I Should Just Focus on the Chess

Tired of people talking about the success of Chess.com? I can't sympathize, because I don't think I'll ever get enough. A couple of months ago the featured video of the month was The Rise of Chess.com (January 2023). Consider this a follow-up post.

This Company RULES Over ENTIRE CHESS MARKET | Case Study (11:49) • '[Published on] Feb 24, 2023'

The description said only,

We have revised the payment plan for this cohort. Under this new plan, the base price is now 30,000 + GST, and the rest from your first month's salary IF you get placed through the cohort. If you do not get placed/don't apply for placements, we don't charge you the salary fee.

I had no idea what that meant, so I decided to find out. The Youtube channel, Aevy TV ('We take complex educational topics and make it super fun for you so you never forget.'), pointed to AevyTV Video Editing Cohort (aevytv.com), which said, 'The Best PLACEMENT FRIENDLY Video Editing coHORT money can buy'.

A popup on that page said, 'Glad to see you here! How can I help you?' plus 'Start chat'. I accepted the chat with the intention of starting a dialog on the topic: 'I don't know. How *can* you help me? Who are you?'. The invitation 'Start chat' led to a page Share on WhatsApp (whatsapp.com) which announced,

Aevy Ventures Private Limited • Continue to Chat

'Continue to Chat' informed,

Looks like you don't have WhatsApp installed! • Download or use WhatsApp Web

'Use WhatsApp Web' went to a page of instructions plus a QR code. [...] No thanks. I just wanted to chat so I'll skip it. In retrospect, I doubt that it would help to enjoy the very interesting video, so I'll just ignore it for now. I can always come back to it later if necessary.

That's life on the web. You land on a promising page that immediately tries to sell you something -or- tries to sign you up for a newsletter -or- wants you to download some software. That's before you even decide if the page was worth visiting in the first place.

As for the video, 'This Company Rules', I'll continue with it another time. It appears to be worth the persistence.

Cheating for all Ages

For the last few weeks I've been running a weekly series on Chess.com's Game Review Tools (February 2023). I'll continue with Chess.com, but change the focus. That post mentioned,

[Chess.com] has a good reputation for vigorously enforcing its no-engine policy, even if it leads to controversial decisions.

I'll start with a summary of past posts on this blog that dealt with various aspects of cheating. It's a real mixed bag. Posts marked '(*)' featured Chess.com.

Recent months have seen heavy media interest in the so-called Niemann affair. The entire discussion gets a '(*)' because Chess.com played a leading role.

• 2022-09-08: Chess Players Behaving Very, Very Badly
• 2022-09-19: Talkchess Talks Current Topics
• 2022-09-29: Cheating Mania
• 2022-10-27: Chess960 Mania
• 2022-11-24: Steamin' Niemann
• 2022-11-29: Disappearing Yahoos
• 2022-12-06: How Many for Carlsen? For Niemann?
• 2023-01-31: First Yahoos of 2023
• 2023-02-12: 'The Von Niemann Probe'

Another recent, recurring topic has been the controversy surrounding the 1997 match Kasparov vs. IBM's Deep Blue (m-w.com). It provided some precedent for the Niemann affair.

• 2019-07-28: The World Was Watching • 'Garry insisted that IBM cheated.'
• 2022-05-16: 25 Years Ago in Chess History
• 2022-09-25: 'The Root of All Evil'?
• 2022-10-17: 'One Move In, One Move Out'

The rest of the posts are listed in unfiltered, reverse chronological order.

