Monthly Archives: April 2020

‘Everyone in the worlds life is falling apart to some greater or lesser degree’ – The Irish Times

Posted: April 11, 2020 at 7:09 pm

Author Mark OConnell talks about his uncannily topical new book, Notes from an Apocalypse

The ironies are so uncomfortable we can hardly bear to acknowledge them. Mark OConnell and I meet to talk about his second book, Notes From An Apocalypse: A Personal Journey to the End of the World and Back, the day after the Government has issued a directive to shut down all public gatherings of more than 100 people in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Its mid-March, a Friday the 13th in Dublin city centre, but Grafton Street already looks like a Sunday in 1990.

OConnell is that rare breed of Irish writer, a committed essayist and nonfiction adherent who circumnavigated all domestic routes to make a name for himself as a contributor to the New York Times magazine, The Millions and the Guardian. His preoccupations tend toward classic late Gen X: technology, future shock, pop culture riffs, a quirky sense of the domestic.

Born in Kilkenny and now 41, he is by anybodys barometer something of a local literary star, but youd never know it: many people are shocked to find hes a Dublin resident. OConnells first book, To Be A Machine, a journey into the strange new worlds of AI and transhumanist evangelists, further segregated him from the pack in terms of subject matter and scope. As well as scoring a blurb from Margaret Atwood, it won him the Rooney Prize and the Wellcome Prize and was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize.

The author has just concluded a meeting with his editor about how to reframe the press angle on the new book. Notes from an Apocalypse is a book about survivalists and end-times obsessives, a global tour of doomsday hotspots and hideouts, from the Black Hills of South Dakota and the pasturelands of New Zealand to the wind-blown desolation of the Scottish Highlands and the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

OConnell is, understandably, queasy about making capital out of a scary situation. We live in a time when speculative and dystopian fictions are overtaken by news reports in the lag between draft and publication. Since Brexit and Trump, since Black Mirror and Hypernormalisation, since the inception of non-linear warfare and the corrosion of the notion of objective truth, the future has become not just too dark, but too real to mention. Even as we speak, were still adjusting to the protocol of what will soon be termed social distancing, the eschewing of the handshake for the nod or salute, the polite but measured distance we keep between us as we chat.

But and its a big but despite the new books eschatological obsessions, despite its cast of would-be Martian land-grabbers and bunker monkeys, its a very personal work as well as a very timely one.

I could stand for it to be slightly less topical, to be honest, OConnell admits with a near-grimace. Id take 50 per cent less. Or 100 per cent, actually. Obviously its coming out at an interesting time, but I dont even know that Id want to read a book about apocalyptic anxiety right now. I was talking to my neighbour across the street, cause Id given him a copy of the book, and he was like, I cant read your book, I cant even look at the cover, Ive turned it over on the table. But people are different: some want to read into a situation and some people want to read out of it.

I put it to the author that its actually a book about the anxiety of new fatherhood masquerading as a tract about end-times preppers.

Thats exactly it, he replies. I mean, its not that its masquerading, but the apocalypse cannot be the subject for a book, because its not a thing, its an idea. This book is kind of a way for me to organise my obsessions, a sense of the fragility of everything, and a questioning as to how youre supposed to live with a sense of meaning and purpose at a time when everything seems so uncertain, and the climate that weve brought these children into, were murdering it. Thats a hard thing to face when youve already had kids.

So yeah, I was already thinking about these things, and I wanted to write about these anxieties, but I didnt have an organising principle. Then I started to read about people preparing for the end of the world, preppers and super-rich people buying land in New Zealand. Both my books are about capitalism, and that was a way for me to mediate those themes, through this central idea the Freudian thing of sublimating your terrors or anxieties or desires into a work.

I dont know that I would have gone headlong into it if I wasnt a writer, he continues. My unhealthy obsessions are the same thing as my work. There was a long period, before I knew I was writing a book about this, where I was spending a lot of time watching YouTube videos about preppers, I must have watched Children of Men I dont know how many times, I think it is the most prophetic film, it puts its finger on so many things that were already visible back then, but have become so current.

Not that it was like a therapeutic exercise, just this sense that Im already obsessed with this stuff, and its not healthy, but Im stuck with this particular source of anxiety. People are talking about the apocalypse now a lot, but what does the apocalypse mean? It just means our way of life, in our fairly privileged case, is under threat.

