When Wizards meet Christians

I recieved a phone call in the middle of the week from the ANU Harry Potter Society, asking if they could use the large chess pieces that Street Chess look after. They wanted to play Wizard's Chess on the large chess board in Garema Place in Caneberra City. This wasn't a problem I explained, although I suggested they book the chess board itself, as this open space is used for other activities, such as dancing, ice skating, and a lot of political protests. So they turned up on Saturday and proceed to play Wizard's Chess. Now I wasn't playing close attention but Wizard's Chess looked like normal chess to me, although every now and then someone would try and behead a piece with a paper-mache axe, and someone wearing robes would shout "Release the second priest". This went on for a while until the local Christians turned up with their sound system and began to set up for an afternoons preaching. Given the attitude to magic and wizardry that some christian groups hold, I thought this could get pretty interesting. However I assumed that as Harry Potter fans have no actual magical ability, and christians believe that they do, the odds favoured the Christians pretty heavily. And after a few minutes the Harry Potter fans decided to retreat, rapidly clearing the board and packing the pieces away. It turned out that the only thing the Christians needed to say was "God will checkmate you!", and the HP fans decided that they'd heard enough.

Poor rules - poor outcomes

There may be a time at some point in the future when Shakhriyar Mamedyarov may be the considered "the guy that changed chess". For now however he is the guy that was defaulted twice in the 2012 European Championship, for two separate reasons. His first default was for a late arrival at the board, falling foul of the instant default rules that is in operation at the European Championships. The second default occurred after he played his round 9 game, when he (and his opponent) broke the 'no draws before move 40' rule that the tournament also has. At this point Mamedyarov, who was the tournament second seed, decided to withdraw from the tournament (and did so in a courteous and professional manner). Both of the rules that he broke are of course still quite contentious. The zero forfeit rule is the one that excites the most passion in the chess community, although ironically, the vote to adopt the rule was supported by a greater majority of the general chess playing public than members of the FIDE Rules and Tournament Regulations Commission (a majority of 1 in RTRC, with the public vote closer to 45-25 at Dresden in 2008). Both rules have been in serious operation for 4 years, and I think this is long enough for a sensible review to occur. One of the main issues I have with both rules is that they can lead to poor outcomes, as they tend to operate in an inflexible way. Of course both rules have clear clauses which allow tournament organisers to modify them, but clearly this doesn't always fir in with the organisers plans. As the FIDE Laws of Chess get a major review every 4 years, the 2012 FIDE Congress is where any proposed changes will be voted on. Before that there will be a counsellors meeting of the FIDE Rules and Tournament Regulations at the end of April in Switzerland. I will be attending that meeting and hope to bring both rules (as well as a few others) up for discussion. Hopefully we will be able to consider the case of Mamedyarov, as well as the report from the organisers, at that meeting. For me I've always preferred a default time of 30 minutes (with the right of the organiser to set another time), and that is the position I will take at the meeting.

Gambling on Chess - Something new

Some may be surprised that there is such a thing as chess gambling, but it does exist. In fact there were strong suspicions that the final standings of the 2004 Chess Olympiad were affected due to a plunge on one of the teams scoring a big win over a close rival. However the nature of chess makes it hard to gamble effectively on individual games, given the absence of luck. However a variant of Chinese Chess is proving popular with gamblers in Vietnam. The pieces are first covered with plastic cups and then placed at random on the traditional starting spots on the board (I assume the General and his Guards start on their normal spots). The pieces remain covered until *after* their first move. For their first move they are moved as though they are the piece that belongs on the starting square, but after they are uncovered, they move as they are supposed to. This of course adds the element of luck that makes gambling worthwhile. While it has become popular in Vietnam, for some government officials it has become too popular, with a number of high profile arrests for gambling related embezzlements. The Calvin Ayre gambling blog has more detail on this new form of wagering.

2012 ANU Masters - Round 8

FM Junta Ikeda has wrapped up first place in the 2012 ANU Masters with a full round to spare. He defeated Miles Patterson after the Patterson dropped a piece trying for complications. The win left him 1.5 points in front, with 1 round left to play. IM Andrew Brown did his best to stay in touch after a win over Harry Press. In an exciting game Brown sacrificed a piece and 2 rooks to end up with a second queen, but Press missed a winning defence when under pressure, and possibly resigned the final position a little early. Andrey Bliznyuk looked to have the upper hand against Jeremy Reading, but the loss of a key pawn allowed Reading to reach a double rook ending a pawn up. However one pair of rooks came off and once Bliznyuk reached Philador's Position, a draw was the correct result. WIM Arianne Caoili continued her good run at the right end of the tournament with a quick win over Ethan Derwent, in a game played earlier this week.

Brown,Andrew (2215) - Press,Harry (1884)
2012 ANU Masters Canberra AUS (8), 28.03.2012

Another draw to look out for?

Another to add to my catalogue of games or play when you both need a draw. Or is it? This game was played at the European Championships between two players from Armenia. Certainly the first part of the game follows established theory, and the end of the game is a draw by perpetual, but is the middlegame all home analysis as some have claimed. I'm not completely convinced, as White seemed to have alternative ways of drawing after move 20. And online opinion also seems divided, with some pooh-poohing the whole game, while others subjecting it to serious analysis.

Hovhannisyan,Robert - Akopian,Vladimir [B19]
European Championship Plovdiv, 25.03.2012

Daylight Savings Pain

We are coming to the end of Daylight Savings in Australia, and this can't come soon enough. Waking in darkness may be something that Europeans are used to, but I prefer the sun shining through my window when the alarm goes off. Of course this also means that Daylight Savings is just starting in Europe, although this has already caused some problems. A number of players (7 I believe) forfeited their games in the European Championships in Bulgaria, after turning up late for the round on Sunday. I pretty sure that there would have been plenty of announcements the round before, but clearly these went unheard. Blame is also being sheeted home to the organisers for using the 0 minute forfeit rule, but even if they had changed the default time to anything other than 1 hour (as they are perfectly entitled to do), the players may have lost anyway.

Chess Workout Software

Having recently updated my mobile phone to something more modern, I find myself presented with a huge choice of apps to enhance my lifestyle. Having started with my usual search for chess apps, I've now moved on to other types. In fact my phone upgrade coincided with a the gift of an iPad for Christmas, so I'm looking for apps all over the place. One app I do like is CardioTrainer, which is an exercise management package. While the only real exercise I do is walking, it is still nice to keep a log of the places you walk (via the GPS). It also supports a large number of exercise activities, including one marked 'Custom'. It was this setting that got me thinking. Rather than just use it for physical exercise, I'm going to try and adopt it for mental exercise. Using the scheduling feature, I plan to try at least 2 x 30 minutes sessions of tactics training each week. I'll probably use ChessTempo as the training tool, although I may also dig up some old software I have. The only drawback is my phone can't actually measure how many ELO points I gain (or lose), but I should be able to log that manually (even if it thinks it is calories!).