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| May-02-06 | | outplayer: I like 11.h4. This position can be achieved by another move order. It is very useful for playing as white against french defense. |
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| May-02-06 | | outplayer: What is a pun? |
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May-02-06
 | | Peligroso Patzer: Black’s main alternative at move 36 would have been: 36. … Kd5. After that move, the game could have continued as follows: 37. a3 Kd6 [or, if Black tries to finesse with corresponding squares, 37. … c4+ 38. bxc4+ Kc5 39. a4 Kc6 40. Kd4 Kd6 41. c5+ Kc6 42. Kc4 Kc7 43. Kb5 Kb7 44. Kxa5 Kc6 45. Kb4 (+ -)] 38. Kc4 Kc6 39. b4 cxb4 40. cxb4 axb4 41. axb4 Kb6 42. Kd5 Kb5 43. Ke6 Kxb4. [Here, we know Black is losing because - according to the rule where one side is trying to win by promoting a Rook-pawn after diverting the opponent's King to the opposite wing - the Defending King (Black's) is trailing White’s King at a distance greater than a “Knight’s jump”, and White can pick up Black’s K-side pawns without loss of tempo, i.e., in a total of three (3) moves. If White’s King were now at e5, because the f6-square is forbidden to him, he would need three (3) moves to capture on g7, thus a total of four (4) moves to capture all the Black pawns. In this variation (with White's King at e5 instead of e6), Black’s King would “gain a tempo” in his pursuit of the White King, and thus would reach the crucial f8-square resulting in the game being drawn.] Returning to the main continuation: 44. Kf7 Kc5 45. Kxg7 Kd6 46. Kxh6 Ke7 47. Kg7 and White wins by one tempo. |
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| May-02-06 | | Maatalkko: <itz2000> Of course it's not a coincidence that there are so many Jewish grandmasters. What's more amazing is that almost a third of Nobel Laureates are Jewish. A 1994 book I read entitled "The Bell Curve" by Hernstein and Murray reported that Ashkenazi (i.e. European) Jews have a higher average I.Q. than any other ethnic group. This has changed over the years; in fact, according to TBC statistics from the early 20th century showed Jews as being a sub-average group. However, these statistics were likely skewed by persistent anti-Semitism at the time, on the part of the French and Russians (among others) just as much as the Germans. |
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| May-02-06 | | Maatalkko: <itz2000> And speaking of Jewish players, I believe you can add Rubinstein, Lasker, Reshevsky, Smyslov, Korchnoi, and Botvinnik to your list (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catego...) . No, I am not Jewish myself. |
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| May-02-06 | | itz2000: <matalkko> maybe you should become jewish then ;) lol. |
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| May-02-06 | | Abaduba: If you want more firepower on your Jewish chess player list, both Fischer and Kasparov are of Jewish ancestry, although neither consider themselves to be Jewish. (At least I think not for Kasparov; I'm pretty Fischer doesn't) |
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| May-02-06 | | Abaduba: As for the IQ thing, as the statistics on Ashkenazim show, the tests have far too much cultural baggage to be taken seriously. Blacks and Hispanics have always scored significantly below average on these tests, not because of an actual lack of intelligence, but because the tests are made up by white people. (There are other problems as well; for example, Spanish-speaking children in the US used to constantly score terribly because the tests were only available in English!) A big part of the improvement of the IQ's of Ashkenazi Jews is that they are now part of the dominant culture which makes up the tests, where they were excluded before. |
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| May-02-06 | | kevin86: Can I resurrect a game here? This one is not quite over yet. After 37...♔e6,blsack stops the pawn and white must beware of the black outside passed pawn. Am I wrong? |
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| May-02-06 | | technical draw: <Maatalkko> Thanks for that link. It's truly amazing such a large proportion of Jews in both GM chess and Nobel Prizes. Must be the Jewish emphasis on education and family. (works all the time). |
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| May-02-06 | | chessic eric: It is instructive to see how white uses the "harmless" check 13.Bh7+ to put the black king on a square that sets up threats for the later Ne5 - making it a significantly more dangerous piece. <EmperorAtahualpa> I share your confusion over today's pun. <Maatalkko> I read an article on a plane from a TIME magazine (granted, not the most authoritative source) left on my seat that discussed the Ashkenazi Jews, and I think it was from that article that I learned the Ashkenazim are not simply all European Jews, but a very particular ancestry with an identifiable genetic marker. This information makes it a little difficult to explain the prominence of Jewish GMs in chess history by virtue of the high IQ or other ethnic character of the Ashkenazi group, because not every Jewish GM in chess has been genetically Ashkenazi. The true Ashkenzai are a very small portion of even the Jewish population, although I think I remember reading that the Holocaust concentrated their numbers. I think <Abaduba> makes a good point about the cultural content and language biases of traditional IQ testing. I think both intelligence generally and the success of particular groups of people at chess has significantly more to do with culture and cognitive development after birth than genetic predisposition. |
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| May-02-06 | | nolanryan: <kevin86> this was not obvious to me either.
