More Rummaging

There's more to

Rummaging through 30-year-old chess magazines looking for details on zonals

than the sort of chess history in FIDE's Cradle. There's also art. This cover from the July 1984 issue of Europe Echecs reminded me of the Knights Errant, a group of early chess bloggers who believed that chess was all about tactics, tactics, tactics.

Sancho Panza Counting the Kibitzers, Roland Partos

The artist was the older brother of IM Charles Partos, and was himself a keen chess player. Who are the kibitzers that Sancho Panza is counting? Don Quixote? No, the trees to the right are full of faces.

Borrowing Leaves

Yes, the holiday week continues and, no, I don't have enough time for blogging. Today I'll borrow a leaf from Felican Kristnaskon! (Merry Christmas!), which borrowed a leaf from Top eBay Chess Items by Price.

While I was working on the Christmas post, I looked at eBay auctions that never make the cut in 'Top Chess Items' and particularly liked the photo shown below. Titled '1957 Vintage MARCEL DUCHAMP LARRY EVANS Chess Photo Art 16x20 ~ PHILIPPE HALSMAN', it sold for nearly US $110, Buy-It-Now.

I don't normally use watermarked photos -- this one is marked 'Finephoto' (the name of the eBay seller) in the lower left -- but the subject, the quality of the photo, and the additional information convinced me to break this rule. The description ('Print Specifications') added,

Photographer: Philippe Halsman (Latvia born American, 1906 - 1979) - internationally renowned portrait and fashion photographer, one of the most important and influential photographers from the 1940's through the 1970's.
Subject: Marcel Duchamp and Larry Evans playing chess.
Date Of Negative: 1957
Type Of Print: Authentic Vintage Sheet Fed Photogravure (from original image - authorized by Philippe Halsman)
Date Of Print: 1972
Original Issue: Bound sheet fed photogravure compilation.
Paper: Medium weight, clay coat - satin/matte finish.
Print Origin: Italy
Approximate Image Size Inches: 8.75 x 10.25 inches
Mount Board Size Inches: 20 x 16 inches
Mount Board Color: White
Print Border: No - full bleed print.
Condition Grade: Extra Fine ++
Verso: Professionally dry mounted with Bienfang archival materials onto sturdy 4ply museum mat board.

One of the most significant photographic artists of the 20th century, Halsman has had numerous exhibitions of his work and his iconic portrait images are held in important collections and museums throughout the world. In 1958 Halsman was listed in Popular Photography magazine's "World's Ten Greatest Photographers" along with Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Ernst Haas, Yousuf Karsh, Gjon Mili, and Eugene Smith. In 1975 he received the Life Achievement in Photography Award from the American Society of Magazine photographers.

[More++]

Marcel Duchamp and Larry Evans weren't exactly unknowns either. All of that taken together makes a concise introduction to collecting vintage chess photos.

Evaluation Anomalies - Engines Behaving Badly

After the previous post, Evaluation Anomaly - Mass Exchange, there are still a number of games to be examined in TCEC Season 8 - Evaluation Anomalies. In this post, I'll take a quick look at two more. (As in the previous posts, see TCEC Archive Mode to play through the complete games using TCEC's helpful game viewer.)

The diagram below shows positions from two games, both with Stockfish playing White and Komodo playing Black. The top row shows two positions from game 44 and the bottom row shows two positions from game 52.

In game 44, after 61.Bf2, reaching the first diagrammed position, Stockfish evaluated the position at wv=0.33 (a third of a Pawn in its favor). Komodo played 61...Rd5, with a value of wv=0.00 (dead equal). Stockfish played 62.g6+ (wv=0.33), to which Komodo replied 62...Ke7 (wv=-0.41), reaching the second position. Note that Komodo's evaluation of the position has dropped suddenly to a negative value (i.e. in Black's favor).

The game continued for another 30 moves with White giving itself an advantage of wv=0.33 and Black giving itself an advantage of around wv=-0.40. At move 90, Black's evaluation quickly dropped to zero (wv=0.00), and ten moves later White's evaluation did the same.

What happened here? It's easy for a human to see that after 62.g6+, the position is completely blocked. Neither player can break through without incurring a serious disadvantage. The game continued for another 50 moves before being declared a draw, with both engines recognizing the inevitable draw 10-20 moves before the 50th move was reached.

Stockfish - Komodo, TCEC Season 8 Superfinal, game 44

Stockfish - Komodo, TCEC Season 8 Superfinal, game 52

In game 52, Stockfish played 43.Raa1 reaching the first position in the bottom row and giving itself an advantage of wv=0.65. Komodo played 43...Qd2, with a similar evaluation of wv=0.62. Both engines consider the position to be nearly two-thirds of a Pawn in White's favor, which should give good winning chances.

The next few moves were 44.Qxd2 (wv=0.81) 44...exd2 (wv=0.03) 45.Red1 (wv=0.81) 45...Re2 (wv=0.00) 46.h3 (wv=0.00) 46...Ra8 (wv=0.00), reaching the second position in the bottom row. The advantage of two-thirds of a Pawn has evaporated and both engines consider the position to be completely equal, although it took White a few additional moves to realize it.

What happened here? In the first diagram, both engines saw that White will win a Pawn -- losing the a-Pawn in exchange for Black's d/e-Pawns. That leaves White a healthy Pawn ahead, right? No, unfortunately for White, the 'healthy' extra Pawn is an advantage of f/g/h-Pawns for White vs. g/h-Pawns for Black. With both Kings placed behind their Pawns, an experienced human player knows that the Rook and Pawn endgame is a draw. It took the engines a few more moves to see that.

