Monday, March 31, 2008

New Media Chess Essay

Two Columbia journalism students put together a website that explores chess people and chess in New York City. They interview six players on video (including Nakamura, Ashley, Waitzkin, and Vicary), present some photos and video of chess sites in New York City, and have a History of the game. The content is somewhat scattershot, but there is a lot of content to explore. While the site is ostensibly called "Masters and Hustlers", besides the interviews of some masters and a few hustlers, there really isn't a unifying principle that threads the site together.

The interviews of the players are the best part, and is worth checking out just for those-- the one with Nakamura is especially illuminating. There is an interview with a chess hustler as well, which seems put in for completeness sake.

The timeline of the history of the game was interestingly presented, but only on some years did I get Padolfini's narration; I'm not sure if that's a site error, or there wasn't any narration on some of them (mysteriously, you have to click on the "GAME" link, and not something called History). Unfortunately, some things just seem like they were added at the last moment (e.g., inconsistent fonts, typos), but this only slightly detracts from the presentation.

Furthermore, they try all sorts of Flash-esque techniques on the website (cursor changing, zooms, fades, rolling clickable landscapes, and so forth). Some are useful and some are superfluous and ultimately frustrating. When they keep it simple -- the embedded video with a textual sidebar overview, for instance -- it works the best.

In summary, even though it is unfocused, a little sloppy, and tries too hard at times to be clever, the website does present some insightful, probing, and worthwhile content. If you are interested in chess players or chess in New York City, then by all means, check it out.

USCL Ratings End of 2006

At the end of the 2006 season, the USCL rating list would have looked like what is displayed below.

Note that the same conditions apply as the end of the 2007 list, namely that (1) players must have played in the 2006 season, and (2) players must have played three lifetime USCL games to be published.

Final 2006 USCL Rating List

1 2617 Vinay Bhat
2 2571 Eugene Perelshteyn
3 2566 Julio Becerra
4 2563 Jaan Ehlvest
5 2555 Georgi Orlov
6 2537 Josh Friedel
7 2529 Larry Christiansen
8 2527 Pawel Blehm
9 2524 Gregory Serper
10 2523 Jacek Stopa
11 2516 Vince McCambridge
12 2510 Pascal Charbonneau
13 2484 Robert Hess
14 2475 Lev Milman
15 2473 Tegshsuren Enkhbat
16 2469 Peter Vavrak
17 2468 Irina Krush
18 2454 Magesh Panchanathan
19 2453 Igor Foygel
20 2443 Oleg Zaikov
21 2443 Ron Burnett
22 2443 Slava Mikhailuk
23 2442 Bryan Smith
24 2441 Charles Riordan
25 2440 Andrei Zaremba
26 2440 David Pruess
27 2436 Richard Costigan
28 2434 Davorin Kuljasevic
29 2433 Eric Tangborn
30 2432 William Kelleher
31 2430 Miguel Espino
32 2423 Dmitry Zilberstein
33 2421 Jay Bonin
34 2413 John Readey
35 2412 Bruci Lopez
36 2410 Blas Lugo
37 2402 Larry Kaufman
38 2388 Alejandro Moreno Roman
39 2384 Marcel Milat
40 2380 Sam Shankland
41 2369 Matthew Hoekstra
42 2360 Elvin Wilson
43 2350 Craig Jones
44 2350 Steven Winer
45 2349 Matthew Bengtson
46 2348 Matthew Herman
47 2348 Vadim Martirosov
48 2345 Marcel Martinez
49 2339 Norman Rogers
50 2338 Jonathan Schroer
51 2333 Ray Kaufman
52 2333 Katerina Rohonyan
53 2322 Mark Pinto
54 2317 Igor Schneider
55 2310 John Rouleau
56 2307 Todd Andrews
57 2303 Nat Koons
58 2297 Keaton Kiewra
59 2286 Michael Lee
60 2285 Ilya Krasik
61 2278 Peter Bereolos
62 2267 Jennifer Shahade
63 2266 Mackenzie Molner
64 2257 Ralph Zimmer
65 2251 Michael Shahade
66 2251 Nelson Lopez
67 2250 Boris Baczynskyj
68 2237 Boris Privman
69 2237 Luis Barredo
70 2233 Gerald Larson
71 2227 Daniel Naroditsky
72 2223 Jerry Wheeler
73 2215 Javier Torres
74 2188 Jose Cabrera

Friday, March 21, 2008

USCL Ratings (with 2007 Final List)


I have independently created a United States Chess League rating system that takes into several elements that other rating systems do not. Most importantly, the USCL ratings take into account that players are part of a team, and their strategy about how to conclude their individual games depend on the games situations of their teammates.

Here is an overview of the USCL rating system.

1. Modified Glicko

Rating calculations are based on the Glicko system, with some minor modifications. These modifications are as follows:
(a) Maximum RD is 100 (not 350);
(b) Ratings are updated after every game;
(c) At the end of each season, each RD is modified by increasing it 1/2 its distance to 100. For example, if a player's RD is 40, then the new RD is 40+((100-40)/2) or 40+(30) or 70. This eliminates step 1b in the Glicko process.

2. Initial Ratings Based on Board

Initial ratings for each player are based on which board they played the first time they played in a USCL match. Players who were Board 1 start with an initial rating of 2550; Board 2, 2450; Board 3, 2350; Board 4, 2250. All are set with an RD (ratings deviation) of 100.

