Understanding Distributions of Chess Performances
Chess Teachers and Learners "This is a place where all chess players are welcome. From beginners to advanced. A place to teach and learn, tell about our experiences and share our mutual knowledge" Dedicated to the founder, M. S. "
Wednesday 18 December 2013
Artificial Intelligence for Chess Reduction by Annelie Heuser
Artificial Intelligence for Chess Reduction
66 pages professional scince thesis by Annelie Heuser
===>download<===
Tuesday 26 November 2013
Big Collection of Chessity.com puzzles (2000+ Puzzles so far WITH SOLUTIONS )
If it's white turn to move, then the puzzle will say 1-0, and if it's black's turn to move, it will be 0-1.There are all kinds of puzzles: tactics, all sorts of defensive puzzles, checkmates, quiet moves, and the puzzles range from very easy to very challenging. I think they provide a good range of difficulty and most importantly they seem to be very practical in nature.
Specials Thanks for the team in immortalchess.net for collecting theses precious gems.
Monday 25 November 2013
Sunday 24 November 2013
Computational Aesthetics and Chess as an Art Form
Computational Aesthetics and Chess as an Art Form
Azlan Iqbal and Mashkuri Yaacob
Universiti Tenaga Nasional
Selangor, Malaysia
Azlan Iqbal and Mashkuri Yaacob
Universiti Tenaga Nasional
Selangor, Malaysia
===>download<===
The Art of Chess Artists
The Art of Chess Artists - This is a great visual treat ....
The Art of Chess
, an exhibition featuring 15 of some of the most ac
claimed international
contemporary artists
The Art of Chess
, an exhibition featuring 15 of some of the most ac
claimed international
contemporary artists
===>download<===
Detecting Fortresses in Chess, Matej Guid, Ivan Bratko
Detecting Fortresses in Chess
Matej Guid, Ivan Bratko
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Faculty of Computer and Information Science, University of Ljubljana
Abstract.
We introduce a computational method for semi-automatical detecting fortresses in the game of chess.
It is based on computer heuristic search and can be easily used with any state-of-the-art chess program. We
also demonstrate a method for avoiding fortresses and show how to find a break-through plan when one exists.
Although the paper is not concerned with the question whether it is practical or not to implement the method
within
the state-of-the-art chess programs, the method can be useful, for example, in correspondence chess or
in composing chess studies, where a human-computer interaction is of great importance, and the time available
is significantly longer than in ordinary chess competitions
Matej Guid, Ivan Bratko
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Faculty of Computer and Information Science, University of Ljubljana
Abstract.
We introduce a computational method for semi-automatical detecting fortresses in the game of chess.
It is based on computer heuristic search and can be easily used with any state-of-the-art chess program. We
also demonstrate a method for avoiding fortresses and show how to find a break-through plan when one exists.
Although the paper is not concerned with the question whether it is practical or not to implement the method
within
the state-of-the-art chess programs, the method can be useful, for example, in correspondence chess or
in composing chess studies, where a human-computer interaction is of great importance, and the time available
is significantly longer than in ordinary chess competitions
===>download<===
The History Heuristic and Alpha-Beta Search Enhancements in Practice -by - Jonathan Schaeffer
The History Heuristic and
Alpha-Beta Search Enhancements in Practice -by -
Jonathan Schaeffer
Alpha-Beta Search Enhancements in Practice -by -
Jonathan Schaeffer
onathan Herbert Schaeffer (born 1957) is a Canadian researcher and
professor at the University of Alberta and the Canada Research Chair in
Artificial Intelligence.
He led the team that wrote Chinook, the world's strongest American checkers player, after some relatively good results in writing computer chess programs. He is involved in the University of Alberta GAMES group developing computer poker systems. Schaeffer is also a member of the research group that created Polaris, a program designed to play the Texas Hold'em variant of poker.Born in Toronto, Ontario, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1979 from the University of Toronto. He received a Master of Mathematics degree in 1980 and a Ph.D. in 1986 from the University of Waterloo. Schaeffer reached national master strength in chess while in his early 20s, but has played little competitive chess since that time....
He led the team that wrote Chinook, the world's strongest American checkers player, after some relatively good results in writing computer chess programs. He is involved in the University of Alberta GAMES group developing computer poker systems. Schaeffer is also a member of the research group that created Polaris, a program designed to play the Texas Hold'em variant of poker.Born in Toronto, Ontario, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1979 from the University of Toronto. He received a Master of Mathematics degree in 1980 and a Ph.D. in 1986 from the University of Waterloo. Schaeffer reached national master strength in chess while in his early 20s, but has played little competitive chess since that time....
===>download<===
A brighter future for Soviet Computer Chess ? by Tony Marsland
A brighter future for Soviet Computer Chess ? ..An excellent paper from 1981 by Tony Marsland about a trip inside Russia
===>download<===
Multilingual Chess Terminology - a Synchronic and Diachronic Perspective by dr Marii Bloch-Trojnar
Multilingual Chess Terminology - a Synchronic and Diachronic Perspective by dr Marii Bloch-Trojnar
Multilingual Chess Terminology - a Synchronic and Diachronic
Perspective- This is a college thesis by a very famous chess author -
Krzysztof Panczyk- his books include... The Classical King's Indian
Uncovered ... The Offbeat King's Indian: Lesser Known Tries to Counter
This Most Popular of Defences ... Ruy Lopez Exchange ... and others ...
This is a very unusual publication and covers chess in aspects i have
never seen before... 170 pages
===>download<===
The Satirist and the Engineer (an article about "The Magician from Riga").
The Satirist and the Engineer
DOMINIC LAWSON
Stand Point Magazine
Stand Point Magazine
http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/2981/full
Collection of Best Annotated Games
Here is a link to some of the best games of all time
They are annotated and interactive on the Gameknot site
These games are like gems
Blindfold Chess essential training by Dimosthenis Michailidis
Blindfold Chess essential training by Dimosthenis Michailidis
The scope of this
book is to make chess players capable of thinking blindfold. There are
131 problems in which the reader has to follow the recorded moves in
order to find the mating move. All problems are based on actual games of
masters.
===>download<===
Two ReadersEndgame Blindfold Training by Dimosthenis Michailidis
Two Readers Endgame Blindfold Training by Dimosthenis Michailidis
This book is a collection of 120 endgame
chess positions. At every position the player who plays first has a
winning advantage and it is easy to find the solution. I suggest this
book to those who wants to extend their blindfold thinking skills.
