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With Indias brightest chess star R. Praggnanandhaa defeating world champion Magnus Carlsen twice within a span of three months this year, the prospects and popularity of this ancient sport have never been brighter in the land of its origin.

Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, who is now known just as Pragg worldwide by everyone fearful of mauling his numerology-compliant name, created history this year by defeating world champion Magnus Carlsen twice--first at the Airthings Masters online chess tournament in February and then at the Chessable Masters online rapid chess competition in May. And in the process of doing so, he has ushered a new era of interest and popularity for the battle fought on 64 squares.

The first major impetus in the country for chess, of course, came from Viswanathan Anand, our first homegrown Grandmaster (GM) who achieved the title when he was barely 20 in 1988. His meteoric rise in the global chess landscape led to a boom in the sport's popularity, with chess academies springing up everywhere, schools and colleges encouraging chess players like never before and more and more tournaments being held across the country.

The next 22 years saw India produce 22 more GMs, including the female Grandmaster in Koneru Humpy. However, in just 12 years since then, from 2010 till date, that number has swelled to 73, with Bharath Subramaniyam, a 14-year-old from Chennai, the latest to join the elite list in January this year.

Interestingly, Anand, Pragg and Bharath Subramaniyam all hail from Chennai. Tamil Nadu has played a key role in India's emergence as a chess power by contributing 26 Grandmasters, a whopping 35 per cent of the country's 73 GMs. Maharashtra comes a distand second with 10, closely followed by West Bengal with 9.

Pragg, a boy genius who is now India's brightest candidate to become world champion, shook the earth when he achieved the GM title at the age of 12, the second-youngest at the time to do so. Earlier, he had already made waves when he became International Master at the age of 10, the youngest at the time to do so. Pragg's rise to eminence has been accompanied by the emergence of several prodigies from India, who have been reducing the average age of active Grandmasters in the country.

The landscape is now strewn with the exploits of dozens of youngsters, such as Nihal Sarin, Gukesh D, Sankalp Gupta and Arjun Erigaisi, to name a few. The fact that the top 10 male junior players in the country are all GMs is testimony to the reservoir of talent in India. And Pragg's wins over Carlsen will only inspire even more youngsters to take to chess and bring more glory to the nation. Chess is truly one of the areas where India is reaping its demographic dividend.

Read more:
Winning moves: Whats it with Indias spectacular prowess in chess? - Frontline

Twitch streamer xQc, real name Felix Lengyel, was not flattered when a fellow content creator and fan urged him to stop broadcasting sponsored gambling sessions and switch back to chess instead. xQc has been down this road many times before and since he decided to switch to an all-open endorsement of gambling on his channel.

As one of the most-watched content creators on the Amazon-owned platform, this decision was bound to ruffle some feathers, including those of his father who lambasted the streamer publicly. The fan was clearly taking an issue with the fact that xQcs position changed rapidly from one of apologizing about having ever streamed gambling content to one that openly endorsed the practice.

Naturally, xQcs Twitch chat and Reddit forums have been filled with opinions for and against the streamers choice to stream gambling. Other content creators, to name Asmongold, Mizkif, and Amouranth have all weighed in on this moral choice.

On Sunday, a fan decided to take another shot at dissuading xQc from pursuing his hobby, but instead of going to xQcs channel, the streamer decided to record a separate video. xQc came upon this video while browsing Reddit where a topic called Juicer begs xQc to stop gamba and play chess again caught his attention.

So, xQc decided to watch. He didnt dwell much on this appeal, but simply said Chess? Thanks, man. He then continued with his stream seemingly unperturbed by the latest poke at his life choices. xQc has become somewhat inured by people constantly appealing and urging him to do one thing instead of another.

An issue to some has been the fact that he should be a role model, but Asmongold, a wide-mouth streamer who got recently banned from Twitch over Diablo Immortal shenanigans, said that nobody should expect streamers to be role models, and that they were just people and get to do whatever they want.

