tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67313833625446280802024-02-07T21:00:11.193-08:00Soapstone's StudioAndy: We might do business on a board, but I want to carve the pieces myself. One side in alabaster, the opposing side in soapstone. What do you think?<br>
Red: I think it’ll take years.Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.comBlogger224125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-68716981747250748842018-05-20T10:34:00.000-07:002018-05-23T09:27:58.428-07:00Round Robin Roundabout<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8JA37Y67cT9vxBeMXONk0MkhrT7ejRlvuPbDc0Y9TVVnKB33ERNGgUCwwn1yyw2NNpj2M8hX67uInQrACWHh4qXMbtaKvbsVrpCRHxFjG0npRN9bfmEu91Ze3BXPw-zGRNMU6-F99qvI/s1600/68477909.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8JA37Y67cT9vxBeMXONk0MkhrT7ejRlvuPbDc0Y9TVVnKB33ERNGgUCwwn1yyw2NNpj2M8hX67uInQrACWHh4qXMbtaKvbsVrpCRHxFjG0npRN9bfmEu91Ze3BXPw-zGRNMU6-F99qvI/s320/68477909.jpg" width="320" height="240" data-original-width="480" data-original-height="360" /></a></div><p>In National Lampoon's European Vacation, Clark Griswold drives his family around the Lambeth Bridge roundabout for hours, unable to maneuver his car to an escape road. I tried to find an alliterative synonym for obsession, but the English language has only so many words and none seemed to fit the bill, so I went for this English landmark for a more figurative version of being stuck in a rut.</p>
<p>Last year, during the club championship qualifier, I looked up the round robin tables. In the past, while assisting with the organization of the chess club, I had typed the numerical pairings found in the USCF Rulebook into an Excel spreadsheet and then done search-replace operations to make pairings using the players' names instead of just their seed number. While laboring to retype a 7-player double round robin and a 16-player single round robin, Mother Necessity whispered into my ear, "This should be automated by a computer." But I could not find a website through a Google search that specifically generated the Crenshaw pairings used in chess.</p>
<p>So I set about writing one of my own. The reference that was most useful was Wikipedia's page on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round-robin_tournament" target="_blank">round-robin tournament</a>. In it, the process for Standard, Berger, and Crenshaw round robin pairings is described. Using javascript, I implemented algorithms that generated these 3 types of tables. During the process, I learned many items of minutiae, which is the meat of this post. Those of you who are already bored can read this list and quit, since the remainder of this post is going to be tracing and retracing my steps on my own mental roundabout.</p>
<ul>
<li>Standard round robin uses incremental rotation, while Berger rotates the field halfway around the circle. Crenshaw pairings are just Berger pairings in reverse chronological order.</li>
<li>The USCF 4-player and 6-player round robin tables are not generated by the Crenshaw algorithm. The 4-player printed in the rulebook is Standard algorithm. The origin of the 6-player table is shrouded in myth with advantages and disadvantages.</li>
<li>The reversal table is only used when the round robin has an <u>even</u> number of players and one player withdraws <u>before playing half</u> of the games. It is possible to create an algorithm to make the reversal tables as well as the pairing tables.</li>
<li>Generating the tables and the reversals helped me detect about a dozen typographical errors in the Fifth and Sixth Editions of the USCF Rulebook.</li>
<li>A man named Warren J. Porter has created his own round robin system and on his own website placed his name among Berger and Crenshaw, but Wikipedia and the USCF have yet to recognize his innovation.</li>
</ul>
<p>The most basic way to set up a round robin uses a Standard Algorithm. Put player 1 in a stationary chair. Line up the first half of the n competitors next to him, 2 through n/2. Then come back in reverse order pairing n/2+1 against n/2 until n is facing #1. Next round, everybody rotates clockwise by 1 seat except #1, so that #1 plays n-1 and n sits next to 1 and plays against n-2. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round-robin_tournament" target="_blank">Wikipedia article</a> has good pictures to see this rotation. The Berger tables use a different set of iterative steps. The field is laid out like the Standard, but after round 1, the last player is held constant, while everybody rotates clockwise by n/2 seats. The Crenshaw tables, at least for n>6, are basically identical to the Berger schedule, just in reverse chronological order. In Javascript, these algorithms translate into the following statements:</p>
<pre>
var seeds = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8];
var half = seeds.length / 2;
var rounds = seeds.length - 1;
var schedule = [];
for (var i = 0; i < rounds; i++) {
var top = seeds.slice(0, half);
var bottom = seeds.slice(half, seeds.length);
bottom.reverse();
schedule[i] = [];
for (var j = 0; j < half; j++) {
var pair = top[j] + "-" + bottom[j];
schedule[i].push(pair);
}
//now we rotate
var addon = seeds.splice(-1); //Standard algorithm rotates the last player...
seeds.splice(1, 0, addon[0]); //...into the second position
//Berger and Crenshaw rotate the field halfway around
if ((type == "Berger") || (type == "Crenshaw")) seeds = bottom.slice(1).reverse().concat(top).concat(addon);
}
if (type == "Crenshaw") schedule.reverse();
</pre>
<p>At the end of the algorithm, the pairings will be stored in a two-dimensional array named "schedule[r][b]" where the first index refers to the zero-based round number and the second index refers to the zero-based board number.</p>
<p>Once I got the algorithm to work and output to a readable form, I noticed a couple discrepancies in the USCF tables for 4-player and 6-player round robins. The 4-player table is simply the Standard 4-player table. The 6-player table is weird in that seeds 1-2 meet in round 1 while they meet in the penultimate round for tables 8-24. This would seem to be a defect of the table, especially if you have seeded players into the round robin in descending rating order. However, the USCF tables also carry a not-so-useless provision that if a player drops out of an even round robin before playing 50% of the games, late-round reversals can help mitigate color imbalances.</p>
<ul>
<li>The custom 6-player round robin table, unlike most round robin tables pairs seeds 1-2 in round 1 instead of the penultimate round like all the rest of the tables. This would seem to be a defect with the pairings if you have chosen to seed your players by rating order instead of by lot. However, the reversal table has all the reversals in the final round 5. When the 6-player table is generated by algorithm, some of the reversals occur as early as round 3 of 5.</li>
<li>Aside from the idiosyncrasies of the 4-player and the 6-player, the algorithm generates tables with players 8-24 with basically no error.</li>
<li>The reversal tables of the 10-player and the 14-player are sorted in such a manner that my algorithm is at a loss for matching it.</li>
<li>In the Fifth Edition USCF rulebook, on page 296, it should say, "Color reversals should be made in the last three rounds if someone withdraws before playing <u>five</u> games."</li>
<li>Also in 5th Ed., on page 298, the 14-player PAIRING table, round 1, board 1, should say, "7-14" as the pairing, not "7-4".</li>
<li>In 6th Ed(p 323) and 5th Ed(p 301), in the 18-player REVERSAL table, when #13 withdraws, the first pairing to reverse should be 18-1 instead of 8-1 (1-8 is a round 10 pairing). Also, when #14 withdraws, the second pairing to reverse should be 13-6 instead of 13-16 (13-16 is a round 7 pairing).</li>
<li>In 6th Ed(p 325) and 5th Ed(p 303), in 20-player REVERSAL table when #10 withdraws, the pairing to reverse should be 15-6 instead of 15-16 (15-16 is a round 9 pairing).</li>
<li>In 6th Ed(p 326) and 5th Ed(p 304), in the 22-player PAIRING table, in the 18th round, the second to last pairing should be 1-4 instead of 1-14 (1-14 is a round 8 pairing).</li>
<li><ul>In 6th Ed(p 328) and 5th Ed(p 306), in the 24-player PAIRING table, many pairings in rounds 21-23 have typos, specifically:
<li>In round 21, 10-17, 11-16, 12-15, and 13-14 instead of 0-17, 1-16, 2-15, and 3-14.</li>
<li>In round 22, the second to last pairing should be 23-3 instead of 23-2 (2-23 is a round 23 pairing).</li>
<li>In round 23, 10-15, 11-14, and 12-13 instead of 0-15, 1-14, and 2-13.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>I have made a web application that produces the tables and reversals algorithmically at <a href="http://www.symbiosis.elementfx.com/projects/roundrobin2/RoundRobin.htm" target="_blank">http://www.symbiosis.elementfx.com/projects/roundrobin2/RoundRobin.htm</a>.</p>Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-21266030644494789132018-05-20T10:11:00.001-07:002018-05-20T11:44:52.741-07:00Practical Rook Endgames 17: Cure a Vancura Amnesia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ5Ht-Qc796Pae-HrIfGfQA1a1UlccaDadSOK_-YAVuKE0fmMJewL6C42tTNv04D_BG382fRCYtEb_-I8uGOtNjPu-nCFqGHSPbO3RQr0M79UPgiGMMvGP2o7EcrhCVuM8Qdw4AKnRIV4/s1600/total+recall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ5Ht-Qc796Pae-HrIfGfQA1a1UlccaDadSOK_-YAVuKE0fmMJewL6C42tTNv04D_BG382fRCYtEb_-I8uGOtNjPu-nCFqGHSPbO3RQr0M79UPgiGMMvGP2o7EcrhCVuM8Qdw4AKnRIV4/s320/total+recall.jpg" width="217" height="320" data-original-width="182" data-original-height="268" /></a></div>
<p>In the 1990 "Total Recall" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, the main character encounters a video recording of himself lifting the veil on his amnesia, his real identity and the lie he was until recently living.</p>
<p>I was watching the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM-ONC2bCHytG2mYtKDmIeA" target="_blank">St. Louis Chess Club's YouTube</a> coverage of the <a href="http://theweekinchess.com/chessnews/events/us-chess-championships-2018" target="_blank">2018 U.S. Championships</a>. In round 7, Zviad Izoria had this position with white to move against Hikaru Nakamura. Study the position and then watch 6 minutes of the broadcast from when White moves Rh8 until the game ends in a surprise.</p>
<div>FEN: 8/2k2K2/2P4R/2r4P/8/8/8/8 w - - 1 88</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFwYUS9AQhzZ7raQ_FN6OVeWEh-5Nqz1G6H-ZmO_tUVGBBs36zpveO825BwYO1DoPy7EwjIkaJp_KexVIc0VR53D666Gi285kWN1SpDYSAuRzmIRG-THh0hAQXt9IeADwj56YpDeuP7Zw/s1600/AlmostVancura_698.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFwYUS9AQhzZ7raQ_FN6OVeWEh-5Nqz1G6H-ZmO_tUVGBBs36zpveO825BwYO1DoPy7EwjIkaJp_KexVIc0VR53D666Gi285kWN1SpDYSAuRzmIRG-THh0hAQXt9IeADwj56YpDeuP7Zw/s320/AlmostVancura_698.jpg" width="320" height="320" data-original-width="258" data-original-height="258" /></a></div>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YThVu1CA7fM" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>When Vancura was mentioned, I searched my memory and could only find a hazy mess despite having blogged about Vancura <a href="http://soapstonesstudio.blogspot.com/2016/09/practical-rook-endgames-14-vancura.html">here</a> and <a href="http://soapstonesstudio.blogspot.com/2016/09/practical-rook-endgames-15-vancura.html">here</a>. So I went back to a Vancura stem position with white: Ra8, Pa6, Kf4 and black: Ra1, Kg7, and this time I tried to create a more thorough treatise using the Shredder endgame tablebase and playing through plausibly interesting variations. The result of my effort is <a href="http://www.symbiosis.elementfx.com/share/Vancura Positions.pdf" target="_blank">this one-page memory refreshment PDF tool of variations related to the Vancura position</a>. It's not quite as vivid as Schwarzenegger's video recording, but this is the mnemonic device that should help stave off my next bout of Vancura amnesia. Now that I know a little more about Vancura, I'm going to comment on the commentators. Here is the blow-by-blow discussion with YouTube time indexes:</p>
<div><b>5:40:12 Maurice Ashley notices white playing 88. Rh8 dropping the c-pawn, going for an h-pawn win.</b> <i>Since the black king has the c-pawn blockaded, white's best chance for victory is the distant h-pawn.</i></div>
<div><b>5:40:16 Jennifer Shahade mentions a winning skewer trick.</b> <i>The Seventh Rank Skewer trick is one of the weapons in the stronger side's arsenal. It only comes into play when the weaker side tries to move his king to the pawn too early and steps on one of the two central files (d- or e-). The stronger king also tends to be out of the picture so that the skewering happens without interference. The skewer doesn't come into Izoria-Nakamura. <a href="http://soapstonesstudio.blogspot.com/2015/07/practical-rook-endgames-08-super-skewer.html">I mentioned the skewer before in this blog post.</a></i></div>
<div><b>5:40:17 Yasser Seirawan says that the black king is so far away.</b> <i>In many variations, the draw or win depends upon a king race to a key Bishop-7 square. If the weaker king can stay within a knight's move of the stronger king, he can usually draw.</i></div>
<div><b>5:40:19 Awonder Liang on post-game interview couch suggests the position is "similar to Vancura".</b> <i>Similar to Vancura is as close as it gets.</i></div>
<div><b>5:40:27 Yasser disputes the closeness to Vancura. Awonder gives the line 88... Rxc6 89. h6 Kb7.</b> <i>88... Rxc6 actually occurred. Had Izoria played 89. h6? Nakamura could have obtained a drawing Vancura with 89... Kb7!, the only move that draws! One of the reasons I find some of these endgames so fascinating is how moves can be both precise and counterintuitive at the same time. Vancura was only one move pair away from the actual game.</i></div>
<div><b>5:40:50 Yasser suggests 89. Re8 (build a lateral rook bridge)</b> <i>Building a lateral rook bridge is one technique to win. Usually, the defending rook has abandoned his order to keep the pawn under observation and is trying to get into Vancura lateral checking position.</i></div>
<div><b>5:40:54 Jennifer agrees 89. h6 might be the wrong move.</b> <i>89. h6? is drawn with best play.</i></div>
<div><b>5:40:01 Yasser gives the line 89. Re8 Rh6 90. Re5 intending Kg7.</b> <i>The Shredder tablebase notes that 90. Re5! is the only move still winning for white.</i></div>
<div><b>5:41:10 Maurice adds 90. Re5 Kd6 91. Kg7 "just nails him". Yasser agrees "just nails him".</b> <i>Shredder says 91. Kg7? is drawn simply by 91... Kxe5! 92. Kxh6 Kf6!. The weaker king never allows the stronger king to move Kg7 or Kg8. If the stronger king does get Kg6, then he'd better be on his way to h8. e.g. 93. Kh7 Kf7 94. h6 Kf8! 95. Kg6 Kg8! and the weaker king can mindlessly play Kg8-Kh8-Kg8 until he gets stalemated. Shredder says 91. Rf5 keeps the win alive.</i></div>
<div><b>5:43:20 Yasser notices play continued 89. Kg7 Rc1. Jennifer starts analysis with 90. h6. </b> <i>90. h6 is correct.</i></div>
<div><b>5:43:57 Maurice declares that "h6 is a draw."</b> <i>Shredder disagrees. In fact, at no point after 88. Rh8 did white let the win slip.</i></div>
<div><b>5:44:00 Yasser questions the draw assessment. Maurice says the black king might be close enough to draw.</b> <i>The black king is one tempo short of drawing.</i></div>
<div><b>5:44:11 Yasser extends the line 90. h6 Rg1+ 91. Kh7 Kd7 92. Rg8.</b> <i>The position of the stronger side's pieces is sometimes Pawn at rook 6, King at rook 7, and Rook at rook 8 while the weaker rook harasses from the knight file. The winning method often reorganizes these pieces starting with Rook to knight 8, King to knight 7 and if checked, King to rook 8 and then pawn to rook 7. It looks as if the king has castled by hand into a tight formation hugging the corner of the board. I used the moniker "Fortress of Solitude" for my mnemonic here. 92. Rg8! is the only move that wins.</i></div>
<div><b>5:44:29 Jennifer and Yasser agree that the black king is too far to draw.</b> <i>Correct.</i></div>
<div><b>5:45:11 Yasser comes up with the plan of Rg8, Rg6, Kg7, and queens.</b> <i>Black can throw a monkey wrench into this plan. Concretely, 92. Rg8! Rf1 93. Rg6? gives up a draw to 93. Ke7.</i></div>
<div>5:45:30 Maurice tries to draw with the plan 90. h6 Kd7. Yasser extends with 91. Rg8 Ke7 92. h7</div>
<div><b>5:45:44 Nakamura lets his clock run down to 2 seconds before recovering a 30-second increment. Maurice says "Nakamura's never going to flag."</b> <i>Never say never.</i></div>
<div><b>5:46:02 Maurice agrees that after 92. h7, the White King will win with a "laddering back" maneuver.</b> <i>With the weaker king at e7, the stronger king "ladders back" through harassing checks with Kg7-Kh6-Kg6-Kf5 and down to f2 if necessary.</i></div>
<div><b>5:46:20 Maurice mentions the queen versus rook ending. Jennifer asks, "Wait did you say there's a way to force queen versus rook?"</b> <i>Jennifer's question goes unanswered during the broadcast because of what happened next in the game. From the game continuation 90. h6 Rg1+ 91. Kh7 Kd7 92. Rg8! Rf1 93. Kg7 Rg1+ 94. Kh8 Rf1 95. h7 Ke6 96. Kg7 Rg1+ 97. Kf8 Rf1+ 98. Ke8 Rc1 99. Rg6+ Kf5 100. Rf6+ Kxf6 101. h8=Q+ Kg6 starts a complicated Queen versus Rook that is likely to become my next Endgame Obsession.</i></div>
