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| Posted by tag1153 ability-tw.com 6/01/2008 01:23:21 Play online chess |  Subject: Controversy in U.S. Women's ChampionshipMessage:  main.uschess.org
Be sure to view the Armageddon game in question. Irina has a point (although I agree she should have said something right then and there....) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted by kansaspatzer ability-tw.com 6/01/2008 04:01:08 Play online chess | Message: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted by heinzkat ability-tw.com 6/01/2008 05:21:51 Play online chess | Happy times behind the chess board Message: www.youtube.com ——— Chess Puzzles: Richard Reti's Marvelous Squares — A chessboard is a square, divided into 64 black and white squares. But there are more squares in chess, mostly invisible, as part of an amazing chess geometry hidden in chess players' minds. One classic square is often used in pawn endgames when a king is chasing the enemy's passed pawn. The king doesn't have to walk in horizontal or vertical lines, he can run diagonally or zig-zag across the field. But he needs to be close enough to catch the pawn. How close? The king has to walk into a square whose one side is defined as the distance between the pawn and its promoting square at the edge of the board. We can use a famous study by Richard Reti as an example. The world-class player ... Posted by ganstaman | ability-tw.com 6/01/2008 09:55:05 Play online chess Message: The only part I don't like is when she 'explains' her own throwing of the chess piece at the end of the game. She basically says "It's not as bad as what Anna did, so you shouldn't care about it." Saying sorry with one sentence to explain that she was more fustrated than normal would have been ten times better. ——— Lahno Wins Women’s World Blitz Chess Championship — To be good at blitz, or speed, chess, players must think quickly and have good tactical skills. That is why the best chess players under slow, or classical, chess time controls are not necessarily the best at the faster form of the game. Though only 20 years old, Kateryna Lahno of Ukraine has been among the best women players in the world for seven years and is now ranked No. 7. She is actually ranked higher than Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia, the current women’s world chess champion, who is No. 10. She is clearly an excellent classical chess player and has won the European Individual Women’s Championship twice (in 2005 and 2008). Now she has proven that she may be even more adept at speed chess. ... Posted by heinzkat | ability-tw.com 6/01/2008 10:49:51 Play online chess That was just an alternative wayMessage: ——— A tribute to Bent Larsen — Danish chess grandmaster Bent Larsen died Sept. 9 at age 75 in Buenos Aires, his home since the 1970s. Larsen was the most successful tournament player of the late 1960s, when he rose to third in the world behind Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer. Only losses to those two stars in Candidates matches kept him from playing for the world chess championship. Larsen had a lively mind and strong opinions, enabling him to speak knowledgeably about many subjects in more than a half dozen languages. Among chess players, he stood out for his fondness for discarded openings and his disdain for draws. He popularized 1 b3, now called Larsen's Opening. Typically, he used it irregularly over a four-year period and ... Posted by tim_b | ability-tw.com 6/01/2008 11:00:55 Play online chess Message: ——— Remembering Bent Larsen: chess's most popular grandmaster — Bent Larsen, who died last week aged 75 was world No 3 to Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky and the most popular chess grandmaster of his time. Larsen was articulate, gregarious, outspoken and witty, so his passing stimulated an outpouring of reminiscencies and affection. Larsen's resilience, inventiveness, hard work and readiness to risk the odd loss in his quest for chess tournament victories have proved a model for some current top GMs like Vasily Ivanchuk and Shak Mamedyarov, though his liking for the offbeat openings 1 b3, 1 g3 and 1 f4 remained his lone trademark. He described himself as self-made, with only Aron Nimzovich's My System a major style influence. He thrived in ... Posted by chessnovice | ability-tw.com 6/01/2008 12:11:49 Play online chess ...Message: ——— As Chess Olympiad Approaches, Problems Surface — The biennial Chess Olympiad does not start until Sunday, but problems and conflicts have already arisen. The biggest ongoing issue is getting to Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, the site of the Chess Olympiad. As the city is in a remote location, the World Chess Federation had organized charter flights to carry teams there, but the schedule for the flights has changed repeatedly. The latest change occurred only two days ago. As the article notes, the repeated changes are not just making it difficult to get to the Chess Olympiad, but also more costly, and that is creating financial hardships for some of the chess federations that do not have substantial resources. In addition to the logistical ... Posted by scarper | ability-tw.com 6/01/2008 14:03:59 Play online chess Message: Posted by ionadowman | ability-tw.com 6/01/2008 16:16:34 Play online chess Fascinating...Message: Consider: you are sitting at the board, the enemy makes a move and forgets to punch his clock. Are you entiotled to make your move? Well, according to the USCF Official rules of 35 years ago, one would have to infer yes. The rules actually talk about whether the arbiter, noticing the omission ought to warn the player. The Rules come down against the arbiter doing any such thing. Which suggests to me that the opponent doesn't have to wait until the enemy punches the clock in order to make a move. The Rules do state that (14.4) "When determining whether the prescribed number of moves has been made in the given time, the last move is not considered as completed until after the player has stopped his clock." Given the time control in the "Armageddon Match" this doesn't apply. From that perspective, I incline to the view that Irina Krush doesn't really have a case. But I do sympathise. Look where the clocks are placed: as is standard, to the right of the Black pieces. Playing right-handed, Black's hand has less distance to travel to the clock; White has to reach right across her body to reach the clock. Simply: the physical placing of the clocks confers an advantage to a right-handed player of Black, or a left-handed player of White. We might decide this is unfair, but look at the time control: 6 minutes for White; 4 and a half for Black, who gets the margin of draw. I think the extra 90 seconds ought to subsume any slight disadvantage to White owing to the physical placing of the clocks. The problem I have with this whole affair is the problem I have with a good many sports events: this stupid insistence that there has to be a sole winner. I quite fail to understand what is so bad about joint winners of a sporting event; why a draw/tie/dead heat is to be avoided at all cost. This insane stampede for determining the winner of a competition leads to some peculiar results: The UEFA Champions' League being determined by a penalty shootout; the "Golden Point" in Rugby League; even the toss of a coin on one or two occasions I've seen. The "Golden Point", or sudden death in some sporting events makes a certain degree of sense, but even then it might be a matter of luck who begins the period of sudden death with possession of the initiative (i.e. the ball, in ball games, say). But others strike me as entirely arbitrary, including the method used in US Chess Championship. The two protagonists ought to have shared the title. If there had to be a winner, the process by which it is determined has to be entirely symmetrical: keep playing pairs of games under whatever time control you choose until one side is a clear point ahead after an even number of games. That final game was asymmetrical, and therefore biased. I'm not saying it's biased against White, be it noted: for all I know it may be biased against Black (however, it became pretty clear that the advantage of one minute was't enough to offset Black's margin of draw!).The fact that the bias exists is in my view sufficient to disqualify it as a fair means of determining a winner. It would have been fairer to have played a second game under the same time control having swapped colours. But doesn't this game strike you as arbitrary anyway? Where is the quality of chess? The whole concept of blitz emphasises one skill over others - the ability to play fairly well quickly over accuracy of analysis, endgame skill, strategic planning, tactical vision... Well, when all's said and done, I can't see the USCF overturning the decision, and, on balance, it probably ought not. But, if there absolutely must be a single Champion or the world will explode, then do it by fair and symmetrical means. Cheers, Ion Posted by cascadejames | ability-tw.com 6/01/2008 18:17:25 Play online chess Avoiding blitzMessage: own. Posted by ionadowman | ability-tw.com 6/02/2008 04:24:30 Play online chess Before anyone comments on it...Message: Don't make the process a fair one, though... Cheers, Ion Posted by pgroenborg | ability-tw.com 6/02/2008 06:53:25 Play online chess holding down the clockMessage: Do you see the same thing? I love blitz and am perhaps too familiar with the thing. I'm with Irena. Posted by bucklehead | ability-tw.com 6/02/2008 11:23:38 Play online chess It's a tough call. Message: Posted by tag1153 | ability-tw.com 6/02/2008 14:23:28 Play online chess response to I.K.'s letterMessage: main.uschess.org Posted by ionadowman | ability-tw.com 6/02/2008 15:18:00 Play online chess response to I.K.'s letter... Message: It does indicate that not a lot has changed since the publication of my own copy of the USCF/FIDE Official Rule Book of 1974. Neither player played strictly illegally in the time scramble (give or take I.K.'s failure to restore the rook she knocked over - had she done so she would have lost the sooner). It is sad, I think, to see an important event like this settled in such a fashion, not only by a means that can be described justly as arbitrary; but also end in such ... well, not acrimony exactly, but not a particularly savoury taste in one's mouth. I go back to my earlier idea. If you can't settle the contest in satisfactory manner, then accept the notion of a joint winner. Cheers, Ion |