Chess

[Anaxagoras]

I'm not good at chess at all but I do sometimes like to admire the game from afar.

Recently I came across this video and I enjoyed it so I thought I'd pass it along in case anyone else is interested.



Apparently there's more like that on this channel if you like that one.

[Doctor X]

All I see is Anti-Semitism. . . .

--J.D.

[Rob Lister]

I've never seen anax post such racist drivel here. I'm going to forgive him, but just barely.

[ed]

I'm triggered.

[Anaxagoras]

Well he certainly did turn into a cunt as he got older. It's sad. I think he was mentally ill.
Imagine how life could have been for him if he wasn't his own worst enemy. He could have rested on those laurels for the rest of his life. He could have been a popular celebrity is he wasn't such a racist asshole. Something corrupted his brain. Maybe the same thing that made him a genius, who knows. He said horrible, horrible things, but the harm he caused was primarily to his own self.

But this was before all that, back when he was a young chess prodigy. It's about what he was, not what he became.

[Doctor X]

Well, it is not as if you cited his own autobiography as evidences that he was not a member of the SS an Anti-Semite then had a temper-tantrum over the shear stupidity of the citation.








Too soon?

--J.D.

[Anaxagoras]

Back to chess. Same channel, different players.

[gnome]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasparov_versus_the_World

I remembered this occurred, but did not know the result was so interesting. I will have to enter the game into my chess program and review.

It is the greatest game in the history of chess. The sheer number of ideas, the complexity, and the contribution it has made to chess make it the most important game ever played.

[Rob Lister]

Fucking Anax has got me addicted to watching chess games.
Usual channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL5YbN ... LIegT5QAbA

[Anaxagoras]

It is kind of addicting, isn't it?

Nice channel you found there, btw.

Apparently the world championship of chess is happening right now.

[Rob Lister]

How about a nice conundrum.

https://i.imgur.com/eMGgukg.png

White to move.

[gnome]

How about a nice conundrum.

https://i.imgur.com/eMGgukg.png

White to move.

I figure I'm walking into a trap, but bxa8?

[Rob Lister]

gnome, that's what I would have done.

we would be losers together.

It's a theoretical setup by Wilhelm Steinitz (World Chess Champion, from 1886 to 1894)

Spoiler:

black replies: g4xh3

white replies however

black: #h2

[ed]

?

why?

[Rob Lister]

?

why?

why what?

[ed]

why is that the solution?

[Rob Lister]

why is that the solution?

it's not. the solution is

Spoiler:

hxg2 fuck in 6

[gnome]

gnome, that's what I would have done.

we would be losers together.

It's a theoretical setup by Wilhelm Steinitz (World Chess Champion, from 1886 to 1894)

Spoiler:

black replies: g4xh3

white replies however

black: #h2

I'm out of practice, but I'm kicking myself missing a mate two moves out... geez.

[Rob Lister]

gnome, that's what I would have done.

we would be losers together.

It's a theoretical setup by Wilhelm Steinitz (World Chess Champion, from 1886 to 1894)

Spoiler:

black replies: g4xh3

white replies however

black: #h2

I'm out of practice, but I'm kicking myself missing a mate two moves out... geez.

Steinitz was discussing the 1862 British Chess Association rule that a pawn does not have to take a promotion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promotion ... ation_rule
I don't really it though.

[Anaxagoras]

How about a nice conundrum.

https://i.imgur.com/eMGgukg.png

White to move.

Before looking at the spoilers, my first thought was to take that rook with the white pawn, promoting to queen.

Second choice is take that pawn between the kings with the bishop. After that, it depends on what black's next move is.

I admit I'm not very good at this game, and the most obvious moves are probably wrong.

[Anaxagoras]

Been watching some more videos.

The world chess championship (human division) is underway right now between the top 2 human players in the world. So far they've played 8 games and they've all ended in draws. This is the 8th game:



The American player, Caruana, missed a good move in the middle that might have led to a victory.

Watching this video made me realize how much human chessplay is now influenced by AI chessplay. The best chess players in the world are now computer programs, and even the best human player would likely lose to any of them. But they can use these programs to practice, hone their skills, and even probably get ideas from. They can go back to their past games and analyze any position with an algorithm and see what the computer would have done, and, if their memory is good, remember it for the future. Sometimes the value of a particular move doesn't become apparent until a few moves later.

Anyway, this guy seems to be pretty good at analyzing the various positions.

Here's his analysis of a match between two computer programs, both of which are rated higher than the highest rated human player:



Leela Chess Zero demolishes her opponent here. She has some cool avatars you can search for.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leela_Chess_Zero

Leela Chess Zero is a free and open-source chess engine and distributed computing project. Development has been spearheaded by programmer Gary Linscott, who is also a developer for the Stockfish chess engine. Leela Chess Zero was adapted from the Leela Zero Go engine,[1] which in turn was based on Google's AlphaGo Zero project,[2] also to verify the methods in the AlphaZero paper as applied to the game of chess.

Like Leela Zero and AlphaGo Zero, Leela Chess Zero only knows the basic rules and nothing more.[1] Leela Chess Zero is trained by a distributed computing network coordinated at the Leela Chess Zero website. As of August 2018, it had trained itself by playing over 23 million games of chess against itself.[1]

I think there's a difference between a "chess engine" like Stockfish and an "AI" like Leela Chess Zero. But that's sort of beyond me to explain better than Wikipedia can. The latter seem to have surpassed the former though.

