CCC Discussing Chess – Posts of Interest # 3 ( Week of March 30 – April 5/12 )

[Bob Armstrong]

Eureka - The Perfect Chess Game Improved!

Hi Egis:

You have to cut me some slack - I'm a Neanderthal trying to adjust to the computer age ( you've read Asimov's book on the child Neanderthal? ).

So I do accept correction and reprimand - there is a difference between " hardware " and " software " ( = Fritz 13 ).

At your encouragement, I went back and let the computer ( right? ) run Fritz 13 ( right? ) longer than I have before - to depth 25. And lo and behold the fickle silicon monster changed his mind! He changed the last four moves AND the valuation ! So the new " Perfect Chess Game, according to Fritz 13, at this level " is:

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Bc5 5.Nxe5 Nxe4 6.Qg4 ( or 6.Qe2 ) Nxe5 7.Qxe4 Qe7+/= ( 0.38! )

As to whether I would choose white or black, I am of the old school and still believe that even if white starts out with a slight advantage ( I dispute the Fritz 13 valuation, and believe at best it is somewhere between 0.00 and 0.25 ), black with perfect play can hold white at that level ( if it's true ) and get a draw. In the which case, I'll let you choose the colour!

Lastly: " feature to connect to a database with evaluated lines done by other computers " - this Neanderthal has no idea how to access that feature, and is unwilling to read the manual to find out. He'll rely on some Austrolopithicus ( I believe an early version of modern Homo Sapiens ? ) to do the task, and just post the answer.

Bob ( Neanderthal ) A

[Bob Armstrong]

King's Gambit Article - April Fools!

Well, I have to eat chuckling humble pie - Chessbase took me in with its April Fools Day joke article on the King's Gambit, with post date of April 2 . Here's the acknowledgement by Chessbase:

April 1st in Pago Pago

So what did we do this year to throw the predators off our tracks? Well, publish the real joke on April 1st at 23:55h, i.e. five minutes before midnight – in Pago Pago. On the one hand we have lots of friends and fans in the capital of American Samoa, and on the other we have always felt sorry for the inhabitants of this Pacific island, which is always the very last place on earth to celebrate the New Year – or in 2000 to enter the new millennium. Publishing the article when it was 23:55h in Pago Pago, however, did not override out content management system's fixation on European Daylight Saving time, to which it currently adheres. For it we had published the report on April second, and shucks to the Pago Pagoians and everyone else. Note that our previous stories, to which it attached the April 1st publication date, appeared when it was already April 2nd in New Zealand or Petropavlovsk (lots of friends and fans there as well).

Bob

[Kerry Liles]

Re: CCC Discussing Chess – Posts of Interest # 3 ( Week of March 30 – April 5/12 )

Computer being used to confirm Fischer thesis on King's Gambit Opening Theory: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8047 .

Bob, CCC Coordinator

Today, Chessbase published an analysis of their April Fool's effort:

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8051

Seems like they were up to more than their usual April Fools crap.