Breaking the 3000 Barrier

Remember this post: Breaking the 2900 Barrier (April 2019), marking both post no.2900 on this blog and a historical point in Elo chess ratings? I wrote,

For 2900 ratings, we have to turn to the world of chess engines. Here is a relevant chart signed Luke Muehlhauser and dated 2011. I've marked the 2900 crossover point with a red star. The engine under the star is Shredder 8.0 and the year was 2003 or thereabouts.

As for 'Breaking the 3000 Barrier', the same chart points to Rybka 1.2 a few years later. Looks like I won't have to write the 3000 post at all.

This current post is no.2999 on this blog, making tomorrow's post no.3000. It's a goal I've been working toward since the beginning of the year, because it will be the last regular post on the blog. Some of the ongoing series need to be closed separately, but I'll look at those some other time.

'Smart Is the New Sexy'

I don't remember where I saw the news first. Maybe it was Chessable joins the Play Magnus chess24 family (chess24.com):-

We're excited to be able to announce that Chessable is now part of the Play Magnus and chess24 group. Play Magnus will invest heavily in the fast-growing chess improvement site, and although nothing will change at first on chess24 or Chessable we’re looking forward to a great opportunity to combine our forces to provide more and better resources for chess players of all levels.

Maybe it was Chessable joins Play Magnus and chess24 – yes, it’s true! (chessable.com/blog; by David Kramaley, 'Chessable's CEO and Chief Scientist'):-

Dear Chessable members, today is simply unbelievable! We are delighted to announce that Chessable has become part of the Play Magnus & chess24 family. That’s right, The World Champion himself, Magnus Carlsen, is now part of our Chessable family! It’s been an exciting and incredible journey, and we wanted to thank you for being part of it.

Both announcements were dated a week ago, 3 September. My first reaction was, 'What is the "Play Magnus Chess24 family'"? Then I remembered an announcement from a few months ago, Chess24 and Play Magnus join forces (chess24.com; March 2019):-

Today we’re proud to announce that chess24 has merged with Play Magnus, the Norwegian company behind a family of apps building on the brand of World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen. Play Magnus and chess24 will continue to operate independently online, but with our joint resources and know-how we believe we’re better equipped than ever to provide the very best possible chess experience.

One of the comments noted,

WildBillHickok: Chess24 owners [Enrique] Guzman and [Jan] Gustafsson will own 38% of the newly merged company according to Norwegian business paper Dagens Naeringsliv.

By one of those coincidences that often seems to be more than a coincidence, Chess24 and 'Play Magnus' both started operating within a few months of each other; see Play Magnus! (chess24.com; August 2014):-

Canadian Kate Murphy is the CEO of Play Magnus, the company behind the chess app of the same name. Her ambition is to popularize cultural and educational activities for youngsters, and Magnus Carlsen seemed like the perfect man to do this with chess. (Interview by GM Jonathan Tisdall)

For some reason the Wikipedia pages for Play Magnus and Kate A. Murphy do not link to each other. For more from the comely Canadian, see Youtube channel 'TEDx Talks', Chess and the Game of Life | Kate Murphy | TEDx UWCRCN (December 2016), 'Smart is the new sexy.'

TCEC S16 DivP & CCC10 S2 Both Underway

A week ago, in TCEC S16 L1 Finished; CCC10 S1 in Trouble, I reported,

TCEC: TCEC admins are currently testing a new server in preparation for Premier Division, which will run for about three weeks. • CCC: In the 'CCC10 Qualification', all non-AI/NN engines have finished playing against each other, while the four AI/NN engines are currently completing their schedules.

Both engine-to-engine events have moved to the next stage.

TCEC: The Premier Division (DivP), to determine which two engines will compete in the Superfinal (SuFi), is underway with eight engines. The URL for the live broadcast changed to tcec-chess.com, and I updated the tab 'TCEC/CCC Links' to record the new address.

CCC: The 'CCC10 Quarterfinals' are underway with 11 engines instead of the 10 announced; I couldn't find an explanation for the change. The top six engines will advance to the semifinal.

The previous event 'CCC10 Qualification' is not in the archive, although a crosstable and a PGN file are available. Stockfish won, followed by Leelenstein and LC0, which were well ahead of the rest of the field. The top seven engines were joined in the quarterfinals by four others: Fire, Houdini, Komodo, and Komodo MC.

[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]

A Special Chess Board

It's been a few years since I last featured a DGT (Digital Game Technology) video: DGT at the Olympiad (August 2014). Here's a new one from Denmark.

What's Special about a Professional Chess Board? (3:07) • 'Published on Aug 13, 2019'

The video description didn't have much to add. In response to a comment, 'Nice commercial', the video's creator wrote,

Per Danish law we cannot make a commercial without stating it clearly in the video and description. This is not a commercial. We have not been paid for this video and neither the DGT company nor Chesshouse [NB: the distributor supplying the board] has had ANY editorial rights. Not that we would have any problems with making commercials mind you -- but any such paid content would be clearly marked both in the video and the description.

Danish law or not, that's a good guideline for anyone producing online content.

'Game Changer' PGN Explored

Last month, in 'Game Changer' PGN, I collected PGN files relevant to Sadler & Regan's book 'Game Changer', and noted,

As a bonus, the 'Annotator' tags in the NIC file match the 'Round' tags in the AZ_vs_SF files. This provides a cross-reference between the two sets of files. I'll use these files for further explorations.

The 'NIC file' is a PGN file covering the games in the book. I used the NIC file to prepare last week's post, Playing Without a Horizon. The 'AZ_vs_SF files' are two PGN files of games between AlphaZero and Stockfish provided by DeepMind to Sadler & Regan. Those games were behind the authors' motivation to write the book.

