First Adventures in AI Comics

Last week's Monday post was the last in a series of six posts in an experiment using the 'AI Comic' software. The six posts each featured an image picturing part of the story, corresponding to one page in the comic. The six images are reproduced below.

A Chess Village and Its Wizard

The six posts corresponding to each page/image are linked here:-

• 1st - 2024-01-08: The Chess Village
• 2nd - 2024-01-15: The Village Wizard
• 3rd - 2024-01-22: The Wizard as Professor
• 4th - 2024-01-29: The AI Generator
• 5th - 2024-02-05: The Wizard's Assistant
• 6th - 2024-02-12: The Assistant's Girlfriend

Having spent some time manipulating the comic software, I've made plenty of observations on its possibilities and its limitations. One of the first observations was that the dialog balloons, e.g. the 2nd & 3rd pages' UR panel (upper right), contain gibberish text that can't be changed easily. They might look nice, but that's the whole story.

The 2 x 2 format of each page is somewhat monotonous. The free version of the software, which is the version I've been using, offers four different formats of which 2 x 2 is the simplest. Since they can be interchanged easily, I could experiment with the other formats, but there's a significant constraint. There is no control over what part of the story is shown in the individual panels -- four panels in the example of the 2 x 2 format -- that make up the page.

Perhaps the biggest drawback is the lack of built-in continuity for the individual elements and characters of the comic. The Wizard sort of looks the same on each page, but there are significant differences that a real artist would not have allowed. The color of the Wizard's hat, for example, changes constantly.

In the 4th page's LL panel (lower left), there are two wizards. In the 5th page's LL panel, the Wizard's assistant is wearing the hat. In the 6th page's LR panel, there are two assistants, both with the same color hair as his girlfriend. And so on.

For each of the six posts I produced many images on the theme of the post and chose the one that I liked the best. I could have copied the best panels from different trials and pasted them into a new 2 x 2 format, but that would have required more time than I wanted to spend on the experiment. My main objective was to produce relevant artwork that I'm unable to do myself, and this is what happened. Sometimes the AI software gave me an idea that I hadn't thought of myself, which might be the most valuable contribution of the software.

These first six pages are an introduction to the themes that I would like to use in subsequent stories. I'm curious to see where the series will take me.

(*) Images: AI Comic Factory (aicomicfactory.com)

TCEC/CCC 2023-H1 Summary

Six months have passed since the previous summary of the fortnightly TCEC/CCC posts on this blog. That post was appropriately titled TCEC/CCC 2022-H2 Summary (January 2023). Here are the latest six months of posts that covered the first half of 2023.

TCEC/CCC	Off-week
2023-01-09: TCEC Cup 11 Underway; CCC19 Bullet in Semifinals	2023-01-16: Chessify Progress Report
2023-01-23: LCZero Wins TCEC Cup 11; Stockfish Wins CCC19 Bullet	2023-01-30: Talkchess Talks Top Engines
2023-02-06: TCEC Swiss 4 Underway; CCC Mystery Matches	2023-02-13: Chessify's Other Engines
2023-02-20: Stockfish Wins TCEC Swiss 4; TCEC S24 L2 & CCC20 Blitz Underway	2023-02-27: Chessify vs. Chessbase Engine Cloud
2023-03-06: TCEC S24 L1, CCC20 Blitz Semifinals: Final Week	2023-03-13: NextChessMove.com
2023-03-20: TCEC S24 DivP, CCC20 Blitz Final : Both Underway	2023-03-27: Chessify Resources
2023-04-03: TCEC S24 DivP Finishing; Stockfish Wins CCC20 Blitz Final	2023-04-10: OpenBench Interlude
2023-04-17: TCEC S24 Sufi, CCC20 Rapid - Both Underway	2023-04-24: The Komodo Baton
2023-05-15: Stockfish Wins TCEC S24; Engine Mysteries	2023-05-22: An 'Advice-taking' Chess Machine
2023-05-29: TCEC FRC6, CCC20 Rapid Finals; Both Underway	2023-06-05: The CCC's Mystery Engine
2023-06-12: TCEC FRC6, CCC20 Rapid; Stockfish Wins Both	2023-06-19: Chessify Coins and Combos
2023-06-26: Stockfish Wins TCEC DFRC2; CCC20 Bullet Underway

The last cell in the table represents this current post. In the previous post, 'TCEC DFRC2, CCC20 Bullet', I wrote,

What goes around doesn't always come around. Sometimes it stops. The TCEC is starting S25; the CCC is coming to the end of CCC20. I'm almost certain this current post will be the last in the series on this blog.

Make that the next-to-last post. This summary is the last post.

The Final Years of Insidechess.com

My previous post on early chess web sites was Wayback to Insidechess.com (February 2023). There I made an initial observation about the Wayback record:-

The first entry for a working site is Inside Chess Online (January 1999). It links to the Latest Issue (Volume 12, Issue 2, March 1999), with further links to three (out of a dozen) articles from the issue.

There are at least four layers of the past that apply to Insidechess.com:-

Chess history: e.g. 1998-99 World Chess Council ... and more (m-w.com); my own account of the period covered by the following resources.

Inside Chess (magazine): e.g. Inside Chess Magazine 1999 (Archive.org 1999-11-04) • 'GM Yasser Seirawan, Publisher // Editor in Chief Michael Franett'; 'Vol.12, Issue 1 - February' [...] 'Vol.12, Issue 10 - November'.

Insidechess.com (web site): e.g. 24 January, 1999 Inside Chess Online (Archive.org 1999-01-25), starting with 'Adams - Seirawan match, Game 4' and including 'See the most recent Inside Chess issue'. This links to In this issue of Inside Chess Magazine (Archive.org 1999-02-25) • 'Volume 12, Issue 2 (March 1999) Latest Issue' [...] 'Publisher's Message by GM Yasser Seirawan; We ring in the New Year with a mixed bag of messages for this month's issue. I would like to give an overview of the chess world's affairs and make some brave predictions for the year to come. [...]'. • NB: The history of the web site can be reconstructed only partially, according to specific pages retained (haphazardly?) by the next resource.

Insidechess.com (Archive.org): e.g. https://web.archive.org/web/19980501000000*/http://www.insidechess.com/; Here there is a five year gap -- 2002 through 2006 -- where the site's home page was not saved.

