Botchviniks Barbican

Chess in the movie My Cousin Vinny

2012-02-16T16:01:00.009-06:00

I found myself one day watching the funny movie My Cousin Vinny. When the judge, actor Fred Gwynne, orders Vincent Gambini(Joe Pesci) to his chambers to discuss his license to practice law, there is a chessboard set up in the office.Here is a clip of the movie when they are in the office. My interest was piqued in what position was on the board. Here was the position I saw in the first glimpse of the board:

So I watched increduluous as the judge picks up his knight on c3 and takes the knight on d5. Now I could be mistaken about the rules of chess. But I thought that when the king was en prise, something HAD to be done about it! In the movie clip the piece that is on c1 is taller than the piece on e1. So I naturally assumed that the piece on c1 must be the king. Maybe I have that wrong and the king is on e1?
If so, the position would look like this:
If this is the case then black had just made an illegal move and white may now TAKE BLACKS KING!

So now the camera pans away and to the faces of the judge and Vinny several times and then pans back out again. This time the board look like THIS(Yes, the board position magically changed all by itself in a few seconds):

Ok what the heck is this? A black pawn on a8? White has two dark square bishops? Wow!
So the camera panned around a bit again. When the camera panned back out to the chessboard, the knight that the judge had use to capture the black knight was still intact on d5 but other parts of the board had been changed:
Wow! More radical changes! This certainly sheds some light on the magic of movies! Hahaha!

The Queen of Kings

2011-10-28T16:13:00.006-05:00

I all but finished reading this book sometime in the spring. I had the Game Section left to read over. That section is about 143 pages long covering a total of 25 games played by Zsuzsa Polgar against other strong players of the day. The book(353 pages) was written by Zsusza Polgar and Jacob Shutzman. I don't remember alot of detail about the first half of the book because that was back at the end of spring. And it didn't really hold my attention that well. Nothing too riveting. So all I feel I can comment upon about this book is the quality of the games in the back section of the book. The games were very interesting and worth going through. If the first half of the book wasn't so boring to me I might recommend it to others. And now onto the next book.

End Game

2011-03-23T16:23:00.005-05:00

I finished reading this book by Dominic Lawson sometime in January this year. I had originally obtained this book from a bargain bin in the 90s for just one dollar. I had attempted to read it then and had left the book half finished. Not sure why. I was probably more interested in basketball and the bars. The book is Copyrighted 1994 and is 253 pages long. This book is about the 1993 World Championship Chess Match between Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short and some of the events that led to it. The perspective is given from the Nigel Short camp. Twenty one games over the course of two months were played, all of them in the London area. I thought that the authors elaboration of the training, trainers and events kept the book very interesting. One can't help but admire Nigel Short for his attempt to win the match against of the worlds best Grandmasters. Below is game 16 from the match. Played on 12 October 1993:

(show chess board)(hide chess board)

In all, this was an entertaining read.

Book Review

2011-01-05T17:46:00.003-06:00

I recently finished reading the book,"The Ten Most Common Chess Mistakes". This book was written by the renowned chess player and chess author, Larry Evans. I found it a slightly strange coincidence that I was reading one of his books when the news of his passing was announced.
The book is the second edition published by Cardoza Publishing. The book has 218 examples of typical blunders separated into groups of similar theme. There are ten chapters of these different themes. Larry has given each one of these different examples an interesting yet descriptive name followed by a brief story or explanation of the game or position at hand. The majority of these examples are only one page long, making this a perfect book for down time in the throne room.
While I found this book very entertaining and easy to read, I think the most important stuff to be learned out of this book comes from the Introduction and the first two pages of chapter one and all of the last chapter, chapter eleven. Chapter eleven is particularly interesting because it explains the importance and how to retro-analyze games and positions. Lastly, I was surprised to see, as I turned the page, an example from a local game with both names recognizable to me as patrons of tournaments from my area! You guys are famous now! Congrats!

A recent game

2010-04-05T14:55:00.005-05:00

The below game is one I played recently at the club I used to attend regularly. I have a few games in my database that have the same opponent and of course with the same result. This player has been a master before, so what did I expect? I was lucky I stayed in the game that long against him.

