Michael Mulford mentioned he is now Treasurer for Castle Chess Camp (https://www.castlechess.org/) which prompted a check of the website.
Welcome!
Hosted on the campus of Emory University in Atlanta, GA. The 2018 camp will run from June 17-22nd (Sunday through Friday).
CAMP REGISTRATION FOR 2018: An additional group has been added, and we now have a couple of spots available! Please email info@castlechess.org , or call 770-594-9562 in order to claim one of the last spots.
Castle Chess also hosts the Castle Grand Prix tournament immediately following the camp. The tournament is for campers, camp staff, and non-campers and features $13,500 in prize money guaranteed.
The 2018 Castle Grand Prix Tournament will be June 22-24 or June 23-24 (Friday through Sunday or Saturday and Sunday) GO TO TOURNAMENT REGISTRATION
Now in its 18th year, this camp brings together top coaches and top students for a week of intensive training- and fun!
The camp requires a minimum USCF rating of 1200. Average rating for the past three years has been around 1700.
“In the CV of the person named “Glen Stark”, as sent to several members of the chess community including members of FIDE and the Russian Chess Federation (see the images below), it is written that Glen Stark’s website is http://www.glstark.com and, among others, his CV (RUS) states that he is:
a) vice-president of the US government controlled executive board of Office of American Innovation https://www.darpa.mil,
b) a “member” of several private companies,
c) a member of the Board of the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania and
d) a member of the Writers Guild of America.”
The article gave an email for Mr. Stark so I sent him an email:
Having read articles at Chessdom.com concerning your being on Kirsan Ilyumzhinov’s ticket I thought an email from you would help clear up the question(s) concerning your existence.
I checked the name “Glen Stark” at the USCF, finding that someone named Glen Stark joined the USCF recently. Would that happen to be you?
16712307 Unrated Unrated Unrated NJ 2019-04-30 STARK, GLEN, V
Regards,
Michael Bacon
We were gone most of the day. Upon returning the following reply was found in my inbox:
Glen Stark
To:Michael Bacon
May 6 at 8:56 PM
Hello Michael:
Sorry to say that I am not the Glen Stark you are looking for. Looks like you have a Glen V. Stark. I am C. Glen Stark.
All the best.
Glen
My reply:
I greatly appreciate your response, sir. You need to be aware your email has been published at Virtual candidate in Ilyumzhinov’s ticket? (update 3) | Chessdom
We just returned home and I will post your reply, and notify you when published.
The question is no longer, “Is there cheating in Chess tournaments?” After reading the comments left at the USCF website in response to the happenings in Atlanta, Georgia, at the Junior High School Nationals the question is now, “How rampant is the cheating in Junior Chess?”
The comments in response to the article are frightening.
Gang | April 8, 2018 at 1:19 pm
The live broadcasts were bad. Hope next time will be better.
Reply
john doe | April 9, 2018 at 1:19 am
there needs to be a two move delay or min o 5 minutes for broadcasts. too easy for people to cheat. the way the maryland chess association does it is the best. they don’t even show the first move for white until black plays. that makes sense and is most fari (sic)
Reply
Tang | April 9, 2018 at 9:59 am
Can’t agree more. There are kids cheating in every tournaments, even in nationals. If there is no delay for broadcasts, it would hurt top seeds if some kids find it too easy to bring a phone to the restroom.
Reply
john doe | April 9, 2018 at 4:18 pm
it’s not even the player having a phone. do you know how many parents/ teammates have these games in stockfish on their phone while watching. I walked around the room and i hear people talking about the best move or engine recommendation for some of the top boards. they all know the best engine move. the player doesn’t even need to punch the position into their phones. a player can overhead a conversation about their game or a well meaning parent can just say rook to e8 in passing. i mean this is pretty ridiculous. Everyone is a grandmaster due to stockfish. The temptation is just too great. Moves must be on a move and time delay. the integrity of the game is at stake.
Reply
john doe | April 9, 2018 at 4:22 pm
Basically you are having a kid take a test and every spectator knows the answer due to stockfish, and you expect everyone to abide by the honor system and not spill the beans? can you imagine if the SATs were given in this manner. Parents and friends 20 feet away with all the answers to the questions and no one policing this, can you expect no one to say anything? it’s a bit of a stretch. This can be easily fixed. delay the moves.
