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< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 56 OF 81 ·
Later Kibitzing> |
Feb-03-08
 | | Open Defence: <Also, M.Botvinnik was one of the pioneers of chess-related computer programming.> well he was interested in this field but I am not sure about his accomplishments here |
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| Feb-03-08 | | brankat: As far as I know, the first chess programs in the USSR, quite primitive by today's standards, were done under Botvinnik's direct guidance and supervision, dating as far back as the 1950s. He also taught related university courses. But, more importantly, aside from the scientific profession, Botvinnik had a well rounded education and interests in other fields, too. Just like most of his predecessors and contemporaries, and, unfortunately, unlike more and more of the younger ones. |
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| Feb-03-08 | | Tomlinsky: <Open Defence> The formulae and theories from his 'Chess, computers & long-range planning' publication were, and still are, pored over by many a programmer in the field. |
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Feb-03-08
| | Open Defence: <Tomlinsky> wow! thanks for that :) |
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| Feb-03-08 | | Karpova: <brankat: -- Dr.O.Bernstein, Dr.S.Tartakower, Dr.A.Alekhine, Dr.K.Treybal, all had doctorates in Law, and extensive interests and knowledge in other areas.> Are you sure about Alekhine completing his doctorate? It would be interesting to know what Winter wrote in <Alekhine, Alexander (doctorate) CE 268> (CE = Chess Explorations, 1996). <brankat: In last 2-3 decades all of this has changed. The demands of a present day professional player leave little, if any, room for anything else, but Chess. Until, by the age of 40, or so, they are mostly washed out "former" players, with no skills, knowledge or interests.The intellectual giants chess masters of the days bygone, we shall see no more.> Well, what about Peter Svidler? A bit strange to talk about a list of "intellectual giants" (off the chessboard) actually containing Alekhine (from the Madrid publication "Informaciones", dated 3 September 1941): <What will your promised lectures be about?– “About the evolution of chess thought in recent times and the reasons for this evolution. There would also be a study of the Aryan and Jewish kinds of chess. Of course I am not satisfied with the direction of hypermodern chess, which is over-defensive. In German this tactic is called Überdeckung and its rough meaning in Spanish is ‘to cover again’, rather like wearing two coats, one on the other.> <Who is the player you most admire?– “All of them. But among them I must stress the greatest glory of Capablanca, which was to eliminate the Jew Lasker from the world chess throne.”>
http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/... |
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| Feb-03-08 | | mack: <ray keene: we shd think of something imaginative for your 60th next year-maybe release 60 rats from a lab onto a giant chessboard to celebrate 1---g6> Gosh, what a sinister idea! It will be doubly appropriate, of course, given that Lawrence's next birthday will fall within the Chinese year of the rat... ‘Of all the horrors in the world – a rat!’ (Winston, Nineteen Eighty Four) |
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Feb-03-08
 | | IMlday: Actually the Year of the Rat is based on lunar cycles so it changes dates a bit, but chess playing Aquarians like moi, Ray, Spassky, Gligoric, Dlugy etc. are all officially Oxen. Somehow cows tramping on the board seems to lack a je ne sais quoi but maybe we could do something with ducks? Suppose the board floated in a duck pond with squares composed of mixtures of yummy seeds
like dark rice, wheat, corn and oats for dark squares and white rice, barley, almond seed and white corn for light squares. Ideally we'd need 16 mallards and 16 black ducks...hmmm..
I think it's because of my beard that the local ducks, wintering in the Humber River, recognize me a long way off and position themselves for a good gobble..
"Are you Santa?" Little kids ask me that all the time. "For the ducks," I reply.
