Everything/Anything and…Chess…"Despite the documented evidence by chess historian HJR Murray, I've always thought that chess was invented by a goddess"–George Koltanowski: from the foreword to:"Women in chess, players of the Modern Age"
It is time for the Chess World Cup 2013 – in Norway Please click here for the official site.
Photo and message from Europe-Echecs Twitter account See the official video to know who is taking part. My favourite this time? I think Etienne Bacrot.
Chess Players arriving at the university of Tromso for the opening ceremony – photo SPolgar [twitter]
Susan Polgar doing exactly what she says on these tweets
Susan interviews her ‘baby’ sister, Judit on 13/8/2013
NO Susan, he is NOT funny and insightful, read HERE why I don’t think he is and make sure you read the first 10 lines carefully. [hmf]
Tromso – image: Barents Observer
Lovely colourful houses in Tromso [image:getintotravel]
It was in the late 90’s when I said to my ex-headteacher that I would love to see chess as a subject in schools, for all the known reasons why children would benefit from it. – There are many entries on my blog about research and the benefits of chess – in the ‘search’ box you can type key words and you should find about 10 entries-or even more about the benefits of chess. You can read similar/same entries on many other sites too. Research conducted by various people from various countries in different/same areas has shown the same results. There is no doubt that chess, not only help children with all subjects in school [including reading!], but also support children in building/developing their skills for life. The fact that the European Parliament has made this decision, is great news for chess and chess-lovers all over the world!
“This is a historical success for the European chess. The date of March 13th, 2012 will go down in chess history as the date when the game of chess advanced to a higher level of recognition by the society – not just like sport, but also like a part of education in the modern world.” – said Mr. Silvio Danailov, the President of the European Chess Union.
The President of the European Chess Union Mr. Silvio Danailov was applauded by all the MEPs for the success of the ‘Chess in School’ Declaration. This happened during the official parliamentary session at the EU Parliament where Mr. Danailov was invited as a special guest and presented by the Bulgarian MEP Mr. Slavi Binev. The President of the EU Parliament, Mr. Martin Schulz officially announced from the rostrum that the Written Declaration 50/2011 about Chess in School was endorsed by the EU Parliament. After the session, some of the MEPs said to Mr. Danailov that the acceptance of the Declaration is really a great success, because the EU MEPs usually adopt only small number of Declarations, 10-15% of them. The final number of the MEPs who have signed the Written Declaration 50/2011 is 415. Silvio Danailov, Bulgarian MEP Slavi Binev and the chess legend Garry Kasparov, also gave an official press conference, which reached audience on 250 national TV stations from Europe and the world. All activities and events connected to the project “Chess in school” were held under the high patronage of the previous President of the European Parliament, prof. Jerzy Buzek and Mr. Slavi Binev, who is the main supporter of the project and who introduced the Written Declaration 50/2011. During the press conference, Mr. Danailov gave a special award to Mr. Binev for his big contribution to the acceptance of the Written Declaration. MEPs John Attard-Montalto and Hannu Takkula, who were among the strongest supporters of the project, also took part in the press conference. The Written Declaration will officially be communicated from the Parliament to the Commission and to the Parliament of each EU Member State together with the list of signatories. The Declaration calls on the Commission and Council:
– To encourage the introduction of the program ‘Chess in School’ in the educational system of the Member States;
– To pay, in its forthcoming communication on sport, the necessary attention to the program ‘Chess in School’ and to ensure sufficient funding for it from 2012 onwards;
– To take into consideration the results of any studies on the effects of this program on children’s development.
The development and implementation of the program will be carried out as a joint project between the European Chess Union and Kasparov Chess Foundation Europe.
Source: Please click HERE for the site of EUROPECHESS
Toasting success! Garry Kasparov, Silvio Danailov and the team celebrate. Image: chess.com
It’s a long time since I’ve blogged something chessy – so here goes… time is tight! I don’t even have enough time to play a proper chess game. Luckily, it’s almost Easter Hols and then I might have a few spare hours to play a game or two. I do miss playing chess though! I’ve come across this movie-article and thought to share it with you. The movies can’t go without chess! It’s Spring and trees around us are almost covered in blossoms. This flower-pic was taken in August last year. I hate these bees we have here, they are surely not friendly and look quite scary.
In ‘Queen to Play’ Sandrine Bonnaire plays a chambermaid empowered by playing chess.
Chess as a Slow Dance of Seduction
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Published: March 31, 2011
Caroline Bottaro’s tangy comic bonbon, “Queen to Play,” plucks the game of chess out of the metaphorical realm of spy thrillers and reimagines it as a fable about relationships and upward mobility. Adapted from Bertina Henrichs’s novel “The Chess Player,” this slight but captivating movie (Ms. Bottaro’s directorial debut) compares the strategies of chess to the erotic maneuvers in a flirtatious pas de deux that may be more satisfying than actual sex. At the same time, a woman’s winning the game symbolizes female empowerment in a man’s world and ascent from working-class drudgery to the bourgeoisie.
Hélène (Sandrine Bonnaire), the movie’s sly, middle-aged Cinderella, is an attractive chambermaid at a luxury hotel in Corsica. While going about her chores, she observes a chess game being played by a sexy American couple (Jennifer Beals and Dominic Gould) on the balcony of their suite. Stealthy moves accompanied by insinuating eye contact culminate with the woman’s defeating the man and flashing Hélène a smile of conspiratorial glee.