John Doe | April 9, 2018 at 8:14 pm
The combination of the live broadcast updating in real-time, and with players having to leave playing hall and walk through parent/spectator waiting area to use the bathroom, is what made this bad.
I also saw players already done with their games going back into playing hall – hopefully just out of innocent curiosity.
There were many upsets on the top boards in this tournament, we’d rather believe these were all clean games indicative of the deep talent pool in USA scholastic chess, versus believe the alternatives.
I like what they did at world youth – live broadcasts are delayed – and the venue set up to prevent any opportunity interaction even for things like bathroom breaks. DGT systems support delayed updates, not sure why this wasn’t done here.
john doe | April 9, 2018 at 11:52 pm
agree players should be completely segregated from people with access to engines. or just don’t broadcast the top games especially in the last few rounds. broadcast other games where the stakes are not as high.
“too easy for people to cheat.”
“There are kids cheating in every tournaments, even in nationals.”
“Everyone is a grandmaster due to stockfish. The temptation is just too great. Moves must be on a move and time delay. the integrity of the game is at stake.”
I did not attend the Junior Nationals, and know nothing other than what was read at the USCF website. After reading the comments I had to question whether, if I were a parent, I would want my child to participate in such an event. The answer is a resounding, “No!”
The possibility of cheating has been with Chess for some time now. It would seem those in positions of power would have taken measures to preclude the possibility of cheating. Evidently, such is not the case. It is sad to see. Cheating is killing the game.
won election to his final three year term on the Executive Board of the USCF last year and is, fortunately, term limited.
At the USCF website there is a forum thread, FIDE Bank Account Closed–Time for a New Federation?
The poster known as ChessSpawn wrote:
“Back when the Panama Papers came out linking certain high profile Russians chess persons to Putin and when Mueller first took over the investigation, I speculated about Kirsan and FIDE becoming part of the investigation. The sanctions allegations against Kirsan indicate that he has likely been doing Putin’s bidding for a long time and not simply traveling to give away chess sets.” (Postby ChessSpawn on Mon Feb 19, 2018 11:45 am #324653 )
In a reply dated Mon Feb 19, 2018 3:14 pm (#324667) Allen Priest, obviously referring to the President of FIDE, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov,
To eliminate someone. To kill him. To remove someone from a situation.
“Osama bin Laden is a menace. We will take him out.” President George W Bush.
by Colby Gutierrez-Kraybill August 24, 2005
“Using a universally relevant metaphor, Zbigniew Brzezinski,
former National Security Adviser to US president Jimmy Carter,
wrote in The Grand Chessboard,
published in 1997 (http://www.takeoverworld.info/Grand_Chessboard.pdf): “Eurasia is the chessboard on which the struggle for global primacy continues to be played.” China’s New Silk Road strategy certainly integrates the importance of Eurasia but it also neutralizes the US pivot to Asia by enveloping it in a move which is broader both in space and in time: an approach inspired by the intelligence of Weiqi has outwitted the calculation of a chess player.”
“The chronicle by Japanese writer Kawabata Yasunari (1899-1972) of an intense intellectual duel, translated in English as The Master of Go,
contributed to the popularity of the game in the West, but Weiqi is a product of the Chinese civilization and spread over time in the educated circles of Northeast Asia. Kawabata, who viewed the Master as one of his favorite creations, knew that for China the game of “abundant spiritual powers encompassed the principles of nature and the universe of human life,” and that the Chinese had named it “the diversion of the immortals.”
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-gosset/weiqi-versus-chess_b_6974686.html)
Several years ago I contrasted the number of players in the US Chess Open with the number of players in the US Go Congress, posting the findings on the United States Chess Federation forum, and was excoriated for so doing, except for one person, Michael Mulford, who put the nattering nabobs of negativism to shame by congratulating me for “good work.” Basically, the numbers showed Chess losing players while Go had gained enough to have caught up with, and surpassed, Chess. It has continued to the point that if one thinks of it as a graph, with Chess in the top left hand corner; and Go in the bottom left hand corner, an “X” would appear.