And apokalypsos, translated from the Greek, also means to uncover or reveal. Where theres catastrophic change theres also accelerated growth.

Whats happening at the moment is like a blacklight or something that reveals stuff that is not ordinarily visible, it absolutely shows up the fault lines in our society, but it shows up some of the good things as well. Like, people are talking more, because everyone is going through the same thing. The thing I find really extraordinary about what is happening right now is that everyone in the world is experiencing this thing in different ways, everyones life is falling apart to some greater or lesser degree.

Notes from an Apocalypse is a swift and accessible read, but despite OConnells inherent gift for the comedy of the incongruous, it is often angry. Reading about people such as Peter Thiel or Elon Musk, obscenely rich men sinking bunkers in Auckland, or making plans to colonise Mars, one thinks of privileged slobs who have trashed their own homes and now want to move, leaving the serfs to clean up their mess. The kind of men who would rather face unimaginably hostile alien territory than invest in saving their own polluted planet.

Among other things, Notes From An Apocalypse highlights the infantile aspects of the American frontier mindset, the Last Man survivalist pose. Several times while reading I was reminded of Martin Amiss 1987 essay Thinkability from Einsteins Monsters, the fear he experienced as a new parent in the midst of Cold War nuclear paranoia. Would OConnell characterise the anxiety that fuelled his new book as a sort of male equivalent of post-natal depression?

Hmm. Yes, but I dont know if its explicitly male. One question that is unresolved for me is, how much of this anxiety would I have experienced if I wasnt writing a book about the topic? Theres an emotional trajectory to the book, where at the end theres a sense of, not stoic acceptance, but tentative optimism. And thats true, thats real, I did go through that to some extent.

It was such a hard book to write, and so many of the interludes of, I wont say depression, because its not a clinical thing, but just feeling shit about things that went on for a long time. The writing of it was difficult because the topic was so heavy, but I did come through it, that note of optimism at the end was real, it wasnt something that I had to force.

The key line in the book for me is towards the end: my son is looking at the sunset and he says, Its interesting. Thats the first time I heard him say that. Its not what the book is about, but it is what drove me in a way, because as anxious as I was about the stuff that was happening, its interesting. Its very cold and arguably psychopathic to think in that way, but the fundamental human connection is there. I think if youre a writer you cant stop finding things interesting. The whole psychological dynamic of the book was wanting to be reassured or to have some belief, because when youre parenting really young kids, the big thing is to inculcate the sense in them that the world is beautiful, a good place, and its an interesting place, its not a dark and threatening place. And to hear him say that was really powerful.

As with To Be A Machine, theres a wry humour at the heart of the new book. The tone is somewhere between Louis Theroux or Jon Ronson and Dr Strangelove. This is largely because OConnell is not afraid of looking like an idiot if it means asking the reader-proxy questions.

I dont know how long I spent as a journalist for want of a better term being afraid of coming across as stupid, he says, and I learned eventually that the most valuable thing you can do as a reporter is ask a stupid question. The one thing that youre afraid of asking, because it makes you seem like a f***ing moron, thats the most important question you can ask.

Definitely with To Be A Machine, when I started writing it, I was so fascinated by the topic, I knew I had a good thing, I knew I had this milieu that was fascinating and full of crazy ideas and really eccentric people dealing with things that were of philosophical importance or whatever, but I went through a long period of feeling inadequate to the task, and I did spend time trying to get to grips with the complexity of these ideas, and reading serious books that were in various ways beyond my grasp. And I eventually realised that the stupid ignoramus position not in a comic playing-it-for-laughs way, but a person who knows nothing is actually a better point from which to grasp whats important about a topic, and a better point from which to communicate with people. As a reader I value experts in a broader sense, in the political sense or whatever, but I wouldnt want to read a book about transhumanism by a person who is an expert.

But talking about humour, certainly in my books, I hope theyre funny, but its very unknowable to me what is funny in what I write and what isnt, because for me humour in writing is just like being... accurate. A lot of situations are inherently humorous, so its just about faithfully describing things a lot of the time. I actually think if a writer isnt funny at times, doesnt use humour, or evoke it, I kind of feel like theyre not fully serious. Theres something un-serious about someone whos not funny.

