One of the great things about watching competitive events is seeing the occasional upset result. Of course, the best prevail overall, but once in a while, it is most gratifying to see the Gods of their fields brought back down to human level.
In terms of chess, every tournament has some such upset. We have amazingly talented juniors playing well above their level for a game or 2, and well below their level at times too. Likewise, older players with years of experience can sometimes hold, or even frustratingly beat, younger players who may take a risk too much in their attempts to win. We expect Grand Masters to win the majority of their games, and finish at, or near the top of tournament tables, with a promising master possibly giving them a good run for their money.
When an untitled player upsets the cart, and wins a game against one of the elite it makes tournaments that little more interesting. Unfortunately, the day of the underdog is being threatened at the European Women's Championship in Georgia. Romanian Woman Grand Master Mihaela Sandu wasn't expected to be high placed finisher in the tournament, but she is still a WGM with a rating of 2300. She has performed at over 2500 for the tournament, and has beaten some players higher rated than her which has caused a number of competitors to become suspicious and to overtly accuse her of cheating.
The full story can be found on the chess24 website, but it's ugly reading. A letter was sent by a group of players expressing concern at her performance, and amazingly, 3 of the signatories were players who beat Sandu in their games! What is also interesting is not the players who lost to Sandu signed the letters of complaint, and good for them is my opinion.
I realise that there have been some high profile cheating cases in the chess world recently, but this doesn't mean we have to go pointing the finger at anyone and everyone who over performs or causes an upset. Even as I approach 50 years of age, I still dream of good tournament performances. I'm planning on entering the Australian Championships in January, where I would expect to finish in the lower half of the field. But let's just say that I have a stellar tournament and take out a couple of high rated players. Will this raise suspicions, and am I likely to come under the scrutiny of cheating commissions, and feel the wrath of my fellow competitors? If so, then what is the point of me playing?
I'm sure that many people reading this blog will find themselves as underdogs relatively frequently. How would you feel about having played the game of your life, the tournament of your life, and then be accused of cheating?
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Running Update
It's been almost a month since I ran the Puffing Billy Race, so it's time for a quick update. To keep the momentum going, I entered the Run Melbourne half marathon at the end of July which I had to start training for straight away. The week after Puffing Billy I ached and couldn't get motivated to run much. The hills had taken it out of me, and I managed one short jog. But since then, I've trained pretty well.
My plan is to run 3 times a week. I'm going to try a shortish run (5-8 km) at a pace that is faster than normal, a middle distance run (10 km) at a reasonable pace for me, and a long run at any pace I can manage. This last run will hopefully build up to 20 km, as I'm a big believer in getting the distance under ones legs before going for the run.
The week after Puffing Billy was perfect. I ran 7 km on Monday 11th at 6 minute pace, followed ths up with 9 km on Thursday and just under 12 km at the weekend. Actually, since then things have been going absolutely to plan, with the short runs getting a little faster, and the long runs further. I now seem to be able to run 8 or 9 km in 5.50 pace comfortably. Of course, I'd like to bring that down further, perhaps towards 5.30 pace, but I'm not sure how realistic that is for this upcoming run in July.
Today, I went further than ever before at just under 17 km. Though I was going at what felt like an easy pace, the first 5 km were quite reasonable for me, at 28.53, and this continued through to 10 km which took me 58.41. I took a drink break at about 13 km, and was suffering a bit from then on, but still managed to keep going at an average of under 6 minute pace for the whole thing.
I am utterly amazed and thoroughly happy about this run and the progress I've made since Puffing Billy. I was running heavy for Puffing Billy, but I'm over 2 kg lighter now, and would like to lose another 1-2 kg before the half marathon. This might partly explain why I found the hills of Belgrave so difficult this year and faded in the last few km of the Great Train Race.
So with 2 months to go, I intend to crank up the mileage for the next few weeks, and then concentrate on regular speed and strength work after that. After today's run, I feel that a half marathon in uner 2 hours, 10 minutes is possible, and I can even see me aiming for under 2 hours in the future.
My plan is to run 3 times a week. I'm going to try a shortish run (5-8 km) at a pace that is faster than normal, a middle distance run (10 km) at a reasonable pace for me, and a long run at any pace I can manage. This last run will hopefully build up to 20 km, as I'm a big believer in getting the distance under ones legs before going for the run.
