Chess in Movies: 9

9 is set in an Earth that has been destroyed by a war between man and machines. The character named after the title is a ragdoll creation of a scientist who transferred his soul to a number of other ragdolls, named 1 to 8, with 9 as the last one before he died (presumably by "exhausting" his soul). 9 and the rest of the ragdolls attempted and succeeded to destroy a machine called The Beast which was the primary reason for the destruction of the planet. But not without some sacrifices, as some of the ragdolls "died" in the process. It was a nice and entertaining fantasy movie, although a bit on the serious side and devoid of humor.

You first see chess early in the movie inside the tower of a church where a group of ragdolls led by 1 is hiding, waiting for The Beast to sleep. The chess board has only 4 pieces in it, with only a white King. It appears to be a forgotten item, and I wasn't expecting to see it again. But it turns out again during the time when the ragdolls inside the church were being attacked by a metallic flying bird created by The Beast. 9 got hit by the bird, and he goes sliding to the chess board. In the process, the King in the chess board was swept by his body and dropped to the ground of the church.

I am not really sure if any symbolism or importance was intended to be placed on the chess and the pieces. Is the single King denotes the winning in a struggle where only one can win? Did the falling King alludes to 9? The fact that it appeared twice in the movie may have some meaning. Feel free to share your thoughts about it.

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Chess at Facebook

Happy New Year Everyone! Begin this year by honing your chess skills (or picking up your game again) right in the heart of your favorite social networking site, Facebook. What, you don't know there is chess in Facebook? Well, I wouldn't have known myself if I didn't get curious enough one day to check what will come out if I type "chess" in Facebook's Search. Unlike most games that at least advertise itself in the sidebars, the developers either thinks demand isn't there and decided there's no way they can drum it up or maybe thought you would look for it if you really want it. In both cases, the full potential of the application didn't get to be utilized.

But enough with the whining. As it is, there's a correspondence-type chess is in Facebook and it's being run by Chess.com. Time controls available are 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, and 14 days per turn, with no time increments. Meaning, you have to move within the specified time allotted or you forfeit the game (if your opponent choose to claim it). You can, however, see if your opponent is online and so sit out the game, with the board refreshing everytime a move is made. You can either challenge your friends in Facebook, or play with other people outside of your contacts by either making or accepting Open Challenges. In addition, you can also play real-time against a computer opponent. Resources to help you improve your game are also available.

Having chess in Facebook can allow more of your friends to at least try out the game, with none of the intimidating feeling of playing in a dedicated chess site. It also helps that they can play the game while going about their usual Facebook routine. So, give it a try! We might even see each other across the board in one of the Open Challenges.
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Kasparov vs. Karpov 25th Anniversary Match

This match is significant, even symbolic, for several reasons. For one, it shows how chess has gone down in popularity after these so many years. Yahoo! didn't even consider it worthy of an article, featuring it only as several pictures in its Yahoo! In Photos section. Next, Googling the event will land you in several regional internet news agency like this one, not really big at all considering the event. Well, Chess.com actually featured it in its site (click on the pic, which is also from the site). But even so, its article as well as those of other sites that cared enough to feature it casts an atmosphere of chess not being able to live up to its potential to become truly popular, then and much more now.

What does the future holds for chess? Will it be relegated to the ranks of classics, held in high esteem, but never really something worth of wide coverage and exposure? Will somebody in the future be able to crack the code to bring it back (if it ever was) into the mainstream, embraced as the ultimate among intellectual games, and considered as equal with its counterparts in the physical arena?

We can only hope. Read More......

StarCraft II going beta!

Now, what has this got to do with chess? Well, if your regular OTB meetings experience a decline in attendance especially in the teens bracket, you may have a suspect here. Or this is simply just one of those things that one can get excited with side by side with chess.

Blizzard is set to give beta test accounts a few weeks from now. You can find the full mechanics on how to get one on their FAQ site (click pic to get there).

After all this long time of anticipation, I already got myself confused about what this new StarCraft is going to be about. But given my experience with the original StarCraft, it's understandable why the excitement hasn't abated still. This is one of those games that you hardly think would disappoint. You have to hand it to Blizzard to maintain the excitement of the followers of this game after all this time. Quality does pay big time.

Excuse me while I try to get myself a beta account...