[Event "Chess Club Ladder"]
[Site "Chess Club"]
[Date "2010.03.18"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Me"]
[Black "My opponent"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteUSCF "1737"]
[BlackElo "2113"]
[ECO "C00q"]
[EventDate "2010.03.18"]
[TimeControl "G90"]

1. e4 e6
2. d3 d5
3. Nd2 c5
4. g3 Nc6
5. Bg2 h5
6. Ngf3 Be7
7. h4 Nf6
8. O-O Qc7
9. c3 Bd7
10. Re1 O-O-O
11. Ng5 Rdf8
12. Ndf3 Ng4
13. exd5 exd5
14. Bf4 Bd6
15. Bxd6 Qxd6
16. d4 cxd4
17. Nxd4 Nce5
18. Ndf3 f6
19. Ne4 Qc6
20. Nd4 Qb6
21. Nd2 g5
22. f3 Nh6
23. hxg5 Nf5
24. gxf6 Nxd4
25. cxd4 Qxd4+

26. Kh2?? What could have possibly been worse than this move?
26 ... Ng4+
27. fxg4? hxg4+
28. Bh3 Rxh3+
29. Kg2 Rh2+
0-1

Kings Gambit

2010-04-05T14:11:00.001-05:00

I finished this book about three months ago. I just never got up the gumption to post about it. The book is called Kings Gambit by Paul Hoffman published by Hyperion Books in 2007 at 433 pages. The book is about the author and his travels through the chess world as a boy with his father and later as an author/interviewer of top notch chess players and other such characters involved with chess. From his encounter with Rossolimo, a grandmaster renowned for his variation in the Sicilian Defense, to his interview with Nigel Short and others, he scrutinizes championship chess and his own chess experiences with a fine toothed comb.Here is a web page about Paul Hoffman and this book.
Paul talks about Pandolfini whom he has known since childhood. Pandolfini has been involved in chess for a long time as a coach and famous personality.Pascal Charbonneau, Anatoly Karpov, Gary Kasparov, Deep Blue,Maurice Ashley, Jennifer Shahade, Kramnik, Joel Lautier, Henri Grob, Claude Bloodgood, Victor Korchnoi, Susan Polgar, Paul Truong, Aleksander Wojtkiewicz, Irina Krush, Muammar Gadhafi, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, and Nigel Short are just some of his many subjects of writing in this book. I liked it, a good read. Too bad I took too long before posting about it. I seem to have forgotten much about it.

Did some more reading,etc.

2010-04-03T14:52:00.002-05:00

Okay, I guess I am pretty slow about posting things on my chess blog. Over the winter, I have read a few more books and am going to post about them before I finish reading another one. The first book is called Kings Gambit. The other book is called Finding Bobby Fischer. Hopefully, I will get my opinions about both books posted within the next week.

Time Flies

2010-01-11T14:48:00.003-06:00

Wow! Has it been that long since I posted last? Where did all that time go? Okay, here is some more information on that book I read during the summer. How to Beat Bobby Fischer 1997 edition was a fairly good book. Sixty one lost games played by Bobby Fischer and analyzed by Edmar Mednis. Thoughtful analysis and commentary on most every game. I would have liked to have seen it in Algebraic notation. But this was about the best way you could print a book in English Descriptive notation, to me. All the games had the main lines printed in bold and the variations and comments were in standard text. This made it easier, to me anyways, to navigate the book. I don't have access to a prior copy of the book before the 1997 edition. But I am assuming that the Part Five: 1972-1997 section of the book was added starting with this 1997 edition. It covers some talk about the Fischer-Spassky rematch of 1992. But there are no games analyzed or shown in this section. Besides that, I thought it was a fairly decent book. I learned that even theee very best of the best in chess can get his behind handed to him every once in a while!

Finally finished the book

2009-08-31T22:30:00.002-05:00

I finally finished off the reading of that book, "How to Beat Bobby Fischer" just a day or two ago. It took me nearly three months to finish reading that book without skipping any of the analysis! Little bit more on the book soon to follow.

How To Beat Bobby Fischer

2009-08-08T18:00:00.006-05:00

I am slowly working my way through the Edmar Mednis book called How To Beat Bobby Fischer. I estimate that I started on this book approximately 2 1/2 months ago. Trying to really absorb the games and the analysis given, hence the slow progress. I am currently on game 37 on page 152. Fischer vs. Petrosian,May 23, 1962 round 13. Move 6 for black says 6...BxB. Unless I have gotten those moves wrong somehow, I see no BxB possible on the chessboard. I think that is the first serious typo in the book and have already passed the middle point of the book. And if I continue by assuming that black exchanges the bishop for the knight on c3, I think everything will coincide correctly. Not a huge error in the book. And so far the games have been very entertaining. I will post more, including a picture of the front cover later on as I go through more of the book. Here is the FEN for this position: rnbqk2r/ppp2pp1/4pn1p/3pP3/1b1P4/2N5/PPPB1PPP/R2QKBNR b KQkq - 0 6

Ok. Later on in the same game I found this position with black to move.

And Mednis has given 8.Qg4 instead of Fischers 8.Qa5? . Next, Mednis suggests that black must play 8...Kf8 here. What would be wrong about just plain ole 8... 0-0? I don't understand that annotation. Anyone have any ideas? Did I miss something? Once again, here is the FEN for that board setup: rnbqk2r/ppp2pp1/4p2p/3pP3/3Pn1Q1/2B5/PPP2PPP/R3KBNR b KQkq - 0 8

Started reading another chess book and remembered a tournament from the past.

