Monthly Archives: June 2020

6/18/2020 The Turkish artist Necati Korkmaz made something tiny with incredible effort. The perhaps smallest Chess set in the world is measuring less than a single centimetre. Soon he will apply for this set to become a new Guinness World record. But will it be accepted? | Photo: Facebook

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Necati Korkmaz is a Turkish micro-sculptor who has created the perhaps smallest chess set in the world. The measurement of the board is 9 x 9mm (0.35 x 0.35 inch).

The word "perhaps" is used, becausethis is an unofficial record so far. The official Guinness World Record was set up by artist Ara Ghazaryan in 2017.

This "was" the smallest chess set in the world?

The Guinness regulation for the record states:

...that a set has to be exactly to scale and perform the original function as the everyday original.

Although it is difficult to move a piece to the planned square, it is possible if you keep a very steady hand. Good enough to break the old World Record it seems.

The size of the chess set is best compared with a single blueberry. All chess pieces range from 1.5 to 3mm, smaller than a lentil.

For better visualization, I placed a lentil on my smallest chessboard

In other words, the chess set is really tiny. By using amicroscope it is possible to see all the details. The chess pieces are slightly magnetic, otherwise they would just fall over when you breathe on them. Moves can only be mde withself-made tools,as shown in the video below.

It might help to hold your breath while making a move

The inventorNecati Korkmaz told the Turkish news agencyAnadolu Agencythat he worked on this project six hours a day for six months.

From time to time, I was very tired but it is a great pleasure to see the work of art finished.I prepared a really usable micro chess set.

One of Korkmaz other recent art pieces is a 2mm tall doctor fighting the coronavirus.

See more here:

The smallest chess set in the world? - Chessbase News

Check out the new HBO Max reality challenge Karma.

Teenagers from all over the US travel to a remote forest. Eighteen who make the cut will form nine teams of one girl and one boy. Theyll face both physical and mental challenges to try to come out on top and take the $50,000 prize--$25,000 each.

In the end, karma will decide: What goes around comes around.

So why is CLO announcing the new show? Because 2015 Junior Grand Prix winner Jack Silver of Rahway, New Jersey, is one of the Karma contestants. Jack was on the cover of the April 2016 Chess Life Kids. Now a high school sophomore, he still plays chess every day and even teaches chess in his hometown at Chess Mates Academy.

The show streams for binge-watching or leisure viewing beginning June 18. Heres a preview:

Check back with CLO next week to see how Jack is doing.

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Karma to the Max! - uschess.org

The Mechanics Institute is excited to organize the Northern California Online Invitational Championship on Sunday, June 21 at 2pm. It will be a six player round robin invitational with a time control of G/15 +2. Three top Grandmasters will compete alongside the last three recipients of the Mechanics Institute Neil Falconer Award, given to the top under 18 player from Northern California by end of year US Chess rating. The prize is a check equal to their US Chess rating! This event is sponsored by Mechanics Institute Trustee and former Chess Director Jim Eade.

Sam Shankland (courtesy Mechanics Institute)

The field will be led by 2018 US Champion GM Sam Shankland, a previous recipient of the Falconer Award. Also in the field is GM Zviad Izoria, who famously toppled GMs Caruana and Nakamura at the 2018 US Championship, GM Steven Zierk, also a past winner of the Falconer award, IM Christopher Yoo, last years award winner, IM Andrew Hong, and IM Cameron Wheeler.

This event will showcase the best players in Northern California, the present and the future of chess, all connected through the Mechanics Institute and the award started by Neil Falconer, a former Trustee and longtime supporter of chess at Mechanics. It will be a great Fathers Day event, and it will be streamed with live commentary by GM Nick de Firmian, FM Paul Whitehead, FM Jim Eade, Abel Talamantez and Dr. Judit Sztaray.

To tune in, follow this link: https://www.twitch.tv/mechanicschess

The match will be played on chess.com.