===>download<===
Don Dailey, author of the Komodo chess engine, passes away 1956 -2013
Here is a nice piece written about him by the co-author of Komodo Grandmaster Larry Kaufman
Don Dailey, my partner in chess programs from
RexChess to Komodo spanning a quarter of a century, died tonite in
Roanoke Virginia at age 57 from Leukemia, just about the same time that
Komodo pulled ahead of Stockfish by winning game 2 in the TCEC final. He
no longer even recognized his own family on the final day, so he could
not know about this, but was still somewhat lucid the day before so he
did understand that Komodo had made it to the final. He is survived by
his wife Mary, one brother, and both of his parents. He was raised as a
Jehovah's Witness and served in recent years as an "elder" in the
church.
Don's life story is rather amazing. He grew up in relative poverty in Michigan, and never even graduated from high school (though he later got a General Education Diploma via a test). He taught himself how to program computers as well as how to play chess (his best rating was in Class A, somewhere around 1900 I believe). Despite the lack of formal education, by the mid 1990s he was the head of the computing department at M.I.T. (!!!!). Probably they never imagined he had so little formal education. It is a curious coincidence that Don had this job, that I was an M.I.T. graduate, and that Vasik Rajlich whom I worked with on Rybka 3 was also an M.I.T. graduate. It is likely that Vasik and Don interacted at the computer dept. there, although neither remembered knowing the other back then.
I first met Don in the late 1980s. He had written his own chess program and competed with it, although it was not yet very strong. His chess advisor was the notorious Sam Sloan who happened to be living in the Roanoke are where Don had settled. That didn't last too long, not surprising considering Don's strong ethics and Sloan's reputation. When Sam had to flee the country to avoid prosecution he introduced Don to me, and I took over as the chess advisor. Soon I persuaded Don to move to Florida where I then lived to devote himself full time to computer chess, and we developed Rexchess, Socrates, and (with Julio Kaplan) Kasparov's Gambit. Then Don took the M.I.T. job and moved to Boston, later moving on to a position with a tech startup. He told me that the stock they gave him was on paper worth five million dollars at one time, but he couldn't yet sell it and the 2001 tech crash nearly wiped out his equity. About that time he married Mary and they moved back to his favorite Roanoke, a major center for Jehovah's Witnesses. He made a living doing a variety of programming jobs for most of that decade. Then we got in touch again, Don expressed an interest in writing a new chess program, and I agreed to help him although at the time I was still working on Rybka, Vasik having no objection. Neither of us imagined that it would become a threat to Rybka's primacy, but events showed otherwise. After my Rybka work concluded we decided to aim for a commercial product. After a while I agreed to subsidize Don so he could devote full time to Komodo until it went on sale. But about the same time he learned that he had a terminal illness which would become a fatal Leukemia after a few years. He never really made a living from Komodo until the final months of his life, but was able to get by due to very low cost of living in Roanoke, some savings from the tech days, and his wife having a job. He certainly could have made far more money doing business programming, but he wanted to do what he loved more than he wanted material possessions.
At least Don lived to see Komodo surpass Houdini in every stage of TCEC, although whether Komodo or Stockfish is the new number one is yet to be determined. During the last weeks of his life, following TCEC was a prime interest for him.
I'll post more information as it becomes available.
Good Bye Don, Mark and I will do our best to see that your brainchild Komodo continues to improve and give chessplayers around the world much joy.
Larry Kaufman
Don's life story is rather amazing. He grew up in relative poverty in Michigan, and never even graduated from high school (though he later got a General Education Diploma via a test). He taught himself how to program computers as well as how to play chess (his best rating was in Class A, somewhere around 1900 I believe). Despite the lack of formal education, by the mid 1990s he was the head of the computing department at M.I.T. (!!!!). Probably they never imagined he had so little formal education. It is a curious coincidence that Don had this job, that I was an M.I.T. graduate, and that Vasik Rajlich whom I worked with on Rybka 3 was also an M.I.T. graduate. It is likely that Vasik and Don interacted at the computer dept. there, although neither remembered knowing the other back then.
I first met Don in the late 1980s. He had written his own chess program and competed with it, although it was not yet very strong. His chess advisor was the notorious Sam Sloan who happened to be living in the Roanoke are where Don had settled. That didn't last too long, not surprising considering Don's strong ethics and Sloan's reputation. When Sam had to flee the country to avoid prosecution he introduced Don to me, and I took over as the chess advisor. Soon I persuaded Don to move to Florida where I then lived to devote himself full time to computer chess, and we developed Rexchess, Socrates, and (with Julio Kaplan) Kasparov's Gambit. Then Don took the M.I.T. job and moved to Boston, later moving on to a position with a tech startup. He told me that the stock they gave him was on paper worth five million dollars at one time, but he couldn't yet sell it and the 2001 tech crash nearly wiped out his equity. About that time he married Mary and they moved back to his favorite Roanoke, a major center for Jehovah's Witnesses. He made a living doing a variety of programming jobs for most of that decade. Then we got in touch again, Don expressed an interest in writing a new chess program, and I agreed to help him although at the time I was still working on Rybka, Vasik having no objection. Neither of us imagined that it would become a threat to Rybka's primacy, but events showed otherwise. After my Rybka work concluded we decided to aim for a commercial product. After a while I agreed to subsidize Don so he could devote full time to Komodo until it went on sale. But about the same time he learned that he had a terminal illness which would become a fatal Leukemia after a few years. He never really made a living from Komodo until the final months of his life, but was able to get by due to very low cost of living in Roanoke, some savings from the tech days, and his wife having a job. He certainly could have made far more money doing business programming, but he wanted to do what he loved more than he wanted material possessions.
At least Don lived to see Komodo surpass Houdini in every stage of TCEC, although whether Komodo or Stockfish is the new number one is yet to be determined. During the last weeks of his life, following TCEC was a prime interest for him.
I'll post more information as it becomes available.
Good Bye Don, Mark and I will do our best to see that your brainchild Komodo continues to improve and give chessplayers around the world much joy.
Larry Kaufman
Monday 18 November 2013
The White Chess Collection
The White Chess Collection- John Griswold White (1845–1928) was a prominent Cleveland attorney, a chess connoisseur, and a bibliophile.[1] "Over a period of some fifty years he conducted a determined quest, throughout the world, for desirable additions to his library."[1] Chess historian H.J.R. Murray, who called White's chess library the largest in the world,[2] made extensive use of the collection in writing his classic treatise A History of Chess.[3] White donated his collection to the Cleveland Public Library to form the John G. White Collection on Folklore, Orientalia, and Chess.[1]
The library has since split the collection into three. The John G. White Chess and Checkers Collection is described as the "[l]argest chess library in the world (32,568 volumes of books and serials, including 6,359 volumes of bound periodicals.)" The John G. White Folklore Collection contains 47,040 volumes, "one of the largest in the nation. It is broadly defined in scope and international in coverage without period restrictions. Included are primitive, peasant, native, and folk cultures within geographic restrictions." The John G. White Collection of Orientalia includes "materials on Asia, the Near and Middle East, Africa, Australia and Oceania," emphasizing "the humanistic and social science aspects of traditional cultures prior to the impact of European influence."[4]... Here is a direct link to view and D/L many of the chess photographs in this rare collection ...
