[German] SCHACH-Fragen diesmal mit Arno Zude

In der neuen Ausgabe von SCHACH, Nr. 12/2017, ist unser Spitzenlöser Arno Zude bei den Schach-Fragen auserwählt worden, weil er nun in der Schachbundesliga recht gute Ergebnisse geholt hat. Lesenswert, auch wenn er nicht übers Problemlösen schreibt! Da lohnt Silvio Baiers Artikel vor zwei Monaten.

Wie sieht eigentlich ein Youtube-Award aus?

Rechtsanwalt Christian Solmecke hat einen solchen Award in Silber für 100k Subscriber erhalten - inzwischen sind es schon 173k geworden - und demonstriert das in seinem heutigen Video:

https://youtu.be/zNZ-frIv3Tw

ChessBase Shop Sale today, 25 percent off on everything, Fritz 16 released

As a regular ChessBase writer, I am semi-inclined to inform about the ChessBase sale today. Everything is 25 percent off at the shop until 9 AM tomorrow CEST.

Fritz 16, newly released - I personally use Deep Fritz 11 as the GUI of Fritz 13 was too horrible and I didn't try any new ones since - is 59.93€ instead of 79.90€, or 52.43€ instead of 69.90€ but contains the multiprocessor engine already.

Other products also can be found in the article or the shop itself.

[German] Wird der Mordfall Stephanie Drews nach über 26 Jahren aufgeklärt?

Einer der ersten und prägnantesten Fälle, die ich bei Aktenzeichen XY gesehen hatte, war der Mordfall Stephanie Drews, hier im ersten Filmfall zu sehen.

Die Ermittler der Sonderkommission "Altfälle" wollen jetzt den Fall erneut in der Fahndungssendung am 13. Dezember zeigen. Das Opfer, ein zehnjähriges Mädchen, war am 24. August 1991 entführt und in betäubtem Zustand nachts von einer Brücke geworfen worden, sie verstarb durch den Aufprall. Gerüchten im Internet zufolge war sie zuvor auch vergewaltigt worden.

Zwei äußerst wichtige Zeugen haben sich auch nach 26 Jahren noch nicht gemeldet. Es handelt sich um ein damals vermutliches Liebespaar, das mit einer Kamera unterwegs war und möglicherweise auch den Täter im Gespräch mit dem Opfer und einem weiteren Kind gefilmt hat.

Die folgenden Informationen sind der Internetseite der Thüringer Allgemeinen entnommen, die jedoch nur ohne Cookies (d.h. nach deren vorheriger Löschung) oder mit einem kostenpflichtigen Abo lesbar ist.

Kontakt zur Soko „Altfälle“: Telefon (03641) 81 16 78, Mail: SokoAltfaelle.Jena@polizei. thueringen.de; Aktenzeichen „XY ungelöst“: Mittwoch, 13. Dezember, 20.15 Uhr, ZDF

Announcement: 4th Composing Tourney of FRME, 2018

                                                                               4th Composing Tourney of FRME, 2018

The Royal Moroccan Chess Federation (FRME) organizes the 4th Composing Tourney in four 6 sections:

Twomovers (#2) Judge: Mark Basisty (Ukraine)
Send to tournament director: Twomovers to Youness Ben Jelloun №6 Rue 9 hay salam ain kadous Ville FES Postale code 30000 Marocco ubenjelloun@outlook.fr

Threemovers (#3) Judge: Elmar Abdullayev ( Azerbaijan) 
Moremovers (#N) Judge: Oto Mihalčo (Slovakia)
Studies (+;=) Judge: Mario Guido García (Argentina)
Selfmates (S#) Judge: Miodrag Mladenovic (Serbia) 

Send to tournament director: Threemovers, Moremovers, Studies and Selfmates to Vidadi Zamanov, Vidadi Street, 4/6, Goychay, Azerbaijan. vidadi_zamanov@mail.ru

Helpmates (h#2) Judge: Francesco Simoni (Italy)
Helpmates (H#3 and H#N) Judge: Valery Kirillov (Russia)

Send to tournament director: H#2, H#3 and H#N to Jamal M Elbaz, Résidence Imane, Bloc B immeuble D appt 13. Avenue Tarik ibno Ziad Temara Morocco. jamalelbaz6@gmail.com

Prizes, honourable mentions and commendations will be awarded.