Notes From An Apocalypse is published by Granta

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'Everyone in the worlds life is falling apart to some greater or lesser degree' - The Irish Times

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Mark Cuban: Here’s how to give your kids ‘an edge’ – CNBC

Posted: at 7:07 pm

The way to set your children up for success in this day and age is to ensure they learn about artificial intelligence, according to the billionaire tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban.

"Give your kids an edge, have them sign up [and] learn the basics of Artificial Intelligence," Cuban tweeted on Monday.

Cuban, who is a star on the hit ABC show "Shark Tank" and the owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA basketball team, was promoting a free, one-hour virtual class his foundation is teaching an introduction to artificial intelligence in collaboration with A.I. For Anyone, a nonprofit organization that aims to improve literacy of artificial understanding.

"Parents, want your kids to learn about artificial intelligence while you're stuck in quarantine," Cuban says on his LinkedIn account.

In the hour-long virtual class, "you'll learn what AI is, how it works, its impact on the world, and how you can best prepare for the future of AI," Cuban says on his LinkedIn account about the class. At the end of the hour-long online class, participants will receive a list of Cuban's foundation's best recommendations for AI learning resources.

(Cuban subsequently corrected the link to register.)

The event is from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. EST on Wednesday, April 15.

Cuban has repeatedly used his megaphone to promote the importance of learning and understanding artificial intelligence.

At the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, in March 2019, Cuban talked about how important it is for business owners to understand AI.

"As big as PCs were an impact, as big as the internet was, AI is just going to dwarf it. And if you don't understand it, you're going to fall behind. Particularly if you run a business," Cuban told Recode's Peter Kafka.

Cuban is educating himself about the future implications of AI whenever possible, he said in Austin.

"I mean, I get it on Amazon and Microsoft and Google, and I run their tutorials. If you go in my bathroom, there's a book, 'Machine Learning for Idiots.' Whenever I get a break, I'm reading it," Cuban told Kafka.

If you don't know how to write code or create an AI powered software product, at least you need to know about AI enough to be able to ask intelligent questions, Cuban said.

"If you don't know how to use it and you don't understand it and you can't at least at have a basic understanding of the different approaches and how the algorithms work," Cuban told Kafka, "you can be blindsided in ways you couldn't even possibly imagine."

Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to "Shark Tank."

See also:

'Shark Tank' billionaire Mark Cuban: 'If I were going to start a business today,' here's what it would be

COVID-19 pandemic proves the need for 'social robots,' 'robot avatars' and more, say experts

Bill Gates: A.I. is like nuclear energy 'both promising and dangerous'

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Addressing the gender bias in artificial intelligence and automation – OpenGlobalRights

Posted: at 7:07 pm

Geralt/Pixabay

Twenty-five years after the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, significant gender bias in existing social norms remains. For example, as recently as February 2020, the Indian Supreme Court had to remind the Indian government that its arguments for denying women command positions in the Army were based on stereotypes. And gender bias is not merely a male problem: a recent UNDP report entitled Tackling Social Norms found that about 90% of people (both men and women) hold some bias against women.

Gender bias and various forms of discrimination against women and girls pervades all spheres of life. Womens equal access to science and information technology is no exception. While the challenges posed by the digital divide and under-representation of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) continue, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are throwing newer challenges to achieving substantive gender equality in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

If AI and automation are not developed and applied in a gender-responsive way, they are likely to reproduce and reinforce existing gender stereotypes and discriminatory social norms. In fact, this may already be happening (un)consciously. Let us consider a few examples:

Despite the potential for such gender bias, the growing crop of AI standards do not adequately integrate a gender perspective. For example, the Montreal Declaration for the Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence does not make an explicit reference to integrating a gender perspective, while the AI4Peoples Ethical Framework for a Good AI Society mentions diversity/gender only once. Both the OECD Council Recommendation on AI and the G20 AI Principles stress the importance of AI contributing to reducing gender inequality, but provide no details on how this could be achieved.

The Responsible Machine Learning Principles do embrace bias evaluation as one of the principles. This siloed approach of embracing gender is also adopted by companies like Google and Microsoft, whose AI Principles underscore the need to avoid creating or reinforcing unfair bias and to treat all people fairly, respectively. Companies related to AI and automation should adopt a gender-response approach across all principles to overcome inherent gender bias. Google should, for example, embed a gender perspective in assessing which new technologies are socially beneficial or how AI systems are built and tested for safety.