<div><b>5:46:30 Nakamura flags just before playing 92... Re1.</b> <i>Maurice's head just about exploded when he learned that Nakamura had flagged.</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVveW8Odv_PdB5UJq8yOHtedNyTyS2tRHUSQhOUHg_vUvMWmM9d1cti6r48TXHDuus8iQZMVTrrDlitCyTRJGCcAesRFGNcqrPmi8M1XZyxDRL9SqsqqB_l7bSi3iNOGdTSrQuCjVcA_8/s1600/tumblr_mnb7myDf181qbtxe8o1_500.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVveW8Odv_PdB5UJq8yOHtedNyTyS2tRHUSQhOUHg_vUvMWmM9d1cti6r48TXHDuus8iQZMVTrrDlitCyTRJGCcAesRFGNcqrPmi8M1XZyxDRL9SqsqqB_l7bSi3iNOGdTSrQuCjVcA_8/s320/tumblr_mnb7myDf181qbtxe8o1_500.gif" width="320" height="159" data-original-width="500" data-original-height="248" /></a></div>
Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-62107226834648145272018-04-17T12:55:00.001-07:002018-04-17T12:55:53.199-07:00Checkmate Nitpick<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS_8Wym7148ZU8rRDoNcCKj1Msz3EvMt80MmkS_kX6B6RDT29dNsXBpJww8f_JhDgBk_-Y7nOL60el1LVN-qdGFr9YaP5pXlG7zHEGHhyN9364WmCxqrowASk92iPaUu61RPVICnlRavI/s1600/cover_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS_8Wym7148ZU8rRDoNcCKj1Msz3EvMt80MmkS_kX6B6RDT29dNsXBpJww8f_JhDgBk_-Y7nOL60el1LVN-qdGFr9YaP5pXlG7zHEGHhyN9364WmCxqrowASk92iPaUu61RPVICnlRavI/s320/cover_.jpg" width="217" height="320" data-original-width="182" data-original-height="268" /></a></div>
<p>I fell for the trap of thinking that a chess movie starring Danny Glover and Sean Astin on Netflix couldn't be that bad. I probably fast forwarded through the last 30 minutes, but I still regretted the time I lost on it. No need to warn you of spoilers because I'm really doing you a service if you never watch this turkey. Mash up a bank robbery plot, a family disintegrating in the midst of a health crisis, and a high stakes chess game, and you'd probably do better than what director Timothy Woodward Jr put together. I should have read the reviews before I hit play because it's basically a string of the lowest ratings you could give.</p>
<p>I found myself shouting at the television screen because for a movie with a chess-themed title, they sure didn't know chess. Here are a couple of screenshots to play at home:</p>
<p>1. Vinnie Jones is sitting behind the black pieces awaiting his opponent. What's wrong with this picture?</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK_zEG-o7YLwn8GW4pyNDmKfcSYGZnn9q2PkvslesINh6u7Qe3-SOCB0KM4yFQzzjLX7ql6cB5Ao6UKLBWXGLYI_fXSealx0k_Q521LF_cYJu34J7hoSbkgKHjGbhbUZAJ5ez-tk8ISK4/s1600/vinny.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK_zEG-o7YLwn8GW4pyNDmKfcSYGZnn9q2PkvslesINh6u7Qe3-SOCB0KM4yFQzzjLX7ql6cB5Ao6UKLBWXGLYI_fXSealx0k_Q521LF_cYJu34J7hoSbkgKHjGbhbUZAJ5ez-tk8ISK4/s320/vinny.png" width="320" height="180" data-original-width="1366" data-original-height="768" /></a></div>
<p>2. Danny Glover arrives at the opposite side of the board and sets a case down. There are two things wrong here.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPeBzDpGutiH5xIThR7Uo19R11UFGCblLObAzzQY4eNwQwCCvQY42qDgRCz74vR6i7OGDNZjyNvReK_haxx8qz6xpJSfEz4zjKUQmjY_QY9bQIMiQ_mIImzjcpEDWYIVxP5yrZQtIYlIo/s1600/case.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPeBzDpGutiH5xIThR7Uo19R11UFGCblLObAzzQY4eNwQwCCvQY42qDgRCz74vR6i7OGDNZjyNvReK_haxx8qz6xpJSfEz4zjKUQmjY_QY9bQIMiQ_mIImzjcpEDWYIVxP5yrZQtIYlIo/s320/case.png" width="320" height="180" data-original-width="1362" data-original-height="768" /></a></div>
<p>Answers</p>
<p>1. The black king is on Vinnie's right and the black queen is on his left. Standard setup should always have it opposite.</p>
<p>2. The player of the white pieces brought his own half-set which happens to match the style of the black pieces; this never happens because no one breaks up sets. The right lower corner nearest to Danny Glover should be a light square.</p>
<p>1 star for spending money on named cast members, 0 for skimping on writers who could put together plot, characters, or dialog. I still don't know why the chess game had any relation to the rest of the movie, but you know what? I just don't care.</p>Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-30631677867471604202017-11-29T20:32:00.001-08:002018-05-16T09:06:44.426-07:00Morphyesque<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEituUVIIUG6K4eG0RBdvH3GuGk75yuFv3eLnUxS-IJSTgE2IIbdmzDXHuKMUYMjHcP-pH8omHYk-BzIKQsiMACv0mrvR1ixTZG5YpiDUXKe0mV7-ogdZmh8r0zxCSmAnl0BR_BnQm8IhvQ/s1600/Portrait+Straightened.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEituUVIIUG6K4eG0RBdvH3GuGk75yuFv3eLnUxS-IJSTgE2IIbdmzDXHuKMUYMjHcP-pH8omHYk-BzIKQsiMACv0mrvR1ixTZG5YpiDUXKe0mV7-ogdZmh8r0zxCSmAnl0BR_BnQm8IhvQ/s320/Portrait+Straightened.png" width="203" height="320" data-original-width="702" data-original-height="1107" /></a></div> <p>I had been casting about for things to pique my interest and thought that reading a book about Paul Morphy might do the trick. I had done some translating of a German book about Leonid Kubbel and thought that translating a Spanish book about Morphy might also be entertaining. Alas, most games were listed in this book with little commentary. Eventually, I found Johann Lowenthal's book on Morphy. While dated, it provided me with a suitable biography and a selection of games against Adolf Anderssen. It was rather sad to read of his problems late in life and the fact that he never seemed to have a worthy rival to push him to greater heights. None of his games are in Burgess' World's Greatest Chess Games, not even the Opera Game, since his opposition during his brilliant games was rather weak.</p>
<p>With only a modicum of humility, I submit one of the games I played this year for the adjective of Morphyesque. In any event, I might as well dedicate this game to his memory. It was played at tournament time controls against an opponent with Elo 1900. It is short enough that I'm not going to use any diagrams, but instead appeal to the reader to try to follow the game "blindfolded". I have White against N.N.(1900).</p>
<p><b>1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 3. d4</b> The Urusov Gambit is like the Scotch Gambit for the Bishop's Opening. It aims to open up the game quickly where tactics may provide for a quick win for White. There are a decent number of transpositions to Two Knights Defense and the Max Lange Attack. <b>3...Nxe4</b> Risky, but not bad yet. The worst part of this move is that Black begins to violate all kinds of opening principles, e.g. moving pieces multiple times and falling way behind in development. <b>4. dxe5</b> Notice that the knight is centralized but awkward because the pawn prevents the natural retreat to f6. <b>4...Nc5 5. Nf3 Ne6 6. O-O</b> White hasn't even gambited a pawn and he has a strong e5 pawn, two naturally strong minor pieces, a castled king, and some possible heavy piece action on the d- and e-file. Black does not sense the danger and tries to catch up in development with an aggressive piece posting. <b>6...Bc5 7. Nc3</b> With the e5 pawn leading the charge, I have the natural Ne4 coming. My opponent saw this move and wasted two more tempi getting his bishop to a7. <b>7...a6? 8. Ne4 Ba7??</b></p>
<p>What move should White play? Hint: It's a developing move. If you are following along with no chess board in front of you, Black has two pieces developed: a knight at e6 and a bishop at a7. He also has moved one pawn to a6 and his e-pawn is missing. The rest of his pieces including QR, QN, QB, Q, K, and KR are on their home squares. White on the other hand has knights at e4 and f3, a bishop at c4, kingside castling, and the QR, QB, and Q on home squares.</p>
<p><b>9. Bg5!</b> It looks like White is going to let Black exchange off a pair of pieces, but White gets the better of the deal. While Black loses a defender at e6, White gets the g5 outpost for his knight and opens a path to h5 for his queen. Development begets development. The pawn at e5 assures that f6 is only going to lose material for Black. <b>9...Nxg5 10. Nfxg5! O-O</b> What's the naturally aggressive follow-up? <b>11. Qh5 h6</b> to prevent Qxh7#. I had calculated most of the outcome from here, but I must confess, that I didn't know what I would do if after my next move, Black sacrifices his queen. I thought I would just win the queen with Nxg5, but in another line without the queen sac, I saw that Nf6+ was strong. It turns out it remains strong even after the queen sac. I played a fun move here. <b>12. Qg6!</b> My opponent resigned, so I didn't have to make the error of 12...Qxg5 13. Nxg5?!. I rationalize that maybe I would have found 12...Qxg5 13. Nf6+! Qxf6 14. exf6 and with two pins on the pawns in front of his king, Black is helpless to stop 15. Qxg7#.</p>Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-54418932047624337422017-07-24T23:37:00.002-07:002017-07-24T23:39:24.523-07:00A Fairly Simple Miss<p>My chess enthusiasm has been waning a bit even as my rating hit a peak of 2140 after winning a semifinal match in the club championship. I'm currently down 0-1 in the finals, so the struggle continues. Much of what brings me to chess can be attributed to two things: 1. defending my repertoire as the right way (at least for me) to play; and 2. other people's enthusiasm. By this I mean that I spend time with club players who seem to have a purer enjoyment of the game than mine. A new kid came to town and seemed quite keen on playing blitz with some skill. I invited him to our favorite coffee shop chess hangout and played a few games with him on Sunday.</p>
<p>One endgame stuck out in my memory and after I reconstructed it at home, I discovered something both of us missed. My opponent lost the exchange at one point and was annoyingly hanging on. I knew that my rook was better and that at some point, I needed to trade rook for bishop and pawn and win in the pure pawn ending. Here was a position right before that exchange took place. I was actually playing Black, but the diagrams work out better this way. White just played Rg4. Black to move:</p>
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<p>I have surrounded the g5 pawn and plan on taking it soon. The rook is preventing Black from breaking through on the queenside. I could see my opponent do some quick calculations and decide that the pawn ending was drawn. He then played Bf4, probably as a prelude to Kb4 and Kxb3.</p>
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<p>White to play: What's the best move? I had been prepared to take the bishop for a while. Now that the opportunity was present, I lost objectivity and only looked at my rook and his bishop disappearing from the board. I played Rxf4? and gxf4 Kxf4 quickly ensued. Now with Black to move, this is the position:</p>
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<p>We soon found ourselves in a drawn Q+PvQ ending, confirmed by tablebases. In the previous diagram, what should I have played? I could have gained one critical tempo with the killer move Rxg5. Now if Black wants to regain the exchange with Bxg5 Kxg5, my king is magically transported from f4 to g5 with Black to move:</p>
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<p>But this time my pawn queens quickly enough to win.</p>
Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-73021133591548344512017-05-13T13:04:00.000-07:002017-05-13T13:18:31.615-07:00TPS Report #20<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd3QVR-ReDnNksXdlwQxzMEq_LqWv2UGF-h5DJapQTBqJj_8UyX9uSXPNoKvZNl-0ymHwQdANbKl61kcZ4OaiWCg-GYVa1XZfueF3A_eCHUxtsLYpIZOXUc8cfbKmEFeKAsNM8hZFxIRo/s1600/James_Bond-_Quantum_of_Solace_Theactrical_Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd3QVR-ReDnNksXdlwQxzMEq_LqWv2UGF-h5DJapQTBqJj_8UyX9uSXPNoKvZNl-0ymHwQdANbKl61kcZ4OaiWCg-GYVa1XZfueF3A_eCHUxtsLYpIZOXUc8cfbKmEFeKAsNM8hZFxIRo/s320/James_Bond-_Quantum_of_Solace_Theactrical_Poster.jpg" width="215" height="320" /></a></div>
<p>A friend I hadn't seen in a while showed up at the club and congratulated me on my recent successes. I confessed that despite the success, my relationship with chess had been languishing toward ennui again. Having finished the tournament and rated the results, I have to remind myself of the good things.</p>
<p>After the year of no rated tournament games, I jumped into club games with the 2016 Holiday Swiss starting after Halloween. After a good 10.0/12 run in the Club Championship Qualifier, I now have the highest rating of my career at 2135. The statistics seem to be stacking up to say that I have made a quantum leap, but I worry that crowing about good things calls the attention of the karma-balancing forces. Here is one version of the cherry-picked statistics:</p>
<table border="1" cellspacing="0"><thead><tbody>
<tr><th>Opponent Class</th><th>Pre-2004 (N=206)<br>Performance Rating</th><th>2004-2013 (N=240)<br>Performance Rating</th><th>2014-2015 (N=89)<br>Performance Rating</th><th>2016-2017 (N=17)<br>Performance Rating</th></tr>
<tr><td>Class B</td><td>1877</td><td>1963</td><td>2084</td><td>1949</td></tr>
<tr><td>Class A</td><td>1885</td><td>2078</td><td>2073</td><td>2200</td></tr>
<tr><td>Expert</td><td>2005</td><td>1964</td><td>2147</td><td>2263</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<p>In 2004, I volunteered to do the games bulletin for the master tournament in Reno. I had to annotate somewhere around 60-100 games between players in the rating range of 2000-2600. I think the two things that struck me most were how efficiently the masters moved their pieces in pursuit of their plans and how relentlessly their technique converted advantages into points. 2004 was the year I gave up the Sicilian in favor of the Modern Defense and I think 2004 was also the year that I fell in love with the endgame. In retrospect, my technique improved at beating the players in Class B and in Class A. However, playing against fellow Experts was a misery since I was only an Expert by virtue of a prize rating floor and I often felt outclassed.</p>
<p>In 2014, I gave up the English Opening and the Modern Defense in favor of more open, tactical games. I also started systematically studying and reviewing my opening repertoire with Chess Position Trainer, developing my own opening theory, and familiarizing myself with key positions and themes. I think that was the year that I began to fear Experts less and turn a losing percentage against them (37%) into a winning one (58%).</p>
<p>I don't have an explanation for what happened in the past 7 months, but I seem to more consistently avoid the emotional attitude of "I'll just make this move, see what happens, and hope it turns out right." My job is to know as well as possible what will happen and in as much as I had chances to avoid worse and losing variations, I seem to be capitalizing on a reduction in my mistakes. I'd like to say that some of my recent work with endgame studies has improved my kinetic linking to see further and clearer. Conversely, my opponents seem to be making disastrous mistakes more frequently. Or maybe I have improved at spotting opportunities.</p>
<p>Of course, there is still room for a regression to the mean since the N-number is small for the 17 recently picked cherries. Still, with my tendency to accentuate the negative, it's therapeutic to highlight the positive.</p>
<p>Going forward, I will try to mentally rest for a few weeks until the championship matches. Perhaps I will blog about more interesting and practical endgames that have come up in my games and in those of the masters.</p>Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-34432698866363241162017-04-06T22:02:00.001-07:002017-04-30T09:12:26.163-07:00Tomb Raider Revisited<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_kLvNgQOO_7eSCDyL4gbYBumtE4S9Z3pOEOWsLhW8KCPJGMIvp3DWRKegZtWJdanYuIZwsJ12iftXzySKNGlAF97FDdY71i2tflT9aAwvrQR9ZfogVVBKjF9AMJWrwcA7JHEAQJ7G1Kg/s1600/lara-croft-tomb-raider-the-cradle-of-life.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_kLvNgQOO_7eSCDyL4gbYBumtE4S9Z3pOEOWsLhW8KCPJGMIvp3DWRKegZtWJdanYuIZwsJ12iftXzySKNGlAF97FDdY71i2tflT9aAwvrQR9ZfogVVBKjF9AMJWrwcA7JHEAQJ7G1Kg/s320/lara-croft-tomb-raider-the-cradle-of-life.jpg" width="213" height="320" /></a></div><p>I have been watching the Saint Louis Chess Club's YouTube coverage of the 2017 U.S. Chess Championships. In round 8, Ray Robson played a Gruenfeld Defense against Alexander Onischuk. After <b>1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Nf3 c5 8.Be3 Qa5 9.Qd2 0-0 10.Rc1 Nd7 11.Bd3 b6 12.0-0 e6 13.Qe2 Bb7 14.Nd2</b>, they reached this positon:</p>
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<p>Ray Robson decided to raid the two pawns at a2 and c3. I'm not sure where he thought he was getting away with the loot, but the tomb closed up and Ray's Raider got trapped <b>14...Qxa2 15.Ra1 Qb2 16.Rfb1 Qxc3 17.Nc4!</b></p>
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<p>I think Onischuk speculated that Robson might have missed 17.Nc4. Play could have progressed with <i>17...b5 18.Ra3 Qb4 19.dxc5! Qxb1+ 20.Bxb1 bxc4 21.Qxc4</i> with only +1.15 pawns to White.</p> Instead, Robson tried to get out with <b>17...Nf6? 18.Ra3</b>.</p>
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<p>It struck me here how similar the queen trap here is compared to the one in my own game.