<Alvo> most interesting game! You know suttlesbook.com has a page for Suttles influenced readers games. You could send it.
re Newton: I don't think he's very well understood except for the elementary practical applications like, heh, Celestial Mechanics. Science types I've talked to seemed unaware of, or embarassed by, his alchemical research. None of them were aware that Jung had broken the medieval European alchemical codes after being exposed to the Chinese 'inner' tradition where the mysterious terms refer to psychophysical phenomena. Likewise with calculus, Liebniz and Newton blossom only after digesting the old Chinese School of Symbols and Numbers. For me, that is the fascinating part.
re Botvinnik and computers~ he was in Toronto circa '77-'78 for the computer championship. It was the only time I met him.
re Alekhine~ Maybe there is an alternate reality where he tells the occupying Nazis that they are nuts, Lasker was the best for demolishing Tarrasch's Germanic reductionism, and the Slavs would clobber the Aryans in any honest multiboard match. Then Alekhine gets sent to the camps and dies a hero. |
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| Feb-03-08 | | Tomlinsky: <IMlday> lol. Excellent flow, that made my day. Do I detect the winter cabin-fever juices starting to take full effect? Please accept this late virtual birthday gift idea, it'll soon be spring. http://cgi.ebay.com/Wooden-Chessboa... Belated happy birthday GM Day. |
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| Feb-03-08 | | brankat: <Karpova> As I stated in the very first sentence of the post, the list was an impromptu one, "off the top of my head". Since my memory is still in a fairly good shape, I didn't feel a need for an all out research. Suffice it to say, I could add another 2-3 dozens of names to it. You were able to come up with one. Besides, I didn't really say all of the current leading masters were illiterate imbeciles. In general, at least, the trend has been obvious. Contemporary professional masters (and the future ones, too) can not, and will not match the masters of the past in areas other than Chess. Without getting dragged (again) into the Alekhine debate, even if he did write and/or sign the articles/interviews, that would be a grand total of a few pages of text. Which does not take away form many thousands of pages, many achievements, many brilliancies, written, accomplished and performed, by dozens upon dozens of great masters over a course of some 5 generations. |
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| Feb-03-08 | | mack: <Imlday>
I was referring to the upcoming Year of the Rat which I knew began on 7th February, but had failed to check finished 25th January 2009. Thus both you & Ray miss out by mere days - how unfortunate! Either way, I think we can most definitely agree that letting sixty cows loose on a chessboard would be a terrible idea. <NMAlvahMayo> Welcome to the site! I knew your name rang a bell - then I realised that it was during my trawls through Canadadadidactica [(c) L.Day] that I saw your splendid Pterodactyl vs Bogie in 2000. You should submit more of your games in order to satisfy my never-ending thirst for all things hypermodern. |
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| Feb-03-08 | | refutor: IM Day
the guelph tournament was excellent! i'm doing to add it to my chess calendar...pro section was quite strong for a weekender noritsyn, sambuev, samsonkin among the titled players. the layout was excellent, they provided food and coffee, and heck i even gained a couple rating points...i was paired up all 5 games and scored 3.5/5 |
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| Feb-03-08 | | Red October: <I was referring to the upcoming Year of the Rat which I knew began on 7th February, but had failed to check finished 25th January 2009. Thus both you & Ray miss out by mere days - how unfortunate!> well there surely must be a few celestial inaccuracies that need compensating for which may give us the liberty of extending the year of the rat by a few days |
