jan's diary

When Jan Thomas was 2.5 years old we lived for a while in Samaipata where we used to hang out in the Chess Palace (el Palacio de Ajedrez). He impressed everyone as he knew the move of every piece and played me frequently.

Six months ago I downloaded the trial version of Dinosaur chess. Jan Thomas liked it a lot and thanks to it, and getting a few more years on his back?, improved his playing skills considerably. Now he makes devious plans for capturing my pieces, especially looking out for weak pawns (pawns not protected by any other pawn).

Yesterday, we bought the full version of Dinosaur chess and, as I write this, he is busy exploring the once disabled menu options. His brother, Sebastian, is an eager on-looker. Sebastian, by the way, has added ‘check-mate’ to his vocabulary.

Jan vs Jan, February 2011, Santa Cruz de Tenerife:

Click  the image above to enlarge it.

I have been following Magnus playing in Moscow on http://livechess.chessdom.com/site/. One may view all the games live and take part in the conversation. Very exciting, not at all like watching paint dry!

This page is a place for analysing positions. The one shown occurred in Magnus’ last game, which he won. Here is his new blog, where he talks about each round he played in Moscow. Here is Saavedra’s Study.

Magnus Carlsen won a tournament in China some weeks ago, see here, and has now just started a new tournament in Moscow with nine of the best chess players in the world.

Last night, in the first round he played a former world champion, Kramnik, and I followed it live from 2100 to 0130 here (click Tal Memorial 2009) and then round 1 Carlsen – Kramnik), together with people posting their chess analysis like:

super12345: Rybka’s moved to .00 after Rh8, what have the other engines done?

Destrudo: one mistake could spell doom for either player

juanitoguate: yeah super, but carlsen can queen once, whereas kramnik can queen thrice!

In the end no one queened and it was a draw. It was extremely exciting to see the game unfold. Especially since the majority thought at one time or another that Kramnik had winning chances.

Second round tonight!

What to do if you want to play chess, but do not have a chess clock? One option is to use the online chess clock at http://www.skakur.dk/:

Put the chess board close to the keyboard and hit any key when you have done your move.

But what if one has neither clock, nor board? One may, of course, play online with e.g. BabasChess, but there are also free offline options. I tried Chess Free, Lord of the Chess, and Mayura Chess Board. Only the latter was any good. It allows human vs human and the clocks are ticking down. You are also told when you have lost on time and there are various options for setting the clocks. The pieces are not very pleasant to look at, but otherwise the program is fine.

The other day I saw the film again. Little did I know that the film is based on a true story. The film is based on a book written by Fred Waitzkin, the father of Joshua Waitzkin.

A few links:

• Wikipedia about Joshua Waitzkin
• Interview (video) with Joshua Waitkin about his book
• Joshua Waitzkin’s web site
• Wikipedia about the film

Ingredients:

• A chess friend with Internet access
• Free Internet Chess Server
• BabasChess
• Skype

The European Chess Congress is taking place in Greece at the moment. Watch the games live at this site.

Magnus Carlsen is playing on table one for a team from Armenia called Mika CC. Above he is White attacking the isolated black pawn at d5. The position is automatically updated when a move is made.

I am following the second game live at this page. It is the first time I have followed a high level chess game live on the Internet, and I must say as Larry David: ‘It is pretty good!’

Kramnik is Black, but is throwing all his pieces in an attack on Anand. He could just have taken a pawn for free, but played h5 continuing the onslaught.