After five years of constant and peripatetic email writing, I have finally landed. I plan to write about current and world affairs, economic and environmental sustainability, chess study and improvement, quantitative investing and trading, workplace issues, relationships, and spiritual transformation. Much love to all.
If you have not tried Chess960--aka Fischer Random Chess--then you are missing out. Chess960 randomizes the starting piece layout, but otherwise castling and all the normal rules of chess clearly apply. Both ICC and chessCube offer it, the prior in the aforementioned 'pool' (pairs players automatically, disallowing players choosing opposition, that is to say, avoiding upper or lower rated players).
It forces the issue on positional assessment early on, and sharpens tactics, marginalizing the inescapable and ever present rubric of openings and opening tabiya's. Wow. Very strong medicine.
I just spent a night playing, and at 1300 to 1400 960 rated, 80% of my opposition were dudes with 2000 blitz, bullet, and 5 0 ratings alike... its like 'chess dying'. 5 wins, 16 loses 1 draw= 21. Jesus fu_ck. Try it out. Its like a chess final exam.
To be really powerful, love what you have. To know but one good rook ending, or twenty, not 1,000, not buying ten ending books--what a concept! To sit in your own galoshes.
Maybe even read a trashy old endgame book till the binding disintegrates, surpassed by nineteen new slick endgame books by Gambit or Batesford or DVD's by chessBase, or chessCafe's Russell Enterprises. Yes, all fantastic. But I say the search is over. Work with what you have--but I say, 'Please Lord, let me finally do some REAL work'.
Shinryu Suzuki in his classic Zen Mind, Beginners Mind described it well: To paint a bamboo, become a bamboo. It takes great skill to grasp totalities simply; to be really simple, it takes an act of much sophistication cultivated by great reduction.
Let us use what we have, not run and get more. More what? Distraction as Blaise Pascal called it.
Years ago, I set out with great infatuation to collect chess classic games. I did so. First 350, then 932, then compiling 1,500+ of the certifiably agreed upon greatest, most stunning, exemplary chess games EVER played, till I gushed out all over the place at as many as 5,020, my current mushroomed, swelling collection.
When it was carefully firm at 932 games, I had viewed or studied each and every one of them. But after 1.5K, I lost my way. More is less. Become bamboo, don't run and buy ten bamboo photo albums. Be a bamboo. A single bamboo.
Sometimes a poet might wish to be able to write ONE GOOD LINE of poetry before they die. Me? I have figured out chess:
If I could but understand and learn R vs. R & P endings before I die, I might ACTUALLY be potentially decent at chess--able to ALMOST play acceptable chess! It's just that easy.
As many of you know, our most esteemed friend BDK--truly along with wormwood one of the smartest, most practically armed 'guys' around in our chess blogesphere--is about to become a father.
No longer able just to think of his wife and himself alone, he judiciously told us recently that its NOT that he cannot afford the US $70.00 for an ICC annual membership, but rather in comparison to other priorities such as responsibly paying down a VISA [1], ‘triathlon’s, and physical health’, seeks other venues.
I had long felt that I was the one among us who needed to write a narrative comparing all major chess playing venues in the English speaking world or among its friends where English is not the primary language, but well spoken (Netherlands, India, etc), and that time is now. With a few exceptions, I have either played many of them and in real size or viewed them.
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Major Providers: ICC orThe Internet Chess Clubis the best, there is no escaping it. But it is also the most expensive, and to the many of you where ‘best’ must be right sized to family and/or individual budgets, myriads of FIDE masters, International Masters, Grandmasters, Experts, and hoards of ‘class C’ to ‘class A’ club level players with such intricately clever finger notes [2] that their marvels bar as high creative literature, despite all that, in comparison to other options and lifestyle choices, it just doesn’t seem worth it. I heartily disagree, but to each his or her own:
You can see the likes of Rabjabov, Nakamura, Aaronian, or Morozevich, and at times even Carlsen, Dreev, Mamedyarov, or Kamsky. FICS or Playchess either don’t have it or if they do, to a much less degree. Some say, ‘what do I care if GM’s play where I play?’ Well, “don’t knock it till you try it”--watching GM blitz at 3/0 or 3/1.
Play: Top ranks also for ease of getting a game. In fact, I venture to say, that ‘the pool’ for 5/0, 15/0, and—for those who like it—1/0 is so deep that this alone justifies the membership. What is so good about it is that you click, for example, 5/0 and you are put in a pool matching you by color and rank with a similarly paired player. It is fast, it is fair, and it doesn’t take long. No-play lists cannot be regarded—it chooses for you. This negates the factor of boosting by avoiding certain types of players—you get the low, you get the high, you get your peers, we all do. It’s fantastic. Who has time to sit and wait for games or, in-turn, inviting ad-infinitum? Who? Problem solved.
Advantages: many titled players; a large and increasingly comprehensive library of trainings and videos, a rich culture of wry comments from a richly woven community of really smart people from countries round the world; good recall of player data, easy to access and use game histories on not only your last twenty games, but your opponents, and their opponents; and a low rate of lag, or connectivity failure. All this makes for a rich virtual learning community or online community of knowledge, with rich and rewarding social intercourse.
Disadvantages: some find $69.95 to be too expensive (or 19.2 cents or about 0.142 Euro’s per day). Tolerance for rudeness, despite avowed implicit if not stated policy against it, is actually quite high.
I have heard Yermolinsky make explicit racist statements about Tiger Woods referencing Magnus Carlsen that I wont repeat here, but suffice to say, not only wrote ICC and printed his words, but positively spoke with Joel Berez, President of ICC, reaching him and talking at length with him on his mobile phone. Nothing done. Celine Rules [6 insert].
I am inclined to stay unsettled by this sort of thing and not forget, but recently, seeing his photo at the site, as one of the commentators for the current WCC between incumbent Anand and challenger Topalov, knew that he was already being well punished. As Gurdjieff once said, ‘people are their own punishment’ and the very hatred and vitriol he puts forth, told to stop it by no less than me directly more than once, shows in his physiology.
