Q: Who Makes the Best Chess News Videos?

A: The guys who made this clip...

NH Chess: Wild Finale (5:34) • 'Nakamura edges out Giri in a blitz tiebreak, to win a trip to the prestigious Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament in March, 2011.'

...For more in the same series, see YouTube Channel ICCchessFM. In One more time: the NH Tournament, Chessvibes.com reports,

This year’s NH Chess Tournament was the fifth, and also the last. Five times, a team of Rising Stars played, and learnt from, Experienced grandmasters. With five times ten rounds times five games, a total of 250 games were played in Amsterdam. The final score over five years of NH Chess is 136.5-113.5 for the Rising Stars.

Only in 2009 did the 'Experience' team manage to win the overall contest.

Fr.Dumar...l?

In my series on Top eBay Chess Items by Price, it took more than four months to find a painting worth featuring. Now I find a second painting within a month. The first was Casanova Y Estorach, and the second is pictured below. The eBay item was titled 'Antique Chess Game Interior Scene Genre Oil Painting' and sold for US $1,525.00 after receiving 59 bids.

The item, listed in categories 'Art from Dealers & Resellers > Paintings' and 'Antiques > Primitives', carried the following description, written in a flowery style that is typical of eBay art items.

You are bidding on an Antique Oil Painting in Gilded Carved Frame. This piece is a RARE FIND due to its size, age and beauty and is an original oil painting that was signed by who we believe is VERY WELL listed artist Francois Dumont (1850-?) who is listed in the Davenport, Askart, Artprice and various other art indexes. This is a very beautiful subject and is an original Oil on Canvas that depicts a beautiful interior scene from an earlier time period of a chess game with each person sitting and standing with observation.

This could have been family or friends sitting down conversing with beautiful archtectural designs with tapestry fabrics along the windows and nice objects D'Art near a beautiful fireplace mantle throughout the painting.. This was done with such fine detail in both color and clarity with the distinctive characteristics of their facial features and expressions on their faces down to their beautiful clothing of the time period and their mannerism was so well founded with such fine detail of all the beautiful objects and the interior scene with nice large open windows of a beautiful landscape on the horizon and the artist giving us a depiction of a nice day.

Much time and love went into this painting with beautiful colors that were very well blended and even the interior scene of different objects in the surrounding were done down to the finest details. This has beautiful brush strokes with tonalism and shading with the walls and shelving and the detail of the interior architectural designs which could be a form of expression of Love, Family, Traditions, Happiness and can mean so many things to so many different people. The beauty of art is that there are many different ways of looking at this painting and the beauty is all in the eye of the beholder.

Because of its size this is a beautiful painting that can be accented in a Hallway or Foyer, Dining Room, Study or Parlor, Bedroom or Boudior, or in a guest room and anywhere else throughout your home that I PROMISE will be a topic of conversation and is an heirloom quality piece with investment value as a listed artist. The artist was a TRUE MASTER, because we see great care and SKILL in the painting down to its finest details. With paintings of this caliber you can see the amount of care and attention the artist put into the piece and accomplished quite a bit here.

The painting itself is very old and please keep in mind this is an antique has craquelure throughout due to its natural age with paint flaking and minor imperfections and wear consistant with its age that may need some professional touch up at your discretion. The frame is nicely gilded and recessed with floral carved ancathus leaves and also has minor imperfections with some gilt wear as well that is consistant with its age and we believe it to be original to the painting. This piece was VERY WELL made with quality that surpasses ANYTHING that is made today but Please understand that this is an antique and has some minor imperfections on it with its age but overall its in excellent shape. This piece overall measures approx 33 inches wide and approx 29 inches high.

Wikipedia has a page on François Dumont (1751–1831), 'a French painter of portrait miniatures'. Furthermore,

A younger brother, Tony Dumont, was also a miniature painter, a pupil of his brother, a frequent exhibitor and the recipient of a medal from the Academy in 1810. Each artist signed with the surname only, and there is some controversy concerning the attribution to each artist of his own work.

The image I used above is a cropped version of the painting where the artist's signature is not visible. The eBay item included a detail of the signature that looks to me like 'Fr.Dumar...', where the paint is missing from the '...' portion. There appear to be 2-3 letters missing and the last letter is almost certainly an 'l'. The odds are that this was not done by the same Francois Dumont who is represented in the Louvre. If so, it would have sold for much, much more. Whoever the artist was, it's still a very attractive piece.