Not completely analogous, since I know there is a difference between Qb3 and Qc3. And now Robson played his own knight desperado <b>18...Nxe4</b>
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<p>Unfortunately, the tactics are all in Onischuk's favor at this point. <b>19.Bxe4 Bxe4 20.Rxc3</b></p>
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<p>Eventually, the game traded down to Queen and the 3 white kingside pawns versus Rook and the 4 black kingside pawns. Someone mentioned a fortress, but White forced some pawn exchanges and the Black king became too exposed to wait out the siege.</p>Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-16004217971399824882017-03-20T10:57:00.000-07:002017-04-30T09:19:06.091-07:00Tomb Raider<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc8DtuwdiSPOdewA4JclvubTNYxU_Ur-5kvyQsyGZlJWcRQVW50yoEU0m9LW_GbNuVcqBDfUxM9MVGneiAqQB2voFhr1kBEA49TJapGiCEUegRWNAxrv9ioBDmTZnZi2yyPpxc6ZlyWJI/s1600/2b50a2e0b28f189cc81fc4c22858727a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc8DtuwdiSPOdewA4JclvubTNYxU_Ur-5kvyQsyGZlJWcRQVW50yoEU0m9LW_GbNuVcqBDfUxM9MVGneiAqQB2voFhr1kBEA49TJapGiCEUegRWNAxrv9ioBDmTZnZi2yyPpxc6ZlyWJI/s320/2b50a2e0b28f189cc81fc4c22858727a.jpg" width="320" height="240" /></a></div>
<p>The Tomb Raider franchise began in 1996 when game studio Core Design released under its parent company Eidos Interactive, a third-person 3D action adventure featuring acrobatic (and shapely) Lara Croft as the Tomb Raider navigating through traps. Since that time, the franchise has gone on to publish about fifteen game titles and inspire two movies starring Angelina Jolie. A reboot of the film franchise is in development with Alicia Vikander (from Ex Machina) in the title role.</p>
<p>I won a game last month that reminded me of the Tomb Raider. My opponent offered material for the possibility of trapping my queen. I stayed one step ahead of the traps and managed to escape with the material advantage intact. I'm playing Black. White's 20th move was <b>20.Qc2-e2</b>, loosening the protection of the Nb3, to which I responded <b>20...Qc7-d7</b> threatening to capture the white pawn on a4 and having a follow-up threat against Nb3 for the next move. Notice that Black has a loose a7 pawn.</p>
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<p>My opponent and I were both a little short on time, about 15 minutes to make 10 moves and reach move 30. Ideally, both sides could sink into 30-45 minute thinks and try to work out the next 8-12 plies with some level of certainty before making such committal moves. Barring that, I fell back on intuition that I could use the pawn exchanges at e4 and b4 and my well-placed rooks at c8 and d8 to aid my queen's escape. If the two white rooks came to a1 and b1, the bishop would have trouble discovering the attack of the b-rook because a1 was occupied and Bc1 allows simply Qxc3. If the minor pieces could not trap my queen, then I might be able to sac my queen for a rook, thereby gaining at least material parity. I also used a rough risk-reward calculation: if I took on a4, worst case scenario was that Ra1 forces my queen to retreat to d7 and then I would have to contend with Rxa7. So, sometimes, I used shorter variations than I really should have to substitute for calculated certainty. My opponent sweetened the reward by cutting off the protection of Bb2. <b>21.Nc2??</b></p>
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<p>I knew that I was getting the a-pawn and at least positional play against a pair of awkward knights (if either knight goes to a1). If he tried to trap my queen with Ra1, I would get the Nb3 and tempo against the loose Bb2. So I took the bait and entered the tomb. <b>21...Qxa4 22.Ra1</b></p>
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<p>Last chance to bail out with Qd7 Rxa7. No guts no glory. <b>22...Qxb3 23.Reb1</b></p>
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<p>White is one move away from trapping the Black Queen with Ra3, but Black has several resources to delay that outcome. The most immediate is cxb4. This has the possibility of opening the c-file for the Black rook and it also temporarily prevents Ra3. However, White would almost certainly play Nxb4, keeping the c-file semi-closed. Another resource is dxe4, temporarily giving Black the potential of Qd5, but fxe4 leaves the queen trapped. I already began to see the possibility of a bailout sacrifice to get my queen out of trouble, but I wasn't sure it was going to work. So I went for the pawn exchanges to improve my rooks. <b>23...dxe4 24.fxe4</b></p>
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<p><b>24...cxb4 25.Nxb4</b></p>
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<p>A pause now that we're five moves closer to time control. I was annoyed at the weakness of my a7 pawn and the tempo that Rxa7 might get on my Bb7. Since I was already up a knight and a pawn, I calculated that 25...a5 26.Ra3 Qxa3 27.Bxa3 axb4 might be a bailout strategy. Do you see the other possibility of bailout yet? <b>25...a5 26.Ra3</b>. White moved in to kill my queen.</p>
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<p>Even though 26...Qxa3 27.Bxa3 axb4 28.Bxb4 carries the material advantage of queen (9) for rook and two knights (11), White's position seemed annoyingly consolidated. I couldn't see how I was going to organize my pieces for the next round of battle. With White's Nb4 under attack and both our time troubles becoming serious, I decided to play my ace in the hole. <b>26...Nd4!</b>.</p>
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<p>If he captures my queen with Rxb3, I capture his queen with check Nxe2+ with more even exchanges helping Black's endgame. If he captures my knight with cxd4, I capture his knight Qxb4 and get my queen away safely with the knight advantage. If he saves his queen, I save my queen with Qe6. My opponent let his time tick down to about 1 minute for 4 moves as he tried to work out this mess. He finally settled on <b>27.Qd2 Qe6</b>.</p>
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<p>At this point, I figured that White should trade knights and gain a protected passer at d5, e.g. 28.cxd4 axb4 29.d5. Another variation could have gone 28.Nc2 Nxc2 29.Rxc2. However, with his time trouble, White tried too hard to avoid exchanges and came up with a move that made his knight, bishop, and rook awkward. <b>28.Na2?</b></p>
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<p>With the remaining time on my clock, I retreated while picking on the awkward rook. <b>28...Nb5 29.Ra4 Nd6 30.Qf2 Bc6</b>. With a piece and a pawn down and the possibility of losing the rook, my opponent resigned. Black's most straightforward win goes 31.Ra3 Nb5 32.Ra4 Qb3 going back to the tomb to loot more treasure.</p>Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-31553693663547078262017-03-13T22:07:00.000-07:002017-03-20T11:31:23.711-07:00Brazil<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEttYFxdFkS18ZZtJA98-_UdppVQu1i-8UrpkUTmRwmexhqSAbB_HZnaN9OTMYy6BTluomB5jOzNfeDOtBtai7KIs5mDQmCQzIv-NSn34bhECQb5Xwnd-LQq5riLWxeivE8-ZzPRMc4O4/s1600/51ucHjdqsUL._SX200_QL80_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEttYFxdFkS18ZZtJA98-_UdppVQu1i-8UrpkUTmRwmexhqSAbB_HZnaN9OTMYy6BTluomB5jOzNfeDOtBtai7KIs5mDQmCQzIv-NSn34bhECQb5Xwnd-LQq5riLWxeivE8-ZzPRMc4O4/s320/51ucHjdqsUL._SX200_QL80_.jpg" width="240" height="320" /></a></div>
<p>Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" is a movie about a dystopian, Kafkaesque world of bureaucracy, superficiality, and terrorism. The main character descends into criminality and madness when he tries to swim against the current using his conscience, passion, and resourcefulness. One of the images toward the end of the movie involves a heroic figure becoming enveloped and then consumed by flying scraps of paper, a metaphor for the triumph of bureaucracy.</p>
<p>One of my recent games involved enveloping an enemy piece in pins and cross-pins in order to eventually win. Here is the position after Black played <b>16...h5</b>:</p>
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<i>Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) wakes up one night to find the central heating in his apartment has gone on the fritz and is now too hot. He leaves a message with the Central Services answering machine and goes to sleep with his head in the refrigerator.</i>
<p>Black seizes the initiative with a flank attack on White's g4-h3 pawn chain. Note that if g4-g5, Black has the fork Bf4+. <b>17.Nh4?!</b>.</p>
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<i>Sam is awakened by freelance outlaw repairman Archibald "Harry" Tuttle (Robert De Niro represented by the White knight) who tries to resolve the heating problem.</i>
<p>I think that my opponent wanted to try to exploit the hole at g6, but there is no time for that because the Black rooks are going to use the tempo Rh6 to assist in doubling on the h-file. <b>17...hxg4 18.hxg4 Rh6</b>.</p> <i>The call to Central Services goes through and two repairmen, Spoor (Bob Hoskins) and Dowser (Derrick O'Connor) are dispatched to Sam's apartment on a collision course with Harry Tuttle.</i>
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<i>With some quick thinking, Sam rebuffs the attempt by Spoor and Dowser to bully their way into his apartment by requesting official paperwork, thereby preventing an armed confrontation with Tuttle. Tuttle zips away via a zipline.</i>
<p>White regroups with an awkward sequence: <b>19.Ng2 Reh8 20.Rg1?!</b>. I mentioned after the game that White should have probably exchanged one pair of rooks so that I wouldn't get so much activity with the second rook on White's third rank.</p>
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<i>Far from being defeated, Spoor and Dowser (Black's rook pair) keep showing up at Sam's apartment, once to pull all the ducting out of the walls, and then once more when the system has turned the apartment into a freezer. During the daytime, Sam spends all his efforts at work trying to track down the girl of his dreams, Jill Layton (Kim Greist).</i>
<p>Black's rooks soon lodge in White's position, first at h2 where it causes immobility in the Ng2 because of the looseness of f2. White tries to stabilize his weaknesses by moving his king from c1 to e2. This is double-edged in that his king becomes the target of pins and skewers. <b>20...Rh2 21.Kc2?! Be8 22.Kd2 Bg6 23.Ke2 R8h3 24.f3</b>. With the third rank pressure preventing White from moving his Rd1 for fear of Bd3+, White blocks this coordination by advancing his f-pawn. But now the knight is pinned to the king.</p>
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<i>With the aid of Sam's erratic behavior, Sam (White King) and Jill (King Bishop Pawn) run afoul of the law and are soon labeled as terrorists.</i>
<p>I'm somewhat proud of this next sequence which was not easy to find and advance the attack. The light-squared bishop is hindered by the f3 and g4 pawns. It would really like to participate in the attack on g2 and therefore belongs on e4 or h3, but there is currently no path. Luckily, a pawn break <b>24...f5!</b> was handy, weakening the f3-g4 structure enough to become porous. Then followed <b>25.gxf5 Bxf5 26.Rdf1 Rg3 27.Rf2 Bh3</b>.</p>
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<p>Once 27.Rf2 appeared on the board, I had to calculate the possibility of 27...Bh3 being answered by Ng2 jumping. The trickiest jump is 28.Nf4 because it cuts the rooks off from their protection by the bishop on d6. At first I thought I had to trade both pairs of rooks 28...Rxf2+ 29.Kxf2 Rxg1, but I worried about 30.Nxh3. I couldn't see clearly enough to find 30...Rh1 which reopens 2 threats of Rxh3 and Rh2+ skewering the Bb2. But I was reassured when I found 28...Rxg1 29.Rxh2 Bxf4 30.Rxh3 Rg2+ 31.Kd3 Rxb2. Unfortunately, the next pair of moves were both blunders. White bluffed and Black blinked with <b>28.cxd5? exd5?</b>. 28...Bxg2! would have been completely winning as Bxf3+ is difficult to meet. But finally, the White king walks into the trap that Black initiated with 20...Rh2. <b>29.Kf1</b>. The knight is pinned again.</p>
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<i> Sam hatches a daring plan to erase Jill from the Ministry of Information's databases. Unfortunately, Big Brother is more than a one-trick pony. Information Retrieval, e.g. police forces and interrogators, find Sam's hideout, break down the doors, and arrest him.</i>
<p>With the rooks and knight and king largely immobilized, the plan of Bd6-Bf4-Be3 seemed decisive. <b>29...Bf4 30.Re2</b>. Here I missed the clever zugzwang 30...g5!. <b>30...Rxf3+</b> is enough to win, but my advantage falls from 5.9 to 3.0. <b>31.Rf2 Rxf2+ 32.Kxf2</b>.</p>
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<i>Sam finds himself about to be tortured. Suddenly a shot rings out and he is rescued by some commandos, including Harry Tuttle. There is seeming triumph over bureaucracy when Tuttle blows up the Ministry of Information buildings.</i>
<p>A semi-crucial move appears at this point of the game. If I had felt confident with all the pin pressure I had put on the Ng2, I still had to find my way to a winning endgame. The extra pawn at g7 could still win, but the ending should be bishops of same colors to win it. With that in mind, White must not be allowed to unpin the knight and capture Kxf4. Therefore, <b>32...g5!</b> was necessary. My opponent said he thought he had a chance at this point, but the advance of the g-pawn shut down his last hope. The cocoon around the knight unravels, but the knight is also gone. <b>33.Kf3 Rxg2 34.Rxg2 Bxg2+ 35.Kxg2 g4</b>
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<i>But the falling paper debris from the explosion envelops Tuttle and mummifies him like a spider's prey. Sam rushes to help, but by the time he unravels the paper, Tuttle has seemingly evaporated.</i>
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<i>The authorities chase Sam until he finds Jill again and they escape to the idyllic countryside.</i>
<p>The game concluded with fairly simple plans of centralizing the Black king to f5, possibly e4, and trying to queen the g-pawn. The exploitation of two weaknesses is a common endgame principle. <b>36.Kf2 Kd7 37.Bf3 Ke6 38.Ke2 Kf5 39.Kd3 g3 40.Be1 g2 41.Bf2 Bh2 42.a4 g1=Q 43.Bxg1 Bxg1 44.b4 Kf4 45.Kc3 Ke4</b> and White resigned.</p>
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<i>The unharmed faces of Sam's tormentors, Jack Lint (the Black King Bishop, played by Michael Palin) and Deputy Minister of Information Mr. Helpmann (the Black King, played by Peter Vaughan) interrupt Sam's fantasyscape, revealing that Sam has only escaped his torture by becoming completely delusional.</i>
Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-37021234618303622122017-03-12T12:05:00.002-07:002017-04-01T17:46:29.810-07:00Rosetta Stone<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaz8nR-NLUzp8s2w7Wuwa6Yackk-o9XCUN1D1NlVazXGMDjoIhCaVjO_3WzlcfrJYEasD0FkfjU1qKq1_urK70oDJpLDU5yfGt2M_-PBqgULhI0LS7lY8LylhyphenhyphenEYs0tqAi3oyYQz9O2Ic/s1600/rosettastone2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaz8nR-NLUzp8s2w7Wuwa6Yackk-o9XCUN1D1NlVazXGMDjoIhCaVjO_3WzlcfrJYEasD0FkfjU1qKq1_urK70oDJpLDU5yfGt2M_-PBqgULhI0LS7lY8LylhyphenhyphenEYs0tqAi3oyYQz9O2Ic/s320/rosettastone2.gif" width="258" height="320" /></a></div>
<p>The Rosetta Stone was found in Egypt in 1799 having parallel texts of ancient Greek, Demotic, and Egyptian hieroglyphics. The Rosetta Stone proved key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics. I wanted to review one of my wins at the club last month with some attention to the language used to in analysis, from what I was thinking at the time to what postmortem analysis has shown, and try to translate it into Temposchluckerese.</p>
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<p>As Black, I had just played 24...Bd7-c8. The evaluation is approximately equal. White's centralized knights and queenside pawn chain to c5 threaten to create a b-pawn passer. Black's f5-e4 pawn chain and attack against the e3 isolani provide central space and counterplay. It looks like Bc8 overprotects a6 from Qxa6 so that my Nc7 is freed up a bit from defensive duties. This increases not only the mobility of the Bc8 and the Nc7, but also the Rd8 which now faces White's Nd4. The main defect of Bd7-c8 is that the c6 pawn is now held only by my Qh6. I had been keeping my eye on White's weak e3 pawn for the past 10 moves. White had not improved his defense of that pawn for a while. Now that my rook faces Nd4, the Pe3 is that much more vulnerable, especially in a sequence where Be7-g5xe3 lands with check. In my usual language, I was going to try to remove the Pe3 guard of the Nd4.</p>
