Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

One GM Vuckevich solution of longer-term is to change the rules as you go:

http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displaycomment.php?commentid=18909. 

http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displaycomment.php?commentid=18727.

Vhttp://www.chessvariants.org/index/displaycomment.php?commentid=18729.

I think Garry Kasparov renounced nonsensical New Chronology, or dismissed it.  The chapter "How Rome Fell" earlier this thread from 'How the Irish Saved Civilization' is one source to fill in everyday things that were happening say from year 200 to (illiterate) Charlemagne, no longer Dark Age.

Hehe, in defense of my muddled arithmetic: Why, thank you, George. ;-)

There is discussion of assigning a different value to draws with Black than draws with White based on the overall statistical likelihood of drawing with one versus the other and the perceived (and likely objective) greater difficulty of drawing with Black than with White.

I would say this: One day soon, computers will be so advanced, especially quantum computers, that they will produce a definitive solution of FIDE Chess. At the exact same time, or shortly thereafter, almost every chess variant ever invented will be solved too, I believe, including variants with "bug-eyed monsters" (cf. wikipedia's fairy chess page). The "more chess moves than atoms in the universe" doesn't really apply because there aren't so many moves which are at all sound.

Does that mean professional chess play will be obsolete?

No, no more than extreme fighting is made obsolete by gorillas or kangaroos who can surely outperform in the ring.

As sport, some of these chess variants can still be played by chess athletes even after computers have "solved" them. And the solutions should come with greater clarity too, just as Fermat's problem is currently solved but there may be a more elegant solution still out there.

If my thinking may seem muddled, it's because it is muddled. We may even see the specter of computers and humans working together (appropriate for a likely cyborgian future) to solve chess variants on the spot, in the course of competitive professional play. I don't know.

But possibly "Next Chess" (if there is a "Next Chess") will be too complicated even for forthcoming quantum computers to solve.

If Anand is still performing at a very high level and if Emanuel Lasker and Steinitz could perform highly into their fifties, perhaps Kasparov should come out of retirement and test his mettle. I was one of those, perhaps misguidedly, urging him to retire and pursue politics full time. I do appreciate that he has been an outspoken and courageous voice of dissent against kleptocrat Putin. I've been told that Russian prejudice against Judaism and Armenia has made it impossible for charismatic Garry to gain leverage and perhaps kooky theories of history haven't helped? (Though I haven't kept up on Garry's idea that most historians are off on their recent chronology). Now I'd like to see Garry return to the realm professional sports.

Also, as David Paulowich has pointed out, the basic maxims (heuristics) guiding fine FIDE play are much the same in most chess variants. There is little doubt in my mind that were professional FIDE players to be given financial incentive to go into variants, they would also easily dominate our own realm and easily become the best chess variant players. Or at least highly successful, just as many great professional chess players have done well on the poker circuit.

Primitive Chess at Sochi 2014.  With primitive scoring.  Wrapped up of
course two weeks ago, post-mortems ensue.  In defense of Jeremy Good and
the result Carlsen 6.5 Anand 4.5, it doesn't matter in a match whether
each Draw counts 1/2 does it? They could point a Draw 2000 and announce
instead of Draws 7 Carlsen 3 Anand 1, a final tally count of Carlsen 14003
to Anand 14001.  Hey still the two-point margin presciently said exactly by
Kasparov beforehand, http://en.chessbase.com/post/kasparov-the-quality-of-the-games-was-not-so-high, in so many words. [Though retired
Kasparov, unlike one-trick-pony Carlsen, plays Shogi,
http://www.chessdom.com/kasparov-tokyo-promoting-chess-shogi-and-artificial-intelligence/
http://www.chessdom.com/kasparov-tokyo-promoting-chess-shogi-and-artificial-intelligence/,
too.]

Actually the above could be a solution for the fundamentalists.  Recent certain Stalemates as a win, http://en.chessbase.com/post/stalemate-the-long-and-the-short-of-it-2, is a phony new topic because Lasker advocated that 100 years ago.  Rather, enforce so-called "odds" against each defending Champion the way informal 18-C. champion Philidor gave Knight-odds, one vacated to opponent's full initial array.  

Thus differently for advanced/retarded 21st C., not a Philidor missing piece, but basically scoring for each according to his ability,  That is, each defending Champion would get just 0.4 per Draw to opposite number 0.6.  F.i.d.e. could have this purposed rigging the scoring in favor of the Challenger, not the other way around.  So then Sochi Nov.14 has as of now regardless the tally 5.8C-5.2A, and the twelfth and final game must be still played out for determinative outcome.

In Nov.2013 it was f.i.d.e. regular-pointage Draws 7, Carlsen 3, Anand 0.  Embarrassingly Anand has won only one game in two back-to-back world titles.  Yet V. Anand has to be regarded the presumptive frontrunner for November 2015 if he runs, so this discussion thread as "Chennai 2013," where it all started Chess itself included, keeps accuracy.  

If Anand doesn't compete again, as next topic which too green other candidates stand out to take on one-trick pony M. Carlsen next year?

Six million games are available from 1560 on,  
http://en.chessbase.com/post/simply-the-best-mega-database-2015, including and up to just "the middle of November 2014." 

