Posts Tagged ‘sports’

On the right path

Posted in My Own Games, tagged , , , , on December 23, 2024| Leave a Comment »

I am already benefitting noticeably from abandoning online chess and playing Lucas Chess instead. The engine I chose, Cinammon 1.2c. I have to be at my very best to stand a chance, and in the dozens of games already played, I only have one draw. But in most game I really stick it to it and gain a strong initiative, sometimes with sacrifices. I’ve nearly had it beat quite a few times.

The most obvious benefit being it has revatalized my approach, level of seriousness and begun complexifying my decision making process for my moves. It’s pulling my out of the malaise 4 years of online chess created. There is work to be done as I am still making mistakes but less so and they don’t usually lose my the games, more so the initiative. Correction there is not work to be done, there is much work to be done. This is quite okay as I am already enjoying it because my style has become very attacking, and I am already far better than what I usually am. Happy to play 10 games a day, after all, I am am holiday and have to rest up anyway after the accident I had a few days back. Here’s a link to the draw I should have won, illustrated by embedded pgn, so you can play through it.

https://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=14443&p=313683#p313683

Impressive huh?

MJM

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Who Wants to be a Millionaire chess special 4

Posted in Trivia, Who wants to be a millionaire chess special, tagged , , , , on December 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Unlike the popular gameshow, features such as ‘ask the audience, phone a friend, and 50/50‘ are inapplicable here -sincere apologies. Unfortunately, there’s no money to be made from this also. 🙂 However, do your best but do it alone please -no googling!

Question 1 £100

Which piece sits aside both the king and queen at the start of the game?

A: Pawn

B: Bishop

C: Knight

D: Rook

Question 2 £200

Which of these is not an example of under-promotion?

A: promoting a pawn to a queen.

B: promoting a pawn to a knight.

C: promoting a pawn to a bishop.

D: promoting a pawn to a rook.

Question 3 £300

The term zwischenzug means what in chess?

A: an announcement of stalemate.

B: an inability to make any good moves

C: an adjustment of a piece

D: an in-between move

Question 4 £400

Which former world champion has a term involving a weapon named after him?

A: Steinitz

B: Lasker

C: Alekhine

D: Kasparov

Question 5 £500

Which maneuver can be classified as artificial or by hand?

A: castling

B: double check

C: pawn promotion

D: en passant

Question 6 £1,000

After 1. d4 is played, if black then plays 1. …b5, this is known as what?

A: The Czech Defence

B: The Hungarian Defence

C: The Austrian Defence

D: The Polish Defence

Question 7 £2,000

The fifth official world champion was from which country?

A: Germany

B: The Netherlands

C: Cuba

D: The Soviet Union

Question 8 £4,000

Former world champion Magnus Carlsen’s real first name is not Magnus but what?

A: Henrick

B: Oscar

C: Sven

D: Per

Question 9 £8,000

How many non-european presidents has F.I.D.E had?

A: 1

B: 2

C: 3

D: 4

Question 10 £16,000

Sans Voir is a term which refers to what?

A: Blindfold chess

B: Kriegspiel

C: 960 chess

D: Bughouse chess

Question 11 £32,000

The F.I.D.E 2004 World Championship between Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Leko was held in which country?

A: Germany

B: Italy

C: Austria

D: Switzerland

Question 12 £64,000

Who was the world blitz champion of 2021?

A: Hikaru Nakamura

B: Magnus Carlsen

C: Maxime Vachier Lagrave

D: Sergey Karjakin

Question 13 £125,000

Who, in 1991, was the last player to become Soviet Union Chess Champion?

A: Evgeny Bareev

B: Artashes Minasian

C: Alexander Beliavsky

D: Garry Kasparov

Question 14 £250,000

According to rule 7.3 of the 2023 F.I.D.E rule book. If a game has started with colours reversed, what is the most amount of moves that can be played by both players before the game is discontinued and a new game restarted?