I have spent some time recently cogitating about why this has come to pass. Certainly world Chess (FIDE) being administered as a criminal enterprise for at least a quarter of a century has not helped the cause of the Royal game. It has not helped that members of the USCF policy board have stated things like it being better to work within a corrupt system than to leave the corrupt system. See my post, Scott Parker Versus Allen Priest, of November 29, 2017 (https://xpertchesslessons.wordpress.com/?s=alan+priest)
Now that the bank account of FIDE, the world governing body of Chess, has been closed I do not foresee anything but further decline for the game of Chess. IM Malcolm Pein,
Mr. Everything tin British Chess, commented for Chessdom, “The statement from the FIDE Treasurer was alarming to say the least, but not totally unexpected. As the statement said, we had been warned. All legal means should be used to remove Ilyumzhinov
from office as soon as possible. Taking away his executive authority has not been good enough for the bank and FIDE will experience difficulty finding another institution to handle it’s accounts and this threatens the viability of the organisation. ((http://www.chessdom.com/trouble-for-chess-as-swiss-bank-account-closed/))
Although both Weiqi (Go in America) and Chess are board games there are major differences between the two. The following encapsulates the drastic difference between the two games:
R. Saxon, Member of a GO club in Tokyo (3k). USCF B rated at chess
Updated Mar 14 2017
From my experience, GO players are far friendlier and more polite than Chess players, who are prone to both trash talk and to gloating after a win. This is especially true for club players and younger players. Chess players may engage in gamesmanship to psych out their opponent. I’ve known quite a few superb Chess players that were real nut cases. More than just a few, actually.
That has not been my experience with GO players. GO players are almost always successful and well-adjusted outside of GO. GO players are willing to say with sincerity that they enjoyed a game that they just lost. I don’t recall a Chess player ever being so gracious.
The nature of the game is a good indicator of the personality of the players that like them. Chess is an attacking game in which you try to control the center. It’s very direct and may be over quickly if a player makes a mistake. The idea of a “Checkmate” is like a home run or a touchdown. It’s a sudden and dramatic moment that appeals to a particular type of person.
Chess appeals to people who like to attack and who savor the win over the process.
GO, on the hand, is a slower game which starts at the corners and edges and only gradually moves to the center. It’s extremely complicated, but in a subtle way. GO strategy is indirect. It’s a game of influence and efficiency more than a game of capture. The best players are those that know how to sacrifice pieces for territory elsewhere or to take the initiative. Making tradeoffs are key. There’s usually no “checkmate” type moment or fast victory.
GO is a game of patience and position. It appeals to very bright people who don’t expect to win quickly but who are willing to earn success one small step at a time. GO players enjoy the process as much as the win.
(https://www.quora.com/What-do-chess-players-think-of-Go-and-Go-players)
There are many Chess players involved with Go. Natasha Regan,
a Woman Chess International Master who has represented the English women’s team at both Chess and Go, says: “When I learnt Go I was fascinated. It has a similar mix of strategy and tactics that you find in Chess and, with just a few simple rules, Go uncovers a whole new world of possibilities and creativity. Chess players may also find that they can use their Chess experience to improve in Go very quickly. I highly recommend learning this ancient but ever new game!” (https://www.britgo.org/learners/chessgo.html)
Consider, for example, this by Mike Klein: “Many cultures have nationally popular strategy games, but rarely do top chess players “cross the streams” and take other games seriously. That is not the case with GMs Tiger Hillarp Persson and Alexander Morozevich,
AlphaGo has done for the game of Go in America what Bobby Fischer did for the game of Chess when he defeated the World Chess Champion, Boris Spassky, in 1972.
The number of people playing Go has increased dramatically in the past few years. After the world-wide release of a new movie about Go, The Surrounding Game,
the number of people playing Go will increase exponentially. In a very short period of time the game of Go will be unrivaled, leaving all other board games in its wake.
Sometime around 1980 a place named Gammons opened in the Peachtree Piedmont shopping center located in the section of Atlanta called Buckhead, the “high-end” district of Atlanta. In was a restaurant/bar, which contained tables with inlaid Backgammon boards.