What should be done to address the gender bias in AI and automation? The gender framework for the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights could provide practical guidance to states, companies and other actors. The framework involves a three-step cycle: gender-responsive assessment, gender-transformative measures and gender-transformative remedies. The assessment should be able to respond to differentiated, intersectional, and disproportionate adverse impacts on womens human rights. The consequent measures and remedies should be transformative in that they should be capable of bringing change to patriarchal norms, unequal power relations. and gender stereotyping.

States, companies and other actors can take several concrete steps. First, women should be active participantsrather than mere passive beneficiariesin creating AI and automation. Women and their experiences should be adequately integrated in all steps related to design, development and application of AI and automation. In addition to proactively hiring more women at all levels, AI and automation companies should engage gender experts and womens organisations from the outset in conducting human rights due diligence.

Second, the data that informs algorithms, AI and automation should be sex-disaggregated, otherwise the experiences of women will not inform these technological tools and in turn might continue to internalise existing gender biases against women. Moreover, even data related to women should be guarded against any inherent gender bias.

Third, states, companies and universities should plan for and invest in building capacity of women to achieve smooth transition to AI and automation. This would require vocational/technical training at both education and work levels.

Fourth, AI and automation should be designed to overcome gender discrimination and patriarchal social norms. In other words, these technologies should be employed to address challenges faced by women such as unpaid care work, gender pay gap, cyber bullying, gender-based violence and sexual harassment, trafficking, breach of sexual and reproductive rights, and under-representation in leadership positions. Similarly, the power of AI and automation should be employed to enhance womens access to finance, higher education and flexible work opportunities.

Fifth, special steps should be taken to make women aware of their human rights and the impact of AI and automation on their rights. Similar measures are needed to ensure that remedial mechanismsboth judicial and non-judicialare responsive to gender bias, discrimination, patriarchal power structures, and asymmetries of information and resources.

Sixth, states and companies should keep in mind the intersectional dimensions of gender discrimination, otherwise their responses, despite good intentions, will fall short of using AI and automation to accomplish gender equality. Low-income women, single mothers, women of colour, migrant women, women with disability, and non-heterosexual women all may be affected differently by AI and automation and would have differentiated needs or expectations.

Finally, all standards related to AI and automation should integrate a gender perspective in a holistic manner, rather than treating gender as merely a bias issue to be managed.

Technologies are rarely gender neutral in practice. If AI and automation continue to ignore womens experiences or to leave women behind, everyone will be worse off.

This piece is part of a blog series focusing on the gender dimensions of business and human rights. The blog series is in partnership with the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, the Danish Institute for Human Rights and OpenGlobalRights. The views expressed in the series are those of the authors. For more on the latest news and resources on gender, business and human rights, visit thisportal.

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3 things to consider before you let your child play chess online – The Conversation US

Posted: at 7:06 pm

Editors note: The school closures forced by COVID-19 have parents and students searching for ways to make the best of their time indoors. Here, Alexey Root, a former U.S. Womens Chess Champion who teaches online courses about chess in education, offers tips for parents and caregivers of children who are interested in playing chess online.

Doing things online comes with safety concerns. Chess is no different. Therefore, some common online safety advice applies to chess players of all ages: Use a fake username rather than your real name. Hide personal information, such as where you live, where you work or where you go to school. Keep interactions online rather than agreeing to meet in person.

Additionally, children who play or learn chess online should be supervised by parents. Parents should block their children from sharing personal messages and photos with online chess opponents. Some chess websites offer child-safety features, such as disabling all chats. Nonetheless, unsupervised children may figure out how to circumvent those features. There is no substitute for parental supervision.

For beginners, I would recommend studying three things: basic endgame checkmates, opening principles and tactics.

One example of a basic endgame checkmate is checkmating with a king and queen against a king. Learning that checkmate is important, because if one is a queen ahead, one should know how to win with that advantage. Search for basic endgame checkmates to find instruction and bots to practice against.

