Musings on chess, and lesser things
Posts on chess
Surprisingly, the feedback from my Fighting Chess Index was almost universally positive. I say surprisingly because I thought the final rankings would be controversial, especially Anand’s position (despite the lengthy explanation in the post), and these sort of lists tend to set off angry debates in the chess community. But the debates that were sparked …
Introduction The Fighting Chess Index (FCI) is a composite, weighted measure of the combativeness of top chess players. It combines data about the frequency, length and colour of drawn games from 2015-2020 to provide a single score for each individual that can be used to compare the degree of ‘fighting chess’ among players. This article …
My odds match with the chess engine Komodo is over, finishing in a 5-1 victory to me. It was a fun and very interesting match, which also generated a surprising amount of interest from the online chess community (whose numbers have swelled in recent weeks for obvious reasons). The viewing experience was heightened enormously by the two …
UPDATE: My match with Komodo will be played on chess.com on the evenings of April 10 and 11 at 8 p.m. New York time, which is Saturday and Sunday morning in Australia (check your local day/time here). You can watch live commentary by GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko and IM Andras Toth on Evgenij’s stream at www.twitch.tv/mironiusvulgaris. Further details here. In …
A curious incident occurred in round 8 of the Isle of Man Grand Swiss. Alexei Shirov played Yu Yangyi on board seven, and Sergey Karjakin faced Alexey Dreev on board eight. After 19 moves, the two games were exactly identical! Spot the difference… 😂 #iomchess pic.twitter.com/CO7GHV1vf8 — Fiona Steil-Antoni (@fionchetta) October 18, 2019 It was …
The FIDE chess.com Isle of Man Grand Prix Swiss – yes, that’s the full name! – is going on at the moment. It’s quite a remarkable event: a large Swiss tournament where the winner qualifies directly for the Candidates. Besides a horde of 2650+ grandmasters, there are also wildcards and qualifiers from online tournaments, meaning …
Summary: Female Participation rates are higher in countries that are traditionally patriarchal. Various theories are discussed. Federations seeking to boost female participation should concentrate on teaching chess to girls in or before primary school, as well as encouraging young adult women to stay in the chess world. *** Here’s a quiz for you. Try to …
The time difference between London and Australia is a bit of a pain for watching the World Championship match. Luckily, one of the perks of being a new dad is that I occasionally wake up outrageously early, which sometimes allows me to catch the end of the live broadcast. The position in Game 5 that …
One tournament is unequivocally the best event of the chess calendar: The chess Olympiad. Held every two years, it brings together thousands upon thousands of players, journalists, spectators, arbiters, organisers and chess celebrities from every country on earth. It reminds me of an African wildlife documentary where many species of animals follow their own unique …
While planning my trip to Kenya to research female genital mutilation, I realised I would have two or three days spare. My days of trying to hit the tourist top-tens are long behind me; in recent years, I’ve found it much more rewarding to seek out the chess community. Not only does it combine travel …