You know the type, very Russian and very bitter. Nevertheless, all that said, let me close our first review by noting that I have made many wonderful and lasting friendships there.
FICS or Free Internet Server first and foremost attempts to replicate what ICC set out to do, but to sustain what was once a free service, and was established as a breakaway faction.
Its main advantage, other than being ‘the low cost provider’ (and it naggingly shows), is its apparent similarity to ICC yet it lacks its imprimatur, volume, or capacity. I do admit, it’s the most community oriented social group, and if you play there, you will get to know the names and faces, perhaps much easier than at ICC and certainly Playchess or chessCube--by far the far largest volume providers.
Disadvantage: if you are on the west coast or in Europe, its player volume drops off after 11 PST and obvious very early 7 am CST near the center of Europe in the Netherlands will find yourself light on play.
Playchess is also free and the shear volume leader. While it lacks the volume of titled players and GM’s as ICC, it is the clear volume leader. Having said that, its player volume is very cyclical and is not continuous through the day and your ability to instrumentalize that will depend a lot on where you live or some as to when you can sleep.
This great site has a very great advantage--even without premium membership with ensuing access to videos and broadcast commentary channels and narratives--and that is its putting you half way to chessBase, when chessBase lite and PlayChess coordinate perfectly. They have it set, most favorably, so that you cannot use the one while you use the other [3], chessBase in their infinite wisdom (and perhaps no small marketing savvy) has seen fit, so that when you are off playchess, the games easily are stored in chessBase light [4].
If I wasn’t already a tenured user at ICC, FICS, and now chessCube, I would make it my first choice barring ICC.
Despite its lack of heavy credentialed players does not mean there are not tons of class B's and A's so this is not Yahoo! on steroids. No. But again, despite missing all the IM's of ICC, it does offer a compensating benefit--Fritz8 when viewing match games. When you play, it is fully disabled. But when you are watching, you can select Fritz or Crafty or whatever client you want among an array of choices, and without having a separate window for chessBase or separate application, it is BUILT IN. It's the bomb. So when Dortmund or Linares or Wijk aan Zee is showing, you have built in analytics. A+ to team chessBase! And again, its free. Good god.
[tempoary Insert: I am told this is not true, that to get RATED you need a premium membership at 29.90 Euros, about US $38.47--about 0.10 cents per day]
Disadvantage: Playchess is very light in the wee hours, and its very, very heavily weighted towards European players.
Click to enlarge, photo courtesy of chessBase
But if you like me, view Europeans as superior to many American’s (I am NOT being sarcastic), then this is not all bad! And if like me, you are a night bird, it’s a no go unless you play at work, at lunch in the States, OR emphasize the weekends.
Playchess totally lacks features like finger notes at ICC and FICS, which add no small part to their great color.
ChessCube also has great volume. The apsx/java GAME BOARD interface is very, very slick which is a GREAT positive, but the game room and reporting interface sucks a big weenie. Such beta between greatness and paltriness!
Disadvantage: integrity is the lowest [5]. The shear volume of disconnects and take backs is mindblowing. I say, no way. The reporting is a dinosaur. PGN’s are available, but only if you touch the top of you head, spin three times, and get a PMP Certification or are a Certified Dell technician. You also need fifteen fingers. Need I say more. How unfortunate—they didn’t get it all wrong, and yes, its free.
* * * The Zoo: Yahoochess: the volume of strong players CAN be very good, if you know WHERE or when to go, but it can still be hard to get a game. Nevertheless, most of you would be shocked HOW strong the intermediate room is, Challenging Café—a tough, tough place as distinct from Yahoo! Social, a real zoo if ever there was one! Rudeness is maximal, its the McDonalds of chess or as they say, 'what do you want, its the internet?' Degraded is another word.
Disadvantage: pgn reporting via email has, despite showing availability that I know of, has been disabled. Terrible.
* * * Odds and ends: chess.com I don't pretend knowledge or experience of chess.com's PLAYING venues, but certainly have been a member there for a long time. I respect them greatly, but just like I am a veterate ICC person and never concerted bypassed playchess, so here: I have done all my posting at blogger, and used it as my source of chess contacts and conversations. I had no idea chess.com had such volume, but I cannot but be skeptical of the quality of the interface and ability to access, retain, and view games, or get player data. That is to say, as much as the some 1,000 games that I could see being played today, its not to ask WHY NOT play here, as why play there when those same sort of volumes are available playchess or chessCube for free also. On the fly, the board like chessCube's is very sweet, with a nice replay feature (unlike chessCube). But its also very, very hard to see the whole room. If I am playing, I want to see who is who, and what is what. It has some of chessCube's volume, if you want a simple web hosted player, but without the ability to see the whole venue on one page. Very critical.
GameKnot Good environment but weighted for correspondence chess, usually three days per move. I suspect they MIGHT have internet chess, but can hardly be expected to have volume. If I were both a professional writer with duty to verify all data, I would join JUST to get this data, but enough, I have too much already, AND if my life afforded the leisure of disciplined rewriting and polish, I would gladly do so, but I have not had income for 1.5 years. Sorry. If gameKnot or its affiliates wish to notice me about this, I will gladly insert this here.
RedHotPawn Same as gameKnot except I know that no internet (blitz or standard, etc) chess is played there, save correspondence. Very, very smart community. Very active message board. I suspect a lot more programs and chess engines are used than is acknowledged, but that is not our matter today. Smart record keeping, smart interface and heck, wormwood loves it--'works for me'. I left, but respect it--I can play or do deep analysis on computers here at home without involving others. Forgive me if I am wrong. I will gladly paste clarification here also. Please advise. Write David underscore _ Korn at cable speed dot com; cablespeed is one word.
* * * Stats and comparisons: 1:30 am PST, 4:30 am EST, 9:30 am CST: Times are obviously late but A. I am wide awake and can measure it calmly, and B. proportions are larger in the day but similar.