Hélène takes the hint, and at a birthday party for her husband, a handsome dockworker named Ange (Francis Renaud), she presents him with an electronic chess set in the hopes of reigniting the spark in their marriage. Ange is mystified and vaguely annoyed by the gift. When he expresses no interest in learning the game, Hélène begins teaching herself to play and quickly becomes obsessed.
“Queen to Play” is a lighthearted, grown-up fairy tale in which chess consumes Hélène’s imagination and transforms her life. As she mops a black-and-white checkered floor, it becomes a surreal dreamscape. At a restaurant she makes chess pieces out of crumbled bread and pushes them around the squares of the red-and-white tablecloth.
The intimate looks exchanged by the characters as they compete for advantage in a game in which the queen is the most powerful piece tell us as much about them as anything they say. Sometimes chess even suggests a mental striptease in which the players shed their defenses as they exchange glances and dare each other to go forward. At other times it conjures a war between the sexes, with Hélène the feminist upstart challenging male dominance.
Avid to learn more, she discovers a chess set in the house of Dr. Kröger (Kevin Kline, in his first entirely French-speaking role), a widowed American professor for whom she works as a part-time housecleaner. She volunteers to clean his place in exchange for weekly chess lessons. A mysterious figure suffering from an unidentified lung ailment, Kröger agrees. When, after only a few lessons, she is regularly beating him, he urges her to enter a local tournament.
In small but significant ways, “Queen to Play” defies expectations. It dangles the possibility of an affair between Hélène and Kröger in games that the film likens to courtship rituals in a classic screwball comedy. But their flirtation is never physically consummated.
Hélène’s relationships with her husband and rebellious teenage daughter, Lisa (Alexandra Gentil), undergo surprising transformations. Ange, initially threatened by Hélène’s passion, which keeps her out late and distracts her from housework, is initially so suspicious that he follows her to a lesson and spies on her. But once he realizes that she has a gift, his jealousy turns to admiration, and the flame of desire is rekindled. Lisa, who is so ashamed and contemptuous of her parents for being “poor” that she refuses to invite boyfriends to the house, becomes her mother’s fervent champion.
Ms. Bonnaire’s Hélène subtly evolves from a harried, resentful domestic wearing a perpetually hurt expression into a woman who discovers her power. Mr. Kline, as the haughty, secretive professor with a kind heart under a prickly exterior gives one of his finest screen performances, executed with minute fluctuations in his body language.
In their most delicious scene Hélène and Kröger play an imaginary game of chess away from the board. Gazing into each other’s eyes, they engage in what has the ring of intellectual pillow talk. Although the conversation is entirely chaste, in the intensity with which they study each other’s signals, they might as well be newlyweds.
QUEEN TO PLAY
Opens on Friday in Manhattan.
Directed by Caroline Bottaro; written by Ms. Bottaro and Caroline Maly, based on the novel “The Chess Player,” by Bertina Henrichs; director of photography, Jean-Claude Larrieu; edited by Tina Baz Le Gal; music by Nicola Piovani; set design by Emmanuel de Chauvigny; costumes by Dorothée Guiraud; produced by Dominique Besneard and Michel Feller; released by Zeitgeist Films. In French, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 36 minutes. This film is not rated.
WITH: Sandrine Bonnaire (Hélène), Kevin Kline (Dr. Kröger), Francis Renaud (Ange), Jennifer Beals (the American Woman), Dominic Gould (the American Man), Valérie Lagrange (Maria) and Alexandra Gentil (Lisa).
A version of this review appeared in print on April 1, 2011, on page C8 of the New York edition..
It is time to enter for the South African Open 2010. Click the image for the Official website of the organisers: Ramlodi. The link is also on my blog’s side bar. Last year we had 3 GM’s to play in this tournament online from different continents and it was the first Fide tournament to be played online. You can visit the official website or follow some of the links here. Games/photos will be followed and blogged here as results will become available during the tournament.
Please click here for the ONLINE entry form. [Links will open in a new window] NON-Citizens of South Africa: Click click here to pay via PayPal or visit the Official site for the same link.
The Venue: Tswane University of Technology [Pretoria] Venue: Inside [Theunis Bester Hall] – see more pics on the Official site.
History of the South Africa Chess Open Championships
The Cape Town Chess Club is the oldest chess club in the country, boasting an un-interruped existence since its foundation in 1885! However, it is almost certainly not the first club that was formed. Besides the reference above to a club which met in Cape Town in 1847, the Grahamstown Journal of 29 December 1969 reports the result of a match of three games played by correspondence that year between Amateur Chess Club of Port Elizabeth and the Grahamstown Chess Club. Grahamstown won all three games.
The 1st SA Championship, Cape Town 1892
At the Cape Town Chess Club’s 7th Annual General Meeting in March 1892, J.H. Clark, one of the club’s most prominent member introduced a proposal that a general chess tournament, open to all chess players in South Africa, be held in Cape Town under the auspices of the Cape Town Chess
Club. This proposal was received with enthusiasm and the club set about organising the tournament. The Metropolitan Hall in Burg Street was the venue. The tournament was opened by the club’s President, the Bishop of Cape Town, and others on the platform were General Cameron, officer commanding the local British forces. Prize money offered amounted to £25. The rate of play was 25 moves per hour, with sessions of four hours duration, but few games lasted that long. Eleven players were accepted for the Championship proper and ten played in the Minor tournament, both being round-robins. The tournament was to last six days, during which the contestants had to play 10 games. This heavy schedule was quite acceptable to all, it seems. Rivett and Roberts each scored 9½ out of 10. They then contested two games to break the tie, the first beginning at 4pm on the sixth day of the tournament. Roberts won this and at 7:30pm that same day the second game commenced. Rivett was successful so the title was shared.