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<p>As I understand Temposchlucker's terminology, e3 is a Point of Pressure (PoP) as is d4. Lines of Attack (LoA) include h6-e3 and d8-d4. The Nd4 is a Barely Adequately Defended (BAD) piece, but I would also like to label the Pe3 and Black's Pc6 and Pf5 as BAD. In addition, Pe3 is already immobilized and blockaded by Black's Pe4, but a functional immobility also exists in that the Nd4 is only defended by Pe3. With these critical items in play, White missed chances to bolster the e3-d4 problems and decided to press his queenside pawn majority with <b>25.a4</b>. Of course, I played <b>25...Bg5</b> and my opponent sank into a long think. I felt somewhat confident at this point and walked around the club. I came back after <b>26.Kh1</b>.</p>
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<p>This shouldn't have surprised me, but it did. Kh1 comes close to solving White's problems. Sometimes if you have to lose material and time, the solution is to quickly concede what you have to concede and move onto getting something in return. Black will capture Bxe3, but White will follow with Nxc6, making the queenside majority scarier and temporarily threatening a Nxd8 win of the exchange. Now that I saw White's plan, it was my turn to concede something and try to gain something in return. I could see that Rd2 might be a devastating blow if I could camp heavy pieces on White's second rank. So I decided to go down this variation. <b>26...Bxe3 27.Nxc6 Rd2</b>.</p>
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<p>At this point, I worried about White's offensive possibilities. 28.Ne7+ is a move. Can Black counterattack with 28...Kf8? I decided, correctly as verified afterward, that 29.Nxf5 threatening Black's queen and a discovery on Black's king were too dangerous, so I was going to have to play 28...Kh8. Because of the balance between pieces en prise at Be3 and Nc6, White probably felt he had to keep his queen in contact with Be3. Also, it was difficult to see past 28.Qc4+ Be6 because you have to look extra ply ahead while the queen is attacked, but 29.Ne7+ Kh8 30.Qxe4 would have smashed Black's center and brought the Nc6 back into the protection of the Bg2 and Qe4.</p>
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<p>After Qc4+ Be6 Ne7+ Kh8, the lines of attack (LoA) are c4-g8 and f1-f8. The Rf8 is a BAD piece as is the Pe4 (both are also on Points of Pressure, PoP).</p>
<p>Instead White played the passive <b>28.Qe1</b>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFQ6d1LRzo-Qnow6URdprtZHtWQVkzjSIgPCxBJag3pDEITKkyivIWU-xTwJmN5VKS6Sd0IZW_JlnBHIZ6k8U41IyOYatp1zqfwEqNk6ZZAq1wt3XxyVICn0-CvhetApx58hTPJi0JqlE/s1600/Rosetta_638.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFQ6d1LRzo-Qnow6URdprtZHtWQVkzjSIgPCxBJag3pDEITKkyivIWU-xTwJmN5VKS6Sd0IZW_JlnBHIZ6k8U41IyOYatp1zqfwEqNk6ZZAq1wt3XxyVICn0-CvhetApx58hTPJi0JqlE/s320/Rosetta_638.jpg" width="320" height="320" /></a></div>
<p>Here I thought for a long time on how to proceed. I was fixated by the looseness of my Be3 and his Nc6. I didn't want to trade evenly since my Be3 was quite strong as an unopposed bishop slicing into White's position and supporting eventual passed pawns. I soon noticed that the Nc3 was also loose and tried to limit the mobility of the Nc6 by playing <b>28...Bg5</b>. Now that the bishop is safe, Qxc6 is back on and Ne5 runs into Bf6 skewering two knights on the diagonal.<p>
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<p>But what I failed to appreciate was that Rd2 had given me a significant Line of Attack on PoPs g2 and h2. Plus my queen which had been at h6 for the past 15 moves had another serious Line of Attack against PoP h2. Add this to the already existing LoA against the BAD Nc6, and the limited mobility of White's King because of Be3 and I could have increased my chances of finding the brilliant 28...Rf6!! This move looks like it only increases the pressure on Nc6, but what it really does is threaten checkmate. White staves off mate with 29.h4 Rxc6, but has to soldier on a piece down. If he saves his knight, e.g. 29.Na5 or even 29.Ne7+ Kf7 30.Nxc8, there comes the shocking 29...Qxh2+ 30.Kxh2 Rh6#.</p>
<p>I emerged from the middle game with 2 extra pawns and converted them to victory.</p>Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-10764084790089342842017-02-24T11:14:00.000-08:002017-02-24T11:15:05.710-08:00Queenmagic<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS9_g6phpUIKyT4bdS2cnqg-TQm0pzsT1JtxWN1cZXdqpxfW1w0fbQRUoYjZjQmRtFURSQbEXsvkXjwoyrp1i83IiAnHpqFmwyeHAV1w-pdjdRFCgnkN_Gw1epCZhE828fdewEmJEaV-8/s1600/download.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS9_g6phpUIKyT4bdS2cnqg-TQm0pzsT1JtxWN1cZXdqpxfW1w0fbQRUoYjZjQmRtFURSQbEXsvkXjwoyrp1i83IiAnHpqFmwyeHAV1w-pdjdRFCgnkN_Gw1epCZhE828fdewEmJEaV-8/s320/download.jpg" width="218" height="320" /></a></div>
<p>Perhaps twenty years ago, I picked up a copy of Isaac Asimov's Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine because it had a cover story named "Queenmagic, Pawnmagic" by Ian Watson. The story was fairly good, about a boy named Pedino who comes of age in the medieval setting of Bellogard, a city of light locked in war with an antithetical city of dark named Chorny. Ordinary citizens live their lives ignorant of the conflict which is fought magically between the lords and squires of the realm. During a practical joke gone horribly wrong, Pedino is found to have a soul and overnight goes from the son of a tradesman to Pawn/Squire.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_tOctdyyrdU1IdCqt-tGqO9_bv7S4uVxeuuyNmIhQfT-Z7LzTjnPUdrPppUcAjERhktCHUaOJ4f5-qY1yrpZNBsJtJ76rGlXR2q6E9Z31wMEI6P6QdwyRYCUasjK93YIoSDwgNSzJAoM/s1600/1395759.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_tOctdyyrdU1IdCqt-tGqO9_bv7S4uVxeuuyNmIhQfT-Z7LzTjnPUdrPppUcAjERhktCHUaOJ4f5-qY1yrpZNBsJtJ76rGlXR2q6E9Z31wMEI6P6QdwyRYCUasjK93YIoSDwgNSzJAoM/s320/1395759.jpg" width="201" height="320" /></a></div><p>Recently, I was delighted to find out that the story from that magazine was part of a larger book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Queen-Magic-King-Ian-Watson/dp/1904853668" target="_blank">"Queenmagic, Kingmagic"</a>. However, my enthusiasm was tempered when I read the story to the end. I think Act I and Act II are strong with insight into the human experience transplanted to a chess-themed one. I suppose the main constant throughout is that the main character has a preoccupation with a series of women in his life. But I'm disappointed as usual with Act III, which almost discards the groundwork of the previous two-thirds. The story goes through palace intrigue and star-crossed romance, but then there is a left turn into action-packed multiverse theory before returning home to a meandering wrap-up. The story goes through a succession of discarded quests - victory, survival, home, family, love - none of which seem resolved satisfactorily.</p>
<p>Perhaps Mr. Watson didn't want to write for a chessically educated audience, since there seemed to be strange liberties such as a pawn being lost during castling. There were perhaps three main battles but treatment of the strategy and tactics were disappointingly superficial. One problem the author seemed to have is that in his description of Pedino's life, the pawn had agency and soul, but when the larger kingdom came into focus, there was an element of Destiny that stole the agency from the Pieces acting as players within this life-sized game.</p>
<p>My twenty-something self was struck back then by this passage relevant to our current discussion of dead and wounded pieces:</p>
<blockquote>Queen Alyitsa was dead – murdered by Prince Feryava of Chorny. Bishop Slon was dead, killed by Bishop Zorn. Squire Iris was dead, protecting Bishop Veck.<br><br>
The survivors were: the king, Bishop Veck, Sir Brant, Prince Ruk, and five of us squires. Henchy was injured; his wrist had been broken. It would stay that way for the rest of his life. Magical injuries did not heal unless you killed the person who inflicted them.</blockquote>
<p>Despite its shortcomings, it was fun to see perspective shift to life among the pieces. It reminded me of this poem which I posted back during the death of Bobby Fischer:</p>
<blockquote>‘Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days<br>
Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays:<br>
Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays,<br>
And one by one back in the Closet lays.<br>
-- Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam</blockquote>Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-47009561403683113792017-02-21T08:58:00.003-08:002017-02-25T21:48:51.560-08:00Vulture Culture<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvXmuIVpa67x_CUASpNBL9GIyL-T19mSMlCfNMM7U5IYOOV1rndcheWeDMo2Olvygh6RdcdIKa8XrZdOwZ-42NWbQxgzwzPetg6o-sx2wI2LRKhyumJsIu-gqm74Ruh0O2YFIlQpKpUP4/s1600/TAPP-VultureCulture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvXmuIVpa67x_CUASpNBL9GIyL-T19mSMlCfNMM7U5IYOOV1rndcheWeDMo2Olvygh6RdcdIKa8XrZdOwZ-42NWbQxgzwzPetg6o-sx2wI2LRKhyumJsIu-gqm74Ruh0O2YFIlQpKpUP4/s320/TAPP-VultureCulture.jpg" width="320" height="320" /></a></div><a href="http://temposchlucker.blogspot.com" target="_blank">Temposchlucker's blog</a> has spilled some digital ink (bits and bytes?) on vultures lately. I found this comment in a post entitled <a href="http://temposchlucker.blogspot.com/2017/01/kiss.html" target="_blank">KISS</a>:</p>
<blockquote>The first state is when we circle like a vulture above the board and look with a disciplined mind at the board. We see, almost parallel, everything what's going on, without identifying ourself with whatever happens down there. We see the trains driving from station to station, and from above we can see all stations and trains at the same time (parallel).<br />
<br />
The second state is when something catches our attention, and we jump on the bandwagon. From that moment on, we rumble from station to station in a sequential way. We are totally identified with what we see, and it feels as if our train is driving through a tunnel. We only know about the station we just left, and the station we are heading to, and what we can see sideways from the windows of our forth thundering train. Our attention progresses from station to station in a serial way, unaware of what is going on elsewhere.</blockquote>
<p>In the language I'm used to, the vulture represents breadth of chess calculation, while the train represents depth of chess calculation. The goal of chess calculation is to miss nothing important, shallow or deep, and thereby play nearly perfect chess like the computers and Super Grandmasters. One kind of error in chess is the horizon effect, usually relating to computer search depth: a move looks good until you see three moves later that it is refuted by an inescapable sequence. This is the fault of the train in the analogy above. No one told us that the station three stops away was being repaired. For this post, I wanted to concentrate on the vulture because it relates more directly to errors of vision in chess and our quest to see those little Hobbitses that conspire to stay hidden:</p>
<iframe width="450" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Cewdg-lxXXg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>One of the appeals of chess, or almost any board game, is that we sit surveying the board like gods above a miniature world. The chess world is populated by sculptures that are imbued with varying geometry of movement, as opposed to the uniform diagonal of checkers, or the character attributes of Dungeons and Dragons avatars. As opposed to information hidden in the roll of a 20-sided die, the information of chess is evident in the positions of the pieces with a tiny bit encoded in the history of that particular game (e.g. castling and en passant privileges). Vultures fly overhead and check out the lay of the land.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.danheisman.com/" target="_blank">NM Dan Heisman</a> states, ""The most important principle in chess is SAFETY; second is ACTIVITY; everything else on the board is relatively unimportant." Being a lumper, I interpret the activity of your own pieces to be the extent to which they threaten the safety of your opponent's pieces and vice versa. One piece's activity is another piece's lack of safety, so there is a reduction back down to a single principle of safety. As beginners, we start evaluating by counting the pieces. Pieces that are off the board don't count. They are effectively dead for the rest of the game. But before they are removed from the board, they can be in various states of health: convalescing in their home positions, immobilized by positioning in the corners or edges of the board, limited by enemy or frenemy forces, and at death's doorstep (en prise). In Go, groups of stones have <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_and_death" target="_blank">Life and Death</a>. Pieces in chess have safety and activity, death and life:</p>
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<p>I find it ironic that the doctor in the comic uses the word "activity". As chess players, it is pretty much our job to notice when pieces are safe or unsafe, protected or loose, good and bad, strongly posted or insecure. As beginners, the first level of vulnerability we see in our opponent's pieces is the completely loose, unprotected pieces. Capture the free stuff is what I tell my beginning student.:</p>
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<p>Especially in beginner-level chess, mistake-prone humans will leave material unprotected. All that is required at this level is being careful of your own pieces' safety and patience for your opponent to leave a piece behind to die alone the desert.</p>
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<p>After a while, it's not enough just to wait for someone to drop something. Around Class A/B level, chess players get through entire games without blundering any material. In this environment, the vulture analogy breaks down a bit. It's no longer enough to be a scavenger. We have to upgrade to being predators. Alexander Alekhine is quoted as saying, "During a chess competition a chess master should be a combination of a beast of prey and a monk." Alekhine also said, "I think up my own moves, and I make my opponent think up his."</p>
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<p>At least one article indicates that <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr-raj-persaud/dont-walk-this-way-how-yo_b_6509478.html" target="_blank">criminal predators choose their targets from the way people walk</a>. Analogous to gait in a person, mobility of a piece on the chessboard depends on space, safe squares to move to, whether it is pinned to more valuable pieces, etc. When we capture a mere pawn, Aron Nimzovich spoke of an entire process, "First restrain, then blockade and finally destroy." So how freely a piece can move can often correlate with how vulnerable it is. If it is crawling, there is a good chance it might make a good meal for our vulture.</p>
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<p>To broaden our definitions, sometimes the target in chess is not a moribund piece, but rather a key square. Vultures also need nice places to roost as well as the occasional carcass.</p>
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<p>Computers have taught us that sometimes, positions that look hopelessly lost actually have hidden defensive resources in order to save a draw for the weaker side. Again, in Go, there is a state called <a href="http://senseis.xmp.net/?Seki" target="_blank">Seki</a> where two opposing groups of stones have features that cannot be resolved into Life and Death. These might be analogous to drawing fortresses or stalemate positions in chess. Investing in phantom possibilities is the flip side of being a vulture: when NOT to invest energy pursuing a line that evaluates unfavorably. The hypothesis must occasionally be nullified.</p>
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<p>Draw! (gunslinging, art, and chess puns all intended). At the end of the game, what motivates us chess players is a desire for victory signified by the death of the opponent's king. In this pageant of flight, eyesight, error, opportunism, and death, the vulture is apt analogy.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5wppnotbmX8DznS_0l8CjJw0YkmdOmI0QWK7NTi_4a4QVHI-wuxFbyE0nsfBlKDQo9zADbd-v8pROtR4TJo1v5SiQRKoC7m_VqZg3V0UWC1lm0Bb6w8amg4a5vqhKxmRScm0Ha71mPyI/s1600/cartoon7279.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5wppnotbmX8DznS_0l8CjJw0YkmdOmI0QWK7NTi_4a4QVHI-wuxFbyE0nsfBlKDQo9zADbd-v8pROtR4TJo1v5SiQRKoC7m_VqZg3V0UWC1lm0Bb6w8amg4a5vqhKxmRScm0Ha71mPyI/s320/cartoon7279.png" width="320" height="240" /></a></div>Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-80738076159141374502017-02-20T08:31:00.001-08:002017-02-20T08:37:47.781-08:00Magneto's Prison<p>My first chess composition began while I was teaching a beginner how to checkmate with two rooks using the steamroller technique:</p>
