The most awesome chess book ever

This morning my wife finished reading her latest Mills&Boon, and at the back she discovered a blurb for their next awesome blockbuster. She insisted on sharing it with me.

74 Seaside Avenue by Debbie Macomber
Teri Polgar is living a life she couldn't have dreamed of a few years ago. But she fears her famous chess champion husband Bobby, is hiding something - he says he is "protecting his queen" though she knows it's not the chess he's talking about, but her.

Just for shear kitsch value I am going to hunt this book down (probably at the checkout of my local supermarket) and add it to my collection of chess books. Will I read it? Probably not but people have dared me to do dumber things.

(*Disclaimer: I have no connection with the Mills&Boon publishing company. Believe me, absolutely no connection at all *)

The circular argument of the day

"You only criticise me because you don't like me"
"What evidence do you have to support that?"
"Because if you liked me, you wouldn't criticise me"

The virtue of castling

One of the overlooked observations of the late CJS Purdy was that one aim of the opening was to create open files for you rooks. Obviously part of this strategy is to castle ('Castle early, castle often'). And when you don't castle, bad things can happen!

A couple of new websites

Over the last 6 months I've registered on so many chess related websites that I've begun to lose track of which ones they are. Some are sites I intend to use frequently (eg chessworld.net), some infrequently (www.fics.org) and some hardly at all (www.chesscube.com).
Here are 2 more websites, which you can check out at your leisure.
The first is www.chess.com For a long time this site barely did justice to its prime net position, but over the last year it underwent a revamp. It is a hybrid game/information site, and at this stage I tend to use the latter service. You search on chess services (clubs, coaches, tournaments) that are near you, and it also has a calendar of events, which I've used to publicise Street Chess. It supports both turn based chess (think CC) as well as 'live' chess (think FICS), although the latter is buggy and comes with a health warning. Click on the button to visit.

Play Chess Online!
The second site that I've just discovered is www.yourchess.net It advertises itself as the first web 2.0 chess portal. At this stage I've checked out the front page, which looks nice, but have yet to register. When I do I'll bring you more news.

ACT Chess Championship completed

A couple of months ago I posted about "A surprise ACT Championship" Well not only was the start of the tournament a surprise to some, the finish has been a surprise also. In fact the event was completed 3 weeks ago, but the results were not widely disseminated. Although a couple of people had mentioned to me that they thought if finished in a 4 way tie, there was no official release of the results from the organisers. I only found out yesterday what the full results were, when someone said that one of the players had passed them on to Ian Rout, who had placed them here.
So a belated congratulation to Allen Setiabudi, Mos Ali, Justin Chow and Bill Sargent, who finished equal first on the 2008 ACT Championship.

Is it acceptable to beat your children?

Both my children are occasional chess players, so I was surprised when my daughter insisted we play a game. Of course this request was timed to conflict with me having to do something else, in this case, cook dinner. So as to carry out both tasks at the same time, I offered to play blindfold, ie she would call out the moves she played and I would call out the replies. Sadly for her the game was pretty short.

1.f4 A mistake already 1...e5 2.fxe5 d6 3.Nf3 dxe5 4.Nxe5 Bd6 5.Ng4 Bxg4 6.h3 Bg3# 0-1
I did feel a little guilty in winning so quickly, although she was happy to play another game, but she asked we not play "shout out" chess. In the second game, with me having sight of the board, she even reached a middlegame that was slightly better for her, although she became bored with it all and resigned.
As for the dinner, it wasn't quite up to my usual standard, so maybe chess and cooking don't quite go together.

Fear and Loathing

The conflict between the Australian Chess Federation and the ACT Junior Chess League that I referenced here, has been resolved. Through sensible negotiation, through the willingness to see both sides of the story, or even through simple organisational competence? Sadly, no. It was resolved by the personal payment by former ACT Junior Chess League President Libby Smith, of the outstanding moneys. She certainly did not have to do this, but I suspect it was done because she didn't want the flourishing ACT junior chess scene hobbled by the ACF's willingness to use threats against the participation of ACT junior players in national and international events. That she would cough up almost $2000 of her own money, and that the ACF is happy to use junior players as a bargaining chip, says a lot about both parties.
Interestingly enough I had quite a long conversation a couple of days ago with an (unnamed) ACF council member on this very issue. The conversation was off the record, so no names or direct quotes (and to protect the person concerned). Nonetheless I drew a couple of interesting conclusions from the conversation.
Probably the clearest one is that members of the ACF council seem quite afraid to release information. In the case of this issue, the ACTJCL had requested past information of the Schools levy, in order to put forward their case. The ACF refused to provide any information, even down to the people who voted for or against various motions on this matter. (Apparently the ACTJCL was told "privacy concerns"). Various other communications from the ACF have included such caveats concerning whether the issue can be discussed as there hasn't been ACF "permission" to talk about it.
(Indeed to sidetrack slightly, my own questions concerning this remained unanswered, although a lively discussion did begin on the identity of various anon posters. My own identity was clearly hidden in plain sight).
It is not clear why the ACF wishes to hide away as much information as possible, but my own theory (based on my conversation with anon ACF official) is that are scared about who actually will get the information, and what they will do with it.
The other conclusion from the conversation I drew (and from this whole affair) is one of basic managerial competence. Is it possible that the ACF can say "We have managed this issue in the best possible way"? To me clearly not. One of the points of contention was that the ACTJCL submitted a letter to the ACF on the 25 April 2006, and received no official response until just recently. However it apparently was discussed by ACF officials soon after it was received, although there was no communication with the ACTJCL.
Nonetheless there apparently was a willingness on the ACF's part to negotiate this, although it was revealed to me the process was simply to ask the ACTJCL to present a figure (which was rejected) and then ask for another figure (which was again rejected). At no stage did the ACF attempt to offer a compromise above and beyond "Give us the money or your junior players get punished".
The other concern in this area is that of ACF finances and auditing. As this is an outstanding payment I would have assumed that the auditor would have queried the treasurer about the debt recovery process. Organisations just can't keep debts like this on their balance sheets, without making an effort to collect them. And yet it took a couple of years before the ACF got around to making any effort to receive payment. The problem with the finances from Mt Buller was another example of lax financial management of the ACF.
So the ACF has received their money from a process that a former ACF President described as "not thought through" and "full of loopholes". A process that in part came about through the desire of some at the 2001 ACF National Conference to minimise the amount of money that the Schools levy would provide to the ACF.
And somehow I think this sums up the issue. Those who wished to do as little as possible for the growth of Australian chess ended up punishing those who tried to do as much as possible.

(* Disclaimer: I am paid by the ACT Junior Chess League for coaching services *)