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War of the Machines

No, it's not another movie review. This is about games that computers play. You read that right. The International Computer Games Association (click pic to get to the site) started out as the International Computer Chess Association, which holds regular championship events for computer vs. computer matches. It has been renamed in 2002 as ICGA, and now caters to other computer games and game artificial intelligence. It hosts the World Computer Chess Championship, as well as the Computer Olympiad. ICGA fosters relationships with the fields of Computer Science, Commerce, and Game organizations throughout the world.

There's something awkwardly eerie when you consider more closely the idea of two programs, slugging it out on a game of chess, checkers, or backgammon. It also has deeper repercussions than one would normally consider at first. What computer developers will learn from developing these programs can have day-to-day applications. As I see it, a computer vs. computer game will fete the developers ability to develop a better database of moves and a means to evaluate the best possible move in the shortest possible time. And since the human mind is arguably the best computer still, what if you design these game computers the way we are designed, providing them a sort of "freedom" that will allow them to "discover" new tactics and plans. Do we have a Sonny or a VICKI (from I, Robot) in the making?

Check out ICGA today! Read More......

Chess, Music, and Martial Arts

Good things comes in threes. And what chess federations stand for is no exception. The Hip-Hop Chess Federation goes by the same trilogy of ideals. One look at their website (click pic for the link) will quickly give you the impression they are reputable enough that they gather considerable attention in major news outfits. And I really like the logo. It says a great deal about fusing chess and hip-hop. But I sure wish they have some correspondence or live chess game area in their website so people could have a hands-on playing with them.

I say, whatever gets people in the game and get them out of a not-so-good alternative, I am all for it!
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Harry Potter: The (In)Complete Position

I find it really professional and classy for a film company to actually consult for the services of an International Master of chess in preparing for a chess position or scene in a movie. Especially one where the moves can become the subject of much scrutiny long after the movie has been replaced in the theatres and the DVD copies have been neatly filed in the cabinets at home. But then again, it doesn't speak so well if you have to go to great lengths to secure such service and then have to eliminate most of the moves anyway to satisfy some practical considerations. Click on the image above to have Jerry Silman himself recount the entire experience to you.

More chess in movies here. Read More......

Chess Tactics Server

Like Chess Tempo which I featured earlier, Chess Tactics Server is also an interactive site to hone your chess skills especially in the middlegame. For each position that you are presented with, you are subsequently rated and the next problem shown will be within the range of your perceived strength. The problems have time limits in which to make the correct move.

Interactive chess sites like this takes time for one to be able to assess how useful, user-friendly, and informative they are. You are welcome to provide feedback on your experiences with the site, as well as letting us know of other similar sites that you frequent. For me, the site has been an enjoyable way to spend one's free time, though I really don't have inkling on how good are the exercises.

Keep pushing, woodpusher!

Learn more about Chess Variants! Click HERE!

Improve your correspondence chess! Click HERE! Read More......

Chess Tempo

A friend of mine recently told me that he has been using Chess Tempo to improve his skills in chess tactics. He happened upon this site from one of the Google ads in my blog. As I have discussed recently, your performance in the middlegame can be considerably improved if you can recognize patterns intended to take advantage of your pieces or position. One of the ways to improve recognition of these patterns is to play snippets of chess games intended to highlight these situations. This is where the value of interactive chess tactics sites like Chess Tempo comes in. By being interactive, it allows the users to gain immediate feedback for their moves, as evaluated from a database of games that I doubt any single player could have on his own.

I have just signed up for an account in the site, but I am still getting a hang of it and frankly I cannot say how good it is as of now. Browsing through the FAQ page, it seems that this site has been influenced to an extent by Chess Tactics Server (which I will feature soon as well).

If you have been a regular user of the site or have been encouraged to sign up after reading this post, let me know what you think about it. Read More......

Chess Variants: Shatranj

Being considered one of the predecessor of modern chess, I am a bit reluctant in calling Shatranj a variant. Because it sounds like saying you were born before your mother! Then again, for the casual observer, that's the way this game would look like at first glance. But a few minutes into the game and you would get the feeling that indeed this game isn't a variant after all. Rather, it could have started it all.

Below is an excerpt from Schemingmind, which was also quoted from http://www.chessvariants.org/:

Shatranj first appeared in Persia around the 7th century AD and remained immensely popular throughout the Middle East for the next nine centuries. Shatranj is said to have supported professional players, produced several books and inspired its own body of chess problems or mansubat.Shatranj can be played with a traditional chess set, the start position is similar to that of standard chess, with Alfils replacing Bishops and Firzans replacing Queens.

