An Interesting Problem (Adolphe-Alexandre Lesrel)

By Adolphe-Alexandre Lesrel (1839-1929)

Holocaust Memorial day 2020

Holocaust Memorial Day 2020 marks 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

A chess tournament among survivors at the Landsberg DP camp, Germany

https://www.hmd.org.uk/

The Chess Game (Portrait of the artist's sisters playing chess) Sofonisba Anguissola 1625

170gsm A3 Size Colour White Satin Print

Oil on Canvas Height: 72 cm (28.3 ″); Width: 97 cm (38.1 ″)

by Sofonisba Anguissola (b. ca. 1530, Cremona, d. 1625, Palermo)
Muzeum Narodowe, Poznan

Key Dates in Chess History - Updated!!

Key dates for how chess spread around the world and became the game we know today.

• 501-600AD: Chess is born, around 6th century, the Arabic game shatranj (7th Century) developed from the Indian game chaturanga (6th Century), becoming the first game identifiable as chess. First clear reference to chess, in a Persian manuscript describes chess coming to Persia (Iran) from India. (a game called Chaturanga)
• 569: A Chinese emperor wrote a book of Chinese chess
• 701-800 Sittuyin also known as Burmese chess was a direct decendant of chaturanga.
• 800: Moors (People of mixed Arab, Spanish, and Amazigh (Berber) origins) bring chess to Spain and Sicily.
• 833-840: Earliest surviving chess problems found - Caliph al-Mutasim Billah, caliph of Baghdad from 833 to 842, perhaps composed the earliest chess problem on record. He was the third son of Harum (Haroun) al-Rashid who is supposed to have played an early form of chess. His problem can be found from folio 29B of the Asiatic Society's manuscript of chess problems.
• 900: Early Muslim chess masters, as-Suli and al-Lajlaj write works on the technique of chess.
• 970-1000: late 10th century – Dark and light squares are introduced on a chessboard.
• 997: Versus de scachis is the earliest known work mentioning chess in Christian Western Europe.
• 1000: Chess widespread in Europe, including Russia. 
• 1173: Earliest recorded use of a form of algebraic chess notation. 
• 1250-1300: late 13th century – Pawns can now move two ranks on first move.
• 1283: Alfonso X compiles the Libro de los juegos. (See also 1737).
• 1300: First European comments on chess in sermons and stories.it was described in a famous 13th century manuscript covering shatranj, backgammon and dice named the Libro de los juegos.
• 1422: The rule that stalemate is a draw is introduced
• 1471: The Göttingen manuscript is the first book to deal solely with chess. The book was written in latin and had 33 leaves that discussed 12 openings.
• 1475–1525: Birth of the modern game: especially, new moves for queen and bishop also castling adopted
• 1495: First printed chess book - Libre dels jochs partits dels schacs en nombre de 100 was printed in Valencia on May 15, 1495, by Lope de Roca Alemany and Pere Trincher. No copy of this work has survived.
• 1496 or 1497: The first printed work on chess to survive to the present day is Luis de Lucena's Arte de axedres, printed in Salamanca, Spain.
• 1530: England and Germany received the reformed game. After that, the old game was effectively dead—in Europe, at any rate. A version of the old game survived in India until recently.
• 1561: The word gambit to describe opening sacrifices is introduced by Ruy López
• 1600: First professional player-writers.
• 1737: Algebraic chess notation is more compact than descriptive chess notation, and is the most widely used method for recording the moves of a game of chess. In embryonic form it was used by Philip Stamma in the 1737 book Essai sur le jeu des echecs
• 1770 Mechanical Chess "The Turk" was invented for entertainment purposes by Wolfgang von Kempelen.
• 1780: First master games to be recorded as they were played.
• 1824: Earliest known British correspondence chess match between London and Edinburgh.
• 1836: First chess magazine. Le Palamède was the world's first periodical devoted to the game of chess. It was founded in France in 1836 by Louis-Charles Mahé de la Bourdonnais
• 1849 The Staunton Chess Set was made and First US chess tournament.
• 1851: First international chess tournament held in London
• 1866: First match to be timed by clock.
• 1883: The first time that game clocks were used in a chess tournament was in the London 1883 tournament.
• 1886: First acknowledged world championship match giving us the first World Champion: The Austrian-American chess player William Steinitz became the first official world chess champion in 1886 when he defeated Johannes Zukertort in a match for the undisputed championship.
• 1924: Establishment of Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE).
• 1927: The 1st Chess Olympiad, organised by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between 18 and 30 July 1927 in London, United Kingdom. The 1st Women's World Chess Championship took place during the Olympiad.
• 1945: USA vs USSR Radio match is the first international sporting event after World War II. The USSR scores an overwhelming victory and would dominate world chess for the next 25 years.
• 1950: FIDE introduces the International Grandmaster (GM) and International Master (IM) title
• 1951: German inventor Dietrich Prinz created the first chess program of any type to run on an actual electronic computer. He did so on the Ferranti Mark 1 (the first commercially available general purpose electronic computer) at the University of Manchester in England.
• 1977: The earliest chessmen found "The Afrasiab Chessmen" 7th Century.
• 1978: FIDE Master (FM) introduced as a title below International Master
• 1996: Deep Blue and Kasparov played each other on two occasions. The first match began on 10 February 1996, in which Deep Blue became the first machine to win a chess game against a reigning world champion.
• 2001: FIDE introduces shortened time controls for the knockout world championship held later that year, amid controversy.
• 2003: In two separate matches, Kasparov battles Deep Junior and X3D Fritz to draws. These would be the last notable human–computer chess matches that did not result in victory for the computer.
• 2008: Fischer dies in Iceland at age 64.

