Chess Trivia

Chess Trivia Manuel Aaron (born in 1935) is India’s first International Master, in 1961. He won the championship of India 9 times. Viswanathan Anand is India’s first Grandmaster, in 1987. There are now 26 Indian Grandmasters, 12 Women Grandmasters and 68 Indian International Masters and 17 Women International Masters. In 1995, Robert Smeltzer (born in 1930) of Dallas played the most USCF games in one year – 2,266 games. Michael Adams (born in 1971) is the youngest player to win the British Chess Championship at 17. His wife is a British actress. Bobby Fischer was the youngest player to win the US Chess Championship at 14 in 1957-58. Hikaru Nakamura was the 2nd youngest player to win the US Chess Championship at 16 in 2004. Utat Adianto (born in 1965) was the first Indonesian Grandmaster, in 1986. He became a GM at age 21. The youngest Indonesian GM is Susanto Megaranto, who became a GM at age 17. Simen Agdestein (born in 1967) was Norway’s first Grandmaster, in 1985. He won the championship of Norway 7 times. He was Norwegian champion at 15, International Master at 16, and GM at 18. He was once a professional soccer player. He was an early coach of Magnus Carlsen, the world’s highest rated player. In 1967, Bent Larsen (1935-2010) won the first chess Oscar informally. In 1968, it was formally won by Spassky. Kasparov has won the chess Oscar the most, 11 times. In 1920, Alexander Alekhine won the first Soviet Chess Championship. There have been 58 Soviet championships from 1920 to 1991. Botvinnik and Tal have each won it 6 times. The first Russian Chess Federation formed in 1914. It had 865 members. It was first called the All-Russia Chess Union, then renamed the All-Russia Chess Society. Chess was first mentioned in America in 1641 in a book called “Dutch New York” by Esther Singleton. It described that “cards, chess, backgammon, dice-throwing, were among the pleasures of the age” of the Dutch in New York. In 1786, Benjamin Franklin published the first chess writing in America with his “The Morals of Chess,” first drafted in 1732 for his Philadelphia Junto discussions and his own newspaper. In his essay, he attributed chess being introduced into America by the Spaniards. In 1839, the New York Chess Club was formed by James Thompson. The first American chess tournament may have been held in 1843 in New York. In 1857, Paul Morphy won the first American Chess Congress. It was the only tournament he ever won. Adolf Anderssen (1818-1879) won the first international chess tournament in London in 1851. He didn’t have the money for the travel costs, so Howard Staunton offered to pay for Anderssen’s travel expenses out of his own pocket. Anderssen accepted, won the tournament, and paid Staunton back for his travel expenses. Maurice Ashley (born 1966) of New York (born in Jamaica) was the first Black grandmaster, in 1999. He once appeared on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? Jonathan Penrose (born in 1933) has won the British chess championship the most. He won it 10 times between 1958 and 1969. He was given the GM title, although he was strong enough, but he became a GM in Correspondence chess in 1983. Wolfgang von Kempelen’s (1734-1804) “The Turk” was the first chess automaton, in 1769. It was destroyed by fire in 1854. It defeated Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. Baden-Baden 1870 was the first strong international tournament. It was the first tournament to introduce chess clocks. It was the first tournament that draws counted as ½ points. Adolf Anderssen won the event. BELLE was the first computer built for the sole purpose of playing chess. In 1980, it won the world computer chess championship. In 1983, BELLE became the first computer to be awarded the title of US Chess Master. Caissa is the goddess or muse (dryad or tree nymph) of chess, from a poem by Hieronymus Vida in 1527. In 1763, Sir William Jones re-used Vida’s character Caissa in his own poem, written in Latin, and later published in English. St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) is the patron saint of chess. In the 16th century, she was proclaimed patroness of chess players by the church authorities in Spain. She used chess as a metaphor in her classic work “the Way of Perfection.” The longest running annual match in chess is the annual Cambridge vs. Oxford match, starting in 1873. As of 2012, there have been 130 matches between the two. Cambridge has won 57, Oxford has won 53, with 20 draws. The World Chess Federation (FIDE) estimates that there are over 600 million chess players in the world, with a potential global audience of 1 billion chess players. In 1977 Larry Christiansen became a Grandmaster without ever being an International Master. The first chess club was organized in Italy in 1550. The first newspaper column was published in 1813 in the Liverpool Mercury. The first computer program to play a proper game of chess was in 1959, at MIT. KAISSA of the USSR won the first world computer championship, held in Stockholm in 1974. Nathaniel Cook and John Jacques designed the first