It looks like the white king should have no problem monitoring the black h-pawn. The black king however looks to be at least one move too slow to stop white from promoting on the queenside.
For example 37 ...Ke6 38 a3 and then the b pawn can be on its way. |
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| May-02-06 | | kevin86: OK,I get it now! After 37... ♔e6 38 a3 h5 39 b4 cxb4 40 cxb4 axb4 41 a4 and black cannot help his own pawn or stop the white a pawn because of the pawn at g6. It will promote in four moves |
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| May-02-06 | | nolanryan: <kevin86> 41 a4?? gives black at least drawing chances. The simple 41 axb4 does the job.
If 41 a4??, then white can't chase down black's hpawn, because the black pawn is sitting on b4 close to the goal. |
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| May-02-06 | | nolanryan: By the way, I really doubt that black overlooked the en passant capture. However, it does seem like he overlooked that it most certainly causes him to lose (although he was probably losing anyway). |
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| May-02-06 | | EmperorAtahualpa: <What is a pun?>
<outplayer> "pun: the usually humorous use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more of its meanings or the meaning of another word similar in sound." Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary |
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| May-02-06 | | cloim: <kevin86>
White will play a3 and b4 to force a passed pawn on the b file. Blacks king can't stop the b and g pawns -- one will promote. White's king is free to block the h pawn, and will move towards it if it advances. |
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| May-02-06 | | patzer2: After the dubious 24...Rd5?! (24...Ne4!-) and the miscue 25...Ne4? (25...Nxg4 26. Nxg4 Qxf4+ 27. Ne3 Qxh4 =), Black is busted following White's double attack 26. gxf4! If 26...exf5, then 27. Rxe4+  wins a piece. If 26...Nf6 27. fxe6+ Kg8 28. Qg6 is winning. Notice how 24. g4! and 25. f4!, along with Black's poor responses, set up the combination. |
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| May-02-06 | | Bare Beginner: Why doesn't Blk take g4 on move 25? White's N is pinned to e4 ... |
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| May-02-06 | | tacite: <EmperorAtahualpa : But why Cable <Wars>, in particular? > Probably because it was played during the First World War. It's a guess. |
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May-03-06
 | | WannaBe: read the event heading, this game took place between Moscow and Oxford via cable. And it wasn't TV, you young whipper-snappers. (boy I feel old) --- |
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| May-03-06 | | EmperorAtahualpa: <this game took place between Moscow and Oxford via cable. And it wasn't TV,> <WannaBe> .......so? That doesn't make it a war! <Probably because it was played during the First World War.> <tacite> Yes, perhaps, but even then, the UK and Russia were allies. |
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| May-03-06 | | kevin86: <nolanryan> Yes,you got the fastball by me. Or course white takes the pawn at b4.Without the king to run down black's h pawn white is doubly cursed as black would queen first and the new black queen at h1 would guard white's queening square,a8. I would call it a win for black. B4,would be out of the range of the black king,bound to capture at g6 first. I would not make that error over the board. |
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| May-04-06 | | dakgootje: <And it wasn't TV, you young whipper-snappers. (boy I feel old)> Ow thought it was via email ;-) for the pun: confusing indeed, but i think they just thought that it was in the WW1 and it was a cable match and just combines it... not the best pun so far ;-) |
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Jul-19-09
 | | Honza Cervenka: <do u think it's just a coincidence that there are so many known Jewish GM's in the chess history?> Of course, it is no coincidence. It is well known that chess was mainly a coffeehouse sport in the past and as the Czech Jewish writer and journalist Karel Poláèek used to say, every proper Jew befits into a coffeehouse...:-D |
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Kibitzing
sac: 28.Rxe4