Testing the Test

Today I stumbled across the website Elometer.net. Here's how they sum it up:

Dear chess friend,

we kindly invite you to the Elometer if you are interested in a quick measurement of your chess skills!

To obtain a psychometrically founded estimate of your playing strength based on a comparison sample of previous participants, all you have to do is to solve the following 76 chess problems.

...

In all of the following positions, you are playing White, and White is to move. Note, however, that the best move is not necessarily a brilliant one. Some of the following positions are rather simple, but some are very tough. Just try to choose the move you would play in a real game, and refrain from only trying to find a combination; this will yield the most precise estimate of your Elo rating.

The Elometer is part of a research project conducted by Birk Diedenhofen and Jochen Musch from the University of Duesseldorf, Institute of Experimental Psychology, Germany.

It took me a couple of hours to get through the test, but that was with stops due to supervising a 7 year-old. I would recommend doing it on a desktop computer instead of a tablet (as I did) or a phone, as that will minimize finger slips.

How'd I do? They estimated my rating at 2200 with a 95% confidence interval of about 2065 to 2330. Oops! Well, it isn't 100% confidence, is it? The format of the test also kept me from my usual errors of transposing moves and dropping random pieces, so I know where the 400 point difference is, alas.

Also of interest in a 48 position endgame test. All you have to do is state if White, with the move, can force a win in the given positions. I got 39 of 48 correct. Give them a try, and let me know how you did in the comments. The endgame tests include lots of basic stuff as well as more advanced material, such as the famous Cohn-Rubinstein ending from the St. Petersburg tournament of 1909, and Euwe's famous 1940 study of the pawn skeleton from the Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation. (Yes, I recognized both of those without having to look them up, although I did need to double check dates.)

I found the endgame studies interesting enough to enter them into a ChessBase database for further testing in the future. Aiming for no less than 48 out of 48.

The Clermont Variation of the Scandanavian Defense

We're putting in a claim on an opening variation.

After 1 e4 d5 2 exd5 Qxd5 3 Nc3 Qd6 4 d4 Nf6 5 Nc3 g6 6 g3 Bg7 7 Bg2 Qa6 8 Bf4 0-0!

after 8 ... 0-0!N

We hereby dub thee the Clermont Variation, now and for eternity!

Paul is the discoverer of this variation, and perhaps he will post more on it later. For now we will keep our ammunition dry, however. Try it - if you dare!

AlphaZero skepticism

Last week the Chess world learned of a new top dog, Deepmind's AI AlphaZero. It had bested (an older version) of Stockfish by the astonishing score of 28 wins, no loses, and 72 draws in a 100 game match. Two of the games looked like instant classics.

But some doubts started emerging. I didn't read the stories too closely, but I heard a few things via Twitter. Also, when I got to the club last Saturday, Paul had been looking at some of the games and had wondered why Stockfish had embarked on a risky looking piece sacrifice right out of the opening.

Here Stockfish 8 played 13 Ncxe5 fxe5 14 Nxe5, and eventually AlphaZero's extra material prevailed. Paul had found this perplexing and eventually stopped looking at the games. When Paul and I started discussing it, I had an additional piece of information, namely that the time control for the games had been one minute per move. (It seems that 13 Qc3 or 13 Be3 are both more sound.)

Anyone that has played around with computer programs has seen that sometimes a program will look at one move for quite some time before switching to another, better move. If the program is constrained by a time limit, however, it might choose a lone that it would later toss. That seems to be what happened here.

(Lars Bo Hansen tweeted:

My initial thought was "this cannot be good for White, my engine will easily refute White's play". Then I realized that the engine I wanted to consult was the one being crushed...Can't help feeling some concern for the future of mankind.

Turns out perhaps he should have tried it, and just let the engine "cook" a little bit longer that a minute!)

As it turns out, a fair number of people have expressed skepticism about the match, including someone that knows both AI and chess, IM Jose Camacho Collados. His article can be found here, and I recommend it to anyone interested in the topic. He covers several issues, including the time limit problem and hardware issues. Best of all, he includes links to other relevant articles in his footnotes. Check it out!

About the 25^th Space Coast Open Chess Festival

An event created by chess players for chess players! 

