It's all downhill from here

I may have (or may not have) solved a mystery involving certain brands of DGT clocks. At Street Chess the DGT Easy and Easy+ models sometimes suffered from a defect where even after pushing the lever, a players time continued to run down. It didn't happen with all the clocks, but it happened often enough so that players simply did not trust them.
What was particularly annoying was that when we tested them elsewhere, they seemed to work fine. Some had been used at other clubs without problem, but at Street Chess they seemed to misbehave. So what was it about Street Chess that was different?
Now it turns out there are a few things that a different (outdoor play, fast time controls etc), but one thing I had not previously considered is that we play on a slope! Not a steep slope. but the tables ar off level by 1 to 3 degrees. And this has me wondering whether the switch mechanisms in the clock do not operate properly under those circumstances. Even after being pressed the lever may tilt back just enough to restart the first players clock, and robbing them of their time. Further investigation is still be done, but if it turns out to be the cause, it will be spirit levels front and centre.

Monopoly player gets arrested - 'get out of jail free' puns abound

Some chess players are notorious for having bad tempers, although I assume the ratio of angry chess players is no better or worse than the ratio of angry people in society. There have of course been occasions where games have resulted in violence (eg at the Doeberl Cup some years back), so it is always interesting when similar incidents happen in similar (but non-chess) environments.
For example, a monopoly player has been arrested for starting a brawl at a Monopoly tournament in the United States. In a scenario that chess organisers might be able to sympathise with, the player concerned had previous 'form', including being expelled from the previous years event. Despite being asked no to attend, the player turned up anyway, and predictably, trouble ensued.
Oddly, when tracking down the link for this event (using the search teams 'monopoly player arrested') I came across a number of other cases where playing Monopoly lead to trouble. In a few cases knives were involved, although the most hilarious case involved a game of 'strip monopoly' getting out of hand, with a jealous girlfriend landing one on a fellow player who was making eyes at her boyfriend.
So while chess isn't perfect in the behaviour stakes, it is at least good to know we aren't alone with the crazy!

The earliest Greek Gift

The 5th round of the 2015 ANU Chess Club's Spring Swiss saw a brevity in one of the games. White was checkmated on move 16 (unfortunately for him), but what gave the game a particular interest was that Black sacrificed his bishop on h2 as early as move 7. The sacrifice (known as the Greek Gift) was entirely sound, and after the game the winning player and myself went searching for games where the sacrifice occurred earlier.
Theoretically, the earliest it can occur (for Black) is on move 4, as White needs 4 moves to castle. However my attempts to construct a game where this happens (eg 1.e4 e6 2.Bc4 Bd6 3.Ne2 Nf6 4. O-O Bxh2+) just leads to White getting a better position, as White can defend by bringing the king to g3.
Our searching turned up lots of games where Bxh2+ was not a real sacrifice, as White has a bishop on g5. There were also games where Black sacrificed and lost, so we discarded those games as well. In the end we found one game where Black sac'ed on move 6, but that was about it. So the following game goes very close to equalling a record, missing out by 1 move.


Jochimsen,Erik - Litchfield,Fred [D00]
ANU Spring Swiss, 28.10.2015

Bike chess?

I've been doing a lot of riding recently, so a story about "Bike" chess attracted my attention. It was one of a couple of variants tried during the Hoogeveen tournament in The Netherlands last week. Loek van Wely and Jorden van Foorest played each other while riding stationary bikes. Now I am not sure what the rules of "Bike" chess are (and the article on chess.com doesn't explain), but if the actual riding doesn't affect the play, then I am missing the point. One suggestion in the comments to the article was that the faster you ride, the less your time goes down, which does make sense to me. Just like chess boxing (or 'round the house' chess) there would be a trade-off between not tiring yourself out, and gaining an advantage via physical means.
The other form of "bike" chess that I would one day like to see is cyclists in one of the grand tours (eg The Tour de France) playing blindfold chess in the peleton. I am sure that there would be more than a few professional cyclists who are chess players, and a game of blindfold chess (with the players shouting the moves to each other), would help break up the monotony of staring at the bottom of the cyclist in front of you.

One dimensional chess

There have been a lot of attempts at designing 3 dimensional chess, but what about going the other way. There is at least 1 version of 1-D chess, played on a ring, as well as variations on a theme, where the boards are almost 1-D.
I'm not sure how playable such games are, although the rules seem to make sense. There is no queen (doesn't quite fit, although it could still be R+B), and the knight seems crippled. On the other hand the bishop moves are logical.
One test is to get two 1-D chess engines to play each other and see what sort of games occur. If there is an obvious winning strategy (or the games look stupid) then it is of course a bust!
If you are interested in giving 1-D chess a try then the rules for each of these games can be found here.

Bilbao Masters 2015

The 2015 Bilbao Masters begins tomorrow, following its recent format of a 4 player double round robin. While initially set up as final for the Grand Slam series of chess events, these days it is simply a very strong Super GM event. This years edition features Anand, Giri, So and Ding. Despite being the oldest player in the tournament, Anand is the top seed, although at this level, ratings seem to matter less.
While the invite list may have changed, the tournament is still sticking to some other traditions. It is using the 3-1-0 scoring system, and draws can only be agreed with the permission of the arbiter. The rate of play is also a kind of fast/slow hybrid, with 40 moves in 90 minutes (fast-ish), followed by 60 minutes (a larger than normal bonus), with a 10 second increment from move 41 (a fast increment).
Live coverage of the event is at the tournament website, although with only 6 rounds on offer, blink and you may miss it.

Another non-trap claims a victim

One of the regular complaints about Correspondence Chess is that 'everyone uses a computer'. Now this is of course not true (the 'everyone' bit that is), but the use of engines is reasonably common, at the international level.
However there are times when clearly this is not the case, as shown in the following game. It is from a recent ICCF event, although I have removed the names of the players as the game in question is not publicly visible yet .
At first glance Black has walked into a trap, with 11. ... Ke7 leads to 12.Qxd8+ Kxd8 13.Rd1+ Ke7 14.Nxa8 with a clear advantage. I assume Black saw this and resigned. However if Black is brave and plays 11. ... Qxc7 12.Bxc7 bxa1(Q) 13.Qxa1 Black has a RBNP for a Q and is not that badly off. I again assume that Black just did not look at this line, indicating an all too human failing of not looking at *all* checks and captures!

White - Black [A33]
ICCF