• Shah (king) moves as in std chess
• Rukh (rook) moves as in std chess
• Faras (knight) moves as in std chess
• Baidaq (pawn) moves as in std chess
• Firzan (queen) moves to the first diagonal square
• Alfil (elephant, bishop) leaps to the second diagonal square, never occupying the first diagonal

The rules of Shatranj are similar to Standard Chess, with the following exceptions:

• There is no initial two-step Pawn move
• There is no en passant capture option
• There is no castling option
• Pawns arriving at the last rank always promote to Firzans
• Stalemate counts as a win
• Bare King counts as a win, provided that your King cannot be bared on the very next move
• Two bare Kings count as a draw

The first major adjustment I made in the game was in the way I treated the Firzan, or the equivalent of the Queen. Here, the Firzans are not as powerful as they are in modern chess. Moving only to the next diagonal squares around it, you can actually consider it as some sort of a bodyguard for the Shah. Which is quite logical and reasonable if you consider the way of the courts of the kingdoms of the world, where the "general" doesn't exactly go to the ends of the earth and leaves his sovereign.

The second thing to consider is the pace of the game. It's a whole new game if your Alfil has to take three moves to get to the other side of the board, rather than the sweeping motion it can normally do in chess. That, plus the restrained movement of the Firzan, and you have a much slower game, that unfolds more gradually. In my opinion, this game also requires more strategizing, rather than a "bring down the wall" type of chess that we often see.

It's also an influence on me to play on Schemingmind's piece set for Shatranj, as featured above. They succeeded in retaining the feeling of an "ancient" game. I can't help but feel and imagine those Persian folks dressed in their traditional garments, pushing rock sculptures of their digital counterparts that I click and drag.

I would have wanted to post my recent Shatranj game here, but I was thinking that chess publishers would probably render the Alfils and some other pieces in modern chess equivalent. Best that you head over to Schemingmind and try it yourself, as well as the rest that the site has to offer.

Know more about Variants! Click HERE!

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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!

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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......

The Month That Was

It has been a month or so since I've gotten back into the habit. I am almost finished with the mini-tournament I joined in Schemingmind (the remaining ones are pretty much decided). If ratings are any indication, my efforts in improvement has paid off. I have made considerable increase in my ratings after the month-end calculation, which unlike this month, did not include any defaults on time. I think my attention to opening theory has paid off well, and it's such a boost in confidence. True, I have been losing more games than winning, but if your games are mostly with higher-rated players, winning just a few of them is enough to boost your rating. Which I think I mentioned here. Not that I won't play with lower-rated players, since if everybody does that then no one will play anyone anymore. But I think a good sprinkling of games with higher-rated players is a good way to develop discipline in the game. They have gotten to where they are by developing such discipline themselves, and it won't be a bad idea emulating them in this respect. But with that aside, chess is fun, and should stay a fun thing to do, with friends near and far.

Happy gaming everyone!

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ChessOps - A Basic Chess Opening Guide

As I have beeen discussing opening theory lately here and here, let me just point you to an internet resource that I have used extensively. Chessops is a free internet resource that allows you to explore various openings. In their own words:

An interactive series of +8,000 unique board positions, from first moves through to full development of pieces, covering all major openings, defences and variations. Each page has an explanation and a notation list. Also +1,000 transposition pages.

The site features an interactive chess board that you can use to visualize the moves as you go through the tutorials and lessons. You make a move on the board, and if that move is in their database of opening moves, the move is reflected and an explanation and some additional information on the idea behind the move is provided. Then you proceed to make a move on the other side of the board, and more information is provided. The system will also tell you if there are alternative moves that you can make, corresponding to alternative opening lines, while the default or "orthodox" line is provided as the move to make if you choose to let the system show you the next move.

In addition, the site has plenty of resources pertaining to the game, such as categories of openings, annotations, history of the game, and more.

Another nice feature of the site is that it will not provide a move that is not part of the opening theory, and will simply return an error message saying "You can do better than that!" Thus, it confines itself as an opening resource, so there is no danger for you to overstep the line between opening books and unauthorized assistance should you have been using it during a game (usually in correspondence chess).

Each opening line presented usually comes with alternative lines, with its pros and cons. For one that is intent in gaining a deeper understanding of opening theory, it would be best to explore each of the alternatives before proceeding in making your moves. It also provides you a way of developing your own game repertoire. I also keep it interesting by guessing a move before actually checking to see if I did the correct one (been seeing improvements in the way that I have minimized the "incorrect" moves).

Check out the site. I am also featuring it permanently on the sidebar.

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