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Chess
Lately I’ve taken a liking to Chess. I’ve known the rules since I was a kid, but in the last few months I’ve given the game a bit of serious study. Enlightening, complex microcosm, to say something between the least and most.
I’ve been playing on Chess.com – you can friend me there with the link on the right side of the page. I find the interface acceptable, there always seems to be action there, and there are many learning tools. Let me know if there’s something better out there.
Note: If you click through on the link above, I’ll get 30 days of free premium membership.
Shatranj, of Debatable Origin
The origins of the game are interesting. Check out the discussion page for the (Persian? Afghani? Indian?) game Shatranj on wikipedia. Also check out Xiangqi from China. What we generally call chess and play in America is also known as Western Chess.
Along with the game’s genius come some interesting characters. An opponent on Chess.com recently recommended Aron Nimzowitsch. I got a kick out of this anecdote:
…he once missed the first prize of a great rapid transit tournament in Berlin by losing to Sämisch; immediately upon learning this, Nimzowitsch got up on a table and shouted “Gegen diesen Idioten muss ich verlieren!” (“That I should lose to this idiot!”).
Fired up over a board game, I love it. Chess also has it’s share of controversy. Check out this account of the rematch stalemate between legends Alexander Alekhine and Jose Raul Capablanca.
Fascinating to me is the extraordinary study that has gone into the various ‘lines’ or variations of initial move choices in the game. The permutations are practically infinite, but many specific opening series’ have been exhaustively researched, documented, and annotated. The best resource I have found for study of these opening moves is Chess 365’s Opening Explorer. Let me know if there’s a better one.
I also ran across this excellent take on annotations (explanations of move choices by grandmasters) by Ken Sloan at Exeter Chess Club. At Chessgames.com you can look up famous games which have been recorded and archived.
And, as though it were possible to exhaust the infinity of the standard game, check out the variation on the original called Fischer Random Chess, or Chess960.