Staunton pattern chess set in 1835. In 1981 Cray Blitz won the first state championship, when it won the championship of Mississippi. Arthur Dake (1910-2000) was the oldest competitive grandmaster, still playing in his late 80s. Cecil de Vere was the first official British chess champion, in 1866. Charles Stanley was the first US chess champion, in 1845. He defeated Eugene Rousseau. FIDE, the World Chess Federation, was founded in 1924 by Pierre Vincent of France. Alexandre Rueb was the first FIDE president. He was president from 1924 to 1949. The record for the most games played simultaneously blindfolded in 52 games, by Janos Flesch in 1960. The Fredkin Prize was a $100,000 prize for the first computer to beat a reigning world champion. The inventors (Hsu, Campbell, and Hoane) of Deep Blue won the Fredkin Prize in 1997. In 1978, Nona Gaprindashvili was the first woman to achieve the men’s grandmaster title. In 1977, Nona Gaprindashvili tied for 1st place at Lone Pine. In 1914 the Russian Czar gave the title of grandmaster to Lasker, Alekhine, Capablanca, Tarrasch, and Marshall. Gisela Gresser (1906-2000) was the first U.S. woman to achieve a master’s rating. The first major tournament after WW II was Groningen, in 1946. It was won by Botvinnik. Boris Gulko won the USSR championship in 1977 and the US championship in 1994 and 1999. In 1963, Walter Harris became the first African-American master. Hasting is the oldest and longest running tournament in the world. It was first held in 1895. In 1981, Rea Hayes won the first US Senior Open, held in Sun City, Arizona. Hermann Helms (1870-1963) was the first Dean of American Chess. Iceland has the highest per capita chess population in the world. Borislav Ivkov of Yugoslavia won the first World Junior Chess Championship, held in England in 1951. Anatoly Karpov has won more chess tournaments (over 160 tournaments) than any other person. Raymond Keene was the first British player to achieve a FIDE Grandmaster norm in over-the-board chess. In 1947, George Koltanowski introduced the Swiss System at the 1947 US Open in Corpus Christi, Texas. In 1982, Vasily Smyslov qualified for the Candidates match by taking 2nd at the Palma Interzonal at age 61. In 1976 Tony Miles became the first British Grandmaster in OTB play. The USCF formed in 1939 from the merger of the American Chess Federation and the National Chess Federation. Geller, Tal, and Janosevic have all defeated Fischer more times than they have lost to him. Edward Lasker won Paris in 1912, London in 1914, New York in 1915, and Chicago in 1916. Le Palamede was the first magazine devoted entirely to chess. It ran from 1836 to 1839, then 1842 to 1847. Vladimir Liberzon was the first grandmaster to immigrate to Israel, in 1973. The Liverpool Mercury was the first English newspaper to publish a chess column, in 1813. Bill Lombardy was the first American to win an official world chess championship, the World Junior Ch in 1957. Johann Lowenthall invented the demonstration chess board in 1857. The Manchester Chess Club was the oldest chess club in Britain, formed in 1817. Sergio Mariotti was the first Italian Grandmaster, who gained his title in 1974. Frank Marshall was the first American to defeat a Soviet player in international competition, New York 1924. Edgar McCormick played in more US Opens than any other player, playing in 37 US Opens. The New York State Championship is America’s longest running tournament, which began in 1878. Alberic O’Kelly de Galway became the first GM of OTB and correspondence chess. Oxford was the first university to have a chess club. Bulgaria issued the first chess stamp, in 1947, on the occasion of the Balkan games. In 1845, Dr. Peter Mark Roget (Roget’s Thesaurus) devised the first pocket chess set. Judith Price was the oldest person to win a national championship when she won the British Ladies Ch at age 76. Cecil Purdy won the first world correspondence chess championship (1950-1953). The 1945 USA-USSR Radio Chess Match was the first international sports event after World War II. The first international rating list appeared in 1969. Fischer topped the list at 2720. Keith Richardson was the 1st British player to be awarded the Grandmaster title, for Correspondence Chess, in 1975. Alexander Rueb was the first president of FIDE. He was president from 1924 to 1949. The first Interzonal tournament was held in Saltsjobaden, Sweden in 1958 and won by David Bronstein. Lothar Schmid has the largest private chess library in the world with over 30,000 chess books and magazines. Yassar Seirawan was the first American to beat a reigning world champion when he beat Karpov in 1982. Nigel Short was the youngest to qualify for the British Championship, at age 11. Jackson Showalter was the first official US Chess Champion, in 1890. George Sturgis was the first President of the US Chess Federation, in 1939. The first telegraph match was played in 1844, between Washington DC and Baltimore. The first telephone chess game was played in 1878, between two players is Derbyshire, England. –Bill Wall Be Sociable, Share!