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<p>I wanted to test the student's ability to see how the pieces might protect each other from a double attack and so I presented this position. White to move and save both rooks:</p>
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<p>As the beginner pondered how to save the rooks, I wondered whether such a position was possible with White to move, since Black's king is almost stalemated and he has no visible means to mark time. This got me thinking along the lines of retrograde analysis a la "The Chess Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes" by Raymond Smullyan. On top of the requirement for LEGAL moves in retrograde analysis, I wondered whether Black would make LOGICAL moves to get to this position, basically meaning can we get to this without White having to leave a rook en prise for one or more moves? I answered both questions with this new setup and sequence of moves. White to move and get to the diagram above:</p>
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<p><b>1.Rf3+ Kxg4</b></p>
<p>With my current reading of Kubbel's 150 Endgame Studies, I decided to make a little composition and ran through many possible movie-themed or atomic-themed names to give a worldly root to my abstract composition: Phantom Zone a la Superman 2; hydronium ion with 2 electrons around 1 proton; maybe just helium; unobtainium which is mentioned in James Cameron's Avatar and in The Core; maybe Bose-Einstein condensate in the movie Spectral. Finally, I decided that the rooks should land at the corners and a queen should stabilize the tight square around the king. The last corner might as well be a White Knight. And finally, using the White King's opposition to force the Black King to capture the White Bishop, I thought of the prison that held Magneto at the end of X-Men (2000). Best of all, there are two knights playing chess together in this scene.</p>
<iframe width="450" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RWDDVuxFboI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><b>Soapstone's Chess Problem #1: "Magneto's Prison"</b></p>
<p>Dedicated to Two Knights: Sir Patrick "Jean-Luc Picard" Stewart and Sir Ian "Gandalf" McKellan</p>
<p>White to checkmate in 2 moves</p>
<p>FEN 8/8/8/5N1R/3K1kB1/3R1q2/5p2/5Q2 w - - 0 1</p>
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<p>The solution is nearly trivial: <b>1.Rxf3+ Kxg4 2.Qh3#</b>, leaving the Black King trapped in a four-cornered cage:</p>
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Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-24714230444453880192017-02-18T11:09:00.002-08:002017-02-18T15:12:39.963-08:00Stalemate Swindle<p>Frenez, one of my three readers, requested that I show a recent tournament stalemate. I was totally busted playing white against an 1800 player. The moves are not cleverly hidden like in Kubbel's studies; in fact, they're natural and obvious. White to play and draw:</p>
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<p><b>69.b7! Qc7 70.b8=Q! Qxb8! stalemate!</b> To my memory, this is the only one of my 540+ tournament games that ended in a complex stalemate. Now that Frenez has gotten the stalemate, I'm going to go in reverse chronological order like my Memento series and go over some of the crucial moments of this game. Feel free to change the channel when I get long-winded. I almost resigned this game prematurely. In the above diagram, I could see that b7 was going to be followed by Qc7, but Ka7 was going to be met by Qxa5+, so my only other option was to give up the b-pawn which was my only hope, but I hardly considered stalemate until I was one ply away and saw that it succeeded in giving me the draw. Notice that the Black King is at e6, blockading my passed pawn and preventing it from moving - we'll visit this later. The above diagram is already approximately equal. After 69.b7, Black has no real alternative to 69...Qc7 except perpetual check starting with 69...Qc6+ 70.Ka7 Qc7 {pinning the queening pawn} 71.a6 d4 72.Ka8 {unpinning} Qc6 {repinning} 73.Ka7, etc. Black blew the win one move earlier in the following diagram with Black to play:</p>
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<p>Almost everything wins, EXCEPT <b>68...Qc5?</b>, e.g. 68...Kd7 leads to mate in 8, 68...Qb4 leads to mate in 9, 68...Qb2 leads to mate in 10, the greedy 68...Qxe5 leads to mate in 10, and even the dithering 68...Qc4+ leads to mate in 10 as long as the follow-up is the approach of the Black King.</p>
<p>But before that, White blew a securely drawn position with some chances to swindle a win (white to play):</p>
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<p>The moves just prior to arriving at this position were <b>59.f4 Kf7</b>. I had realized that with my pawn back on f3, e5 was dangerous for me because of the way it can spring the d5 pawn free for a queening race. Unfortunately, playing 59.f4 and locking a bead on the hole at e5 made me think that e6-e5 had been prevented forever. It had not. With sober reflection on information that I definitely had access to, I could see that playing Kd7, Kd8, Kd7, and Kd6 would secure the draw for me. The e-file squares - e6, e7, and e8 - are crucial to White's winning chances and if he stays in contact with them, any variation that Black initiates with ...e5 fxe5 f4 e6 will probably end badly for Black because the e-pawn will likely check the Black King on the way to e8, giving the new White Queen time to execute the upstart Black Pawn on f2. With more sober reflection, I should have been more patient here and tried to advance my queenside pawns. 60.a4! is one move away from a winning position. However, if Black also reflects soberly, he can realize that e5 loses, and blockading my queenside pawns can secure a draw for him also. 60.a4! a5! 61.Kd7 Kf6 is drawn as is 60.b4 b5! 61.Kd7!= If somehow Black doesn't see the danger, then the variation 60.a4 Kf6? 61.a5! Kf7 62.b4 Kf6 63.Kc7 is won for White. e.g. 63...Ke7 64.Kxb7! e5 65.fxe5! f4 66.b5! axb5 67.a6! f3 68.a7 f2 69.a8=Q f1=Q 70.Qa6! Qc4 71.Qf6+! Kd7 72.Qd6+! Ke8 73.e6! initiates checkmate in 6 moves. If after 70.Qa6!, Black tries to hold with 70...Qf5 71.Qd6+ Kf7 72.Qxd5+ also keeps White's winning chances alive. Going back to 60.a4!, one last bit of interesting subtlety is that 60...b6 61.b4 Kf6! 62.b5 axb5! is still drawn albeit precariously.</p>
<p>At this point, my greed for pouncing on the queenside pawns made me impatient and I played <b>60.Kc7?? e5! 61.fxe5 Ke6</b>. Note that Ke7 would have also prevented White from queening and also gives White a move if stalemate is a problem. Black correctly calculated that given a chance with 61...f4? White would have played 62.Kd7! and White is back from the dead and winning, e.g. 62...f3 63.e6+ Kg7 64.e7 f2 65.e8=Q f1=Q 66.Qe5+ Kf8 67.Qb8+ Kg7 68.Qxb7 and White is +4.0 in Stockfish's evaluation. For continuity, the moves that got us to the pivotal checkmate or stalemate position above were <b>62.Kxb7 f4 63.Kxa6 f3 64.b4 f2 65.a4 f1=Q+ 66.b5 Qc4 67.a5 Qxd4 68.b6</b></p>
<p>One more bit of shoulda-coulda. From the above diagram, rewind the game another 10 moves and we arrive here with White to make move 50:</p>
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<p>Material is equal. Black's e-pawn is backward. White's h-pawn is passed. The crucial idea that I missed was that my h-pawn is vulnerable if it runs too far ahead, but if I centralize my White King, the h-pawn can be a valuable distraction. To that end, 50.Ke3! was a priority to prepare for a possibility of 50...Nf6? 51.Bxf6 Kxf6 52.Kf4 with winning advantage. Because of safe, time-wasting moves like Rh1-h2 and back, White can eventually zugzwang Black's king and or rook to allowing h5-h6, h6-h7, and Kf4-e5. Instead, I finally pushed back this troublesome knight on e4 and played <b>50.f3 Nf6</b>. Here, 51.Bxf6 Kxf6 52.Ke3 Kg5=. The game went <b>51.h6 Ng8 52.Bf4 Kg6 53.Ke3 Nxh6 54.Rxh6+ Rxh6 55.Bxh6 Kxh6 56.Kf4 Kg6 57.Ke5 Kf7 58.Kd6 Kf6 59.f4 Kf7</b> and we meet the above "drawish" position.</p>Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-54836206986113220312017-02-15T15:25:00.000-08:002017-02-20T08:39:30.055-08:00Kinetic Linking<iframe width="450" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/meUNR0SgSXw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>Kinetic linking is the way in which a boxer plants his feet and makes you feel the force of the ground in his punch. I was recently talking to a mentee and mistakenly thought the term was "chaining". I have not always been a fan of studies and problems. Of course I usually recommend Chess Tempo and Reinfeld's 1001 Winning Chess Combinations and Sacrifices. The positions look normal. To add the element of composition tends to create an artificial feeling and a sense of impracticality to over-the-board play. However, as a chess player, I recognize the need to improve my calculation ability. I usually use the computer as the gold standard with its full width-depth search and evaluation. Of course, we humans have a much slower and less thorough engine and it has been argued that we were successful at playing chess before the engine even existed. Why emulate it? Still, in the matter of perfection of analysis, it is now easy to see where humans miss things that the computer sees. Hidden resources. So I tend to reference Charles Hertan who tries to get us to calculate with Forcing Chess Moves using what he calls "computer eyes". In 1925, Leonid Kubbel published his collection of 150 Endgame Studies. They had no computers, but they did have sheer human grit and imagination. The endgame study often shows surprising resources and I believe it helps me to increase my imagination and therefore my breadth of vision on a given ply. It also helps to train my depth of calculation, especially if I try to solve the initial diagram without moving the pieces.</p>
<p>I didn't find Kubbel initially. A. J. Roycroft has a book called "The Chess Endgame Study: A Comprehensive Introduction." In it, diagram 13 on page 34 shows the following diagram which is #150 of Kubbel's book and also serves as the front cover:</p>
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<p>The process of solving this study involves chaining together idea after idea until each side has played 6 more or less forced moves. Then the hard part is allowing Black a fairly safe looking formation only to break it open with a wild tactical possibility that actually works out. I think this study trains both depth and width and epitomizes my current search for clarity in my calculating ability. I'm probably missing out on complex tactics while I avoid Chess Tempo, but, oh well, this is what gives me fun at the moment.</p>
<p>SOLUTION: 1.Ne3++ Kg3 2.Qg4+ Kf2 3.Qf4+ Ke2/e1 4.Qf1+ Kd2 5.Qd1+ Kc3 6.Qc2+ Kb4 7.Qb2+ Nb3 (7...Ka5 8.Nc4+ Ka6 9.Qb6#) 8.Qa3+!! Kxa3 (8...Kb5 9.Qxe7) 9.Nc2# </p>Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-38698310776856142902017-02-14T22:58:00.000-08:002017-02-25T21:49:07.260-08:00The Rose<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoKjliEO7yjIZQQ64YqrBiQWpS4WFKhpgwup_7LBwA5vIyJnMrOxQ9ZQp6xqKfe2MxBeR1cxpaSEBORV3JgRy9q1JRObVbCqlFVn01VAS8zzV3f8qezGTMhKBMe4tTlgNm-Ny4EqHUWUA/s1600/rose_PNG651.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoKjliEO7yjIZQQ64YqrBiQWpS4WFKhpgwup_7LBwA5vIyJnMrOxQ9ZQp6xqKfe2MxBeR1cxpaSEBORV3JgRy9q1JRObVbCqlFVn01VAS8zzV3f8qezGTMhKBMe4tTlgNm-Ny4EqHUWUA/s320/rose_PNG651.png" width="320" height="300" /></a></div><p>I haven't been reading too intensively, but Temposchlucker has been coining lots of new terms as shorthand for analysis. I'm all for acronyms and jargon as they help marshall this imperfect thing we call language into conceptual constructs. I was speaking to a beginner and using the French term "en passant" and the Italian term "fianchetto". The student asked, "Why call it that?" I had to think on my feet quickly, and decided to bluff my way into, "It's a nickname for a longer mouthful of words." The student recognized "phalanx" as Greek shorthand for "a row of infantrymen holding their shields and spears in tight formation". Phalanx was helpful to illustrate how a pawn front gets disrupted from move to move.</p>
<p>I have been reading Leonid Kubbel's "150 Endgame Studies". It was written in Russian and translated to German and so I am further translating it to English along with going over fun and pretty studies, and of course checking the analysis with engines. Leonid was born Karl Artur Leonid (K. A. L.) Kubbel but changed his name to Leonid Ivanovich Kubbel, apparently in response to the 1917 October Revolution.</p>
<p>A while back I was into wilderness survival movies surrounding Everest and other high peaks around the world. But I also came across the tragic story of Alaskan adventure gone wrong in Jon Krakauer's "Into the Wild" book which was made into a movie starring Emile Hirsch as Chris McCandless. Chris seemed to want to escape his identity and rebrand himself as "Alex Supertramp", but he himself (in the movie) read a passage from Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago:</p>
<blockquote>The path trodden by wayfarers and pilgrims followed the railway and then turned into the fields. Here Lara stopped, closed her eyes and took a good breath of the air which carried all the smells of the huge countryside. It was dearer to her than her kin, better than a lover, wiser than a book. For a moment she rediscovered the meaning of her life. She was here on earth to make sense of its wild enchantment and <b>to call each thing by its right name</b>, or, if this were not within her power, then, out of love of life, to give birth to heirs who would do it in her place.</blockquote>
<p>The philosopher Étienne Bonnot de Condillac observed, "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas".</p>
<p>There is also a Confucius quote, "The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name.”</p>
<p>But Shakespeare seems to be taking the opposite tack that the label we attach to a rose does not change its sweet fragrance. It was a helpful analogy that the feud between the Montagues and Capulets might not be a natural outpouring of antagonistic essences. I have been trying to teach my beginner that the pieces are white and black, but the squares are light and dark.</p>
<p>What am I getting at here? I don't know. Chess is geometry and physics and logic. If we are to finesse our way through chess' myriad formations, perhaps a richer vocabulary is necessary. It's difficult to adopt neologisms because we have to stop to explain the new definitions to everyone learning the language.</p>
<p>I had a time translating Kubbel's book into English since I know approximately 3 phrases in German and less in Russian. I was helped tremendously by the various web translation services of Google, Babylon, and Reverso. Still, the computers create awkward syntax, so it was left to me to exercise my skills to make smooth English. "Discovered check" always seemed to come out of the translator as "deduction chess". I also learned some new concepts of chess problems such as <a href="http://www.uschess.org/content/view/8985/809/" target="_blank">Indian and Roman themes</a></p>
<p>One surprising coincidence was that my last tournament game ended with my saving half a point by forcing my opponent to stalemate me. I don't know that I appreciate Kubbel's penchant for finding stalemates in his "White to play and draw" studies. They are sometimes rather funny, and, apparently to my last game, slightly practical. In my endgame obsessions, I was most intrigued by those board states that boil down to "only moves" - One move to rule them all and in the darkness bind them. I used to have an email signature from the early days of the internet "Somewhere on the board, the best move is waiting." I think there was a longer version that went like "Somewhere on the board, hidden among inaccuracies, dubious moves, and outright blunders, the best move is waiting."</p>
<p>It always struck me weird that a song that has a repetitive phrase "Some Say Love" is titled "The Rose". For Valentine's Day. We nurture these seeds in our lives in the hopes they become beautiful flowers someday.</p>Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-65183227060294443872016-12-25T15:56:00.002-08:002016-12-25T16:01:57.711-08:00Convergent Invisibility<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4DXmj5EmGT88geR8ljDJ3Klh0WAOg6Ir_gsoI3EOMli8tVH6a6WNIfKQbaGyng3ByuD6nA6IJk3O-kk7hEQPTg3Ws1YEJRkFn7t02RMJz9IW07M-N4-2d7YdVrKWz6MawRX94nL2WkOg/s1600/500px-Large_convex_lens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4DXmj5EmGT88geR8ljDJ3Klh0WAOg6Ir_gsoI3EOMli8tVH6a6WNIfKQbaGyng3ByuD6nA6IJk3O-kk7hEQPTg3Ws1YEJRkFn7t02RMJz9IW07M-N4-2d7YdVrKWz6MawRX94nL2WkOg/s320/500px-Large_convex_lens.jpg" width="320" height="208" /></a></div>