In both games discussed here, the engines continued to move their pieces hither and thither for many moves before the draw was declared. Good human players would have agreed a draw as soon as boredom set in.

Chess Curriculum - Summary

It's been nine months since I first got the idea from Google -- Google Autocompletes CIS (29 March 2015) -- to look at what constitutes a

• Chess Curriculum.

The initial survey included that kickoff post plus the following posts:-

• S.Polgar Chess Curriculum
• FIDE Chess Curriculum
• Chess Curriculum No.6 • '(1) from the Kasparov Chess Foundation and (2) from Chess Cafe'

From that I derived:-

• Chess Curriculum Inventory

Then I looked at each curriculum in turn:-

• Short Versions
• Pre-chess
• Judit Polgar's Chess Palace and Susan Polgar • The sisters are related but their methods aren't.
• FIDE I, FIDE II
• ChessCafe/ChessEDU
• ChessKid/Chess.com I, ChessKid/Chess.com II

If I were a relatively novice player looking for a comprehensive course to teach others, I would follow the ChessKid/Chess.com curriculum. As an experienced player looking for a structured approach where I supply the details, I would follow the Susan Polgar curriculum. The main FIDE curriculum ('Age 7-9') might also fill a niche somewhere. As for the others, I found them limited in their approach. Although I don't plan to take this series any further, I might come back to it from time to time. I realize that I've only scratched the surface.

Felican Kristnaskon!

Carrying on the CFAA Christmas greeting tradition (last seen in 2014's Joyeux Noël!) and borrowing a leaf from Top eBay Chess Items by Price, here is the first (and perhaps last) annual 'Top eBay Chess Christmas Items by Price'.

Left to right, top to bottom (taken from the items' descriptions):-

• Chess Lyrics A Collection of Chess Problems by A.F. Mackenzie 1887-1905. Edited by Alain C. White. Published by J.H. Graham New York 1905. Hardback, 476pp with 282 compositions. This is the 1st book edited by White in the Christmas Series and is signed by A.C. White! Two page memoriam by A. C. White after solutions at end for A.F. Mackenzie (October 6, 1861 - June 23, 1905) He passed when the book was going to press. Very scarce book!
  
  
• J. Juchli's Schachprobleme. Edited & published by Alain C. White of New York and Dr. M. Henneberger of Bern 1908. Text completely in German. Hardback, 93pp. 54 compositions with annotated solutions. Probably not part of the Christmas series? A scarce book.
  
  
• Chess Lyrics by A.F. Mackenzie. Edited by A.C. White. New York, 1905. Number 1 in the A.C. White series. Scarce.
  
  
• Chuck Berry CHESS 1714 Run Rudolph Run and Merry Christmas Baby
  
  
• A signed copy of Les Mille et un Mats Inverses By Alain C. White. Published by Numa Preti, Paris 1907. Two volumes, both completely in French. The first volume inscribed, "G. Dobbs Presented by Alain C. White Xmas 1907" and with tipped in insert "Avec les Meilleurs Voeux de Noel. Alain C. White 1907." Volume I, hardback, unnumbered pages with 1001 compositions. Volume II, hardback 231pp with Introduction, solutions and composers. Very scarce set.
  
  
• Disney Chess Collection NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS Set of 24 Figure; Produced: Tomy Tec

And remember: Drive safely!

Bobby's Big Hands

Three months ago I ran a couple of posts about Bobby Fischer photos from LIFE magazine: That's Not Bobby! and That's Definitely Bobby!. To round out the series, here is a composite photo that I've been saving for the right moment.

Source: Chess Champion Bobby Fischer

GM Seirawan talking about GM Byrne talking about Fischer:-

He had these very big hands and the pieces just danced as they moved about the board.

From An afternoon chat with Yasser - Part I (This Week's Chess Safari).

FIDE's Cradle

Rummaging through 30-year-old chess magazines looking for details on Zonals 1984-1987, I discovered a small photo filler (Europe Echecs 1986-02 p.4) captioned,

Mairie du 9e arrondissement de Paris ou furent signés, en 1924, les statuts constitutifs de la F.I.D.E. Le berceau n'a pas changé.

If your French isn't any better than mine, the photo showed the city hall of the Paris 9th district where the FIDE statutes were signed in 1924 ('the cradle hasn't changed'). There was no need to scan the photo, because better shots are available on the web (and the building still hasn't changed).

Source: Mairie du 9e arrondissement de Paris
or 9e arrondissement de Paris
[fr.wikipedia.org]

Wondering if anyone had already documented this bit of chess history trivia, I discovered a series of three more recent articles, also from Europe Echecs -- see Paris 1924 Création de la FIDE (1), (2), (3) -- signed Georges Bertola.

That's the same Bertola I featured a few years back in Early Chess Magazines, and that makes an easy blog post for a busy holiday season. Not bad for a half hour of rummaging, plus I found plenty of info about the zonal cycle I was researching.

***

In part (1) of the series, Bertola says that FIDE was born on Sunday, 21 July 1924. Kazic's 'International Championship Chess : a Complete Record of FIDE Events' says, 20 July 1924. The page on International Chess Day [Wikipedia] says,

The international chess day is celebrated annually on July 20, the day the International Chess Federation (FIDE) was founded, in 1924.

Did Bertola get it wrong? But he knew it was a Sunday...

***

Later: ...Bertola got something wrong. According to the page for July 1924 (infoplease.com/calendar), 21 July 1924 was a Monday.