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Monday, Monday…April 19

by kevinspraggettonchess · April 19, 2010

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

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The start of another week. The first working day, to many the most scary day of the week, the first real indication of what the week holds for you…I try to avoid doing anything important or making critical decisions on a Monday. I avoid dentists on Monday. I avoid going to have my hair cut on a Monday. I try to stay away from hospitals especially. And I advise against visiting family on Monday…who knows how bad a week-end they had! Maybe a spouse left or , who knows how excessively they drank on the weekend….you just got to watch out for Mondays. Monday is all about survival…about making it to Tuesday. Monday was once voted the least fun day of the week! And I agree…

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Don’t allow a vulcano to bully you!

I remember heading to France in early 1991, the exact same day the American’s invaded Iraq and the official start of the 1st Gulf War. France, with its 2 million-plus arab population, was taking no chances of social unrest or terrorist action and had deployed the largest security force onto its streets. There were check points set up for random vehicle identification. In the space of 1 hour the car I was travelling in was stopped no less than 3 times!

I had been invited to be commentator of the Shirov vs Renet chess match , to be held in Correze that same weekend. The organizer of the match, Bernard Labadie, refused to change the dates simply because of security concerns. He told me that the French refused to have their life changed because of threats of terrorism. Infact, he told me that if one of the two players could not show up, then I would be the replacement! Bernard meant business….fortunately both Shirov and Renet showed up and played the 6 game match.

THE SHOW MUST GO ON!

Now it seems that current world champion V.Anand is asking for a 3 day delay in the start of the World Championship match with challenger V.Topalov, to be held in Sofia later this week. He cites the Icelandic volcano and the subsequent disruption of air travel in Europe.

A reasonable request, at first sight. But upon closer inspection, there are problems with this proposal. First, Anand is actually in Frankfurt, which is only about 800 miles from Sofia by car. (For us Montrealers , that is a distance that we drive to and from our inlaws in Toronto for a Sunday get together) Is it too much to ask Anand to drive to Sofia (escorted , if necessary) to play in the match of his life-time (he is defending his title for the first time) , especially since the Bulgarian government, Topalov and the entire chess world has for many months been preparing for this match to begin later this week?

Anand’s chess federation (AICF) asked for a delay this past weekend. The Bulgarian organizers have refused. Here is their response:

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FROM STEFAN SERGIEV

TO MR. GEORGIOS MAKROPOULOS

DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF FIDE AND SUPERVISOR OF THE MATCH FOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ANAND – TOPALOV

Copy Mr. V. Anand – World champion

Copy Mr. V. Topalov

Dear Mr. Makropoulos,

The Organizers committee of the match for world championship 2010 between V. Anand, world champion and V. Topalov has been informed with the e-mail of Mr. Anand dated 17.04 and your verbal request from 18.04.2010 to postpone the match with 3 days.

We would like to inform you that this is not acceptable for us.

1. We can postpone the press conference.

2. Unfortunately we can not postpone the opening ceremony scheduled on April 21st at 6 pm. according to the contract. The invitations to all the official guests, sponsors, politicians, TV stations and all the media was already sent long time ago. We have signed a lot of commercial contracts with serious penalties for us in case of some changes.

3. The possibility to postpone the first game of the match for one day to Saturday April 24 need to be discussed with the Chairman of Organizing Committee– Prime Minister of Bulgaria Mr. Boyko Borissov. This will take some time. We will inform you regarding our decision not later than latest afternoon of 20 April /Tuesday/

19.04.2010

Sofia

Signed: President of Bulgarian Chess Federation and member of the Organizing Committee for the match Dr. Stefan Sergiev

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It rests to see what FIDE will decide. And whether this is just the beginning of the psychological tactics that both Topalov and Anand are engaged in. My money is on the match starting on schedule….

In the meantime, European airline companies are beginning to doubt that the volcano’s eruption should have closed down most of Europe’s air space. Infact, the Germans are quite adamant that it has all been an over-reaction, a kneejerk reaction made by unimportant individuals based on untested computer simulations. According to some sources, the airline industry is losing more than 130 million euros of business a day! And how much more are the millions of air travellers paying to try to keep to their own agendas, whether it is going to meetings, on vacations or whatever?

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OPINION

Is Chess Becoming a Dying Art?
http://www.articleavalanche.com/is-the-grand-old-game-of-chess-dead/

Chess was once known as the game of kings. Today, it’s seen as just one more game, like solitare and minesweeper, that can be played by yourself on the computer without the need for a chess set. But no computer can replace the cunning of the human mind when it comes to the art of chess.

It wasn’t long ago that the prediction was made that home video stores and VCRs would put movie theaters out of business within the decade. But even with the easy availability of rented movies, no less than seven new movie complexes have been built in Sacramento in the last eight years.

Why? Because there is a joy one gets from watching movies in a large theater with other people that can’t be reproduced at home with a DVD player – even bluray.

