Chess News

Chess News

Chess World News

Kramnik versus Kasparov Rematch
Kramnik beats Kasparov
Whiplash crash!
Kasparov vs. Kramnik World Championship Match
U.S. Chess Championship 2000
Chess as an Olympic Sport?
New USCF Rating System
Link Exchange Program
Geek Pride
Chess Geek Returns
Geek Wedding
Sarajevo 2000
ChessGeek.com Screen Saver and PGN Viewer
Kasparov vs. ??? for World Chess Championship
Kasparov wins Corus Tournament (01/30/2000)
Kasparov vs the World

Do you have a news worthy news item? If so, please contact ChessMonkeys@aol.com.

Kramnik versus Kasparov Rematch

The rumor mill indicates that Brain Games may announce details of sponsorship from Bahrain for a world chess championship rematch between former champion Garri Kasparov of Russia and new champion Vladimir Kramnik. The rematch is rumored to be played in Bahrain beginning again in October for a prize fund of $2 million.

Brian's Opinion

Well I checked out the official website, but could find no mention of any rematch. Maybe this deal has fallen through. Perhaps Bahrain could not come up with enough prize money? Brain Games official lists only quailifier rounds for this year with a new World Championship match scheduled for the year 2002. Kramnik has been quoted as saying that he will defend his title against the winner of the candidate matches for the championship, and will only hold a rematch with Kasparov if the Brain Games sponsored of the candidate matches fails to materialize.

I think maybe this Wired article will clear up the story you posted about the match in Bahrain. It's not between Kramnik and Kasparov, but rather a computer and Kramnik. This article is a little old, so I'm guessing Kramnik's opponent for the October match is already set. check it out for yourself.

Kramnik vs computer.

-Chris Ruckel

The previous information on my web site was the story coming out of BrainGames immediately after the WC match. Apparently, they have decided to go a different route. I just read an email from the authors of the Rebel chess program just before reading your email, so it is pretty interesting to see what a pissing match this is becoming as far as getting publicity. Makes chess programmers, look all most as bad as boxers at the pre-fight press conference, trying to give each other black eyes doesn't it? I will try and update my site with this new information as soon as I get a chance. Thanks for the link to the wired.com article. The contents of the Rebel chess email appears below.

Subj: Re: BGN Press Release
Date: 5/7/2001 6:37:08 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: schroder@xs4all.nl (Ed Schroder)
To: NamesDeleted

Robert,

Have a look at:

www.rebel.nl/kramnik.htm

And then come back to me and tell me if you think the Qualifier inCadaques was a fair event of yours. I think the least you could do inthis situation is to have a final match between Deep-Fritz and Deep-Tigeras the exclusion of Chess Tiger was utterly suspect and that is softlyspeaking.

I think that when the spirit is willing it should be still possible tocorrect this error and have this justified match and the winner shouldplay Kramnik. If this is Deep-Fritz after all I withdraw all mycomplaints to your company.

Kind regards,

Ed Schroder
Author and distributor of Rebel
Distributor of Chess Tiger

==============

The following is aPress Release issued by Brain Games Netowrk. We thought you would beinterested to know that Brain Games paid a visit to the United States forthe first time to launch the company in America. A reception was held inNew York on May 2 with guests Sir Jeremy Hanley, Chairman of Brain GamesNetwork and International Grandmaster, Raymond Keene.

Robert Ruditz
Press Counselor
Brain Games Network Plc
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

World Chess Champion Kramnik To Face Deep Fritz

In Man vs. Machine Challenge

NEW YORK: May 4, 2001 Brain Games Plc, the London-basedevents company, have announced a $2 million sponsorship from the Emir ofBahrain to fund a match between a computer program, Deep Fritz and theWorld Chess Champion, Vladimir Kramnik, in the Gulf State next October. The champion stands to win $1 million while a further million will bespent in arranging the event. Kramnik will take home $800,000 if hedraws and $600,000 if he loses.

The previous World Chess Champion, Garry Kasparov, who was defeated byKramnik at the Brain Games World Chess Championship in London lastNovember lost to IBM s Deep Blue computer in 1997. IBM were invited tocompete against Fritz this year but declined.