ICC: ‘403 players displayed of 891’, assume means 488 not counted, so 244 games. ICC has a Spanish speaking set of options in play and training that they purchased.
FICS: ‘305 players displayed of 831’, assume means 528 not counted or 264 games.
Playchess: ‘1375 main playing hall, 2,444 online’.
ChessCube: ‘2,237 online, 557 live games.
Yahoo, Social: 1,460 in top seven room, and next set several hundred et al. Yahoo, Intermediate: 167 in Challenging Café Yahoo, Advanced: two room about 200, sum: 2300 with odds and ends (often more like 4,000 in day time, i.e. EST, latter in day from India/Philippines, Europe, Japan.
9:45 am PST today, 12:45 pm EST, 8:45 pm CST in Amsterdam: These second set of measure were taken was during the peak of the Anand-Topalov game 8 (Topy win!), and was an excellent way to measure peak users among the aficionado or chess cognoscenti crowd:
ICC: '500 players displayed of 3,901'; WCC game 7 had 1,606 viewers when these measures were taken, so 894 games were being played: (3,901-1,606= 2294-500=1794/2= 894)
FICS: '793 players displayed of 1,733'; WCC game had 427 viewers, so 257 games (players are those shown NO playing, i.e. list of those available for invites, ostensibly)
Playchess: '7,446 online, 2506 main playing hall; Broadcast showed 3,004, so assuming most were viewing match, that’s about 1253 games, but hard to say.
chessCube: '2,675 players, 982 games' (no WCC broadcast)
chess.com: '3,547 players online'.
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* * I cannot say who, but spoke with an executive from one of these companies who told me, he ‘wouldn’t let his kids play at this site’, that’s how bad it is, as far as nasty language and behavior goes—and is looked upon with truly blind eyes, or benign neglect.
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* * To conclude, what you want to be able to do is play chess, not be disconnected too often, be able to complete or avoid disconnected games, be part of a social fabric or dimension, however large or small, be able to save or record your games, then be able to access them, and view them, and be able to obtain and sustain play at the time of day or days of week which suite your work, lifestyle, and economic budget preferences.
If all you want is a place for straight chess—for fun—with no regard for post-mortem or reporting, chessCube has the volume and a great playing board. Its allows premove and is sweet to look at, in all senses.
If you want to be a serious student, my vote is you go straight for playchess and skip FICS. It has real player volume and puts you immediately within easy reach of the foothills of chessBase through its baby version, chessBase light (same software, but disabling of some key features in file management! [5]) and is also free.
Click to enlarge image!!!!
And lastly, if you can spend not so much spend $70 per year as drink one beer less per week or forgo eating lunch out, at work, say twice per month, then there it is, the bar none, top choice but some of you, I know, think $150 for a sport for three years is too much yet the hours you spend on it says otherwise!
* * * Kant rules [6].
Love dk
[1] The leading credit card provider VISA is a provider of 'revolving credit', known for increasingly pernicious annual fees and/or penalties, easy 'get in terms' with limited conditions, but hard to get out of without belt tightening, due to not only higher rates, but very high rates relative to FED [7] Fund Rates. Those rates are near zero and the banks are having a pig fest.
[2] Finger notes are personal notes giving reign to free speech, self expression, settling grievances, or giving thanks!
[3] Total inability to view the one during the other is not quite true, but believe me, I have been using chessBase daily for over four years, and cannot tell you all I know at once, but its MOSTLY TRUEAgain, its not quite that simple but it is...more or less how it is: You need chessBase lite, another highly recommended free application, to READ those games from playchess. Suffice to say, if you do both, they make it easy and painless.
[4] Top marks here.As always, I can get you past that, but alas, a story for another day.
[5] Chess is not played by grabbing a piece, putting it down, then moving it, and saying 'I didn't mean that. Its not chess if it is. Chess is heavy and tense and irrevocable. Attracting a mass of persons who ask for TB's is not flattering to chessCube, no fucking way! They do laps around all other sites therein, its a fact. Why? The TB button is built in the screen. Bad, bad, bad design. Its like providing a brothel at a methodist isolated offshore drilling site. Flames. Light the match.
[6] Just kidding. Fritz Perls, and the Upanishads rule, take your pick.
[7] The FED does NOT set interest rates in the market [8]; rather, their charter purpose is price stability, one of the major tools of which is monetary policy, that is to say, setting rates that they charge to major money center banks in overnight loans. The trickle down affect is that banks loan THOSE funds, AKA 'injecting liquidity into the market. The FED can apply brakes or add fuel to this flow, by selling bonds or in turn buying bonds by taking money out of the system or re-injecting it.
[8] In the long run, the FED cannot control rates, but market forces do. The FED sets and communicates policy, meeting every six weeks and three weeks latter, making the minutes of the preceding meeting available, also every six weeks. The FED sets policy; buyers and sellers, that is to say, market forces set rates. And guess who or what is the market? It’s the currency market, enormous tranches of Euro’s, Yen, Yuan [9], Reals, Pounds, Wan, Peso’s sloshing around the planet, between buying and selling by major central banks such as the ECB, BOJ, European Central Bank or Bank of Japan. These markets dwarf even the most gargantuan USA stock markets, in global financial super novae.
Short and sweet: Well, about nine years back to chess, 99.99% of it on the internet, mainly ICC, Yahoo! before that, FICS at times, a tab bit of playchess, and even some 950 games at chessCube, after all that time, I am finally reached what is, by any measure, a real milestone.
In internet chess, what with all the addicts, geeks, and crazies, 'they don't give it away for free'. Its a bloody dog-fight, thats for sure!
I could say tons about the relative advantages, disadvantages, compensating elements of each of these, or regarding what actually function as--in essence--virtual or on-line communities, but that, alas, is for another day.
I did attain 1800+ at chessCube tonight. Hard to say, but its probably like 1600 in 5-minute chess at ICC. For sure it is inflated, but not WAY inflated. But if any of you have played 5 0 at ICC, you know that even 1500 is no laughing matter, which no less a blogger than wormwood, I am quite certain of, could safely attest to.
