Archive for October 18th, 2009

According to Gareth Williams’s book Master Pieces: The Architecture of Chess, in the 18th Century “the turning of a chess set was an important part of an apprentice turner’s course” — so important that “a seal of the Hanover Turners’ Guild…displays a chess knight, with a double headed horse as its symbol” (65). The manufacturers of automated metal lathes are doing the same thing as lathe turners in the 18th Century: demonstrating their skills by making chess pieces. There are several videos on YouTube (especially the one above) that most chess players will find hypnotic.

• Turning a Chess Rook by Glacern Machine Tools
• SolidCAM Chess Video
• CNC Chess Piece – Queen
• CNC Lathe — Pawn

The 2011 World Championship challenger is decided in a Candidates Tournament with eight participants (including World Chp and Grand Prix winners). At the 80th FIDE Congress in Greece this week FIDE decided, remarkably, that the tournament, scheduled for 2010/2011, would be split into two parts, to allow candidate Levon Aronian, who is from Armenia, to avoid playing in Azerbaijan.

The Schachbundesliga is the strongest team competition in the world. The 2009/10 season started this weekend, with the top matches taking place in Solingen, where the German champion Baden-Baden faced the top teams of Solingen and Remagen, Eppingen, Wattenscheid and Hamburg, where we spent a pleasant afternoon watching the action. Pictures, results and games.