Send problems and studies in format PDF.

Closing date: 30. 09. 2018.

The award – 2018

Please reprint ……. Please reprint …….. Please reprint

Best wishes, Vidadi Zamanov 03.11.2017

London 2017 Chess Classic Press Release

With explicite permission of John Saunders, who among other things also is press officer for London 2017, we publish hereby the press release including the players of London 2017. As I would need to use cryptography, such as zip files in images, to upload it directly here, a link is instead provided to the files on my Dropbox. Enjoy!

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3if5yj97hknwuwr/AACj706xGE1wsQiso7oUlMvja?dl=0

Winning Jeopardy! with only 1 dollar

Well, it happened yesterday.
http://j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=5802

Thanks, Prisoner's dilemma!
http://j-archive.com/wageringcalculator.php?a=12300&b=12300&c=1000&player_a=Fran&player_b=Carlos&player_c=Manny

Scores at the end of the Double Jeopardy! Round:

Manny	Carlos	Fran
$1,000	$12,300	$12,300

Final Jeopardy! Round

ASIAN GEOGRAPHY

It's the only country that borders both the Caspian Sea & the Persian Gulf

And then this happened:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbNBroZR3hs

[German] DM (Partei Deutsche Mitte) und dm (Drogeriemarkt)

Ich schrieb vor einigen Tagen an die Partei Deutsche Mitte, da mich nun eine Sache doch interessiert hat. Der Landesvorsitzende beantwortete die Frage zufriedenstellend, aber auch humorvoll:

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,

entschuldigen Sie bitte, dass ich Ihnen die wohl dämlichste Frage stelle, die Sie im gesamten Wahlkampf zu lesen bekommen, aber es interessiert mich jetzt einfach mal.

Es gibt ja diesen Drogeriemarkt, der sich auch "dm" abkürzt, und der jetzt auch hier seine Plakate neben Wahlplakaten aufstellt (zumindest vermute ich, dass er das war, weil da eine Forderung "Nur für Blondinen" draufstand, die zu Ihnen nicht passen würde, und auch das Logo wie von den Läden aussah). Jetzt stelle ich mir die Frage, wie sorgen Sie dafür, dass da keine Verwechslungen aufkommen zwischen Ihnen und der Ladenkette? Können Sie da nicht irgendwie Klage einreichen, dass die in der Wahlkampfzeit nicht in der Nähe von Wahlplakaten werben dürfen o.ä.?

Danke im Voraus für Ihre Antwort, die ich gerne dann auch auf meinem (sonst hauptsächlich mit Schachthemen befassten) Blog als Kuriosität veröffentlichen würde, falls Sie nicht widersprechen.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
[Name und Anschrift]

Heute erhielt ich folgende Antwort:

Sehr geehrter Herr Hornecker,

die von Ihnen gestellte Frage ist durchaus interessant. Da unser Bundesvorsitzende sowie der gesamte Bundesvorstand stark ausgelastet sind, kann ich als Landesvorsitzender der Deutschen Mitte
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern nur vermuten, was unsere gemeinsame Position dazu ist.

Da Christoph Hörstel vom ersten Tag der Deutschen Mitte an große Sympathien für Götz Werner als Haupteigentümer vom Drogeriemarkt dm hat, da er sich sozial engagiert (in erster Linie für das Grundeinkommen) und die dm Produkte eindeutig zu den bessern am Markt gehören. So heißt es dann wohl eher Leben und Leben lassen und schließlich kamen wir zuletzt: Zuvor gab es schließlich die Deutsche Mark (DM), den Drogeriemarkt (dm) und das Ortskennzeichen von Demmin (DM), das mir täglich auf den Straßen begegnet. Selbst wenn die Plakete sich sehr nahe sein sollten ist das aus unserer Sicht kein Problem.

Herzliche Grüße

Andreas Hohn
-
Landesvorsitzender MV


Ihr Support-Team Deutsche Mitte

Stanislav Petrov (9.ix.1939 - 19.v.2017)

Without the courage of one man, we all wouldn't be here today!