Chess Trivia

Chess Trivia Manuel Aaron (born in 1935) is India’s first International Master, in 1961. He won the championship of India 9 times. Viswanathan Anand is India’s first Grandmaster, in 1987. There are now 26 Indian Grandmasters, 12 Women Grandmasters and 68 Indian International Masters and 17 Women International Masters. In 1995, Robert Smeltzer (born in 1930) of Dallas played the most USCF games in one year – 2,266 games. Michael Adams (born in 1971) is the youngest player to win the British Chess Championship at 17. His wife is a British actress. Bobby Fischer was the youngest player to win the US Chess Championship at 14 in 1957-58. Hikaru Nakamura was the 2nd youngest player to win the US Chess Championship at 16 in 2004. Utat Adianto (born in 1965) was the first Indonesian Grandmaster, in 1986. He became a GM at age 21. The youngest Indonesian GM is Susanto Megaranto, who became a GM at age 17. Simen Agdestein (born in 1967) was Norway’s first Grandmaster, in 1985. He won the championship of Norway 7 times. He was Norwegian champion at 15, International Master at 16, and GM at 18. He was once a professional soccer player. He was an early coach of Magnus Carlsen, the world’s highest rated player. In 1967, Bent Larsen (1935-2010) won the first chess Oscar informally. In 1968, it was formally won by Spassky. Kasparov has won the chess Oscar the most, 11 times. In 1920, Alexander Alekhine won the first Soviet Chess Championship. There have been 58 Soviet championships from 1920 to 1991. Botvinnik and Tal have each won it 6 times. The first Russian Chess Federation formed in 1914. It had 865 members. It was first called the All-Russia Chess Union, then renamed the All-Russia Chess Society. Chess was first mentioned in America in 1641 in a book called “Dutch New York” by Esther Singleton. It described that “cards, chess, backgammon, dice-throwing, were among the pleasures of the age” of the Dutch in New York. In 1786, Benjamin Franklin published the first chess writing in America with his “The Morals of Chess,” first drafted in 1732 for his Philadelphia Junto discussions and his own newspaper. In his essay, he attributed chess being introduced into America by the Spaniards. In 1839, the New York Chess Club was formed by James Thompson. The first American chess tournament may have been held in 1843 in New York. In 1857, Paul Morphy won the first American Chess Congress. It was the only tournament he ever won. Adolf Anderssen (1818-1879) won the first international chess tournament in London in 1851. He didn’t have the money for the travel costs, so Howard Staunton offered to pay for Anderssen’s travel expenses out of his own pocket. Anderssen accepted, won the tournament, and paid Staunton back for his travel expenses. Maurice Ashley (born 1966) of New York (born in Jamaica) was the first Black grandmaster, in 1999. He once appeared on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? Jonathan Penrose (born in 1933) has won the British chess championship the most. He won it 10 times between 1958 and 1969. He was given the GM title, although he was strong enough, but he became a GM in Correspondence chess in 1983. Wolfgang von Kempelen’s (1734-1804) “The Turk” was the first chess automaton, in 1769. It was destroyed by fire in 1854. It defeated Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. Baden-Baden 1870 was the first strong international tournament. It was the first tournament to introduce chess clocks. It was the first tournament that draws counted as ½ points. Adolf Anderssen won the event. BELLE was the first computer built for the sole purpose of playing chess. In 1980, it won the world computer chess championship. In 1983, BELLE became the first computer to be awarded the title of US Chess Master. Caissa is the goddess or muse (dryad or tree nymph) of chess, from a poem by Hieronymus Vida in 1527. In 1763, Sir William Jones re-used Vida’s character Caissa in his own poem, written in Latin, and later published in English. St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) is the patron saint of chess. In the 16th century, she was proclaimed patroness of chess players by the church authorities in Spain. She used chess as a metaphor in her classic work “the Way of Perfection.” The longest running annual match in chess is the annual Cambridge vs. Oxford match, starting in 1873. As of 2012, there have been 130 matches between the two. Cambridge has won 57, Oxford has won 53, with 20 draws. The World Chess Federation (FIDE) estimates that there are over 600 million chess players in the world, with a potential global audience of 1 billion chess players. In 1977 Larry Christiansen became a Grandmaster without ever being an International Master. The first chess club was organized in Italy in 1550. The first newspaper column was published in 1813 in the Liverpool Mercury. The first computer program to play a proper game of chess was in 1959, at MIT. KAISSA of the USSR won the first world computer championship, held in Stockholm in 1974. Nathaniel Cook and John Jacques designed the first