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The Official Rules of Chess

admin — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 17:49:50 +0000

Here’s a story to illustrate why you should have the official rules of chess. I was playing in a tournament once against a higher-rated player (a couple hundred points higher). I had played a good game and my opponent was struggling to get a draw with a three-fold repetition while his time was running out.

In fact, he had made the move to give the three-fold repetition when his flag fell. He claimed the draw and I claimed a win.

How should the point be awarded?

If you have the official rules of chess, you can probably make a reasonable answer to the question … and perhaps vindicate my claim for a win!

If you would like to play tournament chess, you should learn the official rules of chess.

Official Rules of Chess

For players in the U.S., that means getting the U.S. Chess Federations official rules. I’ve added the United States Chess Federation’s Official Rules of Chess, Fifth Edition to my chess store for your convenience.

If you’re just starting out and haven’t played a lot of chess, you will first want to review my articles and videos on the rules of chess for the absolute beginner. But when you decide you want to play a little more seriously, play a few tournaments to get the feel for it; and to see if you really want to stick with it. If you decide you do want to play tournament chess in even a half-way serious manner, you really should read the official rules and keep a copy with you at every tournament. The official rules should go in your travel bag with your clock, set, and board!

Get the official rules of chess and enjoy a fun-filled tournament career!

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Garry Kasparov’s View of Chess Computers

admin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 02:12:29 +0000

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.

Kasparov recently wrote a review of Chess Metaphors for the New York Review of Books (see link below), and in it he says some interesting things about his view of computers conquering chess.

The Chess Master and the Computer – The New York Review of Books

The number of legal chess positions is 1040, the number of different possible games, 10120. Authors have attempted various ways to convey this immensity, usually based on one of the few fields to regularly employ such exponents, astronomy. In his book Chess Metaphors, Diego Rasskin-Gutman points out that a player looking eight moves ahead is already presented with as many possible games as there are stars in the galaxy. Another staple, a variation of which is also used by Rasskin-Gutman, is to say there are more possible chess games than the number of atoms in the universe. All of these comparisons impress upon the casual observer why brute-force computer calculation can’t solve this ancient board game. They are also handy, and I am not above doing this myself, for impressing people with how complicated chess is, if only in a largely irrelevant mathematical way.

* * *

There have been many unintended consequences, both positive and negative, of the rapid proliferation of powerful chess software. Kids love computers and take to them naturally, so it’s no surprise that the same is true of the combination of chess and computers. With the introduction of super-powerful software it became possible for a youngster to have a top- level opponent at home instead of need ing a professional trainer from an early age. Countries with little by way of chess tradition and few available coaches can now produce prodigies. I am in fact coaching one of them this year, nineteen-year-old Magnus Carlsen, from Norway, where relatively little chess is played.

If you’re interested in the entire review, click the link above.

If you’re interested in the book Kasparov reviewed, you can get it at Amazon.com by clicking the following link (I will make a small commission):

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Chess and Twitter – Chess Tweets!

admin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:53:42 +0000

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.

Technorati Tags: chess tweets, online chess, twitter

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Searching for Bobby Fischer

admin — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:15:50 +0000

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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