2009-07-31T17:07:00.002-05:00

I recently started reading another chess book. The name of it is Kings Gambit by Paul Hoffman.
In chapter one, The Insanity Defense, the author and his father go to meet Rossolimo. He was a prominent GM from the past. When Rossolimo played a game of chess with the young author he managed to lose and kicked him and his father out of his home. While Paul went on to discuss the subject of chess players of all levels throwing fits and tantrums when having lost a game, this reminded me of my own little story on that subject.
There was this tournament called The Cheap Shot Open that I decided to attend with a few buddies. I didn't expect to go to this tournament and play against any of my friends. But it happened. So here I am facing my friend at a tournament game and along comes this character we dubbed "Butt-Cheeks". He would come to tournaments and watch the games, but I don't remember if he played at all. In any case he was watching our game and leaning in to see the score and the position on the board. And invariably every time he did so half of his hind quarters would hang out and add to the dank stank of the tournament hall! EWWWWWWWW! I managed to go on to lose the game to my friend. A few rounds later, perhaps an hour or so into the game, there is the loud interruption of a fist banging on a table directly in the center of the playing hall.
I look up to see that everyone has stopped playing their games to see what all this din is about. I turned in the direction of their gaze, to see that there is Butt-Cheeks, in all his glory, leaning over my friends game as he begins to scream out loud at the top of his lungs,"Fuck! Fuck fuck!!! Fuck fuck fuck fuck!!!!!!!!" My friend then proceeded to get up and storm out of the room slamming doors and still bellowing at the top of his lungs, "Fuck!!!!" Hahahahah!!!!! I could NOT believe that my friend, a big hoidy toidy college grad, with such a prestigious education and refinement, would act like this! That was just incredible that he would act like this. It took him several weeks before he would even discuss it with me. Turns out he had given his queen away for free.
That was enough to convince ME that most anyone would be susceptible to this kind of behavior in chess if they don't learn to control that kind of thing. I am not sure where I read or heard this, but I think that Bobby Fischer and Pal Benko even got into fisticuffs over something at a tournament. Anyone know anything about that? Please post a comment and lemme know.

Game Of Kings

2009-07-28T12:19:00.003-05:00

I just finished another book about chess. The book was called Game Of Kings by Michael Weinreb.
Was interesting to see the writings about people like Jennifer Shahade, Elizabeth Vicary, Bruce Pandolfini, and Josh Waitzkin. At one point the author quoted Bruce as saying that if Bobby Fischer had stayed around after winning the World Championship match with Spassky that American chess would be completely different. Also that possibly every American would know how to play chess. Do you think that the American people would have supported Bobby more if he had stuck around to play more? Would the American Government have STARTED to support him if he would have stuck around? I am not sure about that, myself. That was also an interesting subject of Waitzkin and his experience of extreme sadness while playing at the highest levels of chess competition. Is there something to be learned from that? Of course. We all need to realize that there is other things besides chess.

It was fun to follow Sal and Alex and the whole team through their trials and tribulations of the team tournaments and all the travel. They sure had alot of fun playing poker and cards. Hehehe.
One of them managed to learn to play chess well but never managed to do their school work, which is a shame. Overall I thought the book was a decent read.

Recently finished reading this book

2009-07-20T17:22:00.004-05:00

I recently finished reading the book The Chess Artist by J.C. Hallman. It was very interesting because he and Glen took a trip to the "Chess City" in Kalmykia, Russia. While they were on this trip they met a whole host of interesting characters and played chess with many of them. All this took place while the mystery of a murdered journalist hung over the whole setting.They also met Kirsan Ilyumsinov while there. He is an avid player and politician.
This is only some of the things that happen in that book. This book makes for alright reading if you are looking for something to read about chess which isn't crosstables and move patterns. Anyone else read this book? If so, let me know what you think of it.

What is a Barbican?

2009-07-19T09:22:00.002-05:00

"What is a barbican?", you may ask. At some point in the history of castle making, it was decided to add an entry area that was on the outside of the castle for more security. That little area, or not so little in some cases, was called a barbican. Some time in the 14th or 15th century these protrusions from castles became obsolete due to improvements in castle warfare. I have named my blog using that word for several reasons. The most prominent being that most of what I say or think of chess can probably be obsoleted fairly easily! Lol.

First Post For Botchviniks Barbican

2009-07-18T18:17:00.001-05:00

Yeay! My first post on this blog! This blog is intended to be about all things chess, in my own version and ramblings, of course. Below is a position from a game recently played on FICS. Black to move.

To see the whole game click on the viewer below.

(show chess board)(hide chess board)

Did black play this correctly? Looks pretty strong.