However, xQc has admitted to being an actual gambling addict while playing through huge piles of money. The streamer told his fans not to worry, though, because he was one of those lucky individuals who could afford to be a gambling addict. You may not want to be a role model, but this is definitely the wrong message to send, no matter what you do.

See original here:
Twitch Streamer xQc Wont Take Chess over Gambling - GamblingNews.com

The U.S., diplomatically, economically and militarily, is in a 3D chess match with China and losing on all three tiers. The Biden administrations inability to see the interchangeability, interdependence and interaction of the playing pieces competing in the three planes country-specific, regional and global is allowing China to dominate each playing field. This, despite Beijings considerable tactical disadvantages in positioning, moving and fielding its own assets throughout the game.

Consider the Washington Posts recent report, based on information from unnamed Western officials, that China is secretly establishing a military presence in Cambodia at Ream Naval Base, an undertaking that, if completed, will allow the Peoples Liberation Army Navy now the worlds largest navy to dominate the Gulf of Thailand and by extension Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. If operational, the base would give Chinese leader Xi Jinping one more means of asserting leverage, if not control, over these four key Southeast Asia nations.

In 3D terms, China is strategically positioning itself to win at the country level, thereby building and strengthening its hand at the regional Pacific level, while tightening its growing global economic advantage on the third plane. Further, China is aggressively deploying this strategy throughout the Pacific region including in the Solomon Islands and in making overtures to Fiji and other Pacific island nations to join a policing and security agreement. Meanwhile, amid this clash of opposing ideological worldviews, the Biden administration to date has not filled key ambassadorial vacancies in Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Tonga and Tuvalu, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, Timor-Leste and Thailand.

Like all chess games, pawns get played and lost and Beijing certainly is not winning every move. Washington successfully forestalled Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yis island-hopping efforts to effect a Chinese counter to President Bidens new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. But it is the U.S., by and large, that is reacting to how its pawns are first played and then removed from the board. Beijing is keeping Washington off balance, despite the strength and reach of the American military and economy.

Beijing is dominating each level of the U.S.-China 3D chess match by its calculating use of feints on one tier to distract from its machinations on another. By building and militarizing three artificial islands in the South China Sea, China is exerting military pressure on Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, and their trade routes countries that, along with Taiwan, maintain territorial claims to these waters while drawing in U.S. military resources frees up space for China to maneuver on a Pacific regional and/or global level. Further, China excels at not being distracted by diversions, including North Korea or Russias war in Ukraine unlike Biden, who keeps pivoting from one regional crisis to another.

Google Biden and pivot and youll get news headlines showing the Biden administration is continually pivoting in its policy approaches: Hawkish pivot on Russia-Ukraine, Bidens pivot on oil production, Pivot to the economy, and Bidens China pivot. Now imagine playing a 3D chess game and constantly changing your strategy mid-game instead of controlling the flow of the game, you are constantly reacting to your opponent. In terms of China, it is as if Washingtons answer to Beijings shrewd chess moves is to spin the wheel and hope that it lands on a winning pivot strategy.

Even the latest Biden administration approaches to China are perplexing and appear directionless. Oon May 23, Biden spoke of unilaterally reducing tariffs on Chinese goods, but Secretary of State Antony Blinken undercut him a few days later, saying the U.S. will not tolerate Beijings lack of reciprocation in facilitating U.S. access to Chinese markets. Similarly, when Biden was asked during his recent trip to Japan whether the U.S. would defend Taiwan militarily, he answered, Yes, its a commitment we made. But Blinken just two days later reiterated Washingtons One China policy. Inexplicably, the Biden administration cannot even agree internally on strategy, let alone identify which Chinese rooks, knights and bishops should be captured and removed from the 3D chess board.