Since the Carlsen-Anand Sochi finale was 23 November, the idea is they waited exactly to put out the updated database for overplayed OrthoChess on "small" 64 squares. (From CV perspective, oompare 6th-century 64 to Shogi 81 and Xiangqi "large" 90 board spaces -- or middle ages Gala on 100 http://www.chessvariants.org/historic.dir/gala.html and Courier on 96 squares http://www.chessvariants.org/historic.dir/courier.html, to show two arbitrarily from Germany having large-size more enabling board.)

Stretching to include the 23rd as "middle of November," without saying so because of the low quality of games,* yes, they're all in there for posterity total of 11, the last game 12 unplayed as unnecessary Carlsen-Anand 2014:   Draws 7, Carlsen 3, Anand 1. 

*http://en.chessbase.com/post/kasparov-the-quality-of-the-games-was-not-so-high.

Finis.  Simpleminded Draws 7, Carlsen 3, Anand 1.  Unresolved is how many
Computer programs easily beat Carlsen.  20?  100?  

Away from calcified Orthodoxy, in the ancient Nineties Fischer  (1943-2008)
proferred Fischer Random Chess.  Then in the Aughts, "grand-master"
Seirawan had Seirawan Chess with 400-year-old RN and BN tweaked awkwardly
to squeeze into little 64 squares.  At least he tried.  In 2014 Chessbase
has Switch-Side,
http://en.chessbase.com/post/a-new-challenging-chess-variant, and more
seriously Option Chess, http://en.chessbase.com/post/option-chess-by-paul-bonham, copying Duniho's Extra Move Chess.

What does Carlsen propose?  To Computer and Draw dominance?  For Carlsen's
modelling and acting career, he may be able to sustain a mediocre
personality cult, like chess-region Niyazov's, http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2014/02/06/saparmurat_niyazov_former_president_of_turkmenistan_has_left_quite_the_legacy.html.

So just ignore average-intelligence specialized-skill Carlsen -- as well as
f.i.d.e. if necessary.  Moving on, consider that Chinese Xiangqi has 90
squares(points) and Japanese Shogi 81.  Western fundamentalists will
eventually have to junk 64 squares.  Making 64 squares computer-resistant
takes just too convoluted Rules.  100 as 10x10 is a possibility.  But a
steady 50% of CVers probably agree that optimal minimax/maximin solution is
80 squares, nicely just under Shogi.  

Get the Chess-board right first, abandoning narrow and narrow-minded 8x8
custom, then put in the proper challenging pieces: Rook-Knight,
Bishop-Knight, Mastodon(Pasha), Lion, Falcon.  Mired in dogmatism, silenced
by propaganda, OrthoChessists are not allowed even to know the present
Bishop's and Queen's powers came about just in the 1490s, not out of
6th-century India.  

Face it, hidebound 64 has a colourful -- heh checkered -- history.  You
know the sacred parable: first put a bean on Square One....and by Square 64
you have the whole blinking/blooming/bloody/bleeping/blistering Universe.

So ends steadfast Sochi, Russia, 64 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_and_chessboard_problem).

Magnus Carlsen has it about wrapped up,  http://en.chessbase.com/post/sochi-g10-unrealized-opportunities, so here are some wit and wisdom:

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/magnus_carlsen.html.

While in Sochi, a short 1000 miles away outside Russia, across Caspian Sea,  
http://www.turkmenistan.ru/en/articles/17204.html, highly creditably the 2013 junior champion.  Yet the wit of Niyazov of that same Turkmenistan, http://southcarolina1670.wordpress.com/2013/08/06/the-wit-and-wisdom-of-saparmurat-niyazov/, matches Carlsen's,  Niyazov having closed the libraries and Carlsen having not need of books.



[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saparmurat_Niyazov ;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruhnama. ]

After eight games, the score is Simpleminded Draws 5, Magnus Carlsen 2, Vishy
Anand 1.  

http://en.chessbase.com/post/sochi-g8-an-easy-draw-for-carlsen.

[Added 20.Nov: http://en.chessbase.com/post/sochi-g9-a-quick-draw-tightens-the-noose,  Simpleminded Draws 6, C 2, A 1.

Pathetically they, the mountebanks selling us a bill of goods, think this is satisfactory, ostensibly grown men, the world champion playing before the world for Draw after Draw.  Creepy.]

Carlsen is one point ahead but with five games to go, Anand has White
pieces three more times.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/chess-blindness-of-the-champions.

Euphemism blindness means blunder, blunders at issue in the Sixth Game,
played Saturday.  It was also the Sixth Game in 1972 we maintain Spassky can
win with corrected '15 ...Rxc5':

http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displaycomment.php?commentid=29329. Two earlier comments in the linked thread provide detail. 

That sixth game the Mail and many others call one of the several best games
of all time, or even single best.  But Spassky should win by above new move;
 it may have been pointed out somewhere before (or deliberately
overlooked), and was rediscovered when reviewing here in CVPage forty-year
anniversary of 1972 Fischer-Spassky spectacular.  

We certainly don't want to put the current late-term crop of babbitts in the same league as
Fischer and Spassky for over-all intellectual/cultural importance, yet it is a coincidental
"sixth game"  again.

[ http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044366 ]

After half the match of 12 games, the score is Simpleminded Draws 3,
Carlsen 2, Anand 1. 

http://en.chessbase.com/post/chess-blindness-of-the-champions.

No, hehe, I can't add. 2 points each.

> Carlsen - Anand WCC II, tied at 1 1/2 points each.

