Chess in Foxtrot

Found this nice strip about chess from Foxtrot, one of my favorite comic strips.  They feature chess from time to time, but I had a chuckle with this one.  Click on the pic to get to the site and enjoy it yourself. Read More......

Beginner Chess Mistakes to Avoid

I never thought I'd see the day when I will be linking to a Yahoo! article, but here's a decently written article on how to avoid beginner chess mistakes.  Click the pic for the link. Read More......

Chess is Child's Play

Well, not really.  But my 5-year-old son has started playing chess.  He's been interested in the game since last year, but it was only this year that I could get him to sit still and listen to me so I can teach him the basic stuff.  My wife was telling me "good luck" when I unfurled my vinyl chess board and started setting up the pieces while my son is looking, ready to start.  With a board full of pieces, I began to wonder: how can he start learning the moves without getting all confused?


Then, I had an idea.  I removed all the pieces except the white knight, and started spacing black pawns across the board.  Then I started teaching him how the knight moves.  Luckily, he found it very amusing and interesting, and he started capturing the pawns.  At first the pawns were spaced such that each capture will allow him to capture the next pawn. Then we started spicing it up a bit, so that he would need to make two to three moves before he can capture the next piece (placing the pawns side by side would normally do the trick).  


By the next day, he is still getting used to it, but he is ready to be taught how the other pieces move.  I was surprised that in less than an hour, we were able to go through the movements of the other pieces.  Then it's off to a couple of games to further clarify the moves, like the fact that the king can move in any direction but only one square at a time, as compared to the queen.  It took us more than a week of playing before I introduced the concept of castling, pass pawn, and pawn promotion.


Strategy is something I'm teaching very slowly, as I would want him to discover things for himself.  Mostly I just guide him on the relative value of the pieces, the need to mobilize all of them, not using the queen too early,  and checking the board first before making a move.


His younger sister (4 years old) also joined in the games, and he's teaching her the rules and the moves.  Playing games almost everyday has become a fun family affair for us, with the uncles and the aunties and the grandparents joining in as well.  It has also rekindled my love for the game, as I am back in my correspondence chess games and brushing up on my tactics and strategies.





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Chess in Movies: GI Joe: The Rise of the Cobra

There was this part in the movie inside the gym/recreation center of the Joes where Breaker was hunched over a chessboard, but it wasn't clear if there was an opponent on the other side. The board seems to be crowded, although a number of pieces have already been move, indicating that it's some time into the opening or maybe it's already in the middle game.

It's it a bit predictable that Breaker, the resident nerd, would be the one in front of the board. Even more telling is that he doesn't have anyone else to play with. Not that he is the only one that may be considered brainy in the team, with Scarlett being an academic super-achiever herself. Still, I wonder if there was any reason for having that episode of chess in the movie.

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Shell National Youth Active Chess Championship

Chanced upon this on my way for lunch at Megamall after church. It was being held at the event center of Megamall. I guess it was the finals already, as some of the participants I saw have the word Finalist at the back of their event shirts. Looking at the schedule from the event's website (click pic at left), it was indeed the finals and it had been going on since June. Either I've been too busy or they were hiding this event from plain sight :)

It's good to know that they chose the Rapid Chess format for the event, with the game to be finished in 25 minutes or less. The speed of the game can help in keeping the audience interested, as longer time controls can really get boring especially for those that are not really into the game yet.

It was nice seeing all those game tables and youngsters drooling over the pieces. And it is good that my young ones seem interested as well. Hopefully one of these days we can be watching events like this together. Or better, they can be battling it out in one of those tables.

Got a chess event that you know of, especially in the Philippines? Do let me know so we can feature it here.

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ChessJam - Online Chess with an Attitude

This is one chess site that I found through an ad in Facebook. It features itself as online chess with an attitude. How's that I don't know. Why? Because they require you to download a program through which you can play the game, and I haven't done so, so far. If there is one factor that would significantly limit the popularity of this site, it would be the need to download something. Not only are people nowadays wary of downloading stuff, it also limits the opportunities one has to access the game. It may not always be possible to download the program whenever one has access to the Internet, as in the case when you are using a computer at work where such download (and install) activity is not allowed. Same case when accessing the Internet from public computers, such as internet cafes or a library.

It was also indicated in the website that they are now integrated with Facebook. However, I think it still require downloading and installing the program first, as described above.

But i just might give this site a try some time. If you, however, have been playing chess in ChessJam, do let us know and give some feedback.

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Chess on Facebook and Chess.com

Been away for some time from playing chess in Facebook that I didn't found out until recently that Chess on Facebook is now fully integrated with Chess.com. Which is good since I now have access to the community of Chess.com without having to create a separate account. It also means there is the potential to play with others that may not have a Facebook account. I've yet to try the new Chess on Facebook, and hopefully the integration will be seamless.

What still needs to be done, as I mentioned in a previous post, is to drum up interest in the game by regular advertisement. Despite the integration, one would hardly know that you can play chess in Facebook. I think that even a short-term advertisement campaign can significantly increase the players, and even possibly bring chess to the mainstream.

I'll update on this as I get back in the game.

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Hooking up with Empire Avenue

Just need to get this verification code up so I can hook this blog to my Empire Avenue account. If you want to know more about Empire Avenue, click the pic at the left.

Verification code EAVB_EFFYFKWBXN

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First Move by National Bookstore

National Bookstore, one of the leading bookstores in the Philippines, is sponsoring a series of chess tournaments for kids and teens ages 15 and below, with three categories to qualify in. There will be five independent events scheduled up to September 2010. Hopefully more will be forthcoming and this will become a regular thing. The events are hosted at Bestsellers of Robinsons Galleria. Medals and gift certificates will be awarded to winners.

It's quite encouraging to see a major company sponsoring an event like this. In our digital age peppered with games where kids kills mobs of monsters, there is a feeling of nostalgia and comfort in seeing them face each other across the board in a game of mental prowess. Slowly, some of the companies are starting to take notice. Toys R' Us already got on board in terms of giving additional prizes for the winners. Hopefully this would snowball into something big, much like what happened with the badminton craze before. And the coming rainy season may just be the perfect timing as majority of open field sports take the backseat.

You can also follow the latest about this event at the Pinoychess website.

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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......