Opening principles should guide your first 10 moves. They include controlling the center of the board, developing your knights and bishops that is, getting them into play and castling. Castling is where a king moves two squares toward a rook, and that rook then hops over the king, landing near the middle of the board. That two-part maneuver makes the king more secure and the rook more active. Openings are probably the hardest thing for beginners to study online, since there are many initial moves that fit opening principles.

Beginners should also practice tactics, which are moves that result in immediate, tangible gains. Tactics are easy to find online. Most chess websites offer tactics problems that are tailored to your level. Get a tactics problem right, and the site gives you a harder one to solve. Get a problem wrong, and your next problem will be easier.

In chess, success is often defined as winning a game, winning a tournament, or gaining points for your chess rating, which is how chess players measure their skill level compared to others. Players cheat in online tournaments even when there is no prize money at stake, usually to try to raise their ratings.

If a chess player cheats online, there are often consequences. Many chess-playing websites have robust cheating-detection mechanisms. Players accounts are routinely penalized rating points or even banned if cheating is detected.

To encourage fair play, call to mind the old expression: Its not whether you win or lose, its how you play the game. For example, rather than defining success as whether a child won or lost, look at the time spent on each move of the game. Many online sites will measure that time. Praise children for taking an appropriate amount of time on each move. When you redefine chess success as thinking, instead of just winning, its an important step toward fair play.

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Fun with chess: a selection of very short chess movies – Chessbase News

Posted: at 7:06 pm

4/7/2020 Most chess players are fascinated by films about their favourite game even though they often critically check whether everything is "correct" chess-wise. Okay, some films about chess have shortcomings but others are simply fun to watch - and here is a selection of very short films in which chess plays a prominent role. In fact, none of the films takes more than five minutes to watch. Enjoy!

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This is probably the oldest chess movie ever made. It is the brainchild of Robert William Paul, an early pioneer of British movies who started to make films back in the 19th century. With a recently opened exhibition the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford pays tribute to this Forgotten Showman.

And no, there is no sound.

This film is 117 years younger than Robert William Paul's study about a dispute at the chess board, and Martin Kamminga, a 22-year old student of Visual Effects (VFX) from the Netherlands, created this little masterpiece. Kamminga's Behance account shows more of his work.

When kings clash

Pixar presents this little evergreen which was created by the Czech writer and animator Jan Pinkava. The film shows how Geri, the protagonist of the film, spends a beautiful autumn day in Paris in a park to play chess against againsta much stronger opponent himself.

In times of the coronavirus, this might be a good way to play chess

Illegal Move was made by Sana Srinivasan and Kyle Lopez and funded on Kickstarter. It is my favourite of the six movies selected here.

The film retells the familiar story how a knight saves the queen but comes up with a twist!

Check by Christopher Cox takes a look at the thoughts players might have during a game. But be warned: the short film contains a lot of very foul language!

Gentlemen, please!!!

Pokerfish is a black & white film by Sachin Bhat from India. This film shows an actual game but also scenes that violate the rules of chess.

A noble chess player

By the way: the opening of the game in the film was a favourite of Bobby Fischer and gave him a number of fine victories.

King's Indian Attack

The Kings Indian Attack is a unique opening system in that it offers White a dynamic and interesting game but without the need to know reams of theory. In addition to being easy to learn it has an excellent pedigree, leading exponents including great players such as Bobby Fischer, Tigran Petrosian, David Bronstein, Viktor Korchnoi, Leonid Stein and Lev Psakhis. GM Nigel Davies presents a complete repertoire for White.

And here's the critical position of the game in the film

Do you know any other (short) films about chess? And which is your favourite of the selection above? Use the comments to share your thoughts and favourite chess films!

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Zoomers Set For Hand & Brain ChessTV Takeover This Saturday – Chess.com

Posted: at 7:06 pm

Chess.com's Team Battle series continueson Saturday, April 11 at 12 p.m. Pacific Time (20:00 Central European Time) on Twitch.tv/Chess.This month's theme, Zoomers Play Chesswill feature a teenage clash between Chess.com's top teen streamers.

IM Hans Niemann andAndrea Botez will play againstIM Carissa Yip and NM Justin Liang, with the majority of proceeds going to NoKidHungry, an organization dedicated to providing food for children in need, particularly those most affected by COVID-19.

The match will last three hours, featuring a 15+10 time control. The two teams of two players will play hand and brain to score as many points as they can before time runs out.