===>library <===
Sunday 17 November 2013
Masters of our time : Impatience and Self-Control in High Level Games on gender differences
PATRIK GRÄNSMARK
Abstract
This paper presents empirical findings on gender differences in time preference and inconsistency based on international, high-level chess panel data with a large number of observations, including a control for ability. Due to the time constraint in chess, it is possible to study performance and choices related to time preferences.
The results suggest that men play shorter games on average and pay a higher price to end the game sooner. They also perform worse in shorter game compared to women but better in longer games. Furthermore,
women perform worse in time pressure (the 40th move time control).
The results are consistent with the interpretation that men are more impatient (with a lower discount factor)
but also more inconsistent in the sense that they tend to be too impatient.
Women, on the other hand, are more inconsistent as they tend to over-consume reflection tim e in the beginning, leading to time pressure later....
===>download<===
Bobby Fischer database
===>download<===
Evans Gambit Miniatures in CBV
Evans Gambit (1.e4, e5 2.Nf3, Nc6 3.Bc4, Bc5 4.b4, Bxb4 5.c3), a gambit
that some aggressive grandmasters still use, like Kasparov’s former
contender for the World chess crown, Nigel Short
===>download<===
Evans Gambit variation 5…Ae7
Evans Gambit ... article about the Evans Gambit, the variation 5…Ae7: 38 pages in encyclopedia format....
===>download<===
The Bishop's Opening and The Urusov Gambit System by Michael Goeller
1-The Bishop's Opening covers 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 with all Black alternatives to 2....Nf6. The focus is on exciting gambit lines, so don't expect to find anything pianisimo here. The idea is to help you play against people afraid to enter the Urusov zone.
2-The Urusov Gambit covers play after 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d4 with attention to 3....exd4 4.Nf3, the Urusov Gambit proper. This is the most extensive analysis of the Urusov available anywhere in print, with a great collection of games. If you like to play the Urusov Gambit, you've come to the right place.
The little-known 3-Dimock Theme Tournament of 1924 featured such famous American players as Marshall, Torre, and Santasiere contesting lines stemming from 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d4. A great piece of chess history and theory. Play over the games from this "lost" event right on the web.
4-The Perreux Variation of the Two Knights Defense (arising after 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Ng5) is one of the most forcing and least covered lines in the Two Knights, featuring exciting play with chances for both sides. This site also includes links to analysis and games in other lines of the Two Knights Defense.
Friday 15 November 2013
Chess Teaching Manual
Chess Teaching Manual - by International Master Tom O'Donnell ... ... 303 pages
One of the most interesting books about how to teach chess is the manual written by International Master Tom O'Donnell and produced by the Chess Federation of Canada.
The purpose of this manual, that can be downloaded here, is to encourage the playing of chess by young people. It is not necessary for the teacher using this manual to be a good chess player. He even doesn't have to be a chess player at all.
The manual is mainly intended to learn chess to beginners, but also contains information about running a chess tournament.
===>download
This manual if one of the BEST free chess
manual that may be used at teaching kids (at school, home or a chess
club). It covers ALL of the basics and short introduction to the most
important things you should know about tournament chess.
A genial genius at work – Tal blindfold simul in video
A genial genius at work – Tal blindfold simul in video
The wonder that is YouTube occasionally throws up
something really fascinating. We have a great example – a ten-minute
video that shows a blindfold simultaneous display, given by the immortal
Mikhail Tal. The date is unclear and the commentary is all in Russian,
but we have prepared a summary transcript in English. We were even able
to reconstruct four game fragments. Must watch.
A genial genius at work
The following video was pointed out to us by Mark Hanon, Oxford, England, and was studied by our Russian-speaking associate Steve Giddins, who prepared the following synopsis.Addendum: Valery Adzhiev of Bournemouth, UK, informs us that the video is a fragment from the documentary "Seven steps beyond the horizon" about the limits of brainpower (director: Felix Sobolev). It was made in 1968 and released in 1969.
The commentary is all in Russian and unfortunately, does not reveal the date of the performance. Initially, one sees the announcer going from board to board, announcing the board number and the move played. Tal usually replies almost immediately, but at one point, he replies "Just a moment", and thinks for a minute or so, before moving. The commentary then clicks, in, with an interviewer posing questions, and Tal replying. He is asked whether he has been doing such blindfold displays very long, and Tal replies that this is his first such display. "Well, actually, not strictly the first," he then adds. He explains that he once gave one whilst in hospital, recovering from an operation! It seems that in this display he won three games, and would probably have lost the fourth, had his opponent not been taken off to the operating theatre at the crucial moment! The present display, though, is Tal's first public exhibition of blindfold simultaneous play.
Tal mentions that Alekhine gave such a simul over 30 boards, and that "there is also in Hungary a young master called Janos Flesch, who has done a simul on 54 boards". Tal admits that he cannot imagine doing a display over such a number. When asked how he can play such blindfold games, and whether he sees the pieces exactly in his mind, he replies in the negative, and adds that it is impossible to explain how one's mind works in such situations.