The 2nd SA Championship, Cape Town 1897
After a lapse of five years the Cape Town Chess Club again took the initiative and staged the second SA Championship in 1897. The committee has budgeted for a total expenditure of £200 and it is noteworthy that the full amount was subscribed by donors, among whom was President Steyn of Orange Free State, who gave £5. The Prizes in the Championship were £30, £20, £10 and £5, with a further £10 for consolation prizes. For the Minor tournament, which attracted a field of 11, £25 was
allocated for prizes. The tournament was in fact a triumph for the Cape Town players, for after Roberts came Cameron
with 9 points and then another club representative Friedman was tied with Kummel for third and fourth placings, each scoring 8½.
The 3rd SA Championship, Durban 1899
The 4th SA Championship, Johannesburg 1903
The 5th SA Championship, Cape Town 1906
In the Chess World the Russian Chess Federation was under sieged…it seemed. Read on this link what happened. Kasparov and Karpov are both involved in this FIDE-matter. [The link will open in a new window.] There are somelittle green men –dressed in yellow – involved too. I hope you enjoy my edited image. [click on the image for a larger view] See original images HERE and also here.You can see Mr Spock playing chess in Star Trek here. See two more edited images of ‘Flash’ Karpov here on my blogger-blog.
Image: chessgames
Anand vs Topalov ..the battle continues! Anand is my favourite…go Anand! See my other entries HEREandHERE where you can see chess graphics of their other games, especially on the first link.
See the Official Website’s link to the sidebar of my blog…top right.
The FIDE World Chess Championship match resumed on Monday with Viswanathan Anand once again having the White pieces, as according to the regulations, the piece colors are alternating halfway through the match.
The players seem to be very persistent in thorough investigation of the Catalan opening, as the same setup appeared four times when Anand had White pieces.
Once again Topalov switched the variation, and included 4…Bb4+ instead of 4…dxc4. Later on, instead of the almost automatic 8. Qc2, Anand preferred the rare 8. Bf4, which prompted Black to immediately capture the pawn on c4 and then hang on it with b5.
The similar position was seen in the encounter Gelfand-Ivanchuk. Topalov varied from that game by playing 11…Bd7.
Anand accepted the gift in the view of exchange on a8, and the game became highly imbalanced as Black caught up the initiative.
A timely opening of the a-file and breach to the 7th rank gave Anand solid counterplay. After the exchange of the Bishops, it appeared that White managed to stabilise and block the dangerous d-pawn.
Topalov brought his heavy artillery to the 2nd rank, but could not achieve more than perpetual check as White kept the enemy Queen under contact attack.
But Anand refused the possibility of perpetual, on two occasions, and continued to fight for more. Nevertheless, the Black passed pawn demanded lots of caution, and White was unable to gain more with the Knight burdened on f2. The draw was finally agreed on move 58.
Game eight is taking place tomorrow, with Veselin Topalov playing the White pieces. Live commentary at the official website is starting at 14:45 local time.
Anand retained the title of the World Chess Champion
The last classical game of the FIDE World Chess Championship was opened with Lasker variation of the Queen’s Gambit Declined as Viswanathan Anand sought for a solid defence in which White would have only minimal chances to score a victory. The opening went quietly until Anand moved the slightly unusual 16…Nf6. This was the moment where Veselin Topalov took a bit longer to decide on the middlegame plan.
Topalov allowed Black to trade the Be4 and in return he forced an isolated pawn on c5. But is was not easy to besiege this pawn as Black successfully coordinated pieces and obtained excellent counterplay.
White took some time to consolidate the position and avoid tactics on the back-rank and against the Knight on d2. Anand silently offered a moves repetition with Bd3-a6, but Topalov snubbed the offer.
White established the Knight on c4, while Black Bishop possessed a long diagonal from a8. Exactly in this moment, Topalov erred in an attempt to prevent Black’s e5-e4. He played e4 himself, but Anand did not hesitate long before breaking the formation with 30…f5 and 31…e4.
Topalov carelessly traded the pawn on e4 and fell under a strong attack. The Black battery Queen-Rook-Bishop worked perfectly in the pursuit after White King. It looked like the game was over, and even Anand admitted that he couldn’t see a defence for White, but Topalov found some remarkable resources and managed to prolong the game.
But with a series of precise moves, Anand managed to convert the advantage and bring victory home on move 56. The final score is 6,5:5,5.
Thus Anand retained the title of the World Chess Champion! Congratulations!
I think for anyone not knowing Algebraic Chess, the following will be Greek to them… Morphy Defence, C78 Ruy Lopez, 1. e4 e5, 2. Nf3 Nf6, 3. Bb5 a6, 4. Ba4 Nf6, 5. O-O b5, ……29. Qxc2 dxe5…etc. That was the opening moves of a chess game of Fischer vs Di Camillo played 1956 in Washington D.C. Fischer won. During the WW’s/Cold War, codes were used to send messages and some of the messages were disguised as chess moves! There were also the Code Breakers and many of them were chess champions (employed to break the codes) and some of them just very good chess players. So, if you want to send messages disguised as chess moves, it’s time for you to start knowing about algebraic chess! [haha] I’ve come across this interesting article and want to share it with you. Near to the bottom of the post you can read about Britain’s Code Breakers and how they operated. Last year Bletchley Park was in the news again as the building needed restoration.Bletchley Park is now a museum. Bletchley Park also helped to win WW2 and the launch of the modern computer. Read the Timesonline-link at the bottom of this post.
