Millionaire Open II - Chess Life

Last year I did a couple of random posts on the Millionaire Open in Las Vegas, Nevada.

• 2014-10-24: Millionaire Wrapup
• 2014-10-28: Big Money Chess 'On the Cover'

The tournament was the cover story for the January 2015 Chess Life (CL). I also featured it in a couple of subsequent Video Friday posts.

• 2015-02-27: MIT Media & Millionaire Chess
• 2015-03-27: More MIT Media & Millionaire Chess

This year I'll take a more structured look at Millionaire Open II. A full page ad first appeared in the April 2015 CL, inside the front cover.

The ad ran again in the May CL, along with details in the 'Tournament Life' (TL) section under 'Grand Prix' events. The Nevada events in the same issue included a note to 'See Grand Prix'.

USCF Junior Grand Prix!
OCT. 8-12 OR 9-12, NEVADA
TROPHIES PLUS GRAND PRIX POINTS: 300 (ENHANCED)

2015 Millionaire Chess Open II
GM MAURICE ASHLEY AND AMY LEE RETURN WITH THE CHESS TOURNAMENT WITH THE BIGGEST PRIZE FUND IN USCF HISTORY!!!

9SS, 40/120, SD/30 d5 for Open; 7SS, 40/90, SD/30 d5 for Under Sections. 4-Day Schedule for Under Sections, G/45 d5 for Rounds 1 – 4. Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, 3667 S. Las Vegas Blvd., Las Vegas, NV 89109, $$1,000,000 Guaranteed Prize Fund!!! Five Main Sections: OPEN (FIDE rated & FIDE rules; GM, IM, WGM and WIM norms possible): $100,000 – 50,000 – 25,000 – 16,000 – 10,000 – 8,000 – 5,000 ea. (7th – 10th) – 3,500 ea. (11st – 20th), 2400 – 2549: 40,000 – 20,000 – 13,000 – 8,000 – 5,000, U2400: 38,000 – 19,000 – 11,000 – 7,000 – 4,000. U2200 (FIDE rated): $38,000 – 19,000 – 10,000 – 8,000 – 6,000 – 5,000 – 4,000 ea. (7th – 10th) – 3,000 ea. (11st – 20th). U2000: $36,000 – 18,000 – 9,000 – 7,000 – 5,000 – 4,000 – 3,000 ea. (7th – 10th) – 2,500 ea. (11st – 20th). U1800: $34,000 – 17,000 – 8,500 – 6,500 – 5,000 – 4,000 – 3,000 ea. (7th – 10th) – 2,500 ea. (11st – 20th). U1600: $30,000 – 16,000 – 8,000 – 6,000 – 4,000 – 3,000 – 2,500 ea. (7th – 10th) – 2,280 ea. (11st – 20th), U1400: $24,000 – 12,000 – 6,000 – 4,000, U1200: 20,000 – 10,000 – 6,000 – 4,000. Additional Unrated/Provisional Section – 3,000 – 2,000 – 1,000. $19,200 in Special Prizes, including Mixed Doubles, Upset, Tie-Break Consolation, Best Dressed categories, Top Female, Senior and Child in the five main sections . See website for list.

EF: $1,000 by 3/31, $1,250 by 6/30, $1,500 by 9/30, $2,000 after 9/30 or onsite. Unrated/Provisional players may enter in the Open or Unrated/Provisional Section only; if playing in Unrated/Provisional Section, EF: $100 by 3/31, $125 by 6/30, $150 by 9/30, $200 after 9/30.

For this event, provisionally rated players are those with less than 50 games under a single rating system (USCF, FIDE or other foreign systems). Highest rating between 12/1/2013 and the date the player registers used, but if any time after registration player’s rating exceeds the section limit by 50 points, player will be moved into the next higher section. See FAQ on tournament website for details on ratings and adjustments for section eligibility. The highest of USCF, FIDE, CFC, ECF and other foreign ratings, adjusted accordingly, will be used. Current minimum CCA ratings may also be used. Players must disclose all ratings and Federation IDs.

Onsite registration until 3:30 pm, 10/8, no personal checks. Re-entry (not available in Open section): $400 from 5-Day to 4-Day schedule available by 9am, 10/9.