The Deep Fritz software program qualified to play Kramnik after beatingrival software Deep Junior in a contest organized by the leading computerchess expert, Professor Enrique Irazoqui, Cadaques in Spain. The twoprograms contested 24 games on identical dual processor Pentium PCs. TheDeep Junior was programmed by Amir Ban and Shay Bushinsky of Israel whileFranz Morsch of Holland programmed Deep Fritz.

Kramnik faces a formidable challenge. Fritz has previously beaten DeepBlue, Kasparov and World Chess Federation Champion, Anand. It has yet tobeat Kramnik. Fritz is a remarkable software, said Brain Games matchdirector, Raymond Keene, OBE. It was chosen by the Mir Space stationcrew to be their opponent while in orbit only to hurtle to earth inflames when Mir crashed last month.

-2-

The Bahrain event will be the first time the Man vs. Machine contest hasbeen staged since Kasparov lost spectacularly to IBM s Big Blue in 1997. Then it was one of the biggest Internet events ever and the IBM websitewas receiving over 22 million hits in its final hour. We are confidentlypredicting an even bigger audience this year, says Raymond Keene.

Meanwhile, the Brain Games World Chess Championship, continues to attractan enormous international audience. The next will be staged in October2002. The 2000 Championship we organized in London when Kasparov lost toKramnik, attracted over 100 million hits on our website a fairlystaggering figure, said Brain Games Chairman, Sir Jeremy Hanley, addingthat entries from the global chess playing public for the upcoming WorldChess Championship to be held in October 2002, will be possible from Mid2001.

Sir Jeremy, who together with other Brain Games directors was in New Yorkthis week meeting investors said that the company hopes to raise up to $8million to fund working capital, website development and the underwritingof sporting events from existing and new investors prior to listing onthe London stock market by the end of this year.

In its first round of funding last April, Brain Games Network, Plc,raised $5 million from private investors. It raised a further $750,000in working capital earlier this year, valuing the company at a potential$37 million.

###

--------------------

Kramnik beats Kasparov

Kramnik defeated Kasparov in the Braingames World Championship match by scoring 8.5 point to Kasparov's 6.5. Kramnik won by winning the 2nd and 10th games of the match. All other games were drawn. Look for either a rematch or a unification match with FIDE in the near future. I hope to have a downloadable annotated pgn file containing all the games available from the download page, shortly health permitting, so check back for the appropriate links.

Brian's Opinion

Okay, it is time for me to eat some crow on this one. Guess all great sports heroes must lose eventually. Just add Kasparov to the list of those who have departed recently, such as John Elway, Dan Marino, Barry Sanders, Michel Jordan, and Wayne Gretzky. Perhaps its time for Kasparov to walk away. Seems like his heart has not really been into chess, since he lost the Deep Blue rematch.

Whiplash crash!

Ted Nugent and Sammy Hagar may be throwing the whiplash bash this year. But the Chess Geek will lay claim to the whiplash crash. I was involved in my second auto accident in two months on Oct. 20th 2000, and as you can see I have not done much updating because of the whiplash resulting from this latest incident. You would think that you would be safest while in a stationary position at a light waiting for it to turn green, but not in my lucky life. So, if you are out there driving around, talking on your cell phone, "PUT DOWN THE M%$#*&-F*&%ing PHONE, BEFORE YOU REAR END SOMEONE!". I hope to be back adding new content to the site next week. Sorry for the delays, but its really not my fault.

Brian's Opinion

F.Y.I.: I will be voting for any bill making the use of cell phones while driving illegal. Headset or not. If you have to use your cell phone, please pull of the road. Come on Michigan government lets get in gear on this one (pun intended).

Kasparov vs. Kramnik

From October 8th to November 4th, 2000, GM Garry Kasparov and GM Vladimir Kramnik will be battling it out for the World Chess Championship. The match takes place in England at the Riverside Television Studios in Hammersmith, West London. At stake is two million dollars US and Kasparov's world champion title. The players will play a total of 16 games, with 4 games played each week. The plan is for the Games to be played each Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. The first game was a draw.