Intriguing spy postcards with cryptic messages to MI5 chief during Cold War found
23rd July 2009
Top secret postcards containing coded messages sent from a Cold War spy in Germany to an MI5 boss have come to light.
Written in cryptic text based around a series of chess games, they were posted in 1950 to Graham Mitchell, the then deputy director general of MI5.
Found by a member of Mitchell’s household staff – who kept them for more than 50 years – they are expected to fetch £1,000 when sold at auction on Monday.
Intriguing: Chess was a favourite Russian national pastime and information would often be disguised as chess moves [click on images for a larger view]
Sent from what is thought to be an undercover agent in Frankfurt – a hub of espionage activity at the time as it was well positioned for spying on both the East and West – experts are not sure what side the men were spying for, as Mitchell was suspected of being a secret Soviet agent at the time.
Written on typewriters and dated throughout 1950, each of the messages revolves around chess, with a discussion of various moves and games written out in the text.
Some are addressed to ‘Dear chessfriend Mitchell’, and each contains a series of numbers recognisable as chess moves, used by correspondents to play games at a distance.
One postcard, dated June 16, 1950 said: ‘Without against Dr. Balogh I always have now hard fights in my games.
‘Against Collins I have been fallen into a variation of the Nimzowich-defence who surely should be lost!
‘I shall try to find a new idea for defending. But only a little hope. But all my games go forward in a quick way.
Gordon Thomas, author and expert on the history of MI5 and MI6, said chess moves were a common way of communicating during the Cold War.
He said: ‘Mitchell was head of counter-espionage at MI5 and would have been responsible for recruiting double agents with the aim of getting them into the KGB networks.
‘The Russians in particular favoured using chess as a method of communicating. It was a great national pastime and information would often be disguised as chess moves.
Code: Experts have not worked out the true meaning of the cryptic text
‘There’s even a section about it in the KGB handbook. For example, one move could ascertain what was happening and another could give instructions. ‘Agents would be trained to understand chess moves and Mitchell was quite a good chess player.The chances are that these were instructions or intelligence to a Soviet agent or an informer.
‘Of course they could just be innocent correspondence, but at the height of the Cold War it seems logical Mitchell would have more important things on his mind. We will never really know, but nevertheless it really is an astonishing find.’
Following a series of operation failures Mitchell was put under investigation along with the director general Roger Hollis.
He was even suspected as being in cahoots with the notorious Cambridge Five spies and was named by the now-famous Spycatcher author Peter White as a spy.
No evidence was found against them but Mitchell took early retirement in 1963 as a result of the investigation.
The postcards were delivered to Mitchell’s address in Chobham, Surrey, and were all sent from a Dr. Edmund Adam in Frankfurt.
Heather Cannon, of Barbers Fine Art Auctioneers of Woking, Surrey, said: ‘It was commonly known that Mitchell was investigated on suspicion of being a spy. He was also known to play chess and it seems he had a regular correspondence with Dr Adams.
‘The messages could very well be codes that conveyed secret information between the two. But until they are broken we can never know for sure.
‘They’re certainly a very interesting find and we’re expecting a lot of interest from people who are fascinated by MI5.
‘Anyone interested in spies and codes would be intrigued by them, and perhaps the buyer would be able to spend time trying to crack the mystery.’
Born in 1905, Graham Mitchell was educated at Winchester School and Oxford University before joining MI5 as an expert on fascist organisations.
Sir (Philip) Stuart Milner-Barry OBE CB KCVO (20 September 1906 – 25 March 1995) was a British chess player, chess writer, World War II codebreaker and civil servant. He worked at Bletchley Park during World War II, and was head of “Hut 6”, a section responsible for deciphering messages which had been encrypted using the German Enigma machine. He was one of four leading codebreakers at Bletchley to petition the then-Prime Minister Winston Churchill directly for more resources for their work. After the war he worked in the Treasury and later administered the British honours system. In chess, he represented England in international tournaments and lent his name to three opening variations.
He represented England in chess, and played in the international Chess Olympiads of 1937 and 1939. The latter tournament, held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, coincided with Britain’s declaration of war on Germany in September 1939. Milner-Barry, with teammates Hugh Alexander (at that time the British chess champion) and Harry Golombek, abandoned the tournament and returned to Britain.
The Codebreakers: Names underlined in red were British Chess Champions or Scottish chess champions and others only very strong chess players.
Bletchley Park, also known as Station X, is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire. Since 1967, Bletchley has been part of Milton Keynes, England.
Although its function was a secret at the time, Bletchley Park was officially known as the ‘GCCS’ (Government Code and Cypher School, which some irreverent people re-interpreted as the ‘Golf Club and Chess Society’). Up to 7000 people worked there at any one time.
Towards the end of the war, when they could be a bit more relaxed about security. Here is a detail from a photograph which appeared in the magazine ‘Chess’ showing participants in a 1944 match between what was called ‘Bletchley Chess Club’ and Oxford University. ‘Bletchley’ won the match 8-4.
During World War II, Bletchley Park was the site of the United Kingdom’s main decryption establishment. Ciphers and codes of several Axis countries were decrypted there, most importantly ciphers generated by the German Enigma and Lorenz machines.
The high-level intelligence produced at Bletchley Park, codenamed Ultra, is credited with having provided crucial assistance to the Allied war effort and with having shortened the war, though Ultra’s precise influence is still studied and debated.
