I, (Assistant) League Manager

After my stint as a Team Captain of Team Philippines in Schemingmind, I agreed to take on the role of an assistant League Manager for league games in the site. It seems that there would be a need for somebody to fill in the shoes of the current League Manager soon. There wil be two of us assisting him for the rest of the season, and then one of us would assume the post eventually. It is an honor for me for having been approached by the site owner to take on the job. It will also be a chance for me to learn new things. A complimentary full membership for a year was also provided as a token (thanks guys!)


A league is essentially a series of matches between teams. Usually there would be a couple of groups, with the eventual winners battling it out with each other. The entire series of matches may last for about a year or so.


I am still figuring out the nitty-gritty of my role. as we go over preparing some materials for the upcoming Chess960 League. The league manager basically starts the ball rolling by announcing in the forums and sending private messages to the team captains for an upcoming league, soliciting for interested teams. Then a crosstable is prepared, taking into consideration last league event outcome. Games are started, and the league manager monitors the development, settle issues that may arise, and ultimately declares the winner (after a while). Read More......

Crazy Chess

Here's one way to get the young ones to try the royal game. Crazychess is a simple arcade-style game that features the Knight and Pawn as the main pieces. The game has a simple objective: not allowing enough Pawns which spawn from the other side of the board to reach your side by using the Knight to attack and take them out. Also, when there is no pawn on the board, gold coins appear which the Knight can also collect and use to repair the castle, should some pawns reach it and cause some damage. As with the usual arcade games, it comes with special powers, such as Slow Down Pawn, Speed Up Knight, and the all-time favorite 1UP.

Crazychess isn't really chess, and like most people you would probably get bored of it pretty soon (I hope they have some improvements in the pipeline though). But it can bridge that chasm between the chessboard and the digital world that kids nowadays regularly inhabit.

Many thanks to my friends from Schemingmind.com from whom I got wind of this game.

Oh, one last thing: help me hatch my dragon! Get yours too!

Read More......

Suicide Chess

Here's the latest Suicide Chess game I played...and lost! I mean, won, so I lost! I mean...well, just watch it...

Learn more about Variants! Click HERE! Read More......

Life In The Middle

Continuing our topic on the middlegame, I think it's worth mentioning here two aids that can help in improving one's game.

Chess tactics resources - this can come in the form of instructional materials that describe and illustrate moves and positions aimed at weakening your opponent, either by loosening his defense or capturing a major piece. Or it can be interactive materials, like simulated chess games where you are asked to make a move on a given position, and get rated. One such site is Chess Tactics Server, which you can find here (also listed in the sidebar).

Chess Engines - simply put, they are chess programs that you can play against. There are a number of such programs out in the market. Some comes with a price like ChessMaster, which my Google Adsense seems to be fond of featuring. Or it can be a free collaborative version like Crafty. The strength of the chess engine is dependent on the depth of the algorithm that goes with it, and analyzes the best possible response to your move. One of the main use I have of chess engines is in post-game analysis. However, the use of chess engine to consult for the best move is generally forbidden in most correspondence chess sites. In my opinion, it is also counterproductive to one's development. But it should be noted that the International Correspondence Chess Federation allows such use of chess engines during a game. I wonder what do you make of such divergent practices.

A quick search on the net would yield a number of sites on these two resources. I will be featuring some of them in the future. If you have been using a site or a resource (or you actually created it) and would like to guest-blog, just let me know so we can arrange something.

Keep the fight going! Read More......

Trivia: The Queen in Chess

For as long as I can remember, I felt it awkward to have a Queen piece in chess. Not only is she the only piece with the connotation of being female, it just doesn't feel "right" that she is the most powerful. Add to that the connotation that she is "the queen" leads to the question: then what is the King?

I don't know how much others are preoccupied with this, but I found a site that actually toyed with the idea of having more than one queen! There's actually such a thing as a "Queen Quest". The idea is to put 8 Queens in a regular chessboard, and none of them should be attacking the other. It says there are actually 92 solutions to it. What I am wondering is why they even thought of this puzzle. In any case, this is simply a testament to the power of the queen in the game.

A little history search shows that chess pieces are originally masculine in connotation, with the current queen actually being a General or Minister of sorts. Clearly somebody that the King trusts as an able right man, not really the connotation that a "Queen" brings to mind. One book actually takes the idea that the change from the "male" general to the Queen coincided with the rise in power of women in Europe. Makes plausible sense. But it begs the idea of why they didn't actually made a variant of it, where the Queen is the flag piece.

Whatever the origins, the Queen is here to stay. And I think for a good measure it's good. It keeps a healthy sense of imbalance, making one realize that the greatest threat can come from the most unlikely pieces. Read More......