The week after Puffing Billy was perfect. I ran 7 km on Monday 11th at 6 minute pace, followed ths up with 9 km on Thursday and just under 12 km at the weekend. Actually, since then things have been going absolutely to plan, with the short runs getting a little faster, and the long runs further. I now seem to be able to run 8 or 9 km in 5.50 pace comfortably. Of course, I'd like to bring that down further, perhaps towards 5.30 pace, but I'm not sure how realistic that is for this upcoming run in July.
Today, I went further than ever before at just under 17 km. Though I was going at what felt like an easy pace, the first 5 km were quite reasonable for me, at 28.53, and this continued through to 10 km which took me 58.41. I took a drink break at about 13 km, and was suffering a bit from then on, but still managed to keep going at an average of under 6 minute pace for the whole thing.
I am utterly amazed and thoroughly happy about this run and the progress I've made since Puffing Billy. I was running heavy for Puffing Billy, but I'm over 2 kg lighter now, and would like to lose another 1-2 kg before the half marathon. This might partly explain why I found the hills of Belgrave so difficult this year and faded in the last few km of the Great Train Race.
So with 2 months to go, I intend to crank up the mileage for the next few weeks, and then concentrate on regular speed and strength work after that. After today's run, I feel that a half marathon in uner 2 hours, 10 minutes is possible, and I can even see me aiming for under 2 hours in the future.
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
City of Melbourne Open Round 5
We have a new leader in the City of Melbourne Open. My brief spell at the top ended at the hands of IM Mirko Rujevic. Mirko is playing in the Victorian Championship at the moment, but it doesn't dampen his fighting spirit, and it took just a moment of hesitation on my part to allow him to take the initiative which he didn't relinquish until I resigned in a hopeless position. It was a powerful display by Mirko and he leapfrogs over me into a half point lead on 4.5.
I'm joined on 4/5 by FM Jack Puccini and Simon Schmidt, who is also playing in the Victorian Championship, while among those half a point back is Malcolm Pyke, another Victorian Championship competitor. This all goes to show that the City of Melbourne Open is a pretty good field, and that lots of hard competition is good for your chess. Simon Schmidt is playing more than anyone, as he's also competing in the Box Hill Club Championship!
With 4 rounds still to play, there are still a lot of ways the tournament could go, but the per tournament favourites are beginning to rise to the top. Nguyen bounced back with a win to join Malcolm and another 5 players on 3.5. The group on 3/5 is led by 2200+ rated Nedimovic. There were a couple of upsets on the lower boards with Tanya Krstevska, Simon Dale and John Beckman overcoming players rated 200 points higher.
The pairings are usually up on Thursday and once again, I will not be making any predictions about who will be playing who. To my simple mind, Jack Puccin and Mirko Rujevic should be playing, which would be a great board 1 fight. But I'll make no predictions on the pairings as I'm more often wrong than right.
If it's black's move in the above position, then c4 closing out the light squared bishop, followed by a queen side expansion gives black level chances. Unfortunately for me, it was white's turn, and Mirko took the initiative with a typical central thrust 13.e5! After 13..dxe5 14.Nxe5 Be6 15.Bxe6 fxe6 white has a better position, but more importantly has an initiative which is one of Mirko's strengths.
Defending difficult positions, and trying to negate an opponent's initiative is one of my own weaknesses, and from the above position I succumbed rather too easily to Mirko's powerful play.
I'm joined on 4/5 by FM Jack Puccini and Simon Schmidt, who is also playing in the Victorian Championship, while among those half a point back is Malcolm Pyke, another Victorian Championship competitor. This all goes to show that the City of Melbourne Open is a pretty good field, and that lots of hard competition is good for your chess. Simon Schmidt is playing more than anyone, as he's also competing in the Box Hill Club Championship!
With 4 rounds still to play, there are still a lot of ways the tournament could go, but the per tournament favourites are beginning to rise to the top. Nguyen bounced back with a win to join Malcolm and another 5 players on 3.5. The group on 3/5 is led by 2200+ rated Nedimovic. There were a couple of upsets on the lower boards with Tanya Krstevska, Simon Dale and John Beckman overcoming players rated 200 points higher.
The pairings are usually up on Thursday and once again, I will not be making any predictions about who will be playing who. To my simple mind, Jack Puccin and Mirko Rujevic should be playing, which would be a great board 1 fight. But I'll make no predictions on the pairings as I'm more often wrong than right.
