Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Shulman beats Hess: championship finals against Kamsky begin today
Big news from Yury's interview with Maurice Ashley and Jennifer Shahade: Gabriel Shulman was born on Sunday. Congratulations to mom and dad!
Coverage at Chess Life Online and ChessBase.
The two-game finals match begins at 2 p.m.: follow it live at uschesschamps.com!
Sunday, April 24, 2011
The shortest post
Hello from Philadelphia! Sometimes playing chess gets in the way of blogging about chess.
Gata Kamsky beat Sam Shankland to reach the finals of the 2011 U.S. Championship. Our own Yury Shulman faces Robert Hess in a rapid playoff to determine the other finalist tomorrow. Follow the action at uschesschamps.com: the Shulman-Hess playoff begins at 2 p.m.
Gata Kamsky beat Sam Shankland to reach the finals of the 2011 U.S. Championship. Our own Yury Shulman faces Robert Hess in a rapid playoff to determine the other finalist tomorrow. Follow the action at uschesschamps.com: the Shulman-Hess playoff begins at 2 p.m.
Friday, April 22, 2011
The longest game
Many websites claim that the longest possible chess game is 5,949 moves. Very few of them attempt to explain this number. I'm sure that it's wrong. In the first place, there is no limit to a game's length unless you compel the players to invoke the 50-move rule. A player may claim a draw if no pawn has been moved, and no piece captured, for 50 moves, but it's not mandatory. Rule 9.3 of the Laws of Chess provides that the draw occurs only if a correct claim of such is made by the player who is on move. For an example of this in practice, see Fressinet-Kosteniuk. The last capture of the game (of the last pawn) was on move 121, leaving a rook and bishop verus rook ending. Yet the game continued until move 237, when Fressinet resigned. (In Wikipedia, I explain why Fressinet did not try to claim a draw.)
OK, we'll take care of that by stipulating that each player must invoke the 50-move rule as soon as possible. We'll also stipulate that the game will be declared an immediate draw once there is insufficient material to checkmate (e.g. king and bishop versus king, king and knight versus king, or king versus king).
There is another wrinkle. Traditionally, one thinks of 50 moves as beginning with White's move number x and ending with Black's move x + 49 (for example, moves 1-50). Suppose, however, that White captures a piece on, say, move 1,000, and the next capture or pawn move occurs on Black's move 1,050. There is a strong argument that the interval from Black's 1,000th move through White's 1,050th move constitute 50 moves by each side, thus allowing the 50-move rule to be invoked. (Black has played moves 1000 to 1049, and White, moves 1001 to 1050.) I'm sure there's some simple way to deal with this, but since it doesn't come to mind, I'm going to ignore this problem. My final number may thus be a little too high - but it will be enough above 5,949 to show that that number is wrong.
OK, let's start counting. The players start out just bouncing their knights around. 1.Nc3 Nf6 2.Nh3 Na6. The 50th move by both players is 50.Ng8 Rxg8. The 100th moves is 100.Nb8 Rxb8. For the next 100 moves, Black keeps moving his knights, while White plays Ra1-b1-a1 and Rh1-g1-h1. White captures Black's knights on moves 150 and 200. 200 moves down, knights gone, we move on to pawn moves. There are sixteen pawns, each of which can move six times. 6 x 16 x 50 = 4,800. Then you take 50 moves each to capture the sixteen promoted pawns, the four rooks, the four bishops, and the two queens. 26 x 50 = 1,300. Make sure to save a rook or a queen for last, so the game can't be declared a draw because there's no mating material. After the pieces and pawns are gone, we're left with two kings, and the game is declared a draw. How long is the game? Adding the numbers together, we get 200 + 4,800 + 1,300 = 6,300 moves. As I say, this number may be a little too high because of the wrinkle explained in the prior paragraph. But even if we reduced it by a fiftieth (which I'm sure is too high), the number would be 6,174, so 5,949 is clearly too low. Another myth bites the dust.