5-minute was a game that I used to be afraid of, for sure, but in due time, I had begun to see my advantage. My openings are all mapped out; I can pre-move; and faster than most (but not all), often whipping out tabaya's in 20 seconds or less. Whereas before beating 1700's was not common and 1800's most rare, now I am routinely beating 1800's.
Compare to ICC? Why yes, you will have that. But not today. I did so much work in chessBase9 on my prep, in virtually ALL lines, that I had to take a break there, with, what, chessCube as a low ego stakes game, or venue. Reporting there is worse than dying, whereas ICC is a svelte pipeline straight into chessbase, so I can play late, or tired at chessCube, and not get all hopped up inside, feeling like I need to chart the heavens after, like Laplace charting hyperspace or Euler explicating complex analysis. No, 'just chess, nothing else', like in the beer commercial.
The board there is slick; the interface truly sucks [1]. How they fail to learn or see, is beyond me, and I am speechless. Again, long story. Best summed up another day so other chess players can compare...
Me? I have a serious illness. My body is not dying. No guesses, please. If you read between the lines in the photo, age 52 and all, with my lovely and dear girlfriend Courtney, still 39 bless her heart, what a thing to still be '30!' I tell her, if you read between the lines with all my beets, cabbage, organic meat, carrots, string beans, black bean, rice, gluten and dairy free, you will witness an usual specimen for his age, running and stretching, a nutrition advertisement but things DO happen in life and in my own way, I am fighting for my life.
Love to all beings, dk
[1] Any of you who know me, know that I NEVER say 'suck' but it sucks. Believe me.
Fifteen thousand. Yes. Fifteen thousand is how many chess games saved that I have played to my chessBase9.
Its not that that's all of em. No. I had about three thousand as text files, in my old notebook PC in Outlook, I had honestly always planned to migrate over to pgn four or five years ago, but no worries.
With odds and ends, I am sure it is more like 20,000 since 2001. Remember, I had two, three years on Yahoo! before first ICC, then FICS, and even now, chessCube for low ego, low stakes warm up games. Its not that I play so much, as when I do play, its very, very hard to stop. Celexa also rev's me up. Not that an adjustment cannot be made, but believe you me, I have tried all the major anti-depressants, and its the ONLY one that works for me, 98% impotence aside :)... I know, I know, I am so shy and private to a fault. Elevated serotonin and sleep don't mix well but it sure beats the 'end of a gun' (gassing myself).
Seriously now with a quite a bit of truth there, the main message is, 15K games does one main thing, among a great many things (primer on endings, primer on blunders, a few brilliancy's, a few scalps against experts aside, etc), but one thing in particular:
If you are systematic, as I am--not with all things but many things, particularly in my areas of obsession--it will give you every major variation of every major line you play.
For example, if you play 1.d4, for sure you will get many Slav's, QGD, QGA, many chances to refine your anti-Indian strategies, many Semi-Slavs'. But you will also learn how to face the Chigorin Defense, many Albin Counter Gambits, many 1.d6, 1.e6, 1.c6...
For the last 18 months, I had more or less done, independent of his findings, exactly as wormwood did, as shown at Building A Repertoire, And Mastering It. Without intended criticism to our good friend Secrets of Grandpatzer Chess, he does a far better job of being systematic about it, or extracting the value from the value chain. I did as much.
Its great to have and use chessBase or similar--but its what you do with it. It reminds me of the folks who get a Masters or even undergraduate degree in English. They read, and they read, and they read, until they are sick. But try reading ten books, really reading them!
I mined all my openings, and found 84 tabiyas [2]. And out of--to start-- some 7,000 or so games, found that 24 key positions made up a full 80% of ALL my games. I took those, in turn, and narrowed them down so that I could find what I needed to do more of, find what I needed to do less of. Its a lot of work, but it pays.
Kant rules [3]. Warmest, dk
[1]. To all you men out there, try to not only finding a woman who not only encourages you to play chess but allows you to, when she is in the SAME room, to play as I do here, bullet chess for three hours+ AND doesn't complain, well neigh encourages you AND, then gleefully takes photographs of you doing so [4]?? Jesus guys. Melancholy Meadow Willows, my beloved Courtney is--or has been--a poet, dreamer, healer, and entertainer.
[2] A few random links on Tabiyas, here, and here, and here. And finally, the inimitable Dan Heisman at ChessCafe.com here and here, hopefully not without profit.
“Federer plays with no stress on his body and seemingly no stress in his mind,” four-time major champion Jim Courier said on Australia’s Seven Network. “As long as he stays healthy, we’ll see him challenging for another three to four years."
[4]. While as a rule I--mostly--consider 1-minute to be a real waste of time, I do have a rule, and that is NEVER to finish a set without a peak rating. Problem was, I had inadvertently hit 'Play 1-Minute' at ICC (intending the next 'Play 5-minute game'), in the pool of random, stacked players, a fabulous feature at ICC [6] and not only lost, but lost again, and again, and again, only to wind up spending an ENTIRE Sunday afternoon doing so, with my girlfriend JUST feet away, and never once complaining.
Yes, I got my peak back AND found, in the next day, I could WHIP out 5-Minute openings and entire games, to my profit, so not a total waste. It has its place [5].
[5]. No laughing. I am not, I repeat, I am not OCD. I kid you not, I played a 9.5 minute bullet game days ago, beating a 1750. No laughing matter. 91 moves, 181 ply. I play 0 4, which begins with twelve seconds, avoiding Armageddon utter non-sense.
[6]. A great feature. At times, while a 1500 can play a 1450 or 1550, pairing as closely as possibly, you will see your fair share of 1700's and 1300's alike. It means you can scalp a few senior players, maybe even an IM, now and again, but allows otherwise unwanted juniors to scalp YOU. The coolest thing. As BDK [7] and wormwood can attest, if you are willing to spend one, two, or three hundred dollars on chess books, CD's, videos, tournament money, beer, wine, Frito-Lay chips but are unwilling to invest in a year's paid membership at ICC, well, there is just no hope for you, plain and simple. Please. If you cannot get chessBase and play at ICC, better to give up chess and open a pawn shop, sell your chess books. OK?