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| Feb-03-08 | | mack: Re chess & ducks - here's something a little special. This is 'Alfred's Chess Adventure', episode 12 of the Dutch cartoon series Alfred J. Kwak - one of the most charming and beautiful shows for children ever. Frustratingly, it only seems to be available online with Japanese dubbing, but if you skip to 6:30 you watch Alfred play Henk, the mole who adopted him after his entire family were killed by a car in episode 2. I was amazed to see a highly familiar opening sequence follow... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hadj... |
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| Feb-03-08 | | NMAlvahMayo: Lawrence,
Thanks for the tip about the Suttles site; I have gone into my archives and submitted a few of the more asthetic Moderns for their consideration. As it turns out, the Modern is very popular in the Maritimes with players like myself, Charlton, Howarth, Gulati, Cooper et al playing many games with this opening and taking a keen interest in some of the theory. Indeed, a few years back another Nova Scotia expert and I (while playing a weekend match)came up with not just one but two busts to Paul Motwani's piquante line against the Modern from C.O.O.L Chess (1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nf3 c5 4.dxc5 Qa5+ 5. c3 Qxc5 6.Na3)
I guess the same goes with the Grand Prix Attack with Charlton and I playing it, including games like this one:[Event "Charlottetown FIDE Invitational"]
[Site "Charlottetown"]
[Date "2000.08.06"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Mayo, Alvah"]
[Black "O'Donnell, Tom"]
[Result "1-0"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. f4 g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Bb5 Nd4 6. O-O Nxb5 7. Nxb5 a6
8. Nc3 d6 9. d3 Nf6 10. Qe1 O-O 11. h3 e6 12. f5 Nd7 13. fxe6 fxe6 14. Bg5
Qc7 15. Qh4 Re8 16. e5 dxe5 17. Ne4 Nf8 18. Bf6 b6 19. Nfg5 Ra7
20. Rf2 Kh8 21. Raf1 Bxf6 22. Nxf6 Rd8 23. Nfxh7 Nxh7
24. Nxh7 Bb7 25. Nf6+ 1-0
I have fond memories of this game. No prep went into it as I did not even recall who I was playing that morning (all I knew is that I was in the mood for blood after blowing the previous round game against Hua) until Gulati informed me in the car on the way to the site. This was played during a time when Tom O was like cement going dozens of games undefeated in FIDE rated play; would be interesting to look back to see if this was the game that broke the streak?!?
Besides the Rat, I am even willing to play some other "animals" like this ravenous bird: [Event "Halifax Open"]
[Site "Halifax"]
[Date "2000.03.25"]
[Round "3"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "Stephen Saunders"]
[Black "Alvah Mayo"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 Ne4 4. Qc2 Qa5+ 5. Nd2 f5 6. f3 Nd6 7. b3 e6 8.e4 fxe4 9. fxe4 e5 10. Be2 Be7 11. Bb2 Nf7 12. Bg4 O-O 13. Bc3 Qd8 14. O-O-O Nh6 15. Be2 d6 16. h3 Bg5 17. Nf3 Be3 18. Rdf1 Nf7 19. Qd3 Bd4 20. Nh2 Nd7
21. Bxd4 exd4 22. Qg3 Nde5 23. Ndf3 Qa5 24. Nxe5 Nxe5 25. Rxf8+ Kxf8 26. Rf1+ Kg8 27. Ng4 Bxg4 28. Bxg4 Qxa2 29. Be6+ Kh8 30. Rf5 Qa1+ 31. Kd2 Qb2+ 32. Ke1 Qb1+ 33. Kf2 Nd3+
34. Kf3 Qd1#
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| Feb-03-08 | | NMAlvahMayo: (continued)
I am sorry to say that I am the only one to carry the standard for the Tchigorin French around these parts. I will do some more digging to see if I can find some to post (perhaps my game against Leriche from the Canadian Open in Montreal).
Eddie Urquhart and I used to have many debates about the worth of that opening at my house over blitz and more than a few beers. He held with Watson's assertion that 1.e4 e6 2.Qe2 e5 equalized for black while I held that was crazy; black isn't equal after 1.e4 e5 and the worth of Qe2 as a free move in that position can certainly be proven.