UPDATE: Professor John Gossage points out a small flaw in my count. The pawns will not be able to get past each other unless you give them something to capture. So a few moves will have to be subtracted from my 6,300 number to account for that.
FURTHER ADDENDUM: Phony Benoni observes as ChessGames.com, "I think the pawn captures might have more of an effect on your longest move computation than you think. For all the pawns to promote, there must be at least eight pawn captures. For example, White might play axb, cxd, exf, gxh, while Black plays bxa, dxc, fxe, hxg.
This would reduce your count by 400 moves, dropping it from 6300 to 5900. The difference might be due to the usual counters not making your assumption to immediately declare a draw with K vs. K before playing an additional 50 moves."
Hmm, I'm afraid Phony Benoni makes an excellent point. I figured that each pawn move and each piece capture would add another 50 moves to the game's length. If many of the pawn moves have to be both pawn moves and piece captures, that radically reduces the number of moves. So it seems that I am full of it and that 5,949 or something close to it may indeed be correct. Dang. As Emily Litella would say, "Never mind."
YET ANOTHER ADDENDUM: Correspondence Grandmaster Jesper Norgaard says that the correct number is 5,898 - counting king versus king as an instant draw, which is a relatively recent addition to the FIDE Laws of Chess. So, taking the rosiest view of things, you could say that I was on the right track, apart from failing to recognize that eight pawn captures are necessary and that these shave 400 moves off the maximum.
OK, we'll take care of that by stipulating that each player must invoke the 50-move rule as soon as possible. We'll also stipulate that the game will be declared an immediate draw once there is insufficient material to checkmate (e.g. king and bishop versus king, king and knight versus king, or king versus king).
There is another wrinkle. Traditionally, one thinks of 50 moves as beginning with White's move number x and ending with Black's move x + 49 (for example, moves 1-50). Suppose, however, that White captures a piece on, say, move 1,000, and the next capture or pawn move occurs on Black's move 1,050. There is a strong argument that the interval from Black's 1,000th move through White's 1,050th move constitute 50 moves by each side, thus allowing the 50-move rule to be invoked. (Black has played moves 1000 to 1049, and White, moves 1001 to 1050.) I'm sure there's some simple way to deal with this, but since it doesn't come to mind, I'm going to ignore this problem. My final number may thus be a little too high - but it will be enough above 5,949 to show that that number is wrong.
OK, let's start counting. The players start out just bouncing their knights around. 1.Nc3 Nf6 2.Nh3 Na6. The 50th move by both players is 50.Ng8 Rxg8. The 100th moves is 100.Nb8 Rxb8. For the next 100 moves, Black keeps moving his knights, while White plays Ra1-b1-a1 and Rh1-g1-h1. White captures Black's knights on moves 150 and 200. 200 moves down, knights gone, we move on to pawn moves. There are sixteen pawns, each of which can move six times. 6 x 16 x 50 = 4,800. Then you take 50 moves each to capture the sixteen promoted pawns, the four rooks, the four bishops, and the two queens. 26 x 50 = 1,300. Make sure to save a rook or a queen for last, so the game can't be declared a draw because there's no mating material. After the pieces and pawns are gone, we're left with two kings, and the game is declared a draw. How long is the game? Adding the numbers together, we get 200 + 4,800 + 1,300 = 6,300 moves. As I say, this number may be a little too high because of the wrinkle explained in the prior paragraph. But even if we reduced it by a fiftieth (which I'm sure is too high), the number would be 6,174, so 5,949 is clearly too low. Another myth bites the dust.
UPDATE: Professor John Gossage points out a small flaw in my count. The pawns will not be able to get past each other unless you give them something to capture. So a few moves will have to be subtracted from my 6,300 number to account for that.
FURTHER ADDENDUM: Phony Benoni observes as ChessGames.com, "I think the pawn captures might have more of an effect on your longest move computation than you think. For all the pawns to promote, there must be at least eight pawn captures. For example, White might play axb, cxd, exf, gxh, while Black plays bxa, dxc, fxe, hxg.