Rounds: 5-Day Schedule: Thu 12 and 7, Fri 11 and 6, Sat 11 and 6, Sun 11. Play-off Qualifying Round on Sunday at 6 for players tied for top 4 positions in all sections, except for Unrated/Provisional section. Rounds 8 & 9 for Open Section players not qualifying for Top 4 Play-off, Mon 11 and 6. 4-Day Schedule (not available for Open section), G/45 d5: Fri 11:30, 2, 4:30 and 7:00 (merges with 5- Day Schedule on Round 4). Play-offs to determine Top 4 in all sections (except for Unrated/Provisional section): See complete Monday schedule for semi-finals and finals for top 4 in each section on tournament website.

Additional anti-cheating policies in effect: No cell phones or other electronic devices allowed. All chess clocks and chess sets, for all sections, will be provided! Electronic notation devices will not be allowed. Security staff on site. DGT boards will be used for a limited number of top boards. Half-Point Byes: Three (3) 1/2- point byes allowed in Rounds 1 – 5 only, if requested before the start of Round 2. Zero-point byes allowed after Round 5 if requested at least an hour before the start of the round.

Free GM lectures and simuls for registered players. HR: Planet Hollywood - $116/night. Call 1-866- 317-1829. CODE: MC2015. ENTRY: https://millionairechess. com/register. For more information, including tournament policies, prize fund, schedule, registrations, FAQ, hotel information and updates please visit: https://millionairechess.com/ W. FIDE

As far as I can tell, there were no further mentions of the tournament in CL, although other events held on the same weekend were listed through the October CL. The link at the end of the TL announcement went to a page titled Millionaire Chess | Las Vegas - October 8-12, 2015 - $1,000,000 PRIZE.

TCEC Season 8 Superfinal in Progress

Before I end this series on Modern Chess Engines, previously seen in Parallel Search, I should return to the tournament mentioned a few months in TCEC Season 8 - Preliminary Info. Although still in progress, the event is nearing its finish with the TCEC Season 8 Superfinal – the strongest chess match in history! [chessdom.com].

The TCEC Superfinal rules : The final match consists of 100 classical chess games with the following rules. This match is played with 50 different openings so that each engine plays both black and white of the same position. [...]

A few days before the match started, I noted in 'Parallel Search',

Once again, just as in Season 7, the two super-engines Komodo and Stockfish are playing for the title of unofficial World Computer Champion.

Komodo won the first game of the match and currently leads +2-0=14, with an average of five games played per day.

Source: tcec.chessdom.com/live

In a recent interview on NPR, 'Pawn Sacrifice' Examines Genius Of Chess Champion Bobby Fischer, GM Andy Soltis said,

There's a world championship chess tournament going on right now that hardly anybody pays attention to in the chess world because all the players in it are computers, and they're far better than we are. They make moves that we just don't understand.

GM Soltis underestimates how much attention this match is receiving. It is, after all, showing us the future of chess.

A Lot of Live Auctions

When I started the series on Top eBay Chess Items by Price, there were no live auctions. Now they pop up every fortnight and are always good candidates for the final post. The previous live auction item was Man Ray Chess Set, and I expect there will be more.

The painting pictured below was titled 'RAMÓN MUÑOZ RUBIO, Spanish, 1867-1910, The chess players., Oil on pan... Lot 796; Part of a live auction event on Saturday, Nov 7'. It started at US $200.00 and sold for $700.00 after 17 bids.

The description said,

LOT 796; Seller's Estimate: USD 500 - 700

RAMÓN MUÑOZ RUBIO; Spanish, 1867-1910
The chess players. Signed lower right "R.M. Rubio".
Oil on panel, 13" x 10". Framed 21" x 18".

Condition Report: Trace amounts of inpaint detected under blacklight, in sky and upper right edge in the shrubbery. Slight amount of loss to board at extreme top left corner and very slight anount of surface dirt.

Wikipedia says,

Inpainting is the process of reconstructing lost or deteriorated parts of images and videos. For instance, in the museum world, in the case of a valuable painting, this task would be carried out by a skilled art conservator or art restorer. • Inpainting

Along with that is a modern equivalent.