• 2022-01-24: Correspondence Forums in the 2000s
• 2021-03-30: The Yahoos' Database Flags Cheating (*)
• 2020-08-28: Update on Online Chess Events (*) • 'Activity for the three main [online play] sites has declined, reflecting perhaps the gradual lifting of coronavirus lockdowns or perhaps the frustration of interminable cheating scandals.'
• 2020-05-10: An Influential Organization (*)
• 2020-02-28: FIDE's Media and Fair Play Commissions 2019
• 2020-02-07: Spectating the 90th FIDE Congress?
• 2019-07-30: A Cheating Yahoo • Igors Rausis
• 2019-01-24: FIDE's Ethics Commission 2018
• 2019-01-17: FIDE's 'Anti-Cheating' / 'Fair Play' Commission 2018
• 2018-01-18: FIDE's Ethics Commission 2017
• 2018-01-04: FIDE's Anti-Cheating Commission 2017
• 2017-03-31: PRO Chess League (*)
• 2016-12-27: FIDE's Anti-Cheating Commission 2016
• 2016-12-20: FIDE's Journalist Commission 2016
• 2016-04-14: ACP Survey 2016 - Results
• 2015-12-10: FIDE Anti-Cheating Guidelines
• 2015-12-03: FIDE Anti-Cheating Proposal
• 2015-11-26: Ethics in Chess Politics - Stories
• 2015-11-24: Ethics in Chess Politics - Cases
• 2015-11-10: Millionaire Open II - Chess Life
• 2015-08-18: 2015 CJA Awards
• 2014-10-09: Winter's 'Unsolved Chess Mysteries'
• 2014-06-10: The 'No Cheating' Jigsaw Puzzle • 'Two essays on one of the hottest subjects in chess have appeared this month'
• 2013-12-12: Ethics and Cheating
• 2013-04-26: Kramnik on the Unification Match
• 2012-10-25: Feller, Rybka, Arbiters, and More
• 2012-10-08: Most 'HTTP 404' Are External Errors
• 2011-01-18: 'We Have to Take Him as He Is'
• 2010-01-12: Scientific American's Computer Chess
• 2007-01-25: An Amazing Coincidence
• 2006-12-08: The Machine Sees Further Ahead

The list needs a lot more work. I'll fill in some of the blanks as I continue with the Chess.com series.

March 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover'

Another month means another look at U.S. chess 50 and 25 years ago. The tags for last month's post, February 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover' (February 2023) -- 'Books/Mags, Photos, USchess, WCC' -- apply equally well to this month.

Left: '?'
Right: 'Karpov Reigns Supreme as FIDE World Champion!'

Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)

I. A. (Al) Horowitz, who died in January. Tributes to this irreplaceable man begin [inside]. Photo courtesy of New York Times [NYT].

The tributes started with five pages headed,

FAREWELL TO A LEGEND
I. A. Horowitz
November 15, 1907 — January 18, 1973

The first tribute was by USCF Executive Director Ed Edmondson. It started,

The 1930's were glorious years for USA chess. Young masters were on the rise; they played exciting, stimulating games in tournaments such as the U.S. Open and the U.S. Championship; our teams swept to victory in four consecutive Chess Olympiads; and, in 1933, a great new American chess magazine was born.

It was a time for living legends. Just look at our line-up in the Chess Olympiad (World Team Championship), Stockholm 1937: Reshevsky, Fine, Kashdan, Marshall, and Horowitz. Giants, every one. But to me, a high school student then just beginning to explore the delights of tournament chess, none loomed larger than I. A. (Al) Horowitz. He was everywhere -- at the Olympiads, the U.S. Opens, the U.S. Championships; crisscrossing the nation (with occasional stops in my home town of Rochester) on one simultaneous exhibition tour after another; and coming into my home every month as editor of CHESS REVIEW.

Other tributes were by GMs William Lombardy, Isaac Kashdan, and Arnold Denker; CL&R's Jack Straley Battell and Burt Hochberg; and the NYT's John Devlin. The first photo showed Horowitz playing Petrosian in the USSR-USA match, Moscow 1955.

Chess Life (25 Years Ago)

The issue's introduction, titled 'On the Cover' of course, was a natural continuation of the intro to the February 1998 issue of CL, copied verbatim in last month's post. See that post for links to the WCC events mentioned below.

Elizabeth Karnazes shot the cover photo of Anatoly Karpov just after he successfully defended his FIDE World Championship title in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Karpov will be appearing at the National Open in Las Vegas, March 28-29, to give a 30-board simultaneous exhibition. If you can get to Las Vegas a day early, organizer Al Losoff will be auctioning off one board to the highest bidder. Details [inside].

The rumor mills are working overtime. It is rumored that Garry Kasparov will finally defend his PCA World Championship title in the closing months of 1998. The challenger will come from a group of grandmasters selected by Kasparov. Karpov will not be invited. So much for a unification match.

And FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has announced plans to make the knockout world championship an annual affair. Las Vegas is high on the list of possible sites for 1998.

Every one of those paragraphs would make a good start for a follow-up post, but there is only so much time for chess.