Staunton pattern chess set in 1835. In 1981 Cray Blitz won the first state championship, when it won the championship of Mississippi. Arthur Dake (1910-2000) was the oldest competitive grandmaster, still playing in his late 80s. Cecil de Vere was the first official British chess champion, in 1866. Charles Stanley was the first US chess champion, in 1845. He defeated Eugene Rousseau. FIDE, the World Chess Federation, was founded in 1924 by Pierre Vincent of France. Alexandre Rueb was the first FIDE president. He was president from 1924 to 1949. The record for the most games played simultaneously blindfolded in 52 games, by Janos Flesch in 1960. The Fredkin Prize was a $100,000 prize for the first computer to beat a reigning world champion. The inventors (Hsu, Campbell, and Hoane) of Deep Blue won the Fredkin Prize in 1997. In 1978, Nona Gaprindashvili was the first woman to achieve the men’s grandmaster title. In 1977, Nona Gaprindashvili tied for 1st place at Lone Pine. In 1914 the Russian Czar gave the title of grandmaster to Lasker, Alekhine, Capablanca, Tarrasch, and Marshall. Gisela Gresser (1906-2000) was the first U.S. woman to achieve a master’s rating. The first major tournament after WW II was Groningen, in 1946. It was won by Botvinnik. Boris Gulko won the USSR championship in 1977 and the US championship in 1994 and 1999. In 1963, Walter Harris became the first African-American master. Hasting is the oldest and longest running tournament in the world. It was first held in 1895. In 1981, Rea Hayes won the first US Senior Open, held in Sun City, Arizona. Hermann Helms (1870-1963) was the first Dean of American Chess. Iceland has the highest per capita chess population in the world. Borislav Ivkov of Yugoslavia won the first World Junior Chess Championship, held in England in 1951. Anatoly Karpov has won more chess tournaments (over 160 tournaments) than any other person. Raymond Keene was the first British player to achieve a FIDE Grandmaster norm in over-the-board chess. In 1947, George Koltanowski introduced the Swiss System at the 1947 US Open in Corpus Christi, Texas. In 1982, Vasily Smyslov qualified for the Candidates match by taking 2nd at the Palma Interzonal at age 61. In 1976 Tony Miles became the first British Grandmaster in OTB play. The USCF formed in 1939 from the merger of the American Chess Federation and the National Chess Federation. Geller, Tal, and Janosevic have all defeated Fischer more times than they have lost to him. Edward Lasker won Paris in 1912, London in 1914, New York in 1915, and Chicago in 1916. Le Palamede was the first magazine devoted entirely to chess. It ran from 1836 to 1839, then 1842 to 1847. Vladimir Liberzon was the first grandmaster to immigrate to Israel, in 1973. The Liverpool Mercury was the first English newspaper to publish a chess column, in 1813. Bill Lombardy was the first American to win an official world chess championship, the World Junior Ch in 1957. Johann Lowenthall invented the demonstration chess board in 1857. The Manchester Chess Club was the oldest chess club in Britain, formed in 1817. Sergio Mariotti was the first Italian Grandmaster, who gained his title in 1974. Frank Marshall was the first American to defeat a Soviet player in international competition, New York 1924. Edgar McCormick played in more US Opens than any other player, playing in 37 US Opens. The New York State Championship is America’s longest running tournament, which began in 1878. Alberic O’Kelly de Galway became the first GM of OTB and correspondence chess. Oxford was the first university to have a chess club. Bulgaria issued the first chess stamp, in 1947, on the occasion of the Balkan games. In 1845, Dr. Peter Mark Roget (Roget’s Thesaurus) devised the first pocket chess set. Judith Price was the oldest person to win a national championship when she won the British Ladies Ch at age 76. Cecil Purdy won the first world correspondence chess championship (1950-1953). The 1945 USA-USSR Radio Chess Match was the first international sports event after World War II. The first international rating list appeared in 1969. Fischer topped the list at 2720. Keith Richardson was the 1st British player to be awarded the Grandmaster title, for Correspondence Chess, in 1975. Alexander Rueb was the first president of FIDE. He was president from 1924 to 1949. The first Interzonal tournament was held in Saltsjobaden, Sweden in 1958 and won by David Bronstein. Lothar Schmid has the largest private chess library in the world with over 30,000 chess books and magazines. Yassar Seirawan was the first American to beat a reigning world champion when he beat Karpov in 1982. Nigel Short was the youngest to qualify for the British Championship, at age 11. Jackson Showalter was the first official US Chess Champion, in 1890. George Sturgis was the first President of the US Chess Federation, in 1939. The first telegraph match was played in 1844, between Washington DC and Baltimore. The first telephone chess game was played in 1878, between two players is Derbyshire, England. –Bill Wall Be Sociable, Share!