This team battle's prize fund will feature $500 in cash as a starting point with 40 percent of all in-stream donations going towards the prize fund with the remaining 60 percent going towards charities aimed at serving those coping with mental health challenges during the prolonged quarantine.

"As us zoomers say: easy dub, said Carissa Yip on the match. "But on a more serious note, the ongoing COVID-19 crisis warrants fundraising for needful communities, and Im glad we can fulfill this charitable cause with our match."

Justin Liang, a national master and active Twitch streamer, will be making his debut on Saturday as Carissa's teammate.

Liang had the following to say about the upcoming match: "Hans has adopted me, and I've adopted Andrea, so that evens out. But also having Carissa as a partner definitely makes this look like an easy win."

Along with playing for the prize pool, the players will compete on behalf of charities aimed at combating the negative mental health effects attributed to prolonged isolation, and viewers will be able to donate to them during the stream.

"Its going to be difficult for me to carry Hans, but I know I can do it. Hans will bring the trash talk, and I will bring the energy," said Botez on teaming up with Niemann. Last January, Niemann reached the Puzzle Battle World Championship semifinals after upsetting GM Hikaru Nakamura.

Niemann, the American International Master with two grandmaster norms to his name, will be making his Team Battles debut. While he can regularly be found on the Chess.com servers playing blitz and bullet against the best players in the world, he was looking forward to the upcoming change of pace.

Im excited to be representing the zoomer chess community. This match has a lot of personalities and I looked forward to some eventful trash talk," Niemann said. Im also very happy to raise money for NoKidHungry. I live in New York and Ive volunteered at chess in the schools which helps underprivileged kids through the game of chess. I have friends who rely on school for meals so Im very happy that this stream will go to making sure every kid has food.

The last edition of Team Battles saw over $3,500 donated during the stream which contributed towards COVID-19 research and prevention around the world.

This team battle continues a series of creative clashes, including Femme Batale, Chess.com vs Chessbrah, and more on Twitch.tv/Chess and Chess.com/TV.

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Chess players keep sharp on the web – Times Herald-Record

Posted: at 7:06 pm

CITY OF NEWBURGH It isnt the most personal way to play chess, but meeting online has become a temporary solution for kids in the Newburgh Armory Unity Centers Chessmates class stay sharp and connected.

I think its kind of fun, even though you cant see the person, the kids recognize each other, said Andrew Johnston, the class instructor and co-coach of the competitive Chessmates team.

Johnston uses Lichess.com, a popular, free online chess site where kids can play quick games or tournaments against their classmates.

Keeping as close to routine as possible during the coronavirus crisis, the class continues to meet online between 9 and 11 a.m. on Saturdays.

Johnston has also used Lichess.com to hold Wednesday evening chess meetings, and just this week, he brought back the Monday evening meetings.

The competitive Chessmates team went to their last tournament in Albany on March 7 before coronavirus-induced social distancing rules called off the meets.

You dont get the whole interaction with the other person, and thats a nice aspect of the tournaments we go to in-person, Johnston noted. You sit down with a person you dont know, but you both know the rules of chess and, before the coronavirus, you would shake hands, sit down, play shake hands and the game is completed. You miss that interaction.

He is now considering ways the classmates can stream their gameplay through webcameras so they can see and talk to each other while they play.

All who join Chessmates have to be registered through the Armorys website.

The registration form is simple and can be found at newburgharmory.org.

The Armory has made some of its other Saturday morning programs available online.

In addition to Chessmates, online access has been created for the Scholars in Scrubs nursing classes, remote reading, and acting classes through the art program. The Lending Library is also staying open with a selection of e-books.

The reality is we need to keep our relationship with these families strong, said the Armorys Chief Operations Officer Jim McGee. The organization has to do whatever we have to do so that on the other end of this crisis were still here for the families.

lbellamy@th-record.com

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Titled Tuesday Now Every Week With Increased Prizes – Chess.com

Posted: at 7:06 pm

With immediate effect, Chess.com's Titled Tuesday tournaments will be held every week instead of every month. Each tournament will feature a $1,600 prize fund.

In response to COVID-19, Chess.com is creating opportunities for all titled players to stay active and engaged in this time of social distancing and self-quarantine. We are expanding Titled Tuesday to a weekly event, with an increased prize fund each week.