TCEC S24 L1, CCC20 Blitz Semifinals: Final Week

For the previous fortnightly post on the two most important, ongoing engine vs. engine competitions the keyword was 'Underway': Stockfish Wins TCEC Swiss 4; TCEC S24 L2 & CCC20 Blitz Underway (February 2023). Here's a summary of that post:-

TCEC: Stockfish won 'Swiss 4', a point ahead of KomodoDragon and LCZero. The site then started S24 League 2 (see diagram for S24 stages). • CCC: The 'CCC20 Blitz Newcomers' and 'Qualifier #1' events have finished and 'Qualifier #2' is underway. The next stage, 'CCC20 Blitz Main', will have 12 engines with three coming from 'Qualifier #2'.

The keyword is still 'Underway', although both competitions have advanced considerably. Both are reaching the stages that determine the three best engines to close their respective seasons.

TCEC: S24 League 1 is underway with Koivisto leading by a significant margin. Berserk is in a tie for second place. Both engines featured in the recent post Chessify's Other Engines (February 2023). L1 will run for another week.

Between L2 &nd L1, the TCEC conducted the 'L2 Igel Gauntlet', with Igel playing against 11 other engines. The TCEC S24 Wiki page explained in two parts the reason for the event. The first part said:-

Tournament Director's decision regarding Booot: It came to the attention of the author of Igel that Booot was finally ready, after many setbacks its author had experienced due to the war in his country [Ukraine]. Igel author in a gentleman gesture then offered Booot to take its place in League 2, and this offer was accepted by TD-decision.

And for the second part:-

Tournament Director's decision regarding Igel: The many Booot crashes distort League 2 results. To alleviate this problem, Igel will be placed back after this League's play and play a 2 rounds gauntlet with reverse games against the other 11 League 2 engines. After removing Booot's results this will give the final table and promotions for League 2.

That was a great show of sportsmanship by all concerned with good calls by the TCEC TD.

CCC: Of the 12 engines that competed in 'CCC20 Blitz Main', six qualified into the 'CCC20 Blitz Semifinals', which is underway. With less than 10% of the games completed, Stockfish already leads by a comfortable margin ahead of Dragon and Lc0, which are ahead of the three other engines. The event will finish within a week, when the second and third engines will compete in a 'Challenger Match' to determine who will face the winner of the Semifinals in the Final match.

[For further information from the various stakeholders in the engine-to-engine events, see the tab 'TCEC/CCC Links' at the top of this page. • NB: Leela = LC0 = LCzero; Dragon = KomodoDragon]

Poster Perfect Chess Art

This month's initial list of Top eBay Chess Items by Price (March 2010) was top heavy with chess sets. I had to scroll way down the list to find an example of chess art, so scroll I did.

The item pictured below was titled, 'Victor Vasarely L’échiquier chess board signed print (1969)', where L’échiquier is French for 'chess board'. It sold 'Best offer accepted' after one bid for GBP 380.00 ('approximately US $455.13', according to eBay).

The description repeated the title and said,

This print was has been seen by an auctioneer and [sic; who(?)] proved the authenticity. Print is framed in its original frame. • Print: 35 / 138 • Height: 53cm • Width: 47cm

Other sources say the work was created in the 1930s. It was also used as one of a series of posters for the 22nd Chess Olympiad, 1976, Haifa, Israel. In the same eBay series, we've seen Victor Vasarely once before: Vasarely Set, Board, or Both? (November 2019). There I ended saying,

Why did I decide to feature this set for this post? Vasarely produced other chess related works. Cataloging them would make a good rainy day project.

Add to that catalog the 1976 series of Olympiad posters.

Chess.com's Game Review Tools Support

In two recent posts I overviewed two important tools available on Chess.com:-

• 2023-02-17: Chess.com's Game Review Tools
• 2023-02-24: Chess.com's Game Review Tools PGN; (GRT)

Chess.com has detailed help available under 'Member Support and FAQs' (support.chess.com). The help pages listed here lead to others:-

• How does the Game Review work?
• How do I use Game Analysis?; with video.
• How do I find my Saved Analysis?
• How is accuracy in analysis determined?

As I said in the 'Tools PGN' post, there is much to explore here...

