JP/Moon/Fischer

Let's go once again Down Memory Lane with Andy Soltis, where I quoted GM Soltis from the March 2015 Chess Life (CL) saying,

More chess literature is available today than ever before, thanks to the Internet. and yet more chess literature is being lost today -- on the Internet. The vanishing content appeared on websites that are now dead.

One of his most familiar examples was a controversial site by a controversial ex-World Champion.

Other doomed sites were personal blogs. even Fischer got into the act, on a Japanese site where he posted copies of personal documents, such as his book contracts. (It shows he got a $2,000 advance for Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess.) But the site died soon after Bobby did. some sites devoted to Fischer have also vanished.

By coincidence, I had been looking at this site just a few weeks earlier, while preparing a post on Fischer's Seiko Connection. The Archive.org address is home.att.ne.jp/moon/fischer/, where the entry for 2007-12-22 brings up a working index page. Unfortunately, the individual links lead mostly to other pages that contain only scanned images. Since the images are missing, the real content is minimal.

A big advantage to having a working index is that the page's text opens up new avenues for search. With that page as a guide I finally located an archive page with the two images used in the 'Seiko Connection' post. They are on a page under the Archive.org copy of geocities.jp/bobbby_a (note the 'bbb' in Bobby). Somewhat curiously, there is another *live* site at geocities.jp/bobbby_b/ (those three 'b's again), with an identical index page, but the links lead only to error messages.

Getting back to GM Soltis, the document he mentions was titled, '"Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess" contract dated October 21, 1965.(13 pages)'. It turns out there is a fully functional copy of jp/moon/fischer (who is Moon?) at crashrecovery.org/..., with a working link that returns the entire BFTC contract. Some of the last links on that page go to crashrecovery.org/bobbby_a, giving the distinct impression that someone is trying very hard to keep *Bobbby's* site alive. Why bother? Other than the connection with its historical chess personality, the tasteless, offensive site has little of real interest to anyone other than a psychiatrist.

As long as we're discussing the dead site of the 11th World Champion, let's look at the dead site of the 13th's. Near the end of his column GM Soltis wrote,

You have to wonder about the demise of KasparovChess. It was the best chess site on the web when Garry Kasparov launched it 15 years ago. In addition to showcasing his own views and analysis, it provided an outlet for articles by unknowns. [...] Kasparov predicted a bright future for his site. "Frankly speaking, KasparovChess has no competitors at the moment, as this is a really new form of entertainment in the world of chess," he said. With solid financial backing and Kasparov’s expertise, his prediction should have panned out. But KasparovChess began shutting down in late 2002 after it ran out of cash.

When asked about kasparovchess.com, Archive.org says only, 'Sorry. This URL has been excluded from the Wayback Machine.' On my page World Chess Championship : 2002-04 Unification, I have a few copies of kc.com articles (used with permission), but phrases from these articles lead only to my copies. Looks like kc.com is gone forever. Sorry, Andy, it was indeed a great site!

Chess Collectors' Corner - What's Not?

Let's continue with Chess Collectors' Corner - What's Hot?, where I looked at five years of Top eBay Chess Items by Price and answered the question,

There is tremendous interest in certain 'Top eBay Items', and wondered, 'Which ones?'

In contrast to those dozen-or-so items, some posts in the eBay series get very few views. For each of the five years I identified two posts with the lowest number of views since the post was created. The following composite image shows the focus of those unloved posts.

Top row: (left to right)

• 2010: Blog -> Email -> Facebook -> Ebay
• 2010: Chess Knights?
• 2011: World Championship Chess Pins
• 2011: Real Olympiad Gold
• 2012: A Range of Mental States

Bottom row:

• 2012: A Commemorative Rook
• 2013: Crystal for Mom
• 2013: Groningen 1946 Autographs
• 2014: Chess and the Killer Klowns
• 2014: 'The Silent Master'

Why are these posts so unloved? I imagine that they don't strike any chords in web searches. Either people don't often look for those types of items -or- the keywords in the posts don't resonate with the terms that people use in searches.

Popularity, of course, is always relative. The two posts from 2014 have received more than double the number of views of the posts from 2010, even though the earlier posts have been sitting on the blog for around four years longer. Or maybe there's just a steady interest in, say, 'Chess and the Killer Klowns'.

Engine Insights

In the first post of this series, Houdini, Komodo, Stockfish, I mentioned 'Tartajubow On Chess' as a source for ideas on correspondence play and engines. Starting almost three years ago, here are a selection of relevant posts that have proved useful for further insights.

• 2012-04: The Best Chess Engine for Correspondence Play is... • 'Different engines have different weaknesses but we won't know when one is spitting out a better move than another. Of course, no engine will give the correct answer every time.'
  
