Chessboxing: A Sport?

What would happen if Floyd Mayweather Jr. faced off against Magnus Carlsen?

Sal Matera on Impact of COVID-19

Read this article on the impact of COVID-19 written by international master Sal Matera, twice Marshall Chess Club champion.

Streaming on Chess

GM Hikaru Nakamura has seen his fanbase on Twitch grow from 2,000 to 366,000 followers.

Fischer Random Economics

GuruFocus compares the global economy to Fischer random chess.

Getting a Microscopic Advantage

One way to get a microscopic advantage is by using a microscopic chess set.

ICA 2020 Summer Camp

Cosmonauts vs. Karjakin Ends in Draw

[image by VKontakte]

Yesterday's game between two cosmonauts and GM Sergey Karjakin ended in a draw.

Message from Marshall CC President

A Message in a Time of Unrest

June 8, 2020

 Dear Members of the Marshall Chess Club:

As I sit here writing this letter, I look out my window onto a stream of #BlackLivesMatter protestors marching across the Brooklyn Bridge. They are loud but orderly, impassioned yet restrained, ethnically diverse and nevertheless united. Now it has started to rain heavily—the protestors continue unabated and undeterred. Steadfastness on an unstable day. I am reaching out today on behalf of the Board of Governors to say The Marshall Chess Club supports this movement and asserts without hesitation or qualification that Black Lives Matter.

To say we live in precarious times has become a cliché over the past few months. Our city, our country, our world—all are in a state of unrest. You all undoubtedly have received earnest words of concern from your bank, your favorite online retailer, religious and cultural groups to which you belong. I hope this message does not get lost in the noise.

The fact is that the chess world is a tight-knit one. Our game, by dint of tradition, opposes black against white, but that is only to distinguish the two sides of a binary contest. In reality, chess is a sport that welcomes all who wish to join; the barrier to entry is quite low—just a board, 32 signifying pieces, and the will to engage in competitive (but peaceful) confrontation.

The Marshall Chess Club unequivocally denounces hate, rejects bigotry, refuses xenophobia, and denies the unjust. We uphold the rules of fairness and inclusion for our members and for anyone who passes through the doors of 23 W. 10th St (or, these days, whoever logs on to our website). Anyone who does not stand unequivocally against brutality at the hands of the police or who condones racist talk, thought, or belief is not welcome among us. The Club has a zero-tolerance policy with regard to any form of discrimination—racial, ethnic, religious, gender-based—online or otherwise.

I hope you will join with us to pledge to do better. To fight animosity, to combat institutionalized racism, to reverse asymmetrical privilege, to preempt kicking those who are already down. We can and we will emerge a finer, stronger, and more unified community—one of which we each can be proud to be a member.

Noah Chasin,
President
(on behalf of the Marshall Chess Club Board of Governors)

Marshall Sunday Game/50, 6/7/2020

On Sunday, I won this game in the Marshall Chess Club on-line tournament.

Sicilian Defense, Paulsen Variation

JimWest (Chess.com 1841) - IanN_08 (Chess.com 1838), Chess.com 6/7/2020

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Qc7 6.O-O Nf6 7.Qe2 Nc6 8.Nxc6 dxc6 9.e5 Nd7 10.f4 b5 11.a4 Bb7 12.Be3 Rd8 13.Nd2 Nc5 14.a5 Rd5 15.Ne4 Na4 16.b3 Nb2 

17.Bb6 Qd7 18.Nc3 Bc5+ 19.Kh1 Nxd3 20.Nxd5 cxd5 21.cxd3 Bxb6 22.axb6 Qc6 23.d4 Qxb6 24.Qd2 Kd7 25.Rfc1 Rc8 26.Rxc8 Bxc8 27.b4 Bb7 28.Qc3 Qc6 29.Qxc6+ Kxc6 30.Kg1 g6 31.Kf2 h6 32.g4 Kb6 33.h4 Bc6 

34.h5 gxh5 35.gxh5 Be8 36.Ke3 f5 37.exf6 Bxh5 38.Rh1 Bf7 39.Rxh6 a5 40.bxa5+ Kxa5 41.Rh7 Bg6 42.f7 Bxf7 43.Rxf7 b4 44.Kd2 Kb5 45.Kd3 Ka4 

46.Re7 Kb3 47.Rxe6 Kb2 48.Rd6 b3 49.Rxd5 Kc1 50.Rb5 b2 50.f5 b1=Q+ 51.Rxb1+ Kxb1 52.f6, Black resigns.

Chess "Jeopardy!"

[photo by Koen Suyk]

GM Wesley So [pictured] won $40,000 in the Clutch Chess Champions Showdown.

GM Karjakin versus Cosmonauts on June 9th

Grandmaster Sergey Karjakin [pictured] will play chess against two cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station.

My Review of "The Greenbecker Gambit"

With chess clubs around the world shut down due to the global pandemic and with civil unrest in the cities, you might not be in the right frame of mind to read a novel about a chessplaying pyromaniac.  Recent events have not been kind to the arrival of The Greenbecker Gambit [The Conrad Press, 2020, 355 pages] by Ben Graff.

It is a tale told by a paranoid schizophrenic.  While reading this book, you may experience the same chilling sensation you felt when, at the end of Psycho, you can hear Norman Bates thinking that he wouldn't hurt a fly.

Terrence "Tennessee" Greenbecker is an untrustworthy narrator, every bit as "not right in the head" as the character in the Hitchcock film.  Except that his weapon of choice is not the knife but fire.  He wants to burn down everything in the world unrelated to his self-delusion that he has the playing strength to defeat Magnus Carlsen in a match for the world championship.

As an arsonist, Greenbecker's hero is Guy Fawkes, mastermind of the infamous Gunpowder Plot.  And, as the former British chess champion, his hero is Bobby Fischer.

The imaginary events in this book happen on a single weekend in 2018, during the Carlsen-Caruana match in London.  Although at times it can be a morbidly depressing read, as Greenbecker's chess career and his personal finances both take a sharp downward turn, The Greenbecker Gambit perks up toward the end while game five of the match is in progress.