I have not worked or had regular income since the day before Thanksgiving in 2008 [1]. Needless to say, its been hard. Do I have time to blog? Probably. Extra mental energy? Maybe, maybe not.
But those of you who know me, are aware that I have been playing chess all along. Hiatus from the bloggesphere? Yes. Absence from chess? Not hardly. But far be it for me to say that I have been luxuriating in endless and sweet reverie in chess, I have not.
I have played plenty, just not at all times. One needs piece of mind to give chess ones all, and I do NOT play for fun. I play for sport, to win, to kill and destroy. Chess is war the way I do it--its all business.
Where I am currently making a big breakthrough is:
Playing regularly in scale, instead of as I did before--marathon sessions for weeks, only to thereafter HAVE TO stop due to stress and exhaustion--and sequestering back in study. Now I try to play every day, or nearly every day, but take more time to review losses, opening prep, CTS, all that. Proportionality and balance.
I am finally 1500 at ICC at 5 0. A rippedly bloody harsh game. My blitz is at 1531, and soon to be 1600 (its out of date now), which ranks 6,732 out of 14,442, but the 5-Minute ranks only 2306 out of 4,153 yet is far more competitive. I also plan to finally hit 1500 at bullet--and I do not mean 1 0--but 0 4, which starts with 12 seconds at ICC and ten at FICS, and can easily have 4 minute games with long endings, avoiding silly Armageddon.
Love to all, dk
[1] But as is plain to see for the eyes, am not doing badly in ALL areas: my beloved Courtney, whom I met on twitter--been to visit in Seattle twice. 23 day second date. Two folks not totally familiar in one tiny house for 3+ weeks without ever going to total war is a good sign. She is the best woman ever! Needless to say, she is very type B to my type A, and so it works....
Might I recommend that you try watching this game between Bologan and Bacrot by paning your browser, with the video on one side, then actual game in your chess viewer on the other?
The way I did it, I moved the curser in chessBase move for move at exactly the same speed of the game.
It is from the first the ACP World Rapid Chess Cup in Odessa, Ukraine [1]. That these guys can really play chess--like other similarly endowed Super Grandmasters--with nerves of steel cannot be doubted. Enjoy!
Impatient viewers can move to the 5:40 mark with Bologan's very tense 31.e6, when things really heat up. No one disagrees that that is Korchnoi's unique voice in the background?
On one short personal note, I am currently spending several hours each day in job hunting. As French anthropologist Rene Dubos once said:
"In many ways, modern man is like an animal kept in a zoo, protected from the inclemencies, confined and depriving him of many of the natural stimulae essential for the well being of his mind and body".
That about says what it is like--home alone all week, cyber knocking on doors and occassionally on the telephone in an equally arcane and impersonal, dissociated world. Man.
Just as I was preparing to reproduce the article in full linked here from chessVibes, under 'What do we think of chess skill?', as I was typing this, first trying to find the source link to the referenced article below, found another similar but distinctly seperate article that chessBase JUST published, so must reproduce only the summary from chessVibes here, so that I can instead follow up with more content from the second article [1]:
'What are the effects of amount of practice, coaching and age of starting chess on chess skill? And how do we chess players view such notions as skill and talent? Dr Robert Howard of the University of New South Wales in Australia carried out a survey and its preliminary results answer a few of these questions.
'On June 15 we invited you to take part in a survey on chess skill by Dr Robert Howard of the University of New South Wales in Australia. Howard’s study of chess skill looks at effects of amount of practice, coaching and age of starting chess on chess skill and at chess players’ views about chess skill. The study involves a short online survey and is for anyone who has, or who ever has had, a FIDE rating. (Participating is still possible; if you’re interested and you have an FIDE rating, please click here.)
Double Click Image to Enlarge
'We have now received the preliminary results:
'Preliminary Results of FIDE Chess Survey
'Thanks to everyone who took part in this survey. Here are the preliminary results. The sample consist of 581 players to date, with five grandmasters, 25 international masters, 67 FIDE masters, two woman’s grandmasters, two woman’s international masters, and two woman’s FIDE masters. The results are only preliminary, however. Some highlights:
'Players learned the moves at a median age of eight years old (masters about two years younger). The median age of starting serious play and taking part in the first rated tournament is 14, 12 for masters. Most players have had coaching. Players average around five or six hours of chess study a week, but the range is huge (0 to 60 hours). Number of hours of study of chess material is a factor in expertise level but only a relatively minor one.
'Most players firmly believe in natural talent for chess and most believe that top ten players have some special traits, that few really can reach that level. However, many believe that a lot of study and practice can take a player a long way. Some believe that almost everyone can get to FIDE master with enough practice and study.
'Views on what natural talent for chess consists of vary, but some common ideas are good spatial ability, high IQ, good memory, creativity, high motivation, a strong will to win, control over emotions, and psychological hardiness.
Le-Mont St-Michel
'Eventual grandmasters take a median 390 FIDE-rated games from rating list entry to gain the title. Most players do not play anywhere near enough rated games in their careers to have a realistic chance of becoming a grandmaster. About two thirds of those who do play over 900games actually succeed in becoming a grandmaster. However, those who play over 740 games without becoming a grandmaster on average seem to strike an impassable barrier at around 2400 level.
'Analysis of rating data of players who played over 900 FIDE-rated games show that eventual top ten players indeed are identifiable from list entry. They get on the rating list much younger on average, get the grandmaster title much younger and much faster, and rise in theratings much faster than other grandmasters.
'Most believe that playing rated games and studying are equally important in developing skill.
'Read the full article here [highly recommended, dk].
'For any queries, please contact Dr Robert Howard, University of New South Wales.
