Critical Positions

Dan Heisman, a chess teacher from Philadelphia, writes a great column for Chess Cafe called "Novice Nook". It is not always for novices, but can benefit any player. He has a great column this month -- it is about how to recognize "critical" positions in a game. Once you recognize a critical position, you should spend more time on it, because its... uh... critical.

Anyway, the link will go away in a few weeks, but you can read the article now, here.

New Jersey Knockouts

The United States Chess League (USCL) will be starting its third season in the fall. It is an online league - all games are played over the internet on the Internet Chess Club.

One of the two new expansion teams is the New Jersey Knockouts (NJKO). I have volunteered to write for the team. Stay tuned for updates!

Brad Delp: A Lonely Soul

Apparently, sources report that Brad Delp's suicide note called himself a "lonely soul".

These days, there are so many things about public figures that we just do not know. One's public face rarely matches one's inner life. This seems to be the case with Brad.

RIP, Brad Delp of Boston

Brad Delp, lead singer of the amazing band Boston, died today. You can read about it here. He was 55.

As many of you know, I was and am a Boston devotee, a member of the fan email list since 1997. I attended the fan-email-list get-together, "Bostock", in the summer of 1998, driving all the way from New York City to Mt. Gilead, Ohio (about 550 miles, I think). I met a lot of fun people there - people who were just as (and many of them more) fanatical about Boston than I was. I can't imagine how this news might hit some of them. I think mostly about Becky Asbury, who hosted the party that weekend; I had never met anyone who was so utterly devoted to a band, and who spoke many times that Boston had pulled her through the bad times. I met her again at a Boston concert in 2003, and she was friendly and remembered me. My thoughts are with you, Becky. Boston can pull you through again.

I never had the opportunity to meet Brad, but from all accounts, he was an exceptionally warm and accessible person. Boston's official website just changed tonight, to a single sentence, "We've just lost the nicest guy in rock and roll."

My condolences to your family and friends and all the fans around the world who loved your voice and music.

Rest in peace, Brad.

UPDATE 15 Mar 2007

Brad's death was a suicide. What a tragic and shocking turn of events. He apparently left two notes, for his fiancee and family, and killed himself through carbon monoxide.

Killer Asteroids

According to this story, NASA doesn't have the cash to track killer asteroids. It's only a billion dollars. Will we regret not spending it?

The King and Pawn Endgame, Part II

In the post a couple of days ago (access it here), I presented a king and pawn endgame. It was determined that white must draw the ending - white cannot win. In that diagram, I played 1. h5 and instead of taking on h5 (i.e., 1... gxh5) and then eating the rook pawn (and ultimately drawing), my opponent pushed the pawn, leaving the position diagrammed here. The only reason, the my opponent must have pushed the pawn was that s/he knew I had about 12 seconds on the clock, and would probably lose on time.

Given this new position, with White to move, now what is the outcome?

King's Gambit: Kasparov Variation

Garry Kasparov, former world chess champion and likely the best chess player to have ever lived, retired from chess in 2005. Since then, he has spent time trying his hand at Russian politics. He is not a big fan of Putin, and back in April 2005, was bashed over the head with a chess board. Its not clear why someone did it, but it happened.

Yesterday, he led a protest in St. Petersburg. A bold gambit from Garry K. Read about it here.

Another Pawn Ending

Here's another pawn ending from a 5-minute game I played on ICC today. I ran out of time, and I had about 15 seconds left at this point. It is white to move. Can white win or is it a draw? Post any comments.

Is this Life's Instruction Manual?

A book he wanted to get. Given the way I play, it shouldn't be too hard.

Puzzle Solution: Red Buttons

No, it doesn't have to do with the position on the board, but I heard a lot of interesting theories, many dealing with how the white bishop got to its improbable position, and the fact that black has merely one pawn as far as his/her third rank. Finally, what is that strange white piece that is being occluded by the white bishop? It could only be another pawn, unless it is a third promoted knight, which seems pretty unlikely.

Some people suggested that the board was actually correctly placed, but the image was flipped for some reason by the newspaper or website. Indeed, this was my initial thought too - and it appears like Susan Polgar, on her blog, actually went ahead and flipped the image so that the board appears properly set up.

Of the private emails that I received with possible solutions, two suggested what I think is the key - the woman's button on her jacket. It appears like the button is on the left and the buttonhole on the right, which is typical for a woman's jacket (men's jackets have the button and buttonhole reversed). So, it does not appear as if the image has been flipped, and indeed, the board was set up incorrectly.

Thanks to everyone who responded!

A Puzzle about Chess, Sort Of...

Hampton University's business school is using chess to help business school students plan and prepare for the business world. You can read the story about it here. It is an interesting article, and the teacher seems particularly dedicated to using chess in the schools, even for adults. I've included a picture from the story.

Of course, what do we notice about the picture? The usual problems -- the board is oriented incorrectly - white square not on the right. Ugh; it unfortunately doesn't speak well for the class. However, the queen is on the proper color, so at least they got that right. To me, that seemed a little suspicious.

Looking a little more closely at the picture, there is another detail that raises even more suspicions. If anyone is reading this, put your suspicions in the comments, and I'll post the what I think the answer to this puzzle is in the next day or two.

Ice cream

We went out for some ice cream this evening, which we rarely do. It is going to be snowy and messy here tomorrow, so what better way to start the week than with a Duster Sundae.

By the way, ice cream sundaes were invented in my hometown of Ithaca, New York.

King and Pawn puzzle

Here's an interesting game I played back in October. It lead to a pure king-and-pawn endgame. A key position is displayed here - it is not too hard to find the winning move for white, although I didn't find it in the game.

