Engineers at NeuroSky have big plans for brain wave-reading toys and video games. They say the simple Darth Vader game - a relatively crude biofeedback device cloaked in gimmicky garb - portends the coming of more sophisticated devices that could revolutionize the way people play.
Technology from NeuroSky and other startups could make video games more mentally stimulating and realistic. It could even enable players to control video game characters or avatars in virtual worlds with nothing but
Qantas found my suitcase back (it was somewhere between Singapore and Paris!) which means that I can finally wear a different shirt!
So, what's that got to do with chess? why, can't you see it? it's got EVERYTHING to do with chess! now that I got my suitcase back my mood has improved and I can concentrate on chess again. See?
Anyway, the following endgame position is one of those where you can tell that there just has to be something... yes, something but WHAT?
White to play and win.
Morozevic - Leko was the best game from round IX, and you can download it with my annotations here: moroleko.cbv.
However, one of the most embarrasing games in this round was Carlsen - Aronian:
Carlsen,M (2690) - Aronian,L (2744) [E15]
XXIV SuperGM Morelia/Linares MEX/ESP (9), 03.03.2007
[pgn] 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.b3 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Be7 7.Bg2 c6 8.Bc3 d5 9.Ne5 Nfd7 10.Nxd7 Nxd7 11.Nd2 0-0 12.0-0 Rc8 13.e4 c5 14.exd5 exd5 15.dxc5 dxc4 16.c6 cxb3 17.Re1 b2 18.Bxb2 Nc5 1
If a few months ago someone had asked me who was the player with the most determination of all when at the board, I would not have hesitated: Topalov. Well, that was till yesterday when I saw Morozevich beat Topalov like this:
Morozevich,A (2741) - Topalov,V (2783) [b50]
XXIV SuperGM Morelia/Linares MEX/ESP (13), 09.03.2007
[pgn]1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.c3 Nf6 4.Be2 Bd7 5.d3 e6 6.Nbd2 Be7 7.0-0 0-0 8.a3 Bc6 9.Re1 Nbd7 10.Bf1 Ne5 11.Nxe5 dxe5 12.Nc4 Qc7 13.b4 Rfd8 14.Qb3 b5 15.Na5 Be8 16.f3
Some friends tell me that it's very unpolite to set the "ignore" flag on all my MSN contacts (this way they can't see I'm connected when I log on). I have to disagree with my friends on this one. I don't have all that many people on my contact list, I don't know, somethng like 50-75, but some people have hundreds.
My point is, I'm the sort of person who likes to reply to someone greeting me. I know people who never use the "ignore" flag and simply don't reply whenever someone says somethin
Maybe, just maybe I haven't forgotten how to play chess after all.
Ok, here's a game I played on-line yesterday on the playchess server against a well known WGM. It's one of those 3 minutes games.
The fun happens between moves 20 and 23.
White: Woman GM (I'd rather not tell her name)
Black: Javier Gil
[pgn]1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 O-O 7. Bd3 Re8 8. Qc2 Nbd7 9. Nf3 Nf8 10. h3 c6 11. Bf4 a5 12. O-O Ng6 13. Bh2 Bd6 14. Bxd6 Qxd6 15. a3 Qe7 16. Rab1 Ne4
With 0.5/3 this could be a very tough experience for young Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen.
Ponomariov's 6th move is as unusual as it is logical. White has several ideas in mind, one of them being g4+h4, which is not easy to meet. I don't think 6...h6 is entirely correct though. Other moves that had been tried in that position were 6...e6, 6...Nbd7 and 6...b5. After white's 11th move, Bb5!!, black's position looks extremely difficult:
Ponomariov,R (2723) - Carlsen,M (2690) [D10]
Corus A Wi
My free electronic book, LOCMAI (which stands for "learn chess or call me an idiot!!") has been downloaded more than 1000 times from this site!
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http://www.ebookbillboard.com
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At present, LOCMAI is the 17th most popular free ebook on the ebookbillboard!
"Learn chess or call me an idiot!!", my free electronic book, has now made it to number 2 on the list of free electronic books at http://www.ebookbillboard.com. The list is updated every week.
Please do me a favour, if you haven't downloaded the book yet, please do so now and make LOCMAI the number 1 book next week!
All games were drawn at Linares on round 8. Aronian - Svidler only lasted 16 moves.
Anand never seemed like he was really fighting for a win in his game against Topalov, but Morozevic - Carlsen was a tough fight.
Ivanchuck was never in trouble in his game and he achieved equality rather easily:
Leko,P (2749) - Ivanchuk,V (2750) [C10]
XXIV SuperGM Morelia/Linares MEX/ESP (8), 02.03.2007
[pgn] 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Nf3 Ngf6 6.Bg5 h6 7.Nxf6+ Nxf6
Regional duel at Malaysia.
Gary seemed well prepared and he got the advantage at around move 23 and never let it run away. Possible improvements for black? There are at least two, check the game:
[site “Kuala Lumpur MAS”]
[Date “2007.08.22″]
[Round “6.7″]
[White “IM Lane, Gary W”]
[black “GM Chandler, Murray”]
[Result “1-0″]
[WhiteElo “2412″]
[blackElo “2540″]
[pgn]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Bc5 6.Nb3 Be7 7.0-0 Nc6 8.Qg4 Nf6 9.Qxg7 Rg8 10.Qh6 Ne5
I will not mention what happened in round six at Linares other than it was the most boring round of any GM tournament I've seen in years. If you have children at home and you're running out of ideas because you no longer remember what silence sounds like, let your kids watch the games from this round and I assure you that they too will go to sleep in no time!