The man who saved the world from a nuclear holocaust died already on 19 May 2017, as is known only now.

RELO proposal by Harri Hurme

On the MatPlus forum, Harri Hurme makes a great proposal for RELO, an improved Elo system for solvers of chess problems.
As Piotr Murdzia keeps on losing rating points, even if he wins all tournaments, the old system needs an overhaul indeed. So anyone interested should read Harri Hurme's idea.

The most relevant parts of the posting are quoted below.

 We can calculate the first cornerstone in the rating system, which is the difficulty rating for the problems, using the old ratings of solvers and the solving results as the basis. We call this rating as "Rdifficulty", this tells how tough an "opponent" each problem is.

Rdifficulty = Rav-C*arctanh(2*Pav/Pmax-1);
where Rav = average rating for solvers who have old rating
C=800/ln(10) = 347.4
Pav =average points for each problem by solvers who have old rating
Pmax=maximum points for a problem (presently Pmax=5)

I prefer using inverse of hyperbolic tanget but I could use logistic function as well.


After calculating the difficulty of the problems we can proceed with standard Elo rating methods. I give the required formulas though here as well.

Pexpected = 0.5(1+tanh((Ro-Rdifficulty)/C)

This is calculated separately for each solver and each problem and summed. The new Rating

Rnew= Ro+K*sum(Pachieved-Pexpected);

The coefficient K is normally 4 but can be different as in normal Elo-rating calculations, (4*Pmax=20). The K factor can be different for different category solving tourneys. Also the number of solvers should affect it. These questions need practical testing and thus this should be discussed after testing.

Calculate performance rating for each (new) solver. At this point we know the “opponents” (each problem) ratings and results ratings

Rperformance=Rav+C*(arctanh(2*Pt/Pmaxt-1)-arctanh(2*Pavt/Pmaxt-1))

The index t means that here total summed points are in use, not per problem as above.

The classical Elo rating is based on cumulative normal distribution.
Instead of the normal distribution prof Arpad Elo suggest to use so called logistic function as an approximation of the distribution. The basic reason for the approximation seems to be ability to carry practical calculations readily. However the logistic function 1/(1+10 (Ro-Ropp)/ 400) ) is a close approximation. Actually US chess federation consider this as more accurate. We transform the logistic function into more practical form by using hyperbolic tangent function and its inverse with the following mathematical identity: Logistic function 1/(1+10^x) = 0.5*(1+tanh(x/2)).
The hyperbolic tangent function is commonly used in engineering because its approximation evaluation is very simple, with small argument values
Tanh(x) ~ x and tanh(x)=1, if X>> 1 and tanh(x)=-1 if x<<-1. This helps in approximating in the normal middle range.

Did Kasparov destroy his own legend? An opinion piece.

The Rapid and Blitz in St. Louis is over, and we have seen that Kasparov still belongs to the top players of the world - in the top 20 to top 30 in any case, possibly even in the top 10 - but he is not the eight-eyed monster that sees everything anymore. He is not the Linares winner of 2005 anymore. He is not the world champion anymore. Kasparov has demontaged his own legend, he has become a mortal, an aging chess master over his zenith. He still is a great player, and for many having the strength that Kasparov showed in St. Louis is a target they can only dream of, but he now is one of many, not even a primus inter parem, far less the number one.

The world champion who played David Braben's Elite in his free time has matured into a political activist for whom chess has become a hobby, just like Elite back then. Maybe it is time to train hard, to have the greatest comeback in chess history. Or maybe it is time to just enjoy chess, play some tourneys for fun, win some opens, retire from politics and enjoy life.

Or maybe it is time for something new. Who knows what is Garry's next invention? The video game loving boy of the 1980s soon ventured into chess software and hardware, having an own series of chess computers. Will the mature Kasparov use his influence once more to find ways to improve chess for the general public? Now he is a politician, and countries that teach chess in schools have proven it to be successful for the social development of children. And in fact Kasparov already worked towards chess in schools. Why not again?

Garry, you might not be the best anymore. But you are still a legend. Use it for the best!

