Chessays: A Review, Part One

After reading an article at Chessbase, Chess – a waste of time?, by Frederic Friedel, published 2/13/2023, an order for the book, Chessays/Travels Through The World of Chess,

by Howard Burton,

https://vivanlasfiestas.com/index.php/2023/02/24/an-interview-with-howard-burton/

along with a few others, was ordered from my Chess book go to guy, Greg Yanez, at Chess4Less (https://chess4less.com/). When the book arrived it went to the top of the list as I stopped reading any of the other books being read to concentrate on Chessays.

Yesterday I discovered an article, The Societal Impact of Chess, Part 1: Introduction (https://www.chess.com/blog/hsburton1/the-societal-impact-of-chess-part-1-introduction) and suggest you read it after reading the review because the author, and film maker, talks about “Far Transfer,” which is the title of the sixth chapter. Chapter seven is entitled, “Farther Transfer,” with “Further Transfer” being the eighth, and final, chapter. The decision was made to truncate the review for two reasons. The first is that the review was already too long, and much time had to be spent cutting out some of the review, something I will admit to being loath to do. The other reason is that the final three chapters seemed to be rather esoteric. There is so much thought provoking material in the first five chapters the review will be presented in two parts. It has taken all of my wherewithal to not lead with the second part, which begins with chapter four.

One of the best features of the book is that here we have a ‘newbie’ to the world of Chess who is willing to write openly and honestly about how he perceives the world of Chess. Each and every person who has anything to do with governing the Royal Game should read this book, and maybe, depending on the individual, read it again. Anyone with an interest in Chess will appreciate this book. Although it is good enough to at least earn some nominations for Book of the Year award, many people in the Chess world will not like what the young man has to say. Nevertheless, anyone and everyone in the Chess community should at least be apprised of his thoughts concerning the world of Chess. From my over half a century of involvement with Chess it is apparent Chessays has about as much chance of being voted an award as a snowball has in hell.

The book begins with an introduction which contains this paragraph:

“I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know how to play chess, any more than I can remember a time when I didn’t know how to read, yet for most of my youth I didn’t pay a great deal of attention to either. As a child I was always much more interested in sports: street hockey or touch football or basketball.”

After reading the opening paragraph the book was put down as I sat, looking out the glass door to the outside world filled with greenery, and reflected… “That sounds like me,” I thought. Change the “street hockey” to “boxing” and it could be me. Include Baseball and it would be this writer, who was a twenty year old adult when first playing in a USCF tournament, where all six games were lost, I am sad, but honest enough to report…

In the introduction the writer informs the reader, “It was only in university that I had my first significant exposure to chess as a sport.”

That sentence made me cringe. Chess is most definitely not a “sport”. Chess is a GAME, just like any other board GAME. Baseball, basketball, and football (as in soccer; American “football” should be called “maim ball” for obvious reasons) are SPORTS. Bridge is a game, as are backgammon and poker. Dude comes into the Chess world (for various reasons which will be mentioned momentarily), plays a little, and assumes he has obtained enough knowledge to make proclamations about what is the definition of Chess…

He continues, “So I began to read about these mysterious openings, and much more besides, that my opponents all seemed so intimately familiar with.”

One of my high school English teachers, Mrs. Simpson, once returned something I had written that was covered in red ink, with many instances of my ending a sentence with a preposition. When queried about all the red circles after class ended she said, “It appears to me that you go out of your way to defy the rules of English grammar. You have as much chance of ever becoming a writer as a snowball has in HELL!” Well, as you can imagine, that stung.

The writer continues, “And the more I read, the more astounded I became: there was an enormous, simply overwhelmingly large, literature here – with dozens, sometimes hundreds, of books devoted to one opening variation, or a series of middlegame tactics, or endgame approaches, or what have you. It was astounding.”

Yes Mr. Burton, Chess can be astounding. One of the best things about the book is that Chess is being viewed objectively by someone new to the Royal Game. It is always good to learn how ‘newbies’ think about Chess because “fresh eyes” usually bring something interesting. We learn how he came to write about Chess when reading, “Decades later, I became fascinated by “the history of ideas,” tracing the subtle, shape-shifting development of key societal concepts over different times and places. I read books by intellectual historians methodically charting the notions of “freedom” and “genius” and “civil war” and found myself increasingly intrigued by how different human societies often managed to be both so similar and so different from our own.”

“One day I was idly thumbing through Baldassare Castiglione’s The Courtier, and came across the passage where chess is singled out as representing a dangerous drain on one’s time and energies, thereby making it “a most unusual thing” where “mediocrity is more to be praised than excellence.”

“It’s a very odd experience to suddenly feel yourself in complete lock step with a character from a 1528 book devoted to courtly Renaissance culture; and it made me think. Perhaps chess, I wondered, might make for a suitable topic of the sort of “intellectual history” I was personally suited to explore – not rigorous academic scholarship, of course, but simply getting a taste of our intriguing sociocultural evolution by looking through the lens of one particularly historically-rich activity: chess.”

The reader knows where the writer is coming from. (Sorry, Mrs Simpson)

Next we learn, “By then I had somehow become “a filmmaker,” so why not make a few films about that? Hence Through the Mirror of Chess-a four-part documentary series charting chess’s fascinating tale of cultural influence from its murky origins to the modern day.”

I have not watched any of the four-part film and have no intention of doing so because it costs digits, err, money, and there is so much free Chess material why should I spend my Senior digits to watch more films about Chess? I purchased the book, not with a view toward writing a review, but after reading about it at Chessbase in an excellent article concerning a book published months ago. (https://en.chessbase.com/post/chess-a-waste-of-time).

Mr. Burton continues, “So there was that. But there was also something else. The more I read and researched the past and present worlds of chess, the more something else unexpected happened: I began to get opinions. And for me, at least, the best way to express opinions is through books.”

Or maybe a blog?!

The introduction concludes with these words: “And for those who do find themselves indignant and offended, the one way I respectfully suggest that you shouldn’t react is by launching some sort of reflexive, ad hominem salvo based on the fact that I have a pitifully low Elo rating or am not a FIDE executive, but rather by attacking the substance of my claims. I say this not because I am worried about anyone being angry with me (I am not), but because I’ve noticed that this is the sort of thing that chess players often do: viewing their entire world through the lens of a rigidly hierarchical framework so that the only voices they hear are from official members of the establishment. That is a dangerous practice for any domain, but particularly so when it come to chess, since so many of those voices conflate the interests of chess with their own self-image and are thus deeply deleterious to chess itself. Well, that’s my opinion, anyway.”

The first chapter is entitled: The Uses and Abuses of History. It begins, “Enthusiasts sometimes like to point out that one of the things that makes chess special is its exceptionally broad appeal to a wide range of different interests and inclinations.”

“Having played many other board games, such as Backgammon, Go, and Poker, I find it strange that only Chess aficionados consider Chess “special.” The idea has been promulgated to the point many, if not most, Chessplayers consider it a fait accompli. Consider this paragraph: “But however diverse these activities might be, there is one common characteristic of any self-proclaimed chess aficionado: a deep and abiding respect for “chess history” and an unquenchable pride in the game’s storied past.”

I like history, and enjoy reading about the history of the Royal Game, but I must disagree with what was written above. After having interacted and talked with countless Chess “aficionados” the fact is that many could care less about what happened previously because they are much more concerned with what is happening now. I recall talking with an exceptional budding young player at the House of Pain who said, “Why should I study those old farts who played so weakly? I’d rather spend my time replaying current games played by today’s players who are far stronger than those from way back then.” I remember thinking, “Wow, it seems like only yesterday Bobby Fischer was revered. Now the young’uns consider him a chumpy-lumpy.” That thought was prior to my saying, “If you don’t know where you’ve been, how can you know where you are going, kid?” That brought hardy laughter from resident curmudgeon Bob Bassett, who said, after he managed to stop laughing, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” I was the one howling after the young spud asked, “What does that mean?” I mention this before writing the following sentence/paragraph: “Normally, I take this characteristic indifference as my starting point to launch into a full-throated tirade against the vapidity of the media or the woeful incuriousness of our time, but in this case the situation is even worse still, because it clearly demonstrates that the overwhelming majority of self-proclaimed “chess historians” simply can’t trouble themselves to take the most obvious preliminary steps to contact actual specialists to verify essential aspects of their “theories.”

