User Profile: Annie K.

Members · Prefs · Laboratory · Collections · Openings · Endgames · Sacrifices · History · Search Kibitzing · Kibitzer's Café · Chessforums · Tournament Index · Players ·

Kibitzing

Annie K.
Member since Apr-02-04

Annie Kappel
This profile needs an update badly, but I don't have the time... :)
My YouTube channel, featuring pronunciations of non-English chess player names: http://www.youtube.com/user/AnnieK1...
I'm 45 y/o, of Transylvanian origin, living in Israel since childhood. I speak English (no, really), Hungarian (great language!), and Hebrew (if I must, which is often, for some reason).
Afflicted with an uncontrollable sense of humor and other highly controversial characteristics.
I learned chess as a child, but had no further opportunities to practice the game. Returned to it seriously around 2004, and have been hanging out here since.
Note: if I am not home (i.e., here), you can probably find me at the Domdaniel chessforum, the SwitchingQuylthulg chessforum, the visayanbraindoctor chessforum, or the chessgames.com chessforum! :)
---
<My City of Moscow skits:>
<<<<<<>>>>> Kramnik's Party -> City of Moscow (kibitz #752)
<<<<<<>>>>> Sochi 2008: An F-Files Production -> City of Moscow (kibitz #774)
---
<Game Collection: My GotD Puns>
<My favorites:>
All Your Baze Are Belong To Us - L Baze vs T Palmer, 2004 - GotD Mar-21-10
Y Yu No Claim Repetition? - Yu Yangyi vs M R Venkatesh, 2012 - GotD Jun-30-12
He Who Has E Tate is Lost - E Tate vs Y Shulman, 2001 - GotD Sep-22-16
How Many Roads Must Aman Walk Down? - S Shankland vs A Hambleton, 2014 - GotD Dec-23-16 (besides the obvious reason for the pun - a long King walk - note also the terms 'shank' and 'amble' embedded in the player names)
So me the Wei - W So vs Wei Yi, 2013 - GotD Jan-29-17
This Won't Borya Ider - B Ider vs Wei Yi, 2014 - GotD Apr-01-17 (follow-up to previous day's GotD, 'This Won't Borya')
Injun vs Engin' - Anand vs REBEL, 1997 - GotD Jan-06-2018
---
<My other (linkable) site contributions:>
* The Player Names Pronunciation Project: http://www.chessgames.com/audio (or look for names with a loudspeaker icon in the Player Directory)
* Created on my suggestion: Biographer Bistro
* The first (now retired) Carlsen Dancing Rook: https://web.archive.org/web/2013040...
* The Caruana Dancing Rook:
http://www.chessgames.com/chessimag...
* The Hou Dancing Rook:
http://www.chessgames.com/chessimag...
---
<<<<<<< MAJOR CHESS SITES <<>>>>>>>>>
<< Correspondence chess <<<<<<>>>>>>>>
< ChessWorld -> http://www.chessworld.net
ChessWorld is my new main chess playing base. It's a rather restrictive site for non-paying members, but one of the best sites for paying members. The full features include excellent interface options and first class study and analysis resources. Nice community, likeable admin. Paid membership recommended.
< Update: while I will leave the original entry for ChessWorld as-is, I have by now been a member of the site for 2 years, and am now an admin there. I still think the site is one of the best, and the <other> admins are nice. :p >
My ChessWorld profile: http://www.letsplaychess.com/chessc...
< Queen Alice -> http://www.queenalice.com
Queen Alice is a charming site - well behaved players, decent admin, site design visually very pleasant. It is also completely free. Unfortunately, it lacks team play, the interface and resources are relatively simple, and it can be frustratingly slow (loading times). Nevertheless warmly recommended.
My QueenAlice profile: http://www.queenalice.com/player.ph...
< GameKnot -> http://gameknot.com
GameKnot is technically an excellent site, however I would not recommend it to the serious player who is looking for a site to settle in, due to an anti$ocial admin with ju$t one $ingle intere$t in hi$ $ite... oop$, $orry about the typo$.