Tal - N:N [D06] Board six
1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nf6 3.cxd5 Nxd5 4.Nf3 Bg4 5.Qb3 Nb6 6.Nbd2 e6 7.g3 Nc6 8.Bg2 Be7 9.0-0 0-0 10.Rd1 Nxd4 "A perfectly correct decision" 11.Nxd4 Qxd4 12.Bxb7 Bxe2 13.Re1 Rab8 "This move I had failed to notice in advance". 14.Bg2 Ba6 "Here, I thought 14...Nd5 or 14...Nc4 were more dangerous". 15.Nf3 Qb4 16.Bf4 Nd5 17.Bd2 Qb6 18.Qxb6 cxb6 19.Ne5
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4 Bb4+ 7.Bd2 Bxd2+ 8.Nbxd2 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Qb3 Be6 "This move I have never come across before, but it seems to me to be very interesting". 11.Qxb7 Na5 12.Bb5+ Kf8 13.Qa6 c6 14.Ba4 Nf4 "A very interesting move!" 15.0-0-0 "Unfortunately 15.0-0?? is not possible because of 15...Bc8"
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0–0 6.Be2 Nbd7 "Here I sacrificed a pawn". 7.e5 dxe5 8.dxe5 Ng4 9.e6 fxe6 10.0–0 Nde5 11.Qc2 Nxf3+ 12.Bxf3 Ne5 13.Be2 Qe8 14.Be3 Nc6 15.Rad1
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 b5 6.Bb3 Be7 7.d4 d6 8.c3 0–0 9.h3 h6 10.Re1 Re8 11.Nbd2 Bf8 12.Nf1 Bd7 13.Ng3 Na5 14.Bc2 g6 15.b3 c5 16.d5 Nb7 17.Be3 Bg7 18.Qd2
Source
Wednesday 9 October 2013
Sports More: Chess The 5 Most Amazing Chess Sacrifices Of All Time
This is the list of the top 5 greatest chess sacrifices of all time.
Sit back, grab some popcorn, and enjoy as people give up material and
come out with the victory.
GM Jacob Aagaard's training tips:-The Illusion of Control ,September 2nd, 2013
From my perspective, time trouble is to a great extent a philosophical problem.
A common problem is that we try to calculate as far as possible or in other ways aim to be in control. We do this because we do not fully understand the nature of the problem we are trying to solve. If we try to keep control, to look for certainty, we will certainly over-think, over-calculate and so on.
On the other hand, if we understand that we need to solve a particular type of problem in a limited amount of time, we are better off.
In STRATEGIC PLAY I divide chess into four different types of decisions:
1) Automatic decisions – can be played within seconds
2) Simple decisions (Positional Play) – decisions that do not need calculation, but might still require some deep thinking to determine positional factors
3) Critical Moments – Positions where accurate calculation is needed and positional considerations are of limited value (often there are not too many of these in a game)
4) Complex decisions – what we also refer to as strategy. Where deep positional and tactical considerations intertwine.
I was talking to a famous grandmaster about his battles with the clock and he immediately recognized his problem as being in Category 4. This is where he spent too much time.
His problem was simply that he hesitated in making decisions.
For my friend, I think he was looking too much for control. I think he is calculating too much; trying to put lines on positional questions, where we instead have to trust our feeling, make our moves and save time for making more complex decisions later on.
I have played a few games in my life that were perfect; but obviously I made the right decisions for the wrong reasons along the way. There is no way we can solve all the problems we face during a tough fight at the chess board.
Calculating too much is a control issue – basically we seek to control things we cannot. And as a result we have too little time to calculate the critical moments that tend to come later in the game; and, ironically, then we cannot control the controllable either – because we have wasted our time…
Source
Monday 30 September 2013
Saturday 28 September 2013
Interview with Anand prior to his match with Carlsen, 2013
World Champion Viswanathan Anand interviewed after 8th "Tal Memorial" in Moscow. Most of the questions regard his upcoming (November 2013) match with title challenger Magnus Carlsen.
Vishy Anand 2012 Accenture Presentation
Viswanathan Anand, World Chess Champion, shares in this paper, among
other things, the influence of technology in the current chess as well
as decision-making models in the game.
I found this great video, a 45 min video conference of Vishy Anand
dated from August 2012, 12 days later after his match with Gelfand , on
occasion of an Accenture presentation (so basically not too technical
within chess in its content) and you may have seen it already, but I
hadn’t so I assume some of you may have missed as well .
It is truly awesome. He talks about patterns (such as chess patterns everyone must know), familiar and unfamiliar positions, anecdotes with his wife, anecdotes in simuls, chess thinking process, and the likes of how do you differentiate yourself when everyone else has the same software and hardware. Also, how important is for him to actually play out his computer analysis in a real wooden board before going to the games, what kind of positions from all of the analysis done he foresees that he could successfully play them should they appear without remembering any of the analysis, and what kind of positions need to be specifically memorized, how can you use your emotions, even the intuitively prejudicial like anger in your favour, etc.
Have fun!
It is truly awesome. He talks about patterns (such as chess patterns everyone must know), familiar and unfamiliar positions, anecdotes with his wife, anecdotes in simuls, chess thinking process, and the likes of how do you differentiate yourself when everyone else has the same software and hardware. Also, how important is for him to actually play out his computer analysis in a real wooden board before going to the games, what kind of positions from all of the analysis done he foresees that he could successfully play them should they appear without remembering any of the analysis, and what kind of positions need to be specifically memorized, how can you use your emotions, even the intuitively prejudicial like anger in your favour, etc.
Have fun!
Monday 26 August 2013
The History of Computer Chess: An AI Perspective (video lecture)
Playing
chess by computer began in the early 1950s, nearly as soon as computers
became available. As a human activity, chess is believed to require
'thinking,' yet in 1997 a massively-parallel supercomputer, drawing on
over four decades of continual advances in both hardware and software,
defeated the best human player in the world.
Does playing chess require thinking? Or is human thinking perhaps a form of calculation, parts of which a computer can mimic? What is the tradeoff between 'knowledge' and 'search?' Was Claude Shannon's 1950 prediction that studying computer chess might lead to applications in other areas fulfilled?
This panel, comprising seminal contributors to the solution of this challenge including two of AI's leading pioneersùwill discuss these and other questions as well as the origin and development of computer chess and what it tells us about ourselves and the machines we build.
The panel consist of such great and prestigious members as:
Date: 2005-09-08; Extent (length of this video) 02:05:57 (2 hours and 57 seconds of real watching); Place of Publication: Mountain View, California, USA
Does playing chess require thinking? Or is human thinking perhaps a form of calculation, parts of which a computer can mimic? What is the tradeoff between 'knowledge' and 'search?' Was Claude Shannon's 1950 prediction that studying computer chess might lead to applications in other areas fulfilled?
This panel, comprising seminal contributors to the solution of this challenge including two of AI's leading pioneersùwill discuss these and other questions as well as the origin and development of computer chess and what it tells us about ourselves and the machines we build.