Development of a Sabra Tourney helpmate

The 20th Sabra Tourney called for the opening and closing of a line by a black piece. I have come up with a simple idea, and after sending it to Paz Einat, I found that I can have two variations with a small change, so I also sent him the new position.

Siegfried Hornecker

Original for 20th Sabra Tourney

(Original publication)

Helpmate in 2, 2 solutions

1.Bd5 Qh7 2.0-0-0 Qc7 mate

1.Bd3 Qh1 2.0-0-0 Q:b7 mate

This small idea has the flaw of Black castling both times to the same side, and Paz decided to work on it. After an earlier unthematic version, he presented a final result, which he sent as original to the judge.

Paz Einat & Siegfried Hornecker

20th Sabra Tourney 2017, 4th prize

Helpmate in 2

a) Diagram above

b) Diagram below

a) 1.S4g5 R:h4 2.0-0 B:h7 mate

b) 1.S4c5 B:f3 2.0-0-0 B:b7 mate

Pinning the white queen prevented many unwanted solutions, but there is unfortunately a lot of material necessary to ensure the correctness. However, the helpmate shows both castlings, and this was pretty difficult to develop. So of course the bottle of Sabra we won went to Paz, as he did most of the work! But - hopefully we will see it in the FIDE Album! And what better celebration of the friendship of our countries Israel and Germany?


Addendum, 14 August 2017: The complete award is now available on the Variantim website:
http://www.variantim.org/20th%20Sabra%20Tourney%20award.pdf 

Is this the end of humanity?

With evermore and deeper worrying I look at the events that unfold in North Korea, at an onmicidal maniac that develops intercontinental nuclear weapons.

After the past few days, the Doomsday Clock should righteously be set to mere seconds before midnight. More and more it seems to me, that even with Donald Trump, who might be a time traveller that specifically came to avoid this, the nuclear holocaust in unavoidable. As much as in the height of the Cuba Crisis, as in the fateful seconds of Stanislav Petrov's decision, humanity faces its own extinction. With every passing day, Kim Jong-Un gets one step closer to starting a nuclear war.

God has protected us throughout the twentieth century, throughout the most improbable events, to prevent this end of the world. In this time that might be the end of time, may It protect us once more!

By now, God might be all that stands between our everyday life and the end of the world.
The clock ticks, and soon it might be not be two-and a half minutes left anymore, soon it might be midnight...

Errata (02): EG 209, p.184

I made a small mistake in EG 209, page 184. In the very last lines of the article, after "however," the word "than" is missing.

12 years later, Kasparov returns to play chess in St. Louis - but only Rapid and Blitz

As Peter Doggers on chess.com reports, Kasparov will be attending the Rapid and Blitz tourneys in St. Louis this year. A one-time event, or does Kasparov return to professional chess? In Kasparov's own words, there is little time for the dedication serious chess requires and deserves. So it seems like a one-time event, but who knows?

Even if it is just this one time, it will be interesting to see if Kasparov can hold up to a new generation of chess. Or if he still dominates with ease.

Zoltán Sárosy (23.viii.1906-19.vi.2017)

If legends would never die, you would have been immortal.

FIDE Album 2013-2015, section D (endgame studies) scores

The scores are online.

http://www.wfcc.ch/fide-albums/fa1315sl/fa1015d/

Welcome to Levon Aronian in the exclusive club of FIDE Album composers! Inspired by Smyslov and Co.?

Hillel Aloni (30.ix.1937-26/27.v.2017)

A great man has left us.

Dear chessfriends, 

It is with deep sadness to inform you that Hillel Aloni, the composer, player, teacher and the father of endgame study composition in Israel has passed away last Friday, just 4 months before he turned 80. 

He was the mentor of all Israeli study composers and his contribution to the development of our art is invaluable. 

 May he rest in peace. 

                         Kind regards,  Yochanan Afek

(via e-mail)

(1) Posted by Paz Einat [Sunday, May 28, 2017 08:28]

Very sad news from Israel - Hillel Aloni passed away yesterday

The funeral will be held today at his town of residence, Netanya. Our condolences to Yoel (Hillel's twin brother) and his family.
Hillel's contribution to Chess Problem Composition in Israel was huge. Briefly, he is the father of endgame studies in Israel, edited the studies sections in our magazines (Shachmat, Haproblemai & Variantim) and raised so many talented study composers.