To give equal time to the other side the author again gives another sentence/paragraph: “During my investigations, I have also encountered several anti-chess historians, self-proclaimed history of games types who were so overwhelmingly antagonized by what they saw as the grossly unjustified dominance of chess in the broader games history landscape that the very idea that I was willfully engaged in producing a detailed exploration of the history of chess was enough to send them into fits of blind rage.”

Do tell…

We will conclude with the first chapter with a two sentence paragraph followed by another long sentence/paragraph: “Chess, in other words, is acknowledged to be an activity that demands highly specialized skills honed by years of dedicated effort. But history, goes the thinking, is somehow something that anyone can do.”

“So when Russian grandmaster Yuri Averbakh opted to publish his own vapid and trivialized account of the game’s past, A History of Chess: From Chaturanga to the Present Day,

ebook3000.com

his efforts were widely applauded by “the chess community” because, well, Averbakh was a personable and celebrated chess player who wrote many highly-respected books on chess theory; and, after all, you can’t have too many books on the history of chess.”

Or too many Chess books filled with “Chessays” too, I suppose…

The second chapter poses the question, (Is Chess a) Waste of Time? A good question which caused me to wonder if reading the book was going be a waste of my time… The author writes, “If chess were a far easier game-if it was like checkers or reversi or mancala or something- (there is the number 10 referring to a footnote at the bottom of the page where it is written, “This is precisely the sort of statement that will drive one of those passionate anti-chess mancala fanatics I mentioned in the previous essay right over the edge.

But then they were there already.) – things would be different indeed. Nobody devotes her life to studying backgammon.”

Whoa now, dude. First, when any writer uses “her” in lieu of “he” it grates like someone scratching the blackboard with their fingernails. When a writer, any writer, swaps “her” for “him” it appears the writer is singling out only females, as in females being the ones not devoting their lives to ‘studying backgammon’, which is ridiculous, and untrue. When Gammons first opened in the Buckhead part of Atlanta one of the top players was a woman named Kathy, from Chicago, and she had devoted her time to learning, and playing Backgammon as a professional. If, on the other hand, the writer was only being “politically correct” he was not. If one is to assume the writer used the gender specific word intentionally rather than the gender neutral “him” then he is wrong, and it can be proven by anyone typing in the words “Bill Robertie” into any search engine. This can be found at Wikipedia: “William Gerard (Bill) Robertie (born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States on July 9, 1946) is a backgammon, chess, and poker player and author. He is one of several (6 as of 2022) backgammon players to have won the World Backgammon Championship twice (in 1983 and in 1987).” Bill Robertie (https://thegammonpress.com/bill-robertie-blog/) is the refutation to the writer’s erroneous and ridiculous statement.

Turn the page and one finds, “This profound complexity is a fundamental aspect of what make chess chess.”

What makes chess chess? The game of Go, or Wei Chi, is exponentially and profoundly more complex that is Chess. Is that what makes Go Go?

“Which brings us to the intriguing case of Albert Einstein and Emanuel Lasker.

https://ajedrez12.com/2016/12/22/emanuel-lasker-el-reinado-mas-largo-de-la-historia-del-ajedrez/

Many consider Lasker to be the most dominant chess player in history, given his 27-year reign as world champion from 1894 to 1921. He was also a mathematician, who in 1905 developed a theorem in algebraic geometry which significantly influenced no less a figure than Emmy Noether.”

1905 is an ironic date for Lasker’s most important mathematical work, because it was also Einstein’s annu mirabilis, where he published, among various other profoundly transformative ideas, his theory of special relativity-ironic, not so much because Einstein and Lasker later became friends during his time in Berlin, but because Lasker later famously contributed to the ridiculous anti-Einsteinian 1931 screed, One Hundred Authors Against Einstein.”

“Why, in Einstein’s view, hadn’t Lasker done more to achieve his wondrous human potential? Well, Einstein surmises, because of chess:

“Spinoza’s material existence and independence were based on the grinding of lenses; chess had an analogous role in Lasker’s life. But Spinoza

was granted a better fate, because his occupation left his mind free and untroubled, while on the other hand, the chess playing of a master ties him to the game, fetters his mind and shapes it to a certain extent so that his internal freedom and ease, no matter how strong he is, must inevitably be affected.”

The author continues: “What is most interesting to me about all of this is not so much that I’m convinced that Einstein was right and that the act of focusing one’s attention on the most profound conceptual issues imaginable is the most judicious use of one’s brief time on the planet (Footnote #30: “Although, of course, he was and it is.” I could hear my former English teacher, Ms. Simpson, asking, “He was ‘what’, and ‘what’ is ‘it’?”)

Chapter 3: Evolutionary Forces

The reader is informed by the writer, “Personally, I’m unconvinced that those 19th-century players were as indifferent to winning and losing as is now generally supposed, but there is no doubt that times have changed considerably: for better or worse chess is now a fully-fledged sport.”

There he goes again…

And again: “Of course, chess is far from the only activity to move from the domain of friendly, “gentlemanly” competition to cutthroat professional sport over the past 150 years or so, as juxtaposing Pierre de Coubertin’s

writings with modern-day attitudes will immediately reveal, but its distinct lack of any physical component makes it a particularly vivid measure of to what extent our sporting culture has evolved.”

And again: “Chess, in short, has emphatically made the transition from game to sport-which is the major reason, I believe that it is Fischer and not Morphy who best represents the modern archetype of the American chess player.”

“But intriguingly, many pastimes have not made this jump to the modern sporting realm. In particular, duplicate bridge, the primary target of Johan Huizinga’s over-professionalization ire, you will recall, (https://davidlabaree.com/2021/11/22/johan-huizinga-on-the-centrality-of-play/) still very much remains mired in the milieu of games, along with the likes of backgammon and Mahjong.”

“More revealing still, radically new forms of non-physical competition have recently sprouted up that are unhesitatingly viewed as sports-so much so, in fact that their very development has occasioned the creation of a new word to appropriately describe them: esports.”

“So what’s going on? What, in the modern age, distinguishes a sport from a game?”

Now the author finally comes to the crux of the matter:

“Well, I don’t pretend to know, of course, but you may recall from several pages ago that I have a theory. Here it is.”

You must read the book to read about his “theory.” Frankly, I do not know if the writer is full of excrement, but I have a theory…

After many pages devoted to explaining his ‘theory’ the reader finds this:

“When it comes to chess, the first thing to say is simply that, as previously noted, for better or worse, the Fischer worldview has unequivocally demolished the Morphy one: modern chess ticks all the contemporary sporting requirements and is no longer regarded by either its advocates or detractors as “a relaxation from the severer pursuits of life, whose battles are fought for no prize but honor.” It’s not at all certain whether or not the majority of Morphy’s contemporaries subscribed to such a characterization back in the 1850s, but it’s patently obvious that nobody believes it today.”

Do tell…

“The dust has settled, and chess is now a sport and not a game.”

At least in the author’s mind…

“A further point worth mentioning is that chess is hardly the only “old fashioned” game to make the modern sporting transition. The most obvious example is poker, which decidedly satisfies all of the above-mentioned criteria and is thus now near-universally recognized as a sport.”