The broadcast begins at 1:30pm. Come and join us at Mechanics this Sunday!

The rest is here:

GM Sam Shankland Heads Field in Northern California Online Invitational - uschess.org

Koneru Humpy is back before her chessboard once again, taking a break from her housekeeping duties. For, the World No. 2 will soon be playing at FIDE's Online Women's Speed Chess championship, featuring the game's elite.

Humpy had taken a while, though, before deciding to play in the tournament, which opens on June 24. It isn't entirely surprising, however: she is no fan of chess played at lightning speed.That she is still the reigning World rapid chess champion reflects her strength as a player, regardless of the format.

What made her hesitate a bit was one part of the format for the Speed Chess tournament: the games of a duration of one minute (plus the increment of one second per move).

I haven't played with time control like that before, but I decided to compete in the tournament anyway and am looking forward to it now, Humpy toldThe Hinduover phone from Vijayawada on Thursday. It will be an interesting tournament, as most of the world's top players are competing in it.

Though online chess has become hugely popular during the coronavirus-induced lockdown, she hasn't exactly been too active in the digital space. She has played only one tournament the Nations Cup, in which she was part of the strong Indian team led by five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand. She had also featured in a simultaneous exhibition to raise funds for the country's fight against COVID-19.

I enjoyed playing those two events, though it took me some time to get used to it, she said. The Nations Cup was fun, though India as a team could not do as well as we should have. It was great to watch Anand playing some great games, like the one against Ian Nepomniachtchi (which he won in just 17 moves).

She said it was good to see that FIDE was organising quality online tournaments. It is nice that big stars like Magnus Carlsen are playing so many online events, she said. They are probably playing more chess now than they did before.

The Women's Speed Chess tournament will consist of four legs of Grand Prix and the women who take the top two places will play a super final on July 20.

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Originally posted here:

Humpy to play in Womens Speed Chess - The Hindu

This week we return to notation to allow readers a better understanding of how the pieces move and capture, how to react when the King is in check and how to bring a chess game to its conclusion. The best way to do this is by going through the motions of solving the puzzle.

The aim of chess is not to swap pieces. Rather, it is to checkmate the King. The King cannot be removed from the chess board during a practical game. Every other piece or pawn can be captured and removed. Checkmating the King means placing the King in a hopeless position. The word checkmate is also used in situations pertaining to life. In chess, checkmate is when the King is unable to escape, similarly in life.

When check is announced, you have to leave everything you are doing and attend to it. You can block a check, move your King out of check, or capture the piece that is announcing the check. The goal of all chess puzzles is to checkmate your opponents King no matter what moves he makes. You have to administer checkmate in the required number of moves.

Some chess puzzles are created from actual chess games and some are chess compositions. I prefer the ones from actual games. In some compositions, we can reach a position that cannot be reached in a chess game. Chess puzzles are automatically verified so that the solutions are correct and complete. Sometimes a shorter solution to a puzzle exists.

My chess colleague Loris Nathoo has the rare ability of finding a shorter solution to a puzzle. He works on the puzzle on Sundays and presents me with the solutions. The two puzzles in Diagram 1 and Diagram 2 are taken from actual grandmaster games.

In Diagram 1, it is Black, played by Vitaly Chekhover, to play and win. The game was played at Leningrad in 1934. Black plays Re1+ (+ is an abbreviation for check). The Rook goes down on the back rank and calls check. White has to attend to this check immediately. He cannot take the Rook with his Rook which is stationed at d1 because White will lose his Queen with check. So White is forced to play Kf2. Black plays Re2+. White cannot capture the black Rook since it is protected by the black Queen. White is forced to retreat to f1 or g1. When he does, the black Queen will take the g pawn and it is checkmate since the white King cannot evade the check.

In Diagram 2 Vishy Anand is playing the black pieces. The game was contested at Salonika in 1984. It is Black to play and win. Black plays Ra1 if Rxa1 (x means capture) Nf2+. To prevent checkmate, White has to capture the Knight with his Queen which gives black a decisive advantage.

