Chess!
I love chess. I’ve been playing since I was just a little boy. I’m no master, nor will I be, but I can play a decent game, and every now and then I have played an excellent one. Chess is one of those...
View ArticleWalter Browne Throws One Down
It’s high time I started posting more about chess, and as it happens I have just found a marvelous tool for displaying games in Web pages (it’s called PalView, and you can find it here). Anyway, I was...
View ArticleMens Sana in Corpore Kayoed
From my old friend P.M. “Nick” Nicholes, who lives with his family in magnificent isolation in Lennep, Montana (pop. about 10) along the Musselshell River, at the foot of the Crazy Mountains, comes...
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Lapsus Manus
I have quite a few old chess books on my shelves – I have a hard time passing them up whenever I see a street vendor selling them, and they tend to accumulate. The other day, in the wee hours of the...
View ArticleNo-Win Situation
Once again, the chess World Champion has played a match against a computer, and lost. This time the victor was Deep Fritz 10, and the victim was the 31-year-old Russian Vladimir Kramnik. Kramnik lost...
View ArticleSlav Defense
We note that former world chess champion Garry Kasparov has been arrested in Russia for leading a protest rally. According to reports he has been sentenced to five days in jail. I have no doubt that...
View ArticleDemocracy’s Bulldog
With a “hat tip” to the Maverick Philosopher, Bill Vallicella, here is Garry Kasparov’s account of his recent arrest and imprisonment (as noted in these pages last week).
View ArticleShah-mat
This just in (thanks to my friend Jess K. for alerting me): Bobby Fischer is dead.
View ArticleBobby Fischer, 1943-2008
Here is Bobby Fischer’s obituary, from today’s New York Times. The renowned chess teacher Bruce Pandolfini† had this to say: “After 1972, we lost so many great pieces of art,” said Mr. Pandolfini, the...
View ArticleDutch Treat
For you chess enthusiasts, here is a video analysis, by GM Nick de Firmian, of an outstanding game between World Champion Vishy Anand and the rising young Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, from the elite Wijk...
View ArticleLarry Evans, 1932-2010
Yesterday’s paper brought more sad news: the death of American chess grandmaster Larry Evans. Mr. Evans, though never quite in the uppermost echelon of world-championship candidates, was nevertheless...
View ArticlePwned!
In case you haven’t heard, there’s a world chess championship match underway in Chennai, India (that’s ‘Madras’, to those of you of a certain age). The reigning champ, 43-year-old Viswanathan Anand, is...
View ArticleTurn Out The Li-i-ights, The Party’s O-o-over…
Magnus Carlsen has done it again, defeating Anand in Game 9 to take a near-insuperable 6:3 lead. If he can manage a single draw in the remaining three games, he’s the new champ. You can look at the...
View ArticleKing Of The Hill
Well, Carlsen did it. He defeated Anand 6.5-3.5, with three wins and not a single loss, and is now the world champion. You can go over all the games here.
View ArticleIt’s On
Chess fans: there’s a world-championship match underway, here in New York, between the current king of the hill, Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, and the Russian challenger Sergey Karjakin. It’s a 12-game...
View ArticleKing Of The Hill
Magnus Carlsen wrapped up his World Championship title defense against Sergey Karjakin today in a series of four rapid-play tiebreakers. It was a fantastic finish that featured some brilliant,...
View ArticleEn Passant
This is no small thing: Google’s “Alpha Zero” AI, after taking just 4 hours to teach itself chess, played 100 games against the strongest dedicated chess engine, Stockfish, with decisive results: it...
View ArticleAll the King’s Horses
I’ll be on the road all day today. Here’s something beautiful for you to puzzle over. Black to move. (Solution here.)
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