If it's black's move in the above position, then c4 closing out the light squared bishop, followed by a queen side expansion gives black level chances. Unfortunately for me, it was white's turn, and Mirko took the initiative with a typical central thrust 13.e5! After 13..dxe5 14.Nxe5 Be6 15.Bxe6 fxe6 white has a better position, but more importantly has an initiative which is one of Mirko's strengths.
Defending difficult positions, and trying to negate an opponent's initiative is one of my own weaknesses, and from the above position I succumbed rather too easily to Mirko's powerful play.
Sunday, May 24, 2015
Internet Abuse
The internet is a strange world. As a repository for information it is amazing, and some of the things that can be done and shared online are wonderful. As a chess player, I know that I can now play at any time, day and night where before the internet, I'd have to make the effort to travel to a chess club, possibly once a week. And chess is certainly not the only thing that has benefited from online development. But there are negative sides to the internet too, and I'm not just talking about flagrant criminal activity.
As a minor user of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, I see people abusing the sites in bizarre ways. Cyber bullying or "trolling" is rife throughout these social media sites, illegal downloading of media is also rife, and internet addiction is becoming more widespread and recognised as a social disorder.
From a blogging perspective, I try to keep this blog positive, I write it for myself because I enjoy writing, and hope that some others enjoy reading it. I don't seek to make anything out of it, I don't make a big effort to publicise it outside of my close network of friends and acquaintances, and I try my best to link to, or credit, as much as possible so each blog post of mine will hopefully lead some readers to a new site.
Yesterday I was scrolling through some internet sites, linked to one, and saw a photograph that I knew Caroline had taken. I didn't recognise the site, and didn't see a credit to Caroline's name, so I asked her whether the site owner had asked permission to use the image. Caroline had not given permission, whereas I have just asked permission and it has been granted :)
When I search for this image using the google image search function, it comes up with about 70 pages that use this image. Caroline has uploaded this picture to certain sites, such as Redbubble and Artists Lane which act as onlne galleries and sell materials on behalf of the contributors. But well over half the sites using this picture have not asked permission to do so, and are not attributing the creator of the images they are using.
This brings me to the dodgy subject of copyright and fair use of materials. Apparently, the photo above is subject to copyright once it has been taken and for someone like me to use it, I would need to gain the permission of the creator of the image before posting it. An exception to the rule is called "fair use" and this applies to use of an image that doesn't interfere with the owner's rights. A good example of this has been used on this blog before, where I talk about a book I've read and download a photo from a site such as Goodreads, or Amazon of the book cover. From an etiquette point of view, I would still link to the site where I took the image from and attribute the site in a caption, or footnote. However, this still would not be anything to do with copyright of material. I found a pretty good site which explains these issues in layman's terms.
All the sites I have been to about these issues give the same advice:
"when in doubt, assume it’s subject to copyright and don’t use it without the appropriate permission."
As a minor user of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, I see people abusing the sites in bizarre ways. Cyber bullying or "trolling" is rife throughout these social media sites, illegal downloading of media is also rife, and internet addiction is becoming more widespread and recognised as a social disorder.
From a blogging perspective, I try to keep this blog positive, I write it for myself because I enjoy writing, and hope that some others enjoy reading it. I don't seek to make anything out of it, I don't make a big effort to publicise it outside of my close network of friends and acquaintances, and I try my best to link to, or credit, as much as possible so each blog post of mine will hopefully lead some readers to a new site.
Yesterday I was scrolling through some internet sites, linked to one, and saw a photograph that I knew Caroline had taken. I didn't recognise the site, and didn't see a credit to Caroline's name, so I asked her whether the site owner had asked permission to use the image. Caroline had not given permission, whereas I have just asked permission and it has been granted :)
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| "Alone in a Crowd" by Caroline Gorka (redbubble) |
This brings me to the dodgy subject of copyright and fair use of materials. Apparently, the photo above is subject to copyright once it has been taken and for someone like me to use it, I would need to gain the permission of the creator of the image before posting it. An exception to the rule is called "fair use" and this applies to use of an image that doesn't interfere with the owner's rights. A good example of this has been used on this blog before, where I talk about a book I've read and download a photo from a site such as Goodreads, or Amazon of the book cover. From an etiquette point of view, I would still link to the site where I took the image from and attribute the site in a caption, or footnote. However, this still would not be anything to do with copyright of material. I found a pretty good site which explains these issues in layman's terms.
All the sites I have been to about these issues give the same advice:
"when in doubt, assume it’s subject to copyright and don’t use it without the appropriate permission."
