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| Posted by tag1153 sleepingdogsliethemovie.com 6/01/2008 01:23:21 Play online chess |  Subject: Controversy in U.S. Women's ChampionshipMessage:  main.uschess.org
Be sure to view the Armageddon game in question. Irina has a point (although I agree she should have said something right then and there....) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted by kansaspatzer sleepingdogsliethemovie.com 6/01/2008 04:01:08 Play online chess | Message: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted by heinzkat sleepingdogsliethemovie.com 6/01/2008 05:21:51 Play online chess | Happy times behind the chess board Message: www.youtube.com ——— A Chess Player’s Attacks Pay Off, Even When They Shouldn’t — Computer chess programs are so popular, and so good, that almost anybody can use one to figure out where a chess player went wrong — when the game is over. But at the chess board, competitors can rely only on their brains and wits (unless they are cheating) and are bound to make mistakes, especially when they are under pressure. One reason why Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria is so good is that he forces opponents to make mistakes. Ranked No. 2 in the world, he is an aggressive chess player who is always trying to attack. There are problems with this approach, when being aggressive is not justified. But the constant pressure that he places on his opponents often ... Posted by ganstaman | sleepingdogsliethemovie.com 6/01/2008 09:55:05 Play online chess Message: The only part I don't like is when she 'explains' her own throwing of the chess piece at the end of the game. She basically says "It's not as bad as what Anna did, so you shouldn't care about it." Saying sorry with one sentence to explain that she was more fustrated than normal would have been ten times better. ——— Vishy Anand saves his strength before world match with Veselin Topalov — Vishy Anand, who defends his world title against Veselin Topalov at Sofia in April, kept his powder dry in his warm-up chess event at Corus Wijk where the Indian, 40, played at full force in only a few games. In contrast Topalov, 34, has played hard in almost every game this week at the Linares elite chess tournament in Andalusia, where he won first prize with 6.5/10, half a point ahead of Russia's Alex Grischuk. The Bulgarian squeezed points from tiny advantages and by round six had regained the world No1 spot on the live chess ratings from Magnus Carlsen. These daily updated rankings have a huge following and their prestige is now not far short of ... Posted by heinzkat | sleepingdogsliethemovie.com 6/01/2008 10:49:51 Play online chess That was just an alternative wayMessage: ——— A Match All About the Sicilian — An unusual chess match is being held in South Carolina. It pits Judit Polgar of Hungary, the strongest woman chess payer in history, who is now ranked No. 46 in the world, but once was in the top 10, against Gregory Kaidanov, a Ukrainian-born American grandmaster, who is ranked No. 261. The match is four games and has an interesting twist: Each game begins with a different variation of the Sicilian Defense. The first game was on Monday and was won by Kaidanov, who had White, and featured the Sveshnikov. The second, which was won by Polgar, was on Tuesday and was a Dragon. The third chess game, which is being played on Wednesday, and can ... Posted by tim_b | sleepingdogsliethemovie.com 6/01/2008 11:00:55 Play online chess Message: ——— The f-pawn, part 2: is f5 the answer here? — Does White have a better option than moving the f-pawn? Continuing our look at the chess equivalent of route one football – the f-pawn advance... RB Well, let's see what happens when we push – 1 f5. The answer comes back faster than Manchester United on the break, not much. Black is under no compulsion to take the pawn and can instead centralise with 1…Nd4 or even 1…Qd4, or start getting the queen's rook into play with 1…Rac8, and 1…Nb4, hitting the d-pawn, would be irritating. All right, let's try to be logical. What's wrong here is that even if we could swap off pawns on the f-file, the f1-rook would remain blocked by the bishop. Let's ... Posted by chessnovice | sleepingdogsliethemovie.com 6/01/2008 12:11:49 Play online chess ...Message: ——— Big Surprises in Europe — Europe has been a center of chess activity over the last month with a series of major open tournaments. The first was the Gibtelecom Chess Festival in Gibraltar, which ran from Jan. 26 through Feb. 4. Among the world-class chess players who competed were Etienne Bacrot of France, Sergei Movsesian of Slovakia, Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain, Michael Adams of England, and Gata Kamsky of the United States. The chess tournament ended in a nine-way tie for first, with Adams winning a four-person playoff to take the title. The Moscow Open, which overlapped with Gibtelecom and ended on Feb. 7, was divided into four sections — A, B, C and D — with ... Posted by scarper | sleepingdogsliethemovie.com 6/01/2008 14:03:59 Play online chess Message: Posted by ionadowman | sleepingdogsliethemovie.com 6/01/2008 16:16:34 Play online chess Fascinating...Message: Consider: you are sitting at the