Garry Kasparov’s View of Chess Computers
chess book, computer chess, reviews January 29th, 2010
Of all the top grandmasters who could give their views of chess-playing computers, Garry Kasparov is probably the best qualified. He has played several matches against computers at a time when programmers were trying with all their might to make a computer that would defeat a world champion.
In his review of Chess Metaphors: Artificial Intelligence and the Human Mind, Kasparov makes several interesting observations about the affect computers have had on humans who play chess.
Chess and Twitter – Chess Tweets!
reviews June 19th, 2009
I recently saw a blog post about ChessTweets, a chess community for Twitter. ChessTweets is going beyond making an app for playing chess by Twitter, they’re conducting an experiment in the value of a collective mind.
The ChessTweets Experiment attempts to expand on the collaborative ideas intended by this famous chess game by creating the world’s first automated and objective hive-mind machine. With the advent of Twitter, developing such a machine has become both readily-possible and irresistible. Can such a machine learn to compete with the best of the best? The ChessTweets Experiment intends to find out.
By asking its participants to give their input in community games and without preselecting grandmasters, ChessTweets will examine each participant’s relative skill and apply a formulated weight to each and every suggested move such that every mind plays an important and unique role.
The experiment is just beginning, and the level of play appears to be fairly uneven. But this should improve as more players join the experiment and as the organizers collect more information about the community. This will be a long-term project, but it is interesting and may provide interesting insight into thinking processes.
If you’re interested in playing casual correspondence-type chess (games are played at approximately one move per day), and you love Twitter, I think you’ll love ChessTweets
I have a suggestion for getting the most advantage out of playing chess on Twitter (or any of the online correspondence-type chess communities): practice analyzing each position by first asking yourself what all the checks, captures, and threats are for your opponent, and how you should respond to each of those. Then examine what checks, captures, and threats you have in your position. Only after you have ascertained all these facts should you begin to do further analysis.
Tags: chess tweets, online chess, twitter
Searching for Bobby Fischer
reviews May 21st, 2009
For those of you who are new to chess, or wondering what chess players are like, I recommend the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer. I was talking with some friends last night (hi Tracey and Stan!), and the subject of the movie came up. I told them I would have to blog about it … and I was right! 
The movie is a heart-warming story of the relationship between a father and his precocious son. And if you have any interest in chess, it accurately portrays the feeling of chess as it is played in U.S. parks, clubs, and weekend tournaments.
The movie has a great story, a superb cast: Joe Mantegna, Joan Allen, Ben Kingsley (superb!), Laurence Fishburne, Laura Linney, William H. Macy … it just doesn’t get any better!
And the movie has some real life chess stars in it. Bruce Pandolfini (one of the great chess teachers of our time, played beautifully by Ben Kingsley) and Asa Hoffman are portrayed in the movie, and real-life chess stars Joel Benjamin, Roman Dzindzichashvili, and Kamran Shirazi have a part in the movie (one of the tournament scenes); and Bruce Pandolfini even gets a cameo (I think he even has a line!).
The book on which the movie is based is even more wonderful, as it probes the life of the mind of a chess player and the relationship between father and son. I highly recommend the book; it’s even better than the movie. (Check out Searching for Bobby Fischer: The Father of a Prodigy Observes the World of Chess at Amazon. And if you want the movie, click the pic!
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