Bletchley Park is now a museum run by the Bletchley Park Trust and is open to the public. The main manor house is also available for functions and is licensed for ceremonies. Part of the fees for hiring the facilities go to the Trust for use in maintaining the museum.
Five weeks before the outbreak of World War II, in Warsaw, Poland’s Biuro Szyfrów (Cipher Bureau) revealed its achievements in decrypting German Enigma ciphers to French and British intelligence. The British used this information as the foundation for their own early efforts to decrypt Enigma.
The “first wave” of the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) moved to Bletchley Park on 15 August 1939. The main body of GC&CS, including its Naval, Military and Air Sections, was on the house’s ground floor, together with a telephone exchange, a teleprinter room, a kitchen and a dining room. The top floor was allocated to MI6. The prefabricated wooden huts were still being erected, and initially the entire “shooting party” was crowded into the existing house, its stables and cottages. These were too small, so Elmers School, a neighbouring boys’ boarding school, was acquired for the Commercial and Diplomatic Sections.
A wireless room was set up in the mansion’s water tower and given the code name “Station X”, a term now sometimes applied to the codebreaking efforts at Bletchley as a whole. The “X” simply denotes the number “10” in Roman numerals, as this was the tenth such station to be opened. Due to the long radio aerials stretching from the wireless room, the radio station was moved from Bletchley Park to nearby Whaddon to avoid drawing attention to the site.
Listening stations – the Y-stations (such as the ones at Chicksands in Bedfordshire and Beaumanor Hall in Leicestershire, the War Office “Y” Group HQ) – gathered raw signals for processing at Bletchley. Coded messages were taken down by hand and sent to Bletchley on paper by motorcycle couriers or, later, by teleprinter. Bletchley Park is mainly remembered for breaking messages enciphered on the German Enigma cypher machine, but its greatest cryptographic achievement may have been the breaking of the German “Fish” High Command teleprinter cyphers.
The intelligence produced from decrypts at Bletchley was code-named “Ultra”. It contributed greatly to the Allied success in defeating the U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic, and to the British naval victories of Battle of Cape Matapan and the Battle of North Cape.
When the United States joined the war Churchill agreed with Roosevelt to pool resources and a number of American cryptographers were posted to Bletchley Park. Whilst the British continued to work on German cyphers, the Americans concentrated on the Japanese ones.
The only direct action that the site experienced was when three bombs, thought to have been intended for Bletchley railway station, were dropped on 20 November 1940 – 21 November 1940. One bomb exploded next to the dispatch riders’ entrance, shifting the whole of Hut 4 (the Naval Intelligence hut) two feet on its base. As the huts stood on brick pillars, workmen just winched it back into position whilst work continued inside.
An outpost of Bletchley Park was set up at Kilindini, Kenya, to break and decipher Japanese codes.[8] With a mixture of skill and good fortune, this was successfully done: the Japanese merchant marine suffered 90 per cent losses by August 1945, a result of decrypts.
After the war, Churchill referred to the Bletchley staff as “My geese that laid the golden eggs and never cackled.”
During WW2 the British set up at Bletchley Park a major organisation whose purpose was to try to crack the sophisticated German codes (i.e. those using the ‘Enigma’ machine). A number of notable academics and mind-gamers were employed, including chess players, mathematicians and crossword-puzzle solvers. They succeeded in their task, and it has been seriously suggested that this single breakthrough shortened the war in Europe by 2 years. The Germans never believed that such a thing was possible. Among the chess-players based at Bletchley park were C.H.O’D (Hugh) Alexander (a British Champion) Stuart Milner-Barry (who gave his name to more than one ‘gambit’ variation) Harry Golombek (distinguished chess-player and author), N A Perkins, and James McRae Aitken (10 times Scottish Champion).
Other people at Bletchley Park included the mathematician Alan Turing (whose theories led to the development of artificial intelligence and computers), politician Roy Jenkins (subsequently a leader of the Labour and Social Democratic parties) and Professor Donald Michie (who later brought chessplayers Danny Kopec and Ivan Bratko to Edinburgh University to research AI techniques using chess).
Bletchley Park, the codebreaking centre that helped to win the Second World War and launch the modern computer, is in danger of irreparable decay unless the Government steps in to save it, some of the country’s leading computer scientists caution today.
In a letter to The Times, 97 senior experts, mostly professors and heads of department, say that “the ravages of age and a lack of investment” have left the historic site under threat.
One of the unheated wooden huts where the codebreakers worked day and night to turn the tide of the war now looks “like a garden shed that’s been left for 60 years”, according to Sue Black, head of the Department of Information and Software Systems at the University of Westminster and one of the organisers of the letter.
A dirty tarpaulin keeps out the rain, and several of the eight surviving huts have peeling paint and boarded-up windows. [Read on the next link more – the link will open in a new window.]
On the way to the Olympia Centre – where the London Chess Classic is being held
Black bird in a tree
Hammersmith-area – traffic and weather
The players…
Kramnik looked away shyly when I winked at him [hehe] and Nigel suddenly said to Michael Adams…you know what, she’s the only woman around here![NOT – there were many others]
aha! got him smiling!
The stage
And everyone wants the best shot
And I got mine too
Kramnik watching the electronic board
The electronic board, we were allowed to click-click only the first 5 min into the games
A Semi-giant set in the foyer – a lovely set
Art in the foyer, do I see a pawn’s head in this piece of art – or is it my chess-brain working overtime?[hehe]
bikes outside
Headless London pawns lined-up – standing vigilant – for McShane’s and Howell’s game?