Here's another youtuber talking about her:

[Anaxagoras]

... underway right now between the top 2 human players in the world ...

Don't you just love living in The Future? :)

It's kinda cool. I wonder what other things AI will be able to do in my lifetime.

Chess is neat, but ultimately it's just a game after all.

ETA: Oh yeah, I almost wrote "the top two players in the world" but I decided that needed to be qualified to be strictly accurate.

[Doctor X]

Move the horsey!

--J.D.

[gnome]

Prawn to King four.

[Rob Lister]

game 9 another draw. very long drawn out draw. 3.5 hours

[Rob Lister]

10 was played thrusday. also a draw game 11 is in progress now.
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... 018/1/1/11

I gotta root for Caruana 'cause he's 'Merican! Kinda.

[Anaxagoras]

Another draw

[shemp]

At this level, it is very difficult to win.

[Rob Lister]

10 broke the old record for draws.

12 is the last game. if that's a draw they go into timed playoffs. Carlson is favored but Caruana doesn't know why.

[Rob Lister]

Game 12 starts at 10:00 et.

Pundits swear Caruana will lose in blitz so he has to win here.

https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... 018/1/1/12

This is so exciting I almost couldn't nap.

[Rob Lister]

Move 29.

The game is utterly even but time is now a huge factor. Caruana is going to lose unless Carlson gets locked up with a bsod.

https://i.imgur.com/Gx84qyc.jpg

[Rob Lister]

Wow fucking wow!

https://i.imgur.com/JenNkQq.jpg

They agreed to a draw!fucking11eleventy.

what the fuck!

This is a sad day for chess.

Caruana offered the draw and Carlson [laughingly] agreed.

That stinks.

Caruana didn't think he could outright win and Carlson didn't think he [could] lose in blitz.

I feel very cheated.

[Rob Lister]

There is somebody or other's conjecture (not mine) that two perfect players will always draw.

I don't know but I don't see how it could be otherwise. But that assumes they actually PLAY TO THE END.

I'm very angry. Kinda.

[shemp]

I think it's ridiculous to decide a world championship with speed chess. However, with the skills of today's world class players, a 24 game match at 40/150 time control would probably have 22 draws.

I was in NYC in 1995 to see some of the games in the PCA World Championship match between Kasparov and Anand at the WTC. Spent quite a bit of money watching nothing but draws.

Carlsen is better than Kasparov was at his peak, but that's due to the level of preparation available today.

[Rob Lister]

I think it's ridiculous to decide a world championship with speed chess.

I agree. But they both opted for that with this draw.

Carlsen is better than Kasparov was at his peak,...

I'll take your word for it but ... :notsure:

but that's due to the level of preparation available today.

In light of this shocking draw offer from Magnus in a superior position with more time, I reconsider my evaluation of him being the favorite in rapids. Tiebreaks require tremendous nerves and he seems to be losing his.

https://twitter.com/Kasparov63

Also, a blast from the not too distant past.


As a bonus, agadmator provides his analysis.
He Who Dares, Wins

[Anaxagoras]

I was avoiding this thread until I could watch for myself to avoid spoilers. I do question why Carlson offered a draw in that situation with his opponent under time pressure. It was not one of those situations that was clearly headed to a draw anyway.

I guess on the bright side it means that there will be more chess. Like a football game that goes to overtime, the fans get more football for the same price.

[Rob Lister]

A pretty good write-up on 538.com
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/ca ... -overtime/

“I wasn’t in a mood to find the punch,” Carlsen said by way of explanation after the game.

Wasn't in the mood?

“I should be really happy with a draw,” Caruana said. “My position had no chances to win.”

Engines don't concur but whatever.

Caruana said he was surprised by the draw offer. So was everyone else.

Let’s leave a deeper discussion of whether Carlsen’s shocking gesture is good for chess for later (it’s absolutely not) and take a look at how we got here.
https://i.imgur.com/dio7SPz.png


They’ll play a mini-match of four rapid games, in which each player gets 25 minutes plus 10 bonus seconds after each move. Points will be awarded as they were during regulation: 1 point for a win, half a point each for a draw.

If the score is still tied after those four games, they’ll play a mini-match of two blitz games, in which each player gets five minutes plus three bonus seconds after each move. If that’s tied, they’ll play another and another and so on, for up to five mini-matches, or 10 total blitz games.

If all of those two-game blitz matches are tied, they’ll play a single game of Armageddon. In this format, white gets five minutes, black gets four minutes, and a draw counts as a win for black. Lots are drawn (no pun intended) to determine who gets which color.

Lots are drawn. Stop. You're killing me!

[Rob Lister]

https://www.chess.com/computer-chess-championship

patience is needed. It is rewarded. Picks up where Carlson left off.

[Rob Lister]

Carlson wins three fast games in a row
https://www.youtube.com/user/AGADMATOR/ ... &flow=grid
He is crowned again.

[Anaxagoras]

Quite a decisive finish after 12 draws in a row.

Maybe next time they should give less time for the "classical" portion. Maybe 80 minutes instead of 100 to start? And 20% less for the incremental time?

Just spitballing. Unless they like having lots of draws, or they think this was just a fluke.