This would reduce your count by 400 moves, dropping it from 6300 to 5900. The difference might be due to the usual counters not making your assumption to immediately declare a draw with K vs. K before playing an additional 50 moves."
Hmm, I'm afraid Phony Benoni makes an excellent point. I figured that each pawn move and each piece capture would add another 50 moves to the game's length. If many of the pawn moves have to be both pawn moves and piece captures, that radically reduces the number of moves. So it seems that I am full of it and that 5,949 or something close to it may indeed be correct. Dang. As Emily Litella would say, "Never mind."
YET ANOTHER ADDENDUM: Correspondence Grandmaster Jesper Norgaard says that the correct number is 5,898 - counting king versus king as an instant draw, which is a relatively recent addition to the FIDE Laws of Chess. So, taking the rosiest view of things, you could say that I was on the right track, apart from failing to recognize that eight pawn captures are necessary and that these shave 400 moves off the maximum.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
William Penn and Mesgen Amanov
Center City Philadelphia is a wonderful place to visit: lots to see and do, many great placed to eat. Walking is a pleasure!
Chicagoland organizers, please give some thought to your out-of-town guests when planning weekend events!
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Daniel Wright Jr. High (Lincolnshire) at K-8 Nationals
Congratulations to Alex Bian, Conrad Oberhaus, Zachary Holecek, and Victoria Bian, who led Daniel Wright Jr. High to 2nd place in K-8 nationals.
First place was (of course?) New York's I.S. 318 team. Now that Elizabeth Vicary is engaged and maddeningly succesful, we do not find her quite so charming ;-)
Hat tip to David Holecek.
First place was (of course?) New York's I.S. 318 team. Now that Elizabeth Vicary is engaged and maddeningly succesful, we do not find her quite so charming ;-)
Hat tip to David Holecek.
1 NYI318 I.S. 318, Brooklyn,NY (25) 23.5 92.5 126.5 205.0 97.0
BLACK, James A, Jr (6.5,2156)
FENG, Danny (6.0,1993)
KIM, David (5.5,1777)
WILLIAMS, Rashawn J (5.5,1778)
2 ILDWJH Daiel Wright JHS, Lincolnshire, (5) 19.5 70.0 98.0 139.0 77.0
BIAN, Alex (5.5,1839)
OBERHAUS, Conrad (5.0,1888)
HOLECEK, Zachary (4.5,1907)
BIAN, Victoria (4.5,1516)
Citadel's CICL blog
Matthias Pfau reports on Citadel's CICL season and provides video commentary on several of his teammates' games. Check it out!
25 CICL players are playing in Citadel's summer league tournament. The conditions are ideal, and the folks at Citadel are most gracious hosts.
25 CICL players are playing in Citadel's summer league tournament. The conditions are ideal, and the folks at Citadel are most gracious hosts.
Hello from Philadelphia
How can anyone lose the White side of the Catalan in 24 moves? I just did, and I've got eight rounds of torture to go!
GM Amanov and NM Aramil are both here: of course, they were paired against each other. (They're still playing: looks drawish.)
NM Andrew Karklins lost to an IM in the first round.
GM Amanov and NM Aramil are both here: of course, they were paired against each other. (They're still playing: looks drawish.)
NM Andrew Karklins lost to an IM in the first round.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Nice field for this weekend's Scott Silverman Memorial
IM Felecan, FM Chow, and NMs Jayakumar, Weber, and Burgess are among the preregistrants, not to mention the legendary Les Bale. Register now: the field will be capped at 40.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Last-round pairings at K-8 Nationals
I believe that play is already over; no results posted online yet....Board "65" is top board in this event.
