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Madibaz student Charlize van Zyl will use the time left ahead of South Africas entry into the Online Chess Olympiad to fine-tune her preparations for the competition in August.

This tournament has been set up after the actual Chess Olympiad, scheduled for Russia next month, was postponed to 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier this year Van Zyl was chosen for the South African team after she excelled in a qualification tournament where she won the womens section by two points without suffering any losses.

Although the disruption caused by the pandemic has created some frustration, the 20-year-old said she was looking forward to the challenge when SA joins the competition on August 20.

This online format is very different, but I really enjoy it, she said. We will be playing on our laptops or desktops on the biggest online chess-playing platform Chess.com.

We will be closely monitored through webcams and microphones, so although it is different to live chess as you are not directly facing your opponent, which in itself is a huge psychological factor, your every movement is still being watched.

Other than that, it is a lot more comfortable than live competition or over-the-board chess as you can play from the comfort of your own home with no distractions caused by other players.

The third-year BA student said one of the chief differences was the time allowed in which players had to make their moves.

The time control will be quite different. For the normal Olympiad and most prestigious over-the-board tournaments, the time control allows games to stretch on for hours.

But in this competition we will have 15 minutes, plus five seconds. This means that both you and your opponent will start with 15 minutes and get an additional five seconds added to your clock for every move that you make.

It means that games will not exceed an hour.

She said her preparations would focus mostly on playing many games in this time format to get used to it.

The online competition is divided into different sections and has already started with the base division (5). There are a further three divisions (4 to 2) for which teams from the lower sections will be able to qualify as the tournament progresses.

The top 15 teams from division two will join the 25 teams who have already been placed in the top division, which includes South Africa.

Happily, being in the top division, we dont have to follow this long play-off system in the next month, said Van Zyl.

Each team is made up of six boards with two male players, two female players and two U20 male and female players. Each board has a reserve player, so in total we are 12 players.

It is going to be tough as we are already placed in the same division as strong chess countries such as Russia, China and the USA.

But we still have some time to prepare and I am looking forward to testing myself against some of the best chess players in the world!

Supplied

Originally posted here:
Chess star making all the right moves ahead of online Olympiad - Yiba

Russian human rights campaigner and chess supremo Gary Kasparov has said that the current economic crisis, which has led to unconventional monetary policy, will drive people towards bitcoin.

Bitcoins finite supply compares favorably to agenda-driven printing of money by governments, noted the Avast security ambassador, who also chairs the Human Rights Foundation and the Renew Democracy Initiative.

Speaking to Forbes on the intersection of human rights and new technologies, Kasparov said cryptocurrencies enable the public to regain control of personal finances at a time when unilateral moves by government and institutions are on the rise.

The good thing about bitcoin is that you know exactly the number the magic number of 21 million. And we understand the formula behind that. But when you look at the other side, the Fed for instance, you never know how many trillions of dollars will appear on the market tomorrow that will damage your savings, he observed.

Kasparov said cryptocurrencies potential for abuse gets overstated but it is the upside which must be harnessed to empower individuals. Crypto offers means to protect personal finances against inflation and state interference and anything that can offer us the opportunity to take back control or some control of our privacy is always welcome, the chess grandmaster said.

Thats why I think the steady rise in popularity of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology as a concept is inevitable, because its a response to the shift of power from individuals to states or other institutions that may act on our privacy without our consent, he added.

As chairperson of the Human Rights Foundation, Kasparov has promoted blockchain and cryptocurrency as a means to empower dissidents around the world.

For us, it was important for us to address every violation of human rights, and we were trying to help these people, most of them under severe attacks by their governments even if they left their countries, their financial accounts were hacked, their information was stolen so we have been providing special training courses.

He continued: Weve invited famous hackers to help them and to work with them we have been using every opportunity to offer them extra protection, and of course blockchain and bitcoin were very natural choices to incorporate into this strategy.

Kasparov also criticised the discriminatory treatment of customers from one territory to the other by tech giants and encouraged internet users to practice digital hygiene to stay safe from governments and other third parties.

What do you think about Kasparovs views toward crypto? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Chess Grandmaster Kasparov: Bitcoin Empowers the Public and Protects Dissidents | News - Bitcoin News

"Every Russian schoolboy knows" is a well-known cliche to say that a certain position or a concept is an integral part of a classical chess education. A good friend of mine, GM Alex Yermolinsky, even used this cliche as the title of his weekly show. Personally, I don't use this cliche much, but you can guess what I said when I learned that one of my students who was rated close to USCF 1800 didn't know the Philidor position in a rook endgame.

Today I want to discuss a new perspective on the "every Russian schoolboy knows" phrase. When I was a kid, I read the famous book by Vladimir Mayakovsky: "What Is Good And What Is Bad." Like millions of other Soviet children, I learned the basic concepts of good and bad behavior from this book. Wikipedia claims that "every language has a word expressing good in the sense of 'having the right or desirable quality' and bad in the sense 'undesirable.' A sense of moral judgment and a distinction between 'right and wrong, good and bad' are cultural universals."

Therefore, I am sure that you, my dear readers, had a similar book in your childhood which was sort of a moral compass to guide you through your life. When I started playing chess, I quickly learned certain rules of chess ethics which amounted to "what is good and what is bad" for chess players. For example, whenever we played a tournament, an official score-sheet where we notated the games had the following text: "There is no more shameful act for a chess player than a withdrawal from a tournament without a very serious reason."