Really? I asked several Chess players who also play, or have played, poker, if they thought poker could be considered a “sport.” One fellow caused me to laugh uproariously when he answered, “Sport? How the hell can anything done while sitting on one’s ass be considered a “sport?”

End Part One

Say It Ain’t So, Alejandro

After the news concerning Grandmaster Chess player Alejandro Ramirez

https://www.chess.com/news/view/wall-street-journal-women-accuse-alejandro-ramirez

hit the fan this writer decided to not touch it with a pole of any length. My thinking was changed after reading something at Chess.com earlier today, a day spent reading any and everything found on the matter. Before writing readers must be informed of from where this writer is coming.

I have two sisters. It was instilled in me at a young age that they were to be protected at all costs. I was the oldest child, and as a male it was up to me to protect my sisters. One night the sister born after me came home crying because her boyfriend had run her new yellow Mustang, and her, off of the road. With Mother begging me to stay I was out of the door in a heartbeat, looking for a fight. Long story short, the culprit was located and word got around that there would be a fight at South Park. Boys and girls began piling into vehicles and heading to SP. They came from Mickey D’s and Shoney’s to park at the gravel parking lot, and on the street, as there were too many vehicles for the parking lot.

The boy my sister had been dating was a big, hulking dude, much larger than me, but he was not the first boy to approach. That would be the older brother of one of the players on my team at the Boy’s Club. He did not like the way I coached his younger brother, and did not like me. Some of my classmates said it was the best fight they had ever seen because we were about the same size, and both knew how to fight. He went down. I was completely exhausted. I had fought in the Golden Gloves and knew my way around a ring, but still, it took all I had to knock him out.

I was breathing heavily and kneeling on one knee on the gravel parking lot when the big galoot came at me. One of my friends later said he “feared for my life.” As the big fellow approached with an excrement eating grin on his ugly mug, I waited until he got up real close and personal before jumpin’ up with a handful of gravel that was thrust it into his face… Then I kicked him in the groin, and proceeded to, as one onlooker informed my Mother, “beat the shit outta him.” It ended when the police pulled me offa the bleeding jerk. One of the cops said, “You go on home now Michael because Mary is worried about you.”

Some of you reading this may find the above reprehensible and “beyond the pale,” and you may be right…but things were different ‘back in the day’. Today one boy would be dead from a gunshot wound and the other probably spend decades behind bars, so yeah, to my thinking, things were better ‘back in the day’, at least in that respect. Back then it was instilled in me that I was to protect my sisters, and my Mother, no matter what. Women were considered the “weaker” sex. I realize things have changed greatly over the decades and women now serve in the military alongside men, but still…

My favorite librarian, Heather, was kind enough to send me a copy of an article in the Washington Post concerning the allegations against GM Ramirez. The title of the article is: Chess Bodies Failed to Act After Misconduct Allegations — Numerous women have accused U.S. grandmaster Alejandro Ramirez of sexual assault.
His behavior was allegedly an open secret. The authors are Andrew Beaton and Joshua Robinson
(file:///C:/Users/xpert/Downloads/ProQuestDocuments-2023-03-09.pdf)

The article begins: “When former U.S. women’s chess champion Jennifer Shahade

https://www.uspoker.com/blog/on-the-button-talking-us-online-with-pokerstars-ambassador-jen-shahade/41158/

alleged on social media last month that she had been sexually assaulted by a grandmaster named Alejandro Ramirez, she had no idea it would set off a broad wave of additional allegations. Shahade says she was sexually assaulted twice by Ramirez, one of the most recognizable faces in U.S. chess over the past two decades. Her allegations and others in recent years were reported to top chess bodies, including the U.S. Chess Federation and the St. Louis Chess Club

which failed to act or effectively investigate when learning of them, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.”

Those words, “…the U.S. Chess Federation and the St. Louis Chess Club, which failed to act or effectively investigate when learning of them,” are a scathing indictment of any and everyone connected with both of those organizations. Every person having anything to do with either the StLCC and USCF should be ashamed.

Unfortunately, the article continues, and it gets even worse: “Then after her tweet, messages poured in. Ten other women from the chess community reached out to Shahade to say they had also been assaulted or harassed by him, according to texts and direct messages the Journal reviewed. The allegations represent a stunning turn for Ramirez, 34, who was once the second-youngest grandmaster in the world and the first from Central America to earn the title. Ramirez, born in Costa Rica, switched to representing the U.S. in 2011. He has also coached, mentored younger players and built a profile as a commentator. In interviews with the Journal, eight women accused Ramirez of wrongdoing, saying that he used his status in chess to put himself in positions of influence and make repeated unwanted sexual advances toward them since 2011. Ramirez, they said, became physically aggressive as he forcibly kissed and groped them without their consent. Three were under the age of 18 at the time of the alleged incidents, including one who said Ramirez supplied her with vodka before he coerced her into performing oral sex.“

The remainder of the Washington Post article follows with pertinent parts highlighted by this writer:

“On Monday, two days after being presented with a detailed list of the allegations against him by the Journal, Ramirez issued a press release through his attorney saying that he had resigned from his roles at the St. Louis Chess Club and as coach of the St. Louis University chess team because the investigations now being run by U.S. Chess and the club had become a “negative distraction.”
Albert Watkins, Ramirez’s attorney, didn’t comment on specific allegations, saying he had been directed to respect the confidentiality of the investigative undertakings. “In this era of introspection and sensitivity to all matters ‘Me Too’ related, Ramirez remains very supportive of those who seek to raise issues of concern about anyone,” Watkins wrote in an email.
Allegations about Ramirez’s conduct have been known to top chess bodies — including the U.S. Chess Federation the St. Louis Chess Club, the global hub for the game backed by billionaire Rex Sinquefield

https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/image-editorial/jeanne-cairns-sinquefield-husband-rex-click-queen-12525696c

— for several years. A lawyer for the St. Louis Chess Club wrote in a 2021 letter that it was aware of Shahade’s allegation in 2020. In 2021, the club and U.S. Chess were informed of allegations against Ramirez, according to interviews and documents reviewed by the Journal. Ramirez was nonetheless tapped to coach the U.S. women’s team at the World Chess Olympiad in 2022. Ramirez is now being investigated by the U.S. Chess Federation and the St. Louis Chess Club, where he was a resident grandmaster. He was removed from coaching St. Louis University’s chess team on Feb. 16, the school said, the day after Shahade’s tweet. Ramirez was also taken off the Athletes’ Commission of FIDE, chess’s world governing body, pending the U.S. Chess probe. “The University takes matters of sexual harassment and misconduct very seriously and has robust policies and procedures in place to respond to any report it receives,” St. Louis University said in a statement. The organizations that oversee the game continued to place Ramirez in roles that often involved working closely with women, even after first learning about allegations about him. “I was concerned that there was a clear and present danger that he could have interactions with girls and women,” Shahade said of her decision to go public. St. Louis Chess Club didn’t respond to specific questions about its knowledge of the allegations. After the Journal’s inquiries, the club said in a statement that it accepted Ramirez’s resignation on Monday and that it has no further comment on this employment matter. Ramirez was the club’s highest-paid employee in 2018 and 2019, according to its tax returns. The U.S. Chess Federation referred to a statement dated Feb. 15 in which it said it was “aware that one of its employees has made serious allegations about a member of the chess community” and had opened an investigation, without naming Ramirez. Shahade, a 42-year-old women’s grandmaster, said she was sexually assaulted by Ramirez twice. In the more recent of the two incidents, in 2014, she said they were at a small gathering in St. Louis when, at a moment when no one else was around, he “slammed” her against the wall and forcibly kissed her. Shahade said she confronted Ramirez in October 2020 when he was set to serve as a commentator with her on the U.S. junior girls championship. After telling the club, she said they told her to call him and deal with the matter. A message reviewed by the Journal shows she contacted him the day of the opening ceremony, when he was among the planned commentators. Shahade said that, during a phone call, Ramirez immediately agreed to step down from the commentary role that October. She also said he later called back and apologized for his behavior with her. Videos show he didn’t serve as a commentator at the tournament.
In 2020, Shahade said she also spoke with U.S. Chess officials about Ramirez’s alleged behavior. Shahade has served as the woman’s program director for U.S. Chess since 2018. In 2021, Greg Shahade, Shahade’s brother and a high-level player, contacted St. Louis Chess Club and U.S. Chess to inform them of Ramirez’s alleged behavior, according to emails reviewed by the Journal. Two months later, a letter came back from a lawyer representing the club, acknowledging that it had heard about the allegations in October 2020. The letter said they weren’t aware of any inappropriate conduct by Ramirez. It further said that the club was not the proper party to review and investigate the matters he raised.”
(file:///C:/Users/xpert/Downloads/ProQuestDocuments-2023-03-09.pdf)