Having a little time on my hands, I used it to dig deeper into the three files. The 'NIC file' contains 106 games in the same sequence as the games presented in the book. Of these, 69 games are AZ_vs_SF, while the other 37 games are from various sources. Many of the other games were played between world class players and were used by Sadler & Regan to illustrate recurring themes from the AZ_vs_SF games.

Of the 69 AZ_vs_SF games, 48 have AlphaZero playing White. One peculiarity of the 'NIC file' is that only 51 of the 69 games can be cross-referenced to the AZ_vs_SF files. That means 18 games are from other sources. I looked at the first two of those games (no.12 and no.17 in the NIC file) and confirmed that they are indeed missing from the AZ_vs_SF files, although they are discussed in the book. Were there other game files examined in the preparation of the book?

Of the 51 games from the AZ_vs_SF files, 32 are unique, meaning that many of the games were used more than once in the book. One game appears four times. By some sort of pleasant coincidence, this is the same game I discussed in last week's 'Horizon' post.

Despite the massive effort that went into Sadler & Regan's book, there are still plenty of the original AZ_vs_SF games to explore. What other chess secrets might those games reveal?

Pal Benko 'On the Cover'

Pal Benko has been on my mind lately -- and I imagine he's been on many chess players' minds. While I was preparing the previous post, September 1969 'On the Cover', I decided to find Benko's earliest appearance on the covers of the two main American chess magazines.

The earliest Chess Life (CL) cover is shown below on the left. The year 1961 was the first with CL published in magazine format, switching from the newspaper format of previous years. By coincidence, Benko appeared on the cover of Chess Review for the same month, October 1961.

Left: 'Pal Benko - U.S. Open Champion'
Right: 'Open Champion'

Chess Life

Benko Wins U.S. Open Championship; Highest Score Ever Attained At Largest Open • Hungarian born International Grandmaster Pal Benko, of New York City, topped a record field of 198 players at the U.S. Open held in San Francisco August 14th to 26th with a record-breaking score of 11-1. By drawing only two games and winning 10, Benko's score was the highest ever achieved in the sixty-three consecutive years that the event has been conducted.

The tournament conducted in the picturesque city of San Francisco was the largest attended Open -- Milwaukee, 1953 -- with 183 players holding that first place spot for the last eight years.

Although the article mentions '63 consecutive years' of the U.S. Open, a table at the bottom of the page ('Former U.S.Open Champions') starts with '1941 Reuben Fine'. For the complete list, see Wikipedia's U.S. Open Chess Championship; the 1961 U.S. Open is given as no.62.

Chess Review

Hungarian Day at USCF Open • Two Hungarian-born players finished first and second respectively in the United States Open Championship at San Francisco. Pal Benko, international grandmaster residing in New York, went undefeated through twelve Swiss rounds to gain the crown and a $1,000 first prize with a tally of 11-1. Runner-up was his compatriot, California champion Zoltan Kovacs, 10-2, who lost only to Benko.

The earliest photo of Benko in Chess Life was the 20 January 1958 issue (CL was published twice a month at that time). It showed Benko with the 'Players and Officials at Dallas International 1957'. The players included Reshevsky, Evans, Gligoric, Larsen, and Najdorf, plus other international luminaries. Since Benko was neither a player nor an official in the tournament, what was he doing in the photo? The last CL issue of 1957 explained,

By-products of this assemblage of masters were two challenges: an exhibition match between Dallas Master Kenneth R. Smith and the recently defected Hungarian International Master Paul Benko; and a blindfold match between International Masters Miguel Najdorf and George Koltanowski.

As for Chess Review, we find Benko on the cover for March 1959 (composite photo, centered on Fischer, of U.S. Championship); and August 1959 ('Twice Champion', New York and Western Opens). He also appeared numerous times on interior pages.

September 1969 'On the Cover'

Fifty years ago, the two main American chess magazines were only two months from being merged into a single publication. Their covers featured American chess players from two different centuries.

Left: 'Marshall Rohland; USCF Secretary 1956-66, President 1966-69'
Right: 'A Morphy Sidelight'

Chess Life

Presidential Report by Marshall Rohland • At the end of one's Presidency, it is appropriate and constructive to look back over the progress in USCF during the three year term, and also the preceding years. Looking back in perspective reveals a long story of struggle and accomplishment.

For a similar report from Rohland's successor (in CL November 1972), see The USCF in Numbers (June 2014).

Chess Review

A Morphy Sidelight by Manfred Zitzman • Paul Morphy! The name remains a magic one for countless chess players past, present and yet to be born. As someone has said, it is because we remember other chess greats not in the plenitude of their powers, but as dethroned champions -- bitter, disillusioned men who, more often than not, avoided their most dangerous challengers for years before they finally played and succumbed.

Alekhine, it is true, died with the World Championship still in his possession; but his twenty years of dodging a re-match with Capablanca will forever cloud his reputation. In contrast, Paul Morphy's light blazes undiminished across more than a century of time! Here there was no dodging or evasion. Morphy actively sought out the strongest challengers he could find and blasted them off the board.

The CR cover shows the October 1859 cover of 'The Chess Monthly', published almost 110 years before the CR issue. We saw the earlier magazine on this blog a few months in Five Volumes of 'Chess Monthly' (May 2019), and looked at Morphy's role in Paul Morphy, Editor (ditto). The author of the three page Morphy article also featured on the CR side of December 1965 'On the Cover' (December 2015).