Gambetto

Chess Visualization: Thinking Table

Dan — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 17:30:51 +0000

Have you ever wanted to watch a computer chess program think. You have seen your favorite engine on the analysis pane on Fritz, but these guys have taken it to another level. Marek Walczak and Martin Wattenberg are artists who have developed a chess table that visually demonstrates a chess engine’s thought process. You can see the patterns of the engines thoughts, the flow of its positioning, the chaos of its genious.

Masked Grandmaster

Dan — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:30:59 +0000

I saw this a couple weeks ago. Jeremy Silman is a fantastic chess writer. His Complete Endgame Course: From Beginning to Master is destined to become a classic.

Despite his excellent instructional writings, he has a knack for storytelling too. I visit Silman’s site regularly an he has a great story about a patzer who hits a streak of brilliance. Check it out here.

How long does it takes to become a chess master

Dan — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 06:32:02 +0000

When someone tries something for the first time, be it video games, cooking or fishing, the first question that generally pops into their head is, “How long will it take me to become good at this?” Maybe its not the first thing that we think of, but almost.

Have you ever seen someone really good at their craft? Take for example Michael Jordan playing basketball, Kasparov pushing wood or Terence Tao working with numbers. Were they born with natural gifts? With tenancies that gave them an advantage? Maybe… But I wager that they worked their asses off to become masters of their craft. (more…)

Parry the threat

Dan — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:43:47 +0000

White to move

I’ve been reading a fantastic book. Most of you have heard of this book, but if you haven’t. You must go pick your self up a copy of Ray Cheng’s Practical Chess Exercises. The above problem is from the book. I like how the exercises from Cheng’s book play like positions that we will see everyday in our own games. This for example could be from one of my own games. There is only one move that will save the game. can you see it? (more…)