The Aloni Jubilee tourney we announced will now, sadly, be: Hillel Aloni Memorial Tourney for studies published in Variantim this year. Prize fund of at least $300, judge Ofer Comay.

Our hearts are with Yoel, Hillel's twin brother. This is a reminder that the #3 problems published in Variantim in 2016-2017 will take part in Yoel Aloni 80 Jubilee Tourney with a prize fund of at least #300.

(via MatPlus Forum)

Erdogan orders attacks against U.S. citizen in the U.S.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ael30RH3gbU

In the history of the U.S., Erdogan now is one of the few the foreign government leaders who orders attacking U.S. citizens in the U.S.

20 years ago: Deep Blue defeats Kasparov

The (arguably?) strongest player of the pre-Carlsen era, Garry Kasparov, spectacularly lost his match against the computer Deep Blue when on 11 May 1997 his entire game broke down, leading to one of the most spectacular losses of his career.

For the first time in history, a reigning world chess champion was defeated by a computer in a match with long games.

What followed was an ugly argument between Kasparov and IBM, supposedly Kasparov alleged that IBM did not only have the computer make the moves for the sixth game.
Was Kasparov victim to "a ploy to boost IBM's stock market" (as Wikipedia says a movie made in 2003 suggests), or did we witness the world champion losing fair and square?

IBM published the logs of Deep Blue, and possibly Kasparov fell into a trap he built himself by choosing a weak opening that usually a computer would play horribly. Did the tricks of the world champion fire back, or was he tricked otherwise?

Twenty years later, some questions still are left unanswered.

Dear Trump protesters...

...I understand very well that Donald Trump is a polarizing personality, and as a supporter of him I also see many of his decisions and opinions critical, especially those that could very well destroy the future of this planet, such as his belief that there is no man-made global warming, and the stupid actions he took on this belief.

There is however one thing you need to understand.

Chess is not part of your problem. If you see people playing chess on the street and you feel like you must demonstrate, leave the chess players alone!

(To everyone else the linked article on ChessBase also might be interesting.)

Holy man with six letters?

http://en.chessbase.com/post/study-of-the-month-the-hour-of-the-holy-men

Bishop - in the fifth Study of the Month article!

Announcement: Peter Siegfried Krug 50 JT

(submitted by Mario Guido Garcia)

JT50 PETER S. KRUG

To celebrate the  50th  birthday of Peter Siegfried Krug  a composing tourney for endgame studies is announced.  -Theme: free – In two sections : A Studies Win –   B Studies Draw –  Maximum 3 entries are allowed in each section – Judge: Peter S. Krug  – Send your original entries to director: Mario G. García   by e-mail to:  marioggarcia@ gmail.com   Prizes , honourable mentions , commendations and special nominations will be awarded.- The provisional award will be issued in December   2017,   will be sent-to-participants-by-e-mail , and may see in the websites of ARVES and UAPA –  Closing date: september 30 , 2017

Robert William Taylor (10.ii.1932 - 13.iv.2017)

The mathematical engineer Robert W. Taylor, who lead the invention of the single one technology that shaped the modern world - the internet, or rather its predecessor ARPAnet - has died at the age of 85. Coming generations will praise him as a hero of free speech and the exchange of information in a time when western countries were not yet dictatorships, when people still were able to freely access and exchange informations before their falling leaders, those who are as bad as the nazis, as the stalinists, forbade it.

Arthur Bisguier (8.x.1929-5.v.2017)

While everything of interest about Bisguier is probably already said in the various obituaries, of which one is linked, one outstanding fact shall be repeated here:
Bisguier was married since 1959, that is, until his wife died in 2014.
Probably the greatest accomplishment of the distinguished chess master!

Reunion?

Is Kirsan about to be removed as FIDE president?

http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/10098-letter-of-mr-makropoulos-to-mr-ilyumzhinov.html

Please click on either the link or the letter to see it in a readable size!

For the archive: My Reddit IAMA

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5yztvn/iama_30_year_old_chess_composer_ama/

The AMA was held on 12 March 2017, 7 PM Berlin time.