1.5 points each after four games? A draw is only worth a quarter point,
these days?

So I didn't pay attention for a couple days...

First game: Carlsen draws with Black.

Second game: Carlsen wins with White.

Third game: Anand wins with White.

Fourth game: Anand draws with Black.

Rest Day.

Anand will have the White pieces coming back.

Carlsen - Anand WCC II, tied at 1 1/2 points each.

Every day a holiday like ancient Rome.  Yesterday 25 years since Berlin Wall fall,
http://en.chessbase.com/post/world-championship-02-carlsen-strikes-first,
tomorrow 96 years since Eleven.Eleven.1918 Armistice of World War I.  And
11 games to go in central Eurasia, the 1500-yr. cutting edge mind-sport
where it starts off 1.5-0.5 for Champion Magnus Carlsen.

http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/Rome-FellMar95.htm, "The thicker the grass, the more easily scythed."    Roman-ruination 5th century also is enlightened for two geographic-endpoints inaugurations: Ireland saving and copying all classical books and Indian civilization inventing Chess away from Eurasian barbarians. In the above linked chapter's ninth from last full paragraph, it says "If anyone skipped a grade, he was -- like a piece on a board game -- to be returned to his starting point."

Our trick, as chess variant enthusiasts, is to show that chess variant traditions and innovations are what will revitalize the international chess scene of professional chess athleticism...

e.g., Look at the way (scroll to bottom of article) Carlsen and Anand talk, exactly like any sportsmen, football players or basketball players, golfers, etc...focus on the present, don't place too much importance on any past moment or future prospect, a bland way of speaking esp. downplaying any past accomplishment (there are exceptions of course, trash-talking and amusing conceit of Cassius Clay, e.g.) but a lingo deeply familiar to any and all sports fanatics (there is a scene in the film Bull Durham where a promising athlete is coached to speak blandly in interviews, underselling - something legendary Patriots coach Bill Belichick advises his players as a media strategy "don't believe or fuel the hype" - "manage expectations" - "ignore the noise")...

When asked if the last match had any bearings on this one Anand said, “I don’t see the point of keeping that in the background. There will enough problems in this match to deal with without adding that, so at least that’s not something I am trying to reflect on.”

Carlsen agreed with his senior on the matter.

“What happened in the last match is in the past, I agree with Vishy that are going to be plenty of difficult and critical moments in the match, no point in dwelling in the past,” he said.

Even if Carlsen loses, he is thought by many as possibly the greatest
player of all time reflected in his highest rating of all time. People
thought he was far the best before he gained the title. Anand is a
tremendous underdog and if he wins, one imagines Carlsen will one day
regain the throne.

This thread is still named after last year's 3-win match -- three wins for Carlsen and the title to Anand's zero wins.  There's
another one starting tomorrow in Russia this time to last year's India. 
There are 12 rounds or games before any tie-break. 

http://en.chessbase.com/post/sometimes-sweet-revenge-matches.  See how many
games are played historically, as many as 32 isn't it?  Everyone knows Draws will win out over
player One and player Two something like Draws-9 #1-2 #2-1, or maybe Draw
10, Players 2, or at best Draws 8 combined Players 4 Wins. That's because in this day and age the openings are so well-rehearsed, not any skill of the players, in fact if anything their inferiority to the "great predecessors," a Kasparov coinage.  Rest assured for each and every 
Draw some pundit or other will call it a Fighting Draw.

 Such prosaic, lackluster banality would not happen with Chess variants, many of which would have far superior challenging rules-sets let alone computer-resistance.

Before Chennai November 2013, Carlsen was just a prodigy not a Champion.  Will Carlsen's reign turn out to be only the one year?  That would be like short-reigned Euwe and Smyslov of great intellectual/artistic credentials.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/ilyumzhinov-putin-meet-discuss-sochi-match.

Carlsen mis-handles the exchanges just before Move 26 leaving R-N to B-N-N.


http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1479611.

  Yet even accepting things that far, the error as such is not doing
'32 R-c8+...', check right away.  Checking would gain one Pawn soon and
another Pawn eventually without letting Black start advancing.

Queens are gone by Move 17 when already there are only 5 Pawns left a side:
 

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1479611.   There are forty
more moves after Move 17 Queen exchange.  Where does White go wrong?

http://en.chessbase.com/post/world-championship-sochi-official-web-site.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1499643, '27 Qa3...' and
White should pick off the stray Pawn first. 

Carlsen and Donald Duck: http://en.chessbase.com/post/friendly-relations-magnus-carlsen-and-donald-duck#discuss.

Three weeks to Simpleminded Chess rematch in Sochi:
http://en.chessbase.com/post/world-championship-guide-to-sochi.
Three past games to clear out, here's one:

  http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1340320       Where does Black go
wrong?  One Kibitz asks, what about '18 ...bxc4'?  Let's go with that as at least a Draw for Carlsen  (http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2012/07/magnus-carlsen-am-i-tired-what-stupid.html ).

Next, http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1499643 -- Where does White go wrong?

I think it's wonderful that they're playing again and I can't count
Anand-the-underdog out. I'm rooting for him because he's a peer age-wise.
He might very well come back and win. He earned the rematch by beating very
fine players. He has experience, nerve and pluck. Carlsen and Anand both
have remarkably fine personalities, similar ones even, winsome and
charismatic and a pinch self-deprecatory. Great chess athletes and fine,
beloved people. I won't be surprised if this isn't their last world
championship match. 