I quit my job at a bookstore and began punching the proverbial time clock at Gammons, which closed at four am. The Backgammon craze burned brightly for a short period of time, as do most fads, such as putt-putt. Few remember the time when putt-putt was so popular it was on television, and the professional putters earned as much, if not more, that professional golfers.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/24/magazine/putting-for-the-fences.html)
Although quite popular for centuries, Chess lost its luster after the human World Chess Champion, Garry Kasparov, was defeated by a computer program known as Deep Blue,
a product of the IBM corporation. The defeat by AlphaGo, a computer program from Google’s Deep Mind project, of first Lee Sedol,
one of the all-time great Go players, and then Ke Jie,
currently the top human Go player in the world, has, unlike Chess, been a tremendous boon for the ancient game of Go, which is riding a crest of popularity, while interest in Chess has waned.
I have wondered about the situation in the world considering the rise of China and the decline of the USA.
Also to be considered is the stark difference between the two games. It could be that the people of the planet are moving away from the brutal, war like, mindset of a war like game such as Chess and toward a more cerebral game such as Go.
the pieces with a certain preordained constraint of movement are on the board when the game begins, the grid is empty at the opening of the Weiqi game. During a chess game, one subtracts pieces; in Weiqi, one adds stones to the surface of the board. In the Classic of Weiqi, the author remarks that “since ancient times, one has never seen two identical Weiqi games.”
Does this mean Naka has grown old, at least as a Chess player? Seeing this game caused me to reflect on a post found at GM Kevin Spraggett’s website recently, Samurai Spassky. Kevin provides Spassky’s original annotations to a Caro-Kann game played in 1959: Boris Spassky vs Aaron Reshko, St.Petersburg. Also provided is a PDF of a 1969 Soviet-Life article containing Spassky’s thoughts on the Caro-Kann, which I transcribed:
“The Caro-Kann is quite popular now, but it is usually employed by passive-minded players. The main idea of this system is that Black temporarily declines a Pawn battle in the middle and strives, instead, to quickly as possible finish deploying his forces, especial the Queen’s Bishop, before the King’s Pawn move P-K3. Only after this does he launch vigorous operations in the center. The result is that Black’s position is solid, even though passive. The weakness of this system is that it offers White too much a wide a choice of possible patterns of development, which provides not only chess, but also psychological trumps.” http://www.spraggettonchess.com/samurai-spassky/
Former US Chess Champion Stuart Rachels,
now an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alabama, said, “Play main lines.” That may be good advice for top flight players, but for the rest of us, “Where is the fun in that?” I have never, ever, not once, played Bf5. After 1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 e5 I have only played 3…c5 and Qb6. Upon returning to Chess after leaving the Royal game for the more lucrative Backgammon I played mostly obscure and little known openings, such as what was called by Kazim Gulamali,
the “Caro-Kann Krusher.” 1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 f3!
Now there is a book on the move…
There are so many multifarious opening lines, yet top players continue to trot out the same ol’, same ol’…BORING!
Kevin plays the “passive” 5…exf6 in this game, which features double doubled pawns, and a Queen sacrifice!
Rea Bruce Hayes was born in Weston Ontario, Canada, on October 31, 1915. His first memory of chess was when he was taught to play at age eleven by a boy in the neighborhood. When he thought his friend was being inconsistent about the rules, Rea “read the article in the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica”. From that point on he was the teacher.
Rea joined the St. Clair Chess Club in Toronto and became its champion a few years later. This club later became the Canada Dairies Chess Club.
He moved to Greeneville, South Carolina in 1953 and won his first tournament at Columbia. One trophy was for being the South Carolina Open Champion, the other one was for being the highest scoring South Carolina resident. At the time, no one expected a resident to win the state tournament outright. In 1954, Rea was again the South Carolina Open Champion, but he only received one trophy this time.
While living in South Carolina, Rea tied for third with a 5-2 score in the 1953 Southern Open in Columbia. He finished in a foursome of 5.5-1.5 scores in the 1954 Southern Open in Atlanta and had to settle for fourth on tie breaks.
From South Carolina, Rea transferred to Chattanooga, TN for a two year period. Having just moved, he entered the 1955 Southern Open in Chattanooga and won the Southern Championship with a 6-1 score.
Rea lived the next 30 years of his life in Cincinnati, Ohio. There, he organized the Parkway Chess Club and the City League, a chess team competition. He revived the city championship which had been abandoned for years, winning both the city and club championship many times. For his efforts on behalf of the club, Rea is an honorary member.
