Archive for January 9th, 2010

So has all this put chess players out of work? Encouragingly, the answer is “not yet.” In fact, in some ways, chess is as popular and successful today as at any point in the last few decades. Chess lends itself very well to Internet play, and fans can follow top-level tournaments in real time, often with commentary. Technology has helped thoroughly globalize chess, with the Indian Vishy Anand now the first Asian world champion, and the handsome young Norwegian Magnus Carlsen having reached rock-star status. Man and machine have learned to co-exist, for now.

See “Grandmasters and Global Growth” in ChessBase for some interesting links.  And see his earlier piece in Project Syndicate on “Artificial Intelligence and Globalization” for more on the topic.

In December we reported in detail on the Third Asian Indoor Games, where teams from 19 countries participated in the chess section. The story was so extensive that we were unable to include all the pictures sent in by our reporter. We bring you these impressions from a location that is a “New Seven Wonders of the World” candidate. Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh reports.

“Attention all nerds and former high-school science-club members: finally there is a movie that shares your belief that chess should be a magnet for hot babes and sex.” Not our words, but those of the Miami Herald reviewer Rene Rodriguez. This film stars Sandrine Bonnaire and Kevin Kline (in his first French-speaking role), and premiered in Germany on Friday. Trailers.

This event is held in a four-year cycle, and this year, in spite of the absence of China, it is fielding a dozen players rated 2700 or higher. After four rounds Armenia and USA lead, in match and board points, with Russia, Israel and India tied for 3-5 on match points. You can watch the games on the official site and on Playchess. Illustrated report.

… of the bishop was what White expected in this position after
25.Bxg7, yet immediately after his move he suddenly realised the possibility 25…Qxb3 26.axb3 Rba6. How would you assess the situation after that?
A) Black checkmates;
B) this eventually leads to a position with equal chances; 
C) White gets the advantage.

The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a  larger version of the diagram.