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An Introduction to Chess: More notes on notation - Stabroek News

Vladimir Kramnik has been one of the greatest chess players in the world. Having achieved the Grandmaster norms in 1992, he became the youngest world number one in January 1996 and held the record for 14 years until Magnus Carlsen took the spot in January 2010.

Kramnik was also hailed for helping unify the chess world when he faced Veselin Topalov in the World Chess Championship 2006. He defeated Topalov to become the undisputed World Champion.

After announcing his professional retirement in January 2019, he shifted his focus to development projects particularly related to chess education for children.

International Master and Woman Grandmaster Tania Sachdev recently got Kramnik into an exclusive chat to ask him about his career and his mental approach to the game for an episode of the Mind Behind series. The Mind Behind is a cross-discipline series about the lives and careers of professionals across multiple streams. The series developed by Red Bull Media House features actors, chefs, comedians, dancers, filmmakers, musicians, sports personalities and many others, as part of exclusive one-on-one interviews.

Read on to know some interesting points revealed by Kramnik during the interview with Red Bull Athlete Tania Sachdev.

Vladimir Kramnik beat chess legend Garry Kasparov in 2000 to become the Classical World Champion. In 2006, he beat Veselin Topalov to become the undisputed World Champion. He boasts three gold medals and three individual medals at Chess Olympiads. He is also tied-eight with Viswanathan Anand for all-time best chess ratings at 2817. Yet, when he looks back at his successful career, he thinks it was better than he expected because he did not think he had the talent to be the best. Kramnik says that he would have been happy being an average Grandmaster and that his world champion achievement was beyond expectations.

While he says playing a chess great like Garry Kasparov who was considered unbeatable in his prime was an interesting challenge, Kramnik says that he was never afraid of going up against the best. He attributes this to his personality and a logically-strong mind. Kramnik says he doesnt think like a sportsperson, so he doesnt fear his opponent because it makes no sense to him intellectually, and this gave him a psychological edge over Kasparov. While Kramnik says he always respects his opponents, he says if he were to face world champion Magnus Carlsen today, he would not be afraid and give it his best.

When Kramnik was five years old, his father introduced him to chess. Seeing his interest in the game, his father gifted him a book on Anatoly Karpovs best games. Kramnik studied this book day-and-night for a whole year, which became the foundation of his chess knowledge. He attributes his positional style of play to these learnings from Karpovs book. Later, he studied in a chess school established by Mikhail Botvinnik, where he polished up his chess skills and went on to have a successful career.

Kramnik faced Kasparov for the world championship in a best-of-16- match. Kramnik won the match with two wins, 13 draws and no losses inflicting Kasparovs first-ever world championship defeat. While Kasparov is often considered one of the greatest players of all time, Kramnik has been following his style of play since childhood and says he was able to predict everything that Kasparov would do in their match. Kramnik says that while most believe and see Kasparovs style as experimental, for Kramnik it was predictable. Kramnik knew the choices that Kasparov would make over the board, the openings, and the positions he would aim for. Kramnik says Kasparov strictly follows patterns of play and that made him easy to read during their championship match.

While Kramnik has been part of some interesting world championship matches against the likes of Garry Kasparov, Peter Leko, Veselin Topalov and Viswanathan Anand, he most enjoyed watching Kasparov versus Anatoly Karpov in 1984. Kramnik was 12 years old when this match was started and intently studying to become a professional chess player. The world championship match started in 1984 as a first-to-six-wins format but was abandoned without result. It was restarted as a best-of-24 match in 1985, and eventually won by Kasparov. Kramnik says he remembers the first match of 1984 as his favourite because he travelled to Moscow to watch it in the Hall of Columns the first time he travelled out of his region and was very impressed by the grandeur of the occasion. It steeled his resolve to become a professional chess player.

