Whatever happened to Deep Blue?

The Onion has the answer. https://www.theonion.com/passersby-feel-sorry-for-aging-deep-blue-sitting-at-was-1836128224

A new toy

I've recently updated my version of Chessbase, and have been playing around with the Analysis function. Previously I used to us Fritz to 'auto annotate' my games, but this is now built into Chessbase as well. Looking at a very old game of mine, it threw up an older game, which I had been accidentally following up until move 10. As the ending of both games was reasonably similar I thought I share it.


Heilpern - Pick [C44]
Wien Vienna, 1910

Lots of travel for a bit of chess

Starting early next week I will be off on one of the stranger chess adventures I have ever had. My first port of call is Honiara, in the Solomon Islands, to run a FIDE Arbiters training course. The day after that finishes I am off to Khanty-Mansiysk for the 2019 World Cup, going via Brisbane, Dubai and Moscow. While the first part of the trip was planned months ago, the second half of the trip only came about in somewhat strange circumstances.
GM Max Illingworth was the original representative from the Oceania Zone, by virtue of winning the 2019 Oceania Zonal. However, due to personal circumstances he was unable to attend the World Cup, which meant the runner up could go in his place. I was the runner up! So with very short notice I had to organise visa's and travel, which fortunately I was able to do.
Given the way the seeding system works, my first round opponent  is Ding Liren. This is obviously a tough pairing for me (not so much for him), but hopefully I can put up a fight. I would joke that I am heartened by the number of draws he had at the just completed Sinqufeld Cup, but the fact he has just finished equal first has convinced me not to.

Pal Benko

Pal Benko has passed away at the age of 91. One of the last links between the pre and post Fischer era's, he was not only a Grandmaster, but a prolific problem composer and writer. Born in France, he grew up in Hungary, before defecting in 1957. Settling in the United States he was a regular on the tournament circuit, winning the US Open 8 times and qualifying for Candidates tournament twice. However it was one tournament he did not play in, the 1970 Interzonal, that may have been the most significant, as he gave up his spot to Bobby Fischer, who went on to win the World Championship in that cycle.
He visited Australia to play in the 1985/86 Australian Open, and then visited a number of other cities and events (including a simul in Canberra IIRC). While he did not win the Australian Open (Guy West finished first), he did play a nice attacking game against Kevin Harrison.


Benko,Pal - Harrison,Kevin [B53]
Australian Open 1984-85

The draw offer

One reason why I've missed a couple of days of blogging (apart from laziness!) is that I've been watching the 3rd Ashes Test. An amazing finish, with England winning by 1 wicket. And while it isn't within the rules of cricket, I was left pondering the following question "If draw offers were allowed, when should Australia have offered one, and would England have accepted?"

Chesses

If you are looking for a 'causal' alternative to chess, then try the 'Chesses' suite of games at https://pippinbarr.github.io/chesses/ There are a number of variants here including 'Gravity Chess' which was featured on a number of recent tech sites. There is no AI for any of the games, so to try them out, you need to play yourself. As part of the fun is discovering the rules yourself, I won't spoil it too much for you, but I will admit to winning/losing a game of 'Chance' in one move! (Hint: 1.e4 is a dangerous move for white)

The playing arbiter

I do my best to avoid playing and arbiting the same tournament. The main reason is that being an arbiter distracts me from being a player, and my chess results suffer. The other problem is that if you have an issue on your own game, making a ruling can be difficult.
Such was the case in a game I played yesterday. I am running events at the Canberra Chess Club while their usual arbiter is taking a holiday. As there was an odd number of players I stepped in as the 'house player' After sorting everyone else out I sat down to my game. My opponent asked me to check the clock as he wasn't sure it had been set correctly, but it *looked* fine to me (The clocks at the club are usually left with the setting from the previous round). The game proceeded normally until we reached move 31. At this point I noticed my opponent had forgotten to press his clock and with 5 seconds left, I did not wish to win this way. So I pointed this out, and when he did not react, I pressed his side and played my final move. I then realised he had not received his extra 30s and deduced that this clock had been set incorrectly (ie 90m but no increment). So I stopped the clock, and explained to him what had happened. As it was my responsibility (as arbiter) to ensure the clock had the correct setting, I felt that one option was to offer him a draw. As the other choices included adding on the missing time, but leaving him in a lost position, he chose to take the half point.


Press,Shaun - Jones,Mitchell [B22]
Memorial Cup, 21.08.2019