  
• 2013-05: Engine Strengths & Weaknesses • 'While surfing some engine forums recently I compiled a list of attributes for various engines. Here is a brief summary of other people's opinions of the strengths and weaknesses of some of the more popular engines.'
  
  
• 2013-09: Chess Engine "Styles" • 'After prowling forums dealing with chess engines, I have come up with a general consensus of the strengths and weaknesses of various engines which are summarized below.'
  
  
• 2014-04: Which Analysis Engine? • 'I found this question asked on a forum and the one of the "engine experts" gave his opinion which was based on the number of engines being used (I assume when using Aquarium's IDeA). What I found interesting was his evaluation of the strengths of the engines.'
  
  
• 2014-07: Thoughts on Study and CC Play and Engines • 'Whose Games to Study? Alekhine's, Capablanca's or those of Carlsen and Aronian? In the recent edition of Chess Life magazine, GM Andy Soltis in his column Chess To Enjoy, made the following observation: "Chess combinations have a way of being repeated... This is why studying great tactical battles of the past is so useful."' • On my chess960 blog I also found GM Soltis's July column useful: It's Not Unusual and Clinging to the Past.
  
  
• 2014-09: More Thoughts on Correspondence Chess • 'I ran into a friend the other day who asked me if I was still playing chess and I told him just correspondence and the discussion, of course, got around to CC these days and engine use. Like many, he didn't see the point of letting my engine play against the other guy's engine.'
  
  
• 2014-09: Advanced Chess aka Server Play As It Is Played These Days • 'I was recently reading a post on a chess engine blog which sent me to a page that gave hints on using a chess engine in server play.'
  
  
• 2014-12: Some Interesting Chess Articles • 'The CCLA Server site has some articles that make interesting reading.'
  
  
• 2015-01: Even Engines Need Time to Think • '33 running games. That's how many my opponent had going and quite often he replied to my move within a few minutes so he was effectively playing at a blitz pace in most of his games.'

That last link brings us full circle to my initial post 'Houdini, Komodo, Stockfish', where I used the same quote. Thanks, Tartajubow!

tartajubow.blogspot.com

Are Boys Good at Chess?

That title makes about as much sense as the provocative headline on a Scientific American article, Are Girls Bad at Chess? [ScientificAmerican.com, April 2014], subtitled 'Of course not -- but stereotypes can have a real effect on performance.'

For the boys, we can confidently say, 'Some are good and some are mediocre, but most don't have a clue how to play'. For the girls, in its lead paragraph the SciAm piece informs,

One of the most talked about findings in psychology today is "stereotype threat" – a phenomenon in which a person experiences anxiety because of the fear of confirming a negative stereotype. Research has shown that stereotype threat can lead people to perform worse than expected. For example, women make more mistakes on a math test after being reminded of the stereotype that men are better at math.

That sounds like what used to be called a 'self fulfilling prophecy'. Perhaps it's the real danger behind Chess Stereotypes.

As for the question, 'Are People Bad at Chess?', most chess engines, if they could talk, would say, 'Yes, they're very bad'. And people still continue playing.

Not Your Average Chess Video

After four days, 1.279.354 views and 6.105 comments (and counting)?

This piece takes that piece, but that piece then takes mine.
I can't lose my rook while I'm lagging way behind!
I'll play safe and wait for an opportunity.
I won't let that cheeky monkey make a monkey out of me!

Then 'Wait, Mark! Don't take it! That monkey's set a trap!'

How To Beat A Monkey At Chess (4:54) • 'Ever wanted to see Markiplier. MatPat, and The Completionist sing about how they plan to beat a monkey at chess?'

Anyone named Mark must be OK: Markiplier [Wikipedia].

Mark Edward Fischbach (born June 28, 1989), known by his YouTube handle Markiplier, is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, internet personality, video game commentator and philanthropist.

Not to mention the millennial behind 'the 71st most subscribed channel on YouTube'. See also How To Beat A Monkey At Chess - Bloopers!

Down Memory Lane with Andy Soltis

Whenever I have a new issue of Chess Life (CL) in my hands, one of the first pages I turn to is GM Andy Soltis's 'Chess to Enjoy' column. A mix of chess news, chess history, chess trivia, and chess gossip, it is currently categorized by CL as 'Entertainment'. Entertaining it certainly is. This month's CL had the following headline.

Where Have You Gone NextGreatChessWebsite.com?

The column started,

More chess literature is available today than ever before, thanks to the Internet. and yet more chess literature is being lost today -- on the Internet. The vanishing content appeared on websites that are now dead. Whether they succumbed to lack of readers, money, ideas or energy, the sites have gone to that great server in the sky.

This was followed by a list of ten chess sites ('You probably know the names of some of the departed'), then the observation,

Several of them were launched in the 1990s, before the Internet became the place serious chess players started their day. Others began in the halcyon days around 2000-2005, when it seemed that every four-digit-rated player was blogging. Still others first got our attention and clicks in the last few years.