More R+P vs. B+P Magic

After writing the recent post on R+P vs. B+P (see R vs. B Plus Knight Pawns), I reviewed previous posts in my tablebase category and discovered one with the same material: Tablebase 1 - Polugaevsky/Kasparov ½. Starting from the position given in that post, three world class GMs -- Gligoric, Polugaevsky, and Kasparov -- all overlooked a moment in the game where a double blunder occurred; White threw away a theoretical draw and Black failed to capitalize on it.

I dragged out my copy of Averbakh's treatise on Rook & minor piece endings, which is one book of his five volume series on theoretical endgames, and looked for similar positions. His chapter on R+P vs. B+P splits the examples into two parts. The first part examines Pawns separated by at least one file, while the second deals with Pawns on the same or on adjacent files. Since my two previous posts both featured positions with Pawns on the same file, I compared Averbakh's second part to the tablebase results. How accurate is his analysis?

On the whole the analysis is extremely good, but not perfect. In the 17 positions I found two erroneous evaluations. The first stems from the following position.

Averbakh no.430
[FEN "8/8/8/8/4pk2/8/r3BP2/4K3 w - - 0 1"]

Averbakh gives 1.Kf1! Ra1+ 2.Kg2 Rb1 3.Bh5! Re1 4.Be8 Re2 5.Kf1 Rd2 6.Bh5 Draw. I don't understand the short comment in Russian here, but he apparently believes that White has a fortress making it impossible for Black to approach the Pawn. The tablebase disagrees, saying the position after 6.Bh5 is a win in 40 moves. One critical path goes as follows:

6...Rb2 7.Be8 Rb8 8.Ba4 Ke5 9.Bc6 Rb6 10.Ba4 Kd4 11.Ke2 Rb2+ 12.Kf1 Kd3 13.Bc6 Rb1+ 14.Kg2 Kd4 15.Bd7 Rb6 16.Bf5 Ke5 17.Bd7 Rd6 18.Bb5 Kd4 19.Kf1 Rb6 20.Bd7 Kd3 21.Bh3 Ra6 22.Kg2 Rf6 23.Kg3 Ke2 24.Bg4+ Kd2 25.Bh5 Rf5 26.Bg4 Rf8 27.Bh5 Ke1 28.f4

To explain the winning procedure in words: Black switches the attack on the Pawn by bringing the King to e1/e2 and the Rook to the f-file, a plan which White is unable to prevent. This forces f2-f4, after which the win is easy.

***

The second erroneous analysis is in the position -- White Kg3,Bg5,Ph4; Black Ke4,Rf8,Ph5 -- from the game Salwe - Rubinstein, Prague 1909. The Pawns are mutually blocked on the h-file and the White King is confined to a six square rectangle stretching from g3 to h1.

Averbakh no.434
[FEN "5r2/8/8/6Bp/4k2P/6K1/8/8 b - - 0 1"]

The players continued 1...Rf7 2.Bh6 Rf3+ 3.Kg2 Rd3 4.Bg5 Kf5 5.Kf2 Kg4 6.Ke2. Averbakh gave these moves without comment, then showed how White could have preserved the draw a few moves later.

What Averbakh overlooked, but the tablebase finds immediately, is that White was lost in the initial position. After 1...Rf7, Black wins in 48 moves. The move 3...Rd3 throws away the win, 4.Bg5 gives it back, and 4...Kf5 throws it away again. The explanation for this is easy, even if the execution is not.

To win, Black needs to keep White's King confined to the g3-h1 rectangle. Black's winning procedure is to bring the King to e1-e2, where it prevents the White King from escaping the rectangle. Then Black has mate threats that force the Bishop to defend its Pawn on the e1-h4 diagonal. Once this is accomplished, Black can force the Bishop away from the diagonal and win the Pawn. This reduces to an elementary endgame where, even though the Bishop is on the right color to defend against R and h-Pawn, the Pawn is far enough from the Queening square to give Black a forced win.

The underlying principle behind both of Averbakh's positions is that a Rook and King can often dominate a Bishop that is tied down to defending a point. Once the Bishop is out of the way, the entire defense collapses.

Organizing Tournaments

Tackling yet another page from Where to Go From Here?, I added So You Want to Organize Chess Tournaments? to Chess for Fun. What's fun about organizing chess tournaments? The best way to find out is by trying it!

Topiary Chess at Hever Castle

'This hedge is carved in the form of a row of chess pieces. The sundial in front has nothing to do with chess.'

Topiary Chess Set © Flickr user Tim Schofield under Creative Commons.