My GameKnot profile: http://gameknot.com/stats.pl?annie-....
<< Other chess sites <<<<<<>>>>>>>>
< FICS - the Free Internet Chess Server -> http://www.freechess.org
FICS is a great site to play chess at various faster time controls. There are a few difficulties getting started with it - first, it can be hard to find an email they will accept for registration; and second, there's a lot of site code to learn. But it's worth the hassle. :)
< ChessCube -> http://www.chesscube.com
ChessCube is quite good for fast time control games - provided you have a strong computer with broadband, as the site is entirely Flash based, which means it takes considerable computer resources to load. The site is nominally free, but heavily commercialized with all sorts of frills that can be purchased on it.
< Emrald Chess Tactics Server -> http://chess.emrald.net
Emrald is not a playing site - it is an invaluable tactical training asset. The only problem with it is also the difficulty of finding an "acceptable" email address to register with; but once past that hurdle, the site deserves nothing but praise.
It's a completely free site. You can play (practice) there as a guest, but they recommend registering, so that their program can keep track of your progress, in order to assign you puzzles best suited to your current level. I strongly second that recommendation. Register and always play logged in! It will make a huge difference in the site's ability to help you improve. An issue that scares some people off Emrald is that your progress is tracked via a "rating system", and because of the high importance they assign to speed, if you are not used to finding tactics fast, your rating will be very low at first - and many people are simply embarrassed to play logged in for that reason. Don't let it bother you! If you let embarrassment hold you back from letting the site help you improve to the best of its ability, you are only shooting yourself in the foot, and nobody else really cares that much anyway. ;p
A few of the people I've recommended Emrald to, had dropped it after a brief trial with remarks along the lines of "Oh, it's a blitz training site. I don't play blitz, so I don't like their obsession with speed." That reaction is absolutely wrong - and it's also one that many people who try the site out for only a short time are likely to have, if only because players who are used to being rated, say, 2000 and above, at corr. chess sites, are going to be annoyed and put on the defensive about finding themselves rated as low as 1200-1300 at Emrald, and will wish to dismiss the "insulting" site.
Yes, the Emrald rating system is heavily influenced by speed. But thinking that the site's purpose is blitz training is a complete misunderstanding of the lesson taught. The real purpose of Emrald practice is not to improve your blitz skills, but to train you to recognize dozens of tactical themes and opportunities AT A GLANCE - which will not only save you time in games of any time control, but is often the only way you will catch them AT ALL. Those brilliant tactical shots that can be seen in anyone's collection of "most memorable games", are often moves that will either occur to you as soon as you glance at the position, or you will miss them altogether. That's what Emrald really teaches - tactical chess intuition.
<Intuition in chess can be defined as the first move that comes to mind when you see a position. --- <Viswanathan Anand>>
<Personally, I am of the view that if a strong master does not see such a threat at once he will not notice it, even if he analyses the position for twenty or thirty minutes. --- <Tigran Petrosian >>
<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>
^ TL;DR.

