Chess Broadcasting Gets Professional

The short list for this edition of Video Friday was dominated by clips from the Wijk aan Zee closed tournament and the Gibraltar open tournament, which overlapped each other. For example:-

• Interview with Wesley So: winner at the 2017 Tata Steel Chess Tournament
• Interview with Hikaru Nakamura: winner at Gibraltar Chess 2017

As good as these are, the best was from GBC News, aka the Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation.

Prizes awarded at Tradewise Chess Festival - 03 Feb 17 (4:00) • 'Gibraltar’s Tradewise Chess champions for 2017 have praised the high calibre of the festival, which is in its fifteenth year.'

The description continued,

The USA’s Hikaru Nakamura, who won the championship for the third year running, and women’s champion, Ju Wenjun from China, were both presented their awards at a dinner at the Caleta hotel last night.

At some time over the last decade, chess broadcasting jumped to the professional level. Kudos to everyone involved.

Quantum Chess

A few months ago, in a post on another one of my blogs (if you really want to know, see Quantum Computers, November 2016), I developed a strong interest in all things quantum. Working on that post reminded me of a Youtube video that appeared a year ago on the IQIM Caltech channel:-

• Stephen Hawking faces Paul Rudd in epic chess match (feat. Keanu Reeves) • 'Caltech's Institute for Quantum Information and Matter in association with Trouper Productions brings you a chess match for the ages: Paul Rudd vs. Stephen Hawking in a game of Quantum Chess, narrated by Keanu Reeves. The game is real and the stakes are high as the future of humanity hangs in the balance. Can Paul Rudd beat Stephen Hawking, one of the greatest minds of our generation, in a game of chess that will determine the future of humanity? Most likely not. Unless... • Quantum Chess Developer: Chris Cantwell and Broken Circle Studios'

When the clip first came out, I didn't understand it, but it made more sense on the second viewing. With nearly 3.8M views, 63.6K likes, and 3.0K comments, it's safe to say that many other people were also impressed. The Chess Mind, 'A blog for chess fans, by a chess fan', gets a flash mention -- see Quantum Chess, Anyone? (thechessmind.net) -- which lifts the credibility of the video yet another notch. Some links from the video's description:-

• Quantum Frontiers, 'A blog by the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter @ Caltech'
• IQIM – Institute for Quantum Information and Matter
• Quantum Realm Games, the official(?) site for the game played in the video, unfortunately with an empty forum
• Quantum Chess (facebook.com)

A followup video was released later, although the chess content is almost nil:-

• Stephen Hawking + Zoe Saldana: Quantum is Calling ft. Keanu Reeves, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Paul Rudd • Zoe Saldana enlists the help of Stephen Hawking to solve a quantum riddle in order to get Simon Pegg’s cat back. This follows Paul Rudd’s epic quantum chess match with Stephen Hawking.

The developer of quantum chess gives a longer, more technical explanation in the following video.

Christopher Cantwell - Quantum Chess: Making Quantum Phenomena Accessible (1:26:51) • Institute for Quantum Studies - 'Recorded seminar at Chapman University.'

Around nine minutes into the clip he discusses two other versions of quantum chess:-

• Quantum Chess, 'invented by Selim Akl'
• qCraft Introduces Gaming Kids to Quantum Principles (caltech.edu; October 2013), Spyridon Michalakis

If by some quantum miracle I manage to digest all of the above, I'll come back to the subject in a future post.

That 'History-Making Tournament'

Continuing with February 1967 'On the Cover', I quoted the start of 'A History-Making Tournament! ... an electronic computer played chess against human beings under regular tournament conditions', a non-cover story from the February 1967 Chess Life (CL). I ended with:-

The story continued with 'a report sent in by Benjamin Landey'. The chess playing computer was named MacHack VI.

Here's the rest of that CL report:-

The following is an excerpt from a report sent in by Benjamin Landey, well-known New England chess organiser, and Tournament Director for this event.