In the digital world, inpainting (also known as image interpolation or video interpolation) refers to the application of sophisticated algorithms to replace lost or corrupted parts of the image data (mainly small regions or to remove small defects).

I imagine it limits the value of the piece.

It's All About Pattern Recognition

This photo was one of many returned on a routine Flickr Friday search for chess photos. They didn't look like chess pieces to me and the only reference to chess on the page was a white tag 'chess' while the other ~20 tags ('thanjavur', 'palace', 'tamil nadu', 'sculptures', etc.) were all colored gray.

Thanjavur Palace Museum and Art Gallery © Flickr user RealIndia.in under Creative Commons.

Flickr 'Help' explained,

Tags are keywords that make photos easier to find in Flickr search. The ones you add will show up in dark gray. Flickr’s friendly robots will try to help out by adding some for you; these will appear with just a gray outline.

An additional page explained,

Flickr’s image recognition uses pattern recognition to analyze the contents of images to determine the most appropriate tags to help you and others find your images using search. The process is fully automated, so no humans are ever involved in tagging your images. [...] Distinguish between tags you add and tags Flickr adds: Tags you add show up in dark gray.

Pattern recognition software thinks these are chess pieces? Can't argue with pattern recognition!

The Ponterotto Connection

When did Fischer succumb to mental illness? In my most recent Video Friday post, Revisionist Chess History, I quoted Tobey Maguire talking about his recent film 'Pawn Sacrifice' and its portrayal of Bobby Fischer. In response to the statement 'I didn't know that Bobby Fischer had this mental illness', Maguire said,

It's fascinating that somebody can be so exceptional at something, particularly a game of strategy that seems to require a sound mind that can reason well, but yet be stricken with seeming-like mental illness. It seems he was paranoid, delusional.

As I said in the same post, I have a big problem with this statement because

I don't recall anyone saying that about Fischer until long after he became World Champion, long after the events in the film.

There's little doubt that there was something wrong with Fischer as he grew older. My question is whether we can say that Fischer suffered from 'mental illness' already as a teenager or as a young man. Strange? Yes. Quirky? Yes. Mentally ill? There's a big leap being made here.

I haven't seen the movie yet and I don't know if I'll have the opportunity to see it soon. My own impressions are based on the impressions of others. Let's look at the first film reviews listed in my post Some Numbers for 'Pawn Sacrifice'.

"What Hollywood may have been looking for in this story was to show the young kid from Brooklyn taking on the Soviet empire and having this great, glorious win," said [Dale Johnson of MICA Entertainment]. "At the same time, the true story was that he was having this deep struggle in somewhat of a descent into madness as he was ascending to brilliance. We had to stay true to that story." • Tobey Maguire moves through chess king Bobby Fischer's checkered life in 'Pawn Sacrifice' [latimes.com]

The movie depicts Fischer’s peculiarities—his anti-Semitism (even though he himself was Jewish), his devotion to the Worldwide Church of God and its radio evangelism, his mood swings and bitter rages, and his increasingly paranoid obsession with conspiracies against him—and suggests that they veered toward mental illness. • Bobby Fischer and the Difficulty of Making Movies About Geniuses [newyorker.com]

Maguire is no cavorting Klaus Kinski when it comes to portraying a man decidedly off his rocker. His peculiar brand of psychosis is a nonchalant petulance, handling international fame and geopolitical pressures with, literally, a paper bag over his head and a penchant for phone dissection. • Pawn Sacrifice: Portrait of the Egomaniac as a Young Man [cornellsun.com]

The phrases are similar -- 'descent into madness', 'veered toward mental illness', 'decidedly off his rocker' -- and convince me that there is indeed a problem, some sort of a bias, with this movie. Why should this be?

While sorting through available material on the making of 'Pawn Sacrifice', I found New Major Motion Picture Owes Its Historical Accuracy to Fordham Education Professor [fordham.edu].

Psychologist Joseph G. Ponterotto, PhD, [...] is the historical consultant on a new major motion picture, Pawn Sacrifice, a drama about enigmatic world chess champion Bobby Fischer and his struggles to walk the fine line between genius and madness. [...] Ponterotto, whose 2012 book A Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer is the definitive psychological profile of the late chess prodigy, worked closely with [co-producer Gail Katz] to review the script for historical accuracy and to write dialogue that captures Fischer’s personality.