[Event "Braingames World Chess Championship"] [Site "?"] [Date "2000.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Kasparov, G."] [Black "Kramnik, V."] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "C67"] [WhiteElo "2849"] [BlackElo "2770"] [PlyCount "50"] [EventDate "2000.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Nxe4 5. d4 Nd6 6. Bxc6 dxc6 7. dxe5 Nf5 8. Qxd8+ Kxd8 9. Nc3 Bd7 10. b3 h6 11. Bb2 Kc8 12. h3 b6 13. Rad1 Ne7 14. Ne2 Ng6 15. Ne1 h5 16. Nd3 c5 17. c4 a5 18. a4 h4 19. Nc3 Be6 20. Nd5 Kb7 21. Ne3 Rh5 22. Bc3 Re8 23. Rd2 Kc8 24. f4 Ne7 25. Nf2 Nf5 1/2-1/2

Complete coverage as well as other information can be found at the following site: Kasparov vs Kramnik.

Brian's Opinion

Kasparov is still king of the hill, until someone pushes him off. Does Kramnik have a chance? Probably not or he would have done so already. When Kasparov does finally lose the title it will probably be a still up-and-coming player. Will anyone win a game in out of the series or will every game be a draw. So far in head-to-head competition each player has won 3 games, and drawn 18 times and counting.

2000 U.S. Chess Championships

The Seattle Chess Foundation organized the 2000 U.S. Chess Championship. It took place from September 25 to October 6, 2000. Twelve of the best United States chess players competed in the eleven round event. A playoff was held between Benjamin, Shabalov, and Seirawan to determine the winner, which was Joe Benjamin. Complete results as well as other information can be found at the following well laid out site: Seattle Chess Foundation.

Brian's Opinion

Another year, and again we see the same names at the top of the list of US chess players. Has anyone seen "Searching for Bobby Fischer"? Maybe the movie inspired a new generation of chess players just like Bobby Fischer himself did a few generations ago.

Chess as an Olympic Sport?

On September 24th 2000, an exhibition match was held between GM Viswanathan Anand and GM Alexy Shirov at the Olympic Village in Sydney. It was a hard fought tie, as both games resulted in draws. This match served as the presentation of chess as an Olympic sport by the International Olympic Committee and FIDE. Chess was recognized as a sport last year.

Brian's Opinion

Why not? If we can have the likes of the completely bizarre and arbitrary, ballroom dancing, synchronized swimming, or the laughable synchronized diving, then why not chess. Any one who has played in a chess tournament can realize how taxing it is to play several high quality games over a short period of time. I would love to see NBC come up with some mushy human interest story for this one. "Now, back to the game, er.... well, maybe we will come back later after some one moves!"

New USCF Rating System

The USCF plans to introduce a new rating system this fall. Details are available at the following sites Boston University Un-Official Document(pdf) and hopefully, the official announcement of the new rating system will eventually show up here US Chess Federation News.

The new system is designed to be anti-deflationary, and to reward rapidly improving players with bonus point for their play in tournaments. The system was intended to be in place for the start of the scholastic year, so stay tuned to your local chess club for details.

Briefly, the old (current) rating system is "zero-sum" (what you gain, I lose). The new system does independent calculations for both players (lots of details - see the report, it's been available for 4 years). The goal is to accurately estimate the post-event ratings (and the measure of success is how well these new ratings predict future performance). In the old (current) system, rating points were created when a new ESTABLISHED rating was created. After that, as you improve you take rating points from the pool. If (as is reasonable) everyone's initial established rating is lower than their current rating, then the total rating points in the pool must be spread more thinly - and ratings "deflate". Note that they still accurately predict future performance. One way to look at "bonus points" is that the system creates new rating points when a player's strength clearly increases. His higher rating comes from these new points (instead of being taken from his unfortunate opponent). There are other changes, most having to do with new players. The old "Provisional" rating system is now very different. Simulations indicate that it will be much more accurate. The old system is still useful for private "back of the envelope" calculations. The plan is to put it into production use immediately after the October Ratings Supplement is put to bed. Events played after 1 September should be rated under the new system. There are restrictions on matches, and a minimum number of rounds - but you don't have to win the tournament and it doesn't have to be a "big tournament".

