Chess

Chess champion Josh Waitzkin visits Google's Mountain View, CA headquarters to discuss his book "The Art of Learning: A Journey in the Pursuit of Excellence."

 

I actually enjoy this book. And I think he is an insightful thinker.

 

This is the direction chess is heading these days. When a sequence of draws occur, the match is decided in an "Armageddon" format. Black gets draw odds, but gives up a big chuck of what is already a small amount of time for the whole game!

Here is America's top player and world number 2 against a very strong Russian player in an Armageddon game. Enjoy!

 

Its like sudden death in sports, I like the idea.

 

This is a game that only a player in the top 50 could play, imo. I learned a lot from this game:

 

Nakamura is an aggressive attacking player thus vulnerable...

 

I think he was positionaly outplayed. He simply didn't understand the position that arose.

 

I finally got a chance to see Pawn Sacrifice.

My review is that it is 2.5 stars. I did not think it is a great film, but neither was it a bad film. Probably, because I know of Fischer's quirkiness well, nothing in this film was new to me. Also, I wish they had concentrated on how unique Fischer's mind is. There are scores of stories they could have drawn on that would have added depth to the onscreen version of Fischer. Instead, all you see is some narcissistic person bordering on schizophrenia. The only reference to other great American players is to Morphy (whom Fischer considered probably the greatest chess player of all time), who was also crazy.

Toby Maguire did a decent job of portraying Fischer, except that unfortunately he is too short to play Fischer. Fischer was like 6' 2". This film also focuses strictly on Fischer, and not the beauty of chess and why people with minds like Fischer are attracted to this game and not the millions of other games, or similar disciplines like math.

One thing, this is probably the most accurate chess film ever to come out of Hollywood. The actual positions on the board are real from real games. I have never understood why Fischer took on h2 in game 1. I suspect no one knows because no one dared to ask Fischer WTF he was thinking about, lest he go into one of his tantrums.

So I say see it, but be aware that they turned a very three dimensional person into a cartoon. And chess in general takes a back seat.

 

Thank you for saving me $13....

 

"...At the end of the day Sergey Karjakin wins the World Cup! Congratulations to him and to Peter Svidler; both qualify for the Candidates Tournament. The President of FIDE, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, hinted that the Candidates had a "50% chance" of being held in America while the World Championship Match would most likely be held in either Chicago or Los Angeles. Nothing was confirmed, however..."


http://en.chessbase.com/post/baku-finals-tb-karjakin-wins


:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

Well LA has tons of chess players, maybe even more than NY. So LA is the "logical" choice. It would be cool for me too have it in Chicago.

Magnus has been seen in Silicon Valley, so that appears to be his preference:

"Rounded up my US trip with a Silicon Valley screening of the movie Pawn Sacrifice. Fun to chat with Tobey Maguire, who plays the role of Bobby Fischer in the film."