Caruana vs. Carlsen seems like a good possibility too though. Edit: This is a fun site to monitor: http://www.2700chess.com/

New Chess star age 22,
http://en.chessbase.com/post/grandmaster-clash-in-slate-magazine, US-born
now Italian is quickly #3.  Carlsen-Anand II will probably be the last of
two between them, with couple candidates to replace Anand in 2015.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/huffington-caruana-s-spectacular-chess-leap.

Where does Black go wrong?  

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1340320.

These three pre-world championship games, Carlsen lost to Anand. (The post mortem will be in same messages as intended, not three separate ones.)

Where does White go wrong?  

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1479611.

Where does White go wrong?  

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1499643

In the close-held world of top simpleminded Chess, they don't like to review their own games after the month of a tournament.  Notice the ChessGames Kibitzing does not include the players.

Stalemate Part 3:
http://en.chessbase.com/post/stalemate-the-long-and-the-short-of-it-3.

Reti in year 1924: http://www.openchessbooks.org/reti-mic/chapter6/reform_in_chess.html.

________________________
Six weeks to the Championship in Sochi: http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/8257-fide-world-chess-championship-match-2014.html.

Where does Black go wrong?  Let's guess it's beyond their strict
memorization at around Move 9 ...Q-c7.  Still several more moves are pretty
routine.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1693032.

How about saying error by Black standing out is 


14 ...Q-b6, where instead 14 ...Q-h5 looks pretty fearless.  The way it actually went, after Castling, 19 ...fe6, and Black has awkward doubled Pawn.

The ChessBase Kasparov piece,
http://en.chessbase.com/post/kasparov-the-future-of-chess-not-fide, has
today's date, but the article itself is same one on the Kasparov site for
over a month, "Europe a lost continent" and all -- sounds like Fischer. 
Please someone listen to the Fox interview first and see if any of it is
about innovation in Chess.  Probably it's all dry politics not Chess, Kasparov
cozy with Wall Street Journal editors in contrast to WSJ progressive
reporters.  Anyway politics is absolute order of the eve of the Scottish
election, all bets off.  

And the fitting CV? Four-Handed Chaturanga, http://www.chessvariants.org/historic.dir/chaturang4.html, the variant from around 1000, under "Variant for Gamblers," by Arabian Abu'r-Raihan Muhammad, b. Ahmad al beruni (973-1048) played with two six-sided dice, ostensibly peaceably.  Fitting because the invention of the subvariant of Indian subcontinent original (possible Chinese aspect), does roughly coincide with arrival of Chess itself for the settled masses of Kasparov's "lost continent." 

Beyond Simpleminded 
Chess to friendly   Chess, how trivial can you get:  http://online.wsj.com/articles/chess-greats-meet-in-midtown-1410836727, no not long ago also this week.
Guaranteed, Kasparov could not be in shape to handle even a short 
Simpleminded match, let alone selection from our top 50.  
  A Fourriere or Cetina or half dozen others  would crush him.

The article also gets it wrong about precedence. The most important part of a heraldic composition is the background, and as this is the blue of Scotland it is a Sottish flag with other bits bolted on. This could be seen as a recognition that the first king of both relams ruled Scotland before he nherited England.

Of the flags on the second page linked to, the "Union Jackson" looks quite amusing but would be hard to describe in words - or replicate consistently. Options adding the royal arms are just confusing two strands of imagery. The idea for simply replacing te blue with green is the best of tha bunch, but should be done in conjunction with making the red diagonal bits symmetric to complete the removal of the flag's Scottish elements.

BBC thought about the flag question almost a year ago ... here are some
designs

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25205017

(BTW, I find the "German Jack" in black, red and gold quite funny)

and here are 25 more designs:

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25222891

(BTW, I like Dave Parker's and Michael Elliot's designs)

It's become like diplomacy,
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/scotland-referendum-no-longer-about-keeping-calm-and-carrying-on-1.2762611.
 There are on CVPage three no less to compare: Diplomacy Chess, Diplomatic
Chess, and Diplomat Chess by three different authors. One http://www.chessvariants.org/43.dir/diplomat/diplomat-chess.html for looking like Scottish kilt.

What about the flag?  Charles, won't the Scotland aspect in the flag have to go?  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Jack.

Current poll is neck and neck,
http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/08/world/europe/uk-scotland-independence/index.html?hpt=hp_t2,
for Scotland and England to end 300-yr. arrangement.  What CVs have that
same catch-up quality?  That is, 'Yes' on Scotland seems to have jumped
almost 10 points in a month.*

First to mind, CV Rococo lets player opposing same-level down a major piece still turn
it around and win.  Looking at the NextChess list suspended in 2011, http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displaycomment.php?commentid=27016, other candidate CVs for reversing big deficit to eventual win are Bifurcators and Time Travel Chess and Eight-Stone.  A factor is not enough actual play to judge.

Two months 'til the World Championship of Simpleminded Chess: http://en.chessbase.com/post/carlsen-signs-for-sochi-will-defend-title.

*http://yougov.co.uk/news/2014/09/06/latest-scottish-referendum-poll-yes-lead/.

