ANU Chess Club member Andrey Bliznyuk steered me in the direction of an alternative, and interesting, chess news source. Chess-news.ru is a Russian website that covers the latest in world chess. Now most of the site is in Russian, which makes it difficult for me to read, but they do have an English translation for most of their news stories. Apparently not all the stories get translated, but looking through the archives, a lot of important ones do. Probably the most important feature of the site is the interviews carried out, and published. Whether it is a language issue, but they seem to be a little more in depth (with the Eastern European players at least), than the ones I have normally seen. Of course the tendency is towards to more sensational aspects of chess (including the ever present personal conflicts), but I guess this is what drives traffic in their direction.
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
Oldest Chess Program
Putting my mind to things long ago (well 30 years or so), I'm trying to remember the earliest chess playing program I ever saw. It may have been a version of Sargon on a TRS-80 on display on a Tandy store (possibly at North Rocks Westfield around 1979), or it may have been the chess program you could get for the Microbee in the early 80's. Moving forward a few years, I do remember having a copy of Chessmaster 2000 and Battlechess, although as a serious player I had a preference for Zarkov. I even had a copy of Fritz 1 at one stage, but I can no longer find it. I even thought of writing my own on my Microbee, but as the only programming language I had acces to was BASIC, this proved impractical.
Monday, 29 August 2011
Zhao out in 2
The 2011 World Cup started yesterday, and already some players are ready to return home. Unfortunately one of this players is Australian GM Zong Yuan Zhao, who lost 2-0 to Evgeny Tomashevsky. In both games Tomashevsky sacrificed a pawn in the opening (Game 1 Catalan, Game 2 Marshall), but then generated enough play to make up for the shortfall.
Another player who is also leaving after Round 1 is Peter Leko, who lost 1.5-0.5 to Samuel Shankland of the US. As I write this there are still games in progress, and matches that end 1-1 will go into the rapidplay phase tomorrow. You can follow the action at chess.ugrasport.com
Zhao, Zong Yuan - Tomashevsky, Evgeny
2011 World Cup
Another player who is also leaving after Round 1 is Peter Leko, who lost 1.5-0.5 to Samuel Shankland of the US. As I write this there are still games in progress, and matches that end 1-1 will go into the rapidplay phase tomorrow. You can follow the action at chess.ugrasport.com
Zhao, Zong Yuan - Tomashevsky, Evgeny
2011 World Cup
Sunday, 28 August 2011
John Purdy passes away
Justice John Purdy, former Australian Champion, has passed away at the age of 75. Purdy was the son of Cecil Purdy, and won the Australian Championship in 1955 and 1963. He also won the Australian Junior Championship in 1951, and was the winner of the very first Doeberl Cup in 1963. Unlike his father, John chose a career other than chess, and went into law. He eventually became a judge in the Family Court of Australia, retiring in 2005.
Here is a game between father and son from the 1960 Australian Championship.
Purdy,Cecil John Seddon - Purdy,John Spencer [E74]
AUS ch Adelaide (12), 19.10.1960
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 0-0 7.Be2 c5 8.d5 Qa5 9.f3 e6 10.a4 Na6 11.g4 Re8 12.Kf1 exd5 13.cxd5 Nb4 14.Bg3 Rd8 15.h4 Ne8 16.Nh3 a6 17.Qc1 Bd7 18.Bf4 Kh7 19.h5 g5 (D)
20.Bxg5 hxg5 21.Nxg5+ Kg8 22.h6 Bh8 23.Qf4 f6 24.h7+ Kf8 25.Ne6+ Bxe6 26.Qh6+ Ke7 27.dxe6 Kxe6 28.Bc4+ Kd7 29.Rd1 Kc7 30.Qf8 Ng7 31.Qxf6 Rd7 32.e5 Re8 33.exd6+ Kb8 34.Qg6 Nc6 35.Bd5 Ne5 36.Qh6 Qb4 37.Be4 Qxb2 38.Nd5 Nxg4 39.Qf4 Qf2# 0-1
Here is a game between father and son from the 1960 Australian Championship.
Purdy,Cecil John Seddon - Purdy,John Spencer [E74]
AUS ch Adelaide (12), 19.10.1960
20.Bxg5 hxg5 21.Nxg5+ Kg8 22.h6 Bh8 23.Qf4 f6 24.h7+ Kf8 25.Ne6+ Bxe6 26.Qh6+ Ke7 27.dxe6 Kxe6 28.Bc4+ Kd7 29.Rd1 Kc7 30.Qf8 Ng7 31.Qxf6 Rd7 32.e5 Re8 33.exd6+ Kb8 34.Qg6 Nc6 35.Bd5 Ne5 36.Qh6 Qb4 37.Be4 Qxb2 38.Nd5 Nxg4 39.Qf4 Qf2# 0-1
Saturday, 27 August 2011
One move from becoming World Champion
One game, one move. Often this is the difference between becoming World Champion and just being 'unlucky'. Not only does it happen under the pressure of over the board chess, but it also happens in the world of CC.
When CJS Purdy became the first CC World Champion, he acknowledged that his game against Napolitano was the key game of the event. Reverse the result of the game, and Napolitano would have taken the title.
Keith Foster alerted to me to this fact while sending me a suggestion for a future article in Australian Correspondence Chess Quarterly. He pointed out the the decisive mistakes (for both sides) occurred around move 31, with both players missing decisive continuations. Some further research revealed that this had been noticed around 1998 in an article in Chess Mail, although it was Fritz 5 which made the discovery.
Here is the game, without notes, which you can dissect at your leisure.