The Chess world has a BIG PROBLEM. How is it possible this serial lecher was able to get away with this reprehensible behavior for over a DECADE? How did he manage to keep his position at the St. Louis Chess Club during all that time? Did the allegations fall on deaf ears, or were the MEN involved unconcerned, or uncaring about what was happening? What did Rex Sinquefield know and when did he know it?

Chess has reached a point where multitudes of female players, mostly young girls, have taken up the Royal Game, which is great for Chess because their parents spend unbelievable amounts of money joining organizations, such as the United States Chess Federation, and state organizations. Chess tournaments are filled with female players these daze, most of whom drop out around puberty, only to be replaced by other girls, who pay and play until puberty hits and they, too, drop out of the world of Chess. Those who derive their income from the game must be in a state of fearful shock about now, knowing that something like this could put a stop to the golden goose. Those in charge of Chess should have gotten “in front of this” but instead decided to stay behind it, hoping it would just “go away.” If the Chess world cannot protect the women it is time for a Chess reckoning.

Chess Grandmaster Baadur Jobava Banned After Racist Rant

Since I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in any quick play Chess event this story failed to appear on the AWdar until this morning when it was brought to my attention. Most people involved with Chess assumed there would be major changes after the pandemic ended, and it has been interesting watching the change from my perspective, but it has not been good for the older players who seem to either have “lost something” like the “edge” they had prior to the pandemic. On the other side of the board it has been very interesting watching the much younger players, many of whom have seemed to come from nowhere to threaten the hegemony of their elders. Just the other day Chessbase published an article, Which countries have the most inflated Elo ratings? (https://en.chessbase.com/post/which-countries-have-the-most-inflated-elo-chess-players) Those of us old enough to remember a time ‘back in the day’ when the United States Chess Federation ratings were frozen for quite some time recall the “shake-out” that followed. Then there has been the ‘Rise of the Programs’. Again ‘back in the day’ we followed the moves and ideas produced by Grandmasters because, well, you know, they were GRANDMASTERS. These daze grandmasters utilize Chess programs to learn the correct way to play Chess. It must be difficult for grandmasters to wrap their minds around the fact that compared to the Chess programs, such as the Stockfish program used at Lichess.com, they have been regulated to second class status. Such is life…

The following story headlines the “TOP 10 RIGHT NOW” on the CHEAT SHEET at The Daily Beast:

Chess Grandmaster Banned From Prize Events After Racist Rant

‘NO PLACE’
AJ McDougall

Breaking News Rrporter
Published Feb. 06, 2023

Andreas Kontokanis via Wikimedia Commons (https://www.thedailybeast.com/chess-grandmaster-baadur-jobava-banned-from-prize-events-after-racist-rant)

Another day, another scandal in the cutthroat world of online chess. On Monday, Chess.com—one of the largest such platforms in the world—said that it would hit a 2578-rated Georgian grandmaster with a partial ban after he was caught spewing racist vitriol and berating staff on a tournament stream. The grandmaster, Baadur Jobava, launched into the rant last Friday after losing to Xiangyu Xu, a Chinese grandmaster,

https://news.yahoo.com/chess-grandmaster-demands-ban-chinese-213417906.html

at a qualifier for the Airthings Masters, according to Esports.gg. In footage of a conversation between Jobava and a moderator that surfaced on Reddit that day, the Georgian player can be heard saying, “This bitch fucked up. Ban all Chinese too. These motherfuckers. Not right. Call them. Not right.” (https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/10srym0/jobava_during_the_airthings_qualifiers_ban_all/) After getting off the call with the moderator, Jobava continued to rant, accusing Xu of cheating and Chess.com of failing to take action, “just sit and commentating bullshit.” In a statement to the “Global Chess Community” on Monday, a Chess.com official said that Jobava’s account would be banned “for all prize events” through the end of the year in light of his “racial and incendiary comments.”

Chess.com Talks To Your Kids About Chess

With my first cuppa Joe this morning I did the usual surfin’ by hitting the high spots, which includes rounding up the usual suspects, such as The Week In Chess (TWIC), and Chessdom, Chessbase, Chess24, and last and least, Chess.com. It has become rare to stay at the latter for any amount of time these days, but today was an exception because our girl, Lularobs, had published an article, How To Talk To Your Kids About Chess. This turned out to be one of the funniest Chess articles ever read, and when one gets to my advanced age that is saying much. Until recently Chess had not been known for it’s frivolity, but as Bob Dylan sang:

‘Back in the day’ Chess was considered a serious game played by smart adults, mostly men. The game had gravitas. “Oh, you play Chess? You must be smart,” was often heard. Now one hears things like, “Oh, you play Chess? I’ve heard there is much CHEATING IN CHESS these days.” One of the saddest things I have ever heard about Chess was a woman, when describing todaze Chess, said, “It’s become a game for children.” My first thought was to argue with her, but upon quick reflection it was obvious she was correct.

Our girl, Lularobs, begins her post with: You may have seen the news: the Chess.com app has reached number one in popularity for free games on the App Store. I can hear your sigh from across the screen because you and I both know the gravity of the situation. This is no Flappy Bird, Temple Run, or Candy Crush situation. This is a big deal; this is chess.

I have no idea, or even a clue as to what is, “Flappy Bird, Temple Run, or Candy Crush.” This is because I am a Senior citizen who cares not what constitutes Flappy, Temple, or Candy. I will proudly admit to being “not with it,” at least when it comes to FB, TR, and/or CC.

Next comes the second paragraph: Your fears are confirmed; your child has been playing blitz throughout dinner, talking about “blunders” and “forks” (not the ones on the table), and asking if they can sign up for a “FIDE rating.” All weekend, you hear “chat, then we go here, takes, takes, takes, here, no no no chat, here, then you grab the juicer chat, it’s so obviously winning chat,” coming from their laptop. You’ve decided it can’t be put off any longer… you need to talk to your child about chess.

It may be better for the child to have a talk with his parent(s) about Chess because from my experience most parents have absolutely no clue when it comes to Chess. That goes for the majority of adults who become involved with the Royal Game because of their children because they come into the Chess world and want to “get involved,” while knowing little, if anything, about Chess. Unfortunately, from their perspective what they want coincides with what is best for their children, and possibly the children of ohter adults. When it comes to the Big Picture of what is actually best for Chess they could care less because to them their children are all that matter. When working at the Atlanta Chess & Game Center a parent actually said, “I don’t care whether or not it’s good for Chess. The only thing I’m concerned with is how it relates to my child.” There were nods all around from some of the other parents.

Miss Lula next continues under the header: Reassure Your Child

Developing an interest in chess is perfectly natural, and your child needs to know that.

My first thought was, “Know what, exactly?” How about, “Your child needs to know that developing an interest in chess is perfectly natural.” There appears to be little, if any, oversight when it comes to writing articles for this website, which is strange because it is mostly a website for children, and don’t you want your child to read something well written? Who knows, being able to construct a well written sentence later on in life may mean much more than knowing how to play the Najdorf Sicilian. Then again, maybe not, as there are now chat type thing-a-ma-jigs that will take your words, rearrange them and make you look like you know what you are doing.

