Waves of change in chess

Game wading into waves of change

Saturday, July 16, 2011 03:05 AM

Shelby Lyman

Like so much in contemporary life, chess - like an onrushing river - is characterized by constant change.

Bobby Fischer had the equivalent of a dozen or more doctorates in chess. He studied and assimilated - like no one else before him - what seemed at the time to be a massive classical chess heritage.

Grandmasters today have access to a minimum database of more than 4 million games, far eclipsing the chess legacy that Fischer inherited - and that database is increasing at an accelerating rate.

Setting up the pieces, playing through a game or games and reviewing relevant positions are painfully time-consuming. Fortunately, chess software and the computer screen speed the process miraculously.

Magnus Carlsen, the world's top-rated player, has indicated that he rarely uses a 3-D chess set. His basic equipment is a computer and programs that display and analyze critical positions.

He and others can achieve in minutes results that are as good or better than grandmasters in the pre-electronic era could manage in days or weeks.

It can be argued that computers weaken the capacity for original analysis and insight. But they can also supplement creativity and playing ability.

Clearly, something new is afoot in the game. The chess mind is evolving.

Source: http://www.dispatch.com

Fischer's Brain Boost

Frequent walks gave Fischer's brain a boost
Saturday, July 9, 2011 03:05 AM
Basic Chess Features

Many stories concern Bobby Fischer's fondness for walking.

On three or four occasions during the 1960s, I met him by chance as he perambulated around New York. He was always friendly and eager to talk.

Late-night walks often took him to chess hangouts such as the Chess and Checker Club of New York, where he would frequently take on a player of master strength, offering up to 15-1 odds to his opponent and the gathering kibitzers.

He seemed to tremendously enjoy the fun and hilarity provoked by the impromptu exhibitions.

A champion boxer once described to me the difficulty of keeping up with Fischer's walking tours. There seems to have been a method to his locomotion.

Rae Pica, author of A Running Start, wrote: "Movement increases blood vessels that allow for the delivery of oxygen, water and glucose to the brain. And this can't help but optimize brain performance."

Nocturnal walks - a wonderful combination of darkness and contemplation - offered Fischer a private laboratory to explore chess moves.

More here.

From chess to finance

On Chess: Game's finest scary to stockbrokers

Saturday, July 2, 2011 03:06 AM
The Columbus Dispatch

In the 1990s, Wall Street banks hired several top chess players to trade equities. Among them were former U.S. Open champion Norman Weinstein and a Russian emigre, former Soviet women's champ Anna Akhsharumova.

Weinstein's success as a trader at Bankers Trust spurred the institution to recruit other top players.

In the January issue of New in Chess, Harvard professor Ken Rogoff - formerly a chief economist for the World Bank and a chess grandmaster - explained: "Being a trader certainly requires iron nerves, as chess does, and also the ability to concentrate for very long periods."

I'm reminded of an analogous campaign by Rand Corp. In 1960, at the dawn of the computer age, the company advertised in the Boston area for chess players to learn the art of systems analysis.

In the 1980s, a group of game players, perceived by skeptics as frittering away their time and lives hanging out at the Chess and Checker Club in New York, were organized into a trading group.

Their exceptional ability to make instant, effective decisions in commodity trades terrified competing traders. Some did very well financially.

Source: http://www.dispatch.com