<p>I would say that it began with my discovery that Temposchlucker was actively blogging again. It was frustrating over and over again to see our failures as being unable to see the invisible, which is like a tautology: if we had seen it, it would have been visible. I had been casting about for self-improvement measures. iChess sent a promotional free video lesson from GM Daniel Naroditsky, to whom I once had the pleasure of losing a game when he was rated a mere 2256. The video captions his lecture with "GM Daniel Naroditsky, FIDE 2646". The catch line for the lecture was "How to be a Tactical Beast". He spent most of the time separating tactics into two branches - simple and complex - and then recommending resources for studying both. Then he walked through about 10 exercises from a chess server with pointers on how he would train. I came up with this outline of his resource recommendations:</p>
<p>Naroditsky's Recommended Tactics Resources:</p>
<ol type="I">
<li>Simple Tactics
<ol type="A">
<li>Online
<ol type="1">
<li>Chess.Emrald.net - simpler tactics with time pressure</li>
<li>Chess.com - tactical trainer with time pressure</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Books
<ol type="1">
<li><b>Invisible Chess Moves - Neiman, Emmanuel & Afek, Yochanan</b></li>
<li><b>Understanding Chess Tactics - Weteschnik, Martin</b></li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Complex Tactics
<ol type="A">
<li>Online
<ol type="1">
<li>ChessTempo - gold standard, but strays into complex tactics</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Books - Dvoretsky anything
<ol type="1">
<li>Dvoretsky's Analytical Manual</li>
<li>Recognizing Your Opponents Resources</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
<p>The word "Invisible" caught my eye. Yes, yes, teacher. Show me how to see the invisible. So I have embarked - as I have many times before - to try to work through a body of tactics within a book. I'm sort of looking at both of the highlighted books above. My method is to set up the position in ChessBase with the engine off, try to solve it by myself. And then read the book notes and see the engine analysis for a check. When I'm finished, perhaps I'll have a unique file that is like the e-book companion to the text. I looked at Temposchlucker's blog today and, after a break between Labor Day and Thanksgiving, he has posted about a dozen times in the past month.</p>
<p>It's a little early for resolutions, but I'm trying to get some modest mileage out of chess this year. Here are a few goals:</p>
<ul>
<li>Try to have fun</li>
<li>Enjoy chess at our club</li>
<li>Sharpen my tactics</li>
<li>Sharpen my openings</li>
<li>Play in a weekend tournament</li>
</ul>
<p>For now, I'm staying away from performance-based accomplishments because they tend to burden me with a feeling like chess - supposedly a fun hobby - is sometimes a tedious chore. So no ratings targets and no tournament win targets. Aside from Invisible Chess Moves, Understanding Chess Tactics, and Chess Tempo, I am also looking at A.J. Roycroft's The Chess Endgame Study, Kubbel's 150 Chess Studies, Nunn's 1001 Deadly Checkmates, and Volokitin's Perfect Your Chess. I also began to look at QvR endgames again to try to get a handle on semi-perfect play.</p>Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-2492126190933074462016-12-19T10:32:00.000-08:002016-12-19T10:32:34.035-08:00Doomed Fortress<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqkx7VmXp42lAKclpJAk-o7V9PCE0K0qC8PCEasUPigKPEhobP5ZqOLn9CJ5QcZYWex5ta9ZxW2VrtdTCO0UB-EXuZ1n-_g3bnDSvkit-2gbILYeDePOyU3GSR-3nho3Y9hQbuarqfCiI/s1600/hqdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqkx7VmXp42lAKclpJAk-o7V9PCE0K0qC8PCEasUPigKPEhobP5ZqOLn9CJ5QcZYWex5ta9ZxW2VrtdTCO0UB-EXuZ1n-_g3bnDSvkit-2gbILYeDePOyU3GSR-3nho3Y9hQbuarqfCiI/s320/hqdefault.jpg" width="320" height="240" /></a></div>
<p>Sigh. No London Chess Classic videos today. The last 10 days had an extra motivation to get up and watch video coverage of chess on the internet with the St. Louis Chess Club coverage of the London Chess Classic round robin among the world's elite chess players. That all ended yesterday with Wesley So winning the tournament and the tour. The stories of the tournament were So's solid play (+3-0=6) taking advantage of the chances that 2800-rated players give you. Nakamura's up-and-down performance (+3-2=4) and Topalov's down-and-down performance (+1-6=2). Even though the Najdorf is too deep for me, it was fun to see the theoretical battles in Caruana-Nakamura, Nakamura-Vachier-Lagrave, Anand-Vachier-Lagrave, and Anand-Giri.</p>
<p>One topic that was prominent in the middle of the tournament was the concept of endgame fortresses. Anand had apparently saved some incredible draws in previous tournaments. One of the games that Topalov lost was with Nakamura. On the time control move 40, with about 1 minute left, Nakamura blundered away a winning position with Black to play:</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvkr41NYla93028L_M-36akVj4hKwwxGz94_PI1SqWq33tw3arbOPp5bU0QDIkmEbg9e39w-ey1TNpY3WkQQmPTOfH-VavW9Y6buAeOJ16YpxzXbbw-IuXdI2LmVes1mWepHBjHjPDT2c/s1600/Mortlock_578.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvkr41NYla93028L_M-36akVj4hKwwxGz94_PI1SqWq33tw3arbOPp5bU0QDIkmEbg9e39w-ey1TNpY3WkQQmPTOfH-VavW9Y6buAeOJ16YpxzXbbw-IuXdI2LmVes1mWepHBjHjPDT2c/s320/Mortlock_578.jpg" width="320" height="320" /></a></div>
<p>White is under massive pressure with Black's heavy pieces on his second rank. However, White's rook and bishop are barely holding the castle doors. White needs one more man to turn the tide and it turns out that 40...e4! is just what he's looking for with a -3.4 evaluation. Instead, Nakamura chose to get initiative on the h2 weakness with <b>40...Qh6?</b> Now Topalov had his whole second time control to find the defense 41.Rb4! The nasty, nasty point of it is not just to gain useful moves such as Rb4-e4, but if Black somehow gets greedy with 41...Qxh2?? 42.Rh4! Qxg3 43.Rg4+ turns the tables.</p>
<p>Instead, Topalov played <b>41.Kg2??</b> and this time Nakamura did not fail to find <b>41...e4!</b>. Topalov recognized the danger to his position and only now moved his wayward rook <b>42.Rb3 Qe6 43.Re3 exf3+</b>.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYg0vduqA3I6_ihPU4rYEBI4IydKFrrOijcvwsOOz1mq7oyR_D8dFMR5Y0Z15-7Ji_KY8qZ5Te2lqG6gVlvQLheonuZJugwwDIVS3I8Rdku-AHM5UeeEFV_dOUayYSsVa2fD4f5RwdFmE/s1600/Mortlock_582.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYg0vduqA3I6_ihPU4rYEBI4IydKFrrOijcvwsOOz1mq7oyR_D8dFMR5Y0Z15-7Ji_KY8qZ5Te2lqG6gVlvQLheonuZJugwwDIVS3I8Rdku-AHM5UeeEFV_dOUayYSsVa2fD4f5RwdFmE/s320/Mortlock_582.jpg" width="320" height="320" /></a></div>
<p>Topalov continued <b>44.Kxf3 Qh3 45.Rd1 Qh5+</b>Nakamura used the open lines to win the h- and g-pawns and drove Topalov's king to d3 whereupon Topalov resigned. GM Alejandro Ramirez, analyzing the above position with the help of engines, implied that a fortress might have been available to Topalov. Topalov has to purposely lose his bishop with <i>44.Rxf3 Rxe2+ 45.Rxe2 Qxe2 46.Rf2</i>:</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6bI-Yp2fCvig5Ho19xiTs41yHeWJuxdngEpnB9EH3KE01CWUIlDXU5zOVJOVB7j4bIgrxs5FFpokgIXNN8lY4w9IBDIyQ9b_nKFtQssQ6N9-NPOY7ICVoJrOr7EsbtCmDKzJ3gaHvWlQ/s1600/Mortlock_583.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6bI-Yp2fCvig5Ho19xiTs41yHeWJuxdngEpnB9EH3KE01CWUIlDXU5zOVJOVB7j4bIgrxs5FFpokgIXNN8lY4w9IBDIyQ9b_nKFtQssQ6N9-NPOY7ICVoJrOr7EsbtCmDKzJ3gaHvWlQ/s320/Mortlock_583.jpg" width="320" height="320" /></a></div>
<p>Black's pawns on h2 and g3 should provide some shelter against Black's shattered h- and f-pawns. Since there are too many men for tablebases, I cannot say with certainty whether this is truly unwinnable by Black, but it has some potential.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortress_(chess)" target="_blank">Wikipedia has an article on chess fortresses</a>. The weaker side has a material deficit which should be losing, but because of the way the pieces are situated, the stronger side has no decisive breakthrough. Wikipedia cites bishop plus wrong rook pawn against lone king in the corner as a fortress position. I wonder if the basic drawing positions of KPvK fall under a loose definition of fortress. I am more intrigued by chess fortresses that actually have walls. My most fundamental example would be, with White to move:</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHpOc2lRKLn1svaZh16EaizdDMi6fMlF1TLLrBihGMmwnwZbMZNqz-uShGZjtYgQYVezgN_qhfNee6UatcTP0rj_WFBch6XKmhCINBjMQB_2dy7iPxRMJ_EjaJGZ1ebspY-6k6FNZb1SU/s1600/Mortlock_584.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHpOc2lRKLn1svaZh16EaizdDMi6fMlF1TLLrBihGMmwnwZbMZNqz-uShGZjtYgQYVezgN_qhfNee6UatcTP0rj_WFBch6XKmhCINBjMQB_2dy7iPxRMJ_EjaJGZ1ebspY-6k6FNZb1SU/s320/Mortlock_584.jpg" width="320" height="320" /></a></div>
<p>Again, my favorite online resource with positions under 7 pieces is the <a href="http://www.shredderchess.com/online-chess/online-databases/endgame-database.html" target="_blank">Shredder Endgame Database</a>. Indeed, you can set up your own experiments and see that even with Black's rook in the least active spot and with White on move, this position is a draw with best play. Black will aim to put his rook on f6 to keep the White King away from g7 and then from behind the wall, with enough shuffling space between g8, h8, and h7, Black's king can taunt the enemy at the gates forever (or at least for 50 moves).</p>
<p>Back to Topalov-Nakamura, I tried to defend the above position against Fritz 8 and couldn't fend him off. Black has four resources that are difficult for White to avoid:</p>
<ul><li>If Black can win the rook and g-pawn for the queen, he should win. I was able to do this against Fritz simply by putting my Queen on e5, the pawn on f5, and bringing my king up to g5. White left his rook on f4 and let me trade.</li>
<li>Black can advance his h-pawn to h4 and with the threat of h3, the shattered pawns provide little shelter for the king</li>
<li>To hinder h5-h4, I tried h2-h4, trying to lock the pawns into a wall. This time Black broke through by placing his king at e6, keeping the white king at g2, and straight trading queen for rook on f4 and racing the king to a winning spot on d4</li>
<li>The queen can be quite annoying. If Kg2, then Q occupying the a8-h1 diagonal presents a problem. If White walks into a pin with Rf3, the only way to unpin is Kf2 and rook moves. Black can then play Qh1 getting into White's weak h-pawn.</li>
</ul>
<p>So probably Topalov's fortress after 44.Rxf3 would have been doomed. However, in the absence of a refutation, I think 41.Rb4 would have held. A fascinating exercise is to use the Shredder Database to try shifting the rook-and-pawn fortress closer to or further from the corner and seeing if the game is still drawn with best play. Usually the fortress falls if the queen can get into the back side of the fortress and drive the king out into the open, so too much space is bad for fortresses. But if the king doesn't have enough space to shuffle back and forth, the fortress can also fall. Goldilocks wants a fortress that is not too cozy and not too drafty, but just right.</p>
<p>As I understand history, fortresses protected the stationary farmers from being driven off their productive land by invaders, but once those invaders started using cannons, fortresses became obsolete.</p>Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-43218878603681041912016-11-16T13:54:00.002-08:002016-11-16T13:57:02.399-08:00SARGON<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyGMpAEVLtmRIDSqjvPYBhLXLa2GyWkE1TI2JIRB3sMjG-LLTBUqqUZusinwQDk3UtQnZXRFBtVs8hCPPRF22tTglp-t-zhgZcOLrAPsZfMQivU18wJK2vmAgMFhNsRKDQmvCLuwCLXSQ/s1600/Sargon_of_akkad.jpeg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyGMpAEVLtmRIDSqjvPYBhLXLa2GyWkE1TI2JIRB3sMjG-LLTBUqqUZusinwQDk3UtQnZXRFBtVs8hCPPRF22tTglp-t-zhgZcOLrAPsZfMQivU18wJK2vmAgMFhNsRKDQmvCLuwCLXSQ/s320/Sargon_of_akkad.jpeg" width="320" height="320" /></a><p>After using the search box above, I was surprised to find that none of my posts seems to have ever mentioned <a href="https://chessprogramming.wikispaces.com/Sargon" target="_blank">SARGON</a> which seems to have been named after Sargon the Great, first ruler of the Akkadian Empire. Incidentally, the Scorpion King played by Dwayne Johnson supposedly arises from the remnants of the Akkadian tribe. I myself didn't play against SARGON, since our family had an Atari computer, <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiygrIAHSNX4UxdJVCE3S7Q2nBiY7NRPXAOLvRqUrCdHGScOQO0inqsLA31QP0zblF815UR5NeDB1vPrynle4CfpBdk_rCYnc_RgxkZNa0wR450ejTEgLGmSvG75zMPdHaKNDvdWGiww3k/s1600/atari_800xl_computer_chess_large.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiygrIAHSNX4UxdJVCE3S7Q2nBiY7NRPXAOLvRqUrCdHGScOQO0inqsLA31QP0zblF815UR5NeDB1vPrynle4CfpBdk_rCYnc_RgxkZNa0wR450ejTEgLGmSvG75zMPdHaKNDvdWGiww3k/s320/atari_800xl_computer_chess_large.jpg" width="320" height="293" /></a>but the Atari version has no eponym, so I decided to go with the winner of the first computer chess tournament. At the end of the <a href="http://tron.wikia.com/wiki/MCP" target="_blank">1982 Tron movie, the Master Control Program is defeated and he looks like an old man</a>, implying the MCP was layered on top of a core computer chess program. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggnf7vP48pKRm5P3UkmXVqAYJcOHkA5NtV__PxsD1IsYfd-25acwPbSkyx4Hy0ddAuY84rOW1ChpDTlDnqnLJN4_zDvX1WzqkS9qkkhIbC_gRjSeHRpgGMrAsuE-pLBeI-emGFFBBOujE/s1600/Mcp_-_old_program.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggnf7vP48pKRm5P3UkmXVqAYJcOHkA5NtV__PxsD1IsYfd-25acwPbSkyx4Hy0ddAuY84rOW1ChpDTlDnqnLJN4_zDvX1WzqkS9qkkhIbC_gRjSeHRpgGMrAsuE-pLBeI-emGFFBBOujE/s320/Mcp_-_old_program.jpg" width="320" height="278" /></a>In 6th grade, I played chess and even went to the state chess contest where I placed around a tie for 2-3. In 7th grade, I discovered computers and pretty much gave up chess until college. During the early years of computing, Atari Computer Chess on mere level 3 would be me so consistently that I rage quit chess. These days I have a Kindle with AI Factory's Chess Free on it. At maximum level 12, it is tactical enough that I have to be careful, but the opening book is not so good and there is definitely a horizon effect, so I can find and exploit its weaknesses. Here is the first time I beat it on maximum Level 12. The game is brief enough that following it on your blindfold board could be a nice exercise.</p>
<p>1. e3 {Van't Kruijs Opening} e5 2. Qh5 Nc6 3. Bc4 d5 4. Bb5 Bd6 5. Bxc6+ bxc6 6. Nc3 Nf6 7. Qd1 O-O 8. Nge2 a5 9. O-O e4 10. d3 {If you have never read The Art of Attack in Chess by Vukovic, I highly recommend the chapter on the Classic Bishop Sacrifice. Vukovic analyzes game after game with the standard piece placements and some variations to make the Greek Bishop sacrifice a success. I have only finished one tournament game that had this combination in it though. But it is the stuff of chess artistry that draws us to the game.} 10...Bxh2+ 11. Kxh2 Ng4+ 12. Kg3 Qg5 13. Na4 Nxe3+ 14. Kh2 Qxg2#</p>
<p>Take that, chess computer!</p>
Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-39351093200173930512016-11-14T18:52:00.002-08:002016-11-14T18:52:26.152-08:00Octopus<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi53JjMtmz4F06AG01ynGEhu3ClCoC8OytDYeo6Nlvkom3oFoWLOYUmXHOf3K7NpVmqYboEL-DNGj_viluhkWuomgfgyFvW00hn82KEoNtAbzVi2iXNXRDoYLQwN_yyKLzPtAnJOCva9YM/s1600/PCEa6m.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi53JjMtmz4F06AG01ynGEhu3ClCoC8OytDYeo6Nlvkom3oFoWLOYUmXHOf3K7NpVmqYboEL-DNGj_viluhkWuomgfgyFvW00hn82KEoNtAbzVi2iXNXRDoYLQwN_yyKLzPtAnJOCva9YM/s320/PCEa6m.png" width="320" height="109" /></a></div>
<p>I grew up in the days after Sean Connery, so Roger Moore was my 007. It's strange to see such an enduring character through so many decades. The movies tend to blend together: add one megalomaniac, some femme fatales, big stunts, unusual vehicle chases, and of course, large explosions and you've got a formula for something. The latest installment named Spectre for a many-tentacled crime organization starred Daniel Craig with familiar faces Ralph Fiennes (The English Patient, Harry Potter series) as M, Monica Belluci (Matrix Reloaded) as widow Sciarra, and Andrew Scott (Sherlock) as C. As a piece of octopus evolution, the diagram above was found on <a href="http://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/44059/why-does-the-spectre-octopus-only-have-7-tentacles" target="_blank">a movie site discussing the logo</a>. Perhaps Spectre was a ghost which evolved into an octopus and then into a septopus.</p>