"Aside from all the fun we had, and the joshing, the entry (of the computer) was part of serious scientific research.

"Technical advice (about chess, not computers) in the programming was given by Larry Kaufman, Baisley, and Wagner, all highly rated and all MIT students. Kaufman is an undergraduate. (Editor's note: He Is also the winner of the recent American Open at Santa Monica. See the December CL [and December 1966 'On the Cover'.])

"The present programming makes of the computer a beginner. However, partly as a result of the experience in this tournament, the program will be improved.

"MacHack VI (the computer's name) played all five rounds and ended up with a game score of 1/2 - 4 1/2. It was able to pull off a couple of pretty combinations but is very weak in the endgame.

"The chess program was written by Richard Greenblatt of MIT'S Project Mac for the PDP-6 computer. It is hoped that it can play regularly in tournaments so that its strength can be more accurately compared to that of human beings.

"MacHack VI's current rating is a provisional 1239 (Class D). The computer's play is extremely erratic; witness the following games:

The report continued with a couple of games that I recorded while playing through them:-

[Event "Massachusetts Amateur Championship"]
[Site "Boston MA"]
[Date "1967.01.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Wagner, Carl"]
[Black "MacHack VI"]
[Result "1-0"]

1.g3 e5 2.Nf3 e4 3.Nd4 Bc5 4.Nb3 Bb6 5.Bg2 Nf6 6.c4 d6 7.Nc3 Be6 8.d3 exd3 9.Bxb7 Nbd7 10.exd3 Rb8 11.Bg2 O-O 12.O-O Bg4 13.Qc2 Re8 14.d4 c5 15.Be3 cxd4 16.Nxd4 Ne5 17.h3 Bd7 18.b3 Bc5 19.Rad1 Qc8 20.Kh2 Ng6 21.Bg5 Re5 22.Bxf6 gxf6 23.Ne4 f5 24.Nf6+ Kg7 25.Nxd7 Qxd7 26.Nc6 Rbe8 27.Nxe5 Rxe5 28.Qc3 f6 29.Rd3 Re2 30.Rd2 Rxd2 31.Qxd2 Ne5 32.Rd1 Qc7 33.Bd5 Kg6 34.b4 Bb6 35.Qc2 Nc6 36.Be6 Nd4 37.Rxd4 Bxd4 38.Qxf5+ Kg7 39.Qg4+ Kh6 40.Qxd4 Qe7 41.Qh4+ Kg6 42.Bf5+ Kg7 43.Qxh7+ Kf8 44.Qh8+ Kf7 45.Qa8 Qc7 46.Qd5+ Kg7 47.Kg2 Qe7 48.h4 Kh6 49.g4 Kg7 50.h5 Qe2 51.h6+ Kf8 52.h7 Qxf2+ 53.Kxf2 Ke7 54.h8=Q a6 55.Qe6# 1-0

[Event "Massachusetts Amateur Championship"]
[Site "Boston MA"]
[Date "1967.01.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Conroy"]
[Black "MacHack VI"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Na5 6.Bb5+ c6 7.dxc6 bxc6 8.Qf3 Qd5 9.Qxd5 Nxd5 10.Be2 Bf5 11.d3 Bb4+ 12.Bd2 Bxd2+ 13.Nxd2 O-O 14.a3 f6 15.Ngf3 Rab8 16.b4 Nb7 17.O-O Nc3 18.Rfe1 Nxe2+ 19.Rxe2 Nd6 20.Ne4 Nxe4 21.dxe4 Be6 22.Rd1 Bc4 23.Red2 Rb7 24.Rd8 Rxd8 25.Rxd8+ Kf7 26.Nh4 g5 27.Nf5 Rc7 28.g4 Kg6 29.Rd6 Be2 30.Rd8 Bxg4 31.Rg8+ Kh5 32.Ng7+ Kh6 33.Nf5+ Kh5 34.Ng7+ Kh6 1/2-1/2

The USCF rating list in the December 1966 CL listed MacHack's opponents as:-

• 'Wagner C. (N.J.) 2163', and
• 'Conroy, J. (Mass.) 1365'

The tournament (30 players) was rated for the June 1967 CL rating supplement, where we find:-

• 'MacHack V. (Mass.) 1338*'

Later in the year we find:-

• 'MacHack VI (Mass.) 1493*'

The asterix after a rating meant a provisional rating based on 10-24 games ('less reliable than established ratings').