A few months into 1999, we find In this issue of Inside Chess Magazine (Archive.org 1999-05-07); 'Volume 12, Issue 5 (June 1999)', with the following news:-

Publisher's Message by GM Yasser Seirawan [] When we started Inside Chess in 1988, our hope, among other things, was to fill a niche in the chess world for timely and informative news. Now, in our twelfth year of publication, we can look back with satisfaction and feel we have had some measure of success in accomplishing that goal.

Obviously, there have been many changes in and outside of the chess world since 1988. [...] In the year 2000, we've decided to greet the new millennium with an online-only edition. [...] Following this June issue, we will publish seven more print issues, ending with a final January 2000 issue.'

The last Archive.org capture of 2001 is Inside Chess Online (2001-07-22); the page is dated '19 July 2001'. It includes a link to 'Masterpiece Games third quarter financial statements', itself a list of links where the first is Masterpiece Games Inc. : The Company and its Directors. It starts,

Masterpiece Games Incorporated, (MPA) is a Vancouver BC based holding company whose shares are traded on the Canadian Venture Exchange (CDNX). MPA emerged as its own publicly traded company as the result of a spin-off from Grandmaster Technologies, Inc. (GMT) on August 22, 1997.

MPA has two assets International Chess Enterprises, Inc. (ICE) a Seattle, WA based company that sells chess products, and a substantial ownership position in Master Games Inc., a privately held Austin, Texas based company.

The Archive.org capture for 2007-05-16 informs, 'Coming Soon! This site is under construction.' For 2008-04-27 it says, 'Redirecting to...' Chesscafe.com.

I once featured an early version of that site in Chesscafe.com 2015 (June 2015), so what more can be said? Plenty, it turns out.

***

Plenty there might be, but not now. It's time to close the topic of early chess web sites and move on to something else. Following is a list of posts for the current series.

• 2022-11-01: November 1972 & 1997 'On the Cover' • The inspiration for the series.
• 2022-11-02: Smartchess Interviews Karpov [WCCB] • From my World Championship blog .
• 2022-11-25: Wayback to Smartchess • GM Ron Henley
• 2022-12-02: The SmartChess Saga
• 2022-12-09: Shirov's SmartChess Videos
• 2022-12-16: Paul Azzurro, Chess Video Producer
• 2022-12-23: Wayback to Chess.net • GM Roman Dzindzichashvili
• 2022-12-30: World Championship Columnists • GMs Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov in Chess Life
• 2023-01-06: Wayback to Yourmove.com • GM Gabriel Schwartzman
• 2023-01-13: The Evolution of Chess.net
• 2023-01-20: Crowther's 'Chess on the Net'
• 2023-01-27: Hurst's 'Chess on the Web'
• 2023-02-03: Wayback to Insidechess.com • GM Yasser Seirawan

That brings us to this current post, where we ended with an earlier series.

• 2014-07-17: Chesscafe.com
• 2015-06-11: Chesscafe.com 2015
• 2015-06-15: Early Chess on the Web

So much chess history, all of it fading away on transient digital media.

TCEC/CCC 2022-H2 Summary

The previous six month summary, TCEC/CCC 2022-H1 Summary (June 2022), asked,

'Dragon, LCZero - Who's Better?'. One week it's Dragon; next week it's LCZero. What answers will the next six months bring?

Here's a summary of the second half of 2022.

TCEC/CCC	Off-week
2022-07-18: Stockfish Wins TCEC Swiss 3 and CCC17 Blitz	2022-07-25: Stockfish vs. ChessBase in Court
2022-08-01: Stockfish Wins TCEC FRC5, Leads CCC18 Rapid Semifinal	2022-08-08: GM Sadler Tweets About TCEC
2022-08-15: Stockfish Wins TCEC DFRC1, Leads CCC18 Rapid Final	2022-08-22: Interviews with Dragon's Developers
2022-08-29: TCEC S23 Leagues Underway; CCC Rudderless?	2022-09-05: Chess324 Is a Thing
2022-09-12: TCEC S23 L1, CCC19 Blitz - Both Underway	2022-09-19: Talkchess Talks Current Topics
2022-09-26: TCEC S23 Paused; 'CCC19 Blitz Main' Underway	2022-10-03: Breaking the 3500 Barrier
2022-10-10: TCEC S23 DivP, CCC19 Blitz Final : 'Well' Underway	2022-10-17: 'One Move In, One Move Out'
2022-10-31: TCEC S23 Sufi, CCC19 Rapid : Both Underway	2022-11-07: 'Studying with Modern Engines'
2022-11-14: TCEC S23 Sufi, CCC19 Rapid : Nearing the Finish	2022-11-21: Stockfish vs. ChessBase Settlement
2022-11-28: TCEC S23, CCC19 Rapid : Stockfish Wins Both	2022-12-05: TCEC Article PDFs
2022-12-12: TCEC/CCC Interludes	2022-12-19: Chessify Setup
2022-12-26: TCEC More Interludes; CCC19 Bullet Underway

Stockfish won everything in sight, including its legal dispute with ChessBase. As for unofficial no.2, it seemed to me that LCZero did slightly better overall than Dragon, but this needs to be confirmed with data.

The usual question after preparing a six month summary is, 'Should I continue with the weekly engine posts?' The answer this time is, 'Yes, to resolve the Dragon vs. LCZero question.'

Chessify Setup

Every once in a while I wake up from my habitual sleepwalking and try to grasp the basics of current trends in chess engines. At the end of this post is a summary of those efforts over the past few years.

With this post I set out to bring myself up to date once again, but quickly decided that I needed to look at chess engines in the so-called cloud. My first stop was Chessify: Powerful Cloud Engines for Chess Analysis (chessify.me; 'Powerful Cloud Platform for Chess Training'). The site's home page promises a great deal:-

Top Engines: The latest versions of Stockfish (NNUE and traditional), Leela Chess Zero, and other engines available for your use. • Free Analysis: Analyze at up to 1,000 kN/s speed with Stockfish, asmFish, SugaR, Koivisto, and Berserk for FREE when you register on Chessify. • Cloud Servers: Fast & secure: up to 1 BN/s for Stockfish, 100 kN/s for LCZero, 130 MN/s for asmFish, SugaR AI, Koivisto, and Berserk.

Promises are one thing, but 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating', as they say. I set up a Chessify account, received some free time on their service, and started a new game on the LSS server, where engine use is generally allowed. I'll report on my progress in a future post.

***

Seven years ago I posted a long series that has already been summarized.

• --- 2015
• 2016-01-04: Chess Engine Summary • 'How Stockfish Works'++

Following are other series plus individual posts that looked at other aspects of engines.

• --- 2017
• 2017-10-30: Improve Engine Software
• 2017-11-06: Improve Engine Hardware - Specs
• 2017-11-13: Improve Engine Hardware - Parts List
• 2017-11-20: Improve Engine Hardware - High Performance
• 2017-11-27: Improve Engine Software - Tablebases
• 2017-12-04: Engine-to-engine, Head-to-head • TCEC S10; CCC01
• --- 2018
• 2018-10-26: GPU Specifications • Video: 'Graphics Card Specs - The Basics'
• 2018-11-02: GPU Configurations
• 2018-11-09: GPU Pricing
• 2018-11-16: GPU Benchmarks
• --- Misc.
• 2019-11-18: 'Fat Fritz' by Albert Silver
• 2020-06-15: Fat Fritz Followup
• 2021-01-11: CCC Hardware Upgrade
• 2022-01-10: Ipmanchess
• --- NNUE
• 2020-08-10: Stockfish NNUE = +90 Elo • 'I hope some kind, understanding soul will eventually produce something like "NNUE for Dummies".'
• 2020-09-21: Stockfish NNUE Dev
• 2020-10-05: Stockfish NNUE - Three Early Threads
• 2020-11-02: Stockfish NNUE - Three Useful Pins
• 2020-11-16: Komodo NNUE
• --- Misc. NNUE
• 2021-01-25: Engine Scaling
• 2021-02-22: The Transformation of Fat Fritz
• 2021-12-13: Komodo Dragon

I expect this new cloud series will become one of the longest to date on chess engines.

'A Clock Without Hands'

A week ago, in Fischer Busted (November 2022), I promised, 'We're nearing the end of this blog's 'Fischer Friday' series'. I'll end the series with a post on 1975 Fischer forfeits to Karpov (m-w.com). The drawing below -- by artist Greg Spalenka -- is from the 29 July 1985 issue of Sports Illustrated (SI). See the post Fischer: 'I'm not seeing people' (June 2017; '1985-07-29: Bobby Fischer') for a link.

SI caption: 'Karpov's futile wait for Fischer is symbolized by the clock without hands.'

***

This post being the last of the 'Fischer Friday' series, let's have a summary of the posts since the previous summary, which was here:-

• 2022-09-16: FS 1972 + 20 = FS 1992

And now for the new summary...

• 2022-09-23: 1992 Fischer - Spassky 'Under the Weather' •
• 2022-09-30: Fischer: 'That's my answer' • The spit incident.
• 2022-10-07: Roger Cohen, Foreign Correspondent
• 2022-10-14: Historic Photo, Historic Game • Cathy Forbes
• 2022-10-21: People Said, 'Ouf!'
• 2022-10-28: 'To Sam, With Thanks' • Saemundur "Saemi" Palsson
• 2022-11-04: Fashionable Fischer
• 2022-11-11: Fischer Busted

FS 1972 + 20 = FS 1992

For the last few months I've been running a Fischer Friday series, focused on the 1972 Fischer - Spassky Title Match (m-w.com). Now it's time to change the subject, if only for a few weeks. Twenty years to the day after Spassky resigned the 1972 match, a new match began:-

• 1992 Fischer - Spassky Rematch; Sveti Stefan/Belgrade (m-w.com)
• 1992 Fischer - Spassky Rematch; Highlights (ditto)

Unfortunately, I don't have much in my photo archive about the 1992 match. The following composite image shows the wirephotos that I found. These are black-and-white photos, although there are also many color photos documenting the match.

That composite is inspired by a pair of posts I've been using as an illustrated guide to the 1972 match:-

• 2016-03-08: Fischer Wirephotos I
• 2016-03-10: Fischer Wirephotos II

In the top line of the composite image, the first two photos are from game one of the 1992 match. The last two photos show Zita Rajcsanyi [Rajcsany], plus the start of the eighth game.

The first photo in the bottom line shows Fischer meeting Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. It is followed by a photo from the 30th (and last) game plus two photos of Fischer wearing a wreath marked 'The World Chess Champion'. The last three photos have the same date.

***

It's a good time to take a checkpoint on the Fischer Friday series to date. Posts marked '(*)' were not part of the series, but are nevertheless relevant.

• 2022-04-29: The Joke's on Me • 'It was stunning news from the U.S. chess federation...'
• 2022-05-06: The Fischer Patent • 'US4884255A - Digital chess clock'
• 2022-05-13: Fischer's Storage Locker and eBay
• 2022-05-20: Bobby Fischer Day by Day • bobby-fischer-1972.blogspot.com (see also below)
• 2022-05-21: Bobby Fischer in 1996 (*) • Chess960 (Fischer Random Chess)
• 2022-06-17: Legends of the 1972 Match
• 2022-06-24: Hatchet Job • 'Bobby Fischer vs. the Rest of the World' by Brad Darrach
• 2022-07-01: According to Darrach, Day by Day
• 2022-07-08: Fox Films (Not) • Chester Fox
• 2022-07-10: Chinese Whispers (*) • The movie 'Pawn Sacrifice'
• 2022-07-15: Drawing for Colors in 1972 • Gudmundur Thorarinsson
• 2022-07-22: 'Only an IM' • Iivo [or Ivo] Nei
• 2022-07-29: Spassky's Team • Ivo Nei, Boris Spassky, Nikolai Krogius, Efim Geller; 'Russians Versus Fischer' by Plisetsky and Voronkov
• 2022-08-05: Cold Warriors of Chess
• 2022-08-12: Fischer - Spassky Tickets
• 2022-08-19: Bags of Loot • Patrick Bruce "Pat" Oliphant
• 2022-08-26: GM Svetozar Gligoric, Player/Journalist
• 2022-08-28: Was Fischer Avaricious? (*)
• 2022-08-30: Olympiad, Business, and Political Yahoos (*) • 'Many other chess organizations have been honoring the match, including two of the most influential chess resources, seen together here [World Chess Hall of Fame & Chessbase]'
• 2022-09-01: September 1972 & 1997 'On the Cover' • 'The date of today's post, 1 September, marks 50 years since the historic match ended.'
• 2022-09-02: Benson Called Bobby (*) • '"Hello, Hahrry! There is new world champion! I have just resigned."'
• 2022-09-09: Fischer - Spassky Zeitgeist • GM Gligoric: 'The match opened a new, unforeseen chapter in the history of this noble game'

Also worth noting are three related resources, the first two of which are valuable external references.

• Bobby Fischer 1972 (bobby-fischer-1972.blogspot.com) • See the post dated '2022-05-20'.
• Le match du siècle 1972 (histoire-echecs-philatelie.com) • See the note to the post dated '2022-08-26'.
  
  
• Showing posts with label C08: 1970-72 • My World Championship blog

I plan to come back to the 1972 match, but first I'll spend a few posts exploring the 1992 rematch.

Chess Players Behaving Very, Very Badly

The game:-

• 2022-09-04: Magnus Carlsen vs Hans Moke Niemann; Sinquefield Cup (2022), Saint Louis, MO USA, rd 3 (chessgames.com)
• 2022-09-07: The Game That Broke the Internet - Carlsen vs Niemann (youtube.com; Epic Chess; analysis: James Gardner)

The players:-

• 2022-09-05: Magnus Carlsen on Twitter: "I've withdrawn from the tournament..." (twitter.com/MagnusCarlsen) • '...I've always enjoyed playing in the @STLChessClub, and hope to be back in the future.'
• 2022-09-06: Why Magnus Carlsen Quit (youtube.com; GMHikaru) • 'After a stunning loss yesterday, Magnus Carlsen has withdrawn from the 2022 Sinquefield Cup. Hikaru [Nakamura] is live to give his thoughts on it.'
• 2022-09-07: Niemann: I Have NEVER Cheated Over The Board | Round 5 (youtube.com; Saint Louis Chess Club) • 'Hans Niemann talks to Alejandro Ramirez after a draw with Dominguez during the fifth round of the 2022 Sinquefield Cup. Hans defends himself on rumors of cheating, his accent, and much more.'
• 2022-09-08: Hikaru's Reaction to Hans Niemann's Interview on September 6, 2022 (youtube.com; GMHikaru)

Plus thousands of comments from chess fans.

***

Later: The reactions:-

• 2022-09-08: The Carlsen-Niemann Affair (chessbase.com; Albert Silver)
• 2022-09-09: Chess.com on Twitter: "Dear Chess Community, The last few days have been tumultuous for many in the chess community..." (twitter.com/chesscom; [...] 'Danny Rensch; Chief Chess Officer; Chess.com')
• 2022-09-09: Chess.com and Nakamura respond to Hans Niemann's interview (chess24.com; Colin McGourty)

Advantage? [TBD]

TCEC/CCC 2022-H1 Summary

Another half-year has elapsed since TCEC/CCC 2021-H2 Summary (December 2021), making this post the right place for another summary. For an explanation of the columns in the table, see that previous summary.

TCEC/CCC	Off-week
2022-01-03: TCEC FRC4 Semifinals, CCC16 Bullet Finals : Both Underway	2022-01-10: Ipmanchess
2022-01-17: Stockfish Wins Both TCEC FRC4 and CCC16 Bullet Events	2022-01-24: Correspondence Forums in the 2000s
2022-01-31: TCEC S22 Underway; CCC16 Blitz Nears Final	2022-02-07: 'Reasonable Support' Required?
2022-02-14: TCEC S22 L3 and CCC16 Blitz Final Both Underway	2022-02-21: Breaking the 3400 Barrier
2022-02-28: TCEC S22 L1, CCC17 Rapid : Both Underway	2022-03-07: ICGA/AI4S ACG 2021
2022-03-14: TCEC S22 DivP, CCC17 Rapid : Both Underway	2022-03-21: Stockfish Sparkles
2022-03-28: The TCEC/CCC Hegemony	2022-04-04: Stockfish Breaks All the Barriers
2022-04-11: TCEC Stockfish; CCC Stockfish	2022-04-18: The CCC16 Season
2022-04-25: TCEC S22, the Fish Again; CCC17 Bullet Top-3	2022-05-02: Thirtysomething Fritz
2022-05-09: TCEC/CCC: Stockfish no.1; Dragon, LCZero - Who's Better?	2022-05-16: 25 Years Ago in Chess History
2022-05-23: TCEC Cup 10 Underway; Stockfish Wins CCC17 Bullet	2022-05-30: Eight-piece Tablebase in the Lab
2022-06-20: Stockfish Wins TCEC Cup 10; TCEC Swiss 3, CCC17 Blitz both Underway

The focus of the last few TCEC/CCC posts has been to answer the question asked in the post dated 2022-05-09: 'Dragon, LCZero - Who's Better?'. One week it's Dragon; next week it's LCZero. What answers will the next six months bring?

2022 CJA Awards Announcement

It's that time of year again, when the Chess Journalists of America (CJA) open their annual award season. Last year I featured the CJA in four posts:-

• 2021-05-25: 2021 CJA Awards Announcement
• 2021-07-27: 2021 CJA Award Entries
• 2021-08-24: 2021 CJA Awards - Part 1 • Classify the awards in different ways.
• 2021-09-21: 2021 CJA Awards - Part 2 • Awards to which I pay particular attention.

The following chart shows the award categories as listed in the last two May issues of Chess Life. Seven categories and their corresponding awards for 2022 are shown below on the right. Next to them, on the left, is the related announcement from 2021.

2021	2022

If you're interested in specific awards for 2022, you should see the list of awards on ChessJournalism.org ('We promote the highest standards of ethics in chess journalism, represent United States chess journalists in appropriate national and international bodies, and influence policies affecting the promotion of chess.'), where you'll also find instructions for submitting your own entries.

I noticed a few changes from 2021 to 2022. There are three new awards:-

• Best Weekly Video Program
• Best Documentary
• Best Tournament/Match Coverage

Several awards have been redefined. The three awards for 'Junior (Under 18)' have been extended to 'Junior (Under 20)'. The last award in the list, 'Best Photography', has been restricted to 'Best Photograph'.

Although I'm not a member of the CJA, I always look forward to seeing the winners and their work. Good luck!

A Year of Anniversaries

This year we'll be seeing some big chess anniversaries:-

• 50 years: Fischer - Spassky Title Match; Reykjavik, VII-VIII, 1972
• 30 years: Fischer - Spassky Rematch; Sveti Stefan/Belgrade, IX-XI, 1992
• 25 years: Kasparov vs. IBM's Deep Blue • 1st match: Philadelphia, II, 1996; 2nd match: New York, V, 1997

Those links are to my own pages, showing that I have at least passing familiarity with the subjects. Starting with Kasparov - Deep Blue this month, I expect we'll see the pundits out in force to remind us of the importance of each of those historical matches.

On a more personal note, I'll see a couple of significant anniversaries myself:-

• 70 years prowling the third stone from the sun
• 50 years playing correspondence chess
• 25 years documenting the World Chess Championship (m-w.com; WCC site)
• 16 years blogging

That last item might seem out of place, but the blogging anniversary is today. The number 16 -- which, as every computer person knows, is 10000 base 2 -- is just as significant to computers as 100 base 10 is to humans. Through the years I've noted the anniversary of the blog on several occasions:-

• 2006-05-01: Another head?
• 2007-05-01: M'aidez, M'aidez
• 2012-05-01: FEB in May
• 2016-05-01: Tenth Anniversary!
• 2018-05-01: Silk Anniversary!

This might well be the last blog anniversary. A few years ago I announced, The End of Daily Blogging (September 2019). As the following table shows, the number of posts last month was about half of what it was the year that I made that announcement.

Posts in April (count):-
- 2018 April (19)
- 2019 April (22)
- 2020 April (12)
- 2021 April (15)
- 2022 April (11)

The previous tally of personal milestones across my own web resources was 2500 / 20 / 500 (August 2017). Later this year I'll be closing down the WCC site, probably after the next title match -- 'C30' using my method of counting the WCC cycles since FIDE took over. Will he play or won't he play? Carlsen that is. I'm as curious as the next person to find out. After that, it's time to put the whole thing to sleep. We will always have Wikipedia, won't we!

A Year of Yahoos

This post should not be confused with Year-end Yahoos (December 2021), my Yahoos' post covering the last month of 2021. For an explanation of 'Yahoos', see the note at the end of this post.

The charts below show some basic data across the 12 Yahoo posts for 2021. I recorded a total of 1133 stories for the entire year. For some reason, the number of news stories for January 2021 was less than later months. Starting in November, Google News changed its algorithm for selecting results of a news search; see the November and December (above) posts for details.

Left: Number of stories returned by Google News on the date of the monthly post.
Right: Top news sources over the 12 months of the year.

The chart on the right shows sources that had five or more stories for the year, a total of 21 different sources out of the 367 recorded for the year. The following table gives a count of sources that had five or fewer stories for the year.

5 stories, 4 sources
4 stories, 9 sources
3 stories, 10 sources
2 stories, 43 sources
1 story, 284 sources

It's no surprise that Chess.com was the top source for the year. It was the top source for each of the 12 months, always by a wide margin. It's also no surprise that the next three sources -- Chessbase, USchess, and Chess24 -- are chess sites with active, well respected news departments. As for 5th and 6th -- the Guardian and the Financial Times -- they are both associated with Leonard Barden.

Last on the chart is the original 'Yahoo News', although its count is misleading. There were four different Yahoo sources in 2021, including three stories from 'Yahoo Finance', for a total of 10 real Yahoos. A similar narrative holds for 'Fox News', listed above with five stories. There were five other Fox sources, each with a single story : 'Fox 28 Spokane' is one example.

I could go on about other statistics -- 78 stories with 'Carlsen' in the title vs. 20 with 'Nepomniachtchi'. Along with these there were 26 'Kasparov' stories, seven 'Netflix', and even two 'Fischer' stories, etc. etc.

The 188 stories without 'chess' in the title make me wonder how Google News chooses its chess stories. One example was titled 'Framingham Council asks administration to review transferring management of Pearl Street Garage'. Hint: It was dated the same day I recorded the results of the news search and mentioned,

"It’s a chess piece that’s been on the table for a long time," said Stefanini. "...This simple move is the first piece in a series of moves to advance the vitality of the downtown area."

I could go on and on, but I'll stop the stats here and promise to be back at the end of the month to start a new year of Yahoos. Will 'PogChamps' in 2022 beat its record of 26 stories in 2021? Only time will tell.

[Yahoos (mainstream news stories about chess) are derived from Google News top-100 (or so) stories from the past month.]

TCEC/CCC 2021-H2 Summary

Since December 2018, Monday posts on this blog have been about chess engines (*). The last Monday post of the year means a summary of all Monday posts during the past six months. For the previous summary, see TCEC/CCC 2021-H1 Summary (June 2021), where I wrote,

The first column lists the fortnightly posts on the current status; the second column lists off-week posts on related topics that I wanted to explore in more depth. The last, blank space on the right is a space filler for this current post.

That explanation also works for the current post.

TCEC/CCC	Off-week
2021-07-19: TCEC Prepares S21 Sufi; CCC in Romantic Mode	2021-07-26: Stockfish vs. ChessBase
2021-08-02: TCEC S21 Sufi Underway; CCC Still Romancing	2021-08-09: Breaking the BDG
2021-08-16: TCEC Stockfish Wins S21; CCC Romance Continues	2021-08-23: Talkchess Is/Isn't Talking
2021-08-30: TCEC VSOB 21, CCC Blitz 2021 : Both Underway
2021-09-13: TCEC VSOB 21, CCC Blitz 2021 : Both Still Underway	2021-09-20: TCEC VSOB Opening Tools
2021-09-27: TCEC VSOB 21, CCC C960 Blitz Championship : Both Underway	2021-10-04: TCEC/CCC Link Maintenance
2021-10-11: TCEC Testing Cup 9; CCC C960 Blitz Semifinal	2021-10-18: CCC Changes the Guard
2021-10-25: TCEC Cup 9, CCC C960 Blitz Final : Both Underway	2021-11-01: Evaluating the Evaluations
2021-11-08: TCEC Swiss 2, CCC16 Rapid : Both Underway	2021-11-15: Talkchess Is Talking Again
2021-11-22: TCEC Swiss 2, CCC16 Rapid : Still Underway	2021-11-29: Engines Forced to Play Like Us
2021-12-06: TCEC Swiss 2 in Final Round; Stockfish Wins CCC16 Rapid	2021-12-13: Komodo Dragon
2021-12-20: KomodoDragon Wins TCEC Swiss 2; CCC16 Bullet Semifinals Underway

At the end of the '2021-H1 Summary', I noted,

The CCC hasn't run a structured, multi-phase competition in more than three months. What will the next six months bring for the CCC?

See the post dated '2021-10-18' for an answer to that question. As for the TCEC, the season become longer this year:-

• 2020-04-27: Leela Beat Stockfish in TCEC S17 & CCC13 Finals
• 2020-07-20: Stockfish Wins TCEC S18
• 2020-10-26: Stockfish Wins TCEC S19
• 2021-02-01: Stockfish Wins TCEC S20
• 2021-08-16: Stockfish Wins TCEC S21

The organizers have been adding more competitions, like the Swiss and VSOB events, to the regular season. Computer chess appears to be more popular than ever.

(*) With a few early exceptions, the Monday posts have been about chess engines since Catching Up with Engine Competitions (October 2018).

A Trio of World Championship Video Makers

A couple of weeks ago, for my monthly post featuring a Youtube video, A Flood of World Championship Videos (December 2021; on the 2021 Carlsen - Nepomniachtchi title match), I finished with an action:-

Now I have some time to spend making sense of that flood. Where to start?

I decided that this month's post on The Sociology of Chess (November 2016), would be a great place to start. How to proceed?

I discovered that three important chess sites had produced videos about the match -- FIDE, Chess.com, and Chess24.com -- so I created the following table linking to the different clips.

	:	FIDE				:	Chess.com			:	Chess24.com					:
	:	EN	RU	PC	AR	:	CHR	RR	?	:	HHS	PG	DK	DH	HL	:
OC	:	EN		PC		:				:			DK			:
g.01	:	EN	RU	PC	AR	:	CHR		?	:	HHS	PG	DK			:
g.02	:	EN	RU	PC	AR	:	CHR	RR	?	:	HHS	PG	DK	DH	HL	:
g.03	:	EN	RU	PC	AR	:	CHR	RR	?	:	HHS	PG	DK	DH	HL	:
g.04	:	EN	RU	PC	AR	:	CHR	RR	?	:	HHS	PG	DK	DH	HL	:
g.05	:	EN	RU	PC	AR	:	CHR	RR	?	:	HHS	PG	DK	DH	HL	:
g.06	:	EN	RU	PC	AR	:	CHR	RR	?	:	HHS	PG	DK	DH	HL	:
g.07	:	EN	RU	PC	AR	:	CHR	RR	?	:	HHS	PG	DK	DH	HL	:
g.08	:	EN	RU	PC	AR	:	CHR	RR	?	:	HHS	PG	DK	DH	HL	:
g.09	:	EN	RU	PC	AR	:	CHR	RR	?	:	HHS	PG	DK	DH	HL	:
g.10	:	EN	RU	PC	AR	:	CHR	RR	?	:	HHS	PG	DK	DH	HL	:
g.11	:	EN	RU	PC	AR	:	CHR	RR	?	:	HHS	PG	DK	DH		:
CC	:	EN				:				:						:

The codes are cryptic, but there is only so much info you can place on a blog where the posts are limited in width. Following is a legend for the codes used in the table..

FIDE:-

• EN - Live commentary in English by GM Viswanathan Anand and GM Anna Muzychuk; OC/CC - Opening and closing ceremonies
• RU - Live commentary in Russian by GM Sergei Shipov and WGM Dina Belenkaya
• PC - Press Conference
• AR - Recap by GM Alejandro Ramirez

Chess.com:-

• CHR - Live commentary by GM Fabiano Caruana, GM Robert Hess, and IM Daniel Rensch
• RR - Rapid replay
• ? - I don't know what these short videos should be called, but they're worth mentioning

Chess24.com:-

• HHS - Live commentary by GM David Howell, IM Jovanka Houska, and Norwegian journalist Kaja Snare
• PG - Live commentary by GM Judit Polgar and GM Anish Giri
• DK - Recap by GM Daniel King
• DH - 'Play of the Day with GM David Howell'
• HL - Highlights

I watched a few of the videos and was impressed with what I saw. There was a tremendous amount of chess talent commenting on the match, including two top GMs who themselves faced GM Carlsen in previous title matches. After the competence of the commentators, the most important factor in a commentary team is to have good chemistry between the various personalities.

Don't overlook the 'NBC Recap' videos, which I documented on my World Championship blog. To find them, start with the post 2021 Carlsen - Nepomniachtchi, Wrapup (December 2021), and follow the links back for each of the three weeks, e.g. 'First Week', etc.

Carlsen's TMER 2019-21, Checkpoint

It's been more than four months since I started to update Magnus Carlsen's Tournament, Match, and Exhibition Record (TMER; 2000-), and I'm still not close to making the final update. In the first post listed below (08-06), I wrote,

My deadline for updating the TMER will be the start of the 2021 Carlsen - Nepomniachtchi title match.

The match finished a week ago; so much for arbitrary deadlines. That first post listed the work I did in 2018 for the previous update. At that time there were a total of six posts, compared to 16 so far in 2021. Why the big difference? I see three reasons: 1) The current update covers a span of three years instead of two years in 2018; 2) The covid-provoked move to online events in 2020 inspired a number of new tournament formats that are more complicated to document; 3) I'm getting slower. Here's the list of posts:-

• 2021-08-06: Carlsen's TWIC Data 2019-21
• 2021-08-13: Carlsen's Events 2019-21
• 2021-08-20: Carlsen's Online Events 2019-21
• 2021-08-27: Carlsen's Prelim Events 2019-21
• 2021-09-17: Carlsen's Banter Blitz Events 2019-21
• 2021-09-24: Carlsen's TMER 2019-21
• 2021-10-01: Carlsen's TMER 2019-21, 'Online = N'
• 2021-10-08: Carlsen's TMER 2019-21, 'Online = *'
• 2021-10-15: Carlsen's TMER 2019-21, 'Online = Y'
• 2021-10-22: Carlsen's TMER 2019-21, the Tours
• 2021-10-29: Carlsen's TMER 2019-21, Lichess
• 2021-11-12: Carlsen's TMER 2019-21, Chess24 • Wikipedia: 'In March 2019, Chess24 merged with Magnus Carlsen's company Play Magnus'
• 2021-11-19: Not the 'Under the Weather' Channel • more accurately described as 'Chess24 Banter Blitz'
• 2021-11-26: Carlsen's TMER 2019-21, Chess24 Profile
• 2021-12-03: Carlsen's TMER 2019-21, Banter Blitz
• 2021-12-10: Carlsen's TMER 2019-21, Chess24 'Classical' Games

Reviewing the three posts on Chess24 banter blitz -- 09-17, 11-19, 12-03 -- the events can be covered on the TMER in four entries: Match with Peter Svidler, Banter Blitz Cup 2019, Banter Series 2020, and Banter Blitz against Chess24 users (x16). That answers the question in the last post (12-03):-

The 16 sessions with Premium members plus 11 matches against titled players probably adds up to something like 300 Banter Blitz games to date. How much of that should go into the TMER?

As for the three posts on the two tours -- 08-27, 10-22, 12-10 -- all events in each tour deserve an entry: Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour 2020 (x5 events), Meltwater Champions Chess Tour 2020-21 (x7, played through the cutoff point for the TMER update). The Preliminary and Final stages for each event can be combined into a single entry.

The single post on the Lichess events -- 10-29 -- might not be sufficient to proceed with the TMER. I already have an earlier event on the TMER missing all details ('2018-02 LiChess Meetup Stjernen 2018') plus nine newer entries. The post mentions '15 Titled Arenas'. I closed the post saying,

Since Carlsen also played a few such ['Titled Arena'] events which he didn't win, it would take some effort to locate all of the 'Titled Arena' events he played. Given that they were bullet tournaments lasting only a few hours, I could probably just summarize them for now; idem for the bullet matches.

Two of the bullet matches were against Alireza Firouzja. Since he is currently a person of interest involving Carlsen's future plans -- for background see the post 2021 Carlsen - Nepomniachtchi, the Third Week (December 2021), on my World Chess Championship blog -- those matches take on additional importance. His name came up in four separate posts in the TMER series : 08-27, 09-17, 10-29, 12-03.

Looks like I'm still a long way from updating the Carlsen TMER. What a chess player!

***

Later: After I wrote this post, which was part of a Friday series, I took a break for the next few Fridays, starting Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. I finally returned to Friday blogging, but needed to tackle a more urgent project. When I come back to the Carlsen TMER, here's a summary of the next step(s):-

The single post on the Lichess events -- 10-29 -- might not be sufficient to proceed with the TMER. [...] Two of the [Lichess] bullet matches were against Alireza Firouzja. Since he is currently a person of interest involving Carlsen's future plans [...] those matches take on additional importance.

It's possible that Firouzja will fizzle when his big test starts in June; see Candidates Tournament to take place in Madrid sponsored by Chess.com for details. He is currently ranked world no.2, behind Carlsen.

Carlsen's TWIC Data 2019-21

On my World Championship Blog, I used the most recent post, TWIC Documents Chess History (August 2021), to bring my TWIC files up to date. An important reason behind that was a project for this current blog:-

Along with the games from the World Cups, I'll need TWIC data to document [...] GM Carlsen's record since the last World Championship match; see posts starting Carlsen's Events 2017-18 (September 2018).

Here's a record of that series of posts, which I'll use as a template for the 2019-21 exercise:-

• 2018-09-10:- Carlsen's Events 2017-18
• 2018-09-17:- Carlsen's Chess.com Events 2017-18
• 2018-09-24:- Carlsen's Record 2017-18
• 2018-10-01:- Carlsen's TMER 2017-18
• 2018-10-08:- Carlsen's PGN 2017-18
• 2018-11-26:- Carlsen's PGN 2000-2018

The objective will be to update my page that overviews Magnus Carlsen's Tournament, Match, and Exhibition Record (TMER; 2000-); Last updated 2018-11-26, where the last entry is currently:-

'2018-08; 6th Sinquefield Cup 2018; Saint Louis USA; 1-3/10; +2-0=7; B8H-STLO; 9/9'

A preliminary scan of the TWIC files published since that last entry found 1453 Carlsen games in 94 TWIC files. That count is not definitive because the latest TWIC file doesn't have Carlsen's final games from the 2021 World Cup; Sochi (Russia).

My deadline for updating the TMER will be the start of the 2021 Carlsen - Nepomniachtchi title match, currently scheduled for 24 November - 16 December 2021, in Dubai. With more than 1450 games to process, I'll need all the time I can get.

TCEC/CCC 2021-H1 Summary

Six months after the previous summary of posts about the world's two leading engine vs. engine competitions, TCEC/CCC 2020-H2 Summary (December 2020), it's time for another summary. As usual, the first column lists the fortnightly posts on the current status; the second column lists off-week posts on related topics that I wanted to explore in more depth. The last, blank space on the right is a space filler for this current post.

TCEC/CCC	Off-week
2021-01-04: TCEC S20 Reaches DivP; CCC Testing	2021-01-11: CCC Hardware Upgrade
2021-01-18: TCEC S20 Sufi Underway; CCC Back in the Saddle	2021-01-25: Engine Scaling
2021-02-01: Stockfish Wins TCEC S20; CCC 'Rapid 2021' Underway	2021-02-08: Correspondence Chess in the 2020s
2021-02-15: TCEC Side Events; CCC 'Rapid 2021' Nearing Semifinal	2021-02-22: The Transformation of Fat Fritz
2021-03-01: TCEC Cup 8, CCC Rapid 2021 : Semifinals Both Underway	2021-03-08: The Condemnation of Fat Fritz
2021-03-15: TCEC FRC3, CCC Rapid 2021 : Both Finals Underway	2021-03-22: TCEC/CCC HTTP '!Command's
2021-03-29: TCEC 'Swiss 1', CCC 'Streamer Bots Battle' : Both Underway	2021-04-05: Chess.com Streamer Bots
2021-04-12: TCEC 'Swiss 1', CCC 'Bots: Top Players...' : Both Underway	2021-04-19: Komodo Personalities
2021-04-26: TCEC 'VSOB'; CCC 'ECO Mega-Matches'	2021-05-03: VSOB 20; ECO_FULL
2021-05-10: TCEC S21 Starts; CCC 'ECO Mini-Matches'	2021-05-17: The Return of Chessdom News
2021-05-24: TCEC S21 L4 Underway; CCC Opening 'Specials'	2021-05-31: CCC PGN IV
2021-06-07: TCEC S21 L2 Underway; CCC Unorthodox Opening	2021-06-14: CCC No-castling Events
2021-06-21: TCEC Prepares S21 DivP; CCC Gives Black a Chance

Seeing the titles of all the posts in the left column, shows that the TCEC runs like clockwork. The CCC hasn't run a structured, multi-phase competition in more than three months. What will the next six months bring for the CCC?

2021 CJA Awards Announcement

A year ago, I penned (moused? cursored?) a new slogan: '"If it's May, it's CJA" ... awards, that is.' Today is the last day in May where I have no other topic planned, so once again, 'It's CJA'. Last year I ended up with with five posts on the CJA (Chess Journalists of America) awards:-

• 2020-05-26: 2020 CJA Awards Announcement
• 2020-07-28: 2020 CJA Award Entries
• 2020-09-17: 2020 CJA Awards - Part 1 • 'First to discuss the process,'
• 2020-09-24: 2020 CJA Awards - Part 1 bis • [...]
• 2020-10-15: 2020 CJA Awards - Part 2 • 'then to discuss the awards.'

Why the month of May? Because that's the month when the forthcoming awards are announced in Chess Life, usually before they appear anywhere else. This year the May 2021 issue of CL carried the usual full page announcement.

The seven categories and their corresponding awards for 2021 are shown below on the right. Next to them, on the left, is the related announcement from 2020. This allows for a bird's eye comparison of the two years. If you're interested in specific awards for 2021, you would be better off viewing the list of awards on ChessJournalism.org ('Supporting journalists and their love of chess since 1980'), where you'll also find instructions for submitting your own entries.

2020	2021

One feature of the 2020 announcement that is missing in 2021 is the use of yellow to color-code new awards. In 2021, the color yellow is used to footnote award categories, e.g. 'JUNIOR (Under 18)'. Since the highlighting of new awards helps to track the process, I compared the two years and came up with the following lists. The upper case entries are categories; mixed case entries are awards.

BEST ONLINE NEWS AND FEATURES [2020]
- Best Review
BEST ONLINE AND SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS AND FEATURES [2021]
- Best Online Review

At first I thought the 2020 award had disappeared. Then I noticed that it had been renamed and placed elsewhere in the 'ONLINE' list. I don't understand why the CJA continues to differentiate between 'PRINT' and 'ONLINE' awards. In the early days of the web it made sense to encourage the fledgling, often inexperienced, chess writers on the web. Nowadays those writers are mainstream, having assumed the role of the traditional writers. Continuing to account for a superfluous top-level class must place an additional burden on the judges, especially since some of the best writing -- Chess Life is a good example -- is available in both mediums.

The following awards are new in 2021. Note again the 'PRINT'/'ONLINE' overlap for 'Mainstream Publication'.

BEST PRINT ARTICLES (Open only to publications)
- Best Coverage by Mainstream Publication (free entry)
BEST ONLINE AND SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS AND FEATURES
- Best Overall Website Small Organization (website for group of less than 500)
- Best Coverage by Mainstream Publication (free entry)
- Best Twitch Channel
- Best Instagram Feed
SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT CRAMER AWARDS
- Best State Chapter Website

In addition to that last 'State Chapter Website' award, I found two (duplicate) awards with a similar name in the same category. That makes three Cramer awards for 'State Website'. If you run a state website, this year could be your best shot at winning a CJA award.

SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT CRAMER AWARDS
- Best Overall State Website
- Best Overall State Website

I'll end this post with my usual final sentence: 'If you're a CJA member (I'm not), good luck!'

USCF Awards 1979-92

According to the laws of nature, this post should have been titled 'USCF Awards 1992'. Just like the recent post 'USCF Awards 1990' (see link below), I could find no evidence that the awards were announced that year and would have been forced to fall back on subsequent yearbook compilations.

That makes this post a good point to pause the series on 'USCF Awards' and move on to a different topic best handled by a series of posts. A summary of the posts in the award series is shown below. I like summaries because they make my work easier if and when I ever come back to the topic.

• 2021-03-12: U.S. Chess Cities of the Year
• 2021-03-19: The U.S. Chess Awards • List of different awards and year first awarded
• 2021-03-26: U.S. Chess Service Awards • Distinguished Service, Meritorious Service, Special Service, Scholastic Service
• 2021-04-02: The First USCF Awards • 1979, 1980
• 2021-04-09: More Early USCF Awards • 1981, 1982, 1983
• 2021-04-16: USCF Awards 1984-85
• 2021-04-23: USCF Awards 1986-87
• 2021-04-30: USCF Awards 1988-89
• 2021-05-07: USCF Awards 1990
• 2021-05-14: USCF Awards 1991

While I was wandering through the various issues raised by that series of posts, I noted a couple of anomalies. The first anomaly is pictured below.

Source: Doyle's Scrapbook #1 - Toms River Chess Club [PDF p.12]

'Doyle' is Steve Doyle who himself received a Distinguished Service Award in 1990. The certificate says,

'1977 Distinguished Service Award
to
Toms River Chess Club
in recognition of participation in the
USCF Builder membership drive and National Chess Day'

The Distinguished Service Award represented by the certificate predates the start of the USCF awards by two years. The second anomaly is from the August 1978 Chess Life, which announced,

1979 Yearbook in Preparation • The 1979 USCF Yearbook is planned for December of this year.

This contradicts something I said in 'USCF Awards 1990', where I wrote, 'the USCF's first yearbook (the "1982 Chess Yearbook") appeared in the April 1983 issue of Chess Life. I have more to say about these anomalies, but I'm out of time for today.

Spectating the 91st FIDE Congress

Chess had a good year in 2020. Thanks to the Switch to Online Chess (June 2020) and Queen's Gambit Mania (October 2020), there were many more fans of the royal game at the end of the year than there were at the beginning.

FIDE, on the other hand, had a not-so-good year in 2020. The bungled Coronavirus Candidates (March 2020) might have been the low point, but the Olympiad fiasco, Splitting a Gold Medal (September 2020), wasn't much higher. Toward the end of the year, FIDE held an online pow-wow, documented in a number of administrative posts:-

• 2020-12-05: 2020 FIDE Online General Assembly Agenda
• 2020-12-10: 91st FIDE Congress: decisions, documents, numbers
• 2020-12-16: Decisions of the 4th quarter FIDE Online Council Meeting
• 2020-12-17: Decisions of the FIDE Online General Assembly 2020

That gives me the opportunity to continue with the 'Spectating FIDE' series, last seen in Spectating the 90th FIDE Congress? (February 2020), a month before the covid pandemic started wreaking havoc with the world's traditions, chess or otherwise. Just like in previous years, last year I made a series of posts out of the Congress:-

• 2020-02-21: FIDE Commissions 2020
• 2020-02-23: FIDE's Social Commission 2019?
• 2020-02-28: FIDE's Media and Fair Play Commissions 2019
• 2020-03-06: FIDE's Ethics Commission 2019
• 2020-04-24: Minutes of the 90th FIDE Congress • 'Remember the series of posts ending with "FIDE's Ethics Commission 2019?"'
• 2020-05-08: The FIDE Charter
• 2020-05-15: The FIDE Charter : Discussions

Supplementing that series were a couple of posts on my World Championship blog:-

• 2020-02-12: The Missing Link : Whither the World Championship?
• 2020-02-19: The GSC : Whither the World Championship?

Last year the title of the kickoff post ended in a question mark: 'Spectating the 90th FIDE Congress?'. This year I'm sure I'll be doing some serious spectating: no question mark required.