65. Mc Clanahan, Gav (5.5,ILG009,1958) Karamsetty, Jeev (5.5,VAH001,2158) 66. Li, Brian S (5.5,VAC003,2044) Black, James A, (5.5,NYI318,2156) 67. Deatrick, Alexan (5.5,MIA007,1916) Colas, Joshua (5.0,NYW006,2181) 68. Wang, Tianqi (5.0,NCJMRO,1998) Pershad, Yash (5.0,AZS011,1755) 69. Feng, Danny (5.0,NYI318,1993) Wolfe, Tip (5.0,VAMOOD,1908) 70. Attanagoda, Isur (5.0,VALOUA,1958) Williams, Rashaw (5.0,NYI318,1778) 71. Best, Ronald, Jr (5.0,MDB015,1753) Fishbein, Matthe (5.0,MEC002,1942) 72. Sen, Samir (4.5,WAV007,2067) Mittal, Rohan (4.5,AZT003,1794) 73. Berman, Jacob (4.5,NYN007,1821) Ainsworth, Micha (4.5,NYW006,1993) 74. Holecek, Zachary (4.5,ILDWJH,1907) Kim, David (4.5,NYI318,1777) 75. Zinski, Maximili (4.5,ILW006,1770) Li, Richard Zide (4.5,VAC003,1902) 76. Cao, Alvin (4.5,VAF001,1735) Bian, Alex (4.5,ILDWJH,1839) 77. Mhaskar, Rohan (4.5,WIB003,1825) Daniel, Tarun (4.5,GARIVE,1585) 78. Kobajlo, Jakob (4.5,NYI318,1643) Moon, Kyle (4.0,NYP126,2045) 79. Chen, Jackson (4.0,COSUMM,1916) Garcia, John Pau (4.0,NYI318,1697) 80. Song, Edward (4.0,MIBOUL,1912) Mathine, Thomas (4.0,AZT021,1697) 81. Oberhaus, Conrad (4.0,ILDWJH,1888) Bikus, Joey (4.0,ILM004,1689) 82. Dommalapati, Abh (4.0,VAF001,1692) Bagley, Taylor M (4.0,KYL010,1885) 83. Schein, Aaron O (4.0,NYHORA,1867) Cai, Jesse (4.0,VALONG,1686) 84. Zhou, Jonathan (4.0,INCANT,1699) Marupudi, Pranav (4.0,NJM009,1857) 85. Chu, Ken N (4.0,NCC017,1839) Lu, Mandy (4.0,MIP002,1685) 86. Tuff, Sean Theod (4.0,MNFALC,1652) Nguyen, Kendrick (4.0,AZS016,1821) 87. Li, Hans (4.0,VAC003,1646) Chen, Derek H (4.0,AZT003,1817) 88. Bhatta, Rohit (4.0,TXE008,1676) Mendez, Fernando (4.0,TXVELA,1812) 89. Whitehorn, Grego (4.0,PAP002,1810) Naguleswaran, Ann (4.0,OHDCE,1644) 90. Santoyo, Edgar A (4.0,TXVELA,1644) Rivera, Randy (4.0,NYI318,1800) 91. Mo, Jack (4.0,PAP007,1614) Coulter, Jarod M (4.0,AZC010,1791) 92. Shankar, Roshan (4.0,ILW002,1592) Khattar, Tanmay (4.0,VAF001,1765) 93. Rajasekaran, Vig (4.0,VAMOOD,1725) Chandler, Camero (4.0,NCC003,1525) 94. Pennock, Joshua (4.0,AZT003,1493) Sun, Abe (4.0,ILG011,1717) 95. Lorenzon, Marco (4.0,MIA006,1715) Li, Haoxuan (4.0,NCJMRO,1476) 96. Mc Clanahan, Bry (3.5,ILG009,1845) Budejen-Jerez, A (4.0,PAJRMA,1256)
Saturday, April 16, 2011
4-round Swiss at North Shore CC tomorrow
If you drop me an email for your event, I'll generally cut-and-paste the notice "as-is." Sometimes I forget: it's OK to remind me!