Chess Addict

Addicted to Chess You are addicted to chess if: • you bump into someone or something and say “J’adoube.” And you don’t even know French. • you set up a chess set with salt and pepper shakers and food items when you sit at a checkered tablecloth. • you calculate 8×8 faster than 7×7. • navigate like a knight on the sidewalk – one block up and two blocks over. • you have more chess clocks than watches or normal clocks. • you use the chess clock as a kitchen timer. • you buy the biggest, fastest, most expensive computer and monitor just to play blitz chess. • mate, mating positions, exposed bishops, and forking the queen have nothing to do with sex. • you take a chess set and chess book to the bathroom, and forget to go to the bathroom. And if you do go, you count all 32 pieces on your magnetic chessboard before flushing and panic if you flushed, then discover a piece missing. • you meet someone, your first question is, “What’s your rating?” • every week you downloaded every game from The Week in Chess • you buy a newspaper only if it has a chess column in it. • you still think Bobby Fischer alive and well • you have more chess books than any other book or magazine combined. • the Olympics has always been every two years. • you spot the chessboard set up wrong in every movie with a chess scene. • you name any of your pets Fischer, Tal, Karpov, Kasparov, Fritz, Chess (not Checkers) or Alekhine. • your favorite movie is “Searching for Bobby Fischer” or “Knight Moves.” • you have checkered underwear with “It’s your move” on the front. • your spouse has a t-shirt that says “Fool’s Mate.” • have a crush on Irina Krush. • your favorite snack is Pepperidge Farm’s Chessmen cookies and chess pie. • you have the “Chessplayers make better mates” bumper sticker on your car. • you know what BCO, ECO, MCO, NCO, PCO, UCO all mean and have all these books. • you ask an attractive (or any) girl if she plays chess and what her rating is before you ask her out for a date. And if it didn’t work out, you explain the two of you were “like bishops of opposite color.” • you end your letters and email with “P.S. 1.e4″ hoping to start a game. • you take a test, and 5 minutes before you run out of time, you mentally tell yourself that your flag is about to fall on your analog clock, • you vacation in St Louis just to see the chess hall of fame. • you go to any Barnes & Noble in the world and know exactly where all the chess books are located. • when the cashier says, “Check?” you wink and say “mate.” • you have a chess logo on your letterhead or shirt. • you play cards blindfolded. • you use chessboard cufflinks and tie clips or have a chess-theme tie that you wear. • you only vote in USCF elections. • you have a coffee mug that has chess pieces on it. • you go to a chess tournament and can’t wait in saying “Look at those chess nuts boasting by an open foyer.” • you look for three other friends to play bug-house. • you have used any of these aliases while on the Internet: Buttvinik, Caissa, Gata, Bobby Fischer, Fritz 2000, IvanCheck, Polgar, Jadoube, Kapablanca, KnightStalker, KibitzandBlitz, KnightRider, Pawnographer, Philidork, Queenforker, Rookie Player, Roy Lopez, Topalove, TarraschCan, Zukertort, KillerMate, the Turk • you have played the ghost of Geza Maroczy or challenged God with pawn odds. • you own a Harry Potter or Civil War chess set. • you have played in over 100 chess tournaments all your life and have almost made $100 in return. But you still enter the next chess tournament. • you have played over 1,000 blitz games of chess online. • you stayed up all night playing blitz chess online, and was too tired to go to school or work the next day. • all of your browser bookmarks are chess servers and chess sites • when someone looks at your car and asks you what engine you got, you reply “Rybka or Fritz or Stockfish.” • when asked what other languages you can read, you say you are fluent in descriptive, algebraic, and figurine algebraic notation, with some knowledge in Forsythe. • you think chess is a sport. (Come on – if Stephen Hawking can do it, it’s not a sport). • you play blitz chess or blindfold chess with yourself. • when asked who your favorite composer is, you respond “Pal Benko or Alexei Trotsky, although Cheron and Cook were not bad.” • you have read all of this. And didn’t laugh! -Bill Wall (chess addict) Be Sociable, Share!

Chessplayer's Widow

I Am Just a Chessplayer’s Widow Chess is too boring for me. It’s too complicated. I have to shut up when I am playing chess and can’t gossip like I can when I am playing cards and other board games. That clock with the tick, tick, tick gets on my nerves. My husband’s chess friends are just too nerdy and smart for me. They may be geniuses at the chess table, but they all seem weird. They have no social graces. If I invite then over for lunch or dinner, they start playing chess with the salt and pepper shakers and bits of food on my checkerboard table cloth. I think I am clever and have Pepperidge chess cookies for snacks. But they all just chow down on them and never notice. In fact, they never notice anything I cook or that I spent all day preparing a good meal. I once put out dog biscuits in a snack bowl, and they ate that while playing blitz chess! And there are never any women chess players to socialize with. If a chess player is lucky enough to have a girl friend or wife, they are usually not invited to tournaments or chess clubs or chess socials. At least I don’t have to worry about my husband flirting at a chess tournament. There are no women there to flirt with. Occasionally, there might be oneor two, but they are too smart to engage on conversation with a male chess player. My husband can remember every chess game, every chess opponent, every chess tournament, every chess trivia, but he can’t remember to take out the trash on Tuesdays and Fridays. I have to do that. He forgot. He can remember a chess conversation, but he can’t remember me taking to him just a few minutes ago asking if he wants to go to the movies. And I don’t want to see Searching For