I just received the following email message this morning, Sept. 2nd 2000, Thanks for the information Vlad!

This is a copy of the e-mail I received from USCF regarding questions per the new rating system:

Hi Vlad,

Your e-mail asking about 'bonus points" in the new rating system has been forwarded to me because overseeing ratings is one of my areas of responsibility.

The USCF will publish a detailed explanation of the new rating system in its magazines and on the web in October. We will also publish flyers on the new rating system.

The new bonus points system depends on the player's tournament score, winning expectancy against his or her opponents, and the K factor used. The person must play at least four games against different people, and play an opponent no more than twice in events containing many rounds in order to be eligible to receive bonus points.

The bonus points routine of the new rating system is K* (S-E) - (16 * SQRT M), where K = the K factor; S = tournament score, E = winning expectancy, SQRT M = the square root of M, and M = number of games played in the tournament. If K*(S-E) is less than or equal to zero, the person does not receive any bonus points.

As I stated, more information will be available in a month.

Regards,

Larry King Ratings Manager

Hope this helps, Vlad Vainberg

Link Exchange Program Announcement

Effective Aug. 1st 2000, all sites exchanging links with us will be eligible to have their link or banner displayed on our home page for a one month period. Simply bring the most traffic to our site for a one month consecutive period and your site will be advertised for free on our home page the following month.

Geek Pride

Well, I guess it was just a matter of time. Apparently, there was a Geek Pride festival in Boston on April 1st of this year, no joke! I had heard of gay pride, but this is getting a little out of control. Or is it? Check out for your self from the full story at ABC News, or PC World News. There is even a photo gallery of geeks in action, including some geeks playing chess on inflatable chairs.

Chess Geek Returns

We are finally getting back into the swing of things. Not quite as early as I had hoped, but never the less. Check back here soon for the some links to the sight seeing highlights from the ChessGeek's honeymoon.

Geek Wedding

I am proud to announce that I, Brian Helinski, the ChessGeek.com Editor will be getting married on June 24th 2000 to Stacey Gizinski. The marriage will be followed by an extended honeymoon, during which I will not have access to the web, so I thank you for your interest in our site. There may be limited puzzle updates around July 1st, otherwise there will be no new content until around July 9th 2000. Please check back then for some exciting new content on our site!

Sarajevo 2000

The Sarajevo 2000 Chess Tournament which took place between the dates of May 16th and May 29th is now over. Once again Garry Kasparov was the winner. Other notable players to participate in this tournament included the following players, Shirov, Morozenvich, Adams, Movsesian, and Topalov. Check out the complete story from the official Sarajevo 2000 website. Check out the photo gallery to see some geeks in action!

ChessGeeks' rants and raves on Sarajevo

OK. So raise your hand if you did not see this one coming. What? Kasparov win a tournament! Is there any doubt about who is currently king of the chess hill?

ChessGeek.com Screen Saver and PGN Viewer

Our very own screen saver and PGN viewer program version 1.0 for Windows 9x,2k,NT has been released. Get all the details from our software page. Or if you prefer, go directly to our download page, and try it out for yourself.

Kasparov vs. Anand for World Chess Championship

A match is in the works for the World Chess Championship. It will be held in October between Garry Kasparov and someone. Viswanathan Anand's lawyers want to many changes in the original offer, rumor has it that the challenger may now be Vladimir Kramnik. The match will be held in Bahrain. Reports say the prize fund will be approximately $2 million dollars, with 1.3 million dollars going to the winner.

Kasparov wins Corus Tournament at Wijk aan Zee!

Russian Garry Kasparov finished first in the first annual Corus Chess Tournament at Wijk aan Zee (say that twice), out of 14 players in the main tournament. Kasparov apparently blew away the competition, which included many other strong players, including Viswanathan Anand. For a complete break down, see the Corus Chess Tournament web site. Apparently, Kasparov is still king of the hill, politics aside.

Kasparov vs. the World

What started out as an internet experiment, ended up getting ugly towards the end. What was all the hoopla about, check out the full story at either cnet.com, or World Team's Protest Page.