Historical video of World Microprocessor Chess Championship, 1985

Recently somebody posted a video of the WMCC held in 1985! (link at the bottom of the page)

This video is of the World Microcomputer Chess Championship (WMCC) held in the World Trade Center, Amsterdam, 1985! Overall 16 teams participated and it was won by Mephisto! In fact, Mephisto had 3 versions running in that tournament and they took the first 3 spots! (The programs were written in Assembly language!!!)

Mephisto was designed by Richard Lang (yup the same guy who later designed Chess Genius)
Mephisto was running on a 16-bit Motorola 68000 microprocessor (back in those days, my company Motorola made microprocessors! Now it is a “software company”, having outsourced the manufacturing  unit to Flextronics)

On the rest day, the Dutch GM Gennadi Sosonko (2550) gave a 31 board simul including 10 computers! The simul lasted a whooping 8 hours and he scored 25.5 – 5.5

An interesting position

Blitz Monster Y – Turbostar K
Position after 61. Kc1

In this position, Turbostar played 61… Rb6? and the game ended in a draw after some moves.

Instead 61… Rxb7!! (Engines like Critter find this move and the winning line in a few seconds! ) 62. Rxb7 f2 63. Rb4+ Kf5

 64. Rb5+ Ke6 (64… Kg6?? 65. h5+ and White wins) 65. Rb6+ Kf7 66. Rb7+ Kg6

and the Black pawn cannot be stopped from Queening.

Tournament Crosstable (Top 5)

Rank Program Country Hardware Score Games SOS SoDOS Title
1 Mephisto Amsterdam 1 flag GBR 68020 (32 bit, std. freq.) 8.0 8 29.0 29.00 Champ!
2 Mephisto Amsterdam 3 flag GBR 68000 (16 bit) 7.0 8 27.5 24.50
3 Mephisto Amsterdam 2 flag GBR 68000 (16 bit) 7.0 8 27.5 24.25
4 Princhess 6 flag SWE 6502 (8 bit) 4.5 8 35.0 12.50
5 Blitz Monster Y flag USA 6502 (8 bit) 4.0 8 36.0 14.00

source: http://www.grappa.univ-lille3.fr/icga/round.php?tournament=63

PGN download


More details and pics

Video (in German) – also features Susan Polgar in the end!

Source : Ed Schroder mentioned about these videos on his site and on talkchess.com.

Chess reading for the week – March 18

Here are some interesting chess posts for the week:
From Indian Express : Interview with Pentyala Harikrishna
Harikrishna is currently rated 2706 and is India #2 and World #43!
“On the possibility of breaking into top 10:
In order to reach the top 10, I have to gain another 35 to 40 points. I need to perform consistently in at least six to seven tournaments in the next seven months. I have to chose the right tournaments to play against good players.”
From Vishy Anand on Twitter during round 3
The champ is closely following each game and really appreciates what the players are going through.
From ibtimes.co.uk : Young Norwegian Number One is the David Beckham of Chess
“I have no doubt that when I am playing at my best, I am the best. The ratings don’t lie,” said Carlsen
Carlsen recently fronted an advertising campaign for the fashion label G-Star Raw alongside the actress Liv Tyler, counts Hollywood actor Ben Stiller as a friend, and was recently offered a role – as a chess grand master – in the film Star Trek Into Darkness.”
From chess-news.ru : “When the Brilliant Players Are At the Board”
“We have followed the game closely with Ruslan Ponomariov who gave a live commentary on Chess-News radio. Here we offer you some of his remarks which were available on our Twitter page:
Ponomariov on Ivanchuk-Aronian opening:
“Ivanchuk today plays like Aronian“
“What Ivanchuk does looks more like improvisation than preparation”
“Ivanchuk playes a bit impudently, but it’s unclear how to refute…”
“Honeslty, at the moment I’m a bit disappointed in Ivanchuk“
“Ivanchuk’s position is way too insecure now”
Ivanchuk has 3 minutes for 17 moves. Ponomariov: “Here he should already play following his intuition and forget that the hands are trembling…”
“It’s hard to commentate when the brilliant players are at the board…”
“For Ivanchuk it’s already not about winning the tournament; important is that he will at least recover”
From chessbase.com : A bodycheck, a Krushing attack, a rook retreat…
“The London Candidates Tournament is great, but something’s missing: not a single female player. For those of you suffering withdrawal our ChessBase Magazine columnist GM Karsten Müller has taken a look back at the Women’s World Team Championship and some of the instructive and entertaining endgame it produced”