This page last updated December 9, 2017. 

Dates: April 27-29, 2018 or April 28-29, 2018

Confirmed Titled Players:

TBD

Past Space Coast Open Champions:

2017 – GM GM Timur Gareyev

2016 – GM Andrey Stukopin, GM Julio Becerra (tie)

2015 – GM Julio Becerra

2014 – GM Mikheil Kekelidze, IM Alex Reprintsev, IM Javad Maharramzade (tie)

2013 – IM Nikolay Andrianov, GM Alex Yermolinsky (tie)

2012 – IM Javad Maharramzade

2011 – GM Julio Becerra

2010 – NM Eric Rodriguez

2009 – NM Jeffrey Haskel

2008 – IM Javad Maharramzade

2007 (Wojtkiewicz Memorial) – GM Alex Stripunsky

2006 – GM Aleks Wojtkiewicz

2005 – GM Julio Becerra

2004 – GM Aleks Wojtkiewicz

2003 – GM Aleks Wojtkiewicz

2002 – GM Aleks Wojtkiewicz

2001 – GM Sergey Kudrin

2000 – IM Virgil Grabliauskes, IM Blas Lugo, NM Marcel Martinez, GM Gennady Sagalchik (tie)

1999 – IM Rashid Ziatdinov

1998 – NM Fabio La Rota

1997 – GM Sergey Kudrin

1995 – GM Gabriel Schwartzman

1992 – NM Mikhail Braude

1991 – Bruce Koopmans

USCF Grand Prix Points: 60

Master Section FIDE Rated (USCF ratings used for pairings and prizes)

5 round Swiss System, Top section FIDE rated at G/90+30 seconds increment. All other sections but Class E/U1200 G/120 d5, Class E/U1200 G/90 d5 (2-day Rd. 1 for all sections G/60 d5).

International Palms Resort, 1300 North Atlantic Avenue. (Hwy A1A), Cocoa Beach, FL 32931. 

$$20,000 b/240 paid, $15,000 Guaranteed     

6 Sections:

1. Master/Expert (open to rated 2000 and higher) $$2000+trophy-1000-500-300, U2400 $1500+trophy-750, U2200 $1400+trophy-700-400.
2. Class A (open to 1600-1999) $$1200+trophy-600-400-200.
3. Class B (open to 1400-1799) $$1100+trophy-500-300-200.
4. Class C (open to 1200-1599) $$1000+trophy-500-300-200.
5. Class D (open to 800-1399) $$900+trophy-450-200-100, Top Senior (55+) $250+trophy.
6. Class E/U1200 (open to under 1200) $$800+trophy-400-200. U1000 $500+trophy-300.  U800 $400+trophy-200, Top Senior (55+) $250+trophy. Trophies to top Brevard County scholastic players in grades K-3, K-5, K-8, K-12.

Special Prizes.

Top Upsets Rds 1-4: Book Prize
Wojtkiewicz Brilliancy Prizes: 1^st $200, 2^nd $100, 3rd $50 (Judge: IM Javad Maharramzade)

Master/Expert Section Modified Sofia Rule: No draw offers permitted prior to move 40.

All, Fine Print:

Players in Master section are required to turn in completed scoresheets at completion of each round (Reference USCF Rule 15G). Rated players may play in eligible sections as show in above Section prize details. Unrated may play in any section but may not win over $300 prize or trophy unless place prize (1st-4th overall) in Master/Expert section.
½-point Bye available any round if requested in advance and before round 2 (limit 2).  No Smoking. No computers. Wheelchair accessible.

Players may not use or watch cellphones during play. Continental Chess Association rules and penalties will apply. Seehttp://www.chesstour.com/devices.htm.

Entry Fee:

$114 by 4/20, $20 more later or on-site. $20 discount if unrated or under age 18.

Special EF for Brevard County students in K-12 playing in any section: $25 on-line by 4/20, $5 more later or at site (counts as ¼ entry for based on prize fund).

GMs and IMs free entry available on-line until 3/31, else $120 from prize.  Free entry to past Master Section winners listed above (GM/IMs enter on-line; Other past Champions e-mail your name, playing schedule & Byes requested to jon@bocachess.com)

Re-entries $50 by round 3 (½ point Byes for missed rounds).

