The L.A.P.D. vice officers raided a nightly chess tournament held at Dad’s Donuts. They cited three men for gambling after finding $1.50 on the table. The police staged the raid after an undercover detective tried unsuccessfully to join a blitz chess game. The detective then pulled out his badge and said “all of you are under arrest,” as the L.A.P.D. swooped in. In 1992, Grandmaster and former world junior champion Pablo Zarnicki of Argentina was disqualified from a Dos Hermanas Internet Chess Club tournament, accused of cheating by using a computer, which he denied. In 1993, an unrated black player named John von Neumann was playing at the World Open in Philadelphia and scored 4/5 out of 9 in the Open section, including a draw with a grandmaster (Helgi Olafsson) and a win against a 2350-rated player. He wore a large pair of headphones and seemed to have something in his pocket that buzzed at critical points of the game. When quizzed by Bill Goichberg, the tournament director, von Neumann was unable to demonstrate very much knowledge about simple chess concepts, and was disqualified and received no prize money. It appeared he was using a strong chess computer to cheat and play his games. It was alleged that he was entering moves on a communication device whose signal was being sent up to a hotel room where an accomplice was operating a chess computer. Von Neumann has never been seen or heard from since. John von Neumann is the same name as the noted mathematician and pioneer in artificial intelligence. In 1994, at Linares, Spain, Garry Kasparov made a move against Judit Polgar, momentarily letting go of the piece (in violation of the “touch move” rule), then made a move to another square once he realized his original move was a blunder. Kasparov went on to win the game. Judit Polgar waited a day before issuing her complaint instead of during the game. A videotape of the incident proved that Kasparov did let go of the piece. In 1996, Claude Bloodgood, at the age of 71, became the 9th highest ranked chess player in the United States, by playing 1,700 rated games against other inmates. He was an inmate in a Virginia prison and just strong enough to beat other inmates, but was not a strong master. He built up a high numerical rating by organizing chess tournaments and matches in prison, and consistently beat the other weaker players. His rating highlighted flaws in the U.S. Chess Federation (USCF) grading system. From 1993 to 1999, he played 3,174 rated games in prison, almost always winning. In 1997, Kasparov lost to Deep Blue. Kasparov later claimed that the team of chess players assembled by IBM had intervened in move selections that they were not computer selections because the moves were too human. In 2001, Grandmaster Alexandru Crisan was accused of faking his Elo rating of 2635 (number 33 in the world) by fixing chess matches for his own benefit and falsifying chess tournament results. In 2002, at the World Open in Philadelphia, a Russian player was caught going outside and getting advice from another player. His opponent followed the Russian player outside and caught him speaking in Russian to the same man intently watching the game. They had been discussing the last move of the game, which was heard by 30-40 onlookers. The Russian then said he would forfeit the game. In 2003, at the Lampertsheim Open, a player was caught with a handheld PC which displayed a running chess program. The player often left the tournament room for protracted periods of time to go to the bathroom. The tournament director caught him when he entered a neighboring stall, stood on the toilet bowl and looked over the dividing wall, where he observed the player using a stylus to operate the program. In 2003, former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov lost a game when his cell phone rang during the European team championship. He lost his game to Evgeny Agrest (who lost a game in 2004 when his cell phone rang) in his Ukrainian team match versus Sweden. Ponomariov was the first player penalized under this rule at a major event. In 2004, Grandmaster Arkadi Naiditsch admitted cheating by using a computer in an Internet tournament, claiming that everyone else was doing it. In 2004, top seed Christine Castellano was playing in the Philippine Women’s National Chess Championship when her cell phone rang. She was disqualified from the event.