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:

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

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

Kramnik: “Intellectual effort gives me enormous pleasure”

By mishanp on August 4, 2013

Vladimir Kramnik | photo: Sergey Tyagin, Itogi

Vladimir Kramnik has had a wildly uneven 2013, swinging from the highs of the Candidates Tournament and Dortmund to an abject last place at the Tal Memorial. The Alekhine Memorial was merely disappointing, and afterwards he gave a long interview to a popular Russian weekly magazine.
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?

Vladimir Kramnik at 17 | photo: Alexander Yakovlev, ITAR-TASS

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.
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.

Kramnik lost the 2006 match 4:2 after famously overlooking mate-in-one in the following position | photo: ChessBase

You were once accused of using computer help. Do you recall that match in 2006 in Elista?
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.

Kramnik with his wife and daughter at the opening ceremony of the Alekhine Memorial in Paris | photo: www.alekhine-memorial.com

Can you support your family yourself? After all, chess doesn’t involve the same kind of money as football.
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.

Russian model Natalia Vodianova made the opening move of game 13 of the Kramnik-Leko match in 2004 | photo: Evgeny Atarov

Does she understand chess?
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.

Kramnik takes on Vitali Klitschko at their joint training camp | photo: KMG / Klitschko press-service

Do you play any sports apart from chess yourself?
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.

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The Secrets of Strong Players by Gm Igor Smirnov

 

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Chess World Championship 2013 Preview: Anand v Carlsen #03 by Daniel King

Instructive game 11:- W.Spoelman–C.Vandewalle

Example of the The Max Lange Gambit form the book Dangerous Weapons - 1 e4 e5 by G.M. John Emms

[Event "Hengelo"] [Site "?"] [Date "2000.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "W.Spoelman"] [Black "C.Vandewalle"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C50"] [Annotator "John Emms"] [PlyCount "42"] [EventDate "2000.??.??"] [Source "Everyman Chess"] [SourceDate "2010.04.23"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. O-O Nf6 5. d4 Bxd4 6. Nxd4 Nxd4 7. f4 $1 { Being able to play this pawn break is the main idea behind the gambit. Black now has to deal with the threat to e5, and capturing on f4 is of course impossible.} Nc6 $2 {At first sight it looks sensible enough to retreat the knight to defend e5, especially since after 8 fxe5 Nxe5 Black gains a tempo by attacking the c4-bishop. Indeed, some strong players have tried this move. But there is a fatal flaw...} 8. Bxf7+ $1 Kxf7 9. fxe5 Nxe5 10. Qd5+ {DANGEROUS WEAPON: White regains the piece and reaches an overwhelming position. Black has no time to organize a proper defence around his unsafe king.} Kf8 ({After} 10... Ke8 11. Qxe5+ Qe7 {White should simply take the pawn with} 12. Qxc7 {. In the game K.Czerniecki-D.Shapiro, Chicago 1989, Black restored material parity by grabbing on e4, but after} Nxe4 13. Nc3 Qc5+ 14. Qxc5 Nxc5 15. Nb5 Ne6 16. Bf4 d5 17. Rae1 {he wasn't able to survive.}) 11. Qxe5 d6 12. Qg3 { White's plan is simple: Bg5, Nc3-d5 and possibly also Rae1 with e4-e5. It's not much of a surprise that Black can do little to stop this.} ({According to my database, the strongest player to fall for this trap in a tournament game is the 2600+ rated Alexej Aleksandrov. In his game White opted for the equally good} 12. Qd4 {, and following} Be6 13. Bg5 c5 14. Qe3 h6 15. Bxf6 gxf6 16. Nc3 Qe7 17. e5 dxe5 18. Qxe5 (18. Ne4 $1) 18... Bf7 19. Qxe7+ Kxe7 20. Rae1+ Kf8 21. Rxf6 {White gained a winning advantage in G.Jacob-A.Aleksandrov, Senden 1999, although the Belarussian GM did manage to salvage a draw against his much lower-rated opponent.}) 12... Qe7 13. Nc3 Be6 14. Bg5 Ke8 ({Or} 14... Kf7 15. Rae1 Rhe8 16. e5 dxe5 17. Rxe5 {, and Ne4 is up next.}) 15. Rae1 Rf8 16. Nd5 (16. e5 dxe5 17. Qxe5 {is just as good.}) 16... Qd8 17. e5 {And this is simply crushing!} dxe5 18. Rxe5 Qc8 19. Rxe6+ $1 Kd7 20. Re7+ Kd8 21. Bxf6 gxf6 1-0