In Ohio, the annual Ohio Championship was captured outright by Rea in 1963, winning with only one draw. Several other times, he tied for first in the event. The Region V Championship was his at least once. He was instrumental in organizing the Cincinnati Open, the second annual tournament in Ohio. He was also the president of the Ohio Chess Association. Rea was twice honored by his Cincinnati club, as Chessman of the Decade (1958-1968) and again when he left Cincinnati in 1987.
Before leaving Cincinnati, Rea retired from Union Central Life where he worked as an actuary. Rea visited New Zealand in 1980-1981. Playing chess with players in the Hastings area, one of them paid him the compliment of saying that if Rea lived there, he would be the second or third player in the country.
During 1981, he traveled to Sun City West in Arizona, to take part in the 1st US Senior Open tournament. Although ranked 7th of the eight upper section players, he won top honors. He conceded only one draw, to the player ranking below him. He also won the upset prize, a nice wristwatch, for beating the favorite, Eric Marchand.
Rea’s lasting legacy is being the first US Senior Champion. The Senior trophy now rests at the US Chess Hall of Fame in Washington DC with his name engraved first on the list of champions.
He moved to Chattanooga for the second time in 1990 and became a regular player at the tournaments in and around the state of Tennessee. In 1992, he entered the 46th Annual Tennessee Open in Oak Ridge and captured State Champion honors. He had three wins and three draws.
Since his coming to Chattanooga and the Chattanooga Chess Club, Rea fulfilled the role of Chessman of the Area. He served in almost every club capacity over the years, including president and newsletter editor. All of his contributions and accomplishment have prompted the Chattanooga Chess Club to elect him Life Member and hold an annual tournament in his honor.
After reading the previous post a reader asked if an article, Open Letter from US Chess to FIDE — Venues for World Championship Events published January 4, 2018 at the USCF website prompted the AW post. I was unaware of the USCF “Open letter” until after publishing. I do not often go to the USCF website because I think of it as the USSCF website. That is, United States Scholastic Chess Federation. Frankly, I find the site moribund. There are so many better, more informative, and interesting Chess websites in webland that USCF has been left behind.
The Open Letter:
Open Letter from US Chess to FIDE — Venues for World Championship Events
By US Chess|January 4, 2018|Administration, News
Re: Venues for FIDE World Championship Events
Dear Mr. Nigel Freeman:
The US Chess Federation believes World Championship events should be held in venues accessible to all of FIDE’s member federations. Chapter 01 (Status, Principles and Aims of FIDE) of Section A (Administrative Subjects) in the FIDE Handbook, Paragraph 1.2 clearly states:
“FIDE is concerned exclusively with chess activities. It rejects discriminatory treatment for national, political, racial, social or religious reasons or on account of gender. FIDE events (competitions, congresses, meetings) may be hosted only by Federations where free access is generally assured to representatives of all Federations.”
The US Chess Federation respectfully asks FIDE to abide by its own handbook and to not award events to states where travel to the venue is not generally open to all of the member federations. Continued selection of problematic venues brings negative press about the game of chess and distracts from the international spirit of competition and friendship our game promotes.
As with the 2017 Women’s World Championship held in Iran, and the recently held Rapid & Blitz World Championships in Saudi Arabia, FIDE’s disregard of its own policies and handbook is very troubling – it is a disturbing pattern that calls into question the organization’s commitment to its founding principles. The US Chess Federation calls for a renewed commitment by FIDE leadership to hold events in accordance with handbook Section 1.2.
Yours in Chess,
Michael E. Hoffpauir
President, U.S. Chess Federation
cc:
Mr. Jorge Vega, President, CCA
Ms. Ruth Haring, FIDE Zonal President
Mr. Michael Khodarkovsky, FIDE Delegate, US Chess Federation
Now that is what some would call a “strongly worded response.” I am not one of them. USCF obviously has never heard the old Chess expression of the threat being stronger than its execution. Rather than quaking in their collective boots, FIDE pooh-bahs could be heard laughing while rolling on the floor after reading the USCF “protest.”
I am proud to report the AW has an exclusive with the FIDE response:
To ensure USCF completely undersands FIDE’s position, a video was also enclosed:
