Flickr gave me a warning about this image being outside of 'safe search', even though I had the option turned off. It's creepier than most chess images, but I don't see anything otherwise objectionable about it.
Chess king by `adnrey © Flickr user cuirjean under Creative Commons.
The watermark points to DeviantArt.com ('deviously serving the art and skin community'). More weirdness here: Popular deviations submitted in all of time for chess.
I'm not sure why, but this chess set -- Russian Soviet Propaganda Porcelain Chess (eBay.com) -- works for me on several levels.
The eBay description said,
Extremely high quality copy of a very rare Russian Soviet Propaganda Chess Set. Originally the set was created on Lomonosov Porcelain Factory in 1920’s by a very famous and important artist - Natalia Danko. It’s 100% impossible to find the original set for sale. This copy was made from an original set which is located in Lomonosov Porcelain Factory Museum. This copy is hand made, hand painted and is a very limited edition. The name of the set is: RED AND WHITE. Which is commemorating Red Army and White Army which fought during the Soviet Communist Civil War in former Russian Empire.
It's a good example of chess sets as miniature works of art, taking the pieces together or taking them separately. See the eBay auction for high quality photos showing the details.
When I started the category on Posts with label Fortress, the goal was to create an article on the subject. I expected to find more examples than I have. The next position is from an early FIDE World Championship match.
1954 World Championship Match (game 3)
Botvinnik, Mikhail
Smyslov, Vasily
(After 41.Bd2-e3)
[FEN "3b4/p7/Pp2k1p1/1P1p1pp1/3P2p1/4B3/6KP/3B4 b - - 0 41"]
Botvinnik wrote,
The sealed move. The players agreed a draw without resuming play. Black does not have any problems. After the exchange of Bishops (for example, on the square e5), he only needs to exchange his five Pawns in the center and on the Kingside for the two Pawns on d4 and h2, in order to establish another fortress. The King will occupy an impregnable position on b8.
For the complete game, see...
Vasily Smyslov vs Mikhail Botvinnik
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1032342
...on Chessgames.com. Wikipedia also has a page on the subject -- Fortress (chess) -- with many examples from theoretical endgames. The page says, 'Fortresses pose a problem for computer chess: computers are unable to reason about fortress-type positions except to the extent that their endgame tablebase allows.' This was true once, but Monte Carlo methods now allow chess software to detect fortress positions.
I updated my first post in this series -- The Soviet School -- to add the references I've collected since that post was written in 2007. The two most useful new references are 'Soviet Chess 1917-1991' by Andrew Soltis and 'Soviet Chess' by R.G.Wade.
If you're curious about the content of Soltis's book, you can find the table of contents at Andrew Soltis, Soviet Chess 1917 - 1991 (Schachversand.de). Unlike most history books, the chapter titles aren't particularly descriptive, but if you already have a grasp of the subject, they should be clear. If you're curious about Wade's book, here's a snapshot of its table of contents.
The Wade book suffers from several structural problems, which are exacerbated by the lack of an index. For example, the section titled 'Post-Tchigorin' [Chigorin, p.28] has brief entries on Janowsky, Rubinstein, Bernstein, Znosko-Borowsky, Tartakower, Nimzowitsch, and Bogoljubow. With the exception of Bogoljubow, who won the 3rd and 4th Soviet Championships, none of these players are generally discussed in literature on Soviet chess, and you would not know they are present in Wade's book unless you read the small section mentioning them.
Like the majority of chess history books, the Soltis book and the Wade book both feature annotated games in addition to the historical narrative you expect. Both do this using a technique which I have come to dislike; the games and narrative are mixed together throughout the book. When I spend time on a chess history book, I am interested either in reading the narrative or in playing through the games, never in both at the same time. Having to skip over a number of annotated games makes the narrative harder to follow, especially when it continues with a short paragraph or two between the games. Kasparov's 'Predecessor' series also uses this not-so-friendly structure.
I find a book like Grekov's 'Soviet Chess', where the narrative is split into chapters and the chapters are separated by the relevant games, easier to read. This is more a peeve than it is a problem, since I'm always happy to have the information found in books of any format.
'Simultaneous 5-axis milling'
SolidCAM chess video (6:41) • 'Cutting the chess pieces on 5 axis CNC machine Hermle C20U in Technology Training Center of company SolidVision, Brno, Czech Republic '
How long does it take you to recognize which piece is being cut? The second piece starts around 3:40 into the clip.
When I went downtown this morning, there seemed to be the same poster on every corner advertising 'Givenchy, Ange ou Demon'. It reminded me of a Givenchy chess ad from the early 1990s, of which I've seen two versions.
Here's a YouTube video for Givenchy - Ange ou Demon Le Secret, featuring Uma Thurman. Who's the model on the Ysatis ad?
Three weeks after my previous post on the USCF's Executive Board (EB) election (see My Four EB Votes), the USCF issued the results.
The winners were the same four candidates for whom I voted -- Jim Berry, Bill Goichberg, Ruth Haring, and Michael Atkins -- listed here in descending order of the number of votes each received. The last of those four received more than three times the number of votes the fifth vote-getter received. Relative to the total number of USCF members, the number of votes is low, confirming my frequent observation on the general apathy that chess players have for organizational issues. U.S. chess players who care about these things solidly backed current USCF management and completely repudiated the negative, divisive campaigning of the Polgar/Truong faction.
After the vote I expected to see a USCF announcement on the new officers, but it appears to have slipped through the cracks. The USCF page Board Members lists 'Jim Berry - President; Ruth Haring - Vice President; ...' (although dated 'February 7, 2009'). Two weeks after the election results were published, the USCF announced that Polgar and Truong were no longer members of the organization.
It has been only two years since Polgar and Truong were elected to the EB, in which time their considerable political capital was wasted on lawsuits where they played leading roles. The lawsuits continue, the story is far from over, and the next chapter in this sad saga remains to be written. Once there was so much promise; now there is so little to show for it.
***
Here is a summary of my posts to date in 2009.
I don't intend to be obsessed with subsequent events, but I will follow the evolution of the lawsuits. As a USCF Life Member, I have an interest in the long term viability of the organization.
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