The start time of 10 a.m. Pacific Time (19:00 Central Europe) has been chosen in order to accommodate players from around the world. Titled Tuesday will maintain its nine-round Swiss format, with a time control of three minutes and one-second increment. Each week's tournament will be broadcast live on Chess.com/TV.

Titled Tuesday's expansion will mean the 2020 season's monthly prize fund will increase from $2,200 to $6,400. With $1,600 in prizes available every week, the prize fund will be distributed as follows:

In addition to the increased prize fund, Chess.com is proud to offer its first-ever Titled Tuesday prize for female players. In keeping with tradition, the Best Stream prize will be awarded as 20 gifted subs to the streamer's channel.

Titled Tuesday's expansion means that all competitors in this event are required to have their full legal name in their Chess.com profile. Anonymous titled player accounts or accounts found to be using a fake name will not be eligible to win prizes during the event.

All players must also abide by all rules and site policies found at Chess.com/agreement and cooperate fully with Chess.com's fair play detection team. Participants should be prepared to join a ZOOM call for proctoring at the arbiter's discretion and this request may be made between rounds via direct chat in live chess by a Chess.com staff member.

This month's Titled Tuesday was by far the biggest edition ever held, with nearly 900 titled players participating, including top GMs Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi,Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, andHikaru Nakamura. Weekly editions are expected to be just as star-studded as the monthly versions have been since Titled Tuesday's inception.

GM Simon Williams playing and streaming Titled Tuesday.

The next Titled Tuesday is set to start next week on Tuesday, April 14 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time (19:00 Central Europe). Titled players may register for the tournament up to one hour before it begins in the tournament tab located at Chess.com/live.

Find more information about Titled Tuesdays here.

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Online Gaming: Chess national master Ben Chen conducts web-based tutoring classes, matches – msnNOW

Posted: at 7:06 pm

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In the current climate of social distancing, video conferencing has become the top source of visual communication.

It's also a tool for chess tutorial sessions.

The coronavirus pandemic prevents Ben Chen from playing opponents in person. However, the local chess wizardstill sharpens in his mind and shares knowledge strategic moves to secure checkmate.

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Chen is a national master with a U.S. Chess Federation rating of 2192.

Before all personal interaction was put on halt, he tutored kids for free at W.T. Moore Elementary School.

Now, the Chiles High School sophomore has transferred the chessboard from a table to a computer screen. He offers lessons online throughout the week. These classes include move-by-move tips for players of all skill sets.

"Ever since the virus broke out, we've moved our lessons to fit kids' schedules," Chen said. "People are home all day. This gives them something to do to that's fun."

Scheduling postponement and cancellations of games or events also includes chess tournaments.

Chen was planning to compete in the 27th Space Coast Open May 1-3 in Cocoa Beach. This outing has been canceled and was refunded the tournament entry fee.

Throughout the summer, Chen mapped out a national tour of tournaments in different cities. These competitions are no longer on the schedule for 2020.

"I understand the tournaments must be canceled, but it still stinks. I wish we could still play," he said.

Although he plays casual matches online, U.S. Chess Federation-sanctioned tournaments are regulated to in-person duels only. This is done to ensure fairness and prevent any potential cheating.

Chen and his father, Banghao, are the co-founders of the B & B Chess Club. This group focuses on enhancing the love and participation of the game throughout the Big Bend.

In addition to the family-run group, Chen is a member of the chess club at Chiles High School.

He earned his national master rating in November at the 18th annual Turkey Bowl in Coral Springs.

Chen is the third national master from Florida. The local phenom also ranks as the youngest in the northern and central regions of the state with this distinction.

"I'm so glad for him," said Banghao, Director of NMR Facilities, Senior Research Associate at Florida State University.

"We don't have a lot of resources here in the high schools. I'm surprised he earned a national master before college. He works very hard. There's a lot of pressure, but I fully support him in his dreams."

Follow sportswriter Rory Sharrock on Twitter @married2game1.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Online Gaming: Chess national master Ben Chen conducts web-based tutoring classes, matches

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Chess: Magnus Carlsen prepares for meeting with prodigy Alireza Firouzja – The Guardian

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Magnus Carlsen, the world champion, has helped spark an immediate and impressively rapid growth in online chess with his announcement of a $250,000 elite tournament which starts on Saturday 18 April with the Norwegian himself as the No 1 seed.