<p>Piece auras are a parallel processing way to think about chess pieces and the force they exert. I once thought of chess pieces as one-dimensional vectors that existed only while I was looking at them, but eventually, I came to see that the aura of a bishop is a diagonal X, the aura of a rook is an orthogonal cross, the aura of a king is a 3x3 square, and a queen's aura is the combination of bishop and rook, an asterisk? Even though the queen's aura is 8-armed, the knight's aura is the one usually likened to an octopus.</p>
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<p>This is Chess Tempo #44631. White has just played a2-a3 to shoo away the black queen. One thing to note is that the Nb3 is supported by the pawn on c2, pinned by a black rook battery against white's queen. Further, the white queen and rook are the only pieces on the back rank where the white king would have no escape at the moment. Black's pawns seem too far away to exert any initiative. The black bishop doesn't seem to have any targets. The black knight on e4 is held by the Rc4 laterally and can attack the white Bg3. Further, the rook on e2 is a juicy prize in that it's undefended and it sits on the square of a royal knight fork. From this analysis, I had Qxb3 and Nxg3 as my candidate moves. Now comes the process of calculating forward into the future. Lines:
Qxb3 cxb3 Rxc1 Rxc1 Rxc1+ Re1 Rxe1 mate. Qxb3 cxb3 Rxc1 Ree1 - Black is ahead by a minor piece, so he must do better. Qxb3 Rxe4 {distraction} Rxe4 cxb3 Rxc1 Rxc1 - material is even. Qxb3 Rxe4 Rxc2 - Black gained a pawn, White must move his queen. Or maybe there's a hook-and-ladder trick} Re8+ Rxe8 {white queen still en prise and can't capture c2}. So back to Rxc2, maybe Black has more initiative to pursue the back rank mate? CONCLUSION of Qxb3 lines: White can win a pawn and gain initiative on the back rank.</p>
<p>What about Nxg3? Nxg3 axb4 Nxe2+ Kf1 Nxc1 Rxc1 - Black is ahead by a whole rook. Nxg3 hxg3 Qxb3 - Black is ahead by a minor piece. What about hook-and-ladder in this position? Nxg3 hxg3 Qxb3 Re8+ Rxe8 cxb3 Rxc1 Rxc1 - here I think I miscalculated and thought material was even. The Re8+ move didn't gain any knight, but because it had in the line of Rxe4, I thought white had equalized in material. The pieces on the board don't bear that out as the Bg7 is the only minor left. I forgot to check start material and in my mind, somehow, White gained a knight he didn't gain. So I chose Qxb3 and got this problem wrong. Tools: Knight forks, Hook-and-Ladder tricks. Root cause: Losing track of material.</p>
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<p>This is Chess Tempo #97479. White has just advanced b2-b4, creating a problem for his Ra1. 1...e4 creates a double attack against Bf3 and Ra1, but 2.dxe4 creates tactical possibilities for White's queen. If 2...Qxa1 3.Qxd7 and White threatens to take the Bf7 or the Pf5 with check while holding d1. At this point I looked for the knight to run and the f3 knight fork looked really good, so 2...Ne5 was the next move. I hadn't looked too carefully and didn't anticipate 3.Qxf4, but 3...Nxf3+ 4.Qxf3 Qxa1 seemed to provide for a durable material advantage. White can try to get a third pawn for the rook with 5.Qxf5+ Bg6 6.Qd7+ Rg7 7.Qd2 but 7...Rd8 brings him to grief because of the weak position of Nd1. Tools: Knight fork, discovery, skewer, consolidation. Root cause: Didn't get it wrong, but should have checked Qxf4.</p>
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<p>This is Chess Tempo #165523. I got this one wrong. I spent a lot of time trying to crack open the Black king castled position. Whenever I analyzed h6, I saw g6 with tempo on my queen and pruned the variation. I didn't think to use a broader vision to look at the arrangement of d7 and g8 for a knight fork pattern using Qxd7 and Nd5-f6+. That's the secret to this problem. 1.h6 g6 2.Qxd7 Qxd7 3.Nf6+ Kh8 4.Nxd7. Tools: Knight fork, distraction, pawn lever. Root cause of miss: Failed to see how powerful Nd5 was and how juicy Nf6+ would be.</p>Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-4734043854988143822016-11-13T16:53:00.001-08:002016-11-13T16:54:19.611-08:00Bludgeon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb9Wtd_zp_QtUtiE1t6koh4HNb-IbTck9y3WJk55vvsA-EjiUb85aUNNZAY9Xq1Ph499tN9t-0tIlcyslGP-nqBKE_VoyLCa1Wkc2xlGm9VbRw_OCJ1qQQP0XVgfMILEMsO-QsVsYOL7I/s1600/her002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb9Wtd_zp_QtUtiE1t6koh4HNb-IbTck9y3WJk55vvsA-EjiUb85aUNNZAY9Xq1Ph499tN9t-0tIlcyslGP-nqBKE_VoyLCa1Wkc2xlGm9VbRw_OCJ1qQQP0XVgfMILEMsO-QsVsYOL7I/s320/her002.jpg" width="239" height="320" /></a></div>
<p>Recently, I was lucky to visit Rome, Italy, where I toured the Vatican Museum on my way to view the Sistine Chapel. The collection included many images of Greek gods and demigods. The figure of Hercules was easily recognizable by a trademark huge club.</p>
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<p>A few days ago, while browsing Amazon Prime, I came across the 2014 movie "Hercules" starring Dwayne Johnson (Scorpion King, Journey to the Center of the Earth). Other faces I recognized included Rufus Sewell (Dark City) as Autolycus, Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love) as King Eurystheus, Rebecca Ferguson (Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation) as Ergenia, and Christopher Fairbank (The Fifth Element) as Gryza.</p>
<p>Here's a segment of dialog I found amusing:<br />
Iolaus: (showing armor) Linothorax. Hewn from the skin of the Erymanthean boar. It's indestructible.<br />
Man in crowd: Wait. If it's indestructible, how did Hercules cut it off the boar?<br />
Iolaus: He used an indestructible blade<br />
</p>
<p>I had previously blogged about this paradox in <a href="http://soapstonesstudio.blogspot.com/2010/03/juggernaut.html">Juggernaut</a>, but its presentation in a period fantasy made me look up the origins again. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irresistible_force_paradox" target="_blank">Wikipedia indicates some origin in the etymology of the Chinese word for contradictory (maodun)</a> literally written as "spear-shield". In Western culture, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teumessian_fox">Greek mythology has a neat story about the origins of Canis Minor representing the uncatchable Teumessian fox</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laelaps_(mythology)" target="_blank">Canis Major representing the Laelaps, the infallible hunting dog</a>.</p>
<p>In the many battles, Hercules does mostly use his club, but he uses all kinds of weapons. At one point, he tries to kill the Nemean Lion with bow and arrow, the epitome of finesse and precision compared with the artless bludgeon. Among analysis tools, sometimes brute force is necessary to understand what's going on. Going deep into a position and exploring at least one branch exhaustively is required to see the truth. This is hard to fight through, when laziness and a desire to trust intuition is no substitute for knowing.</p>
<p>Having seen some revival of Temposchlucker's blog, I asked myself the question "How does one see the invisible?". Or in the language of the humble chess student, "Teacher, teach me to see." I don't know that I have any insights, but I'm thinking of this question as I begin to train my calculating ability again on Chess Tempo. For that, I am reviving Wetzell's flash cards and here I'm trying to use the de Groot verbalization to understand how things fall on this or that side of the veil. Probably Dan Heisman has some didactic methods on this. I don't know how to train students. I am just trying to analyze and understand this chaotic mass of thoughts that course through my brain during a game. Maybe it will be useful to someone else.</p>
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<p>Agony and ecstasy, breadth and depth. I was ecstatic to find the key to Chess Tempo #162374, but disappointed to miss the follow-up. The problem was depth and my tendency to prune a variation out of laziness or fear. When computers do their brute force, they line up all the first-ply moves and go through every single one of them, no matter how ridiculous. Depending on the algorithm, they evaluate this or that position at this or that time, generate scores and generally make a list with the best variations at the top of the list. Humans shouldn't try to emulate this, but Charles Hertan seems to be advocating for it in his book Forcing Chess Moves. Strong players are known to have great imagination but this is backed up by calculation and the ability to see quiet and unusual moves in the middle of calculation. In this diagram, I see that there is a big focal point on the knight at e5. When the knight is gone, there may be trouble from the Ba1 toward the Qg7. But then I saw that Black's bishops are zeroing in on another focal point at g2 and the white king's castled position. Nxf1 has the potential to threaten mate next move with Qxg2, but Qxf1 balances material and prevents mate. Around this time, I noticed that Ne2 is a royal fork if the Re1 didn't prevent it. Bxe2 sort of prevents the royal fork, but at the cost of Qxg2#. Aha! Maybe my first move is to distract with Rd1! Rxd1 Ne2+ Kf2 Nxf4 is big money (+4 queen for rook). Another good thing about Rd1 is that in the case of Ne5 moves, Qxa1 captures the bishop cut off from Re1. Buoyed by discovery, I played Rd1 without looking for White's next reply. Qc4 was not on my radar at all. If Rxe1 Qxe6+ Kh8 Nf7+ Kg8 Ne5+ Kh8 seemed like a draw, so I chose Bd5 to prevent it. Chess Tempo failed me. Another detail I missed was that now that the Ne2+ fork is not royal, White can play Rxd1 even though his queen is en prise. Bxc4 Bxc4 and material is close to even. I didn't even consider Qxe6+ Kf8. But even when I saw this, I thought Nd7+ Qxd7 Qxd7 was enough to reject it. One additional feature I hadn't factored in was to recognize how close Black was to a mating pattern. Qxd7 allows Rf1+ Kh2 Rh1#. The clogged bishop diagonals are hard to clear when the pieces are in fact gone. Tools: Brute Force, Distraction, Convergences at e5 and g2. Knight royal fork, Mate pattern with knight and rook. Distraction. Root cause of miss: Not recognizing imminent mate for my opponent. Not analyzing daring Kf8 and Qxd7, not recognizing mate.</p>
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<p>It was not hard to try the Rxe3+. Forcing moves first. Checks are what we learn to play as children and it's what I usually do when I start calculating. The king can't take the rook since it's guarded by Qf2. What if Qxe3? There's a nice swallowtail mate with Qf5#. Rxe3+ played and correct. So the king is forced to run to d5. How to pursue? Qg2+ seems the only safe way. Played and correct. Queen can't block, so King has to run: d6, c5, and c4. If Kd6, we're going to need backup. The rook doesn't pull its weight back on e3, so probably Re6+. Played and correct. If Kd7 or Kc7, then Qc6+ followed by Re8 is mate. What about Re6+ Kc5? Qc6+ and my queen seems to block the rook from some prime checking squares. But if Rc6+ Kb5 and how do I keep checking while my rook is attacked (more later)? At this point, I concluded that after Re6+ Kc5 Qc2+ was the right way to go, but Chess Tempo gave me the try again message without failing me. Eventually, I came back to this variation and followed Qd5+. This short-distance check had somehow eluded me earlier. What about the variation after Qg2+ Kc5 or Kc4? Qc2+ forces him back the d-file or else White has the heavy roller with Rb3+ and Qa2 mate. Kd6 Re6+ Kd7 Qc6+ Kd8 Re8#. What about Qc2+ Kd5 Qb3+? Kc4 or Kc5 quickly come to grief with Rc3+ Kd6/Kd7 Qe6+ Kd8 Rc8#. Qb3+ Kd6 lasts a little longer Qe6+ Kc5 Rc3+ Kb5 Qc4+ Kb6 Rb3+ Ka5 Qb5# Long variations that I actually broke up during my answer to Chess Tempo. I felt that the long variations helped stretch my calculation muscles, so I had some desire to try to do the whole variation tree in my head from the start position. Tools: Brute Force, Swallowtail mate pattern. Root cause of difficulty: Had trouble spotting a short check.</p>
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<p>This is Chess Tempo #152352. Black has terrible problems including an unsafe king at f7 and a loose bishop at c8. However, White needs to be careful because if simply 1...Qxc8 2.Qd1+ Kg2 Qf3+ secures a draw. White's bishop on b2 provides some chance of targeting g7 with a mating net, but variations don't seem to force that to work. 1...Qg8+ 2.Kg6 Rxh6+ goes nowhere and 2...Qh7+ 3.Kg5 seems safe. So the idea seems to be to win the bishop on c8 while avoiding a draw. 1...Rf8+ 2.Kg6 Qxc8 3.Qd1+ Kg2 and the Rf8 stops any perpetual. Tools: Brute Force, Consolidation</p>
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<p>Here's Chess Tempo #92458. My concentration flagged after a few plies and I failed to see that a mate was possible. 1.Qh8+ Kf7 2.Qh7+ and Black must block with either bishop or knight. If 2...Ng7 then 3.Bxg6#. After 2...Bxg7 3.Bxg6+ Kf8 and I didn't know where to go next. So I guessed 1.Bxg6 and got it wrong. I forgot to back up and try 2...Bg7 3.Bxg7 Nxg7 4.Bxg6+ Kf8 5.Qh8#. Black can delay a bit with 3.Bxg7 e5 4.Bh6+ Ke6 5.Qxg6+ Nf6 6.Qxf6#. Root cause for miss: Failing to try the 3.Bxg7 branch. Tools: Brute Force.</p>Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-40666578543617954082016-11-07T14:31:00.004-08:002016-11-16T13:54:53.453-08:00Staider<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsecQDCn7p230UdNzayxcgArbRkm895NI2L3m8vKD70avVEyrfGsOvhvnYN3Nrg-LyeISRfWzLvEyFP8YVaUe81SEtc4uQqErnIenFPdA08_bF08p-_k3v2OInjYYf1bLrqaohjI-F1M8/s1600/o-2001-A-SPACE-ODYSSEY-facebook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsecQDCn7p230UdNzayxcgArbRkm895NI2L3m8vKD70avVEyrfGsOvhvnYN3Nrg-LyeISRfWzLvEyFP8YVaUe81SEtc4uQqErnIenFPdA08_bF08p-_k3v2OInjYYf1bLrqaohjI-F1M8/s320/o-2001-A-SPACE-ODYSSEY-facebook.jpg" width="320" height="160" /></a></div>
<p>I'm a sucker for space drama. Recently, I find myself watching and rewatching "Interstellar" and "Gravity". But the original space drama was probably 1968's "2001: A Space Odyssey" directed by Stanley Kubrick. I had watched it as a highschooler and found it quite confusing with long artsy sequences bereft of dialog. When it arrived in my streaming pile a year ago, I tried to watch it again, but Strauss' "Blue Danube" coupled with the slow cinematics put me to sleep about halfway in. This picture is a key moment where HAL9000 eavesdrops on the astronauts plotting against him by reading their lips. Checkmate.</p>
<p>A couple days ago, I resumed watching 2001 and ran into the chess sequence around 1:06:06 where astronaut Frank Poole is playing the ship's computer HAL9000. It's laughable how bad Frank's position is. His queenside is untouched and his queen is the only active piece.</p>
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<br /><br />
FRANK: Queen takes pawn.(Qxa6)<br />
HAL: Bishop takes knight's pawn.(Bxg2)<br />
FRANK: What a lovely move. Uh, rook to king one.(Re1)<br />
HAL: I'm sorry, Frank, I think you missed it. Queen to bishop's three (Qf3). Bishop takes queen (Bxf3). Knight takes bishop, mate (Nxf3#).<br />
</p>
<p>Right after the chess scene, there is a scene in which Dave Bowman is drawing on a sketch pad while walking past cryochambers. The music sounded darned familiar. I googled my hunch and found that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdnmCDxrdDg" target="_blank">someone else noticed</a> that perhaps James Horner "borrowed" music for the opening 2 minutes of "Aliens" from Alex North of "2001." Perhaps this was not so much plagiarism but homage since cryochambers are present in both scenes.</p>
<p>A while back I had a dalliance with Scrabble. At one point, I was trying to memorize various 7-letter combinations, the rack-emptying "bingo" plays that garner 50 bonus points. Scrabble players like to memorize based upon alphabetically arranged tiles:</p>
<ul>ADEIRST permutes into:
<li>ARIDEST</li>
<li>ASTRIDE</li>
<li>DIASTER</li>
<li>DISRATE</li>
<li>STAIDER</li>
<li>TARDIES</li>
<li>TIRADES</li>
</ul>
<p>I had a mnemonic of a story: In the ARIDEST desert, ASTRIDE his horse, the cowboy regarded this two-faced boomtown in the midst of DIASTER: a raucous DISRATE downtown and a sleepy STAIDER uptown; he dared not pause long as his TARDIES tended to provoke TIRADES from his boss.</p>
<p>My last rated game was a staid draw. Here is the final position (black to play):</p>
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<p>In an earlier position, I tried to analyze the tactics and felt rust (black to play):</p>
