figure is stronger
Jose Raul Capablanca – 3rd World Chess Champion
Jose Raul Capablanca was born on November 19, 1888 in the administrative center of one of the Spanish colonies in the city of Havana (the Spaniards left Cuba in 1898 according to the Paris Peace Treaty). He met the ancient game at the age of 4, watching his father, Jose Maria, play against his colleagues. A few days later, the boy already knew perfectly how the pieces walk and even drew the parent’s attention to the error in the completed move. On the same day, he was able to easily beat his dad. The young child prodigy was sent for further training to the Havana Chess Club. Here he worked real miracles, defeating the strong masters of Taubengauz and Iglesias with a handicap in the form of a queen! And it’s only 5 years old! By the age of eight, he firmly became the second chess player on his native island, losing so far only to reigning champion H. Corso.
In 1901, the 12-year-old Capablanca met Corso in an official match. Jose Raul was able to answer his two Continue reading
They are tired
In 1946, freshman at the Law School of the University of Amsterdam, Hein Donner went to Groningen at the Staunton Memorial. Student Donner was rarely seen in university auditoriums: captivated by chess, he sat in the chess cafes of Amsterdam from morning till night. And even played in January in Wijk aan Zee in this tournament – the third group C, gaining fifty percent of the points.
Donner knew that not only western, but also the strongest Soviet grandmasters arrived in Groningen, demonstrating, as everyone said, new, ultra-modern chess. And the most powerful of them is Mikhail Botvinnik.
“I don’t remember how I got to the hall where the tournament was played,” Donner recalled thirty years later, “only a huge space remained in the memory, in the center of which they were sitting. THEY ARE! Continue reading
Computer or person
MG Emil Sutovsky recently published shocking news on his Facebook page: the computer program “Ponanza” beat the best shogi player in the world. But that is not all! The program applied the novelty on the first move: no professional shogi player had ever played like this before! I think this is about how to start a debut with 1.Ka3 or 1.f3.
Of course, this is not so shocking news for chess players. Unfortunately, we have already left this stage of computer development far behind.
Today, the top-end program can easily beat Magnus Carlsen by playing literally any initial move. The future Continue reading
