Perpetual Chess Linkest #71- February 16, 2024
Is Freestyle Chess (Chess 960) Gonna Be a Thing?
Dippin’ Dots are little frozen balls that come in different flavors and resemble a cross between ice cream and the candy “Nerds.” In the early 2000’s at amusement parks and stadiums, Dippin’ Dots were constantly hailed as “the future of ice cream.” (by Dippin’ Dots at least). I thought ice cream was pretty great as it was, but those proclamations stuck around for quite a while. These days, Dippin’ Dots still exist, but I don’t see it hailed as Ice Cream’s future anymore. It is just low-rent ice cream.
Anyway, there has been a lot of recent debate about how interesting Chess960 is for chess spectators. I think top players could absolutely use a break from regurgitating engine opening lines, but otherwise I am ambivalent about whether 960 is the future, faster games are the future, or good old classical chess is the future. I am all for trying different chess formats and seeing what draws the most interest. I am glad that the masses revolted against dippin’ dots though!
Here are this week’s links…
Chess Books
Quality Chess is updating and re-publishing two classics by Lisitsin (GM John Shaw of Quality Chess)
Martin Justesen summarizes the helpful tactics advice from GM R.B. Ramesh in Improve Your Chess Calculation. “Without making progress on visualisation skills, it is impossible to make progress in calculation skills." (Say Chess Blog)
Jan Timman’s classic book The Art of the Endgame is now available on Forward Chess! (Forward Chess Blog)
Nick Visel reviews the classic book New York 1924. “Do you want to learn how to look for the initiative? Read Alekhine’s analysis and pay attention to how he tries to find a way to play for the win in every single position.” (Nick Plays Chess)
Richard James reviews Chess Lessons from a Champion Coach by IM Thomas Engqvist (British Chess News)
The Freestyle G.O.A.T.
GM Magnus Carlsen won the Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. challenge (Colin McGourty for Chess.com)
Influential economics blogger and USCF Master, Tyler Cowen on Why He Doesn’t Like Fischer Random Chess. h/t The Chess Mind. “Most of the time, at least prior to the endgame, I don’t understand what is going on. Even with computer assistance. I could put in five to ten minutes to study the position, and get a sense of the constraints, but as a spectator I don’t want to do that.” (Marginal Revolution)
Chess Improvement
GM Alex Colovic on What we Can Learn from Karpov’s Resilience (GM Alex Colovic’s Blog)
David Hamm on How he Dealt with Unexpectedly Encountering an Online Cheater “My coach essentially said: ‘Your opponent cheating is not your problem, it is their problem. They are simply wasting their time and not growing. While you can still learn from the game and how you could play better." (LiChess Blog)
GM Noel Studer shares some advice about how to think during a chess game (LiChess Blog)
Chess and Sports
Chess.com will host “SlugChamps” an Online tournament featuring several members of the Cleveland Guardians baseball team. (Chess.com News)
NBA players continue to show interest in chess. “Derrick Rose started playing chess when he heard that it helps prevent dementia in old age. After that, he got addicted.” (Stephen Noh for the Sporting News)
Misc.
Young GM Andy Woodward writes an insightful trip report on the World Juniors in Mexico. “I didn’t play as many good games as I had hoped for, but I was able to spend lots of time with my chess friends. That, for me, is the best part of my tournament experience: eating, laughing, and taking walks together is a highlight for me.” (Chess Life Online)
From the point of view of people who don't play chess and want to learn it, Chess960 is an even more difficult and incomprehensible game than chess. The pieces stand more or less awkwardly and the castling rule is completely illogical. It would help a bit if Chess1440 (without castling) was Chess instead of Chess960. For the audience and popularity of chess, I think some version of chess where there is no draw would be interesting.
Thanks for these weekly recaps