Into the night
My impression/opinion of the London Chess Classic
It was great to see these GM’s in real life, they are all great people and great players. It was great to see them playing live on the stage, to see how they respond and their reactions during a tournament. I was very excited to see them as Kramnik is one of my favourite players. Carlsen too, as he’s young and many students can associate with him and he can be of an inspiration to many young players wanting to reach their goal of becoming a GM too?
The venue was great, it wasn’t my first time at the Olympia. If I can have a moan about a few things and maybe, just maybe someone will pick it up and do something about it. Firstly, the Ladies’ toilet near the auditorium was changed into a Gents room. The nearest Ladies was in the East Hall in a maze of corridors with doors enough to take 6mil people to heaven at any one time. I waited for an old lady as I knew she wasn’t going to find her way back. She was already stressed out when she saw me, saying she found it hard to find it – despite the little arrows you could follow. Secondly, the T-shirts were all in sizes Large -and up and then in a small, but no medium-sized-shirts. I was told by Philippa – the wife of Malcolm Pein [organiser of the tournament] – she’s an ex Saffa and spoke to me in Afrikaans, how nice! – that these shirts were not available in a medium-size- as they reasoned that females were not really going to buy it – duh! Was I going to be the only female wanting a shirt? Then I must be of a very rare specie! I did buy a large though, a mug and a pen. I think I will sleep in this large, baggy shirt.[lol]
The games. The chess games were great – sort of. I was very annoyed with Howell and McShane’s game. They didn’t have a good game, it was a boring game, right from the start. Later on I didn’t even follow their game on the board. Magnus played a good game up to a point and I lost interest. Kramnik’s game wasn’t up to the standard I expected from him and I didn’t follow his game – they finished first and quite early too. I was still thinking how to go about to get some autographs when Kramnik disappeared from the stage. One guy was lucky, he was near the exit on Kramnik’s side. You would think they would go to the foyer to mingle with the common chess players and where you can grab them for an autograph. I lost interest in all the games that were left and we left about 6pm. Our parking ticket was £25, all worth it, but will I do it again to see my favourite players in action? I don’t know, maybe. Maybe if us women don’t have to walk two miles for a ladies room, the chess games worth it and t-shirts in medium size [lol] [I must add, the first time I did use the toilet for disabled people, but I was given the look when I wanted to use it again]
On this photo I’m sitting on the right at the far end – you can’t see me! but you can see hubby on the left. The photo is from the official site. We played three games. We arrived at about 12:15-ish and played till about 13:40.
Denise Frick – South African-player taking part in the Women’s Invitational – image: Official site
Magnus Carlsen from Norway – is he the Mozart of Chess?
The Big Eight
and…this is my ticket for Saturday!
Click HERE for the Official site. The link will open in a new window.
Standings after round 3
Enjoy the Music of Mozart – Piano Concerto no 20 in D Minor
Pairings for round 4 – Saturday 12th December – I was hoping to see Carlsen vs Kramnik in action, but…you can’t have your bread on both sides buttered…
Howell vs Carlsen – round 3
Womens Invitational-section
Denise Frick – South African WIM is taking part in this section
David Howell and Magnus Carlsen round 3 – draw
Howell vs Carlsen – move 48 round 3
Howell vs Carlsen move 60 round 3
Howell vs Carlsen – move 79 – 1/2 round 3
Magnus Carlsen: the rise and rise of chess’s answer to Mozart
If Magnus Carlsen had not had an elder sister, he would never have been gnawed by sibling rivalry, and if he had not been gnawed by sibling rivalry, he might never have become a world-famous chess-player. On such accidents of birth, genius can depend.
“I first tried interesting Magnus in the game when he was four or five,” says Henrik Carlsen, father of the precocious Norwegian teenager, just turned 19, who has been called the Mozart of chess. “But he was too young. It was only when he was eight, watching me play chess with his elder sister, Ellen, that he caught the chess bug in earnest. By the age of nine, he was able to beat me. By the age of 13, he was an international grandmaster.” Not just a grandmaster, one of the elite of world chess, but at 13 years, four months and 27 days, one of the youngest Grandmasters in the history of the game. That turbulent American genius Bobby Fischer did not become a grandmaster until he was 15 and a half, middle-aged in comparison, while Russia’s Garry Kasparov, often regarded as the greatest chess-player of all time, was 17, practically senile, before he reached the same mark.
It is the sheer precociousness of the young Norwegian – Carlsen is now ranked number one in the world – that has captured the imagination of chess lovers, who will be able to see him in action at the London Chess Classic next week. The comparisons with Mozart are inescapable. Kasparov has now retired from top-flight chess, but is so fascinated by the prospects of this Scandinavian wunderkind that he has signed up as his coach. Imagine being a fly on the wall at their training sessions. The intellectual voltage would kill you.
Carlsen sounds mildly irritated when the Mozart comparison is wheeled out. “I’m not sure why people have to talk like that. It’s not something I ever think about.” But he concedes that the life of a chess prodigy can sometimes be lonely. “I think that’s the price of success in many walks of life. If you want to get to the top, there’s always the risk that it will isolate you from other people.”
Ultimately, it is a love of the game, the Norwegian insists, not some stern work ethic, that drives him on. “I spend hours playing chess because I find it so much fun. The day it stops being fun is the day I give up. Without the element of enjoyment, it is not worth trying to excel at anything.”
As for Carlsen’s genius – and one can hardly avoid the word – there were clues long before he started showing his paces at chess. Before he was two, he could solve jigsaw puzzles with more than 50 pieces. From jigsaws he graduated to Lego, constructing models that would have challenged teenagers. Feats of memory came easily to him. By the age of five, scarily, he knew the area, population, flag and capital of every country in the world.