'Not very surprising results, although I’d like to mention a few that struck me.1) “Number of hours of study of chess material is a factor in expertise level but only a relatively minor one.” This sort of confirms my impression that playing many (tournament) games is the best way to improve your chess. But not everybody agrees: “Most believe that playing rated games and studying are equally important in developing skill.”2) “Some believe that almost everyone can get to FIDE master with enough practice and study.” I was one of those, and I was speaking of a purely theoretical situation where you pick a random person in the street and put him in some kind of villa where he receives 8 hours of excellent training every day for a few years, and plays against many strong players. As long as this person likes chess, I think he(/she!) should be able to reach about 2200, 2300 FIDE'.
Were these riches not enough, chessBase just published a monster article every bit as good:
10.12.2008 – Discoveries on consciousness have inspired Norwegian philosopher Rune Vik-Hansen to forge a new view on development of chess skills. Challenging the current pedagogical climate, which claims that talent is insignificant and exposure to material a magic formula, he clarifies why blunders in chess are caused by a lack of interplay between consciousness and mind. Treatise with summary.
'Summary/Abstract
'Born out of recent findings from the field of consciousness and mind, the article explains that chess playing is based upon a fine interplay between a mind subconsciously triggering moves, and a well disciplined consciousness knowing what to keep and what to discard. The highly popular opinion that chess playing is done solely by a conscious self is challenged.
'Disputing the concept of “conscious memory”, it is shown that that one cannot remember material by acts of volition, and that development of chess skills cannot be explained by concepts revolving around consciousness.The article takes to task the current pedagogical claims that talent is of no significance and that exposure to chess material will bring the aspiring player equally far, and also the prevalent understanding that passion for, taking an interest in and believing in what you do are important components in improvement, chess or otherwise. On the contrary, the text demonstrates the significance of innate ability, and that passion and interest merely can direct our attention towards certain fields of study, but that acquiring skills involves different mental processes than these.Avoiding blunders being a major component in development of chess skills, they are here explained as caused by a flawed interplay between consciousness and mind, based upon the distinction between seeing and perceiving. A possible solution to the problem is suggested.
'A closer look is taken at the highly popular concept in chess lingua, “pattern recognition”. By pinpointing functional as well as conceptual problems, it is shown that the concept does not meaningfully lend itself to explain chess playing. Specific idiosyncrasies between patterns and structures are scrutinized to show that the conceptual problems run deeper than mere semantics. The fundamental difference is argued by looking at how these two relate to each other, and how they are expressed in chess discourse and chess literature. Since no formal definition of “pattern” in chess exists, it is impossible effectively to meaningfully communicate “pattern recognition” as a workable concept to explain the development of chess skills. To then explain chess playing and support the claim that the idea of “pattern recognition” is highly problematic, “exformation” is introduced as a new concept to chess discourse, thinking and communication.
'Upon closure, chess playing is compared with judgment in the field of morality, trying to explain that just as in morality, chess players constantly encounter and have to deal with situations (positions) never before encountered.Finally, it is offered why many present methods of study will not seriously improve or develop chess skills. In context of the undertaken analysis, Kotov’s method is suggested for chess improvement, and it is explained why it works. Note: you can use the "Print" function on the left to get a printer-friendly version of this article'.
Hope you all enjoy! Warmest, dk
[1] I sent this to BDK and, to his great credit, already was aware of the article. Nice going!
The bad news is I honestly remembered it that way, but heck, its been 37 years since 1973 when I last played! If I intended to misrepresent this to you guys and gals, the last three years, I would NEVER publish this. LOL on dk. Fire at me guys!
The good news is, I am serious about this, that way friends and foe alike will be able to find me online:
Dear Walter:
Charles Galore (FM) of Florida told me you were very responsive, and this is greatly appreciated. He also said you were very nice.
What a delight to not only get positive confirmation from the USCF, but at that to receive it from one of the well known Sanctus Sanctus of enterprising chess from the same era that I also played, albeit at my MUCH lower level back in the day. How poetic!
Question, but correct me if I am wrong, but will the variability of future wins/loses for my next 14 games (I assume this makes the 25 required to no longer be provisional) still be tied to calculations using the old rated 11 players, from before? That is to say, is it true those are used, and not that you start me at 1452, and only calculate 14 games? I don’t know how this works, but need a little reassurance there is a solid method from grandfathered ratings.
I will be sure to send good words back to the good GM Yaz.
Thank you again!
Warmest, dk
When Help Comes: Even Bobby Fischer to Wade...
-----Original Message-----
From: Walter Brown wbrown@_________.com Sent: Friday, December 05, 2008 1:12 PM To: transformation@_________.com Subject: Re: USCF 8323: Ratings Question or Problem U.S. Chess Web Inquiry wrote:
SUBMITTED TO WEB CONTACT PAGE From: David Korn, Seattle Date: Wed 3 Dec 2008 6:49:29 pm CST Agent: Mozilla/4.0 Subject: USCF 8323: Ratings Question or Problem
Dear USCF:
I plan on re-joining the USCF, but have been away for 34 years! I was 1667 or 1671 or 1668 elo, provisional, at age 14, for 12/14 or 16 games, cannot recall, maybe 8 games but think more. It was published in the back of the old Chess Life & Review for the next three years. I lived in New Jersey. Born October __, 1958. Member, Montclair Chess Club, tournament director Al Gruter (sp?).
I am told that the USCF always wants to know if you have ever played in a rated tournament before, so wish to be prepared and know the procedure.
The condition of my joining is the suitable resolution of this. Thank you.
David Korn close friend of GM Seirawan's.
David Korn: I found your record in the 1975 annual list and you were 1452 for 11 games. Walter Brown, USCF [1]
Please, if any of you suffer from Sadness or Depression, do not play this Johnny Cash video. Warning.
That said, it is among his best ever songs. It might rip your heart in two to hear it [2].