Revisiting Linares 1998

Today is the day when Anand won his first Linares title in 1998 (yeah Carlsen was just 8 years old!). Anand again won Linares nearly a decade later in 2007 and 2008!
The “Wimbledon of Chess” was played from 22-Feb-1998 to 9-Mar-1998.

XV Ciudad de Linares (ESP), 1998 ————————————————————— 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ————————————————————— 1 Viswanathan Anand g IND ** 1= 0= == 1= =1 =1 7½ 2 Alexei Shirov g ESP 0= ** == =1 10 10 11 7 3 Garry Kasparov g RUS 1= == ** == == == == 6½ 4 Vladimir Kramnik g RUS == =0 == ** =1 == 1= 6½ 5 Peter Svidler g RUS 0= 01 == =0 ** 10 =1 5½ 6 Vassily Ivanchuk g UKR =0 01 == == 01 ** 0= 5 7 Veselin Topalov g BUL =0 00 == 0= =0 1= ** 4

Here are some interesting games from each round.

Round 1 – Shirov 0-1 Anand, rest drawn

Shirov – Anand, 0-1
A rare concentration of heavy pieces around a pawn!

Shirov – Anand, 0-1
Final winning position

I consider this a model game where the two Rooks nicely outplay the White Queen.

Round 2 – All games decisive. Anand 1-0 Svidler. Ivanchuk blunders!

Ivanchuk – Shirov, 0-1
Position after Ivanchuk’s 30.Rf3??
Black to play and win (solution at the bottom)


Round 3 – Kasparov defeats Anand, Ivanchuk blunders again!

Svidler – Ivanchuk, 1-0
Position after Ivanchuk’s 47…Nb7
White to play and win


Round 4, 5 – All games drawn

Round 6 – Shirov on fire, rest drawn


Shirov – Svidler, 1-0
Position after Black’s 25…g6
White to play and win

Round 7 – Topalov wins his first, Ivanchuk loses his 3rd


Ivanchuk – Topalov, 0-1
Position after Black’s 51…Kg5
Ivanchuk chose the fastest way to lose and
played 52. Rxh4 and resigned immediately


Round 8 – All drawn
Round 9 – Ivanchuk defeats Shirov, rest drawn.


Shirov – Ivanchuk, 0-1
A position that could have been!

Round 10
Topalov – Shirov, 0-1
How did Shirov choose to end the game?
Black to play and win
Ivanchuk – Svidler, 1-0
Can White stop the Black pawn on a3?
White to play and win
Round 11 – Svidler 1-0 Topalov, Shirov 1-0 Kramnik
Round 12 – Kramnik 1-0 Svidler, Anand’s master piece!
Ivanchuk – Anand, 0-1
Can you find a win for Black?
Black to play and win
Round 13 (last round) – Svidler 1-0 Shirov, Anand 1-0 Topalov

Anand – Topalov, 1-0
Position after Black’s 27…c5
After Anand’s Nb6+, Topalov gave up his Queen
and went on to lose 50 moves later
And thus Anand edged out Shirov to win Linares 1998!
Tid bits
  • Mighty Kasparov (2825) could only win one game and drew the rest of them to remain undefeated!
  • Shirov (placed 2nd) won the most games (five)