“Boys are very good at focusing their attention on one thing at a time,” reflects his father. “Girls are better at multitasking. I would not say Magnus is naturally hard-working. In fact, he can be quite lazy at times. But when he is following his intuition and curiosity, there is no stopping him.”
If the life of a child chess prodigy can be quite intense, Carlsen has not been put under relentless pressure by ambitious parents. Instead he has enjoyed a normal, even outgoing, childhood. In 2003, when he was still 12, his parents took him and his sisters out of school for a year, packed them into a minibus and, in the adventure of a lifetime, embarked on a tour of Europe.
The itinerary was partly dictated by the international chess tournaments in which Carlsen was due to play. But there was also time for sightseeing, museum visits, even three weeks on a beach in Crete. What an exhilarating contrast to normal schooling.
You could never call Magnus Carlsen normal, not with his extraordinary talents. But if his natural milieu is the chessboard, there is a part of him that loves the great outdoors, fresh air and physical exercise. Ask him if he would rather have been a world-famous footballer than a chess-player, and his answer might surprise chess fans.
“I would probably have to say yes. Who could resist being a famous footballer? Chess only appeals to quite a small minority. It does not have the cachet of a mainstream popular sport.”
What lessons from his childhood would he want to pass on to his own children, if and when he has them? “I can’t say I’ve given that much thought. I guess what my parents taught me is that, as a parent, you need to be supportive without being pushy. They were very happy to let me play in tournaments and made sacrifices so that I could, but they didn’t force their own agenda on me. They let me follow my own enthusiasms.”
Click on the images to see a larger view. These are results from round 4, the Chess Grand Prix tournament in Baku, Azerbaijan. If you click HERE you will find a games-link and you can play through the games played in the previous rounds…on the side bar of my blog, you will find a link to the current round’s games.
All images from the Official Fide-Baku-Chess-site.
Rest in Peace Bobby Fischer —b. 1943 – d. 2008
You can read my Bobby Fischer-poem HERE… On THIS LINK you can read an article about him that was published in the UK Times.
I was age 11, when I got my first chess set and chess book. It was a book written by Cor Nortje in Afrikaans…”Skaak!” In the back of the book, there are the games of Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. I used to play through those games to “teach” myself a bit more of the game. Nobody else in the family played chess! I got to like Bobby F and he was always – and will always be! – my favourite chess player! It’s very sad to know that he’s passed away, and as somebody said on the chess site… at the age of 64! A “good” number, as there are 64 squares on the board!! Bobby had an IQ of 187! A very gifted and talented player, for sure… What happened to him was really sad and even more sad that the American government “chased” him because of violating sanctions… that means that you don’t have the freedom to do what you love and what you are brilliant at! Sad….that is what politicians are good at…ruining other people’s lives! ..and sometimes with their “fantastic” ideas… even divide nations all over the world!
Fisher died in a Reykjavik, Iceland, hospital on Thursday of kidney failure after a long illness.
Born in Chicago and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Fischer faced criminal charges in the United States for playing a 1992 rematch against Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia in defiance of international sanctions.
This chess book is written in Afrikaans and was my first chess book at the age of 11. It has all the games of Spasski and Fischer.
Robert James “Bobby” Fischer (born March 9, 1943), won the World Chess Championship on September 1, 1972 and lost the title when he failed to defend it on April 3, 1975. He is considered to be one of the most gifted chess players of all time and, despite his prolonged absence from competitive play, is still among the best known of all chess players.
“Chess is war over the board.
The object is to crush the opponent’s mind.” – Bobby Fischer
“I am the best player in the world and I am here to prove it.” – Bobby Fischer.
He dropped out of competitive chess and largely out of view, emerging occasionally to make erratic and often anti-Semitic comments.Fischer, whose mother was Jewish, once accused “the Jew-controlled U.S. government” of ruining his life.
He fell into obscurity before resurfacing to win a 1992 exhibition rematch against Spassky on the Yugoslav resort island of Sveti Stefan in violation of sanctions imposed to punish then-President Slobodan Milosevic.
A fierce critic of his homeland, Fischer became wanted in the United States for violating the sanctions.
“The United States is evil. There’s this axis of evil. What about the allies of evil — the United States, England, Japan, Australia? These are the evildoers,” Fischer said.
Source: Click here for the news. Fischer told reporters that year that he was finished with a chess world he regarded as corrupt, and sparred with U.S. journalists who asked about his anti-American tirades.
He renounced his American citizenship and moved to Iceland in 2005.
Japanese Release Bobby Fischer
Ex-Chess Champ Heads to Iceland
By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, March 24, 2005; Page A14
NAGOYA, Japan, March 24 — Bobby Fischer, the chess legend who feared deportation to face charges in the United States, was freed Thursday by Japanese authorities after eight months in prison, the Justice Ministry said. He left immediately for the airport to fly to Iceland.
The deal to free Fischer came after Iceland — a chess-loving nation that hosted his historic Cold War-era victory over the Soviet Union’s Boris Spassky in 1972 — granted Fischer citizenship this week in a move to help him avoid trial in the United States. Fischer, 62, who grew up in New York, has dodged a U.S. arrest warrant since playing a chess match in Yugoslavia in 1992 in violation of U.S. sanctions.
Read the rest of the article HERE …
Bobby as a 15 year old teenager….and America’s champ!
