An Early Digital Clock

Last week, in 'The Chips Are Down!', I used USCF product catalogs from the 1990s to illustrate the state-of-the-art in chess computers circa 1995. After looking at computers, I started to wonder about digital clocks. When were they first introduced into the USCF catalog?

I found the first mention of a digital clock in the '1996 Official Spring/Summer Catalog'. Shown below, it was called the USCF GameTime and was sold to members for $99.95.

It turns out there was another story here. The earliest thread in rec.games.chess (rgc) was

• 1996-07-21: Advice Needed • 'I thought I would ask the readers for their opinion as they have been very helpful uncovering the USCF Gametime fiasco.'

Fiasco? What fiasco?

• 1996-07-10: USCF GameTimer • 'I have recently received a GameTimer from USCF and wondered if anyone else has had a similar experience with it. [...] I believe the problem is with shoddy manufacture.'

In the same thread, other rgc fans recorded similar problems, while more positive opinions were expressed about other digital clocks, e.g. Chronos & DGT. A few weeks later, a new thread appeared. It started, 'I received the following letter today':-

• 1996-07-29: USCF GameTime Recall • 'You recently purchased one of the first 400 new US GameTime clocks with special delay features. We appreciate your order, but we have an unusual request. We would like you to ship your clock back to us. [...] Excalibur Electronics, manufacturer of US GameTime, has notified us that...'

The USCF continued to sell the GameTime for several years, eventually adding a Saitek model and, shortly afterwards, the FIDE Digital Game Timer (DGT). As so often happens with new technology, the first horse out of the gate was not the eventual winner.

August 1965 'On the Cover'

Fifty years ago Pal Benko received a double billing for placing first in two strong open tournaments. If his photo on the Chess Review cover looks familiar, the same photo was also seen for the October 1964 'On the Cover'.

Left: 'San Juan 1965'
Right: 'Perennial Easterner?'

Chess Life

Benko, Lombardy Tie in U.S. Open • GMs Pal Benko and William Lombardy tied for first in the 1965 U.S.Open, played in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In accordance with USCF regulations in effect since 1963, they were proclaimed co-champions.

Chess Review

Pal Benko, former Hungarian and New Yorker, mops up regional tournaments regularly, mainly in the East. With his second Eastern Open title (the first was in 1962), he bids to become a perennial Easterner.

On the page announcing the result of the U.S.Open, Chess Life carried an obituary for a little-known, yet important benefactor of American chess.

E. Forry Laucks • Players at the United States Open were shocked and saddened by the sudden death of E. Forry Laucks on Saturday evening, July 31. Mr. Laucks, a participant in the Open, had played the first six rounds and seemed to be in good health and spirits. Accompanying a large group of chessplayers on a tour of San Juan, he collapsed suddenly and was pronounced dead upon his arrival at a nearby hospital.

Mr. Laucks, a Life Director of the USCF, was most famous as the founder and patron of the Log Cabin Chess Club. This unique chess organization, found. in 1934, was located at 30 Collamore Terrace, West Orange, NJ., and was visited by thousands of players -- including all the outstanding American masters. Hospitality at the Log Cabin was proverbial; proverbial also were the many chess trips and excursions that Mr. Laucks and the club members made to many points in the United States, Canada, Central America, Cuba, and Europe. In 1958 alone, the club sent representatives to eleven countries.

The Log Cabin played for many years in the Metropolitan Chess League in New York City and in 1945 won the league championship. From August 7 to August 22, 1959 the club was the scene of one of the greatest master tournaments ever held in this country -- the United States Seeded Championship. This event, held in celebration of the club's Silver Anniversary, was limited to ten of the strongest players in the nation. William Lombardy was the winner, followed by Benko, Bisguier, and Robert Byrne. Mr. Laucks provided an unusually generous prize fund: first prize was $1200, second $1000, with the others in proportion. Play was held at the Log Cabin and at Mary Bain's Chess Studio in New York City.

Although the Log Cabin had not been as active in the last few years as previously, Mr. Laucks had lost none of his enthusiasm for chess promotion. Only a few days before his death, he was outlining plans for more "firsts" and spoke enthusiastically of future tournaments and matches.

For more than thirty years E. Forry Laucks was a generous chess patron, an energetic chess promoter, and a colorful and well-beloved figure at chess gatherings everywhere. It will be hard to imagine a U. S. Open without him.

For more about Laucks, especially his influence on young Bobby Fischer, see Elliott Forry Laucks on Chessgames.com.

Early Computer Chess Ratings

Continuing the look at early chess computer news on rec.games.chess (rgc), my previous post 'The Chips Are Down!' ended,

The long explanation indicates the importance of ratings in choosing a chess computer. I'll look at ratings in my next post in this series.

One of the longest running computer rating lists has been maintained by the Swedish Chess Computer Association, SSDF [chessprogramming.wikispaces.com]. The first reference to the SSDF that I can find on rgc is

• 1989-04-24: ICCA Journal • 'Volume 12, number 1 of the ICCA Journal is now available. This issue contains: [...] The Swedish Rating List'

The first list I can find is

• 1990-11-26: Kamsky in Tilburg • 'This are the ratings calculated by the swedish chess computers federation.'