Anyway, Round VII was a lot more interesting. Only one of the 4 games ended in a draw.
Here's Ivanchuk's victory against Aronian. P
There's a misterious account on the playchess server which has everyone wondering: is it Kasparov?
He uses the nick "Raffael" and nobody knows for sure who it is. Well, maybe some of the people at chessbase do know, but they're not telling:
Oh yes, Garry has a nick called "Garry Kasparov", which he uses for special events. Whether he has a second account he uses to play regular games on the Playchess server? Now that will have to be kept a secret.
Yasser Seirawan has said: "Everyone is sa
Ok, I know defenders of the two browsers will never reach an agreement on this matter. Personally I use both, but amongst the many advantages that firefox has over IE is... it really loads pages so much faster! I'm talking about a speed difference of something like 50% or more, it's just shocking!
Anyway, I strongly recommend people to use Firefox rather than Internet Explorer. At least give it a try and decide by yourself.
After tonight's Eropean Champions' League final between Milan and Liverpool, held in Athens, and which the Italian won (2-1) I will not mention the word "soccer" again for a long time.
It's Rugby League for me now. Go WARRIORS!!!!!!
National Rugby League of Australia Website.
Your Vocabulary Score: B
You have a zealous love for the English language, and many find your vocabulary edifying.
Don't fret that you didn't get every word right, your vocabulary can be easily ameliorated!
How's Your Vocabulary?
http://www.blogthings.com/howsyourvocabularyquiz/
How embarrasing! I didn' know what "fret" meant!
Guests can now post their comments to my blog entries. I don't think there's going to be many, but I'm letting you know just in case.
If you do post a comment and you're not a registered user on these forums, the comment will have to be approved first. (you know what spam is like, don't you? )
Anyway, instructions are pretty basic: just click on the "reply button" and then enter your comments. Can't get easier than that!
Yes, I'm European and as such, I'm a soccer fan, I can't help it, it's in our blood.
Anyway, today was a happy day for me: Liverpool won through to the Champions League final 4-1 on penalties after the semi-final second leg against Chelsea ended 1-0 to the Reds, leaving the aggregate score locked at 1-1.
Why did I want Chelsea to lose? No particular reason, I simply can't stand their coach: Mourinho.
Needless to say, I'd love Liverpool to win the final in Athens (against either Milan or
I tried to find an interesting game from the Moscow Open. Normally I'd try to find a game by the tournament winner, but I don't know whether it's me or for some reason I didn't like any of his games.
However, there was one game which I quite liked. Take a look at the position after black's 13th move, 13...Bg8!. What a great bishop, isn't it! Only a few moves later that very bishop will turn out to be black's most dangerous piece! Here's the game:
Chernobay,A (2408) - Deviatkin,A (2544
I was taking a quick look at some of the games from the 2006-2007 Australian Open when I noticed a particularly interesting one.
Hu is a young australian player who came close to beating GM Antic (he was a piece up at one stage).
The fun begins after 16... Nxe5!, which white answered with 17.Qh4!, creating some nasty threats against the black King (note that 17.Qf4 is met by 17...Qc2!). Then GM Antic played the unexpected (but wrong) 17...Ng4, which was apparently refuted by Hu's 19th mo
I was thinking about an old story the other day:
An old lady buys a bottle of wine at the bottleshop. She pays 10 dollars for it and then she leaves. She walks for 10 minutes and then, all of sudden, the following questions enter her mind: "do I really want this wine?, isn't alcohol supposed to be bad for me? Shouldn't I have bought an orange juice instead, which is not only healthier but also a lot cheaper?" So, she turns around and walks back towards the bottle shop.
When she gets ther
Who or what are we in this infinite universe of ours? How meaningless are our daily actions and thoughts? is there any reason to believe that we are any smarter, more creative, artistic, important, relevant, useful (or any other positive adjective that you can think of) than others?
Perhaps the answer was found by "Kansas" guitarist Kerry Livgren when he was reading a book of Native American poetry. The line that caught his attention was "For All We Are Is Dust In The Wind..."
That might
[Event "Sydney International Open"]
[Round "6.5"]
[White "Bjelobrk, Igor, 2386"]
[black "Matamoros Franco, Carlos 2523"]
This position happened on board 5, round 6 of the Sydney International Open. Both players were probably in time trouble.
White has just played 37. Rf1. Think about it. Take your time. What would you play now as black?
When you think you're ready, put your mouse pointer over the black line and simply slide it.
I found this old song on itube a couple of days ago. I used to love it! I think I'm getting old!
iFrame (Click here to see this in a new window.)
Computer games
I fidget with the digit dots and cry an anxious tear
As the XU-1 connects the spot
But the matrix grid don't care
Get a message to my mother
What number would she be
There's a million angry citizens
Looking down their tubes at me
Com-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-puter-puter, puter games
Com-pu-
This looks promising! "A giant monster movie that is shot using home video cameras from the point of view of people who are experiencing an attack on New York City." And this is what an IMDB reader had to say about it: I saw the preview when i went to go see the new transformers movie (best movie I've ever laid eyes on) i saw the preview and the first thing i thought was GODZILLA. the sound the "creature" makes sounds very similar to the original Godzilla. I own Nearly all the Japanese movies