Miss Lula continues: You remember your first checkmate, your first heartbreak (a loss from a completely winning position), and your first tournament. Your naive fascination for one of the oldest board games on Earth developed into a meaningful life-long relationship, through hardship and victory, and now it was time for your child to discover this wonder of life for themselves.

Was that written with tongue in cheek?

Lula continues with what is really important: When you talk to your child about chess, make sure not to confront them. Don’t make them feel shameful about their new obsession with tactics or GothamChess recap videos. Encourage them to explore chess in a healthy, informed way. Sit down across from them with a chess board and talk through tactical themes, explain your own excitement for chess, and help them to make a ChessKid or Chess.com account (depending on their age).

Lula is not finished, at least with this part: If your child becomes comfortable with talking to you about chess, then you’re already doing great. If you don’t have this conversation, then your child might end up doing nothing more than playing ultrabullet and grunting disdainfully at you whenever you mention “Chessable” or “studying.” Even worse, your child might end up quitting chess altogether and playing checkers.

What is wrong with playing checkers? Well, from the perspective of Chess.com, everything is wrong because there is no Chess.com account for checkers! If you are an adult reading this then I urge you to give some serious thought to making your child aware of the Great Game of Go (https://www.usgo.org/) because we live in a boom and bust society and Chess currently happens to be in a “boom” period. From over half a century in Chess my perspective says it is inevitable that Chess will eventually, sooner or later, devolve into the “bust” part of the equation. Just sayin’…

https://www.usgo.org/news/2023/02/registration-open-for-2023-aghs-blitz-tournament/

The next phase is: Speaking About Chess Respectfully

I will respectfully publish only the picture, with caption:

Unfortunately, Chess.com will not allow the picture to load.

For some reason I feel compelled to put what follows after the above picture because it cracked me up…

Show your child how to report unkind behavior from their opponents instead of returning the negativity, and don’t worry… I won’t tell them about the trash talk between you and your friends when you’re playing blitz at the bar on the weekend.

When reading the next header: Introduce Them to Chess in a Safe Way, I wondered if sometime in the past I had read almost the same sentence: Introduce Them to Sex in a Safe Way.

Miss Lula continues: It can be easy for kids today to be drawn into “KILLER OPENING TRAPS THAT WIN IN 5 MOVES!” when what they need are solid foundations and opening principles to nurture their chess development. After all, skipping to the Tennison Gambit: Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Variation when they haven’t yet learned “knights before bishops!” or “control the center, castle and connect your rooks” is a dangerous game, and will more often than not end in disappointment.

Over fifty years in Chess and this was the first time learning of the Tennison Gambit: Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Variation. If you go to Chess.com and read the article, you, too, can learn what constitutes the above gambit.

There is more before a video:

Chess content creators are awesome, and you enjoy them yourself, so don’t withhold fun chess content from your kids. Instead, show them rating-appropriate content. The landscape has changed since we were kids, and now all your favorite content creators are making beginner-friendly videos and courses. These are great for your kids, and healthy ways to engage in fun chess content without being peer-pressured into all the latest opening gambits and traps just because their friends are trying them.

I could not help but wonder if I am a “Chess content creator” and, if so, am I awesome, or what?!

The next section is titled: Practicing Safe Chess

It can be hard to know when to stop when it comes to chess. It could be a three-hour bullet chess binge late at night or “just one more game” when there’s still homework to be done. Your child must learn when to stop.

I know that’s right! Then again, what does a parent say when the child says, “But Daddy, can I just do it until I need glasses?” Maybe the parent should give some serious consideration to informing the child about what is a condom. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want that Tennison Gambit: Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Variation all over me!

Then there is: The Issue of Elo

Ratings and Elo are huge talking points among chess-playing adolescents, and such discussions can, unfortunately, devolve into competitive comparisons such as “my blitz rating is 1300” and “oh, well my peak rapid rating is 1450.” These my horse is bigger than your horse discussions are commonplace among individuals whose prefrontal cortices are not fully developed, and while they should grow out of this in time, if such behavior goes unchecked, it may become entrenched.

https://www.chess.com/article/view/what-your-chess-piece-style-says-about-you

Then we come to: The Inevitability of Heartbreak

As children grow up, they form all sorts of attachments, whether these be to people, TikTok dances, or chess openings. A devastating loss in their pet line of the Sicilian Defense: Hyperaccelerated Dragon Variation at such a formative stage in their chess could mark the end of an era, and a lot of heartache. “I’m not playing this opening ever again!”, “It was my favorite opening!” or “I can’t believe it would let me down!” are all sentiments you may be hearing after a five-hour classical game that didn’t go your child’s way.

I am here to inform you that if you play Chess, you will inevitably suffer some form of heartburn that will break your heart…

This part concludes with this admonition from Miss Lularobs: If you want your child to stay honest and open with you about the chess openings and strategies they are using, then this is when they need you to support them the most. Let them know that you’re on their side, even if they hung their queen with an hour on the clock.

The article ends with: To Conclude

Ultimately, when it comes to their child discovering chess, every parent knows they’re in for a bumpy ride. There will be highs: the excitement of the World Chess Championship, seeing your child’s eyes light up when their favorite streamer takes part in PogChamps, and your child’s first classical FIDE-rated win. But, you know, there will also be lows: rating fluctuations, schoolyard teasing about the London System, and seeing Danny Rensch in a giant pawn costume. (If you go to Chess.com one can click onto a link in which Danny Rensch is actually dressed in some lime green thing that does sorta resemble a huge pawn, which is kinda appropriate for Danny Rensch, if you come to think about it…)

I don’t know about the part concerning “…the excitement of the World Chess Championship.” The two players contesting the upcoming WCC, which only found a venue recently, are not the best Chess players on the planet. One of the players melted down against World Chess Champ Magnus Carlsen during the last WCC, and the other just played miserably in the first ‘Major” tournament of the year. The excitement for the upcoming WCC in the Chess world is most definitely NOT at a fever pitch. The so-called “World Chess Championship” has been turned into some kind of sick joke. What do you expect when the body overseeing Chess in the world, FIDE, is controlled by the Russians, who are currently perpetuating genocide against their neighbors in Ukraine.

Miss Lula concludes with: We may not have all been afforded such a supportive start to chess. I mean, playing Chessmaster alone and getting one weekly after-school session on ladder mates might have been the extent of your developmental support during your period of chess discovery, but we can do better by our kids and provide support for them in improving at chess, being respectful towards other players, and perhaps one day even beating Mittens.

What Is Your Chess Horoscope?

Seeing the recent article, Aquarius and their strategy, by Dagmar Seifert, (https://en.chessbase.com/post/aquarius-and-their-strategy) “…a North German journalist, author and astrologer. She loves chess, but is by no means an overly good player. ” (https://en.chessbase.com/author/dagmar-seifert) at Chessbase, (https://en.chessbase.com/post/aquarius-and-their-strategy) caused me to reflect upon the changes that have been brought to Chess with the inclusion of many females into the, shall we say, Chess stream. ‘Back in the day’ it would have been preposterous for any male involved with the Royal Game to even suggest a Chess magazine (there was no internet ‘back in the day’) publish an article on anything astrological. Now it is de rigueur.

https://en.chessbase.com/author/dagmar-seifert

The first article concerning astrology was online at Chess.com, Find Out Your Chess Horoscope, by a woman with the handle Lularobs, posted Feb 28, 2022 (https://www.chess.com/article/view/chess-horoscope).

https://www.chess.com/article/view/chess-horoscope

We would look forward to reading the horoscopes by Rob Brezsny (https://freewillastrology.com/) found in a local Atlanta tabloid, Creative Loafing:

Rob Brezsny can now be found online (https://freewillastrology.com/).