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<p><b>25...Nf4 26.Nxf4 exf4+ 27.Bd4 Bxd4+ 28.Kxd4 Ne6+ 29.Kc3.</b> After the combination was over, I was disturbed to find an inaccuracy in my analysis. I had thought that Ne6 was necessary to prevent Nxf4 on the next move, but the knight at e2 is gone and the one on f2 needs one tempo to attack it. "I've just picked up a fault in the AE35 unit. It's going to go 100% failure in 72 hours." I chose this quote for the fault part referring to my visualization skills, not for what happens in real life about 72 hours from now. I'm trying to marshal some resources regarding the stepping stones method recommended by a friend from GM Jonathan Tisdall's "Improve Your Chess Now." I guess it's back to the drawing board to plug a hole in my opening repertoire and perhaps begin doing regular tactics again at Chess Tempo.</p>Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-71782794012840843952016-09-21T22:40:00.000-07:002016-09-21T22:41:14.785-07:00TPS Report #19<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQDU9iuMxnfF8NfQxHoJPe6YC1qCeWiX8YXvl7WExVFcgwULE7KpLjQfB0dZjNiB54xsAQw2mBIoiv7OFRtdKEBrNmFOrbIZ2R2P-ZUybHMCoVFCoCAIYRos-cpGYMk_jAeP8sRutDauM/s1600/IMG_2533.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQDU9iuMxnfF8NfQxHoJPe6YC1qCeWiX8YXvl7WExVFcgwULE7KpLjQfB0dZjNiB54xsAQw2mBIoiv7OFRtdKEBrNmFOrbIZ2R2P-ZUybHMCoVFCoCAIYRos-cpGYMk_jAeP8sRutDauM/s320/IMG_2533.JPG" width="320" height="240" /></a></div>
<p>I came into possession of a talisman, a touchstone that symbolizes my relationship with movies, with computer programming, and with rebelling against authority. Yes, I now have a red Swingline stapler similar to Milton's of "Office Space". I even filled it with staples even though I almost never staple things together at my desk. But I could, and that's what's important. Perhaps I will print these 19 TPS Reports, collate them into a stack, attach a cover sheet AND a memo, and staple the whole mess together, just for the fun of it. A strange sort of cognitive dissonance comes from watching myself imbue this inanimate object with magical properties. Why does such a mundane thing make me happy?</p>
<p>I have not been playing chess, but I have been going over my opening repertoire. I have not been training middle game tactics, but I have been annotating rook and pawn endgames. I have not been studying the games of masters, but I have been watching some broadcasts from the St. Louis Chess Club. I have not been going to the chess club, but I have been blogging about chess. It's like I am of two minds: one that is attracted by chess, and one that is repelled. Autumn tends to strengthen the pull of the chessboard on me. But I actively resist some of its basic trappings.</p>
<p>In tracking where my blog referrals were coming from, I found out that my old friend Temposchlucker started blogging again at the end of 2015 and went strong through every month in 2016, until August when his blog went dark again, temporarily or not. A key question seemed to awaken his passion for analysis: How does one see the invisible? Sometimes, I am surprised at what I see. It is as if my mind sees without the participation or consent of my conscious will. Neural networks, like the one used to beat the Go champion, use nodes to needle the network into producing an integrated result. Somewhere, I have neurons that fire faster when pieces are knight forks apart or related by bishop and rook pins. How do those neurons get their programming? Will Tempo or the knights or anyone else find that thing that trains the eye to see what it doesn't see?</p>
<p>I was somewhat inspired by the volumes of words produced by Temposchlucker and by another blogger on the "Path To Chess Mastery". But in the end, the proof is in the pudding. Can I train myself to be as good as a master? Is that even my goal any more? It is a question that seems more likely to be answered in the negative given my emotional momentum. A rejuvenation of my commitment to a younger man's goals seems unlikely. The expression is usually "Time will tell," but I wonder if it is more accurate to say "Time may or may not tell."</p>
Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-35781684949622088832016-09-20T13:17:00.000-07:002016-09-21T12:36:29.846-07:00Practical Rook Endgames 16: Sack the Waterboy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjssK_AOzpzoKIEAPHUfzQZENsNsPeH4KR3IhvTB1EYTokI9viESZEHVY6xBJNhyphenhyphenw3KDHURZsWi_GucNALINAAyPmVU1t7Kn1kHabuibioXl1nONrWZGBok61CgBszV7kXX9vkr4VdZ-ZQ/s1600/waterboy-the-di.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjssK_AOzpzoKIEAPHUfzQZENsNsPeH4KR3IhvTB1EYTokI9viESZEHVY6xBJNhyphenhyphenw3KDHURZsWi_GucNALINAAyPmVU1t7Kn1kHabuibioXl1nONrWZGBok61CgBszV7kXX9vkr4VdZ-ZQ/s320/waterboy-the-di.jpg" width="320" height="197" /></a></div>
<p>The 1998 Adam Sandler football movie "The Waterboy" ended with a halfback option play. Sandler, the lowly waterboy turned punishing linebacker switches to offense and throws the winning touchdown pass to the quarterback. Sorry I spoiled it, but you had 17 years to watch it.</p>
<p>Theoretical generalizations seem to say that R2P versus R endings with a bishop and a rook pawn are drawn if the pawns are on the same side of the board and won if the pawns are on opposite sides of the board. After a seesaw game, I had the stronger side of the same-side ending but managed to find a way to win. This depended upon my opponent choosing the wrong time to ignore the weakness of my bishop pawn. I'm barely scratching the surface of this ending, but I thought I would share this position and its critical moment:</p>
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<p>For the purposes of the Waterboy analogy, the f-pawn is the waterboy, the white king is the offensive quarterback, the white rook is the center or offensive line, and the black rook is the pass rush. White has just played 67.Rf6, so it's Black to move. I'm not sure why I put my rook on f6, but I think that I wanted my king to be able to lose contact with the f-pawn. My plan here was to move my king to e7 and perhaps block a Re1+ with Re6 and then try to queen the pawn. <b>67...Rg1+ 68.Kf4 Rf1+ 69.Ke5 Re1+ 70.Kd6</b>.</p>
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<p>Black to move. Here Black has to decide whether to chase the king further with 70...Rd1+ and live with 71.Ke7 or prepare some other way to get drawing chances. Actually, Rd1+ is still drawn and my opponent's choice is still okay to draw. <b>70...Ra1</b>. Preparing lateral checks. The white king at this moment has no shelter from checks on the 6th, 7th, or 8th ranks. So I decided to create shelter. <b>71.Re6</b>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkoeZENftuOsPktLeEBBgIolNTT4sbEwa2wfAJ_NQsAYmRjnKmJHuGgRI9cghBMXDNJaHB2V9znfIpinhv_ejFuo4fOFuFDc9dn5dj_En4NiHi3kiECoolabJL6gWemP0Rg9wOkc9srDQ/s1600/Waterboy_574.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkoeZENftuOsPktLeEBBgIolNTT4sbEwa2wfAJ_NQsAYmRjnKmJHuGgRI9cghBMXDNJaHB2V9znfIpinhv_ejFuo4fOFuFDc9dn5dj_En4NiHi3kiECoolabJL6gWemP0Rg9wOkc9srDQ/s320/Waterboy_574.jpg" width="320" height="320" /></a></div>
<p>Black to move and draw. A critical moment has arrived. The two moves that can draw are slightly difficult to spot. 71...Ra5 and 71...Rf1 maintain tablebase draws. All other moves lose. Sample lines are: <i>71...Ra5 72.Re5 Ra4 73.f6 Kxh6 74.Ke7 Kg6=</i> and <i>71...Rf1 72.f6 Kxh6! 73.Ke7 Kg6! 74.Re2 Ra1/b1!</i> with lateral checks to hold. Unfortunately for my opponent, he didn't recognize that it was time to sack the waterboy. Instead, he followed my quarterback downfield to where I wanted to receive the Hail Mary pass and queen the f-pawn. The remaining positions are all tablebase wins for White. <b>71...Ra6+?? 72.Ke7! Ra7+ 73.Kf8! Ra5 74.f6! Ra8+ 75.Re8! Ra6 76.f7 Kxh6 Kg8!</b> and Black resigned.</p>Soapstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615415471957675272noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6731383362544628080.post-19518917451683618432016-09-17T11:36:00.000-07:002018-05-01T09:12:24.822-07:00Practical Rook Endgames 15: Vancura Caveats<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnJSdGHwV632dGxhECjaqUZ846L1zO0xSrLlwADhyphenhyphenYk6Nubo8fe981AGCn5Qodq1TasoRnpO3zdwIuwKeApnecNKoRH6khAp4Q94Uj51MHGOpt7x3hIn3XZkjw50-DENuw8CFexwwO-3E/s1600/i-robot-prophet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnJSdGHwV632dGxhECjaqUZ846L1zO0xSrLlwADhyphenhyphenYk6Nubo8fe981AGCn5Qodq1TasoRnpO3zdwIuwKeApnecNKoRH6khAp4Q94Uj51MHGOpt7x3hIn3XZkjw50-DENuw8CFexwwO-3E/s400/i-robot-prophet.jpg" width="400" height="189" /></a></div>
<p>Isaac Asimov's short story collection "I, Robot" was made into a 2004 movie starring Will Smith as Detective Spooner. I love the writing in spots and wish to highlight two segments: 1. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSospSmAGL4" target="_blank">Dr. Alfred Lanning's soliloquy in the middle of the movie</a> which I have <a href="http://soapstonesstudio.blogspot.com/2008/07/ennui.html">quoted in brief before</a>:</p>
<blockquote>There have always been ghosts in the machine. Random segments of code, that have grouped together to form unexpected protocols. Unanticipated, these free radicals engender questions of free will, creativity, and even the nature of what we might call the soul. Why is it that when some robots are left in darkness, they will seek out the light? Why is it that when robots are stored in an empty space, they will group together, rather than stand alone? How do we explain this behavior? Random segments of code? Or is it something more? When does a perceptual schematic become consciousness? When does a difference engine become the search for truth? When does a personality simulation become the bitter mote... of a soul?</blockquote>
<p>The second passage is near the beginning when Detective Spooner compares his task to Hansel and Gretel:</p>
SUSAN CALVIN: I don't understand. Alfred wrote the Three Laws. Why would he build a robot that could break them?<br />
DETECTIVE SPOONER: Hansel and Gretel.<br />
SUSAN CALVIN: What?<br />
DETECTIVE SPOONER: Two kids, lost in the forest. Leave behind a trail of bread crumbs.<br />
SUSAN CALVIN: Why?<br />
DETECTIVE SPOONER: To find their way home. How the hell did you grow up without reading Hansel and Gretel?<br />
<p>It's obvious to me that I really have a lot to learn about rook endings. The more I learn, the less I know. I didn't give any variations in my previous post because I thought that the Vancura was a shortcut to understanding how to draw the ending like an automaton. "Put your king on g7 and your rook on f6 and check, check, check your way to a draw." My one active reader commented and gave me a Vancura variation to chew on:</p>
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<p>Black to move and draw. Since I am too lazy to work all the secrets out myself, I went straight to my favorite 6-man tablebase robot at the <a href="http://www.shredderchess.com/online-chess/online-databases/endgame-database.html" target="_blank">Shredder site</a> and plugged in this position. I was surprised to find out that the path to a draw, far from a mindless template, was a bit more complicated. Actually, there are only two bread crumb trails that draw: A) Ra5 and B) Rc1. <b>A) 1...Ra5 2.Ke4</b>:</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWtPksx89bIOBv2lWO1jeZe5zk7_ZnkWW6puy1wuHeSti9C5oOsBezIHXDTgPSbyOI-nkh1D0giTVof8jXr8Gv5jiDHxqD7biTtRniYCbpZi2b-D4V-wfeihqc7rjNVDeUXH0UF4HB_Z4/s1600/Vancura_531.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWtPksx89bIOBv2lWO1jeZe5zk7_ZnkWW6puy1wuHeSti9C5oOsBezIHXDTgPSbyOI-nkh1D0giTVof8jXr8Gv5jiDHxqD7biTtRniYCbpZi2b-D4V-wfeihqc7rjNVDeUXH0UF4HB_Z4/s400/Vancura_531.jpg" width="400" height="400" /></a></div>
<p>Here again, only two moves draw, but the pathways are convergent: <b>C) 2...Rb5 3.Kd4 Rb6! (only move)</b> and Black can look forward to moving his rook to f6 and checking until the draw comes home. <b>D) 2...Rc5 3.Kd4 Rc6! (only move)</b> with a similar Vancura pattern.</p>
<p>Going back to the previous diagram, here is the alternate way to draw: <b>B) 1...Rc1 2.Ke5 Rc6! (only move)</b> and we're back to familiar territory. Staying with the first diagram, I began the search for hypotheticals. Why doesn't 1...Rf1+ work?:</p>
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<p>White to move and win. <b>2.Ke5!</b> keeps White's winning path alive. Why can't Black just force the Vancura? It's tactically unsound here: <b>2...Rf6? 3.Rg8+! Kf7 4.Rf8+!</b> The rooks come off and the a-pawn waltzes in. After Kf4-e5, if only Black could play Rf1-b6 or Rf1-c6, he would be on the true Vancura path. Let's try <b>2...Rf7</b>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwKEqJEHli8SXAxWBQ1cKw-PG_yCruabwp9zfurEBWmecU2OLMji-IYJYa9mc46IwmcgtnvM7imUzpoFGnfuBk24BmaGJgntcvNpGOZmkLIywr403crYwqdTeZyKKPNc38JBSR9YWNshw/s1600/Vancura_543.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwKEqJEHli8SXAxWBQ1cKw-PG_yCruabwp9zfurEBWmecU2OLMji-IYJYa9mc46IwmcgtnvM7imUzpoFGnfuBk24BmaGJgntcvNpGOZmkLIywr403crYwqdTeZyKKPNc38JBSR9YWNshw/s400/Vancura_543.jpg" width="400" height="400" /></a></div>
<p>White can still win. Shredder shows 5 moves to victory. The simplest is the pawn advance <b>3.a7</b>. Black's rook is misplaced at f7. For the rook pawn on the seventh, the defender should be behind the pawn to prevent the attacker from just sacrificing his rook e.g. <b>3...Re7+ 4.Kd6 Rf7 5.Rg8+ Kxg8 6.a8=Q+</b>. Continuing this White win variation, what if after <b>1...Rf1+? 2.Ke5</b> Black tries to draw with a spate of spite checks? White makes his way to sanctuary at a7 <b>3...Re1+ 4.Kd5 Rd1+ 5.Kc5 Rc1+ 6.Kb6 Rb1+ 7.Ka7</b>. With the defending king so far away, White reshuffles his rook to b8, king to a8, pawn to a7, then the White king moves out through b7, chases down the checking rook, and queens the pawn.</p>
<p>Going back to the beginning, I now asked Shredder, why does <b>1...Rb1?</b> lose? Can't Black force Rb6 and find the way home?:</p>
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<p>White to move and win. Shredder points out an unintuitive variation starting with <b>2.Ra7+!</b>. White easily wins if Black goes to the eighth rank e.g. <b>2...Kg8 3.Rb7 Ra1 4.a7</b> followed by Rb8+ and a8=Q. <b>2...Kf6</b> is more testing. Now White has to avoid the drawing <i>3.Rb7? Ra1 4.Rb6+ Ke7!=</i> but instead find <b>3.Ke4! Ke6 4.Ra8!</b> It looks like White is going back to a previous position, but with the Black king away from his safe base of g7, more tactical checks come into play for White. I just realized that doing the shuffle is not always straightforward either and I'll probably have to devote a short post to the a6 pawn win.</p>
<p>Why didn't this Ra7+ win work against <b>B) 1...Rc1!=</b>?:</p>
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<p>Black to move and draw. Now Black has to find three narrow bread crumb trails <b>E) 2...Kg6!= 3.Ra8 Kg7!=</b> and <b>F) 2...Kg6!= 3.Ke5 Rc6!=</b> and <b>G) 2...Kg6!= 3.Rb7 Rc5!=</b> angling back toward the classic Vancura with Kg7 and Rf6. As you can see, the path with A) 1...Ra5 is much safer than B) 1...Rc1. Here is one more argument in A)'s favor:</p>
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<p>Black to move and draw. This diagram has one subtle difference with the first one. The White king is now at f5. Black cannot draw now with <b>1...Rc1?</b> because <b>2.Ra7+! Kh6</b> leaves his king just too far away to prevent the brute force plan of White moving his king to b8 and escorting the pawn in. <b>3.Rd7 Rc5+ 4.Ke6 Rc6+ 5.Rd6 Rc5 6.Kd7+</b>. Instead, Plan A) still works against Kf5: <b>1...Ra5+! 2.Ke6 Rh5!</b>. I know that I warned in the last post not to put the Black rook behind the Black king, but here it is necessary. <b>3.Ra7+ Kg8!=</b>. <i>3...Kh8? and 3...Kf8 both lose to 4.Rf7! blocking the Rh6+ skewer.</i> Black also has to know that after <b>3.Kd7</b> there's still time to get back to Vancura with <b>3...Rh6! 4.Kc7 Rf6!</b> and Black is ready with checks even if <b>5.a7 Rf7+!=</b>. <i>5.a7 Ra6?</i> loses to <i>6.Kb7! Ra1 7.Rb8</i>.</p>
<p>From the attacker's point of view, getting the king to e4 or e5 while the Black rook is on a1 wins even if Black is on move. With White on move from the last diagram, <b>1.Ke4 or 1.Ke5</b> lead to wins. Surprisingly, <i>1.Ke6?</i> only draws if Black can find <i>.1...Rh1!=</i>. From the defender's point of view, his rook must be on a5 prior to White getting from the kingside to Ke4 or Ke5. From Shredder, I see now that if White can get Kd4 and Black has not gotten his rook to b6 or f6 (e.g. he still has his rook on a1 or a5), then Black is lost. So the speed at which Black can get the ideal setup with rook on f6 or b6 is crucial.</p>
<p>Whew! As my reader commented "The theory of rook + a-pawn versus rook is actually surprisingly deep, with lots of different techniques."</p>
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