Sunday April 17
North Shore Chess Center G/45 - 4R-SS G/45 + 10/sec increment. North Shore Chess Center, 5500 West Touhy Ave Suite A, Skokie, IL 60077.847.423.8626. EF: $20 for non-members of the chess center, $15 for members of the chess center received by 4/16. All $5 more onsite. Onsite registration - up to 15 minutes prior to round 1 or round 2. If registering prior to round 2, you will receive a half-point bye for round 1. Round times: 1pm for round one and then 15 minutes after final game from previous round completed. Half-point byes available in any round. Prizes: Book prizes for top three finishers. Biggest upset (150+ points): Free entry to following month G/45 + book prize.Parking: Free self-parking. Mail entries with registration information to:North American Chess Association (make checks payable to), 4957 Oakton Street Suite 113, Skokie, IL 60077. Online registration preferred. Additional questions email to: sevan@nachess.org. USCF rated. For online registration and list of more events please visit - http://www.nachess.org/events
Scott Silverman Memorial next Saturday
I made travel plans before I knew about this event.to honor the memory of our friend Scott....
Scott Silverman Memorial Tournament
Saturday April 23, 2011. The Scott Silverman Memorial. $750 guaranteed prize fund. 4R-SS G/60 + 5/sec delay.
Prizes: 1st place - $250, 2nd place - $150, Top U2200, U2000, 1800, 1600, 1400 - $70 each, Biggest upset per round - chess prize (minimum 150 point rating difference). The field will be limited to 6 players rated over 2200 by invitation only with the remainder to be U2200 by open registration.
Rd Times: Rd 1 @ 10am; next rounds 15 minutes after final games complete from previous round.
EF: $20 online (http://www.nachess.org/events) or onsite. No postal entries. Hard limit of 40 participants.
Other info: April supplement used. USCF rated. USCF Membership Required. All equipment provided.
Location: North Shore Chess Center 5500 W Touhy Ave Suite A Skokie, IL 60077. Questions - sevan@nachess.org.
Friday, April 15, 2011
IS 318 in Chicago
Girls from Elizabeth Vicary's famous IS 318 team in Brooklyn came to Chicago to participate in the All Girls, and (not surprisingly) did rather well. Read all about it!
Vicary analyzing with her student Mariah
Moya-Cogshell, Chicago 2011
White to play and win
Analyze forcing moves first!
Games from Downers Grove
Daniel Parmet presents a very nice overview of the action at ICA's Chess Blog.
The following howler makes me feel a little better about my own blunders (as it did for Daniel). Strong masters do silly things, too...though not as often.
The following howler makes me feel a little better about my own blunders (as it did for Daniel). Strong masters do silly things, too...though not as often.
Monokroussos-Stamnov, Downers Grove 2011
Black answered 58.Qe5 with 58...Rf7??
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
So what do chess and tennis have in common?
Jim Egerton explains here. (Via tennis dad Brad Rosen.) Do check out Jim's Chess Now website!
Monday, April 11, 2011
Chess meetup in Evanston
Another cut-and-paste:
Levy Senior Center, 300 Dodge Ave, Evanston, IL 60202
Apr 16, 2011
12 noon - 4 p.m.
Chess Meet-up
Evanston Chess Club will hold an open chess session on Saturday, April 16 from noon to 4 p.m. Stop by and play as many -- or as few games -- as you want. Players of all strengths, age 14 years and older are welcome.
We're sponsoring this Chess Meet-Up as part of the International chess.com meetup. We're extending a special welcome to chess.com online players in our area to come out and play over-the-board.
No registration required. For more information, please contact Maret Thorpe as noted below.
Send name, USCF number, and telephone number to Maret Thorpe enter@evanstonchess.org
Bring clocks. -- Wheelchair accessible. No Smoking.
Final results of All Girls National
...are on the Renaissance Knights website.
Congratulations to Penny Xu, who took 2nd place in Girls' Under 18, and to Adele Padgett, who tied for first (taking 2nd on the fourth tiebreak!) in Girls' Under 16. Story to follow on Chess Life Online.
Congratulations to Penny Xu, who took 2nd place in Girls' Under 18, and to Adele Padgett, who tied for first (taking 2nd on the fourth tiebreak!) in Girls' Under 16. Story to follow on Chess Life Online.
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