Any other questions, feel free to ask. I might even answer. ;p

>> Click here to see Annie K.'s game collections.

   Current net-worth: 990 chessbucks
[what is this?]

   Annie K. has kibitzed 8212 times to chessgames [more...]

   Sep-15-20 S Mariotti vs A Geller, 1990

Annie K.: The Black player in this game has been corrected from Efim to Alexander Geller. Thanks. :)

   Sep-14-20 chessgames.com chessforum

Annie K.: <MissS> ah, yes, the key term "I challenged her" - that pretty much describes the previous post too, which was a blown out of all proportion tirade about the severity of the Player of the Day (not the entire homepage as claimed, which I check on almost every midnight, ...

   Sep-12-20 Champions Showdown Chess 9LX (2020)

Annie K.: Note: if you can't see the games, please set your game viewer to pgn4web (in the box under the game score) - but remember to set it back to our default viewer Olga in the end, as it is about to be upgraded soon, and will be the best of our viewers. :)

   Sep-04-20 Chessgames Bookie chessforum

Annie K.: The logs have been checked, and the top places are cleared. Congratulations to winner <moronovich>, the other 5 qualifiers, and the rest of the top 10! :) We have opened the Fall Leg, so if anything turns up, betting can start immediately, but we have no official schedule for

   Aug-01-20 Biographer Bistro

Annie K.: <Tab> The WCC pages are tied in with some special functions, and changing them can cause far-ranging problems at this time (remember when merely changing the WCC page titles caused stats to disappear from the pages of participating players?), so let's take this up again after

   Jul-29-20 Ding Liren vs Leko, 2020

Annie K.: Identical to K Stupak vs E Shtembuliak, 2020 .

   Jul-24-20 Annie K. chessforum

Annie K.: A fun conversation from 2016... :) <Daniel:> I’ve come to learn a lot about what sports broadcasting must be like. Actually I learned about it long before CG when I worked at a newspaper. If there is a sporting event you MUST be excited about it, from a business ...

   Jul-22-20 Biel (2020)

Annie K.: It gets worse - the chess24 intro says "In case of a tie for first place chess960 rapid games will be played", but in fact the official site specifies that the chess960 tiebreaks in question are the ACCENTUS 960 games - which have already been played on the 18th, the event's first ...

   Jul-21-20 Csom vs A Yusupov, 1982

Annie K.: The only requirement for this excellent pun is to pronounce Csom correctly. Which means, as "Chom". :)

   Jul-17-20 K Pedersen vs G F Kane, 1972

Annie K.: <jith> thank you for the always helpful directions. :) So all 12 Pedersen games we have in Chess Olympiad Final-A (1972) games are about to be reassigned from Eigil to Karl.

indicates a reply to the comment.

Procrastinators' Club (planned)

< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 71 OF 274 · Later Kibitzing>
Jan-21-11		crawfb5: <Annie> I don't think there's any special reason other than "homepage" just sounded like a natural starting point. I'd done it so long ago I didn't think about switching the bookmark. I auto-login all my chess stuff because I'm in and out often enough I don't want to bother with passwords and I'm the single user of the computer, so nobody else will get in my account anyway.

Jan-21-11		Domdaniel: For about a year in the mid-noughties, when I had a different identity here, my point of entry was the 'live games' page. And I usually went away if there wasn't one. Then it dawned on me that some people here were actually quite intelligent and amusing. But I was scared of people with forums until I opened my own. Now they just terrify me.

Jan-21-11		jessicafischerqueen: Yes but you've been hopping about like mad lately, in direct contradistinction to a previous dictum, which can be found through SEARCH KIBBUTZ although not by me way, way too lazy for that. <Domdaniel>: "I can't be hopping around outside of Frogspawn."

Jan-22-11		Domdaniel: I can and does be hopping around, ma'am. But I won't do directed hopping - I jumps to no ringmaster or ringmistress's whip, well, not unless they ask nicely. Doing a kib search on myself would qualify as directed hopping. Skip, jump, hippity-hop, tra la.

Jan-22-11		Domdaniel: My trick is to sit over beyond in Frogspawn, occasionally saying stuff like "As Jess would say..." or "Wasn't it Annie who..." And the smart folk come to see who's taking their name in vain. And usually to point out that I was wrong. But hey, I get to strike up conversations with girls. I gather there are folk who rack their brain trying to think of strategies for that.

Jan-22-11		jessicafischerqueen: Aha! I have never once search kibbutzed my own user name. Not once. That's why I never know what's going on unless I find it by accident. I got in the unfortunate habit of using the "chessforum" link, which I should probably cut out too. You see, I'd like to be able to check on the recent gossip without reading the first sentence of someone- and there are far too many of these someones- posting that there's scientific proof humans hung out with dinosaurs. A lot of people swear by the "Search your own name" ploy though. <Especially <<<EYAL>>>, that's how he always pops up out of nowhere> Then there are those people who seem to read every single post every single day and remember every one of them. I can't think of any other explanation of how <Switching Owls for Thugs> is able to leap in with secret on-topic historical information on threads that just started 30 seconds ago. He can do this daily or after three months of no "apparent" activity.