The End of an Opening Line

The opening part of the game, if played "by the book", will eventually lead to the middlegame. Personally, I still feel kind of lost when I reach this part of the game. Usually, this is the part where the board is still pretty much filled up and cramped. Since opening theory was followed, each piece and position is usually poised to exploit any weakness in the other side. And for a beginner, the myriad of potential moves can really paralyze. A few basic things has helped me in this stage of the game:

1. The middlegame should reflect the intention of the opening. If the opening moves cleared the board to prepare for an all-out attack, then by all means one should aim to penetrate the defenses of the other side. On the other hand, if it's a positional type of play, then one should keep to the spirit of the opening, and aim for moves that bolster one's position. This somehow highlights how important it is to understand the differences between various types of openings.

2. The middlegame is predominantly tactics. In addition to a good pair of eyes, an appreciation of various tactical moves would be necessary to fare well. Knowing tactics is a double-edged sword: it allows you to plan in coming up with some of your own combinations, as well as foresee what your opponent is trying to do. There are a couple of good chess resources on tactics, both on the Net (as interactive materials or articles), as well as in print.

3. Take your time. Especially if you are playing correspondence chess, do not hurry in making your moves. Check to see what each of your opponent's pieces are capable of doing, separately or in tandem. Do the same for your own pieces.

4. Have a clear purpose for deciding on a move. Each move should bolster your position or weaken your opponent's or both. It may not necessarily be achievable in one or two moves, as tactics would usually involve combinations, gambits, forks, and others that would normally be achieved after a series of moves intended to bring your opponent to your desired outcome position of the pieces.

5. On the other hand, try not to be too cautious. Chess is a game of experience. Most of the time, you only understand the impact of a move after your opponent has made his response. All of us are bound to lose at one point or another. The important thing is that you develop a habit of understanding the implications of your next move, minimize blunders and learn from your mistakes.

If you have reached a point where you have at least maintained equality with your opponent up to the middlegame and have not seriously blundered at the opening, then you may consider yourself to have progressed considerably. Realize that you indeed have a fighting chance now! After all, the game is to the one who believes it has already been won.

Good game! Read More......

Chess in Movies

I was watching Death Note a couple of nights before and I don't remember now if it's at the end of the first movie or the start of the second (I was watching it back-to-back) that the bitter rivals of the movie, L and Light, sat down for a game of chess. It made me wonder what are the reasons for putting chess in a movie. What character or atmosphere does it lend to the movie? Does it make it more classy, or maybe give it a sense of symbolism? In the case of this movie, L (the detective) believes correctly that Light is the criminal that he is tracking, though he doesn't have the evidence yet. And Light attempts to dislodge L's attention on him by even offering to join his team of detectives to catch the criminal. For a chess enthusiast, seeing the two across the board, exchanging a dialogue of wits to "crack" the other, while making their moves, is as good as it gets. It lends an aura of intellectual prowess and cunning for the two of them.

Another movie that comes to mind was Bicentennial Man, starring Robin Williams. Here, a robot that succeeeded in getting himself declared as a human is playing a game of chess with his fully human wife, as they ponder the possibility of letting mortality take its course upon them after years of being kept alive and healthy by technology. There is a feeling of awkwardness perhaps in the minds of the viewers considering that Andrew (the robot's name) was created to serve and accept orders, which is what we would normally expect from what we create, not spend his days pondering and being engaged in intellectual things.

These are just two movies, and we have seen already the variations of how chess was made to represent the characters in these movies. One crystallized conflict, the other was instrumental in tugging at our stereotypes. A quick search on movies in chess will yield a couple of hundreds of sites with lists. It would be nice to check out the quality of these kinds of movies, and maybe find out also how varied are the genre that it encompass. But hey, I can only take a few at a time. If you know of some that you've watched and left an impression on you, do share it with us. You might be able to convince us to put it on top of our list.

Grab the popcorn and make your move! Read More......

Chess Variants: Suicide/Suicide 960

Whoever said winning is hard should try losing in this chess variant. Here, the objective is getting all your pieces taken by your opponent. There is no checkmate, the King is just another piece, and castling is not allowed. You start with either the board set up as in standard chess or in chess960, and then proceed to have your pieces taken. You must take your opponent's piece if you are allowed to do so (otherwise, how will it end?).

All in all, it's a nice breather of a variant, especially the 960 variety. Just one caveat: don't make a move while playing a "normal" chess game, or you might end up losing both!

Schemingmind offers a wide variety of chess variants to play, including this one. You may try playing in the site, as standard membership is free (limitations apply though).

Start losing... only on this one!

Learn more about Variants! Click HERE! Read More......