The Apple Theory

September 25, 2015

So I won a Matrix chess game against Shredder on my computer (game/10, I get one time-out of arbitrary length, Shredder’s rating was set for this game at 2298) and was feeling pretty good about myself until I went over it with Rybka. Ugh! Position after 21. … d3. White to move. FEN: r4b1r/pk2p2p/1p4p1/4N3/4NP1q/2Pp3B/PPn2RPP/1RB3K1 w – […]

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Eljanov Leaves Nakamura in his (Pixie) Dust

September 24, 2015

Last time I wrote that the problem with Cinderella is always what happens when the pixie dust wears off. In round five of the 2015 FIDE World Cup, the answer was emphatically, “Don’t worry about it.” The #26 seed, Pavel Eljanov, claimed #2 Hikaru Nakamura as his latest victim and moved on to the Final […]

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Voter Registration is Fun

September 23, 2015

Yesterday, like every Tuesday, was chess club day at the Aptos Public Library. We had a good turnout of 18 kids, from April to Zoey. Lately we’ve had an unusual number of girls, which I’m pleased to see. I think we had eight this week, which has to be an all-time record. This week we had […]

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The Mighty Have Fallen (Most of Them)

September 22, 2015

Round four of the 2015 FIDE World Cup was definitely the Round of the Underdogs. When the smoke cleared, five of the eight higher-seeded players had lost, and only two players who were originally seeded in the top 8 have actually made it to the final 8. The two favorites who survived were #2 Hikaru […]

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Careful What You Wish For!

September 20, 2015

In today’s fourth round of the FIDE World Cup, there were two big upsets: #16 Peter Svidler over #1 Veselin Topalov and #19 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov over #3 Fabiano Caruana. Two other games were won by the favorite: #2 Hikaru Nakamura over #16 Michael Adams and #8 Ding Liren over #24 Wei Yi. The other four […]

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World Cup Round 3 Wrap-up

September 19, 2015

The playoffs for round three of the 2015 FIDE World Cup have just ended, with Hikaru Nakamura winning an Armageddon game as Black against Ian Nepomniachtchi to advance. The big surprise of the day was Dmitry Andreikin, the #27 seed, beating #6 Vladimir Kramnik in a rematch from the 2013 World Cup. That year Kramnik beat […]

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Eljanov 6-0!

September 18, 2015

Before round three of the FIDE World Cup began, I wrote that one of the interesting matches would be Eljanov-Grischuk, because Eljanov so far had been the “irresistible force” (he had gone 4-0 to that point), while Grischuk had been the “immovable object.” (In round one Grischuk drew six games before finally winning, and in […]

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Why I Should Not Make Predictions

September 16, 2015

If I had been alive at the right time, I would undoubtedly have predicted Napoleon to win the Battle of Waterloo. Robert E. Lee to win at Gettysburg. Edison’s direct current to win over Tesla’s alternating current. The dinosaurs to prevail over the meteorite. In a similar vein, before the World Cup I predicted Levon […]

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Baku Photos (Thanks to Susan Polgar)

September 14, 2015

A couple days ago I asked, “What happened to Lawrence Trent and Susan Polgar?” For me, their witty and exciting commentary was one of the most enjoyable things about the 2013 World Cup. I missed that sparkle and that sense of excitement in this year’s commentators, Emil Sutovsky and Evgenij Miroschnichenko. I wasn’t expecting an […]

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World Cup Day 3 (End of Round 1)

September 13, 2015

As I write this, the first round of the FIDE World Cup is still not quite over. One out of 64 matches has gone to the Armageddon tiebreaker — the match between #85 Mateusz Bartel of Poland and #44 Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia. But the other 63 matches have finished, so I’ll write my quick […]

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