Friday, May 22, 2015
Basingstoke Chess Club, A Sad Day
I learnt a little earlier today of the sad loss of stalwart organiser, Joe French.
Joe had been putting his heart and soul into junior chess in Basingstoke and Hampshire since I was a kid, and it is partly his influence that makes me coach the way I do today. Joe's strengths were his tireless energy, his enthusiasm for the game, and his inspiration to the kids who he brought through his ranks. Chess, like all pastimes, needs people who are willing to devote themselves to their passion, and Joe did this spending masses of time organising Saturday morning Junior chess clubs, and helping to run the Basingstoke Chess Club.
After I left Basingstoke, Joe extended his efforts to include Junior Chess administration throughout Hampshire and finally won the ECF President's Award in 2004 for services to chess.
I was lucky enough to meet up with him briefly when I visited Basingstoke in 2012, but I have no photos of Joe, just memories. Since that time when I wrote about my visit to the club, Basingstoke Chess Club have a new website. There is more information about Joe French, including a photo, on the club forum.
Joe had been putting his heart and soul into junior chess in Basingstoke and Hampshire since I was a kid, and it is partly his influence that makes me coach the way I do today. Joe's strengths were his tireless energy, his enthusiasm for the game, and his inspiration to the kids who he brought through his ranks. Chess, like all pastimes, needs people who are willing to devote themselves to their passion, and Joe did this spending masses of time organising Saturday morning Junior chess clubs, and helping to run the Basingstoke Chess Club.
After I left Basingstoke, Joe extended his efforts to include Junior Chess administration throughout Hampshire and finally won the ECF President's Award in 2004 for services to chess.
I was lucky enough to meet up with him briefly when I visited Basingstoke in 2012, but I have no photos of Joe, just memories. Since that time when I wrote about my visit to the club, Basingstoke Chess Club have a new website. There is more information about Joe French, including a photo, on the club forum.
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Online books
The other day I was looking for a chess book and I googled it. This was unusual for me, as I usually go straight to a chess retailer and search for the books there. Google produced a result which was unexpected to me and that was it's own google books site. I'd never really looked at Google books before but I was rather amazed at the amount of books they have. Apparently Google Books has scanned over 30 million books and put them online.
There have been problems with this service, the most notable being copyright infringement. I have to admit, that I'm unsure of the issues here. We have public libraries which freely lend copyrighted material to members of the library, and in some respects, services like Google Books appears as an online version of a library. But digitizing books and making them freely available online can only damage the livelihood of authors. Authors who will hardly bother to waste their time and effort just to see their material freely distributed with no recompense.
There are resources online which seek to digitize non copyrighted material, works that are old or in the public domain. Project Gutenberg is one such resource with nearly 50.000 titles to download.
However, the mother of all online resources is the Internet Archive. I looked at it earlier today and was astounded by the amount of material they have. There are nearly 5 million books, nearly 4000 films, , over 100,000 concert recordings and many other services such as collections of NASA images, web archives with approaching 50 billion pages, educational resources including lectures and supplementary materials, and a mass of historical software.
I downloaded an interesting little book by the chess player Hugh Kennedy from 1876. "Waifs and Strays" has some personal reminiscences by Kennedy of some players of the day and is an amusing portrait of chess players. In the first couple of pages, Kennedy talks about snobbishness in chess, wondering,
"...how is it that we constantly see persons of upright character, faultless manners, and whose tempers are proof against every common trial, the moment they set themselves behind a chess board, undergoing a kind of metempsychosis, and becoming the reverse of their normal selves - unjust, rude and quarrelsome - in a word, unmitigated snobs?"
I'll be reading through this gem and looking for more timeless truisms in its pages.
There have been problems with this service, the most notable being copyright infringement. I have to admit, that I'm unsure of the issues here. We have public libraries which freely lend copyrighted material to members of the library, and in some respects, services like Google Books appears as an online version of a library. But digitizing books and making them freely available online can only damage the livelihood of authors. Authors who will hardly bother to waste their time and effort just to see their material freely distributed with no recompense.
There are resources online which seek to digitize non copyrighted material, works that are old or in the public domain. Project Gutenberg is one such resource with nearly 50.000 titles to download.
However, the mother of all online resources is the Internet Archive. I looked at it earlier today and was astounded by the amount of material they have. There are nearly 5 million books, nearly 4000 films, , over 100,000 concert recordings and many other services such as collections of NASA images, web archives with approaching 50 billion pages, educational resources including lectures and supplementary materials, and a mass of historical software.
