People are the worst (well a subset of them)

 I was just watching the live stream from the 2022 World Blitz Championship. It was the final round of the Women's event, and so the commentators thought it was important to cover that, rather than the 2nd last round of the Open event. A sensible decision, especially as this was apparently the only round from the Women's event that was covered in full.
But the whinging in the comments section. It was full on. All the misogynistic stereotypes about women's chess were on full display, along with the smokescreen about wanting to see 'higher quality' chess. Given the level of comments by most of the people in this feed, the only criteria being used was 'men = higher quality' rather than any demonstrable ability to actually spot good moves in advance. There were some attempts at speaking out against the prevailing attitudes, but the comments ran 3 or 4 to 1 against the decision to cover the final round of the Women's. 

A tactical blunder

 Sports have a lot of 'unwritten rules'. They exist to make sure everyone stays within what is considered acceptable behaviour, even if the the actions are not technically illegal. In baseball for example, showing up a pitcher after hitting a home run is likely to get yourself drilled by a pitch at some point in the future.

South Africa seemed to not be aware of this during today's Test match against Australia. Bowling short pitched deliveries to tail end batsmen was for a long time considered 'out of bounds', in part because the players your were trying to hit had the ability to return fire when you batted. So hitting Mitchell Starc on the helmet in failing light might have seemed like a  good idea, but only for the time it took Australia to declare their innings closed, and let South Africa bat in the same conditions. In the end they were lucky to escape with just one wicket down, with rain ending the days play.

But as this is a chess blog, here is a tactical blunder from the 2022 World Rapid. On move 46 White missed a check that would have led to a forced mate, and instead let Black escape with a draw.

Niemann,Hans Moke (2592) - Maghsoodloo,Parham (2656) [E11]
2022 FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championsh Almaty (8.8), 27.12.2022

Hastings 2022-23

 After a break of a few years, the historic Hastings event has returned. While no longer attracting the huge numbers it did in the past, the Masters section has 13 GM's in its 101 player field. It will also attract plenty of players for the supporting events, which include AM swisses, weekend tournaments, and evening blitz. This is the 96th edition of the tournament, and barring any world shattering disasters, the 100th edition should be in 2026. When I visited the event (as an arbiter) in 2016, I promised to return for the 100th, a promise I do plan to keep.

Tournament homepage is here. 

World Rapid and Blitz

 The 2022 World Rapid and Blitz has just started. As it is being held in Kazakhstan, the time zone difference isn't that bad, with play starting in the evening (Canberra time). As I type this it is up to the third round of the Rapid, with Carlsen in some trouble against Tomashevsky. The tournament is exceptionally strong, with 178 players in the Open, and 98 in the Women's Championship. Bobby Cheng is the sole Australian representative, seeded 111th at the start.

Given the importance of th event, it is being covered at most online sites. I'm currently watching it via chess24 (Peter Leko commentating), but I may sample a few other sites over the next few days.

Maybe I should have got this

 Over Xmas lunch today, I was alerted to yet another online chess variant. FPS Chess combines the strategy of chess with the madness of First Person Shooters (FPS). Instead of straight forward captures, it looks as though you have to fight mini-battles to determine who gets removed from the board. It is PvP (no computer bots), so the only downside is waiting around for an opponent.

It can be found at https://store.steampowered.com/app/2021910/FPS_Chess/ and at this stage, looks like it is free to play

Call me old fashioned

 I saw a suggestion from Magnus Carlsen that the future of chess is fast time limits and online events.  Call me old fashioned but I hope this is not going to be the case. My main objection is obviously aesthetic, in that higher quality games are played at slower time limits, but the other is more practical.

If the events are played online, new players will struggle to get a look in, Why? Because without an existing OTB track record,  there will be an assumption that they are cheating. And if there is a decline in OTB events, where will they get this track record? Combine this with the fact that fast chess leads to more superficial styles of play, then even if they start with OTB blitz and rapid, they will struggle to match players who have greater experience at longer forms of chess. 

So not really a fan!

Who am I reading?

 After another periodic update of my chess book collection, I decided to look at which authors were well represented in my collection. 

It may not come as a surprise that Fred Reinfeld is at the top of list, although this probably reflects the quantity, rather than quality of his work. Second place is GM Raymond Keene, again another prolific author. However the next two authors on my list are both prolific, but at least in my case, regularly read. GM John Nunn comes in third place with  19 books, and I usually have one or two of his books at hand (including one I was working with today). Close behind is Andrew Soltis (17), which reflects his recent publication record (it seems like a new book every 6 months), and the fact that the seem to appear at my local book shop on a regular basis.

IM Gary Lane is in 5th place, carrying the torch for Australian authors, although the majority of his works were done when he played under another flag. I was surprised by the fact I also have 14 titles by GM Neil McDonald, as this kind of snuck up on me. I didn't realise I had purchased that many, but the quality and readability of his books is very high. Indeed, my latest purchase "Chess: The Art of Logical Thinking", is a real find, as it is a modern take on Chernev's classic "Logical Chess: Move by Move".