Bobby Fischer or Knight Moves again.I want to go see Sleepless in Seattle and not some stupid movie about a crazy chess player. He only likes movies with chess scenes in it and tries to find mistakes with the chess scenes, like an illegal position or the board set up wrong (“White to the Right”). I want to be romantic. He wants to mate in other ways. I want flowers. He want chess books. My house is full of chess things. I hate dusting chess trophies and sets, picking up chess magazines from the floor, dropping a magnetic set and unable to find a lost piece, or putting chess books away on the book shelves where they belong. I put the chess books up anywhere, but my husband has to have all the books in order, by alphabetical order according to author. Who cares? I have nice guest rooms, and my husband has to use the space to store more chess books or chess sets. I like the Civil War chess set, but my husband thinks it is impractical and wants to display some nice Staunton set, or whatever it is called. And those chess trophies just have to be displayed. They are cheap. The fall apart. The plaque falls off and I have to glue it back on. And they are so hard to move around. And, of course, my husband wants to have a display case to display them. I would rather use my display case to show off my Gone With The Wind plate collection. I want $35 worth of flowers to display around the house. My husband wants a $35 new chess book from Amazon. And most of the famous chess players are boring or can’t speak English. The only exciting chess player was Bobby Fischer, and he no longer alive. And why did they arrest the guy for playing chess in the first place. They should have left him alone. Fischer was exciting and the women loved him. Now he is gone and we have to watch a boring Anand-Gelfand world championship match. Chess takes too long to play. Sure, you can speed it up with a chess clock, but that rushes me and makes me nervous. And I still can’t gossip, share recipes, talk about my favorite movies or TV shows, or take a break for a snack. If I talk, some rude person has to say “BE QUIET!” I want to slug him. It’s not like we are at the movies. I want to vacation to some exotic place like Hawaii or Rome, or a cruise in the Caribbean. My husband wants his vacation at the same time as the U.S. Chess Open or go visit the Chess Hall of Fame (boring!). I don’t want to be writing all those moves down. Who cares? That’s just another distraction. Let me move my horsey the way I want to move it. And what’s all these extra rules like en passant or castling but not if you moved your king or rook first, or moving into check, but not in check when you finished castling. Too many rules. And then if I lose, I have to be told where I went wrong and what defense I should have used. Who wants to hear that and be told every move was wrong? And if my husband does well in a chess tournament, he wants to show me the game and all the brilliant moves, or if he lost, what he could have done different to win the game. Who cares? Do you think I really am listening to all those variations and paying attention. I just smile and say, “Yes, dear.” My husband has too many chess books and magazines anyway. Sometimes I try to give them away to friends and relatives. I hope he doesn’t notice. When he is at a chess tournament and wants me to sell some chess books he has written, but can’t sell them himself because he is playing, it’s up to me to try and sell them. I usually give them away instead. If someone wants one of his chess books and are that desperate, I usually give them the book. I’ll even autograph it with his name to make it look important. Chess players never have any money anyway. Look at their clothes they wear. Chess tournaments are just too expensive to play in anyway. With hotel/motel costs and high entry fees, a chess player spends several hundred dollars to tie for 3rd-7th place and get $33.33. If I go to a chess tournament at a hotel, there better be a swimming pool, shopping, and lots of site-seeing to do before I tag along. The tournaments are so boring. It’s not like there is a Bobby Knight in basketball getting everyone excited. For once, I would like to see a chess player lose and throw his chair like in a basketball game. And you should be allowed to talk and root for the chess player of your choice. We should see cheerleaders yelling, “Push that Pawn. Push that Pawn.” Instead, I am told to shut up, be quiet, don’t make any noises, don’t disturb the players, don’t pose and take flash pictures with the players when a game is going on. Boring. My husband says if he dies first, he wants a headstone in the shape of a rook and some witty chess saying. Like that’s going to happen. He gets a plot (no chessboard) and an obituary that does not mention chess. He’s done other things. Physicist with a major in astrophysics. Electrical Engineer. Air Force officer for 25 years. Four years combat duty flying in Vietnam. Served in the Gulf War. Assigned to NASA. Worked on the Space Shuttle. Intelligence officer who has briefed the President and Secretary of Defense. Big shot computer security guy at a big company doing DoD, NASA, and NOAA security projects. Travels around the world for his company. Interviewed by all these technical magazines. Very good at tennis and tennis instructor to dozens of players. And all he wants to be remembered is for his chess. And he is not that good at it. No grandmaster or international master title. Not even a master any more. Not even an expert any more. As he gets older, he gets slower and slower. He should be spending more time with me and romancing me and checking me out, his mate. He wants me to play chess with him. I just don’t want to. Besides, if I started taking up chess, I might get good at it, and start beating him. Then he would have to give it up. His ego wouldn’t be able to take it. He would probably then turn to something even worse. Golf! I am just a poor, depressed chess widow. And my husband isn’t even dead yet! I am just a pawn forever, not even the Queen. – Lois Wall Be Sociable, Share!