The same two games, although identified incompletely, can be found on Chessgames.com under Greenblatt (Computer), 'born 1966'; 'Number of games in database: 7; Years covered: 1967 to 1977'. Another of the seven games is in the September 1967 CL, along with a game fragment showing a nice combination by the machine. The three games from 1977 are attributed to Bobby Fischer.

Korchnoi's Career 1945-1977, Three Views

Two weeks ago, in Korchnoi's Career 1945-1977 (on Paper), I extracted an index of Korchnoi's games for the period 1945-1977 from the book 'Korchnoi's Chess Games' by Levy & O'Connell. Last week, in Korchnoi's TMER 1976-2000, I compared games for the period 1976-2000 from two PGN collections compiled around the turn of the century -- one by UPITT and one by GMchess.

Of course, the two PGN collections also include games going back to 1945. How do these three sources, a book and two files, compare in their coverage of Korchnoi's pre-1978 period?

The chart on the left shows a count of games played in a given year for each of the three sources, plus an average of the three sources. For any particular year, the counts are roughly equivalent.

How does the data compare for a specific year? The following table shows events for the year 1977 from the three sources.

Src	Yr	Venue	Ct
L&O	1977	*KL	1
L&O	1977	*KS	1
L&O	1977	KS	1
L&O	1977	LEE	13
L&O	1977	MTX	9
L&O	1977	xKP1	12
L&O	1977	xKP2	13
L&O	1977	xKS	17
GMC	1977	Montreux (Switzerland)	10
GMC	1977	Netherlands	2
GMC	1977	Zurich (Switzerland)	3
GMC	1977	Ch Germany (team) (South-west) 1977/78 * Germany	1
GMC	1977	Ch Netherlands * Leeuwarden (Netherlands)	13
GMC	1977	Ch World (match) (cand.) (1/2) * Evian (France)	12
GMC	1977	Ch World (match) (cand.) (1/4) * Ciocco (Italy)	13
UPI	1977	Belgrade cm f	17
UPI	1977	Ciocco cqf ,CAND	4
UPI	1977	Evian cm sf	12
UPI	1977	Il Ciocco cm qf	8
UPI	1977	Leeuwarden NED ch	11
UPI	1977	Montreux	10

While the data again looks comparable, it's only because I eliminated 75% of the 'events' for UPITT, where the PGN headers haven't been standardized. Even for the six remaining events, Ciocco and Il Ciocco identify the same Candidates match.

To make progress for the period 1945-1977, I need to work only with the Levy & O'Connell material (on paper) and the GMchess data. The UPITT data can be ignored for now.

Chess with Rare Woods

We don't see many chess tables here on Top eBay Chess Items by Price. The only one I can remember was Quarter Sawn Chess (December 2013).

The title of the auction on this latest table was 'Horse Head Chess Table and Chairs; Beautiful, Unique, One of a Kind; Hand Carved, Made with Rare Woods'. The item sold for US $5500, Buy-It-Now. That's more than twice the price of the 'Quarter Sawn' table, which was also a beautiful piece.

The description said,

This unique chess set was purchased in the 1980's when living in the Philippines. It came from and was made in a small village of wood carvers in Baguio. Beautiful authentic high quality Philippine hand carved wood Chess table and chairs.

The table top is supported by a pedestal carved into a horse's head that sits on a square base. Horse head carving's are on the pedestal of both table and chairs.