The poll narrows,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scottish-independence/11069121/Scottish-independence-Yes-camp-closes-the-poll-gap.html,
all but neck and neck whether to secede from 300-year united Kingdom.  Two
weeks to go, will Scotia return to the days of William and Mary, with Scottish correspondence in http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usfeatures/timeline/to1740.html -- if not
strictly shakespearean-age Elizabeth I, as UK-citizen anti-monarchist
Charles Gilman points out?

Http://www.chessvariants.org/unequal.dir/magnacarta.html   ->

http://www.chessvariants.org/diffmove.dir/separate-realms.html?

[ http://whatscotlandthinks.org/questions/should-scotland-be-an-independent-country-1#line ]

The poll narrows,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scottish-independence/11069121/Scottish-independence-Yes-camp-closes-the-poll-gap.html,
all but neck and neck.  Two weeks to go, will Scotia return to the days of
William and Mary, if not strictly Elizabeth I, as anti-monarchist Charles
Gilman points out?

[ Sorry all the above duplicated in longer comment, added 3.Sept.14: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-29037323 ]

What was happening 100 years ago?
http://www.openchessbooks.org/reti-mic/chapter6/reform_in_chess.html. Well
91 years ago, actually 100 years ago because Reti is (reti)-reiterating
Lasker from 100 years ago in Chapter 6 of year 1923 'Modern Ideas in Chess'.
Lasker friend of Einstein and fellow German mathematics professor.

Oh not one hundred years ago, today, 

http://en.chessbase.com/post/stalemate-the-long-and-the-short-of-it-2.

They think they have a stalemate or something, or metaphorically win by Stalemate, but they lost, lost as soundly as Kasparov this time and that 20 yrs. ago or thereabouts 17: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Blue_versus_Garry_Kasparov.
 to not reform but revolution of some kind.

In the over-refined decadence of Simpleminded Chess, they rerun Stalemate as Win almost as often as falsifying reinvention of compounds Rook-Knight and Bishop-Knight* -- suppressing its 400-year-old origin in west Mediterranean Carrera's, http://www.chessvariants.org/historic.dir/carrera.html.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1693032.  That's Carlsen-Anand from 2012, where does Black go wrong?
_____________________________________________________________

///*For example shouldn't well-known 10-yr.-old Seirawan Chess (http://www.seirawanchess.com/ if it upheld intellectual honesty have mentioned Capablanca and Bird and Carrera and Reshevsky using the same 
"new" pieces before today?

In the other vote a month away,
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/aug/17/scottish-independence-poll-yes-gains-ground,
the poll has narrowed to 45 to 55 for Scotland independence, prospective
end to 400-year joint monarchy.

From M&B02 current revision Charles Gilman clarifies how Stuart as in House of Stuart derives from Steward "...STEWARD, this piece moves one step along any orthogonal except when capturing, which it does one step along any standard diagonal - a Pawn expanded to sideways and backward as well as forward. One of the most famous stewards in history was Walter the Steward, who married a daughter of Robert the First of Scotland and whose son by her ultimately became Robert the Second, first king of the House of Stuart. The surname Stuart derives from steward. In the current British monarchy, the title of High Steward of Scotland is a courtesy title of the heir to the throne." 

There were the six Union Stuarts: http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/monarchy/stuarts.html.

Congratulations to both:
http://en.chessbase.com/post/fide-elections-putin-congratulates-ilyumzhinov.  Who can explain Kasparov's, "While Europe is becoming a lost continent...."?  [Incidentally over ten years ago, Chessbase deleted or revised after a while a slur on Africans by Kasparov in article covering Wijk aan Zee chess tournament.  The great former champion by now makes complete amends in promoting Chess in Africa not only during the campaign.]

There will be another election in four years, and for all his successes, such as having over 200 member states, Ilyumzhinov probably doesn't want it for life. FIDE is relatively new organization, just turning 90 years, as 1500-year-old Chess goes. This thread being Anand-Carlsen 2013, by time of election 2018 we may have Carlsen-Anand V, if there are any takers besides Sochi.  Anyway rest assured Chess variants are sure to overtake standard little 64-square OrthoChess, if only for sake of making it interesting to Computers again. 

After diverting side-trip, back to games of Carlsen and Anand in anticipation of Sochi 2014.

Victory statement and 4-year mission: http://fidefirst.com/.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/fide-and-ecu-elections-in-the-international-press.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Chess_Championship_2014 -- less than 3 months to the rematch of Carlsen-Anand (added 13.08.14).

http://en.chessbase.com/post/kirsan-ilyumzhinov-remains-fide-president

http://kasparov2014.com/2014/08/07/ilyumzhinovs-proxy-war/.

http://fidefirst.com/.

On the World Chess Federation site, there are occasional references to Chess variants, such as Chinese Chess and this recent one to Fischer Random: http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/4-tournaments/7769-fischer-random-chess-tournament-in-moscow.html.

Kasparov plays Shogi: http://www.chessvariants.org/shogi.dir/kasparov/kasparovshogi.html.

Kasparov's one-time advocacy of Advanced Chess, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Chess, was called a terrible idea by GM Seirawan (co-inventor of Seirawan Chess).  On Fischer Random, Kasparov has given some consideration to playing widely one position a year: http://en.chessbase.com/post/the-garry-kasparov-interview-part-2.    The Chessbase interview has photo of Kasparov and Ilyumzhinov together at Prague in 2002.

http://fidefirst.com/.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/magazine/garry-kasparov.html?_r=0.

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/chess-with-qaddafi-and-aliens.