Born in Chicago and raised in Brooklyn, Fischer was a U.S. chess champion at 14 and a grand master at 15. He beat Spassky in a series of games in Reykjavik to claim America’s first world chess championship in more than a century.But his reputation as a genius of chess soon was eclipsed by his idiosyncrasies.A few years after the Spassky match, he forfeited the title to another Soviet, Anatoly Karpov, when he refused to defend it.
Bobby Fischer, the reclusive American chess master who became a Cold War icon when he dethroned the Soviet Union’s Boris Spassky as world champion in 1972, has died. He was 64.
Fischer died Thursday in a Reykjavik hospital, his spokesman, Gardar Sverrisson, said. There was no immediate word on the cause of death.
Fischer’s first Filipino friend: He was very special
By Artemio T. Engracia Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:10:00 01/20/2008
MANILA, Philippines–FLORENCIO CAMPOMANES, the country’s chess pioneer and former president of the International Chess Federation (Fide), was Bobby Fischer’s original Filipino friend.
They met in New York in the mid-1950s when Fischer was emerging as a chess phenom barely into his teens and Campomanes was shuttling between New York and Washington DC while working for the State Department Read the complete article here.
Please clickHERE to read about the movie: Knights of the South Bronx. Links will open in a new window.
Teaching Kids About Money: 10 Tips
Ways for parents to teach their children about money
Published on: Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Written by: Trista Winnie
Parents have been giving financial advice to their children for ages. “Neither a borrower nor a lender be,” Polonius told his son Laertes in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. As with good hygiene and good manners, most parents strive to teach their children lessons on how to be good at handling money.“If you can teach your child the difference between needs and wants, how to budget and how to save, your child will know more than many adults,” according to Scott Reeves of Forbes. “But if you get it wrong, your child is likely to join the millions of Americans who rack up huge credit card debt and get stung each month by stiff interest payments.”
In other words, no pressure.The lives of children who understand money, its value and how to handle it will be far easier than those of children who don’t.
Here are 10 tips for teaching your kids about money, focusing on saving and investing money, so they will grow up and use it responsibly.
– on the link at the bottom of the page, where the article can be found…point 3 says…
3) Teach them critical thinking
While not directly a lesson in money, kids who learn how to think critically will make better decisions when it comes to money because they will be able to consider the short, medium and long term effects of their decisions, as well as plan for contingencies.
One great way to teach them how to plan, strategize and think critically is to teach them chess. Chess is a game in which cause and effect, concrete rules, analysis and planning for different scenarios are all crucial. Chess can also help kids hone their ability to recognize when to take risks and when to play it safe, which is a critical investment skill.
A real life example of this can be found in the story of David MacEnulty, an English teacher who taught a group of inner-city, low-income students in the South Bronx how to play chess. These students went on to compete and win in chess competitions and their critical thinking skills put them on the path to success. The story was documented in the 2005 movie, Knights of the South Bronx
Knights of the South Bronx
The most captivating, entertaining chess movie since Searching for Bobby Fischer! You’ll be thrilled. It’s inspirational.A business man decides that he wants to teach school in the inner city and chooses a tough school in the South Bronx. He teaches the children how to play the game of chess, and along the way they learn a lot about life.Richard’s entire class is lifted out of nothingness and boredom to fight for life, success, and the thrill of achievement! He helps his entire class discover chess one day, much to the dismay of school authorities. Richard’s mind is torn as even his wife disapproves when he turns down a lucrative job offer to stay with low-paying job… “his kids” and his class. But Richard cannot be swayed from helping the kids find new hope in life. When Richard’s class is reaching new levels of achievement in their studies the tide is turned, his wife comes to his side, and his Knights of the South Bronx battle their way to winning championships and battling all signs of defeat… often from within their own minds and ranks – their classmates. But they encourage one another and overcome, inspired by the game of chess.
On this link- on my blog – you can follow her games of round 5 and round 6…against Yifan of China and see more pics of her too. https://chessaleeinlondon.wordpress.com/2008/09/12/alexandra-kosteniuk-winner-of-nalchik/ To be honest, I haven’t known of the existence of Alexandra before, I think there are so many Chess Grandmasters that we don’t know of, but I want to blog her, as she is a female player! and I think more should be done to attract girls to play chess. Too many girls are still thinking chess is a boy’s game. Why do you think that is? If you go to my chess links, you will find a link saying… “Tube Chess”…follow that link for some good movies about her playing chess, but also about other chess players!
Alexandra Kosteniuk is the 10th woman in the world to have ever achieved the Grandmaster (men) title. She’s rated sixth woman in the world, and #1 woman in Russia. She has a FIDE ELO of 2515. Alexandra had a great success at the annual New Year Blitz tournament organized by the Deputy Economy Minister Arkady Dvorkovich in Moscow. After qualifying in the semifinals, she won convincingly the final with 8 points out of 9 ahead of GM Najer –2635–7, GM Dlugy –2518– 6.5, GM Alekseev –2716– 6, GM Bareev –2653– 4.5, GM Vasiukov –2492– 4, etc.
Spoken by great men:"Give me 20 divisions of American soldiers and I will breach Europe. Give me 15 consisting of Englishmen and I will advance to the borders of Berlin. Give me two divisions of those marvellous fighting Boers and I will remove Germany from the face of the earth." - Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery, Commander of the Allied Forces during WW2.
"The Americans fight for a free world, the English mostly for honour, glory and medals, the French and Canadians decide too late that they have to participate. The Italians are too scared to fight, the Russians have no choice. The Germans for their Fatherland. The Boers? Those sons of Bitches fight for the hell of it." American General, George 'Guts and Glory' Patton.