(Courtesy: Red Bull)

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What Tania Sachdev discovered about Vladimir Kramnik on The Mind Behind - WION

Alcohol addiction is dangerous for ones health and society. Sadly, a village in Keralas Thrissur district was battling the problems of this addiction.

But to everyones surprise, the board game of chess came up as an effective solution to the alcohol addiction of villagers.

Around 50 years ago, in the 1960s era, the villagers of Marottichal in Puthur Gram, Thrissur started facing the ill effects of alcohol addiction.

While this village of Keralas Thrissur district had several other problems to deal with, alcohol addiction became a serious problem that needed immediate attention.

Hooked on to locally-brewed liquor, the villagers started getting involved in illegal gambling as well. Villagers even started brewing toddy. This further led to problems in society as alcohol addiction became the root cause of rising cases of domestic violence.

As the matter went out of hand, locals felt that their community needed help. Desperate to find a solution to this problem, the locals asked authorities to step in. As a proactive measure, the authorities raided the village to bring an end to illegal brewing and gambling.

Although it was an effective measure to have an alcohol and gambling free village, this step did not address the root cause alcohol addiction.

This is when C. Unnikrishnan, a restaurant owner came up with a genius idea.

To deal with alcohol addiction and gambling, he thought of introducing the villagers to an activity that would keep them busy and divert their minds as well.

He thus introduced his village to the brilliant world of chess.

On a chessboard you are fighting, as we are also fighting the hardships in our daily life. Chess helps us overcome difficulties and sufferings- C. Unnikrishnan.

Unnikrishnan was fascinated by the chess genius Bobby Fisher and had taken special classes to master the game. Unnikrishnan thought this to be the perfect opportunity to popularize the game of chess in his village.

He thus took the responsibility of teaching the villagers the board game of chess. He started by giving free chess lessons to the villagers. Gradually, all the villagers found themselves busy with this black-and-white board game of kings, queens and rooks.

Chess is my passion. Once I start playing, I forget everything. Its kind of an addiction. C. Unnikrishnan.

As the board game of chess involves strategy and intelligence, the game soon became an addictive sport in the village and posed as the solution to keeping villagers away from illegal gambling and alcohol.

According to reports, Unnikrishnan has trained over 700 people himself. As of today, around 90% of villagers are reported to be chess players. With at least one person from every house being a chess player, this village is called the Chess Village.

As the game of chess has become a way of life of the villagers, several chess talents too come up from this village.

In fact, Marottichal holds a unique URF Asian record of most number of people playing the game of chess simultaneously. Many talents from all over the world often come to this village to improve their skill in the game.

It can be said that this brilliant idea of Unnikrishnan and the game of chess saved the village of Marottichal in Puthur Gram, Thrissur.

Image Sources:Google Images

Sources: BBC, The Culture Trip, The Better India

Find Blogger@AyushArcher05

How Football & Cricket Is Slowly Getting Back On Field Post COVID-19 Lockdown

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Chess Saved These Villagers In Kerala From Alcohol Addiction - ED Times

M.A Yabut Realty construction birthday chess online tournament in lichess, June 26

By Marlon BernardinoPhilBoxing.comSat, 20 Jun 2020

The Bayanihan Chess Club is staging the M. A Yabut Realty construction birthday chess online tournament on June 26, Friday, 10 pm at lichess.org.

Free Registration fee for the 15-round Swiss System tournament. Time control is 3 minutes plus 2 seconds increment in this invitational tournament.

"No Bersek, No Engine, No Piloting and No Human Assistance in this online Invitational chess tournament," said Mr. Genghis K. Imperial of the organizing Bayanihan Chess Club headed by Arena Grandmaster Marlon Bernardino in close cooperation with lay out artist Mr. Arjie Bayangat.

Meanwhile, the registration is now on full swing for the Baby Uno Online chess tournament gets underway on June 28, Sunday at lichess.org.