One possible explanation but not an excuse for the administrations policy schizophrenia is Beijings historical willingness to enter into a war even if militarily or economically unprepared for it. Certainly, there are plenty of flashpoints suggesting Beijing may be nearing such a juncture with Taiwan. The Peoples Liberation Army Air Force recently interdicted Canadian and Australian maritime surveillance aircraft operating in international airspace over the East China and South China seas. Beijings wolf warrior diplomacy is becoming ever more aggressive, now threatening to downgrade ties with Israel over a Jerusalem Post interview of Taiwans Foreign Minister Joseph Wu. Plus, tellingly, China last November began ratcheting up its warnings to Biden regarding Taiwan, including asserting that the U.S. is playing with fire.

Fear of what China may do in Taiwan or elsewhere must not dictate U.S. strategy, nor should Maginot Line mentality infect or dictate national defense strategy guidance. Defensive moves do not win chess games, let alone a multi-tiered 3D chess match. To win, you must go on the offensive. You must keep your opponent off balance.

Biden has multiple ways to do so. If Taiwan desires independence, especially after witnessing Russias devastation of Ukraine, the U.S. should support Taipei with ironclad security guarantees. Encourage Japan to rescind Article 9 of its constitution, thereby giving Tokyo an offensive military capacity to further deter Beijing. Recognize a patchwork of economic and bilateral military agreements, including the new Indo-Pacific pact and AUKUS simply are not cohesive enough to ensure and guarantee containment of China.

Alongside Australia and Japan, Biden should begin building consensus toward a Pacific charter in the spirit of NATO. It is time for the U.S. to stop playing for a tie and start crafting a 3D strategy to win.

Mark Toth is a retired economist, historian and entrepreneur who has worked in banking, insurance, publishing and global commerce. He is a former board member of the World Trade Center, St. Louis, and has lived in U.S. diplomatic and military communities around the world, including London, Tel Aviv, Augsburg and Nagoya. Follow him on Twitter @MCTothSTL.

See the article here:
The Biden administration is playing 3D chess with China and losing - The Hill

Edward Laurenson. Photo / Dean Purcell

Greg Bruce meets Chess The Musical star Edward Laurenson

We met over a chess board in the living room of a beautiful modern home in Parnell. The fire was on and an extremely large cat was stretched out in front of it, asleep. Rising operatic star Edward Laurenson walked in wearing a tux, looking like a movie star, specifically the movie star Robert Pattinson, who is most famous for playing the hot, pasty vampire Edward from the Twilight films. I had known about this resemblance in advance, because when the publicist first got in touch about this story, she had attached a picture of Laurenson and another of Pattinson and the only reason I could tell them apart was because Pattinson's featured a GQ logo. In real life, the resemblance was, if anything, even more striking.

Laurenson, 33, told me there had been a point in his life, around the peak of Twilight mania, when five or six people a day were approaching him because of the resemblance. He was once denied service in a bar because they believed his ID, featuring the name Edward, was a fake. These looks presumably did not hurt his chances during casting for the upcoming New Zealand production of Chess, in which he was chosen to play the Russian, Anatoly, alongside former New Zealand Idol runner-up Michael Murphy.

The primary reason for our meeting was to talk about his role in the show and the reason for the chess board was because the publicist for the show had told me Laurenson was a chess champion with, she believed, an international ranking. I believed, wrongly as it turned out, that it would be interesting to incorporate a game of chess into this story about Chess. Not only had I never played chess, but I wasn't even sure of the correct name for the horses. I had never had much facility for games of strategy and we only had an hour. Nevertheless, we tried. He set up the pieces in a late game position from a famous match involving an American grandmaster who I'd never heard of - not Bobby Fischer or the woman from The Queen's Gambit. When he'd finished setting up, I asked which of us was in the stronger position. He told me he was.

When I mentioned to Laurenson the publicist's claims about his chess prowess, he looked shocked and afraid and told me he wasn't a very good chess player and certainly didn't have an international ranking. What he had was a rating, from playing chess online, of about 1600. Accounts of the quality of a 1600 player on chess forums vary wildly, largely depending on the arrogance of the commenter, but seem to congeal mostly around "not bad for a club player".