Updated: 9th Jan 2020

Updated: 18th May 2019

Updated: 12th Jan 2019

Another chess computer in my collection - Systema Pioneer c1995

5T-328 

Specifications:

• 72 levels of difficulty.
• Sensory chess board.
• LCD display indicates moves and other information.
• Position verify.
• Position set-up.
• Take-back moves.
• Long term memory.
• Detects draws by 50 move rule, 3-fold repetition, stalemate.
• Pre-programmed openings strategy.
• Pawn promotion, castling & en passant captures.
• Battery operated using 3 x AAA cells (not included).
• Audible tone to indicate moves.
• Solves mate-in-2 problems.
• Long battery life.
• ELO rating, 1,450 (USA 1,550) (estimated).
• Has teaching feature programmed into computer.

Harry Potter Wizard Chess

Images from Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone

The Chessboard Chamber, also known as the Human Chess Game, was a chess set enchanted by Professor McGonagall to giant size with the chess pieces being alive. It was used to guard the Philosopher's Stone in the 1991–1992 school year.

We purchased an actual replica set for our grandson for one of his Christmas presents.

It is a nice set for a beginner, especially someone who has a Harry Potter addiction. Pieces are plastic, not very heavy i.e. unweighted but are very detailed, these can be kept in two draw string bags. The board is made of a thick cardboard and folds into a quarter to go back inside the main box.

Tom enjoyed having a match with them.

Chess in the Movies - Top 10 greatest chess scenes in movies (& Chronological) - Updated 20th Jan 2020

For people interested in chess, we have a soft spot for films with a chessboard in them.

Below is a top 10 of the greatest chess scenes.

#10  Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)

#9  X-Men (2000)

#8  The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)

#7  Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)

#6  Blade Runner (1982)

#5  Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001)

#4  Pawn Sacrifice (2014)

#3  2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

#2  From Russia with Love (1963)

#1  The Seventh Seal (1957)

Rocky64 has a great article on chess.com and has compiled all the best scenes into a YT video

Chronological Chess scenes in movies.

1957: The Seventh Seal
1959: Campo Mamula
1963: From Russia with Love
1966 -69: Star Trek TOS (3D Chess)
1968: 2001 Space Odyssey
1978: Schwarz und weiß wie Tage und Nächte (Black and White Like Day and Night)
1982: Blade Runner
1992: Knight Moves
1993: Searching for Bobby Fischer
2000: X-Men
2001: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
2002: Superman II (Lex Luther)
2011: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
2014: Pawn Sacrifice
2016: Magnus