Ilyumzhinov speculates above on extraterrestrials, and Kasparov below on new chronology: http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/newchronology.html.

The election will be not this week but August 11. http://www.newsinenglish.no/2014/08/04/campaign-rages-for-chess-presidency/.

The best chess masters of every epoch have been closely linked with the
values of the society in which they lived and worked. All the changes of a
cultural, political, and psychological background are reflected in the
style and ideas of their play.  -- Garry Kasparov


It was an impressive achievement, of course, and a human achievement by the members of the IBM team, but Deep Blue was only intelligent the way your programmable alarm clock is intelligent. Not that losing to a $10 million alarm clock made me feel any better. -- GK

 
Chess is far too complex to be definitively solved with any technology we can conceive of today. However, our looked-down-upon cousin, checkers, or draughts, suffered this fate quite recently thanks to the work of Jonathan Schaeffer at the University of Alberta and his unbeatable program Chinook. -- GK
 
 
 

 
The development of Chess is closely connected to the development of civilization. Everything that happens is in one way or another connected to Chess. In the 1970's there were two worlds fighting each other. Two political systems were in conflict--which one is better? And then we have a situation on the chessboard with the representative of the capitalist world, Fischer, on one side, and Boris Spassky on the other side. These two worlds fought each other. .... So, Chess was faster -- it foresaw this event. Chess is a mirror reflection of our life. Then, during perestroika--this unclear situation mirrored our unclear situation in chess, the split of world champions. -- Kirsan Ilyumzhinov from J.C. Hallman 'The Chess Artist' (2003) 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/heavyweights-spar-over-top-job-in-international-chess/article19321318/.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/opening-ceremony-in-tromso.

Background from 2 months ago regarding f.i.d.e. election August 7: http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/russia-seeks-to-sway-chess-election-against-putin-enemy.

In September 2010 Ilyumzhinov was elected again that time over Karpov by 95-55: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirsan_Ilyumzhinov. There are 174 countries with teams participating now.
The Wikipedia article linked above lists 'The Chess Artist', and following does include quote by Ilyumzhinov from that book: http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displaycomment.php?commentid=20571.

http://kasparov2014.com/ OR http://fidefirst.com/?p=2393 -- three days to the voting on players' day off.

It starts: http://en.chessbase.com/post/olympiad-just-two-days-left
(Environment-conscious are free to think of the repugnant Whaling aspect to the
venue, http://www.ifaw.org/united-states/our-work/whales/which-countries-are-still-whaling).

It ends? --  http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-29/scottish-referendum-could-end-300-year-union-with-england/5629924.   

Edinburgh, Scotland, to Oslo Norway, direct as the crow flies, is 934 kilometres (580 miles), the same distance as Chicago to Washington and same as Moscow to Kryvyi Rih, central Ukraine.  Recall Ukraine, http://www.chessvariants.org/multimove.dir/progressive.html, holding  Progressive tournaments, and Scottish Progressive one of the few.

http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/8168-90th-anniversary-of-fide.html.

http://www.chess.com/news/ilyumzhinov-vs-kasparov-whats-going-on-with-afghanistan--gabon-7142.

http://kasparov2014.com/.

[Added 17.July.14, http://en.chessbase.com/post/garry-kasparov-on-the-threat-to-troms].

http://kasparov2014.com/.

http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/8067-fide-elections-2014-time-schedule.html.

http://www.chessdom.com/2014-fide-election-tickets-anounced-ilyumzhinov-with-big-lead/ -- there support data in May has Ilyumzhinov 56, Kasparov 20.

e4 or d4? Not locked in a vice:
http://en.chessbase.com/post/popularity-of-chess-openings-over-time.

I think Joe Joyce's post on "male predominance at chess" make more sense
than the study itself. The explanation of gender differences in Chess may
be simpler yet.  **On average**, men are more likely than women to purse
activities that have no social utility apart from the pleasure of doing
that activity. Chess is in that category (as indeed are checkers, card
games, etc.) No insult intended--I am interested in Chess variants for my
own pleasure and no other reason and feel no need to apologize to anyone
for that fact, and neither judge nor wish to judge anyone else for doing
the same.

I have considered that Chess can teach critical thinking, strategic
planning, etc. Yes it can, but so can a myriad of non-game things useful in
themselves apart from teaching.

"Male predominance at chess" is a current fact of reality. I suspect
there are males who believe this has 1) always been true, 2) always will be
true, and 3) SHOULD be true. A significant number of such males will then
reason by analogy about "male predominance in science", etc.

I won't touch of the idea of a female human being who argues for "male
predominance ...", the very idea terrifies me.

If the author's conclusions in this article are accurate, then males
would
also be better at chess variants. Chess is chess, until it isn't. (How
many would recognize this game as a shatranj variant?
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1178742/some-impressions-after-playing-the-battle-of-macys)

However, I would take issue with at least some of the conclusions in the
article. The last 2 paragraphs of the article are:
"Males on average may have some innate advantages in developing chess
skill due to previous differing evolutionary pressures on the sexes.
Females may have greater talent on average in other domains, however. If
the male predominance in chess was due just to social factors it should
have greatly lessened or disappeared by now. Indeed, some researchers now
recognize that many psychological sex differences are due to complex
interactions between nature and nurture.

This conclusion is unpalatable to many but it is best to acknowledge how
the world actually is."