GM Soltis has never been known as an early adopter of trends -- his column was the last piece of CL real estate to switch from descriptive to algebraic notation (January 2002; I just checked) -- and he is around five years early on the 'halcyon days' of blogging, but let's not quibble. He asks a good question and makes a valid point.

Even though I witnessed the births of both the Internet and the Web, I didn't recognize all of his ten domains ('Chess Check' ?) and there was at least one typo ('Wollfchess'). I did verify that most of the sites for which he pines are still available in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. For example, Soltis mentions,

It’s not just writing that we’ve lost, but a lot of good games. For example, Vladimir Kramnik was world champion when he gave an eight-board simultaneous exhibition through the site Chess21.com in September 2005. Kramnik won six games and drew two. But the games, like the rest of the site’s content, seem to have vanished.

With the help of that precise time frame, I found this after a minute or two at Online simultaneous display with World Champion, Vladimir Kramnik on Chess21 (dated 2005-09-16), and saved the game scores for my page on Vladimir Kramnik's Tournament, Match, and Exhibition Record (1984-; 'Last updated 2005-05-03', but what's the rush?).

It might be useful to come back to Soltis's list on another occasion, especially when I have no particular ideas for a post that day. Which is most days...

Chess Collectors' Corner - What's Hot?

Five years ago I started a temporary series called Top eBay Chess Items by Price. Although its objective was purely practical...

For the next month or so, my time for blogging is going to be extremely limited, but I'm reluctant to stop completely. Instead, I'll concentrate on topics that don't take much effort, like photos and videos. Another area that requires minimum effort is eBay.

...I learned so much about chess collecting -- NB: Standard disclaimer: I'm *not* a collector myself -- that the series continued every two weeks with a new eBay item culled from the previous fortnight. In a post a few days ago, Photos of February, I was reminded that there is tremendous interest in certain 'Top eBay Items', and wondered, 'Which ones?'

To answer that question I opened my Blogspot.com statistics on Posts with label eBay, scraped all of the data for the 165 posts from the screen, loaded the numbers into a database, and ran some queries on page views. After the 'Top Items' post itself, the blog's most popular eBay post predates the start of the series.

• 2009-09-10: Soviet Propaganda Chess Set

It wouldn't be fair to compare a post from 2011 with a post from 2014. A post which has been on the blog for years will normally have received more views than a recent post. In the interest of keeping an 'apples to apples' comparison, I grouped the posts by year and looked at the top posts for each year. Here are the top posts from 2010 in order of popularity.

• 2010-07-15: Chess Sets, 'Never Been Used' • Franklin Mint's Faberge Imperial Chess Set
• 2010-03-25: Peter Ganine and Star Trek
• 2010-06-10: How Much Is a Vintage Chess Computer Worth?
• 2010-08-12: Vasa Lucite Acrylic Sculpture
• 2010-04-29: ANRI on eBay

That last ANRI post has received nearly two-and-a-half times the number of views as the next post from 2010, which was about chess clocks. It's clear from this first batch of stats that chess sets are the overwhelming favorite among chess collectors, with chess computers running a distant second.

In fact, collecting chess books is certainly more popular than collecting chess computers, but there are obvious reasons why a search for a specific book occurs less frequently. My stats, after all, are directly related to the number of times that people initiate a search on a specific chess item, where my post was one of the results that attracted a click.

• 2011-09-22: Capodimonte Figurines
• 2011-01-13: Engine Block Chess

Total page views for all posts from 2011 are about 25% less than posts from 2010. These two posts are considerably more popular than other posts from 2011. I know from watching my weekly stats that the popularity of the 'Engine Block' post is a result of searches on 'engine block furniture'. Who could have guessed?

• 2012-05-27 Restoring Chess Sets
• 2012-10-28: British Birds from Blade Runner

Once again, these two posts have received about 50% more views than the next posts on the list. For reasons of confidentiality and privacy, I don't usually mention the name of the seller when I'm describing an auction. I made an exception for the post on 'Restoring Sets', which was about eBay member Chessspy, an expert on the subject.

• 2013-06-23: 'A Holy Grail to Cookie Jar Collectors'

Only a single post from 2013? Yes, because it has received three times more views than the next item on the list.

• 2014-03-04: Delucia's Chess Library
• 2014-03-16: 'Six World Champions on a Single Envelope'

Last year's posts haven't had enough time to establish a trend, but these two are the current frontrunners.

• 2015-02-08: This Knight Is 'Grimm'

Ditto for this year's posts. I'll be continuing the series for the forseeable future, so perhaps we'll see nother summary some day. Fascinating hobby, chess collecting, isn't it?