While on the subject of Watson, one of my other passions chesswise has been to prove the utility of 8...Qb6 in the symmetrical English as a sound move since reading in Watson's 1978 French book that he gave the move a ?! notation. [Event "Eldridge-Mayo Match"]
[Site "Windsor"]
[Date "1999.09.18"]
[Round "4"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[White "Michael Eldridge"]
[Black "Alvah Mayo"]
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 4. O-O O-O 5. c4 c5 6. Nc3 Nc6 7. d4 cxd4
8. Nxd4 Qb6 9. Nb3 d6 10. Be3 Qb4 11. Nd5 Qxc4 12. Rc1 Qa4 13. Rxc6 bxc6
14. Nxe7+ Kh8 15. Bxc6 Qxa2 16. Bxa8 Be6 17. Bd5 Nxd5 18. Nxd5 Rb8 19. Nc1 Qxd5 20. Qxd5 Bxd5 21. Rd1 Rb5 22. Bd4 a5 23. Bxg7+ Kxg7 24. Rd4 Be6
25. Nd3 d5 26. Ra4 Bf5
[Event "Bluenose Open"]
[Site "Halifax NS"]
[Date "2005.02.27"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Wysocki, Antoni"]
[Black "Mayo, Alvah"]
[Result "0-1"]
1. Nf3 c5 2. c4 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. g3 g6 5. Bg2 Bg7 6. O-O O-O 7. d4 cxd4 8.
Nxd4 Qb6 9. Nc2 d6 10. h3 Qc5 11. Nd5 Qxc4 12. Na3 Qc5 13. b4 Nxb4 14. Be3
Nfxd5 15. Bxc5 Nc3 16. Qd2 dxc5 17. Rfc1 Na4 18. Rab1 Be6 19. Nc4 Rad8 20. Qe1 Nxa2 21. Bxb7 N4c3 22. Ne3 Rb8 23. Rc2 Nxb1 24. Qxb1 Nb4 25. Bg2 Nxc2 26. Qxc2 c4 27. Nd5 Bxd5 28. Bxd5 c3 29. Bb3 Rfc8 30. Kg2 Rxb3 0-1 This game in particular has many interesting areas for exploration especially with material imbalances. I remember in the post mortem one line ends up with queen and two rooks versus four minor pieces and extra pawns while another ends with queen vs knight and bishop but black ends up promoting a pawn by force. |
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| Feb-03-08 | | NMAlvahMayo: Mack: Glad to see I am not completely unknown outside of Atlantic Canada! Here's the Bogle game from the Charlottetown FIDE Invitational: [Event "Charlottetown FIDE Invitational"]
[Site "University of P.E.I."]
[Date "2000.08.03"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Bogle, Bill"]
[Black "Mayo, Alvah"]
[Result "0-1"]
1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nc3 c5 4. dxc5 Qa5 5. Bd3 Qxc5 6. Nge2 Nf6 7. O-O
O-O 8. Be3 Qa5 9. b4 Qxb4 10. Rb1 Qa5 11. Rb5 Qd8 12. h3 d6 13. f4 Nbd7
14. e5 Ne8 15. Be4 Nc7 16. Rb3 dxe5 17. f5 gxf5 18. Rxf5 Nf6 19. Rxe5 Nxe4
20. Rxe4 Qxd1+ 21. Nxd1 Ne6 22. Rb5 b6 23. Rh5 Bf6 24. Nf2 Ng7 25. Rh6 Nf5 26. Rh5 Nxe3 27. Rxe3 Be6 28. Ng4 Bg7 29. Rg3 Kh8 30. Nf4 Bxa2 31. Nh6 Rac8 32. Nf5 Bf6 33. Rh6 Rg8 34. Rg4 Rxg4 35. hxg4 Bg5 Back then as now, the Modern/Pterodactyl were my main weapons as Black. In that Charlottetown event, I would go on to score 3/5 with the Modern and could well have scored 4.5/5. I also got to play one against Yoos at the Canadian Closed in 2002 and if I find that one I will definitely post it since I am fairly certain I had Jack busted in that one (It's not the openings fault that I got killed later on :) ) Here's another Modern with some aesthetic repositioning by Black: [Event "Nova Scotia Closed"]
[Site "Halifax"]
[Date "2000.05.22"]
[Round "5"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "Stephen Saunders"]
[Black "Alvah Mayo"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. f3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nc3 O-O 6. Bg5 c5 7. d5 Bd7 8. Bd3
Qc7 9. Nge2 a6 10. a4 b6 11. O-O Ra7 12. Be3 Rb7 13. Rc1 e5 14. dxe6
fxe6 15. Qd2 Nc6 16. Bb1 Ne5 17. Ba2 Nf7 18. Rfd1 Bc6 19. Nf4 Qe7
20. Rb1 g5 21. Nd3 g4 22. b4 gxf3 23. gxf3 cxb4 24. Nxb4 Bd7 25. Nxa6 Ne5
26. Qxd6 Nxf3+ 27. Kh1 Qf7 28. Qg3 Nh5 29. Qg4 Kh8 30. c5 Bxc3 31. Rxd7 Qxd7
32. Qxe6 Qd3 33. Qd6 Qxd6 34. cxd6 Nf6 35. Nc5 Rbb8 36. Ne6 Rg8 37. Rf1 Nxh2
38. Rxf6 Bxf6 39. Kxh2 Be5+ 40. Kh1 Rg3 41. Bg5 Rd3 42. Bd5 Rd1+ 43. Kg2
Rxd5 44. exd5 Bxd6 45. Bf6+ Kg8 46. Nd4 Ra8 47. Nb5 Kf7 48. Bd4 Bc5
49. Be5 Rxa4 50. Nc7 Ke7 51. Kf3 Bd6
More Moderns to follow when I have the time...
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Feb-04-08
