2014 CCSCSL Invitational

I began writing this post 24 hours ago, but life intervened. After returning to the Fortress the
AT&T-Uverse system went down, and stayed down, for hours. What can I say, they had catchy commercials. I have yet to surf over to the website of the tournaments, so have no knowledge of the results of the first two rounds.

While reading the lead article on the USCF homepage, “Sargissian & Kannappan Top Chicago Open” (http://www.uschess.org/content/view/12679/763/), I learned of the Invitational at the St. Louis Chess Club, which, as it happens, started just an hour ago. (http://saintlouischessclub.org/news/2014-05-28/2014-ccscsl-invitational)
The High Plains Drifter was over earlier today (“You have the Chess Life. When did it arrive? I have still not received mine.” Mr. Vest then spent about thirty seconds flipping through the magazine before saying, “Not much there, there, is there?), and asked about upcoming tournaments. I mentioned the 2014 PEACH STATE DOUBLES CHAMPIONSHIP (http://www.georgiachess.org/events?eventId=896729&EventViewMode=2&CalendarViewType=1&SelectedDate=6/28/2014) next month, and would certainly have mentioned the tournament in ol’ St. Lou if I had been aware of it, especially if I had known my friend IM Ron Burnett was in the field. LM Brian McCarthy, while here for the scholastic tournament at the Hyatt, mentioned that Ron has two GM norms, and has had a chance to make the final norm twice, both times having black in the last round versus 2600+ opposition. That is what we in the South call a “Tough row to hoe.” There are two tournaments, a GM and IM Burnett is playing in the IM tournament.
As luck would have it, GM-elect Kayden Troff, playing Black again, is paired with the man who beat him in the last round of the Chicago Open, IM Kannappan Priyadharshan. That game can be found in the aforementioned USCF article. Young Troff passed out not one, but two early draws to GM opposition in the rounds preceding the last round. What made it even harder to understand was that the young man had White in each game. He was obviously getting prepared for a future of passing out so-called Grandmaster draws…
Troff, Kayden (2484) – Sargissian, Gabriel (2684)
23rd Chicago Open Wheeling, IL (7.1), 2014.05.25
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Nf3 Bb4+ 5.Bd2 Be7 6.Bg2 O-O 7.O-O c6 8.Qb3 Nbd7 9.Rc1 Nb6 10.c5 Nbd7 11.Bf4 Nh5 12.Bd2 Nhf6 13.Bf4 Nh5 14.Bd2 Nhf6 ½-½
Troff, Kayden (2484) – Shulman, Yury (2560)
23rd Chicago Open Wheeling, IL (8.2), 2014.05.26
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e5 4.Nc3 d6 5.e4 Be7 6.Bd3 Nbd7 7.Nf3 O-O 8.h3 Nh5 9.O-O Nf4 10.Re1 Nxd3 11.Qxd3 Nf6 12.Ne2 Ne8 13.g4 h5 14.Nh2 hxg4 15.hxg4 Nf6 16.f3 Nh7 17.Kg2 Bg5 18.Rh1 Bxc1 19.Raxc1 g6 20.Nf1 Bd7 21.Nfg3 Kg7 22.Rh2 Qf6 23.Rch1 Ng5 24.Ng1 Rh8 ½-½

Man From the High Plains

Could the man from the High Plains be right? Could computers become more autonomous because they have been programmed to play chess? Before laughing consider this article that appeared on the Defense One website yesterday, October 8, 2013, “Why America Wants Drones That Can Kill Without Humans.” http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2013/10/ready-lethal-autonomous-robot-drones/71492/ This a day after I published the comments of Mr. Vest concerning the possibility of computers “…becoming sentient entities.”
The article begins, “Scientists, engineers and policymakers are all figuring out ways drones can be used better and more smartly, more precise and less damaging to civilians, with longer range and better staying power. One method under development is by increasing autonomy on the drone itself.
Eventually, drones may have the technical ability to make even lethal decisions autonomously: to respond to a programmed set of inputs, select a target and fire their weapons without a human reviewing or checking the result. Yet the idea of the U.S. military deploying a lethal autonomous robot, or LAR, is sparking controversy. Though autonomy might address some of the current downsides of how drones are used, they introduce new downsides policymakers are only just learning to grapple with.”
You better believe that if DARPA realized chess could be utilized for such nefarious purposes, it would not hesitate in so doing. As a matter of fact, if the Men in Black read this, it is possible chess has seen the last of the High Plains Drifter. There will be some kind of cover story while the HPD is placed in the bowels of some secret government location, so secret even most in government have never heard of it-so secret there are not even any rumors of it-where he will be wired to the collective while they extract any and everything in his brain, for the good of mankind, naturally.