Every house, today, has at least one television, if not more. And yet, people still go to plays, the ballet and even concerts. Sacramento, with its many theaters, allows people to see a new play each week of the year without seeing the same play twice.

Why do people still go to see plays or listen to live orchestras rather than simply watching television at home or renting a DVD? People attend the theater to see living people performing. There is an excitement you simply cannot get at home, a closeness and appreciation you are not able to feel through the screen of your TV.

No runner can beat a car, yet we still cheer as marathon runners cross the finish line. Machines have been made that can pitch a baseball with more accuracy and speed than a human pitcher, but no machine draws crowds the way a favorite athlete can.

People will not pay money to watch machines play ball, paint or run races for us, and no pitching machine will ever get its own baseball card. There is something we cannot help but admire when we watch a display of true skill. When athletes and artists perform it shows us what humans are capable of, and what we might be able to do, ourselves.

This is why animation and CGI will never replace the actor. We might admire the skills of an animator like Chuck Jones, but Bugs Bunny will never earn the admiration we give to Robert DeNero and Meryl Streep.

Computer chess games have been around since the early 80s, and they have proved to be valuable training tools, but still we go to tournaments because we love the company of other chess players and we want to pit our skills against a fellow human.

And we admire the winners, those with the best grasp of strategy (or brute calculations) because it was a human doing the calculating. Deep Blue will never earn the respect we give to players like Garry Kasparov.

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TODAY’S CHESS VIDEO:

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HAVE YOU NEGLECTED THE SAMURAI IN YOU?

”One who is samurai must, before all things, keep constantly in mind , by day and by night….that he has to die ”

Daidoji Yuzan (16th Century)

Samurai Chess: Mastering Strategic Thinking

Walker & Company
English 1998
256 pages

An interesting book to a person how does Martial Arts and/or chess.

Comparing chess to martial arts is not new, but here it is done in a more comprehensive, appealing, and gripping manner. Gelb and Keene develop the idea of martial arts mindset and the seven Samurai principles to be applied to chess. The Seven Samurai principles are really an extended analogy to the game, but one can see immediately, even as a chess novice, how the seven principles might be applied:

1) Take the Initiative: Attack

2) Follow Through: Go for the Knockout

3) Impenetrable Defense: No Openings

4) Timing: Control the Tempo

5) Distance: Control the Position

6) Master Surprise and Deception

7) Yield to Win: The Art of Sacrifice

The book is in many ways designed for the beginning chess player (the more experienced player will be able to gloss over the second section, ‘White Belt Chess’, which develops basic movements and elementary middle-game and end-game ideas).

You can download (PDF) this book for free!
http://www.rapidsharedownload.net/dl/Samurai%20Chess%20Mastering%20Strategic%20Thinking.html
http://www.downtr.net/find/Samurai+Chess++Mastering+Strategic+Thinking.html

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TODAY’S NAUGHTY SAMURAI CHESS VIDEO

Checkmating from Michael Bulanti on Vimeo.
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A very interesting chess site!

NATALIA POGONINA (GM)

http://www.pogonina.com/

(WIKI)

Natalia Andreevna Pogonina (Russian: Наталья Андреевна Погонина) (born March 9, 1985 in Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai) is a Russian chess Woman Grandmaster and member of the Russian chess Olympic team.

Pogonina learned to play chess at the age of five, as her grandfather taught her the basics of the game. She has been studying chess since 1993 after winning the school’s checkers tournament.

She achieved notice for the first time in 1998 when she won the Russian Girls under-14 National Championship. Since that time, International Master Pavel Vladimirovich Lobach has been her trainer. Natalia Pogonina has won the European Chess Championships among girls thrice, and has also been awarded a bronze medal at the World Junior Chess Championship. Some of her other victories include winning the Bykova Memorial in 2005, Rudenko Memorial in 2007 bronze medal at North

Urals Cup chess super tournament and sharing first place at the World Student Chess Championship in 2008.

Her latest successes have been winning the gold medal in team blitz and bronze medal in team rapid chess at the first World Mind Sport Games in Beijing and scoring 6/7 on Board 5 (Russian team) in the Chess Olympiad in 2008. She finished first (with 8 points from 9 games) at the prestigious Moscow Open 2009, and won the bronze medal at the European Women Championship 2009 (on tie-breaks).

In 2004, Natalia Pogonina was awarded the title of Woman Grandmaster. She is fourteenth on the April 2009 FIDE women Elo rating list with a rating of 2501.

Pogonina is currently studying for an MA in law at the Saratov State Academy of Law. Her hobbies include flamenco, music, photography, travelling, sports, literature and poetry.

On June 5, 2009, she married IT-specialist and debate expert Peter Zhdanov They have a son named Nikolai (born 18 November, 2009).

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Natalia’s site has lots of interesting material, photos and articles. Here is one:

CHESS VARIATIONS