Jan-22-11		Eyal: <<Especially <<<EYAL>>>, that's how he always pops up out of nowhere>> Huh?

Jan-22-11		jessicafischerqueen: Vintage <kraba>, it's as easy as putting honey on an anthill.

Jan-22-11		Domdaniel: How do we know that he was 'nowhere' before these sudden poppings out? P'raps he's everywhere, and just sort of focuses himself, like a theriomorphic god manifesting in the form of a wild beast. Or a semiologicomorphic deity who takes the form of a respected literary theorist? Old Zeus never thought of that. And deities hadn't even discovered their superpower of ubiquitousness in those days. "I am always about in the Quad", as a G-d once said to a student torn between Berkeley and Hume, Sweet Hume.

Jan-22-11		Annie K.: Heheh. Great entertainment around here! Thanks, all. :) <craw> ok, if you're not particularly attached to having your profile as your homepage, then all's solved. ;) <Jess: <YOU MUST REGISTER TO CG.COM TO LOOK AT THIS PAGE>> Heh. This doesn't happen with cg.com pages ackshly (and I do in fact link my cg.com forum as my "homepage" in my cw.net profile), but it does happen with cw.net pages... but you knew that. ;) And good point. :)

Jan-22-11		jessicafischerqueen: hehe No fooling you- I attribute this to you having the same avatar across various sites. "The cat knows"

Jan-22-11		jessicafischerqueen: Hi-Ho <Annie> yes I thought the same thing about hlasovatting a request or two. However, it's really "Aneta Vote" time over there right now. Maybe I'll ask him after Aneta wins. In the mean time- I found several websites specializing in live pronunciation. I managed to find each of the names so far- It's interesting to "hear" the nuanced explanations by you, <Owls> and <Niels>. Now I "hear" what you mean and it's very subtle eh? You really have to hear it, it's true. Just one example- in Dutch- "Wijk" Neils gave "bike" as the closest approximation of the vowel. And yes, it is, but man is it only an approximation. There's a "hidden" extra vowel in that you pronounce the "w" in a way in which you get two vowel sounds together. Combine them fast and yes "bike" or "like" is the closest in English but it's not very close at all. Anyways I'm enjoying this immensely. However, if you have time inclination I would still be fascinated to hear your pronunciations. More so, if anything, after hearing some versions from other folks now. <J>

Jan-22-11		jessicafischerqueen: <the main favourites like Alex Loukota, Jakub Rudek or Adéla Mensová did not show their real power yet.> lol this is similar to the plot of Star Wars

Jan-22-11		Annie K.: <Jess> I just sent you the audio files, lemme know how they work! :) I sent two versions of Pachmann, because I'm not sure about the d in his first name - but I suspect the first is correct. Heh - methinks the time to get help from <Honza> is now, good luck catching him after the elections... ;p

Jan-22-11		jessicafischerqueen: You're probably right- can't wait to open the files you sent- Also <Owls> is right about the "variants" you know- <Luděk> Online, some are saying "LOO-dek" and others are saying "LOO-dyek."

Jan-22-11		jessicafischerqueen: You have the most beautiful voice I ever heard I think. You could easily be a presenter/announcer/spokeschessplayer/actress What beautiful pronunciations!! Unfortunately I sound like a raspy Minnie Mouse- which has been pointed out to me my whole life, sad (yet humorous) to say... Your Ludek Pachmann is a tour de force.

Jan-22-11		jessicafischerqueen: A JINX by any other name- but more likely your thoroughness. You've included BOTH pronunciations of "Ludek" that I just posted about!! The one I found on the net from a Czech fellow was the "yeck" version. I think I'll go with your "yeck" Ludek.