Tactics puzzles 14:-White to play and win

I had this position in one of my online games ,
White just played g3
Black to play and win

 

To view the answer click on read more

How Chess Can Revolutionize Learning: Cody Pomeranz at TEDxYale

Another video that speaks about how it is necessary theses days to add chess to schools

Thousands of chess photos & Pictures

Nice chess site with Thousands of chess photos & Pictures to download

http://www.chessgraphics.net/index/c01.htm

FIDE Online Arena

Great news from Fide

Now FIDE makes the virtual real with an online arena that allows players to compete in top class tournaments with official FIDE ratings.

I am proud to announce today's launch of the limited test version of FIDE online arena, FIDE's official Internet playing platform developed in co-operation with CNC. In October 2013, after the Executive Board meeting in

Tallinn, Estonia, the fully operational version of FIDE online arena will be in service and available all over the world.

FIDE firmly believes that online chess offers enormous opportunities for millions of chess lovers who are unable to regularly participate in over-the-board events for a variety of reasons: professional and family commitments, problems reaching tournaments and other difficulties, etc.

Now FIDE makes the virtual real with an online arena that allows players to compete in top class tournaments with official FIDE ratings. The attractiveness and ease of online chess will also draw millions of new players - in particular the young. FIDE online arena will be an important step in achieving my goal of '1 billion chess players' throughout the world.

As you know, there are many chess playing platforms. However, FIDE online arena has a unique feature that completely sets it apart: a highly sophisticated chess anti-cheating system, AceGuard. Until now, it has been impossible to award official ratings for online chess because of the difficulty in preventing cheating. Now AceGuard will be an invaluable tool in Fide's fight against cheaters and we would like to praise the PremiumChess company for developing this revolutionary technology and to congratulate CNC for bringing this service to FIDE.

When the full version of FIDE online arena starts in October, every move of every game played by full arena members will be monitored and extensively analyzed by the anti-cheating system and a special team of experts, creating a fair playing venue for all. While it is not possible to prevent some players from cheating, this constant highly detailed monitoring guarantees that they can be successfully identified and appropriate action taken. Every

member's playing history is evaluated with a Fairness Index rating, allowing you to see quickly if an opponent is reliable or not.

In addition, FIDE online arena offers a complete chess experience online: challenge games and tournaments, master challenge matches and simuls, free master lessons and lectures, full statistical analysis, broadcasts of major FIDE events, chat, game files, multi-lingual interface and much more - all from the comfort of your home or anywhere elsewhere you happen to be.

So now you can enjoy all the features that FIDE online arena has to offer and very soon play in official FIDE events night or day, seven days a week.

Source

Dear chessfriends,

Welcome to the limited service test version of FIDE online arena. The test version of the arena is for guest members only. Becoming a permanent guest member of FIDE online arena couldn't be easier and it is completely free. Just fill in and send the guest membership application form below.  

From October the site will be fully operational, and guest members can update to full membership whenever they wish. Full members of FIDE online arena will enjoy a host of benefits including participation in official online events, tournaments and challenge games with FIDE online ratings, constant advanced anti-cheating protection, special tournaments, master challenges and simuls, game and performance statistics, teaching and training, game files, multi-language interface, events broadcasting and much much more. 

FIDE online arena: making the virtual real

Chess World Cup 2013 Official Schedule

Tromsø World Cup 2013