Purdy,Cecil John Seddon - Napolitano,Mario (ITA) [E26]
1st CC World Ch Final 5053 corr ICCF, 1950
1.c4 Nf6 2.d4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.a3 Bxc3+ 5.bxc3 c5 6.e3 Nc6 7.Bd3 e5 8.Ne2 d6 9.e4 Nh5 10.0-0 g5 11.Bc2 Nf4 12.Ba4 Bd7 13.Ng3 cxd4 14.Bxc6 bxc6 15.cxd4 Qf6 16.Be3 h5 17.dxe5 dxe5 18.Rb1 Rd8 19.Qc2 h4 20.Nf5 Bxf5 21.exf5 0-0 22.Rfd1 Nh5 23.Bxa7 Ng7 24.a4 Nxf5 25.a5 h3 26.a6 Ra8 27.Bc5 Rfe8 28.a7 e4 29.Rb7 Nh4 30.Qb3 Qf5(D)
31.Rdd7 Nf3+ 32.gxf3 exf3 33.Kf1 Qxc5 34.Qc3 Rf8 35.Qd3 Qe5 36.Qxf3 Rae8 37.Rb1 Qxh2 38.Rb3 Qe5 39.Qxh3 Qf4 40.c5 Qc4+ 41.Kg2 Re4 42.Qf5 Qxb3 43.Qxe4 Kg7 44.Qf5 g4 45.Qxg4+ 1-0
When CJS Purdy became the first CC World Champion, he acknowledged that his game against Napolitano was the key game of the event. Reverse the result of the game, and Napolitano would have taken the title.
Keith Foster alerted to me to this fact while sending me a suggestion for a future article in Australian Correspondence Chess Quarterly. He pointed out the the decisive mistakes (for both sides) occurred around move 31, with both players missing decisive continuations. Some further research revealed that this had been noticed around 1998 in an article in Chess Mail, although it was Fritz 5 which made the discovery.
Here is the game, without notes, which you can dissect at your leisure.
Purdy,Cecil John Seddon - Napolitano,Mario (ITA) [E26]
1st CC World Ch Final 5053 corr ICCF, 1950
31.Rdd7 Nf3+ 32.gxf3 exf3 33.Kf1 Qxc5 34.Qc3 Rf8 35.Qd3 Qe5 36.Qxf3 Rae8 37.Rb1 Qxh2 38.Rb3 Qe5 39.Qxh3 Qf4 40.c5 Qc4+ 41.Kg2 Re4 42.Qf5 Qxb3 43.Qxe4 Kg7 44.Qf5 g4 45.Qxg4+ 1-0
Friday, 26 August 2011
Stop, thief!
An interesting titbit in the Chessvibes report on the French Championship. The tournament schedule had to be re-arranged after 230 chess clocks were stolen from the venue. The scheduled rest day (for the B,C, and D events) was moved to the day after the theft to allow the organisers to find (or recover) clocks (The report does not say if the clocks were indeed recovered).
Very annoying, although not unprecedented. While clocks are probably the most valuable pieces of equipment at a chess tournament, fencing them may turn out to be difficult, in that they have a very specialised use. Previous large scale thefts have usually been pranks or political statements. The Australian Junior in Adelaide a few years back had all the kings stolen between rounds, and while the culprits were never caught, the pieces eventually were. A few years before that, the ANU Open had a different kind of theft, with the large score tables disappearing the night before the first round. After about 45 minutes of examining security tapes, we finally worked out that the thief had cunningly left them in the tournament hall, but had hid them behind some curtains.
Overall I'm surprised (but at the same time pleased) that theft of chess equipment isn't that common. When digital clocks first came on the scene, the odd one or two seemed to go missing at the end of a tournament, but even this seems to have stopped. And I've never really seen boards or sets go missing in large numbers either.
Very annoying, although not unprecedented. While clocks are probably the most valuable pieces of equipment at a chess tournament, fencing them may turn out to be difficult, in that they have a very specialised use. Previous large scale thefts have usually been pranks or political statements. The Australian Junior in Adelaide a few years back had all the kings stolen between rounds, and while the culprits were never caught, the pieces eventually were. A few years before that, the ANU Open had a different kind of theft, with the large score tables disappearing the night before the first round. After about 45 minutes of examining security tapes, we finally worked out that the thief had cunningly left them in the tournament hall, but had hid them behind some curtains.
Overall I'm surprised (but at the same time pleased) that theft of chess equipment isn't that common. When digital clocks first came on the scene, the odd one or two seemed to go missing at the end of a tournament, but even this seems to have stopped. And I've never really seen boards or sets go missing in large numbers either.
Thursday, 25 August 2011
2011 World Cup
The 2011 FIDE World Cup starts tomorrow (or in a couple of days), with the 128 participants due to arrive in Khanty-Mansiysk. There are a couple of days of acclimatisation/welcoming ceremonies, with the action getting under way on the 28th of August. Apart from the difficulty in getting there, the venue and the host city should once again be excellent, assuming they match the quality of the 2010 Olympiad.
The Oceania representative is GM Zong Yuan Zhao. His first round opponent is 28th seed Evgeny Tomashevsky (Rus), who while being a tough opponent, is probably easier than Magnus Carlsen, who Zhao had to play last time he participated in this event.
The tournament website has all the information on the event, and as an added bonus, has a downloadable pairing tree chart, for those of you running your office tipping competition.
The Oceania representative is GM Zong Yuan Zhao. His first round opponent is 28th seed Evgeny Tomashevsky (Rus), who while being a tough opponent, is probably easier than Magnus Carlsen, who Zhao had to play last time he participated in this event.
The tournament website has all the information on the event, and as an added bonus, has a downloadable pairing tree chart, for those of you running your office tipping competition.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)