 | | Gypsy: <... Good chess players are usually well educated people of diverse interests. Chess geniuses are different. You could not talk with Alekhine about anything besides chess. Bobby Fischer also refused different topics or different kinds kinds of entertainment. ...> Ludek Pachman |
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Feb-04-08
| | IMlday: <Alvah> Interesting games. Congrats particularly on the O'Donnell brevity; he is tough to beat. <Gypsy> Yes, nowadays for the very top players specialization seems necessary. In my peak years circa 1978-1983 I didn't read newspapers and even television was only sporadically available. <mack> I think we humans find ducks amusing because of how the males behave during brooding month. Mrs Duck lays eggs and covers them with down and sits on them for a month in drab camoflage disguised as a boring pile of old leaves in the bushes. Meanwhile the males in fancy dress feathers are ostentatious and flamboyant putting on a show some distance away to distract any predators about. One goofy game involves two mallards grabbing each others rear with their bill and rushing in circles faster and faster on the surface of the water. I've even seen three make a bigger circle for mega laughs and commotion. Cute tactic, and it seems to work. |
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| Feb-04-08 | | Karpova: Regarding this post again:
<cunaki: STL If I were a chessplayer and had to choose an ikon I'd go with Philidor as he is the only great chessplayer who also was a great composer or a great anything else.> More examples:
Let's not forget strong chessplayers like Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander and Harry Golombek who deciphered the "ENIGMA" during WW2. During WW2, Golombek played Tartakower who fought for the Allies (pseudonym: Lieutenant Cartier) against Germany. Much more examples could be found so Philidor is really no exception. It's always necessary to keep in mind that it has not always been that easy for chessplayers (the best to be exact) as it is today - Kasparov or Kramnik don't need to be afraid of starving for example. At the beginning of the 20th century this was a bit different as Steinitz's fate shows. Ossip Bernstein for example decided to become a very successful financial lawyer instead. And the two World Wars didn't help - WW1 left most chessplayers broke (If they survived the war. Carl Schlechter starved to death in December 1918 and even Dr. Lasker had financial problems afterwards. Many were deeply affected by this horrible experience) not to mention the effects WW2 had. <IMlday: Yes, nowadays for the very top players specialization seems necessary. In my peak years circa 1978-1983 I didn't read newspapers and even television was only sporadically available.> Corus 2008 was a good example. If you don't concentrate on chess fully you have a hard time since your opponents are much better prepared with strong computers and their seconds - Mamedyarov for example:
Fred Lucas: <The top Azeri GM is currently ranked number six in the world, in spite of a "bad" year in 2007. "Shak" is considered a bit of a loner who turns up at tournaments without a coach or second. In Wijk he came 11th in the A Group, with a 2715 performance.> http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail... It's interesting to note what Judit Polgar said in an interview:
<I think if you want to earn money you shouldn't be a chess player. You should be a chess player if you like it, if you like the game, the atmosphere, the life style. And if you are clever enough somehow you make money. I make a good living, but I've been in chess for two and a half decades, and also I'm known, and I am in the media a lot. But if I was a good doctor, not even at this level, just an average doctor, I would earn five times more.>
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail...