I downloaded an interesting little book by the chess player Hugh Kennedy from 1876. "Waifs and Strays" has some personal reminiscences by Kennedy of some players of the day and is an amusing portrait of chess players. In the first couple of pages, Kennedy talks about snobbishness in chess, wondering,
"...how is it that we constantly see persons of upright character, faultless manners, and whose tempers are proof against every common trial, the moment they set themselves behind a chess board, undergoing a kind of metempsychosis, and becoming the reverse of their normal selves - unjust, rude and quarrelsome - in a word, unmitigated snobs?"
I'll be reading through this gem and looking for more timeless truisms in its pages.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
City of Melbourne Open round 5
Due to some work changes I found myself at the MCC early. I walked into the main tournament hall, and placed my stuff by my board and looked up to see the official banner of the 2016 Australian Championship.
I usually arrive with moments to spare, or with time already on the clock, so I felt fairly relaxed, and had time to chat a bit and look around. I even had time to head to Brunswick Street for a coffee before the game.
Round 4 of the City of Melbourne Open saw little in the way of upsets. Only one game in the top 10 boards went againt the rating, and that was Justin Penrose's victory against Hoai Nam Nguyen, but Penrose is an accomplished player so I take it as only a small upset. The field is beginning to spread out with myself, Carl Gorka, leading on 4/4 followed by IM Mirko Rujevic and Justin Penrose on 3.5. While last week I couldn't begin to guess who I might play, I can quite confidently say that the top board game next week will be Rujevic-Gorka.
I feel as if I'm in pretty good form, but Mirko is absolutely fearless. Playing against talented youngster David Cannon, Mirko didn't hesitate to play the Two Knights opening. I sat eagerly watching to see whether David would throw his knight to g5, but he opted for the safer 4.d3 instead of testing Mirko's calculation in a critical opening.
FM Jack Puccini heads the group of players on 3/4. He is joined by Malcolm Pyke and Simon Schmidt, who are both doubling up in the Victorian Championships, Richard Voon, Zhi Lin Guo and the brilliancy prize winner from the Club Championship, David Lacey.
Further down the field, the Zou brothers both scored good draws, Edwin against Tanya Krstevska, and Brendan against Gary Bekker, while Tanya Kolak had a good win against Stephen Jago.
My game finished abruptly when my opponent misjudged a position in a Hedgehog type Sicilian. I'm no great expert, but black has a very tough job of sitting and waiting for white's advances and being ready to strike at the right moment.
Black has just thrown his knight into e5 feeling that white would have to protect the pawn with b3. I managed to punish this aggression by playing 15.g5 Nfd7 16.f4!
My opponent, Efrain Tionko, couldn't find a good continuation, so he went with 16..Nxc4? Unfortunately, after the forcing sequence 17.Bxc4 Qxc4 18.Nd5 Bxd5 19.Rxc4 Bxc4 black has a rook, bishop and pawn for the queen.
Now after 20.Rc1 black's bishop is short of squares, while his other pieces display no activity. It didn't take too much to convert this to a sizeable material advantage.
I usually arrive with moments to spare, or with time already on the clock, so I felt fairly relaxed, and had time to chat a bit and look around. I even had time to head to Brunswick Street for a coffee before the game.
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| Richard Voon is always ready for a chat |
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| IM Mirko Rujevic just half a point from the lead |
FM Jack Puccini heads the group of players on 3/4. He is joined by Malcolm Pyke and Simon Schmidt, who are both doubling up in the Victorian Championships, Richard Voon, Zhi Lin Guo and the brilliancy prize winner from the Club Championship, David Lacey.
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| Brilliancy Prize winner, David Lacey |
My game finished abruptly when my opponent misjudged a position in a Hedgehog type Sicilian. I'm no great expert, but black has a very tough job of sitting and waiting for white's advances and being ready to strike at the right moment.
Black has just thrown his knight into e5 feeling that white would have to protect the pawn with b3. I managed to punish this aggression by playing 15.g5 Nfd7 16.f4!
My opponent, Efrain Tionko, couldn't find a good continuation, so he went with 16..Nxc4? Unfortunately, after the forcing sequence 17.Bxc4 Qxc4 18.Nd5 Bxd5 19.Rxc4 Bxc4 black has a rook, bishop and pawn for the queen.
Now after 20.Rc1 black's bishop is short of squares, while his other pieces display no activity. It didn't take too much to convert this to a sizeable material advantage.
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