Jan-22-11		jessicafischerqueen: arghh <Annie> can you help me with Pal Benko and Svetosar Gligoric? I just got back from Benko's player page and saw <IM Lawrence Day> confidently informing all that it's PAL as in "buddy" in American idiom. I'd bet the house that's wrong. It's the two vowel sounds in "Benko" though- Hungarian right?

Jan-22-11		Annie K.: <Jess> thank you! :) <which has been pointed out to me my whole life> Doesn't mean it's true, though. And voices sound different on recodings, anyway. You could try and see how you sound recorded. That sound in Ludek (if I got it right) is a single phoneme - "dy" is just the English approximation. In Hungarian, it's written "gy", actually, so that may give an idea of about where it is. ;s

Jan-22-11		jessicafischerqueen: Thanks <Annie>! I'm just listening to this Hungarian tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tazA... and as suspected Lawrence Day WRONG. "Pal" has an accent over the "a" and it is two vowel sounds put together- So something like "Paal". I'm just listening to it now. I can't find "Benko" yet though.

Jan-22-11		Annie K.: Oy... now Benkõ Pál is REALLY tough to exaplain! OK, the õ is actually the same as in Rezsõ (Charousek), approximately the u in "sure". And the á in Pál is, as I explained a while back, the first part of "I". It's not like the word 'pal', to be sure. I'm not sure about Gligoric, since that's not Hungarian, but I'll send you audio files for both anyway, and let's hope <Switch> drops by soon. ;)

Jan-22-11		jessicafischerqueen: Thanks so much <Annie>. Yes believe me I did try a million times to be my own narrator. You're correct my voice is less squeaky through a condenser microphone, but absolutely not suitable for narration. Nowhere near so as Richard, at any rate, who is not perfect either, but he is not only handy but willing and endlessly patient, it seems. Have you noticed though that in English language documentaries, it's a "convention" that there are almost no female narrators, and the ones they do have invariably have British accents. I suspect some kind of foul play...

Jan-22-11		jessicafischerqueen: Speaking of <switch> he's absolutely right that transcriptive descriptions of sound just don't work anything like hearing a native speaker's voice. I'm very excited by the bank of names you've already provided. Literally!

Jan-22-11		Annie K.: Heh. you're welcome. The latest two should be there by now too. :)

Jan-22-11		jessicafischerqueen: Fantastic <Annie> you are the Queen of proper chess name pronouncing. Possibly we will have to mail you some flowers, or a computer, for this invaluable aid.

Jump to page # (enter # from 1 to 274)
search thread:
< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 71 OF 274 · Later Kibitzing>

NOTE: Create an account today to post replies and access other powerful features which are available only to registered users. Becoming a member is free, anonymous, and takes less than 1 minute! If you already have a username, then simply login login under your username now to join the discussion.

Please observe our posting guidelines:

No obscene, racist, sexist, or profane language.
No spamming, advertising, duplicate, or gibberish posts.
No vitriolic or systematic personal attacks against other members.
Nothing in violation of United States law.
No cyberstalking or malicious posting of negative or private information (doxing/doxxing) of members.
No trolling.
The use of "sock puppet" accounts to circumvent disciplinary action taken by moderators, create a false impression of consensus or support, or stage conversations, is prohibited.
Do not degrade Chessgames or any of it's staff/volunteers.

Please try to maintain a semblance of civility at all times.

See something that violates our rules? Blow the whistle and inform a moderator.

NOTE: Please keep all discussion on-topic. This forum is for this specific user only. To discuss chess or this site in general, visit the Kibitzer's Café.

Messages posted by Chessgames members do not necessarily represent the views of Chessgames.com, its employees, or sponsors.
All moderator actions taken are ultimately at the sole discretion of the administration.

You are not logged in to chessgames.com.
If you need an account, register now;
it's quick, anonymous, and free!
If you already have an account, click here to sign-in.