Horoscopes by Rob Brezsny
Week of February 2nd, 2023

♌ LEO (July 23-August 22)

Fate has decreed, “Leos must be wanderers for a while.” You are under no obligation to obey this mandate, of course. Theoretically, you could resist it. But if you do indeed rebel, be sure your willpower is very strong. You will get away with outsmarting or revising fate only if your discipline is fierce and your determination is intense. OK? So let’s imagine that you will indeed bend fate’s decree to suit your needs. What would that look like? Here’s one possibility: The “wandering” you undertake can be done in the name of focused exploration rather than aimless meandering.

Horoscopes by Rob Brezsny
Week of February 2nd, 2023

♍ VIRGO (August 23-September 22)

I wish I could help you understand and manage a situation that has confused you. I’d love to bolster your strength to deal with substitutes that have been dissipating your commitment to the Real Things. In a perfect world, I could emancipate you from yearnings that are out of sync with your highest good. And maybe I’d be able to teach you to dissolve a habit that has weakened your willpower. And why can’t I be of full service to you in these ways? Because, according to my assessment, you have not completely acknowledged your need for this help. So neither I nor anyone else can provide it. But now that you’ve read this horoscope, I’m hoping you will make yourself more receptive to the necessary support and favors and relief.

Psycho Chess Cat

The Chess World’s New Villain: A Cat Named Mittens
A ruthless bot with an innocuous avatar is driving chess players crazy

https://www.wsj.com/articles/chess-mittens-cat-bot-11674018529?st=joee0rhfj7i05sz&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

By Andrew Beaton and Joshua Robinson
Jan. 18, 2023

The heels of the chess world have included Soviet grandmasters, alleged cheaters, and faceless supercomputers. But the game’s latest villain is a fearsome genius who quotes French cinema and has played millions of games in just a couple of weeks.

She also happens to be a mean cat.

Mittens—or technically the chess bot known as Mittens—might look cute. Her listed chess rating of a single point seems innocuous. But her play over the past few weeks, which has bedeviled regular pawn-pushers, grandmasters, and champions who could play for the world title, is downright terrifying. And as it turns out, people are gluttons for punishment.

Since Chess.com introduced this bot with the avatar of a cuddly, big-eyed kitten on Jan. 1, the obsession with playing her has been astonishing. Mittens has crashed the website through its sheer popularity and helped drive more people to play chess than even “The Queen’s Gambit.” Chess.com has averaged 27.5 million games played per day in January and is on track for more than 850 million games this month—40% more than any month in the company’s history. A video that American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura posted to YouTube titled “Mittens The Chess Bot Will Make You Quit Chess” has already racked up more than three million views.

“This bot is a psycho,” the streamer and International Master Levy Rozman tweeted after a vicious checkmate this month. A day later, he added, “The chess world has to unite against Mittens.” He was joking, mostly.

Mittens is a meme, a piece of artificial intelligence and a super grandmaster who also happens to reflect the broader evolution in modern chess. The game is no longer old, stuffy and dominated by theoretical conversations about different lines of a d5 opening. It’s young, buzzy and proof that cats still rule the internet.

The past few months have seen yet another surge in the worldwide appeal of chess. The viral image from the World Cup was a Louis Vuitton advertisement showing Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi poring over a board.

https://futballnews.com/how-louis-vuitton-pulled-off-cristiano-ronaldo-and-lionel-messis-picture-that-broke-the-internet/

The picture that summed up the college football national championship was of a TCU fan playing chess on her phone in the stadium while the Horned Frogs got demolished by Georgia. When Slovenian NBA superstar Luka Doncic was asked for his thoughts about Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, he shrugged it off and said he uses his phone to play chess.

None of those moments have driven people to virtual chess boards quite like a cat named Mittens who likes to taunt her opponents while she destroys them.

“I am inevitable. I am forever. Meow. Hehehehe,” Mittens tells her opponents in the chat function of games.

Chess.com, the popular platform where both grandmasters and millions of everyday chess lovers play, has a number of bots ranging in skill level and styles for users to challenge. Some are designed to play poorly and be beatable even by a crummy player. Others, in an age when the computers dominate humans, can topple the chess elite.

This particular bot was the brainchild of a Hamilton College student named Will Whalen who moonlights as a creative strategy lead. He had a crazy idea. What if they put an incredibly strong bot behind some devastatingly cute eyes?

“Then Mittens was born,” Whalen says.

But Mittens didn’t become a brutal troll until a Chess.com writer named Sean Becker led a team that developed Mittens’s personality to become the evil genius tormenting chess players everywhere. Part of why Mittens has become such a notorious villain is because she acts like one.

Mittens doesn’t purr. She references ominous lines from Robert Oppenheimer, Van Gogh, and even a 1960s Franco-Italian film called “Le Samourai.”

“Meow. Gaze into the long abyss. Hehehehe,” Mittens says, quoting German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

Even her approach to the game is menacing. Mittens is designed to be skillful enough to beat the best chess players on the planet but uses particularly grueling tactics. Becker thought it would be “way more demoralizing and funny” if, instead of simply smashing opponents, Mittens grinded down opponents through painstaking positional battles, similar to the tactics Russian grandmaster Anatoly Karpov used to become world champion.

It hasn’t been difficult for Becker to see the reactions to his masterpiece. Nakamura, who could manage only a draw against Mittens, bluntly said in a video, “This cat is extremely patient, which is kind of annoying. I’m not going to lie.”

Becker has also seen it when he rides the subway and notices someone on their phone getting crushed by Mittens.

“You can see their eyes be kind of afraid,” Becker says.

Getting absolutely creamed by Mittens might get old. But her surprising popularity speaks to an underlying current in the chess world as freshly minted fans flow in: People are endlessly curious about new ways to engage with the ancient game. Facing novelty bots is just one of them. There has also been a new wave of interest in previously obscure chess variants.

Chess960, for instance, is a version of the game where all the non-pawn pieces are lined up in random order on the back rank. Also known as Fischer Random, for its inventor Bobby Fischer, it has gained traction among elite players as a high-purity test of chess skill and vision, because the random setup makes openings nearly impossible to prepare ahead of time.

In an unprecedented move, chess world governing body FIDE recognized Chess960 and gave it a world championship in 2019. The tournament was closely watched in 2022 when the final featured two of the best players on the planet: Nakamura and Ian Nepomniachtchi, the runner-up at the 2021 world championship of normal chess. (World champion Magnus Carlsen finished third.)

Other variants include: “Fog of War,” where players have a limited view of their opponents’ pieces; “Bughouse Chess,” which is played across two boards with captured pieces potentially moving from one to the other; and “Three Check,” where the objective is simply to put the opposing king in check three times.

The wackiest of all is the chess variant known as Duck Chess. It looks mostly like regular chess—64 squares and 32 pieces. But it also has one rubber ducky on the board.

After every move in Duck Chess, the player moves the titular object to a new square of the board where it blocks pieces in its path. Good luck moving your bishop when there’s a duck squatting on its diagonal.

There are also other cat bots. One is Mr. Grumpers. Another is Catspurrov, which bears a curious resemblance to former world champion Garry Kasparov. None have become a sensation quite like the chess terrorist called Mittens.

“While I still think chess is a symbol of the highest level of strategic thinking,” said Chess.com chief chess officer Danny Rensch, “it’s also a game that is just incredibly fun and enjoyable.”

Just not when you play Mittens.

Write to Andrew Beaton at andrew.beaton@wsj.com and Joshua Robinson at Joshua.Robinson@wsj.com

Appeared in the January 19, 2023, print edition as ‘Chess World’s New Villain: A Cat Named Mittens’.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/chess-mittens-cat-bot-11674018529?st=joee0rhfj7i05sz&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

The Chess.com Computer Game Of The Year Award

Today Chess.com published their “2022 Chess.com Awards Winners.”