Solutions

Ivanchuk – Shirov
30… Rxe4 0-1

Svidler – Ivanchuk
48. Qxe5 dxe5 49. Rxd7 1-0

Shirov – Svidler
26. Bd7 Rd8 27. Be6 Re8 28. Qg5 1-0

Topalov – Shirov
47… Bh3! 48. gxh3 Kf5 49. Kf2 Ke4 50. Bxf6 d4 51. Be7 Kd3
52. Bc5 Kc4 53. Be7 Kb3 0-1

Ivanchuk – Svidler
47. Bc8 Kf7 48. h6 a2 49. Bxe6+ Kxe6 50. h7 a1=Q 51. h8=Q
and White went on to win in few more moves 1-0

Ivanchuk – Anand
21… Bxd5 22. exd5 Rxc2!! 23. Kxc2 Qxa2 24. f4 Rc8+
25. Kd2 Bxf4+ 26. Ke2 Qxb2+ 27. Kf3 Rc1 0-1

Download these games

[Pictures] Ubuntu Tablet OS on my Nexus 7

My curiosity got the better of me and I decided to try the Ubuntu Tablet OS Developer preview on my Nexus 7.

Things I liked (over Android)
  • Quick access to apps via Unity sidebar. (Android has “sidebar” and “unity” apps)
Challenges ahead for the Ubuntu OS (in no particular order)
  • Keyboard needs a lot of improvement
  • Less intuitive (had trouble figuring out how the swipe gestures work)
  • Show me the apps! Currently the Twitter, FB and Gmail apps are just shortcuts to the web. Nothing like native apps!
  • Google integration. Yes I am a Google power user
  • Switching between apps is clumsy (Android intents rock!)
  • Closing apps is painful (you need to swipe up from the bottom edge, then press the “X” icon.
  • Getting it to work on different screens. Some dummy apps clipped (see Game and Calculator images below)
Pictures
Home screen
(currently it is a static and does not do anything)
Recent apps
(swipe up from the bottom edge)
The Unity bar
(swipe rightwards from the left edge of the screen)
Gallery

 

Videos
       
Dummy Home screen
Dummy Music content
Dummy Call screen
Home screen (downloadable content)
 
Dummy Messages
Dummy Music screen
(does nothing)
 
Game gone for a toss
(does nothing)
Battery panel
(swipe down from the battery icon)
Could not change the Date/Time
(swipe down from the Date icon) 
“Sharing” screen
People home screen

 
Dummy Calculator
(clipped, does nothing)
Notes app
(worst keyboard ever)

Conclusion

Ubuntu Tablet OS has a LOT of work to do. If you are a Ubuntu Tablet OS developer, then you should stop reading this post and get back to work while I get back to flashing Android 4.2.2!
Categories
android chessbookstudy

Read Google Books using Chess Book Study Android app

Chess Book Study v2.0.1 now has a full built-in browser based on Zirco, the open-source browser.
With this the good news is that you can use the browser to read Google Books!
Here is how you can do it:
Step 1: Click “Open Web” and type http://books.google.com in the URL bar as shown below.

Once the page is loaded, click “My Library“. If you are on a Phone or other small screen device, you may need to scroll to the bottom of the page to see “My Library”

Step 2: Once you click “My Library”, Google will ask you to enter your username and password to sign-in. Enter your details and click “Sign in”. You can choose the “Remember password” option if you like. Once you are logged in, you can select your book from the “My Books on Google Play” list.

 Step 3: Once you choose a book above, it would load the book details. Now click on the Book Icon (highlighted below). In some cases, you would see a “Read Now” option to the left. If not, simply click the book image.

Step 4: The book will be loaded and you can move through the book.

In the coming months, I shall improve the experience of reading books online.

(Edit Apr 28) Note 0: The app may crash on some devices while trying this method. I am working on it!
Note 1: Google Books are proprietary and closed source. Hence it is not easy for the app to read the books offline.
Note 2: Unfortunately, Amazon Kindle books are not supported since Amazon currently only supports a limited set of browsers.