Before that, there is the fascinating prospect of a dream final in chess24s Banter Blitz Cup where players commentate on their moves verbally while the game is in progress and may also trash talk their opponent.

Carlsen and the brilliant exiled Iranian 16-year-old Alireza Firouzja, who is already a global fan favourite and widely regarded as a likely world title challenger any time from 2022 onwards, were seeded in opposite halves of the draw and will meet in the final the date of which has not yet been announced. It will most likely be between Sunday and the start of the Carlsen Invitational on 18 April.

This pairing will hark back to the controversial Carlsen v Firouzja game in the World Blitz in Moscow in December. Firouzja is compared to the tactical legend Mikhail Tal, while Carlsen is perceived as the successor to Bobby Fischer or Garry Kasparov.

There has already been a recent astonishing low profile marathon series between the two, played on 2 April on Lichess and consisting of 194 one-minute bullet games, many of which have been captured in online videos.

The match was first to 100 wins. Counting the draws, Firouzja triumphed 103.5-90.5. Some blamed Carlsens defeat on his using a mouse while Firouzja moved faster by finger touch. Others claimed that Carlsen had tired himself by playing 70 bullet games against fellow Norwegians immediately beforehand. The play was often of remarkably high quality on both sides for all moves in one minute with no increment, like this example analysed by GM Daniel King on Chessbase.

The Banter Blitz dream final promises to be exceptionally watchable since both players have been in devastating form in earlier rounds. Up to the semi-final, Firouzja had won all five of his best of 16 game matches by at least six points, while Carlsen produced a Fischer-style performance in his semi-final. The world champion defeated Sanan Sjugirov, a Russian who had beaten him twice over the board, by a perfect 9-0, playing some wonderful games en route, all of which can be watched on video with Carlsens commentary.

Firouzja had a much harder fight in Friday evenings second semi-final, but still defeated Indias 26-year-old GM Srinath Narayanan, who had eliminated his five previous opponents, by a 9-6 margin, checkmating his opponent in the final game.

Other major internet events have already begun or will soon be under way as experts and amateurs seize the opportunity for the serious competition which abruptly stopped over the board in mid-March due to Covid-19.

Britains national league, the 4NCL, was quickly into action as an online 4NCL attracted 172 four-player teams, far above expectations. The opening weekly round (of 10) was played on Tuesday on lichess.org, the user-friendly free site where you are paired with an opponent within a few seconds and which is recommended for newcomers to internet chess.

One unusual aspect of the online 4NCL is that Guildford,who have dominated the over-the-board version for the best part of a decade, are absent. In place of their elite GM squad there is a team of rising talents, Guildford Young Guns. There is also Guildford Gatekeepers, a quartet of low-rated amateurs.

ChessPlus Alpha, a new 4NCL name, and Irelands Gonzaga, whose base is a Dublin college, are the two top seeds. ChessPlus Alpha have registered some well-known Swedish GMs, though they did not field any of them in defeating Watford 3-1. Gonzaga suffered a shock defeat, 1.5-2.5 to Surbiton, for whom Koby Kalavannan, aged 17, enhanced his growing reputation by scoring the individual upset of the night, beating Frances GM Sbastien Maz.

Wednesday 15 April sees the chess.com $10,000 Abu Dhabi Blitz, whose entry is headed by the US world No 2, Fabiano Caruana, and Frances world No 5, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, leader of last months aborted Candidates. This event is open to all titled players.

The online tournament boom hosted by popular websites has left the official global body Fide looking a touch flat footed,and without a challenger to Carlsen following the suspension of the Candidates last month at the halfway point. Fide does have a web presence, its online Arena where you can qualify for international titles up to AGM, but it still lacks the appeal of the leading commercial websites.

3666 1...Rxe5! If now 2 Nxe5 Qg5! with the winning double threat Qxg2 mate and Nxh3+followed by Qxd2 winning the queen. In the game White tried 1...Rxe5 2 dxe5 Qg3! and White resigned because even after 3 Qxf4 Nxf4 mate by Qxg2 is unavoidable.

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Chess: Magnus Carlsen prepares for meeting with prodigy Alireza Firouzja - The Guardian

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