On a more serious note, I heard from the State today. Leave it to likeForest to be one step ahead of everyone else, ALWAYS. For on Thanksgiving day, he simply asks me: 'Are they going to pursue terminate with cause?' ... guy even knows the exact term.
I just spent the entire day writing my side of the story, and now I need to go run for a whole hour to work off the shakes and trembles and tension. Sleep on the deadly contaminated waste, and FAX them the letter tomorrow after revision founded on rest. Bastards in corporate will do all they can to save a dime. Really.
I told it like it is. My boss, and my old boss copied me their two letters tdoay, and both are, to say the least, not at all accurate (which is putting it nicely) as to the facts, obligating me all the more so to set it the record straight as I don't want to be in any way associated with this story that they tell. Damn.
Warmest, dk [3]
... .. .
[1] Polly aka Castling Queenside, bless her kindest beautiful heart is also mailing me a photocopy of the same GM Brown referenced. LikeForest also so kindly and generously offered to make a special trip to the library to furninsh the same. All great friends! Thank you!
[2] I am particularly indebted to my very dear friend and now colleague, Phaedrus, for sending me this vdieo. He only sends me fine jewels because he himself is one also. [3] In college, the hardest professor called me Korn's Cornucopia on a good day. 'The cornucopia (Latin: Cornu Copiae) is a symbol of food and abundance'.
Attention bloggers over age fifty and inveterate collectors of, *well*, stuff, does anyone out there have old issues of 'Chess, Life, & Review', between 1973-76? I know this must come as a real shock to most of you, but I was once forteen years old.
If the USCF cannot respond appropriately, I need to furnish proof, I assume, of my old 1667 provisional rating. This puts me one step closer to joining the USCF and so, play some over the board chess. I am preparing. And, why yes, I have the time now!
The Caro-Kann, Slav, QGA&D, anti-Indian variations from 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5, Endings, and CT-Art 3.0. Yes, there is enough to do! Any help in finding old issues (ratings lists) much appreciated.
After six years working for the second largest building materials company worldwide, it’s over. That they performed their shameless deed the day before Thanksgiving, is now but a small minor detail illustrating the real lack of human regard of the prototypical, modern major, business enterprise.
Was it not Jesus who said: "By their fruits you will know them"?
And if that were not enough, when I got home, I made the appropriately immediate phone call to my now aged--but still very alert mother--who before I could tell her MY news asked me: 'Did you hear?' Since she was the one who informated me about the 9-11 attack in September 2002, with her again serious tone of voice, I suddenly had good reason to feel morbidly anxious.
What terrorist now, I thought? "In India, they were shooting hundreds, asking, 'where are the American's and British?' ... Steven was there, just last week in the same hotel".
My older brother, who travels the world at a Director level doing large scale enterprise consulting (aka 'System Integration) in travel and finance for one of the many large India computor services companies, had indeed been there at the exact same hotel in Mumbai just days before. The thoughts that go through our head. So that's when I got to tell her. This was all within the hour of getting uncerimoniously fired. Not the best of days!
Let’s face it, if an employer needs a reason to fire four people all at once, they can always find a way to do it. It's never pretty, but to me its all just economics, as I am not bitter, and have appreciated the last six years—truly. I have met hundreds of thousands of persons, and some real portion of them were the best encountered ever anywhere, I kid you not.
I have had much to say about the economy, and now my similarity to many persons in dire straights has only increased. While right now my overall health is very good [1] and my emotional state good, the system is oversupplied with job applicants—at every conceivable level. For example, JP-Morgan Chase, who bought failed Seattle based Thrift WAMU, just last night announced layoffs of 3,400 persons, and this clogs the State Unemployment system, and on the margin, vastly increased the already swelled ranks for job seekers.
Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Areas [1.1]
On principle, I had and have every intention of staying here, but in this economy MUST allow myself to entertain any reasonable job offer in any place, since my best shot of technical [2] sales clearly now take me anywhere, to any enterprise, doing anything. Yikes. I don’t want to leave this place; I want my mountains; I want my moderate climate; I want my diversity. But I want to sustain my economic viability even more.
This is first and foremost a chess blog, even if I roam current affairs, society, the planets, the soul, the edge of things. For the last seven weeks, I have been playing on line chess ‘every single day’ [3]. This has been my stress release. I was already looking for a new job, and for the last year, at work, I was already all but fired anyway, and kept around like a pig ready for slaughter. See the post called Hopeless at my other blog devoted to Inner Work.
I said I wasn’t bitter. That’s true. But it's also more than true to say that as the single highest paid person who was not a manager--AND paid more than most of the main managers--it was a testament to my work ethic that I was able to survive the last year under brutal top management's unrelenting pressure, ceaseless scrutiny, compulsive criticism, micro-inspection seeking blame and 'make wrong' at all costs, limitless demands, and implied threat [4] in a boundless parade of the divine comedy which in and of itself perfectly exemplified the full spectacle of ignorance, arrogance, and stupidity. Where is Rabelas and Cervantes now?
Along with that, I have been processing and viewing reams, hoards of high level GM games in chessBase daily. I hate to say it again, but more on that latter [7] as if to say that if I was already way too preoccupied with ‘the job situation’ the last three months since the financial crisis emerged [8], then that much more now. That hit the emergency break on blogging as you know it from me.
Thirdly, I have yet again resumed working at CT-Art 3/0, and as before, take a lot of time on each position. I set up a small travel set, and keep two boards for two positions open at a time. With the first open, I try to solve it; the second one is for pondering. Once the first is attempted in the program and have gone as far as I can absolutley go no further, the second assumes the fore, when I attempt the first problem formally and directly at the computor here, and open a new, second position.
Who are these rash fools who think that they have done CT-Art 3.0 in two months or two weeks? Did they ever calculate all the lines? Did they see the board or just 'click, click', and eat the virtual Fast Food of McTactics? No. Two years or more if you really spend real time on it. Not possibly any less than a year if they really concentrated.