Indicate 2-day or 3-day when mailing entry. Entries not indicating which schedule is desired will be placed in the 2-day schedule.

Registration ends ½ hr before 1st round (ends 7 p.m. Friday or 9:30 a.m. Saturday).

Rounds:          Rd. 1 7:30 p.m. Fri (2-day: 10a.m. Sat at G/60, d5),

Rd. 2 1:15 p.m. Sat.

Rd. 3 6:30 p.m. Sat. (except for Class E/U1200 which is at 5:45 p.m.)

Rd. 4 9:30 a.m. Sunday

Rd. 5 2:30 p.m. Sunday (except for Class E/U1200 which is at 1:45 p.m.)

Hotel Rate: $109, Oceanside $129, Loft $129. Resort fee waived. Reservations: Hotel phone number 800-206-2747 or 321-392-1647. Restaurants, bar & grill, pool, beach, beach volleyball, beach rentals.  Plus many other restaurants nearby. Group code SCC18. Group rate is available for 3 days before and after the tournament. VERY IMPORTANT: Reserve early. Group rate available until April 6 or until Group rooms are sold out, whichever comes first.  The group rate is *unlikely* to be available after the cut-off date.  RESERVE EARLY. Note: our book vendor, Steve Cernobyl, would like to share a room. If interested contact him at (954) 347-2661.

Side events:

Space Coast Open Blitz (USCF rated). G/5 d0. Prizes: Cash prizes based on entries. EF $20 (enter and pay at tournament site). Blitz starts at 10:15 pm Saturday.

Worldwide Broadcast: the top 5 boards will be broadcast on Chess24. Master section results and standings will also be posted on Chess24 after each round.

Extras and more Side Events:

Free Master and GM lectures:

- Saturday: 10am: TBD
- Saturday: 11am: TBD

Books and Equipment by Hollywood Kings Chess.

Send Entries payable to: “Space Coast Chess Foundation, Inc.”, c/o Jon Haskel, 2385 NW Executive Center Dr., #100, Boca Raton, FL 33431. PLEASE: no phone or e-mail entries. Credit Card entry available via this web site only (www.spacecoastchessfoundation.org/p/events.html).  ADVANCE ON-LINE REGISTRATION ENDS April 20, LATE ON-LINE REGISTRATION ENDS 5 PM APRIL 26. Otherwise, you may enter at the site.

General Info: Jon Haskel 561-302-4377 (jon@bocachess.com)

2018 USATS

Once again we're nearing the annual United States Amateur Team Championship dates. This year the South edition will once again be held in Kissimmee, Florida. (That's basically south Orlando for those that may be reading this but don't know Central Florida. It's Walt Disney World's back yard or front porch, depending on how you want to look at it.)

Once again Jon Haskel of the Boca Raton Chess Club is organizing and directing the event. The tournament flyer can be found here, and other information can be found here. Additionally, over to the right you will see that I have added a page with some of this information, so it can always be found quickly even as this post moves down the page. That page of information can be found at this link.

Be sure to get the word out to anyone that might not here about the tournament through other means, and start putting your teams together! We're already working on ours.

BOOOOOM! MAGNUS!

A French chess livestreamer finds out he's playing Magnus Carlsen online. A Grob is assayed. Hilarity ensues.



H/t Tarjei J. Svensen

Another Boring Catalan

FIDE's World Cup Tournament kicked off today. The format is 128 players in a knockout format. Agadmator provides some video analysis of a boring Catalan from the first day. I recommend it.



You can find an interview with the player of the White pieces here.

A couple of endgames to ponder

First, a puzzle from LiChess, who take their puzzles from users games. Find the best move for White.

The answer later.

Second, another position with White to move.

Black's ...Kd7-e6 targets White's h-pawn. White clearly has to move his king now. Which way should the White king go?

A crazy game!

Chess.com tweeted a link to a crazy game one of their users, Spektrowski, had posted the other day. Here's a link to the game, with Spektrowski's analysis. I HIGHLY recommend playing through this game, as it is border-line deranged. Just hit the "PLAY" button first, and watch the madness ensue. If you want to play through it more slowly, either to follow Spektrowski's analysis or to analyze it yourself, do that after letting autoplay take you down the rabbit hole.