“Over 10,000 members chimed in with their votes this year, and Chess.com is happy to announce the winners of the 2022 Chess.com Awards! These awards are an opportunity to celebrate the fantastic year 2022 has been for chess. They are also a way for the community to recognize and reminisce on the great games, moves, players, creators, and other highlights this year brought us.” (https://www.chess.com/news/view/2022-chesscom-awards-winners)

Chess.com writes: “At Chess.com, our members played more than 3.5 billion games throughout the year, and that’s not even counting the over 1.5 billion games played against bots. We’ve also surpassed 100,000,000 members—if Chess.com were a country, we’d be the 15th most populous on Earth!”

Do tell… The ten thousand members who “chimed in with their votes this year…” divided by the one hundred million members tells us only .0001 members did the chiming.

What will be written about is the “Computer Game Of The Year.” (https://www.chess.com/news/view/2022-chesscom-awards-winners#computer-game)

One reads: “Watching top chess engines playing chess is a unique experience. No other chess games are as beautiful—and, at times, chaotic—as engine chess. This year, Stockfish’s unbelievable tactical victory over Leela Chess Zero takes the prize for Computer Game of the Year. Stockfish sacrificed material left and right to roll over its silicon nemesis in a game filled with ideas that no human mind could ever come up with.”

Stockfish vs. Lc0, TCEC Season 23 - Superfinal
Stockfish vs. Lc0, CCC 17 Blitz: Finals
Stockfish vs. Lc0, CCC 17 Blitz: Semifinals

Who wrote that crap? Could it maybe be the collective “wisdom” of Chess.com? Let us break it down by sentence.

“Watching top chess engines playing chess is a unique experience.”

Say what?! Watching “top chess engines playing chess” may have been a “unique experience” way ‘back in the day’ when computer programs were new, but those days ended when Kasparov tanked against one of the programs. Today it is an every day occurrance.

The next sentence states: “No other chess games are as beautiful—and, at times, chaotic—as engine chess.”

One often hears that “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” means that everyone’s view of beauty is subjective, and there is no general standard of beauty. What one person finds beautiful, others may find ugly, and vice versa.”

The origin of the saying, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” comes from the author, Margaret Wolfe Hungerford (née Hamilton). Hamilton would use the pseudonym “The Duchess” for much of her career. Her book “Molly Brawn,” published in 1878, features the saying in its modern format.

While this might be the first modern appearance of the saying in literature, experts think it has a much deeper root in language. Some experts believe it extends back to at least 3 BC in the times of the Ancient Greeks.” (https://english-grammar-lessons.com/beauty-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder-meaning/)

This needs repeating: “No other chess games are as beautiful—and, at times, chaotic—as engine chess.”

The unnamed person, or persons, who wrote the above obviously have never replayed any game by the Magician from Riga, Mikhail Tal!

https://www.chess.com/article/view/mikhail-tals-last-classical-game

No one in his, or her right mind who has replayed the games of Tal would ever write such nonsense. Unfortunately, it continues:

“This year, Stockfish’s unbelievable tactical victory over Leela Chess Zero takes the prize for Computer Game of the Year. Stockfish sacrificed material left and right to roll over its silicon nemesis in a game filled with ideas that no human mind could ever come up with.”

BULL EXCREMENT! I loathe and detest nattering nabobs who sell we humans short. Many of the games of Mikhail Tal prove the obviously ignorant humans at Chess.com wrong.

There follows:

1. Stockfish vs. Lc0, TCEC Season 23 – Superfinal
2. Stockfish vs. Lc0, CCC 17 Blitz: Finals
3. Stockfish vs. Lc0, CCC 17 Blitz: Semifinals

I attempted to click onto the first, hoping to watch the game chosen as the “Computer Game of the Year” but is was not possible. After reading the whole damn article the game was not found. Therefore I did a search and found what may be, or may not be the game in question:

StockFish vs Mikhail Tal?| It’s 2022 and StockFish still can’t solve this puzzle. 118,818 views Aug 13, 2022
Hi guys! Today I brought a super famous puzzle that I adapted a few more pieces and apparently StokFish can’t solve it. Is that even possible? Only the legend, Mikhail Tal can crack this position. As always, I hope you enjoy the video and have an awesome day!

Ambassador Magnus Carlsen

After returning from purchasing supplies for, “A ‘once in a generation’ winter storm (that) will impact nearly every state and cripple Christmas travel” (https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/21/weather/christmas-arctic-winter-storm-wednesday-wxn/index.html), this writer needed rest and a good, strong cuppa Joe. When waiting for the coffee out came the surfing board. While reading an article at Chess.com the coffee was not the only liquid boiling… The title of the article was, Chess.com Officially Acquires Play Magnus, Carlsen Signs As Ambassador (https://www.chess.com/news/view/chesscom-acquires-pmg)

The article begins, “Chess.com, the world’s largest chess website, has acquired Play Magnus Group, a leading chess entertainment and education company. The proposed acquisition was initially announced on August 24, 2022 and was unanimously recommended by Play Magnus Group’s board. After receiving regulatory and shareholder approval, the acquisition officially closed on December 16, 2022. By sheer coincidence, on the same day, Chess.com reached 100,000,000 members, another major milestone in the site’s history.”

https://www.chess.com/news/view/chesscom-acquires-pmg

The paragraph that really caused my blood to boil was, “In association with the acquisition of Play Magnus Group, Magnus Carlsen has signed on as a Chess.com ambassador. He will be competing regularly in Chess.com events such as the Speed Chess Championship. On December 18, 2022, Carlsen contested the 2022 Speed Chess Championship Final which was in a thrilling, down-to-the-wire performance by Hikaru Nakamura. More than 200,000 viewers tuned in to watch this highly anticipated matchup.”

Hold on now…wait a MINUTE! “Contested”? “CONTESTED!” Ambassador Carlsen lost, LOST, the “thrilling, down-to-the-wire performance by Hikaru Nakamura.” What? Chess.com did not want to embarrass the new AMBASSADOR?

Nakamura beats Carlsen for 5th consecutive Speed Chess title (https://chess24.com/en/read/news/nakamura-beats-carlsen-for-5th-consecutive-speed-chess-title)

FM James Canty vs GM Ehsan Ghaemmaghami 2022 US Masters

FM James Canty (2158)

https://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2022/05/31/jeffery-xiong-nets-another-chicago-title/

vs GM Ehsan Ghaemmaghami (2511)

https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2019/07/04/2046699/iran-gm-ehsan-ghaemmaghami-wins-world-open

2022 US Masters
Round 1

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. g4 h6 7. h4 Nc6 8. Nxc6 bxc6 9. Qf3 Rb8 10. b3 d5 11. exd5 exd5 12. g5 Ng4 13. Bf4 Bd6 14. O-O-O O-O 15. Qg3 Bxf4+ 16. Qxf4 Qb6 17. gxh6 Qxf2 18. h7+ Kh8 19. Qxb8 Ne3 20. Bd3 Nxd1 21. Rxd1 Qc5 22. Ne2 1-0
   https://live.followchess.com/#!us-masters-2022/19829551