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| Feb-04-08 | | hitman84: I feel Vasik Rajlich should be on that list too. Although he is not a GM he programmed the world's strongest chess playing program. Chess and Programming both professions take a lot of time out of
your daily routine. Its amazing he managed to become an IM, and then wrote a strong chess program. You could count him as a programmer who is good at chess, but to get an IM title is not that easy. I found a nice article on him as to how he struggled as a chess player, and his family members thought he was a lunatic as he quit his day job to take up chess as a profession. He soon realised that he was too old to become a GM. And then made a wise decision. <“I figured there were about 2000 people in the world stronger than me in chess,” he says, “but not one chess player that was stronger than me in programming.” > Here is the article:
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/feb07/...
<If you don't concentrate on chess fully you have a hard time since your opponents are much better prepared with strong computers and their seconds> This is so true. Also the amount of time players put into chess thesedays should get them more money. |
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| Mar-02-08 | | mack: Lawrence: You'll be pleased to know that I"ve been getting on very well with Tao in recent weeks. A combination of Capra, smoking and duck feeding - all on the quiet, away from anyone and everyone I know - has helped me through some highly troubling times. For what seems like forever I nursed this horrible feeling that my mind and body spoke very different languages. With a brainwave would come sciatica more painful than ever before. And as soon as back spasms ceased, I was greeted with a flood of self-pity & the dark clouds that come with 'the dull compulsions of economic relations'. Then of course there's the real world, where stuff actually happens; 'events, dear boy, events', as Macmillan would have it. A reminder that all poetry is love poetry, even if it doesn't mean to be; and that to succeed in anything one must merely find hidden algorithms and then jog ever so slightly behind the pacemaker. Walter Benjamin never had to trick himself into falling in love, nor fill in a form saying as much. But Tao & fags & ducks seemingly hold the key to getting through the afternoon until it's time to hit the booze. And it was your early enthusiasm towards Tao on this site that brought me back around to the key texts. So cheers! |
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| Mar-10-08 | | Cactus: Just to add another name to the pot of multi-talented modern masters: Chris Ward is a very good dancer! |
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| May-23-08 | | Gameoverziggy: Hello Lawrence. I've been going through your book Nick's Best, just wanted to say that it is so far an excellent book and I am enjoying it very much. |
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May-23-08
| | IMlday: Thanks <Gameoverziggy> My favourite books are games collections. They don't age like opening books.
I'm back from a trip to Calgary. It was a 7-round week-ender that John Donaldson won a half-point ahead of myself, Victor Kaminsky and Rob Gardner. Over Easter weekend I tried the Grand Pacific Open in Victoria but didn't get untracked after losing early to 1850ish jr. Jack Cheng (not even junior ace Bindi Cheng who won the tourney easily). In Vancouver I stayed a few days with Duncan and Dobrila Suttles and was fascinated to discover that they had spent a week with Bobby Fischer in 1994 Budapest. Mostly what they discussed with Fischer was Fischer himself, his motivations and real feelings as opposed to the cranky image he showed the media so they wouldn't bother him.
Duncan and I also lunched with octogenarian Nathan Divinsky. He played on Canada's Olympic team as early as Amsterdam 1954 and has lots of interesting stories and opinions.
On the duck front, there were five ducklings on Tuesday. Momma made a useful tent with her wing for when they tired of their fuzzy explorations. |
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| May-26-08 | | mack: Lawrence! How nice to see that you're still alive. Seems like yonks & a day ago that I got all dithyrambic on your page. |
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