Archive for December 29th, 2009

When 21-year-old Paul Morphy travelled to Europe in the summer of 1858
he destroyed all opposition. Except for one of Europe’s chess heroes, who avoided
a confrontation. Howard Staunton would only play consultation games, where you
can blame a loss on your partner. In his Playchess
lecture Dennis Monokroussos shows us an interesting example. Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET.

That’s a praiser of past times, conservative, old fashioned, classic. It describes our reporter at the International Chess Congress in Hastings – 28th December 2009 through to 5th January 2010 – but also the event itself. Steve Giddins, who received a Latin phrasebook for Christmas, is said reporter. We are using “oldstyle” ChessBase diagrams to keep him happy. Round one report.

Our 2009
Christmas Puzzle series is all about baffling computers. But that is not
easy, given today’s monster machines and super-smart programs. And sometimes
a bit daunting for human beings, who do not always grasp what their electronic
counterparts have missed. So today, as a relaxing prelude, we bring you an exhilarating
story of a hippophile
chess composer.