3. Expected Score Depends on Color

Expected score from each game is modified by the color each player has. An initial investigation showed that, in the USCL, the performance rating of a player with the White pieces is about 72 points higher than the performance rating of a player with the Black pieces. Therefore, when calculating expected score of a games between two players, we temporarily add 36 points to White's rating, and subtract 36 points from Black's rating.

4. All Games Rated with Equal Weight

All games, including playoff games and blitz tiebreak games, were given equal weight in the ratings.

5. Scores for Draws Depend on Team Result

In team chess, where the goal of the team is to win the match (with 2.5/4 points or more, or 2/4 in a match with draw odds), individual results can be skewed by the circumstances of the match situation. For example, if it looks like your team is about to win two games and lose one game, winning the match comes down to what happens on your board. Suppose that in your game you have a moderate advantage, but the position is dynamic and unstable. In such a case, you might decide to trade all your pieces to reach a dead drawn endgame, so that you will draw the game and clinch the match for your team. This is fundamentally a good result for your team, as your will win the match.

Therefore, the result of the team match is considered when assigning scores for individual players' draws. If the final team match is drawn, each player who drew gets 1/2 point. If a team wins, all the players on the winning team who drew their games get 2/3 point each. Conversely, all the players on a losing team who drew their games get 1/3 point each. (Wins are still 1 and losses are still 0, regardless of the team match score.) Note that these point assignments are only for rating calculations only.



Final 2007 United States Chess League Rating List

  • Every game in every season of the USCL was rated, not just 2007.
  • Only players who were played at least one game in 2007 (i.e., active) are included in the list.
  • Players must have played at least three games in the history of the USCL to be included in the list.
  • While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, re-rating might occur to correct any mistakes.
1 2591 Sergey Kudrin
2 2589 Vinay Bhat
3 2586 Patrick Wolff
4 2581 Larry Christiansen
5 2580 Hikaru Nakamura
6 2579 Jorge Sammour-Hasbun
7 2576 Joel Benjamin
8 2571 Drasko Boskovic
9 2569 Gregory Serper
10 2566 Julio Becerra
11 2543 Davorin Kuljasevic
12 2523 Jacek Stopa
13 2522 Eli Vovsha
14 2519 John Donaldson
15 2505 Pawel Blehm
16 2495 Josh Friedel
17 2494 Alex Stripunsky
18 2491 Lev Milman
19 2487 Georgi Orlov
20 2487 Dean Ippolito
21 2484 Pascal Charbonneau
22 2481 Eugene Perelshteyn
23 2477 Irina Krush
24 2466 Jay Bonin
25 2463 Vince McCambridge
26 2460 Bryan Smith
27 2454 Tegshsuren Enkhbat
28 2453 Dmitry Schneider
29 2449 Denis Shmelov
30 2441 Eric Tangborn
31 2440 Ron Burnett
32 2433 Marcel Milat
33 2432 Slava Mikhailuk
34 2428 Sam Shankland
35 2423 Oleg Zaikov
36 2415 John Bartholomew
37 2415 Robert Hess
38 2411 Richard Costigan
39 2407 Dmitry Zilberstein
40 2406 Jonathan Schroer
41 2405 Keaton Kiewra
42 2402 Irina Zenyuk
43 2399 William Kelleher
44 2397 Blas Lugo
45 2389 David Pruess
46 2389 Francisco Guadalupe II
47 2388 John Readey
48 2387 Andrei Zaremba
49 2386 Aviv Friedman
50 2382 Mikhail Zlotnikov
51 2381 Marcel Martinez
52 2380 Todd Andrews
53 2366 Parker Zhao
54 2365 Elvin Wilson
55 2361 Bruci Lopez
56 2360 Chris Williams
57 2358 Katerina Rohonyan
58 2354 Larry Kaufman
59 2354 Vadim Martirosov
60 2353 Daniel Yeager
61 2343 John Rouleau
62 2334 Mackenzie Molner
63 2333 Eric Rodriguez
64 2327 Bayaraa Zorigt
65 2322 Victor Shen
66 2319 Miguel Espino
67 2314 James Critelli
68 2311 Marc Arnold
69 2309 Michael Thaler
70 2307 Peter Bierkens
71 2304 Luis Barredo
72 2303 Loren Schmidt
73 2301 Evan Ju
74 2301 Gregory Young
75 2300 Matthew Herman
76 2297 Alejandro Moreno Roman
77 2295 Craig Jones
78 2287 Michael Lee
79 2279 John Timmel
80 2276 Ralph Zimmer
81 2265 Daniel Naroditsky
82 2264 Udayan Bapat
83 2263 Ilya Krasik
84 2261 Tsagaan Battsetseg
85 2258 Josh Sinanan
86 2239 Matthew Bengtson
87 2228 Peter Bereolos
88 2211 Jerry Wheeler
89 2209 Gerald Larson
90 2183 James Wu


NOTE: While the commissioner of the United States Chess League is aware of the existence of these ratings and the rating system, neither the ratings nor the rating system have been officially endorsed nor sanctioned by the Unites States Chess League, its affiliates, or sponsors.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Nine year old master

Nine year old Nicholas Nip became a USCF Master with an unofficial rating of 2207. Personally, I think it is unconscionable to be a master if your age at which you became a master is earlier than your bedtime at that mage. He had better go to bed at 9:30!

Read all about it here. And f-pawn (aka Michael Aigner) wrote about it here.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

D&D Creator Slain by Life



Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons and Dragons, has died. D&D played a big role in my life, as it increased my love of all types of games.

I fondly remember the three books D&D started with (before there was Advanced D&D), and the near pornographic (at least to an 12 year old) cover of the third book, Eldritch Wizardry.

CNN story here.