The panel consist of such great and prestigious members as:
| Campbell, Murray (the member of the team "IBM Deep Blue") a Canadian computer scientist and chess player, most famous for being member of the Deep Blue team and beating Gary Kasparov in 1997. Campbell is actually a research scientist at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. Murray Campbell got hooked in computer chess at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, where he worked with Tony Marsland on parallel search and Principal variation search. He left Canada to enroll at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) as a doctoral candidate in Computer Science. Supported by his advisor Hans Berliner, he developed the chunking pawn endgame program Chunker, and received his Ph.D. in 1987 for his work on chunking as an abstraction mechanism in solving complex problems. Along with Gordon Goetsch, he researched on the Null move heuristic - none recursively with a modest Depth Reduction R Campbell was member of the HiTech team around Berliner, while Feng-hsiung Hsu and Thomas Anantharaman were already developing ChipTest, the predecessor of Deep Thought. In 1986, Murray Campbell left the HiTech team for ChipTest and Deep Thought, and in 1989, Campbell and Hsu joined IBM to develop Deep Blue. Murray Campbell's main function in the Deep Blue team was the development of the evaluation function. He worked closely with the team's chess consultant, Joel Benjamin, in preparing the opening book. Feigenbaum, Edward (a father of Expert Systems); an American electrical engineer, computer scientist, professor emeritus of computer science at Stanford University, and pioneer in developing expert systems in artificial intelligence, notably the Dendral project [1]. He received his Ph.D., 1959, in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University under supervision of Herbert Simon, describing an Elementary Perceiver and Memorizer, dubbed EPAM, one of the first computer models on how to learn [2], influential in formalizing the concept of a chunk, as for instance in Fernand Gobet's CHREST (Chunk Hierarchy and REtrieval STructures) architecture. In 1960 Feigenbaum went to the University of California, Berkeley, to teach in the School of Business Administration. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1965 where he was chairman of the CS Department from 1976 to 1981. As professor emeritus at Stanford, Feigenbaum has focused interest, as a Board of Trustees member of The Computer History Museum, on preserving the history of computer science, and with the Stanford Libraries on software for building and using digital archives [3]. In September 2005, along with Monty Newborn, Murray Campbell, David Levy and John McCarthy, he participated on the panel discussion The History of Computer Chess: An AI Perspective at The Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California. Levy, David N. L.; a Scottish International Master chess player (IM Title 1969), Bachelor of Science in Pure Maths, Physics and Statistics, renowned computer chess expert and promoter, tournament organizer, businessman, and president of the ICGA, the International Computer Games Association. David Levy authored and co-authored an enormous number of articles and books on Chess, Computer Chess and AI-Topics. Noteworthy is the commercial edition of his Ph.D. thesis Love and Sex With Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships, which he defended successfully on October 11, 2007, at Maastricht University, The Netherlands David is an international chess master and organizer of many chess computers events - many of them together with Monroe Newborn; the president of ICGA - International Computer Games Association; the most know from the "chess bet" - in 1967 he said no computer would be able to beat him in a match and he won the bet. McCarthy, John; (a father of Expert Systems Artificial Inteligence); was an American researcher in computer science and pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence. After short-term appointments at Princeton, Stanford, Dartmouth, and MIT, John McCarthy became a full professor at Stanford in 1962, where he remained until his retirement at the end of 2000. In 1971 John McCarthy received the Turing Award for his major AI contributions. Newborn, Monroe (the moderator) at the panel. a Canadian computer scientist, and emeritus professor at McGill University [1] in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Monty was early computer chess programmer and primary author of the chess program Ostrich, and the pawn endgame program Peasant [2]. In 1970 Monty Newborn and Ben Mittman initiated, constituted and organized the ACM North American Computer Chess Championship, and together with Ben Mittman and David Levy the World Computer Chess Championship in 1974. Newborn was co-founder of the ICCA in 1977, and served as its president from 1983 until 1986. He has written extensively on computer chess. |
Date: 2005-09-08; Extent (length of this video) 02:05:57 (2 hours and 57 seconds of real watching); Place of Publication: Mountain View, California, USA
Friday 23 August 2013
R.I.P. WIM Vesna Rozic
WIM Vesna Rozic, 26,
two-time Slovenian Women's Chess Champion is no more. She lost her battle to
cancer, as reported by the Slovenia chess federation website. Our deepest
condolence to her relatives, friends and loved ones.
One month ago Rozic' father wrote a letter requesting donations from the chess community for his daughter, who had been diagnosed metastatic peritoneal cancer. Rozic needed the money for extra cycles of chemotherapy. Sadly, the efforts from the doctors and the support from the chess community were not enough, as Planet Siol reported today.
WIM Vesna Rozic (2260) has played in four European Championships and four Chess Olympiads. She was forced to cancel her participation in the European Women's Championships a few weeks back because of the illness. .
The chess scene is shocked today by the news that two-times Slovenian Chess Champion WIM Vesna Rozic (2260) lost the battle with cancer and has passed away. Rozic was just 26 years old. The news was reported by Slovenian media.
Vesna Rozic was born March 23rd, 1987 in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana. She played four times in the European Team Championship U18, in 2001 and 2002 behind Ana Srebrnič and in 2003 and 2004 on first board. Rozic also played for Slovenia in six Mitropa Cu
ps
(2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2012). Slovenia won in 2005 and 2006
and finished second in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2012. In 2006 Rozic won the
gold medal for her score of 6 out of 9 on top board. She also played for
Slovenia at four European Championships (2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011) and
at four Chess Olympiads (2002, 2008, 2010 and 2012).
In Slovenia, Vesna Rozic played for Chess School Tomo Zupan Kranj and in the Croatian women's league she played for Zrinski Topolovac. She also played in Greek and Austrian leagues.
Rozic achieved the WIM title in April 2006 after scoring norms at the 14th Ljubljana Open in June 2003, at the European Team Championship in 2005 in Göteborg and at the European Championship U18 in 2005 in Herceg Novi. Her last Elo rating was 2260 (August 2013), with which she was second behind Ukrainian-born Anna Muzychuk. Rogiz' highest rating was 2310 in Julyi 2011. (Source: German Wikipedia)
Couple of sources about the player
Source 1
Source 2
Source 3
The chess games of Vesna Rozic
Wikipedia
One month ago Rozic' father wrote a letter requesting donations from the chess community for his daughter, who had been diagnosed metastatic peritoneal cancer. Rozic needed the money for extra cycles of chemotherapy. Sadly, the efforts from the doctors and the support from the chess community were not enough, as Planet Siol reported today.
WIM Vesna Rozic (2260) has played in four European Championships and four Chess Olympiads. She was forced to cancel her participation in the European Women's Championships a few weeks back because of the illness. .
The chess scene is shocked today by the news that two-times Slovenian Chess Champion WIM Vesna Rozic (2260) lost the battle with cancer and has passed away. Rozic was just 26 years old. The news was reported by Slovenian media.