In the very first round of the US Masters FM James Canty set the tone for the tournament by defeating Iranian Grandmaster Ehsan Ghaem Maghami, playing out of California these daze, after the GM blundered horribly. It is not often we Chess fans see a GM go down hard, like rot-gut whiskey. After move five it was a B40 Sicilian, Anderssen variation. 5…d6 turned the opening into a B80 Sicilian, Scheveningen variation. 6. g4 made it a B81 Sicilian, Scheveningen, Keres attack. The eighth move, 8. Nxc6, has only six examples showing at 365Chess.com. According to the Fish the best move in the position is 8. Rg1. 9 Rb8 is not the recommended move, which is 9 d5. Canty’s 10 b3 was lame. He should have asked his illustrious GM opponent a question with 10 g5!. Canty’s next move, 11. exd5, was given a ?! by the Stockfish program at Lichess.com, with good reason, as it gave an advantage to black. After 12. g5 the GM returned the favor when playing the weak 12…Ng4. Canty should have played 12 gxh6, but chose to attack the undefended Rook with 12 Bf4. The GM chose to black with 12…Bd6, but SF computes 12…Rb4 as best. The Stockfish program agrees with the next few moves, until the GM helps his opponent by taking the Bishop with 15…Bxf4+ when he should have EXAMINED ALL CHECKS and played 15…Ba3, at least according to the exponentially rated program know as Stockfish. Then we come to 16…Qb6, which is given a dubious ?! distinction, as the program would play 16…Rb7, expecting 17. gxh6. But here’s the deal…there is a line from the Bishop on c8 that stops at e6. So which move is best? After the move played in the game Canty decided to play 17. gxh6?! SF preferred 17. Rd4. By this point I had become fascinated with the game, wondering what would come next. This was the position:

Black to move after 17. gxh6

It was at this point the Grandmaster played a move that would not have been played if the GM had simply “examined all checks.” I realize there may be more currently living “Grandmasters” today than all previous GMs combined, which has REALLY cheapened the title, but still it is almost unbelievable any GM would play the move 17…Qxf2??, which is given not one, but two question marks for a reason. The “GM” hung around a few move moves, probably in a state of shock, before giving up the ghost, or maybe to make it until move twenty so it would not look as bad as it appeared. The GM finished with six points, half a point out of chump change. FM Canty only scored 3 1/2 points, but scored far more points in “entertainment value,” as far as I am concerned, because each and every one of his games during the event were thoroughly enjoyed.

Lucas Beaudry vs Mihnea Voloaca (2071)
Event: CAN-ch U18
Site: Montreal Date: ??/??/2001
Round: 1
ECO: B81 Sicilian, Scheveningen, Keres attack
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.g4 h6 7.h4 Nc6 8.Nxc6 bxc6 9.Qf3 Rb8 10.g5 hxg5 11.hxg5 Rxh1 12.Qxh1 Nd7 13.Bc4 Rb4 14.Bb3 Nc5 15.Be3 Qa5 16.O-O-O g6 17.Qh8 Nxb3+ 18.cxb3 Qc7 19.e5 Bd7 20.Rxd6 c5 21.Rxd7 Kxd7 22.Qxf8 Qxe5 23.Qxf7+ Kc6 24.Qxa7 Rg4 25.Qa6+ Kc7 26.Nb5+ Kd7 27.Qb7+ Kd8 28.Qb6+ Kd7 29.Qb7+ Kd8 30.Qh1 Kc8 31.Qc6+ Kd8 32.Qd6+ Qxd6 33.Nxd6 Kc7 34.Nc4 Rg1+ 35.Kc2 Ra1 36.a4 Rg1 37.Ne5 1-0
https://www.365chess.com/game.php?back=1&gid=359273&m=19

https://www.chess.com/article/view/streamer-of-the-month-james-canty

The Frivolous Frivolity of Chess.com

A new article appeared at the Chess.com website a couple of days ago, CHESSCOM UPDATE (https://www.chess.com/article/view/chesscom-update-october-2022). The header reads: Celebrating New Champions And Exciting Opportunities.
CHESScom
Updated: Nov 11, 2022, 9:22 AM

“It’s been a month filled with thrilling championship action. Check out the latest news and updates from Chess.com and learn all about exciting new features, events, and Twitter memes that we’re particularly proud of.

It is a long article filled with much of which those at Chess.com are proud, including myriad videos one can watch. More on that later, but for now we will focus on the Fair Play segment, which contains these numbers:

Fair Play stats for October:

30,985 Fair Play closures (including 10 titled players)
58,026 mute actions
51,438 accounts muted
68,513 abuse closures

I have never played online at Chess.com and know little about it other than what others, who do, or at least have, played there have reported. The numbers above tell a story, but what story depends on other numbers, like how many humans play each day, and/or the total numbers in the month of October. Because of a background in Baseball numbers are something about which I know something. When it comes to numbers everything is relative. For example, hitting .300 in Baseball is considered an accomplishment. In the low scoring period from 1963 to 1968, when those in power at Major League Baseball changed the rules by lowering the mound and decreasing the strike zone, Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox led the American League with a batting average of only .301. Carl was the only player who stepped up to the plate enough time to qualify to hit .300 or above. The American League hitters batting average that year was only .230. Their is a reason 1968 was called “The year of the pitcher.” Flash back to “The year of the hitter”, 1930, and one finds the league Batting Average in the American league that year was .288. Keep in mind that after the expansion years of 1961 for the AL, and 1962 for the NL, there were ten teams in each league as opposed to only eight in 1930. In the latter year 41 hitters qualified for the batting title, with an astounding 29 hitters hitting .300 or above! That, folks, is 71% of the qualified batters. Simply amazin’, as Casey Stengel would have said. Al Simmons, of the Philadelphia Athletics, led the league with a .381 BA, two points higher than Lou Gehrig, of the New York Yankmees. Only three batters hit above .288, the average for the league in 1930, in the AL in 1968.

This can be found at Chess.com, and it is the only thing found to which the numbers above can be compared:

Play Chess Online on the #1 Site!

10,943,634 Games Today

260,504 Playing Now
11/13/22 12pm

Being not well informed about the workings at Chess.com caused me to reach out to some who play at the website. I did not understand the difference between “mute actions” and “accounts muted,” and I was not alone. “The latter means “Shut the Fork Up!” said one wag. Ditto for the “Fair Play closures” and “abuse closures.” And ditto for those to whom I reached out. “Chess.com is not too good with specifics,” said one. What we do know is that over one hundred thousand people have been “Shut up,” and 99,498 accounts have been closed for violating “Fair Play” rules and/or “abuse.” Which begs the question of what constitutes “abuse?” ‘Back in the day’ there was much “trash talkin'” at the House of Pain in the so-called “skittles room” prior to it being taken over by the parents of all the children flooding the House. My all-time favorite “trash talker” was none other than Dauntless Don Mullis, the player who forced me to play until the wee hours of the morning to win a game that lasted at least eight hours. You might out play the Dauntless one, but you could never out trash talk the legendary wonder!

When I think of Chess.com the words that come to mind are those spoken many decades ago by SM Brian McCarthy, (https://xpertchesslessons.wordpress.com/2021/04/24/brian-mccarthy-r-i-p/) who said, “It is nothing but a frivolous frivolity.” All was quiet for a few moments while it sank in before everyone erupted with laughter. The picture that follows succinctly illustrates what I mean:

https://www.chess.com/article/view/chess-trolling-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly

Maybe much younger people like the above cartoon but it is simply silly and denigrates the Royal Game. Unfortunately, Chess.com is replete with frivolous frivolities like the above. For example, here are two videos contained in the aforementioned article that perfectly illustrate the silly nature of Chess.com:

Pleas note the ever present grin found on the face of Danny Rensch, one of the movers and shakers at Chess.com. It seems Mr. Rensch always has a smile on his face, and maybe you would too if you had his revenue stream…

Maybe silly crap like this has a place on a Chess website…maybe…but I am more like Brian McCarthy, who was famous for saying, “Just give me the MEAT!” Substitute “moves” for “meat” which is exactly what Brian did when someone criticized him for using a book sans cover. “It don’t need no cover as long as it has got the MOVES,” he said, followed by the above “MEAT!” quote. How can any self-respecting Chess player take Chess.com seriously?

Oh well,

Remember to,

Because, after all,