Chess pieces are made from rare ebony, ironwood (kamagong) and molave. The table itself has a variety of woods from cacia raintree to narra. The inlay comes from three different types of woods.

The table top is reversible and flips to serve as a backgammon board. The table is 5" deep for storage of chess pieces. All chess pieces have felt on the bottom.

This piece is in excellent shape for its age. Has been stored for many years. There is a varnish coating over entire pieces to protect all wood. There is some peeling in small areas of the varnish and few light scratches.

DIMENSIONS:
Table - 28.0" H x 28.0" D x 28.0" W
Chairs - 18.0" H x 12.0" W
Chess Pieces - range from 4" to 7"

Note the reference to Baguio, Philippines. This was the venue for the 1978 Karpov - Korchnoi Title Match, Which Karpov won +6-5=21.

Knock Knock!

What do the world's top grandmasters do while waiting for the start of the next round at the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival? They tell jokes!

Open de Gibraltar de Ajedrez © Flickr user InfoGibraltar under Creative Commons.

As GM Peter Svidler said to GM Vassily Ivanchuk,

Knock knock!
Who's there?
Pizza!
Pizza who?
Pete's a great guy!

And the Ukrainian GM replied,

Knock knock!
Who's there?
Chuck!
Chuck who?
Chuck mate!

Not to be outdone, the seven-time Russian champion said,

Knock knock
Who's there?
Russian!
Russian who?
Rushin' to tell bad jokes!

Then the exchange became political.

Knock knock
Who's there?
Putin!
Putin who?
Putin me to sleep!

This was quickly followed by,

Knock knock
Who's there?
Crimea!
Crimea who?
Crimea river!

Just as the exchange was about to turn politically incorrect, the round started. • For a more conventional Flickr Friday post on a previous edition of the same event, see Gibraltar's Tradewise Chess (February 2014).

February 1967 'On the Cover'

Fifty years ago, for 65 cents each, you could buy an issue of both of the leading American chess magazines.

Left: 'Past and Future'
Right: 'Eight Straight'

Chess Life

THE PAST: Gordon Knight, president of Georgia's Peachtree Chess Club passes winner's check to William Lombardy, champion of last fall's Peach State Open. James R. Ballard (center), a USCF Director and Vice-President of the Atlanta Chess Association, holds championship trophy.

THE FUTURE: The Atlanta Chess Association is hosting the 1967 U.S. Open, August 13-25, at the Atlanta American Motor Hotel. The concurrent U.S. Speed Championship will be held on August 19 at Massey Junior College, which was patron and host to the Peach State Open. President Jack Barnette of Massey is enthusiastically supporting the 1967 U.S. Open.

Chess Review

Fischer Adds to his Record in the U. S. Championships • Robert J. Fischer has now competed in and won eight straight U. S. Championships. He tied Samuel Reshevsky's record with six straight, broke it last year with seven and now holds a brand new record. With his record-tieing sixth straight championship, Fischer won all eleven games. In the first round this time, after he had pulled out from a losing position against Benko, and won, it looked again as though he was going all the way.

Fischer's eighth win (+8-0=3) was covered in last month's CL; see January 1967 'On the Cover'. The February CL had another half-page story of historical interest.

A History-Making Tournament! • January 21-23, 1966: Boston, Massachusetts; United States of America, Planet Earth. [should be 1967?]

The Massachusetts Amateur Championship marks the very first time (in the world, as far as we know) that an electronic computer played chess against human beings under regular tournament conditions; time limit, Swiss-system pairings, touch-move, the works.

In the past, as everyone knows, computers have been programmed for chess playing, but only for scientific experimental purposes, and their opponents have usually been limited to the programmer and his colleagues. This time the computer was paired against rated chess players who were interested only in winning the game, not to demonstrate a scientific point.

The story continued with 'a report sent in by Benjamin Landey, well-known New England chess organiser, and Tournament Director for this event'. The chess playing computer was named MacHack VI.