Schafft die Zeitumstellung endlich ab! / Get finally rid of Daylight Saving Time!

Siehe Titel. See title.

Azerbaijan Chess Composition Tournaments 2017

Azerbaijan Chess Composition Tournaments 2017

Samir Badalov - 55 MT, 2017 (Studies)
(13.02.1962- 25.08.2011)
The Azerbaijan Chess Composition Commission announces an International Composing “Samir Badalov-55 MT”' memorial tournament for studies (free theme).
Judge: Muradkhan Muradov (Azerbaijan).
Send (please PGN) to tournament director: Elmar Abdullayev (Azerbaijan)
abdullaev-elmar@bk.ru
Closing date: 31. 05. 2017. The award – 2017.

Agshin Masimov - 55 JT, 2017 (Studies)
The Azerbaijan Chess Composition Commission announces an International Composing
“Agshin Masimov - 55”' jubilee tournament for studies (free theme).
Judge: Agshin Masimov (Azerbaijan). Send (please PGN) to tournament director: Elmar Abdullayev (Azerbaijan)
abdullaev-elmar@bk.ru
Closing date: 31. 05. 2017. The award - 2017.

Suleyman Abdullayev – 50 JT, 2017 (#2 - Miniature)
The Azerbaijan Chess Composition Commission announces an International Composing
“Suleyman Abdullayev – 50”' jubilee tournament for miniature twomovers (free theme).
#2 - Judge: Suleyman Abdullayev (Azerbaijan) . Send to tournament director: Elmar Abdullayev (Azerbaijan) abdullaev-elmar@bk.ru
Closing date: 31. 05. 2017. The award - 2017.

Islam Kazimov – 65 JT, 2017 (#2, #3)
The Azerbaijan Chess Composition Commission announces an International Composing
“Islam Kazimov – 65”' jubilee tournament for twomovers and threemovers (free theme).
Judge: #2, #3 - Araz Almammadov (Azerbaijan).
Send to tournament director: Vidadi Zamanov (Azerbaijan) vidadi_zamanov@mail.ru
Closing date: 31. 05. 2017. The award – 2017.

Raymond Smullyan (25.v.1919 - 6.ii.2017)

Raymond Smullyan, the author of the famous Sherlock Holmes chess book, died at the age of 97.

Since we only would be able to quote the famous problem by Smullyan, which is a rework of a previous problem, we instead asked the retro chess expert Andrew Buchanan for a short statement, which is reproduced in full below:

 "I am in touch with the NY logicians group that Smullyan belonged to. I enjoyed speaking with him by phone, but never met him face to face alas. I admired his simplifying approach to logic, which led naturally to his popularisation work. My favourite is "To Mock a Mockingbird" (1985) - a beautiful exploration of combinatory logic. There is no book like it. Another highly original book was the delightful "Chess Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes" (1980) an introductory to chess retrograde analysis, in the form of solutions conducted by the great detective to his Boswell. The challenge he implicitly leaves to us chess problemists is how, in an age where the game itself has great popularity, we can successfully communicate the delights of the compositional world, and grow the next generation of composers and solvers from the grass roots up."

EDIT, 16 Fabruary 2017: Minor correction.

Study of the Month (on ChessBase)

Readers will be excited about, in cooperation with the WFCC and ChessBase, a new monthly column "Study of the Month" by Yours Truly in which older but interesting studies will be explained in detail.

https://en.chessbase.com/post/study-of-the-month-the-pawn-is-the-soul-of-the-game

In the first issue, we take a look if a pawn can draw against queen and two pieces. The following columns are planned to appear around the beginning of each month.

Special thanks go to all members of the WFCC subcommitee for studies, especially Yochanan Afek, John Nunn and Martin Minski, as well as Frederic Friedel and Fernando Offermann from ChessBase to enable this project!


EDIT:
This post may serve as repository for the links. As SOTM 1 is linked above, here are the further links. All links open in a new window (tip: set them to open in a new tab in your browser settings instead for better navigation).

Study of the Month 2 - http://en.chessbase.com/post/study-of-the-month-an-impossible-move
Study of the Month 3 -  http://en.chessbase.com/post/study-of-the-month-a-knight-a-knight-my-kingdom-for-a-knight