Schizophrenic Yahoos

This month's Yahoos post has a schizophrenic foundation, in multiple senses of the word. Which word? Take your pick. (See also the footnote for an explanation of Yahoos.)

Unlike every previous Yahoo post on this blog -- e.g. last month's First Yahoos of 2023 (January 2023) -- the summary of top Yahoos in February was constructed from data on two different days. That deserves an explanation.

I started writing this post using the data shown in the left half of the chart. On that day, at that time, Google News returned 99 stories, of which five were from the previous month, January. All five stories were also returned for the list behind January's 'First Yahoos of 2023'. There was nothing earlier. Then I realized that only 28 days had passed since the January post. Since Google generally returns stories covering the past 30 days, I had some overlap with the previous post. I decided to wait two days and rewrite the post.

The data shown in the right half of the chart is from the second attempt writing this current post. This time Google returned 101 stories. Six news sources accounted for two or more stories, with a total of 55 stories among them. Since there were no stories from before February to be excluded, that left 46 sources with a single story.

Starting more than a year ago, Google has consistently returned a small selection of stories that are more than a month old. I documented this in Old Yahoos Don't Always Die (February 2022). In February 2023, the 'Old Yahoos' were gone. Will this continue next month?

Having two sources of data revealed some new aspects of Google News inner workings. Only two days later, three news sources have disappeared from the chart on the left, the earlier source of data. The two different lists also allow an analysis of how stories age under Google's selection algorithm, an idea too intricate for this current post. It's also worth noting how ChessBase is coded differently -- 'ChessBase' on the left, 'en.chessbase.com' on the right.

Around the middle of last year I started to wonder if Google News uses some sort of paid placement for news stories. I won't go into the details here, but in some months, the Yahoos exhibited peculiar behavior. This month I noticed a message that I had never seen before. It appeared before the list of Google's results:-

How these stories are ranked • These news articles are ranked based on their quality, originality of content, freshness of content, and where permitted based on your settings, your previous activity and purchases within Google News, and activity in other Google products. Google may have a license agreement with some of these publishers, but it has no impact on the ranking of results. • Learn more...

The phrase 'no impact on the ranking of results' says nothing about the number of results from a specific news source, a 'publisher' in Google's vocabulary. The link behind 'Learn more...' led to Google News consumer information - Google News Help (support.google.com). I'll try to come back to this topic in another post, but first I have to look at some of the news stories flagged by Google. That is, after all, the purpose of the Yahoo series. Watch this space...

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

***

Later: Re 'three news sources have disappeared from the chart on the left', none of the stories published by those sources was particularly compelling, so no need to take that thought any further. One new source appeared on the right: 'Yahoo News'. In fact, the real Yahoo accounted for three different stories. The first was:-

• 2023-03-01: Russian chess stars quit Europe for Asia in ‘historic’ move (sports.yahoo.com; Independent; Reuters) • 'Chess powerhouse Russia has joined the Asian Chess Federation following an ACF vote that allows Russian players to keep competing at an international level despite the war in Ukraine and the sanctions that it has prompted.'

There were a handful of stories on the same topic from other sources, making the federation transfer the news story of the month. I already covered it on my World Championship blog in Zone 1.6 (Russia) Becomes Zone 3.8 (March 2023), and will probably continue to follow it there. Two other Yahoo stories returned by Google News were:-

• 2023-02-10: Chess grandmaster demands 'ban all Chinese,' gets banned himself for racist rant (sports.yahoo.com; NextShark; GM Baadur Jobava), and
  
  
• 2023-02-28: Why Has Chess Become So Popular? (uk.sports.yahoo.com; Yahoo News UK) • 'In recent months and years, the number of people playing chess has increased staggeringly.'

The first story 'speaks for itself', to use a chess cliché popular in recent months. The second story was echoed by another handful of stories with titles like 'Chess.com Hits #1 in iOS App Store' (chess.com) and 'Server Trouble and the End of Mittens?' (ditto).

Of the other stories worth mentioning, one appeared four times. I'll reference its original version:-

• 2023-01-30: Chess players face a tough foe: air pollution (mit.edu) • 'Study: Even chess experts perform worse when air quality is lower, suggesting a negative effect on cognition.'

The lead sentence started, 'Here’s something else chess players need to keep in check...'. (Groan, cough, cough.)