Athletes who play ches

Athletes who play chess Former NBA basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1947- ) is a chess player. At the Bonnaroo music festival in 2011, he spent some time reading Chess Tactics for Champions by Susan Polgar. WNBA basketball star Svetlana Abrosimova (1980- ), who played for the Minnesota Lynx, Connecticut Sun, and Seattle Storm, is an avid chess player. Norwegian Grandmaster Simen Agdestein (1967- ) was once a professional soccer player and played for his national team. Former NFL running back Shaun Alexander (1977- )plays and promotes chess through the America Foundation for Chess (AF4C). His Shaun Alexander Foundation offers a $7,500 grant to inspire kids for educational excellence and career planning. He has given over $25,000 to AF4C for chess programs. Ossie Ardiles (1952- ) was one of the top soccer players in the world. He was a midfielder for Argentina when they won the 1978 World Cup. He describes himself as a chess fanatic who spends 10 hours a week studying chess. Former NFL linebacker LaVar Arrington (1978- ) is a chess addict. He has a whole room in his house devoted to chess and he occasionally mentions chess in his sports column in the Washington Post. Seve Ballesteros (1957-2011) was a Spanish professional golfer, former World No. 1 player (5-times golf major winner), and a chess player. He was described as a fine chess player. Former NBA player Dick Barnett (1936- ) was an avid chess player who played correspondence chess. Boris Becker (1967- ) was one of the greatest tennis players, winning at Wimbledon at age 17 and winning 6 grand slams of tennis. He played an exhibition match against Kasparov ”live” on CNN for one hour in 2000. Kasparov was in New York and Becker was in Munich. He once said that his experiences with chess influenced his playing style in tennis. In December 2011, he opened the London Chess Classic, making the ceremonial first move for Magnus Carlsen. He then played GM Nigel Short in a game. Former NBA star Larry Bird (1956- ) plays chess online, but I don’t think his favorite opening is 1.f4. Former baseball outfielder Barry Bonds (1964- ) is a chess player. Former Major League Baseball pitcher and author (Ball Four) Jim Bouton (1939- ) is a chess player. The boxer and former WBO heavyweight champion Shannon “the Cannon” Briggs (1971- ) used to hustle chess games in New York City parks. In 2010, before the WBO world championship challenge against fellow chess player and heavyweight boxer Vitali, Klitschko, both wanted to play each other in chess. Briggs told Klitschko, “Whether or not we fight, I want to play you in chess.” Former NFL running back Jim Brown (1936- ) is a chess player. He has collected several fine chess sets. The tennis doubles partners and twin brothers Bob and Mike Bryan (both born in 1978) are chess players. Mike Bryan has been quoted as saying “I have to play tennis like a chess game.” NBA star Kobe Bryant (1978- ) was quoted as saying “These young guys are playing checkers. I’m out there playing chess.” A 2009 basketball ad showed Kobe Bryant playing chess with LeBron James. Anson Carter (1974- ), retired professional hockey player, plays chess. He made the ceremonial first move in game 2 of the Kasparov –X3D Fritz match in New York in 2003. Former NBA basketball player and assistant coach Bill Cartwright (1957- ) plays chess. Basketball great Wilt Chamberlain (1936-1999) played chess. He once phoned Bobby Fischer to come over his house to have dinner and play chess, but Bobby declined the invitation because there would be other people there. There are several photos of Wilt playing chess during his college days. Former Cincinnati Bengal wide receiver Cris Collinsworth plays chess and has sponsored scholastic chess tournaments as part of his Cris Collinsworth ProScan Fund. Retired tennis player Elena Dementieva, once ranked No. 3 in the world, plays chess. She used to play chess in the players’ lounge with her brother or any other chess player. He has played and lost chess to Max Mirnyi, a fellow tennis professional. Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale (1936-1993) was a chess player. Tennis great Roger Federer plays chess. In his early days, he would lose a game to his father and knock all the pieces off the board. Yankee pitching star Ron Guidry (highest lifetime winning percentages in major league baseball) plays chess and appeared on the cover of the September 1983 issue of Chess Life, making a pitch for chess. In the 1980s Guidry was playing a game of chess with Bruce Pandolfini when Billy Martin came by, telling Pandolfini that the Yankee locker room was no place to play chess. Guidry once beat Pandolfini. Former NFL running back Priest Holmes is an avid chess player who has founded and sponsored chess clubs. He sponsors chess tournaments through his Priest Holmes Foundation, encouraging education and enhancing the lives of children. When he retired from football, he said he enjoyed three things – playing chess, bass fishing, and riding motorcycles. Former Eagles and Bengals linebacker Dhani Jones plays chess. Boxing champion Vitali Klitschko is an avid chess player and a friend of GM Vladimir Kramnik. Tennis great Ivan Lendl plays chess. His father, Jiri Lendl, was a chess master, Czech junior champion and played in the Czechoslovakian chess championship. Heavyweight boxer and ex-world champion Lennox Lewis plays chess. He urges kids to take up chess, saying “If you teach a kid chess, you tech him to sit down and think.” He funded an after-school chess program for disadvantaged youths, one of whom earned a university chess scholarship. German soccer coach Felix Magath is a strong chess player. Professional basketball coach Jim O’Brien has been a longtime chess player. NBA center David Robinson is a chess player. He played chess at the Naval Academy where he graduated, before going to the San Antonio Spurs. Former tennis professional Greg Rusedski is an avid chess player. He was at the opening ceremony of the Braingames World Chess Championships between Kasparov and Karpov at London in 2000. NBA player Bill Walton plays chess. –Bill Wall Be Sociable, Share! inShare 2 Comments