Vesna Rozic was born March 23rd, 1987 in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana. She played four times in the European Team Championship U18, in 2001 and 2002 behind Ana Srebrnič and in 2003 and 2004 on first board. Rozic also played for Slovenia in six Mitropa Cu
In Slovenia, Vesna Rozic played for Chess School Tomo Zupan Kranj and in the Croatian women's league she played for Zrinski Topolovac. She also played in Greek and Austrian leagues.
Rozic achieved the WIM title in April 2006 after scoring norms at the 14th Ljubljana Open in June 2003, at the European Team Championship in 2005 in Göteborg and at the European Championship U18 in 2005 in Herceg Novi. Her last Elo rating was 2260 (August 2013), with which she was second behind Ukrainian-born Anna Muzychuk. Rogiz' highest rating was 2310 in Julyi 2011. (Source: German Wikipedia)
Couple of sources about the player
Source 1
Source 2
Source 3
The chess games of Vesna Rozic
Wikipedia
Thursday 22 August 2013
Kramnik: “Intellectual effort gives me enormous pleasure”
Kramnik: “Intellectual effort gives me enormous pleasure”
Vladimir Kramnik | photo: Sergey Tyagin, Itogi
The wide-ranging interview with Natalia Skurenok for Itogi is aimed at a general audience rather than solely chess fans – the title they gave it might be translated as “Brainbox!” (literally, “head”). Topics include Kramnik’s style of play, the effects of age, negotiations for a match with Bobby Fischer, money in chess and the advantages of not speaking French in France!
Vladimir. You played excellently in the St. Petersburg leg of the Alekhine Memorial, but you weren’t among the winners. Why not?
This season has been tough for me. I put everything into the Candidates Tournament that preceded it. By the start of the Alekhine Memorial I could already feel that I wasn’t in optimum form, and it was also a very impressive line-up – Anand, Aronian, Gelfand.
You’ve reached dizzy heights in the chess world. What do you play for now?
For interest and the game. I’m not a vain man and I’ve never been excessively ambitious. It’s more that I’m a perfectionist. I want to do what I do as well as possible. And I like the game itself, the creative element. I enjoy it, but I don’t have any sporting aggression. Kasparov, for example, not to mention Fischer, was always driven above all else to win. I’m more fascinated by the process.
At the Alekhine Memorial you played two seven-hour games in two days! Despite that you remained stunningly calm. Does winning or losing make no difference to you?
There’s a difference, but it’s very short-lived. Perhaps it sounds banal, but my motto is – do what you have to, and what will be will be. A lot in chess also depends on luck. Somehow it’s connected to a higher power, or perhaps that’s just Russian fatalism. It might be because I’ve never been fixated on the result that I’ve always played quite calmly. When I understand I’ve done my best I don’t get overly upset, even if I lose.
It seems that was why Kasparov described your style as pragmatic, solid. But how would you describe your style?
He said that when he lost to me and was seething with powerful emotions. Until then he always spoke enthusiastically about my play. For me every player is pragmatic, because they take advantage of their strengths. My style is quite difficult to define. Chess, after all, is a form of creativity, like painting and music. Can you clearly define the style of an artist or musician? Signature traits, yes, those are visible, but they can change over the years, while a style… I’m drawn more towards positional, strategic play rather than tactics. It’s been that way for me since childhood. Kasparov’s style is that of a brilliant tactician – he plays aggressively and is strong when he’s on the attack. But he doesn’t play like that because he wants to delight the spectators but out of the same pragmatism, because he wants to win. My strength is positional play, gradually outplaying my opponent.
Who raised you as a chess player?
The very first chess book I read was written by Anatoly Karpov – at the time he was the World Champion and the whole country was talking about him. Bookshops in Tuapse sold nothing on chess other than his books and my father bought them for me. Then I attended the Botvinnik-Kasparov School. My style is probably somewhere between Karpov and Kasparov, with elements of both. In general it ended up being a mix.
Is it true that you would run outside to play chess with adults?
Yes, I’d occasionally play in the park. In Tuapse we had the right climate – warm, the sea nearby. But I rapidly outgrew that level and was no longer interested in such games. Then when I turned 18 I had to move to Moscow, because it was hard to keep travelling to tournaments from Tuapse. The nearest airport was a four hour drive away and in winter they often cancelled flights due to fog.Vladimir Kramnik at 17 | photo: Alexander Yakovlev, ITAR-TASS
Why didn’t you graduate from university?
I didn’t even enrol. By the time I finished school I was already in the national team and the world top ten. Combining chess at that level with studying at university is impossible. It would have been possible to do it just for show, but I wouldn’t have been able to study normally in any case. Graduating from university just to have a diploma doesn’t interest me, and the kind of education I might have got, for example, at the Institute of Physical Culture, is what I essentially acquired anyway.
Does age affect the quality of play?
It does. The quality of my play now is by no means worse than before, but as the years go by your speed drops slightly. I think it’s pure physiology, and with age some things are lost irrevocably. As far as I can see, however, our understanding of the brain is still at a primitive level and it’s impossible to monitor those processes from the outside. Recovering after a game has become a problem – I now need more time for that, especially as I’ve got a family and children who demand time and attention. For example, we play nine days in a row, nine games: in order to compensate for the age difference between myself and the majority of my rivals I need to do more work and be more professional in eating and physical training. It was in the past – when the pace was different, there were no computers and you could adjourn a game until the following day – that chess players would play on until an advanced age – Mark Taimanov, Mikhail Botvinnik, Viktor Korchnoi. Now everything’s decided in one sitting and a game can last seven hours.
Hockey and figure skating draw crowds that fill stadiums because there’s a spectacle. But is chess beautiful?
You only begin to appreciate the beauty of chess when you’ve reached a certain level of play and, in general, you have to have some kind of predisposition towards intellectual pursuits. Perhaps I’m something of a freak in this regard, but intellectual effort gives me enormous pleasure. I need to keep my brain occupied – I love solving mathematical puzzles. When I have free time my favourite activity is to search the internet for some articles on economics and science. I think if it wasn’t for chess my life would involve science, mathematics and economics. I like that kind of thing. In contrast to many people who have a problem engaging their brain my problem is the opposite – switching off – it’s the same for all chess players.
How do you relax?
During a tournament – not at all. It’s a very tough regime with constant tension. After a tournament I spend a week simply catching up on sleep, if possible. For me being at home is the very best way to rest, and not trips to holiday resorts. My children, who I don’t see so often, are a great pleasure. And if they let me get some sleep then everything’s wonderful. I also meet people less, particularly in the first few days after a tournament: best of all is to retreat into your den and have no plans at all.