Click here to replay this game. Notes here are mostly by Dennis Monokroussos, although he incorporates some things that I said (referring to me as RB in his notes, and himself as DM).

Dinosaur Days

This week, my five-and-a-half year old son was out of school due to Winter Break. We enrolled him in a two day course about dinosaurs. He seemed to enjoy it quite a bit, and learned some interesting facts. For instance, there are two types of dinosaurs classified by what they eat, vegetarians and carnivals.

Well, I thought it was funny.

The Police - What Else?

Well, one of the things I have pined for many years about doing is seeing The Police live in concert. In case your head has been under a rock (or you've paid no attention to the media), The Police Are Back and touring starting in May 2007. I had an inkling that it would happen some day, but I couldn't have guessed when.

Anyway, I joined the tour fan club, of course, and got a code for the Best Buy presale tickets, but only managed to score one ticket for August 3rd at Madison Square Garden. I have to use my fan club membership to try and get to the other show at MSG.

I would say that it was one of the top five things I've wanted to do, and this summer, it happens.

The Police Tour

A short game

I saw this today on Chess Cafe.

Jain-Norinkeviciute, Hastings 2007
1 e4 g6 2 d4 1–0
Black’s mobile phone went off.

Oops.

Despair, sadness, grief... is it heartache?

Despair, sadness, grief... even suicidal thoughts. Could it be heartache, that most despised, yet expected demon?

Not even close. Not heartache... Hard drive.

Yes, I had a terrible hard drive crash last week that had apparently devastated my all my data for the past four years. Documents, email, geneological research, chess games.... What a disaster.

I am now trying to recover from it. I talked to some drive recovery people at drivesavers.com, and they were very friendly and realyl a low-pressure sales approach, but the cost to recover was estimated approximately $2000. Ouch.

So I took it to a local guy here in New Jersey. Rey at Intertech was a good guy, who tried his best, but even he said the disk was so far gone that it needed the services of a full-time disk recovery company. We'll get the results in a few days, after their analysis.

For some funny stories about disk crashes, you can read this article in Time magazine.

So, watch and wait for the experts with their clean rooms, the men with their sales. Buffy reference - Season 4 finale... Sorry... Mind has been elsewhere this week.

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So, sage wisdom... Back everything up - today. Don't wait.

A pretty ending

(244) NN - Bernard,R (1402) [B06]
Metro Chess Club G/25+5 delay (3), 16.01.2007

1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nf3 c5 4.c3 d6 5.Bc4 Nf6 6.0-0? Dropping a pawn for nothing... 6...Nxe4 7.Bxf7+?! Morphy-wannabee 7...Kxf7 8.Ng5+? Just exchanging off this knight for nothing. 8...Nxg5 9.Bxg5 Rf8 10.Qf3+ Kg8 11.Qd5+ Kh8 12.Re1 Nc6? [ 12...Rf5 This wins a piece... For instance... 13.Qe4 Rxg5 14.Qxe7 Qxe7 15.Rxe7 Rf5 16.Re8+ Rf8] 13.Nd2?? Rf5 but now it comes a move later... 14.Qe4 Rxg5 15.Nf3 Rf5 16.d5 Ne5 17.Nxe5 Rxe5 18.Qf3 Bf5 19.Rxe5? Tranding pieces while down... not a good idea. [ To be considered would be 19.g4!? Bd7 20.Re3 Qf8 21.Qxf8+ Rxf8 22.h3-+] 19...Bxe5 20.Re1 Qf8 21.Rf1? Just bizarre 21...Bd7 22.Qxf8+ Rxf8 23.h3 Bb5 24.Re1 Bc4 25.b3 Bxd5 26.c4 Bc6 27.g3 Rf7 28.f4 Bd4+ 29.Kh2 g5 30.Re6 [ 30.fxg5 Rf2+ 31.Kg1 Rxa2+ 32.Kf1 Bg2#] 30...gxf4 31.g4 And here's where I saw it. I prayed he wouldn't resign, and he would play into it. 31...f3 32.g5 [ 32.Re1 Be5+ 33.Kg1 f2+ 34.Kf1 fxe1Q+ 35.Kxe1 Effective, but not nearly as pretty...] 32...f2 [ 32...Be5+ 33.Kg1 f2+ 34.Kf1 Bg2+ 35.Ke2 ( 35.Kxg2 f1Q#) 35...f1Q+ 36.Kd2 Rf2+ 37.Ke3 Qe2#] 33.g6 f1N# and he did! [ I should have played... 33...a6 34.gxf7 f1N#] 0-1

I am not Topalov

Well, Topalov won his first game yesterday. The games, frankly, go over my head, but only because these guys are double my rating.

Indeed, many of my own games go over my own head. I played a couple of games last night at the Kenilworth Chess Club. I lost both of them, and did not play well in either one. I could make a lot of excuses, (tired due to long and eventful day at work, recovering from birthday, blah, blah, blah) but the end result is that I stunk up the board. I am trying to procure a Java applet to display the games here.

Send Yasser to Elista

Whoever made the suggestion to send Yasser Seirawan to Elista to save the WC&WCC (World Chess and Water Closet Championship) had the right idea. It was suggested on Chessbase, and I think it is a brilliant idea.

Yasser, Yasser, he's our man!
If he can't do it, nobody can!

We will all have to wait until 7am US-Eastern Time to see what has happened.

This whole situation is best summed up by Tim Rice the lyricist of the musical "Chess" in the song "Quartet". The whole lyrics are here. A fitting excerpt...

It's very sad to see
The ancient and distinguished game that used to be
A model of decorum and tranquility
Become like any other sport
A battleground for rival ideologies
To slug it out with glee.