Tie Breaks

Chess Tiebreaks So far, the world championship match between Anand and Gelfand is tied with one win each and nine draws. The final game is on May 28. Anand has white. If the game is drawn, the players go into a series of tiebreaks consisting of rapids, blitz, and an Armageddon game. The first tiebreak system is a series of four rapid chess games. Colors will be drawn to see who has White first. The time control is 25 minutes for the whole game plus 10 seconds per move. If the score is still tied, colors will be drawn and two blitz games will be played at 5 minutes each, with 10 seconds increment per move. This will be the first blitz match. If the score is still tied, two more blitz games will be played. This will be the second blitz match. If the score it still tied, two more blitz games will be played again. This will be the third blitz match. If the score it still tied, two more blitz games will be played again. This will be the fourth blitz match. If the score it still tied, two more blitz games will be played again. This will be the fifth and final blitz match. If the match is still tied after 12 regular games, 1 rapids match of four games, and 5 blitz matches of 10 games total, then they will play a single sudden-death “Armageddon game” to determine the world chess championship. The players will draw to see who gets to choose the color to play. The player with the White pieces will be given 5 minutes and the player with the Black pieces will be given 4 minutes. Beginning with move 61, a three-second increment will be added following each move. White must win. If the game is drawn, then the player with the Black pieces will be declared world chess champion. In 1983, a roulette ball dropping into a red slot of the wheel gave Vasily Smyslov of the Soviet Union his victory in his quarterfinal world championship candidates match with Robert Huebner of West Germany. This match took place in the casino at Velden, Austria. The ball landed on zero at the first spin, but at the second turn dropped into the color Smyslov had called. Thus, Huebner was out and Smyslov advanced to the semifinal round. In Swiss tournaments, there are a variety of tiebreak methods. In the Cumulative (Progress) tiebreak system, you sum up the running score for each round. A win is one point, a draw is ½ point, and a loss is 0 points. So a win, loss, win, win, and draw will have a round-by-round score of 1, 1, 2, 3, 3.5. The sum of these numbers is 10.5. A player with the same score, but with a loss, draw, win, win, win has a round-by-round score of 0, 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, 3.5. The sum is 8. The system places more weight on games won in the early rounds rather than the later rounds. The rationale for this system is that a player who scored well early in the tournament has most likely faced tougher opponents in later rounds and should therefore be favored over a player who scored poorly in the start before subsequently scoring points against weaker opponents. Another tiebreak method, the cumulative opponent’s score, sums the cumulative scores of the player’s opponents. In the Kashdan system, the player is awarded four points for a win, two points for a draw, one point for a loss, and none for an unplayed game. As a result, if players with no unplayed games tie, the one with fewer draws finishes higher on the tie-break (i.e., a win and a loss is better than two draws) In the Median system (also known as Harkness system), for each player, you sum the number of points earned by the player’s opponents, but discard the highest and lowest. For nine or more rounds, the top two and bottom two scores are discarded. An unplayed game by the opponent is counted as ½ point. An unplayed game by the player is counted as 0 points. A Modified Median system discards the lowest-scoring opponent’s score for players with more than 50% score. Players with exactly 50% score are handled as in the regular Median system. Players with less than 50% score discards the highest-scoring opponent’s core. In the Solkoff (Buchholz) system, for each player, you sum the number of points earned by the player’s opponents. It is like the Median system, but no scores are discarded. In the Sonneborn-Berger system (also known as the Neustadtl system), add the scores of every opponent the player defeated and half of the score of every opponent the player drew. No scores are added if the player lost. This system is the most popular in round-robin tournaments where everybody plays everybody. In some tiebreak methods, if the tied players played each other, if one of them won, then he/she finished higher on the tie-break. In some tiebreak methods, the player with the most black pieces finishes higher on the tie-breaks. In some tiebreak methods, the average performance rating of the players’ opponents are used. In some tiebreak methods, the average rating of the player’s opponents are used. The United States Chess Federation prefers the Modified Median tiebreak, followed by the Solkoff system, then the Cumulative system, then the Cumulative opponent’s score system. –Bill Wall Be Sociable, Share! inShare 1

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