Do chess players have some kind of special diet?
The approach to food is important for chess players and you have to pay attention to it. For example, sugar is, of course, absolutely necessary, as during a game we burn a lot of it. White sugar gives a quick burst of energy, but that peak soon abates, which is dangerous during long games. More useful is the sugar you find in dried fruit – in dried apricots or raisins. If you’re sure that a game will soon end then for a rapid effect you can eat white sugar or drink coffee. That lasts for about 15 minutes, then there’s a slump, and if the game hasn’t finished by that time your concentration level will drop.
A lot has been said recently about how super-computers will put an end to chess. Is chess really finite?
It’s finite, no doubt, but it’s a number with 27 or 28 zeros – for the human mind it’s still infinite. Checkers, and particularly Russian checkers, really has been exhausted by computers, if you can put it like that. Chess is too complex: even the most powerful computers we use to train can analyse positions to a maximum of about 30 moves ahead. Games, meanwhile, can sometimes stretch to 200 moves. Yes, computers are strong, but they don’t calculate the game to the end and sometimes they make mistakes.
You actually competed against a computer and started off leading but finally drew. Kasparov once lost!
He lost more due to carelessness, because at that point computers were much weaker. Back then he just collapsed, as he began to imagine that someone was helping the computer. He was clearly stronger than the machine, and if he’d been more mentally stable he’d have beaten the computer. I played a few years later against a much more powerful machine. After the first half of the match I was leading by two points, but then I lost two games in a row. It was probably tiredness: when you play against a machine you have to maintain fantastic concentration, much greater than against a human being – the machine never gets tired! In the end it was a 4:4 draw. In 2006 it was almost impossible to beat the machines as they were already very powerful. The most you could hope for was to draw, which I was close to doing. Since then computers have moved far ahead and such a match no longer has any sporting interest. A human being is doomed to lose.
You were once accused of using computer help. Do you recall that match in 2006 in Elista?Kramnik lost the 2006 match 4:2 after famously overlooking mate-in-one in the following position | photo: ChessBase
Those accusations were totally absurd! In Elista there were extremely strict anti-computer measures – before the games we were fully scanned just as you are when boarding a plane. A jammer was even set up which suppressed radio signals within a kilometre radius. It was simply that after a bad start my opponent Veselin Topalov tried to provoke a scandal and bring an end to the match. Fortunately he didn’t succeed.
Can you play without looking at the board?
All professionals can. We even had a tournament like that which was held for many years. It’s the same for musicians – they don’t need to look at the music. But playing a lot of games simultaneously, more than ten, requires special training – the record was 62 games. Up to ten is possible for any top player. At the start of the last century blindfold displays were very popular and you could earn money from then. Alekhine himself often took part in such events, and it seems they didn’t pay at all badly. But it’s a very serious burden on your nervous system.
Many sports have business sponsors. Is chess supported somehow?
Yes. For example, the Alekhine Memorial was sponsored by Gennady Timchenko and Andrey Filatov, his business partner. The sponsors of our chess federation include Gazprom.
Among government figures who, apart from Arkady Dvorkovich, is hooked on chess?
Alexander Dmitriyevich Zhukov is a good player, almost a professional. He was the Russian Chess Federation President for many years before he handed over the reins to Dvorkovich, while his own focus switched to Sochi. He still comes along to tournaments, however, and sometimes we play blitz – he loves a challenge.
In recent decades due to a combination of factors the intellect has ceased to be valued in Russia. Does the fact that major figures in business and power are starting to support chess mean that the government is remembering “higher matters”?
It’s quite possible, as serious attention is now being paid to chess. In recent years talented Russian children have started to receive scholarships. I got my first financial support from the Russian Chess Federation in 2007, despite having started to play for the team in 1992. Up until that point I paid for all my preparation out of prize money. Therefore when they started to pay me to prepare and hire a trainer it was almost a culture shock. Recently the preparation of myself and other Russian players for the tournament in London was paid for. That’s a very expensive luxury. For example, if I’d paid out of my own pocket then after taxes and preparation I’d have lost money overall even if I took first prize in the Candidates Tournament.
What will you do when you quit chess?
I’ll come up with something as I’ve got a lot of friends and contacts. I’m sure I’ll find an interesting occupation, and it doesn’t have to be in the chess world. That doesn’t bother me at all.
Marie-Laure, your wife, is a journalist?
Yes, though now you could say a former journalist.
Let me guess – you got acquainted during an interview?
Exactly! A classic of the genre. She was working for Figaro in the “debate and opinions” editorial department, and was the only person there who had any idea about chess as she’d played as a child. So if they needed to write about chess they’d send her. When I beat Kasparov they sent her to interview me. Moreover, she knew some of my chess-playing friends and was to some degree familiar with the chess world. Now, after the birth of our children, she’s no longer sure she wants to return to work. Plus the pay isn’t great given the volume of work: she would work 6 days a week for 8 hours and sometimes they’d call her in at the weekends or in the evenings. By the way, I subscribed to Itogi for three or four years when my wife was working for Figaro: they allowed her to subscribe to a foreign publication for her work and we chose Itogi. Then my wife left the newspaper and unfortunately your magazine isn’t sold in Parisian kiosks.
Can you support your family yourself? After all, chess doesn’t involve the same kind of money as football.Kramnik with his wife and daughter at the opening ceremony of the Alekhine Memorial in Paris | photo: www.alekhine-memorial.com
Compared to football it’s not much, of course, but it’s pretty decent. Of course it all depends on your needs – for example, I’ve got no need for private yachts or planes, while for everything else there’s plenty. For World Championship matches in particular the prize funds are very decent, and I’ve already played in four. In financial terms I’m comfortable now. I think among the non-Olympic sports chess would be in first place, if you don’t count golf. Of course by the standards of Moscow business we’re down-and-outs, but in European terms we’re perfectly well-off people. If only it wasn’t necessary to pay such enormous taxes in France!
You pay taxes in France?
Unfortunately. If I could choose I’d pay in Russia, especially as I’m a Russian citizen.
So copy the example of Depardieu!
Depardieu has grown-up children and is now officially single, so he can do what he wants, while I have a family living in France and a daughter who’s just started attending school. Therefore while my family is there I’ll pay taxes in France. Perhaps we’ll move, which is a possibility we’ve already discussed – but not because of taxes. While the children are young it’s more convenient for my wife to live in France, closer to her relatives. If later I end up working in another country we might move.
Do you speak French well?
I barely speak at all. Of course I’m a little embarrassed about that, but I don’t have any great urge to learn. There are advantages to not speaking French, and my wife and I talk in English.