As life goes on, modern society re-evaluates many classical rules and what was good some time ago becomes bad and vice versa. We see similar changes in chess. Look at any major open tournament in the US, and you'll see that dozens of participants don't play the last round and withdraw just because they lost any chances to win a prize. I am not blaming them, just stating facts. After all, the score-sheet from my childhood mentioned "a very serious reason," so maybe that was their case?

Now let's take a look at this recent game:

For 32 moves, two super grandmasters played an endgame of K+R vs. K+R. Don't get me wrong. I see people playing this endgame on a more or less regular basis. Whenever I watch any major scholastic tournament, I always see this kind of endgame in the U1000 section. Still, I cannot imagine Tarrasch playing it against Rubinstein or Geller against Keres. I bet Grischuk and Giri would have kept playing with king against king at the end if not for the stupid software that ends the game automatically due to insufficient material. It is a shame since it would have vindicated the old joke of GM Eduard Gufeld. He was watching two kids playing bullet, which was a very new kind of a time control then. Disgusted by the quality of the game, the grandmaster asked, "Why don't you simply put two kings on the board and move them back and forth until one of you loses on time?"

By the way, it is not my intention to criticize GM Alexander Grischuk. After all, why should we single him out? Look for example at the following game:

His opponent, another super-grandmaster kept playing a basic endgame down a rook and three pawns. Many "old school" chess players would consider such a behavior insulting. Yet, GM Karjakin managed to save the game and win a big real estate prize.

As you can see, these days "what is good and what is bad" for chess players is completely different compared to a bygone era. In 1990, I played a blitz tournament in Moscow's famous hotel Kosmos. The prizes paid in Deutsche Marks were quite big by the Soviet standards. In the last round of the preliminary group, I was playing Mikhail Tal. Since I was a half-point behind, I had to win the game in order to qualify to the final stage. I played White and miraculously managed to outplay the Magician in my favorite English opening. At the end, it was a completely winning endgame for me since I was about to promote my g7-pawn to a queen. I had about 30 seconds on my clock, but since I was much younger and faster than today, the result of the game was quite clear. So, I grabbed the g7-pawn to promote it. I vividly remember what happened next. Since it was very hot inside the hotel due to a large crowd of people and also because I was very nervous at the end of the game. (Come on; wouldn't you be nervous when you are about to beat Mikhail Tal?) My hands got very sweaty. So, when I grabbed the g7-pawn to promote it, the treacherous pawn slipped away through my fingers. I grabbed the pawn again, but it kept slipping through my fingers. I tried to promote the pawn three times all in vain, while my seconds were ticking away! Then I decided to use both of my hands to finally promote the stupid pawn. When I was about to make another attempt to get myself a new queen and was reaching for that evil g7-pawn, Tal suddenly intercepted my hand and shook it. I didn't even realize right away that he resigned. How many of the modern elite players would resign seeing the struggling opponent's seconds melting away? By the way, it wasn't the only example of Tal's noble behavior. In the 1970s, he played the Women's World Champion GM Nona Gaprindashvili in a blitz tournament. When Gaprindashvili got really low on time, Tal a couple of times "forgot" to press the clock after making his move. When Gaprindashvili noticed Tal's "mistake," she whispered, "If you do that again, I'll resign straight away!"

But maybe that was just Tal. After all, I heard many people called him "an alien" since he was so different from other people. Meanwhile, we see numerous examples where modern super-grandmasters have played "dead-drawn" endgames in order to flag the opponent. In some cases, they succeed!

So, should you play this kind of a position and try to flag your opponent? I don't know. We live in a turbulent time in which morals and ethics are changing. What was inappropriate 30-40 years ago is mainstream now. So, let's do a little poll: Were the old-school players right, or do the modern elite players know better? Please share your opinions in the comments!

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What Is Good And Bad Etiquette In Chess? - Chess.com

In this game of chess, black deploys the Sicilian Defence against 1: e4 to no avail, but follows adroitly with the Trash Talking Like An NPC Gambit. Will it be enough? The battle commences 40s in.

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The Knights tour is a traditional chess problem where a lone knight is placed on a chess board and must visit each square only once. You can play this perfectly simple free implementation created by u/psrwo on Reddit. The source code is at github. The knight is randomly placed at the outset. I cant visit []

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Trashtalking in chess - Boing Boing

Magnus Carlsen, the world champion, reached another major final this week despite throwing a game in only four moves to compensate his Chinese opponent for a loss by disconnection.

Carlsen met world No3 Ding Liren on Tuesday in the semi-final of the $150,000 online Chessable Masters. With a minute left, Ding disconnected, a recurring problem for Chinas elite players, and the rules gave Carlsen a win byforfeit.

Game two, with Ding White, opened 1 c4 e6 2 g3 Qg5? 3 Bg2 Qxd2+?? 4 Qxd2 and Carlsen resigned. He explained: I have immense respect for Ding as a chess player and as a human being, and I think it was the right thing to do.

Carlsen later won that first set 3.5-2.5, and then the second set 2.5-0.5 on Wednesday. After his free point, Ding was outclassed and failed to win another game.

The Norwegian, 29, will play the final on Friday and Saturday with a possible tie-break on Sunday. All the games are live and free to watch on chess24.com, with grandmaster commentaries, starting 3pm. His opponent will be Anish Giri (Netherlands) or Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia) who were level before a decider on Thursday.

Puzzle 2374

Jose Raoul Capablanca v Reuben Fine, Avro 1938. The legendary Cubans missed win as White (to move) here went undiscovered for 13 years. Can you find it? The chess machine chose 40 Rxg5 with a draw. In his defence, it was the move 40 time control.

Click here for solution

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Chess: Carlsen throws game in record four moves after Ding disconnects - Financial Times