The idea that social factors are now balanced between men and women is a
stretch, one I do not agree with. I believe it's been demonstrated that
if
there is a difference between men and women in any area, a good part of
that difference *is* social conditioning. Encouragement and discouragement
in children is often quite subtle, and recent studies of films of classes,
for example, show this clearly. You want 2 kids who read the same to read
completely differently 5 years from now. Tell one kid (s)he is a good
reader and the other (s)he is a bad reader. Sometimes that's all it takes
to turn 2 average readers into non-average readers. If that isn't enough,
give the "good" reader encouragement and somewhat harder and harder
books
to read, and ask them what they liked and didn't like, and what they
learned.Give the "bad" reader very simple kids books to read, with
orders
to write book reports on them. Keep it up for a year, and see what happens
several years further on. Any bets?

I do not claim men and women are equal in everything, as that is obviously
wrong. I do not even claim that the difference shown in the article isn't
real. What I do claim is that the author never analyzed the male players
the way the female players were analyzed. Suppose only the top 5% of all
chessplaying men go on to get better, and the top 50% of women do. What
would that do to the conclusions? We know that women are discouraged from
things like chess, and men are encouraged to play things like chess, on
average. Finally, the little matter of sexual harassment also has a
bearing. Based on studies of women, any that rise are subjected to more
intense, more open, and more hidden harassment. In fact, you can see that
in the news, if you look. Just 1 example, the Gov. Christie bridge-closing
scandal was blamed entirely on a woman working directly for Christie by
the
lawyers Christie hired to "investigate". It seems she was having an
affair with another Christie top gun, and he dumped her, leaving her to
close the bridge in a fit of irrational female passion - all her fault,
because she was jilted.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/explaining-male-predominance-in-chess -- would
males also predominate at Chess variants?

November Championship, Carlsen-Anand II, to be in Sochi, thanks to Putin
and Ilumzhinov:
http://en.chessbase.com/post/breaking-news-world-championship-in-sochi. 

Interests in Chicago, 

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-05-27/opinion/ct-make-chicago-chess-mecca-edit-0527-20140527_1_chess-master-chess-mecca-bobby-fischer, 

had been weighing a bid, "before Vladimir Putin snags this tournament for the greater glory of Russia."

A close contest, Ilyumzhinov and Kasparov, in the ninth inning:
http://en.chessbase.com/post/kasparov-answers-questions-in-norway-1-2.

[And http://en.chessbase.com/post/kasparov-answers-questions-in-norway-2-2, in which on deep 'e4 or d4?' at top 'e4' is shunned]

Is e4 or d4 the better? 
http://en.chessbase.com/post/1-e4-or-1-d4-which-is-the-better-move.

Contrast to the earlier series of  'e4 versus d4': http://en.chessbase.com/post/1-e4-best-by-test-part-2,

http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displaycomment.php?commentid=30425.

On Carlsen-Anand II for November 2014, there is routine extended time by world chess body f.i.d.e. to announce venue. Here is a Carlsen-Anand game from 2012: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1693032. Where does Black go wrong?  There are fourteen pages of kibitzing, 80% of it live 12.Oct.2012, mostly about Anand's errors.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/no-bids-for-world-championship-2014

Chess is Art!   

http://en.chessbase.com/post/diana-mihajlova-chess-is-art. 

Some of CV art embedded in new CV: 

http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MSdurerschess by Cannon whose first CV designs were in 1970s. 

http://www.chessvariants.org/large.dir/contest84/tetrahedralchess.html, 3d by mathematician Thompson.

http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MSantarcticchess, snow crystal.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/world-champions-reclaiming-a-lost-century-2 is
ChessBase article Part Two.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/on-an-oil-rig-you-gotta-be-kidding  the
expected Be Mused retraction.

[8.4.14 Today's quote: "A gust of wind is wild and free, but there are handcuffs on the storm." --Charles Fort 'Wild Talents' (1932).

Also excellent article: http://en.chessbase.com/post/world-championship-reclaiming-a-lost-century.  The fulcrum has to be Kasparov as number 13 appropriate for April Fool's, Kasparov birthday April 13, and the question is whether five earlier champions.]

Coverage of OrthoChess events has not been extensive since November 2013
title match between Carlsen and Anand. Supposed breaking  news:
Http://en.chessbase.com/post/breaking-news-world-championship-2014-in-norway.
It's April 1, so unlikely the match is to be on oil rig. Yet other than Roberto Lavieri's
elo rating discussion a decade ago, Chess variantists mostly avoid
Simpleminded Chess anyway, and oil rig would be really tacky.  On the very same day chessbase announces World Championship on practical temporizing oil rig, oxymoronically: http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_25463370/u-s-calls-costs-inaction-catastrophic, so the joke's on 10 million species.

 This topic will go on looking at
some great games, like the one already queried Aronian versus Carlsen in 2011, http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1633757: where does White go wrong? 

It is continuation of topic "Spassky-Bronstein++":
http://www.chessvariants.org/index/listcomments.php?subjectid=4a7b07267bc311c0.  There over score of OrthoChess all-time games are annotated, including most of the Spassky-Fischer 1972.

[Instead of quote, today's side topic: http://www.ifaw.org/united-states/our-work/whales/which-countries-are-still-whaling. Here's for genuine end to Whale slaughter, as well as Draw-dominated simpleminded OrthoChess championship business as usual?]