Which country has the most Titled (GM, WGM, IM etc) Chess players after Russia?

♚ Strongest Nations (by Avg rating of the Top 10 players of that country)

  Country Avg rating
1 Russia 2747
2 Ukraine 2704
3 China 2669
4 France 2663
5 Hungary 2661
6 Armenia 2661
7 United States of America 2654
8 Azerbaijan 2653
9 India 2639
10 Netherlands 2636

as of 2-Mar-2013

♚ Countries with most GMs

  Country Avg rating GMs
1 Russia 2747 216
2 Ukraine 2704 80
3 Germany 2629 80
4 United States of America 2654 77
5 Hungary 2661 52
6 Serbia 2587 52
7 France 2663 47
8 Spain 2589 41
9 Israel 2623 39
10 Poland 2633 35
11 England 2620 35
12 Bulgaria 2614 35

as of 2-Mar-2013

♚ Trivia: Which country has the most Titled (GM, WGM, IM etc) Chess players after Russia?

  Country Avg rating GMs IMs Total Titled
1 Russia 2747 216 501 2178
2 Germany 2629 80 233 1198
3 United States of America 2654 77 121 583
4 Serbia 2587 52 106 550
5 Ukraine 2704 80 197 493
6 Spain 2589 41 107 491
7 Hungary 2661 52 108 420
8 France 2663 47 95 357
9 Poland 2633 35 101 332
10 Netherlands 2636 30 78 293

as of 2-Mar-2013

I was quite surprised to see that after Russia, Germany has the most Titled players. And Germany has double the number than that of 3rd placed USA!

Germany’s top player is Arkadij Naiditsch who is #39 in the rankings. Go Germany!

PS. The number above seem to include non-active players too

Source: http://ratings.fide.com/topfed.phtml

Anand, Amazon and Abetment to suicide!

Yesterday was a good day, a very good day. Anand won a surprise game against Kramnik in the last round of Zurich Chess AND Chess Book Study and ebookdroid apps started to function properly in the  Amazon app store after more than 4 months ordeal!

Anand
No doubt Anand’s loss to Caruana was disappointing. Yesterday Anand was playing Kramnik in the last round and I logged in around the half way stage to find that the position was dead equal.
After Dinner, I suddenly remembered about the game and what a surprise awaited me!
This was my first reaction!!


Anand – Kramnik, R6, Zurich Classic – position after Kramnik’s 21…Qb8
Anand played 22. Rxa6! and after 22… Rxa6 23. Qxd3 Qxb2 24. Rb1 Rd6 25. Qxe2

 Qa2 26. Qb5 c6 27. Qb2 1-0 Kramnik resigned!
Guess, this mistake more than compensates for Anand’s incredible blunder against Kramnik in the Zurich Blitz.

    Anand – Kramnik, Zurich Blitz – position after Kramnik’s 44…axb3
Here Anand played 45. Rxb3 and immediately resigned!

Caruana had a dream outing, winning both the Blitz and Classic sections. Congrats to the future champ!

Amazon
After many weeks and months of frustration, the Chess Book Study and ebookdroid apps were finally made live again in the Amazon app store yesterday.

After some release in October, Chess Book Study app in the Amazon app store started to crash. Previously they worked just fine. It was difficult to understand, since the Play Store versions worked perfectly fine too. Versions which worked fine in my testing on the Kindle Fire emulator would simply crash during Amazon’s testing.
Amazon’s testing process is appalling and at times dumb. Chess Book Study and ebookdroid need to coexist. At one point, they approved Chess Book Study app and rejected the ebookdroid and Chess Book Study (Free) versions! huh!? What will a user do simply with the Chess Book Study app if they cannot install the ebookdroid app?
I just told Amazon that they are killing me (with this stupid process) and that they should simply allow me to jump off the Amazon building!! *sigh*

I figured that after uploading the humble app to the Amazon store, Amazon’s process somehow messes up the application. The upload process, which should be as simple as a one-step upload of the application binary, has now become a 5 step process which includes opening up the guts of the file modified by Amazon and undoing the damage that Amazon does to it and uploading it again to Amazon!

