User Profile: Gypsy

Gypsy
Member since Mar-17-04 · Last seen May-21-13

"There Would be No Game"
--
As he got to know him, Joseph and Mary regarded Doc with something akin to love---for love feeds on the unknown and unknowable. Doc's honesty was exotic to Joseph and Mary. He found it strange. It attracted him in spite of the fact that he could not understand it. He felt that there was something he had missed, though he could not figure what it was.
One day, sitting in Western Biological, Joseph and Mary saw a chessboard and, finding that it was a game and being good at games, he asked Doc to teach him. J and M easily absorbed the characters and qualities of castles and bishops and knights and royalty and pawns. During the first game Doc was called to the phone, and when he returned he said, "You have moved a pawn of mine and your queen and knight."
"How'd you know?" the Patron asked.
"I know the game," said Doc. "Look,, Joseph and Mary, chess is possibly the only game in the world in which it is impossible to cheat."
Joseph and Mary inspected this statement with amazement. "Why not?" he demanded.
"If it were possible to cheat there would be no game," said Doc.
J and M carried this with him. It bothered him at night. He looked at it from all angles. And he went back to ask more questions about it. He was charmed with the idea, but he couldn't understand it.
Doc explained patiently, "Both players know exactly the same thing. The game is played in the mind."
"I don't get it."
"Well, look! You can't cheat in mathematics or poetry or music because they're based on truth. Untruth or cheating is just foreign, it has no place. You can't cheat in arithmetic."
Joseph and Mary shook his head. "I don't get it," he said.
It was a shocking conception and he was drawn to it because, in a way, its outrageousness seemed to him like a new strange way of cheating. In the back of his mind an idea stirred. Suppose you took honesty and made a new racket of it---it might be the toughest of all to break. It was so new to him that his mind recoiled from it, but still it wouldn't let him alone. His eyes narrowed. "Maybe he's worked out a system," he said to himself.
John Steinbeck, "Sweet Thursday"
----
Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.

general Sun Tze: "The Art of War"

>> Click here to see Gypsy's game collections.

   Gypsy has kibitzed 8578 times to chessgames [more...]

   May-19-13 Ladislav Alster

Gypsy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladislav

   May-19-13 Norway Chess Tournament (2013)

Gypsy: <Kanatahodets: I am surprised that Magnus played so hard for win; strategically he should have missed this tournament. But he is a patriot. This will play bad service to him in autumn. Nobody's perfect.> Well, Vishi and Magnus both played. Let's view their joint participation

   May-18-13 Karjakin vs Topalov, 2013

Gypsy: Oh, and draw it is.

   Apr-30-13 Alekhine Memorial (2013)

Gypsy: <Comparing Carlsen to past champions? You have lost your marbles. He is yet to play the first game of World championship match. That's insane.> Rubinstein never played a game in world championship match. Yet, people compare him to world champions all the time...

   Apr-26-13 Ponomariov vs Nakamura, 2013

Gypsy: I think we are seeing some great end-game chess from Naka in real time. Note the ineffectivity of White rook.

   Apr-25-13 Fischer-Petrosian Candidates Match (1971)

Gypsy: <Petrosian didn't seem that well prepped. He never repeated a line as Black ...> Soviet grandmaster was well prepared for the match. But, from the sixth game on, he inexplicably avoided theoretical lines. Yet, according to his second A. Suetin, there was plenty of prepared ...

   Apr-19-13 Ponomariov vs Caruana, 2013

Gypsy: <lorker: Ponomariov is definitely one of today's best endgame players ...> One of the best and one of the most lucid, I think.

   Apr-14-13 Morozevich vs Grischuk, 2013

Gypsy: <whiteshark> Cool combo. <36...Rxe4> with the unkind idea of answering <37.Qxh2...> with <37...Re1#>, on the account of a double check.

   Apr-14-13 Magnus Carlsen

Gypsy: <HeMateMe: Team Soviet was even more valuable in the Botvinnik-Petrosian eras than good seconds are now. Back then, there were adjournments after 40 moves, and a better team of seconds working that night could make a real difference in your tournament results. ...> Lev ...

   Apr-14-13 Alexander Grischuk

Gypsy: A fine confirmation of how strong this Mr. Wry-Humor really is.

indicates a reply to the comment.

< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 11 OF 12 · Later Kibitzing>
Mar-23-10		Honza Cervenka: Hi Gypsy, I don’t know whether you have read my recent messages at Kibitzer’s Café or not and so I am posting it here too. On Monday of last week I have become proud father of (the second) daughter named Aneta. You can see her picture on the site of regional newspaper “Kladensky denik” (Kladno’s Daily) at http://kladensky.denik.cz/miminka/m... where is just now till this Friday (12:00 A.M. CET) running a polling contest for the most sympathetic baby born last week in regional maternity hospitals organized by the newspaper. Personally I am not much interested in such a kind of competitions but my wife likes it very much and she would be much happy to see our little girl on the top. Right now we are on the second place in very tense and close race with two other contenders and so every additional vote is very important for the final outcome. If you would like to help me to make my wife even happier than she already is now, just click on the link above, flag “Aneta Cervenkova, Stredokluky” in gray box on the right side on the screen and hit the button below. It is possible to vote repeatedly always after 60 minutes from one IP address... :-D Thanks and warm regards, Honza

Jul-28-11		Everett: Hello <Gypsy> Thanks for coming in on the Biel 2011 page and sharing your views on the "equation" discussion. Obviously a more knowledgable math person was needed to clear the air.