Grandmasters Joey Antonio and Darwin Laylo head the list of participants that includes International Masters Barlo Nadera and Emmanuel Senador and Fide Masters Dale Bernardo, Arden Reyes and Randy Segarra.

Please message Genghis K. Imperial at his facebook for complete details.-Marlon Bernardino-

Click here to view a list of other articles written by Marlon Bernardino.

Original post:

MA Yabut Realty construction birthday chess online tournament in lichess, June 26 - PhilBoxing.com

The traditionalLeon Chess Festivalwill be played online this year on Chess.com, July 10-18. Up to four different events will take place: a Masters tournamentwith four very strong grandmasters, an open blitz tournamentwhere the eight top finishers will qualify for a knockout final, a simultaneous exhibition with 25 boards by the Cuban-born GMLeinier Dominguez, and a closed tournament with four of the most promising upcoming stars of the chess world.

The four events will be broadcast onTwitch, YouTubeandChess.com/tv. All the games can be followed in real-time onChess.com/live.

The Masters Tournament will be heldJuly10-12.This event has always been remarkable for having some of the most attractive names of the chess world competing against each other, and this year will be no exception. In this 33rd edition, one of the best players in the world, a chess legend, a rising star, and a very strong local grandmaster will fight for the prestigious title.

The Masters chess tournament will have the following participants:

The tournament formatconsists of two semifinals, one of which is set to be played on July 10, whereas the other will be played on July 11. The winners of this round will face each other in the superfinal on July 12. The top seeds have the privilege of choosing their opponents for the semifinal. The colors for the first game will be determined by a drawing of lots taking place on July 9.

The time controlfor the four games is 20 minutes plus a 10-second increment after each move. In the case of a tie, two additional games of 5+3 will be played, and if the tie still remains, a final armaggedon game will decide the match in which colors will be assigned by chance.

On July 13, GM Dominguez will play in a simultaneous exhibitionagainst a total of 25 opponents. Some of them are public figures connected to the world of culture and sports.

Both the festival organizers and Chess.com will gift the lucky participants with Diamond accounts, and the best game will receive a giant board as a prize.

The fifth International Chess Open will be played on July 14 in Chess.com/live. We are expecting a big list of participants. You can join the tournament up to an hour before the starting time.

A total of14 rounds will be played, with a time control of 3 minutes plus a 2-secondincrement. In order to be eligible to win prizes, players will be required to have their real names on their profile and be ready to join a zoom call and share their computer screens upon request.

Those finishing among the first eight will play a knockout tournament on July 15, while playersfinishing ninth and 10th will earn a total of 100 euros each.

The top eight finishers that participate in the knockout tournament on July 15 will fight for the following cashprizes:

Taxes apply to those prizes over 300.

On July16, 17, and 18some of the most promising rising stars of the chess worldwill compete in this event, which has a similar format to that of the Masters. Two semifinals are played on July 16 and 17, whereas the superfinal takes place on July 18. Each match will consist of four games with a time control of 20 minutes plus 10 seconds increment after every move.

In addition to a prize fund of3,000 euros, the winner of this event will receive an invitation for the next Masters edition. The field is as follows:

Lecture by Leontxo Garca

The renowned chess journalist Leontxo Garca will give a video lecture in which he will go over the different editions of the festival held up to the present day, sharing historic interviews and pictures. No one knows the chess scene better than him, so he is the right person to put the importance of this event over the years into perspective.

The lecture will be published on YouTube, social media, and elsewhere.

"El inversor inquieto" chess and finance contest

A new edition of this popular chess and finance contest will also take place. This contest is based on four basic principles that affect analysis and decision making, both in chess andfinance: INITIATIVE, CAUTION, PATIENCE, AND OBJECTIVITY. Entry will be free and the winners will be awarded interesting prizes. You can find more information here.

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Announcing The Leon Chess Festival 2020 - Chess.com