However, I am glad that the apps are finally live, although the damage (bad reviews) will be difficult to fix.

Life of a developer is never easy!

Categories
ichess

How to practice Chess Openings with iChess

iChess v3.1.3 was released today with several bug fixes and stability improvements.

As you know, iChess is great for solving the pre-shipped puzzles as well as any PGN-puzzle file that you may have.
One minor unplanned feature, which was released in v3.1.3 is the support for studying Chess openings.
You make moves for the winning side while iChess plays the other side.

Here is how you can do it:
1. Prepare a PGN file with your favorite opening lines. This will be your opening repertoire.
It is better to have each variation as a separate game in the PGN. For your preferred side, mark the game as won, in the PGN. Say you like to play the Kings Indian with Black. Then save the full or partial game and mark it as 0-1 (in the game header). 
(This is the most important step for any serious Chess player and once you have your repertoire PGN ready, it can be used for many other functions within Chessbase PC software.)


2. Open the puzzle file in iChess.
3. Now just like regular puzzles, iChess will ask you to make the best move. One additional feature is that, if the game result it 0-1 (Black wins), then iChess will automatically make the first move for White. You make the best move for Black.

Ofcourse, you can use a Hint and all other iChess goodies!

This can be a good opening workout and imprint your favorite variations in memory. (Note: Even the top players need to “memorize” their opening lines”)

This nice little feature can also be used for Solitaire or Guess the Move kind of Chess. Load a PGN with master games and try to guess the moves for the winning side!

Note: Currently, iChess does not give points for every move you make, but only for the complete game.

Categories
android

Chess Book Study v2.0 released!


Chess Book Study has graduated to v2.0 with lots of features and improvements and I am very excited with this release.

What’s new?
☆ EBookDroid has been upgraded to 1.5.6. CBS now supports all the features of ebookdroid like Auto Crop, Split, Search etc.

☆ Works well with other Chess apps. Now “Copy PGN” can immediately open the position in Chess for Android or DroidFish apps. You can save the PGN from that app.
☆ Quick access to Board options. No long press required.
☆ Improved “Open Web” feature. Now incorporates a full fledged open source zirco browser (with some minor changes)
☆ Book and Board positions can be swapped. See Board Settings. Also has a left handed mode!
☆ Hold the left/right arrows to jump to start or end board positions.
☆ Many other UI and experience improvements like bigger coordinates, board background, always-on arrows, new Edit Board layout
☆ Bug fixes. May they RIP!

NB. Incase if the app crashes after upgrade, then simply uninstall and re-install both the apps.

Get it from the Play Store or download the Free version from my Google docs.

Edit. Chess Book Study v2.0.1 released with a bug fix in Edit Board screen in landscape mode (Thx Abel)
EBookDroid (Chess) v1.5.6.2.3 released with bug fix related to menu options on some devices.  (Thx Karlo)

Caruana wins Zurich Blitz; Anand last

The Zurich Chess Challenge blitz touranament was won by Caruana (2757)!
World Chess Champion, Anand (2780) finished last in the 4 player round robin tournament.
Anand lost 0-2 to both Kramnik and Caruana and won 1.5-0.5 against Gelfand! (I hope its part of his tournament strategy!)
Check out this huge blunder by Anand against Kramnik. 
Position after Black’s 44…axb3

Here, Anand played Rxb3?? and immediately resigned. What madness!

Report by Mark Crowther http://theweekinchess.com/chessnews/events/zurich-chess-challenge-2013/caruana-edges-out-kramnik-in-zuerich-opening-blitz

All blitz games can be viewed at the official site http://www.zurich-cc.com/games.html

The standard time control tournament starts today at 15:00 UTC+1.