But it always seemed to me that the French frown when they hear English?!
Not any longer! That’s how it was before, but now, particularly in the centre of Paris, it’s all very different. Of course I can make myself understood in a restaurant or shop, but in my social circle everyone speaks either English or Russian. My wife and I speak English – you might say we met in English. She’s learning Russian and speaks a little. I speak Russian to my daughter although her Russian isn’t very good yet and we’ve hired a Russian nanny. It wouldn’t be difficult for me to switch to French as I understand a lot, but it would require a few months in a row learning it while I spend almost all my time travelling – tournament after tournament, different events. There are a lot of pluses, though: where we live, for example, the talkative concierge knows that I don’t speak French and directs all questions to my wife. And with workers and plumbers – I only have to say “bonjour, bonjour” to them and they realise I don’t speak French, so no-one bothers me.
Convenient! But after all the French are very sociable and talkative, and that means you’re limiting your ability to talk to people…
Of course I love meeting people, but only those I choose myself. In France, meanwhile, it’s typical that if you go to a café and order coffee you find the waiter starting to chat to you – he’ll ask you something, you’ll respond. From a psychological point of view that’s good, but I don’t have any such requirement. It’s convenient for me: “nicht verstehen” – and I can get on with my own business.
Do you meet with Boris Spassky in Paris?
Not much recently, as he moved to Russia. I was hoping to see him at the Alekhine Memorial, but he didn’t come. He has problems with his health at the moment – he’s recovering from a stroke.
Did he talk to you about that famous match against Fischer? At the time chess was almost a national idea in the USSR, and then some American took on and crushed a Soviet grandmaster!
For professional chess players it was an expected defeat – Fischer was hard to stop. Perhaps it was fated to be that it was his best period, the peak of his form, and it was very tough to compete with him. The rest were lucky that after that match he quit chess, as otherwise he’d have kept winning for years to come. It seems, however, he had mental problems.
Did you know Fischer?
His representatives approached me around two years before his death. We began negotiations for a match – it seems he’d decided to play again and I was the reigning World Champion. He was already over 60, and of course he’d lost some of his skills, but it was nevertheless interesting for me to play against a legend. My friend Joel Lautier, a well-known French player who incidentally now lives in Russia, travelled to Fischer as my representative in order to conclude the negotiations. They talked for two days. Fischer was constantly undecided and it seems he was looking for a somewhat weaker opponent – he even wanted to play against the Women’s World Champion. Ultimately he decided against it and I never did get to meet him. Soon afterwards he died.
How do you make acquaintances in general? For example, Natalia Vodianova – did she approach you herself?
It was simply that Justin, her English ex-husband, is a great chess fan. They once came to a chess tournament and we met there. We continue to meet now, especially as Natalia is often in Paris where she spends a lot of time. She comes to visit us and we’ve got mutual friends.
Does she understand chess?Russian model Natalia Vodianova made the opening move of game 13 of the Kramnik-Leko match in 2004 | photo: Evgeny Atarov
Not particularly, but she really wants to teach her oldest son. The boy already plays, and not badly, by the way. She asked me to find him a good teacher.
Perhaps you’ll practice a little with other people’s children and then teach your own?
I’ll teach my own anyway, and moreover I never have enough time to work with my daughter.
She’s still very young! Are you dreaming of making the girl into a Champion?
Absolutely not! I simply think it’s very useful for general development, for the brain: four and a half is an excellent age. I started myself when I was five. It’s precisely at that age that chess is good for brain development.
I remember when I learned to play chess in my childhood I was terribly afraid that the pieces would eat me!
My daughter has the same attitude to chess! I’m teaching her at the moment and she still doesn’t grasp the essence of the game, but taking pieces – that’s something she understands. I set up a position to show her how the pieces move and right away it’s “yum, yum – take that! – and I can eat this as well!”
What does chess actually train – memory, tactical thinking?
Chess is the same as a gym for your body: you’re keeping your mind in shape and there’s nothing mystical about it. It also develops memory and logical thinking. You train the muscle known as the brain. For children chess is also good because it has elements of a game. Simply solving mathematical puzzles quickly gets tiring and is boring for children. Chess also teaches people to take responsibility for their decisions – afterwards there’s no-one else you can make a scapegoat for your defeat. We shouldn’t forget about developing logical thinking – you start to calculate ahead and evaluate the consequences of your actions. That’s enormously useful for a child’s overall development.
Did your friendship with the Klitschko brothers also develop from chess?
Yes, they both play decent chess, and our friendship started at a tournament. They’re cultured, intelligent people and the anecdotal image of boxers doesn’t apply to them. They play well for amateurs.
And did they teach you to box?
No, but I’ve been to their fights and they always invite me. A year ago Vitali and I ended up at a training camp at the same time – he had a month-long session before a fight while I had the same before a tournament, and we decided to combine them. I watched his training sessions and in the evening I gave him some chess lessons after dinner. Both brothers have excellent minds – they could easily be chess players. By the way, Lewis and even Tyson were also far from stupid people.
Do you play any sports apart from chess yourself?Kramnik takes on Vitali Klitschko at their joint training camp | photo: KMG / Klitschko press-service
It does me good to swim, though I find it very boring – I hate it, but I swim because I have to. By the way, swimming pools are very convenient for thinking: you swim for an hour or an hour and a half and solve some problem. Unfortunately the sports I like – tennis and football – are inadvisable for me because of back problems.
Do you know any jokes about chess players?
I can’t recall a single one – perhaps we’re truly respected?
If you’re respected then perhaps you should throw yourself into politics? Kasparov did that.
No, as a profession that’s not for me. Politics is for those who need the spotlight and applause, with rare exceptions. And Garry Kasparov loves that. But I have no need to be admired. I’m not power-hungry and I’ve got no interest in controlling others. I’m more interested in social projects – doing something from the ground up. Speaking and waiting an ovation isn’t for me.
Your whole family is connected with art – your mother graduated from a conservatory and your father draws. What about you?
My brother Evgeny also has an advertising agency and deals with outdoor advertising. My father and uncle are artists. I tried drawing, but it was absolutely awful. Nature completely turned its back on me there. My father has a big library of art books and I enjoy looking through them. I visit museums. I love music and have a lot of musician friends and often go to their concerts, especially when friends come to Paris. I’m friends with Vadim Repin and we often meet. Vadim and Nikolai Lugansky played at the opening of the Alekhine Memorial in the Louvre. I love to go to their concerts. But as for engaging in art – when I quit chess after forty I’ll learn everything and catch up on it all.
Source
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)