Studying opening lines seems like the dullest thing ever. They should play Fischer chess and have to work this shit out over the board.
1 Like
I watched a good portion of the US Girls/Juniors/Seniors Tournaments the last couple of weeks. There were a high percentage of decisive games and lots of back and forth blunders and sudden changes of fortune. Two of the tournaments ended in multiway playoffs. The girlās winner ended a couple of her playoff games playing with 2 seconds left (2 second delay) and pieces sliding off their squares. Fun!
Anyway, Yasser Seirawan at one point mentioned a chess book written by Benjamin Franklin that Iād never heard of, āThe Morals of Chessā. He claimed Franklin advocated for angle-shooting like making sure the sun was in your opponentās eyes and creating other distractions. But it turns out this was just a very short essay and not at all as advertised, a slander on the character of a founding father!
You can read the essay, with some notes on the history, here. According to that page, Franklin didnāt exactly follow his own moral advice. He was a complicated bastard.
Thereās a little more background and speculation on how good a player he was in this PDF. He was one of the first known American players and played against the āTurkā (a supposed but clever fake automaton).
3 Likes
The Turk is pretty fascinating, it was just a box with a strong player inside. But they designed it so cleverly - the most interesting thing in my opinion was they set it up so they would open the box so that people would look in and not be able to see the guy.
I always thought the most interesting part was the engineering that allowed the man inside to make moves and the automaton replicate them. That was the fascinating part for me.
1 Like
I read about it a long time ago and didnāt remember details. Franklin lost his game against it.
Itās really too bad none of his games were recorded. Youād need notation for Franklin repositions piece while opponent is taking a leak though.
franklin did a lot of shit
He didnāt want anybody to think there was any hanky panky going on during his games with the naked lady in the bath tub. Stand up guy.
Magnus declines to defend his championship.
Now itās Nepo vs. Ding Liren.
wow i didnt think heād actually do it
Ultimately the conclusion stands, one that Iām pretty comfortable with, one that Iāve thought a lot about for a long time now, I would say more than a year, probably a year and a half almost, since long before the last match. And Iāve spoken to people in my team, Iāve spoken to FIDE, I spoke to Ian as well. And the conclusion is, yeah, itās very simple, that I am not motivated to play another match. I simply feel that I donāt have a lot to gain, I donāt particularly like it, and although Iām sure a match would be interesting for historical reasons and all of that, I donāt have any inclination to play and I will simply not play the match.
Iām pretty shocked as well. He just doesnāt seem to enjoy the classical match format.
It would be fun if he decides to qualify for the championship again in the next cycle.
Boo this man. WTF?
Canāt believe he actually did it.
Naka has to be kicking himself.
WCC matches are a grinding prep battle is the thing. Playing the actual match is the tip of the iceberg. Itās not fun to prepare 30 moves deep in the Ruy for weeks at a time.
Happy International Chess Day I guess.
The real reason Magnus isnāt defending is to pursue a career in paddle tennis
https://twitter.com/MagnusCarlsen/status/1548583742481936385
So who is favored? I like Ding
Ding for sure. Wonder what the odds will be. Something like Ding 1.70 feels about right.
nah this seems like cope. very likely Magnus already made up his mind a long time ago.
I like this decision by Magnus. Nobody cares about a Nepo rematch, a new WC is good for chess, and then there is some drama if/when Magnus comes back and decides to crush again. Anybody have him as top 5 goat if he never plays classical again? I think I do, prolly #3 after Kaspy and Fischer, although the field has been weak of late.
I think heās #1 as far as if they played one another in their primes. As far as legacy, I think I have him t-2. Maybe 2nd beyond Fischer. Fischer could have been the hands down GOAT, he kind of just chose not to be. I guess you could say the same about Magnus, but the situations are very different.