Explosion of Chess News
This month there were so many chess events, I didn’t know which one to select as my subject!
Keeping my students on ChessThinker.com updated each month about current chess news can be challenging if more than one news worthy event in the chess world happens at the same time. This month there were so many things to write about I didn’t know which one to select as my subject! So I decided to just write a paragraph or two about the current events happening in the chess world so I could get them all in. In the months to follow, I will expand on these topics in further detail.
FIDE, the world’s chess federation, has recently approved a rule change that affects the beginning of the game. Before move one, players now can choose what minor pieces they start with in the game! Instead of the usual 2 Bishops and 2 Knights for each player, you now can choose any possible configuration of minor pieces. For example: You can now start the game with 4 Knights or 4 Bishops. In fact any combination of 4 minor pieces is allowed! Maybe you want 3 Bishops and 1 Knight. That is totally up to you!
As all chess players know, you can not force a mate with 2 Knights. Mate with 2 Bishops is possible as is 1 Knight and 1 Bishop. But forcing a mate with only 2 Knights is impossible. Until now!! Computer scientists at the university of Indiana using a powerful AI super computer have discovered an amazing forced mate using 2 Knights! Amazingly it comes in at 49 moves right below the 50 move rule. Since it is so close to the 50 move rule it will be extremely hard for a human to ever do it. But at least we now know that it is possible!
Speaking of mates, yet another one that was thought to be impossible was discovered by the guys at IBM. Seems before mate with a Rook pawn was impossible if the opposing King made it to the corner. But no more!! I personally watched in a demonstration video a computer force a mate with only a King and Rook Pawn! It was an amazing concept in pushing the Pawn that I had never considered before. This for sure will be taught to all my students at once.
A team of Grand Masters and computer programmers teamed up and have made the Sicilian Defense a thing of the past. If someone dares play c5 to 1.e4 now he can expect to be mated in 19 moves or less. Believe it or not, playing the Sicilian now will lose by force. I was skeptical at first, but after seeing all the variations, it made me a believer. Once the forcing lines begin on move 2, black is doomed. The longest I saw black hold off mate was move 19. All Sicilian players will have to look for other defenses to 1.e4 now.
A story that was supposed to be withheld from the public surfaced yesterday. Seems a family from Arkansas was touring the St Louis chess club. It just so happened that the world's highest rated player, Magnus Carlsen, was there for a big tournament. The chess club decided to have a contest where a drawing of names was held. Who ever won the drawing got to play Carlsen in a mini blitz match. As luck would have it, Julie Gray, 4 years old from Little Rock Arkansas held the winning ticket.
What happened next has shocked the world. Game after game Julie crushed Carlsen in 5 minute blitz games. Once the score got to be 10-0 in Julie’s favor, Carlsen could not take it anymore and quit the match. Games of the match to be published next week. Julie said she learned to play chess with her twin brother who she says beats her most of the time.
Biologists from the University of Georgia have taught frogs how to play chess. Various frogs were used in the study and not surprising, not all frogs could do it. Many types of frogs were tested but the American Bull Frog showed the greatest aptitude. American Bull Frogs showed a remarkable ability to learn the game. The top rated frog in the study is rated around 1800. No word yet on whether it will be allowed to compete in human tournaments. In case you are wondering, they have named the frog Boris.
Speaking of non human chess players, there is yet another story of a Grand Master caught cheating. Seems GM Ivan Duncecovic trained a common house fly how to play chess. He took the fly to a tournament and when ever he got in trouble on the board his fly would come land on the piece that was best to move. Although there is nothing in the rule book against having flies at the board, it does specifically state you are not to have help in any manner. In the past this was just assumed to be talking about other humans or computers. Seems the rule book will have to amended to include insects and other chess playing animals.
It has been known since the beginning of chess that mate with a king and lone Bishop is impossible. However, Bobby Bob Bobbinson of Tulsa Oklahoma made an amazing discovery. Bobby is only 7 years old and was having a lesson with his Dad. When Bobby’s Dad said it was impossible to mate with only a Bishop, Bobby said let him try anyway. And sure enough he was able to mate with only a Bishop!! Seems the mate is possible by using triangulation and zugswang at the same time.
Speaking of mates, there now exists a surprising new defense that stops a King and Queen from mating! The idea is to keep the King in the center. Instead of running to the edge to be mated, you can stay in the center forever if you play on the diagonal correctly! This one I had to see for myself but once I did, I must admit this changes everything. The game of chess may now be a forced draw. It will be hard to win a game of chess if you can’t force a win being a queen up.
In startling news from Japan, a man has been certified to be 189 years old. He credits his long life to eating one chess piece a day. Studies have been started using 100 test subjects all over the age of 80. No results yet have been reported on the study and which chess piece gives the human body the best chance of longevity.
As you may have heard, last month a large meteorite hit right outside the city of Magnolia Arkansas. Scientists were extremely excited as the meteorite was made of a special alloy not usually seen on Earth. But what was the most astounding news of all was that chess pieces were found embedded in the meteorite. Seeing that the earth is 4.5 billion years old and the meteorite is over 8 billion years old, more study is needed.
John Jackson of London England had been in a coma for 17 years. Stunning the doctors and experts he just woke up one day. What was even more astonishing, even though he knew nothing of chess before, after his awakening he has an estimated rating of around 4700!!
Seems one of his doctors is a FIDE Master from York. Apparently the subject of chess came up and Mr Jackson asked to play a few games with the master. After 15 crushing defeats the doctor decided to test him against the chess program Komodo. Komodo did a little better but only scored 1.5 points out of 10 against the newly awakened Mr Jackson.
Chess officials in Moscow Russia today announced that an 18 month old toddler, has been documented to be the youngest ever to make master.
To see a picture of the new master giving a chess exhibition and to review a few of his games scroll down a bit.
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