Jul-30-11		Gypsy: <Everett> No problem at all, my friend.

Aug-06-11		vonKrolock: Felix Holzmann, the famous Czech comedian, and his <"Šachová koncovka "> sketch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH3X... (no subtitles tough, but seems to be so funny ...)

Aug-11-11		Gypsy: <vonKrolock> Thx, the skit is funny. (Though chess is only very incidental there.)

Aug-11-11		vonKrolock: :) The title is all too chessy

Sep-01-11		vonKrolock: Frohman, Bedřich Arat. om, 1888 1st Prize click for larger view #3 Was him in some way <'The Forgotten Bohemian'> ?! But this threemover alone makes him a memorable personality...

Sep-02-11		Gypsy: <vonKrolock> Against my better judgement, I got sucked in by the puzzle. Spent way too much time on it today, but did not make much headway at all. (Just chased ghosts in circles in a maze of crooked allies.)

Sep-02-11		vonKrolock: Oh sorry - well, it's subtle and well hidden ... Curious that not even in the <Meson> online database this 3er appears ... But the diagram and solution will readillly appear in Turevsky's <yacpdb> searching or readilly pressing the button over this link http://www.yacpdb.org/?id=112324 (and in this site two full hands - ten I mean - of <Frohman>s (But about the author's himself - nothing...)

Sep-02-11		Gypsy: <vonKrolock> I'll see what I can find. (I will have to make some long-distance inquiries.)

Sep-03-11		vonKrolock: Never mind <Gypsy> ... I thought tha at least some ready to pull from the bookshelf Czech vademecum would give a minimum of data ... but <long-distance inquiries> is way too ... well :)

Sep-07-11		Gypsy: <vonKrolock> Alas, Mr. Frohman indeed seems forgotten. Sorry. My search came up blank.

Sep-07-11		vonKrolock: Thanks, <Gypsy> ... Well, maybe some nice diagrams are already memory enough :)

Sep-07-11		Gypsy: <vonKrolock> Indeed.

Nov-29-11		Penguincw: Nice rook. Looks like the one used on chessgames.com whenever a live game result is not 1/2-1/2 or a decisive result in the Chessgames Challenge. Wait a minute, it is.

Dec-16-11		Gypsy: <Penguincw> The history of the dancing rook is interesting: It appeared on this site for the first time at the close of the World Championship game Leko vs Kramnik, 2004. If you play through the moves of the game, you will understand how serendipitous the rook's appearance felt to all of those us that were there (virtually present and kibitzing, I mean). Some time later, when the dancing rook became also available as an avatar, I used my seniority, traded in a rook-avatar I was using, and acquired the rights for this one.

Mar-16-12		Ziryab: Gypsy, I fell upon this page looking for information concerning an endgame attributed to Jan Drtina (Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual) and to F. Dedrle (Encyclopedia of Chess Endings). The position: click for larger view Your comments regarding Emil Richter's discussion of opposition theory vis-a-vis theory of critical squares intrigues me. Could you provide more complete bibliographic information regarding Richter's text. I'm turning up nothing via Google. Thanks.

Mar-30-12		Gypsy: <Ziryab> The Drtina position you give is Diagram 190, Emil Richter "Sachove koncici hry", Sportovni a turisticke nakladatelstvi, Praha 1958. (In turn, Richter gives "Casopis ceskych sachistu", 1907; and F. Dedrle, "Studie", 1925 as earlier publications.) Richter then follows Drtina by position 191 of N.D. Grigoriev, "Sachmatnyj listok", 1931. click for larger view White to move wins.

Dec-19-12		frogbert: i left a note to you on my player page: Hans Arild Runde

Dec-23-12		frogbert: btw, i've been asked to write an article for the official norwegian chess magazine about carlsen, his rating record and possible implications - where rating inflation is one of the topics i'm touching. i.e. i'm already digging into the issue from various angles. :o)

Jan-26-13		Tiggler: Repost from Hans Rulde's gamesforum: <Tiggler: <Sep-08-12 Gypsy>:<It took me a while to realize that the Elo process in this case is not Wiener, which would pretty much prove your hypothesis, but rather mean-reverting Orenstein-Uhlenbeck.> But not so long as it took me (4.5 months) to realize that the reversion you are discussing is synonymous with "regression". (Smacks head with palm). The same concept that Francis Galton used (circa. 1880) to explain why human traits do not diverge without limit. If you had called the same process "mean-regressing Galton-Fisher" (an equally apt but precedent-respecting attribution), I would have got it instantly.>

Mar-03-13		Tiggler: <Gypsy> Long time since we heard from you. I have just completed some new simulations with interesting results. Included draws and a mean-regression component. Guess what? The ratings distribution converges to a stable Gaussian, and by selecting one parameter in the mean-regression I can get any standard deviation desired. Now in a position to model real population dynamics, including ratings inflation, ratings islands - whatever.

Mar-21-13		TheTamale: I like the Steinbeck passage!

Mar-28-13		Gypsy: <Tiggler> Great to hear from you. Sorry for being a recluse; I have just enough cycles to occasionally peek at what is happening, but do not dare to engage till I am done with my current load. (Trying to complete paperwork that we hoped to have done before this year started.) Your results sound great! Have a couple of ideas re how to tackle the inflation problem from a slightly different angle, but keeping those on the back burner till my current ordeal is over. (Looking forward to working it through with you guys.)

Mar-28-13		Gypsy: <TheTamale> Thx. Great book, btw! (In retrospect, one of the most influential books in my life. Formed a great deal of how I see the World.)

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Deep Fritz 13

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