If you do one CTA3 in less than a day, well *ahem* , then you never really saw the fucking board. Don't kid yourself with more dilusion. CTA3 is not about sustaining your dilusion but annihilating it and this, pal, is not fast. Remember, 'takes you to Master Level'. Master level is about rarety from 1500 to 1700 elo and rarety is not, sorry to say, fast.
Often, I take them to my bed early each evening for my beloved daily nap. By the time I have moved the curser ONCE, to attempt the position, I have calculated every variation that I can. Artificial a measure though it may be, 2200 elo is still not attainable by someone who does not know something about chess, and who has studied a lot of tactics, and learned to calculate. Half way through Level Five, you really need to be able to first conceive an irrational move then see the best reply, THEN be able to envision an another counter-intuitive chess move, then a best reply, and THEN more of the same for many a ply. Its very hard, the way I do it. No moving pieces, just a deep brain stare!
After that, my enchantment with CTS continues. While I can no longer spend hours there, and at 50,000+ tries I have spared no effort, I manage after long breaks totally away from there, to make my way back. My motive now is to get to 96.5001% as dogWaste finally, and to get to 50,000 tries at 90.0501% as dkTransform. Its diminishing returns now, and the prize far and away lays elsewhere, such as CT-Art or Secrets of Pawn Endings, or Shereshevsky’s Endgame Strategy.
Finally I am working on repertoire. If any of you are on ICC, and not using wimpB to refine your openings, by playing a set sequence of moves 1450-1650 for blitz [9] which at the main departure point of the tabaya will vary its responses, forcing you to really learn your ‘lines’, then shame, shame on you!
Also, at FICS, I took what was gained from that concenrated burst at ICC and now only play a set repertoire. As a consequence of that, when I get to a place where I don’t have a set response to a new fundamental position, then endeavor to find or develop one. It might be very simple and need not be elaborate, such as always using g3 against the Dutch Defense. The main idea is--good or bad—to take a position, explore it, and not deviate until you reach a dead end and fail, then reassess, and so on [10].
The best for last. I while I must focus on my job search, yes, I do work at my chess daily. I have printed a list of all USCF events in the Northwest in the next few months, and it is my definite intent to see if I can get my old 1670 USCF back and if they wont let me start from there, well, start over!
Warmest, dk
The Low Point of the Last Seventy Years
[ 1] The blood pressure with the adrenal supplement program is now again excellent, and this is one more instance of integrative or holistic health bypassing the mere masking of symptoms by allopathic medicine, which only tries to suppress or inhibit them instead of getting at root cause. I do admit, while my current program has assuaged the prior (pre-hypertension), its still very, very hard for me to sleep normally. I am running daily again, and as I quickly re-establish the ability to run for an hour or more, this aught to help the sleep mightily (I hope)!
[1.1] A very nice list of MSA's or Metropolitan Statical Areas, is shown here. You want to know America? Then you must know this!
[2] The essence of my resume is my being the rare person who can communicate well, talk, write, do presentations all while being very comfortable with Contact, Project, and Knowledge Management alike. This is my calling card. A spreadsheet, technical, financial or visual data person who can negotiate and lead who it just so happens, is highly creative. Try explaining that one to blind server agents only capable of reading blind ASCE *.txt data! [3] Ok, ok. Not every single day, but 42 of the last 46 days, where I maintain perfect cumulative records of history both at FICS, ICC, and now Chess Cube [5] (my warm up place).
[4] The fact that I challenged senior and middle management on a regular basis only made it more so—my lasting there, proving that I gave them real dollar value, despite their repeatedly reminding me how much I was paid :) . In computing, this relates to what is called ‘the deadly embrace’ [6].
[5] Despite its lack of full features such as access to automated pgn reports, or performance history, this lack of professional polish gives it some appeal. I don’t need to invest much in my feelings about it. Almost, just, just almost 1700 in blitz yesterday, but not quite… At the same time, the game board interface is very pleasant, baring a clock too small for me since I play tight, increment games at 3/3 there, which is five minutes for 40 moves but avoids some stupid Armageddon.
[6] Information about the deadly embrace, can be found here, The Apollo Syndrome. Definition of The Deadly Embrace: This is a term used in computing some years ago to signify a problem between two computer programs - where each prevents the other from making progress.
"What happens is that Program A takes exclusive control of record 1, and program B takes record 2. Program A then tries to get exclusive access to record 2, but as this is under exclusive control of the other program, it can't. The program then waits until record 2 is released. Meanwhile, program B tries to get exclusive control of record 1, but can't, as it is under the exclusive control of program A. Program B waits until record 1 is released. Therefore, neither program can make any progress because it is waiting for the other program to give way. A similar situation can occur in discussions if each person is trying to get the other to concede the flaws in his/her argument, without conceding the flaws in his own. The way out of this situation is to look for the points of agreement, rather than trying to spot flaws."
[7] I plan to write two major essays: the first is to be called ‘Letters to a Not So Young BDK’ (only meant in the chess sense, of course), of course referring to my previously written Letters to a Young Blue Devil Knight) from 2005; the second takes on advanced issues of organizing high level data at chessBase, with Polly, Castling Queenside as the Proxy.
[8] I have had a mark on my head made more prominent since the Housing and Financial Crisis erupted.
[9] WimpB always and only plays 2/8, or 7:20 for forty moves. Very reasonable rate of play for compressing lots and lots of chess knowledge. Let me suggest wimpC or WimpD for others, to same affect.
Born in New Jersey and educated in New York, after practicing architecture, I lived in a zen temple in Korea, did a long stint on
Wall Street as a Senior Broker, studied with a guru who lived with Maharishi in India, and now recently and ingloriously unemployed after six remarkable years working for a big box retailer in building materials. I try to be pretty straightforward in my conduct.
With No Offence to Anyone: Old or Inactive Blogs [ALL above a MASSIVE SORT, and then, in kind, this below will be sorted next but for obvious reasons not important now]
+experiment+Tracker+Outer+Barrel+TOB+in+the+cleaning+room.jpg){kind=tracking}