I reviewed Ponterotto's book nearly three years ago in a post titled Fischer Psychobiography, and introduced the review with 'I can't remember reading a more depressing chess book.' I found two chapters particularly unsettling -- 'Ch.8 - THE PARALLEL LIVES AND MENTAL ILLNESSES OF PAUL MORPHY AND BOBBY FISCHER' and 'Ch.9 - ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GENIUS AND MADNESS - ARE CHESS MASTERS MORE VULNERABLE TO MENTAL ILLNESS?' -- and I addressed these later in a post titled Chess Madness.

I'll reserve my final opinion until I've seen the movie, but I'm not hopeful. In his book, Ponterotto wrote, 'Writing a psychological focused life story of an individual recently deceased is a sensitive task' (p.6). Can we depend on Hollywood to be equally sensitive?

November 1965 'On the Cover'

Chess isn't just about the professional level, as in Bobby Fischer and the Capablanca Memorial featured in October 1965 'On the Cover' It's also about the amateur level, as in these two U.S. chess magazine covers from 50 years ago.

Left: 'Armed Forces Chess'
Right: 'Knight of the Golden West'

Chess Life

Air Force Retains Armed Forces Crown : For the third straight year the U.S. Air Force won the Armed Forces Championship played in Washington D.C. The five Air Force players scored 28 points in the nine rounds of play to retain custody of the Thomas Emery championship trophy. The individual champion, not decided until the very last moment, is Airman David M. Lees...

Chess Review

Golden Knights Champion Doe : Raymond E.A. Doe has won the 11th annual Golden Knights Postal Chess Championship. He began play in the tournament in 1957...

What presence do those amateur champions of yesteryear have on the web today? A search on the Armed Forces champion leads to David Lees on Chessgames.com. Oops! Wrong David Lees...

I knew of David Lees as U.S. Armed Forces champ, and for years followed a David Lees in the BCM and CHESS, always assuming it was two different people. Why no mention in the bio above of that British connection?

...The person we want is David Michael Lees.

In 1993, he published The Chess Games of David Lees.

A similar exercise on 'Raymond Doe' leads to Golden Knights (chess) on Wikipedia. Both players present and accounted for -- I'm impressed!

Chess Engines : Parallel Search

One of the messages I took away from FishCooking (the previous post in this series on 'Chess Engines') was the importance of Parallel Search [chessprogramming.wiki...] on multiple processors. In another post in the series, Bitboards, I surmised,

Not all of the engines' strength can be attributed to software. In parallel with algorithmic discoveries, computer hardware has also been advancing rapidly. Not only are processors smaller and faster, they are also more versatile. [...] Was it a coincidence that the mid-2000s spurt in computer chess happened with the introduction of 64-bit processors?

I could have asked the same question about multiple processors. From Multi-core processor [Wikipedia]:-

Processors were originally developed with only one core. In the mid 1980s Rockwell International manufactured versions of the 6502 with two 6502 cores on one chip, sharing the chip's pins on alternate clock phases. Other multi-core processors were developed in the early 2000s by Intel, AMD and others.

The improvement in performance gained by the use of a multi-core processor depends very much on the software algorithms used and their implementation. [...] The parallelization of software is a significant ongoing topic of research.

The italics are mine. TCEC Season 8 has reached the final stage (for background, see my previous post Preliminary Info), and a recent FishCooking post, Machine setup for finals, informs that the multi-core configuration is

2 x 12 core Intel Xeon E5-2690v3 @ 3100 MHz, 256 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD - Martin Thoresen (Operator)

Once again, just as in Season 7, the two super-engines Komodo and Stockfish are playing for the title of unofficial World Computer Champion. The engines tied all six games played between them in the qualifying stage 3, where Komodo finished 1.5 points ahead of Stockfish. As we saw in the 'FishCooking' post, Stockfish lost a few games on time, apparently due to a fault in its implementation of parallel search. Will the Season 8 final show that the open source team has solved these problems?