board, the enemy makes a move and forgets to punch his clock. Are you entiotled to make your move? Well, according to the USCF Official rules of 35 years ago, one would have to infer yes. The rules actually talk about whether the arbiter, noticing the omission ought to warn the player. The Rules come down against the arbiter doing any such thing. Which suggests to me that the opponent doesn't have to wait until the enemy punches the clock in order to make a move. The Rules do state that (14.4) "When determining whether the prescribed number of moves has been made in the given time, the last move is not considered as completed until after the player has stopped his clock." Given the time control in the "Armageddon Match" this doesn't apply. From that perspective, I incline to the view that Irina Krush doesn't really have a case. But I do sympathise. Look where the clocks are placed: as is standard, to the right of the Black pieces. Playing right-handed, Black's hand has less distance to travel to the clock; White has to reach right across her body to reach the clock. Simply: the physical placing of the clocks confers an advantage to a right-handed player of Black, or a left-handed player of White. We might decide this is unfair, but look at the time control: 6 minutes for White; 4 and a half for Black, who gets the margin of draw. I think the extra 90 seconds ought to subsume any slight disadvantage to White owing to the physical placing of the clocks. The problem I have with this whole affair is the problem I have with a good many sports events: this stupid insistence that there has to be a sole winner. I quite fail to understand what is so bad about joint winners of a sporting event; why a draw/tie/dead heat is to be avoided at all cost. This insane stampede for determining the winner of a competition leads to some peculiar results: The UEFA Champions' League being determined by a penalty shootout; the "Golden Point" in Rugby League; even the toss of a coin on one or two occasions I've seen. The "Golden Point", or sudden death in some sporting events makes a certain degree of sense, but even then it might be a matter of luck who begins the period of sudden death with possession of the initiative (i.e. the ball, in ball games, say). But others strike me as entirely arbitrary, including the method used in US Chess Championship. The two protagonists ought to have shared the title. If there had to be a winner, the process by which it is determined has to be entirely symmetrical: keep playing pairs of games under whatever time control you choose until one side is a clear point ahead after an even number of games. That final game was asymmetrical, and therefore biased. I'm not saying it's biased against White, be it noted: for all I know it may be biased against Black (however, it became pretty clear that the advantage of one minute was't enough to offset Black's margin of draw!).The fact that the bias exists is in my view sufficient to disqualify it as a fair means of determining a winner. It would have been fairer to have played a second game under the same time control having swapped colours. But doesn't this game strike you as arbitrary anyway? Where is the quality of chess? The whole concept of blitz emphasises one skill over others - the ability to play fairly well quickly over accuracy of analysis, endgame skill, strategic planning, tactical vision... Well, when all's said and done, I can't see the USCF overturning the decision, and, on balance, it probably ought not. But, if there absolutely must be a single Champion or the world will explode, then do it by fair and symmetrical means. Cheers, Ion Posted by cascadejames | sleepingdogsliethemovie.com 6/01/2008 18:17:25 Play online chess Avoiding blitzMessage: own. Posted by ionadowman | sleepingdogsliethemovie.com 6/02/2008 04:24:30 Play online chess Before anyone comments on it...Message: Don't make the process a fair one, though... Cheers, Ion Posted by pgroenborg | sleepingdogsliethemovie.com 6/02/2008 06:53:25 Play online chess holding down the clockMessage: Do you see the same thing? I love blitz and am perhaps too familiar with the thing. I'm with Irena. Posted by bucklehead | sleepingdogsliethemovie.com 6/02/2008 11:23:38 Play online chess It's a tough call. Message: Posted by tag1153 | sleepingdogsliethemovie.com 6/02/2008 14:23:28 Play online chess response to I.K.'s letterMessage: main.uschess.org Posted by ionadowman | sleepingdogsliethemovie.com 6/02/2008 15:18:00 Play online chess response to I.K.'s letter... Message: It does indicate that not a lot has changed since the publication of my own copy of the USCF/FIDE Official Rule Book of 1974. Neither player played strictly illegally in the time scramble (give or take I.K.'s failure to restore the rook she knocked over - had she done so she would have lost the sooner). It is sad, I think, to see an important event like this settled in such a fashion, not only by a means that can be described justly as arbitrary; but also end in such ... well, not acrimony exactly, but not a particularly savoury taste in one's mouth. I go back to my earlier idea. If you can't settle the contest in satisfactory manner, then accept the notion of a joint winner. Cheers, Ion |