Analysis Time

Here's a tweet from FM Carsten Hansen.

Zivkovic-Kurajica
Teslic 2006
White to move
White played 21.Rd2 and draw agreed - White can play another move to win. #chess #schach pic.twitter.com/guPQUv610D

— Carsten Hansen (@CazHansen) August 27, 2017

The first two or three moves suggest themselves. Then it gets harder. Add your analysis in the comments, and I'll post the correct line later.

ANALYSIS can be found here.

A new book coming soon from Quality Chess

Quality Chess has just sent a new book to the presses, Playing 1.d4 d5 by Nikos Ntirlis. They have also kindly presented a 15 page excerpt to wet our appetites. The excerpt can be found here.

Mate in bunch.

If the answer doesn't make you smile, you either (a) haven't found the right answer, or (b) are dead inside.

Most statisfying chess puzzle ever.
White to move and win! 😎 pic.twitter.com/FiMnXCSYKn

— Johan Salomon (@JohanSalomon) August 23, 2017

Product Review: Internet Chess Club

The tl;dr version is: Skip this product.

Longer:

Issues that had been seemingly resolved 20 years ago are making this site unplayable now. Lag is a big problem for online gaming, and has always been so. Chess sites, back in the early days, developed time seal or time stamp programs to solve this issue. The idea is that moves are stamped with the time of sending, so that if one player is lagging, his clock shouldn't run unless he has received his opponents move, and a corresponding signal would be sent back to the server. Thus the problem was solved for ICC back in the day, or at least ameliorated.

That no longer appears to be the case. I am watching my clock either suddenly lose time when my opponent's move finally gets "delivered", or I am watching my clock run for a LONG time. This even occurs after premoves. I once saw my clock run for 45 seconds on a pre-move. One a #$%ing pre-move!

Needless to say, this is making the site unplayable. There are many other good features on the site, including instructional videos and training programs, but such things are ubiquitous these days. I just don't think it is worth the money to get such things when the actual main feature of the site is [redacted] worthless. I've contacted support, and gotten no actual help on this issue. Perhaps other sites also have this problem, but I haven't PAID other sites, either. Save your money, and don't buy it.

...

It's a real shame to watch the early chess playing sites go completely down the toilet. But they haven't kept up, and their actual coding has gotten worse with experience.

Chess is funny

Taking a break from housekeeping today, I reached the following position as Black, with the move. My question is, how would you evaluate the position?

The position arose from a French Exchange variation. I felt pretty good about my prospects here, as I was threatening to win the pawn on d4 in a few moves, and White's play felt too slow on the kingside.

After the game, I backed it up and looked at it to see where my opponent went off the rails. It turns out, it was the move 19 g4. He is now down about the equivalent of a rook! Here's the thing, and the reason I'm posting this: Black doesn't have a big knockout blow here. It's just that his play is very, very easy, and even with the sub-optimal 19...Nf4, I won when my opponent resigned on move 31 with a mate in one on the board. Black looks better, but who would think it was a crushing advantage?

Orlando Chess at the Sinquefield Cup

Yesterday I saw this tweet from @LiChess and thought, "Don't I know the person sitting next to Rex Sinquefield?"

Man of the people Rex Sinquefield can often be found in the front row of the crowd watching the live broadcast at the chess club. pic.twitter.com/Ufc6xliDG1

— Lichess (@lichess) August 5, 2017

Today I got confirmation that it was someone I know. Lars & Jen Hansen's Orlando Chess House twitter account tweeted out the following:

At #SinquefieldCup in St Louis pic.twitter.com/oewKwHn3Ie

— Orlando Chess House (@OrlandoChess) August 6, 2017

Enjoying chess with old and new friends at #SinquefieldCup in St Louis pic.twitter.com/KQvppKcJSQ

— Orlando Chess House (@OrlandoChess) August 6, 2017

The Orlando crowd hanging out at #SinquefieldCup in St Louis pic.twitter.com/BO1z8gMYDI

— Orlando Chess House (@OrlandoChess) August 6, 2017

It turns out there's quite the Orlando crowd up there!