We made a few moves, or more specifically he made some moves and then suggested some moves for me. At one stage I tried to take his queen but he wouldn't let me because he said I could only take diagonally. He explained the rules as we went. If a pawn makes it to the other side of the board, he told me, it can become any piece it wants. "That's why people love chess," he said. "It's sort of life on a board." When asked how this lesson related to life, he said, "Hard work gets results."

From an early age, he wanted to be Freddie Mercury and to achieve that, he started working on his singing. He took classical singing lessons and soon was entering and winning competitions. A big breakthrough came when he won the Guildhall Prize from the IFAC Handa Australian Singing Competition in 2013, which gave him a scholarship that took him to London to study for a master's degree, despite the fact he didn't even have an undergraduate degree. He studied with Australian soprano Yvonne Kenny and received regular coaching from Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. He has now travelled the world performing, including at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he performed the role of Tarquinius in Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, and Older Thompson in Tom Cipullo's Glory Denied, bringing him reviews like this from the San Francisco Classical Voice: "... blessed with the ability to look both handsome and unstoppably mean while singing with unflinching power."

He says the highlight of his career was performing for the Queen, who was just a metre or two away from him as he sang What a Wonderful World at London's Goodenough College, where he was studying and living, and she was the patron.

He started playing chess at intermediate school where, despite his spectacular good looks, he was, he says, a nerd. The chess club was also linked, in a way he didn't make entirely clear, to the gardening club. He said: "I think it was a sanctuary for us not necessarily rugby players to go to."

I asked how the game of chess has helped with his singing career and he said, "It's really helped with my singing career because it got me a role here in New Zealand with G and T productions."

At about this point, the cat, having left the comfort of its place in front of the fire, jumped up on my lap and from there climbed up on to the board. I heard a piece fall, but the cat was enormous and in my way, so I couldn't see what the piece was.As it moved off the board, I saw my king lying on its side. "The cat just resigned," Laurenson said.

"Oh well," I said, "You win some, you lose some," even though this was the only time I'd ever played.

Chess The Musical, Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre, June 16-19.

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Chess The Musical star Edward Laurenson on singing, chess and Chess - New Zealand Herald

Outposts are valuable chessboard squares protected by a pawn and cannot be attacked by an opponents pawn. This makes them an excellent place to place a powerful piece as they cannot be dislodged easily and exert great influence and pressure on the opponents position.

Outposts are chessboard squares on the opposite players side that cant be attacked by their pawns (because they were either captured or pushed too far) and are protected by your pawn. This makes them a fantastic beachhead for your pieces. The white knight represents an outpost in the example below:

If the square isnt protected by your pawn but cant be attacked by an opponents pawn, it is an unprotected outpost. If it is in front of the opponents pawn, it is known as a sheltered outpost, otherwise, it is a slightly weaker, unsheltered outpost, according to popularchessterms.

Likeisolated pawns, outposts can be a permanent structural weakness on the board and can persist into the endgame. Usually, an isolated pawn on the board often indicates an outpost or two to take advantage of.

Be mindful of your pawn moves. You should always look out for potential outposts because moving a pawn is a permanent decision, and as the saying goes, pawns cant move backward. Once an outpost is established, either by accident or after some planning and trading, it is time to use it.

The knight is the best piece for taking advantage of an outpost. This is because ofits unique, L-shaped movement, making it easier to maneuver to the desired square even when the position is crowded. Its ability to jump over other pieces makes it extra threatening once it has occupied the key square. Strong pieces on an outpost dont need to immediately win material to become valuable; instead, they seriously constrict your opponent and provide a spatial advantage. Keep it there until a devastating tactical sequence arises.

If your opponent is trying to use an outpost, you should undermine it by attacking the pawn protecting the square. Once it is taken care of, you can try to extract the piece sitting there and alleviate the pressure on your position.

Originally posted here:
What is an outpost in chess? - Dot Esports