An excerpt of that list is shown below.

A rating list that corresponds to the computer models from 1995 mentioned in 'Chips Are Down' is

• 1995-06-04: Swedish Elo list for computers

Is anyone really interested in computer chess ratings from 20 years ago? If my early-2004 page on FIDE historical ratings is any guide, then the answer is 'Yes!'.

Chess Curriculum - Pre-chess

Returning to Chess Curriculum Inventory, after Chess Curriculum - Short Versions comes a full, stand-alone version.

No.2: Teaching Chess the Easy and Fun Way with Mini-Games • Kathy Price, Andre E. Zupans • 84 pages • Randolph-TeachingChesstheEasyFunWaywithMiniGames.pdf • subtitled 'Teach Clear Thinking, Promote Math Skills, Enhance Memory & Reasoning; Supporting the Common Core State Math Standards'

The philosophy behind the document can be gleaned from the section 'About the Authors' [p.03 (of the PDF)],

Kathy Price [...] developed this system of teaching chess to entire classrooms by trial and error with students in 1st through 6th grade classrooms. When one adult is facing 24 eager second graders with a variety of skills and interests, it became necessary to have an effective format that allows effective teaching and learning within constrained time limits to take place. • Andre Zupans [...] discovered that un-packing the game of chess in small Mini-Games was an effective way to teach chess. This educational guide has been designed on this principle.

and from the 'Introduction' [p.05]

The value of teaching chess to elementary age children is well researched. Occasionally we see schools that offer optional chess clubs or after school programs but arely we see it instituted in a whole classroom. Why? It is because most teachers do not know how to play or more importantly don’t have an effective system to teach chess to 24 or more active elementary students at once. This book is for that teacher!

Assuming a significant difference between 1st and 6th grade students, I would place the material at the younger end of that range. The document talks to a teacher responsible for a full class -- 'Classroom/Club Management' [p.15, with some good tips] and 'Supporting the Common Core State Standards in Math' [p.65-72, eight full pages] -- not to the students, and not to classes of one or two students.

The exercises can best be described as pre-chess or proto-chess. There is a full page of 'Game Variations' [p.56], e.g. Pocket Knight, Checkless Chess, etc. There are no full games, no openings, and few real-game situations. I expect that students come away eager to play a real chess game, when a more experienced chess teacher would necessarily take charge.

Shannon's Number

Published a week ago, already with 232.410 views and 855 comments, this is not your average chess video.

How many chess games are possible? (12:10) • 'Dr James Grime talking about the Shannon Number and other chess stuff.'

The last minute-and-a-half is publicity for a web service. For more about chess and math, see Chess from Wolfram MathWorld

***

Several chess blogs have posted about the recent announcement that AP makes one million minutes of historical footage available on YouTube. For a search on the videos, see chess : AP Archive.

What's Hot on CFAA?

Of the first 2000 posts on this blog -- a milestone mentioned in Another 1000 CFAA Posts -- which have been the most popular? Blogger.com (the domain used to manage blogs on blogspot.com) started reporting statistics in May 2010, meaning that I have just over five years of numbers covering all sorts of trivia.

Since most of the ongoing traffic comes from web searches, it's not too surprising that the most popular posts have less to do with chess than with some mainstream topic. The no.1 post on my blog, with more than double the views of no.2, is Access to Referrers, where I analyzed my website's log using MS Access. No.2, with 50% more views than no.3, is Crash Course in Soviet Geography, which features a map of the USSR. No.3, the first real chess post on the list, is Magnus vs. the Hustlers, my first Video Friday post for this year. In a footnote to the post, I commented,

Although it's been less than a day since I posted the link to the video, the post has received more than ten times the views I normally get on the first day of a new post.

A few days later, the clip was removed from Youtube and replaced with the message 'This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by VGTV'. Since VGTV is hardly a household name, a more productive approach might have been to add a comment to the clip's Youtube page with pertinent details.

Rounding out the top-10 (that's all blogger.com returns in its summary of stats) popular posts, the following all have similar numbers of views.

• Big Bang Chess • A hit TV show
• Chess in Africa - FIDE Members • Another map
• PGN Downloads • A popular search term
• Carlsen - Anand, More Mainstream Press • More Magnus; Anand also has his many fans
• 'Not a Sane Bone in His Body' • A revealing Fischer story
• My 1000th CFAA Post • CFAA must mean more than 'Chess for All Ages'
• Top eBay Chess Items by Price • A reference point for a long-running series

A few months ago I explored the popularity of 'Top eBay Chess Items' in a pair of Chess Collectors' Corner posts : What's Hot? and What's Not?. What will the next 1000 posts bring? Check back here in four or five years.

Another 1000 CFAA Posts

Start with My 1000th CFAA Post and add another 1000 posts. What have you got?

Google image search on '2000'

As I explained in 'My 1000th Post' (April 2011), the count might be adjusted for Find Earliest Possible Post (January 2000 ?!), but who's going to pick nits?