Other remarks on the Flickr page place the set at Hever Castle [Wikipedia], Kent, England.

***

Later: Another Flickr photo, Tudor Chess Set - Hever castle Bridge, included a sign explaining the setting. It said,

The Tudor Chess Set • The Topiary Chess Set is formed from golden yew and is based on the style of chess pieces used in the time of King Henry VIII. It was planted in 1905 for William Waldorf Astor. Standing in front of the chess set is an armillary sphere sundial dating from 1710. This astronomical instrument was used to measure the altitude of the sun, moon, and stars, from which it was possible to estimate both time and latitude.

One thing I'm missing from the photos is a clue to the real size of the chess pieces.

R vs. B Plus Knight Pawns

Here's an interesting position I discovered with the help of a tablebase. The diagrammed position is White to move (WTM). Only the moves 1.Be7 and 1.Bf8 hold the draw. The move 1.Bd6, for example, loses in 48 moves. With Black to move (BTM), Black wins with 1...Kc4 in 47 moves and with 1...Kc6 in 48; other moves allow a draw.

Placing the Pawn on g7 (instead of g6) is only a draw, whichever side is on move. Placing it on g5 is a win with BTM, but only a draw with WTM.

[FEN "8/8/6p1/1k6/8/B7/2r3PK/8 w - - 0 1"]

I didn't work out the complete theory of the resulting positions, but Black eventually ends up winning the White Pawn with the Rook, where it is in front of its own Pawn. In the drawn games, White has a neat trick that prevents the Rook from escaping its poor position without losing its own Pawn. In the won games, White is unable to set up the trick.

It turns out that Rook vs. Bishop, with both sides having Pawns on the g-file (or b-file) is known to be tricky. The side with the Bishop can aim for these positions in search of a theoretical draw.

'It Speaks Volumes'

Following up No News Is Normal for Chess, where I mentioned that the Chess Journalists of America (CJA) had published entries received for their 2010 awards, the group announced the winners at end-July: 2010 CJA Awards Announcement. You can find all of the winners listed there, so I'll highlight a few of what I consider to be the most notable awards.

As the only entry in the category, Dan Heisman won 'Chess Journalist of the Year', while 'Best Chess Blog Award' went to The Kenilworthian for the second time. The winner of 'CJA Best Chess Art Award', the cover of Chess Life's June 2009 issue, is pictured on the left.

I might have overlooked it in previous years, but this year's awards included a long CJA Awards Committee Report (PDF): 'Final 2010 Chess Journalists of America Awards Committee Report; Prepared by Ramon Antonio Hernandez; CJA Awards Committee Chairman and Chief Judge'

Hernandez describes himself as 'a high school journalism teacher with years of advising scholastic newspapers and yearbooks'. If you are interested in chess journalism, the committee report offers an inside look at the award process. For example,

CJA Chess Journalist of the Year (2010) Award: With one individual having entered an entry for what anyone can consider the most valuable of the prestigious awards CJA awards. I had weigh in various options, two individuals I reminded of the award told me either no thanks or paraphrasing the other, no I'd like for once that Dan Heisman wins it. Mind you he as the rest world did not know that Dan Heisman had indeed entered his name and credentials for the award. I think it speaks volumes that another individual who could have easily fueled a great competition for the entry gave such a noble reply.

For the blog category, we learn that there were runners-up.

CJA Best Chess Blog Award: This category had 6 entries submitted. After the first round there were 2 entries which tied for 2nd Place, the Co-Runner-up for the CJA Best Chess Blog Award goes to BELLE, Baczynskyj, and Bisguier in addition to Chessvine.com. While the CJA Best Chess Blog Award is presented to THE KENILWORTHIAN The entry was submitted by Michael Goeller.

I was mystified that the announcement of the winning Chess Life cover didn't include any creative details. I found the info on page 4 of that issue.

On The Cover: Garry Kasparov looking regal, as befits perhaps the greatest player of all time. Kasparov created quite a stir at the 2009 SuperNationals IV, one of the largest chess tournaments in history. Also pictured are some of the pre-tournament favorites. • Photos: Mark Mosrie; Art direction: Frankie Butler

In CJA 2007 Journalism Awards, a former chief awards judge wrote, 'I have not enjoyed the sniping of people on the internet who criticize us and even attack me personally.' Before then I hadn't realized that the journalist members of the CJA are beyond criticism, so I'll just close with a note of sincere congratulations to the winners, especially those who had some competition.