Towards the rematch,
http://en.chessbase.com/post/candidates-rd10-kramnik-s-downfall, and 8
months of hoopla til November.

Post-Zurich there is a Candidates',
http://en.chessbase.com/post/candidates-2014-what-will-it-bring, to get
challenger 2014 World Chess Championship. Who won Zurich? Magnus Carlsen.
Will it be Carlsen-Anand again in November? Or Carlsen-Aronian, or someone
else? All the Orthodox tournaments stay here since they morph one into
another.

Here's an Aronian best game: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1633757, one of five best. Where does White go wrong?  Any takers?

Variantists, here's a new fantasy CV to rate:
http://en.chessbase.com/post/a-new-challenging-chess-variant.  Poor? 
Mediocre?  Good? Great?  That actually just went up with full Rules here at CVPage recently: http://www.chessvariants.org/other.dir/sscc.html. 

Hey opening theory certainly goes out the board, if a player thinks "chain" and is willing to lose a little material.  Is all Rules dis-ambiguation complete?

See Switch-Side Chain-Chess to critique, preliminarily noted above whilst Zurich tournament progresses: http://en.chessbase.com/post/zurich-03-freak-occurrence.  Unlike the best ever chess tournament Zurich 1953 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zurich_1953_chess_tournament), current Zurich 2014 is not a Candidates', but the coverage stays here since Anand-Carlsen 2013 will soon morph into Carlsen-other 2014.

Whew. Anand is going to participate, so chances are Simpleminded Chess will
pit the same two Carlsen-Anand championship November 2014.
http://en.chessbase.com/post/anand-will-he-won-t-he-he-will.  Nakamura though #3 lacks required pre-qualifier, or more so became as high as #3 too late.

So much for the element of surprise: Is d4 or e4 the better, asks
Chessbase, the Simpleminded Chess site,
http://en.chessbase.com/post/1-e4-best-by-test-part-2?  Suppose, within
different elo ranges, one stands atop 1% or 2%.  Then theoretically they
can ban the other opening move from given tournament, as stupid, and
eventually everyone must play even the first ten moves alike.  Well, almost they do already in generalized sense that each sensible first 8 or 10 has been long recognizable as to have own disambiguated name.  

Hence the liturgical ring of some "Nimzo-Indian Defence, Normal Variation,
Bernstein Defence, Exchange Line" though "simply" '1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3
Nc3 Bb4 4 e3 0-0 5 Nf3 d5 6 Bd3 c5 7 0-0 Nc6 8 a3 Bxc3 9 Bxc3...' It and
hundreds others speak volumes in memorizable confining repetition of fundamentalists. 

The November 2014 championship is fully in the works: http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/7672-bidding-procedure-fide-world-championship-match-2014-.html.  It will pit Carlsen and someone other than Nakamura.  Though Nakamura is now #3 elo, on technicality he happens to lack the pre-qualifiers this year.   

"Magnus" and "Gargantua,"  though different cognates are of course synonyms within and across languages, meaning very big.   Too, the images -- http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2012/07/magnus-carlsen-am-i-tired-what-stupid.html,

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pantagruel%27s_childhood.jpg --  arguably bear not altogether remote resemblance, one of OrthoChess Carlsen, other from Rabelais five-book masterpiece.  Now his 'Gargantua and Pantagruel'(circa 1540) is totally concerning Chess of the 1530s, when modern ranging Queen was recent invention, expressed in this work's Chapter XXV, http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/r/rabelais/francois/r11g/book5.25.html, and later illustrated by Gustave Dore.

Shogi champion plays Simpleminded Chess:
http://en.chessbase.com/post/shogi-masters-play-chess.

Variantists, please say a prayer for the singleminded OrthoChessist. For
they're locked in a vice and cannot move to avert a gaze.  The key
serial number R-N-B-Q-K-P is hard to grasp.  Their own colourful history is
off-limits to them: exotic Alfil, unaccustomed General, blindfolded
Philidor, the Turk computer, free castling, Great Chess(es).  Riveted
 hoi polloi masses are forbidden even glancing at almost twenty-year-old
man-machine Kasparov or randomizing Fischer -- two too controversial. 
http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/42-16964968/illustration-of-a-scene-from-gargantua-by.
These images grace Rabelaisian Chess Chapters 24 and 25, when in the 1540s
Queen Whims vanished along with chess variants.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Book/Chapter_XXIV.

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/r/rabelais/francois/r11g/book5.25.html.   
(Queen Whims reappears of course late 20th century under spell of druid Parton, pioneer Boyer, wizard Betza.)  

Moreover --   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gustave_Dor%C3%A9-L%27Enfance_de_Gargantua.jpg,
 http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/gustave-dore/the-childhood-of-pantagruel -- OrthoChess champion being self-described "non-reader" [http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/magnus_carlsen.html]  puts even fundamentalists further a little on the spot. 
Hey really, Charlemagne himself, of same country as Rabelais, was illiterate, yet founded France and more out of Roman Gaul; Charlemagne never got the hang of writing either.  Did Charlemagne play Chess?  Not a prayer, because Chess forces arrived thereabouts near 1000 from the East. 

http://www.art.com/products/p11723721-sa-i1349195/gustave-dore-education-of-gargantua-illustration-from-gargantua-by-francois-rabelais-1494-1553.htm, 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gustave_Dor%C3%A9_-_Gargantua.jpg.