A: 9

B: 10

C: 11

D: 12

Question 15 £500,000

The celerbated problemist Genrikh Kasparyan, known to be one of the greatest end-game study problemists of all time, had which title in classical chess?

A: CM

B: FM

C: IM

D: GM

Question 16 £1,000,000

Who won the first World Open held in New York, 1973?

A: Bent Larsen

B: Pal Benko

C: John Fedorowicz

D: Walter Browne

So there you are, well done if you did well. No money once again I’m afraid owing to being a poor English teacher. I do put thought into this, so if you got more than half right, you did well. Hope you enjoyed, you might even want to give it a shot yourself! 🙂

Mark. J. McCready

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Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Chess Special 3

Posted in Trivia, Who wants to be a millionaire chess special, tagged , , , , on December 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Unlike the popular gameshow, features such as ‘ask the audience, phone a friend, and 50/50‘ are inapplicable here -sincere apologies. Unfortunately, there’s no money to be made from this also. 🙂 However, do your best but do it alone please -no googling!

Question 1 £100

The only piece which cannot move backwards is which?

A: The Bishop

B: The King

C: The knight

D: The Pawn

Question 2 £200

The Persian term “shāh māt” refers to what in the modern term?

A: The king is in check.

B: The king has been checkmated.

C: The king has just castled short.

D: The king has been stalemated.

Question 3 £300

The third official world champion was whom?

A: Capablanca

B: Euwe

C: Alekhine

D: Lasker

Question 4 £400

In Bullet Chess, how long does a player have to make all their moves?

A: 30 seconds

B: 60 seconds

C: 120 seconds

D: 180 seconds

Question 5 £500

The controversial world championship match between Karpov and Kasparov which began in 1984 only to be stopped in 1985 after how many games were played?

A: 44

B: 46

C: 48

D: 50

Question 6 £1,000

The 47th Olympiad will be held in October 2028, in which city?

A: Abu Dhabi

B: Tashkent

C: London

D:New York

Question 7 £2,000

The Lucerna position is an endgame which is defined by which piece?

A: Knight

B: Bishop

C: Rook

D: Queen

Question 8 £4,000

The player once considered the greatest never to become world champion, Paul Keres, was born in and would be chosen to represent which county on today’s world map?

A: Russia

B: Latvia

C: Lithunia

D: Estonia

Question 9 £8,000

9. Which female world champion once lost her title to Xie Jun?

A: Maya Chiburdanidze

B: Irina Levantina

C: Hou Yifan

D: Judit Polgar

Question 10 £16,000
Bodens mate is carried out with which piece(s)?

A: Knights

B: Bishops

C: A rook

D: A queen

Question 11 £32,000

The Book A century of British Chess was written by whom?

A: J. H. Blackburne

B: H. E. Atkins

C: G. E. Thomas

D: P. W. Sargeant

Question 12 £64,000

“Some people think that if their opponent plays a beautiful game, it’s OK to lose. I don’t. You have to be merciless”. Is a quote from which contemporary player?

A: Wesley So

B: Hikaru Nakamura

C: Levon Aronin

D: Magus Carlsen

Question 13 £125,000

Despite being the strongest team the Soviets claimed to have ever faced. England at the 1988 Olmpiad lost to which lesser nation?

A: India

B: China

C: America

D: East. Germany

Question 14 £250,000

Fabiano Caruana’s peek rating was in classical chess came in October 2014. What was it?

A: 2024

B: 2034

C: 2044

D: 2054

Question 15 £500,000

In which city was a tournament abandoned due to the onset of WW1?

A: London

B. Mannheim

C. Manchester

D. Berlin

Question 16 £1,000,000

Who is the only player to play both Lasker and Karpov at classical chess (simuls cannot be counted)?

A: Botvinnik

B: Smyslov

C: Reshevsky

D: Najdorf

There was are. This bring to a conclusion the third of three such attempts. Please don’t feel dishearted that you didn’t win money and get on tv -it was fun right? Do tell me how you got on.

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