Book about Fischer just released

First thing first, please note that it is WFM Shercila Cua and not her younger sister WFM Sherily Cua who is now in Vietnam competing for the Asian Indoor Games as we've previously posted. Thanks to Sherily herself for quickly pointing this one out to us. I guess I owe her sister an apology ;)

The latest book in print about Fischer has just been released. Bobby Fischer: The Career and Complete Games of the American World Chess Champion by Karsten Mueller. Don't know what to expect from the book but annotations for all of Fischer’s 736 tournament and match games and lots of unpublished photos are provided in the book. Here's the video presentation from chessvibes.

3rd Asian Indoor Games: with strong typhoon coming, better stay and play indoors.

The 3rd edition of the Asian Indoor Games begins today in Hanoi Vietnam. According to Vietnamese media, if this is not an exaggerated one, they are expecting more than 3 billion audiences in 45 countries. Vietnam by the way is also expecting a strong typhoon after it hits the Philippines Friday evening so I guess staying and playing indoors is truly a wise decision. Focusing on chess, the country will be represented by GM Joey Antonio and GM Mark Paragua while two of the most familiar faces in womens local chess today, WFMs Caterine Pereña and Shercila Cua represents the fairer sex division.

GMs Paragua and Antonio has two separate mission later this year. Paragua, as we all know by now, is aiming to set a new world record for simultaneous chess "1 vs. 600: beat the Mark" while Antonio will be heading for the world cup of chess in an attempt for a "decent" finish.

Strong typhoon is coming and I say stay indoors!

Chessbomb needs some tweaking with IE 8 but runs fine on Chrome and Firefox

Yesterday, Chessdom in partnership with Chessbomb, just introduced to the chess community a new impressive feature on their site that will enable the readers to follow a real time, live chess game directly on their browser, automatically and with computer analysis provided by Rybka and Toga while human commentary will of course, be taken care of the Chessdom staffs.

I used three browsers for particular purposes. IE, Firefox and Chrome. I usually used Chrome when watching live chess games since Chrome appears to have solved most of the problems that Javascript and Flash based applications have been encountering with IE and Firefox without bothering for some "add-ons" like Java and Flash. Sites that don't depend on Java and flash like chessbomb, (still in beta) rely solely on the compatibility of the browser. Here's my take. I think chessbomb runs great with Chrome, next is Firefox. I noticed that in IE, when you are following all the featured games and click an application on any of the toolbar, IE tends to wait for the ply to be completed before Rybka or any computer software it is using to analyze the position before responding with your request. Of course this sounds not a very big deal but I noticed that Chrome on the other hand seems to handled this issue more comfortably. Firefox, though not as impressive as Chrome in this matter, fairs better than IE.

Other than that, I experience no problem (by far) with chessbomb. It is easy to use and one great thing is you could follow the games and leave them on separate tabs without totally navigating away from the games and still, you have the games being played live and automatically! Traditional live games viewer can't do that. If you left and just return, you have to refresh the browser.

I noticed that watching an ongoing games on multiple tabs instead of watching 4 or more games on a single tab runs much fine but that is somewhat confusing.

I think Chrome and Firefox will make the most out of this new technology in internet chess. But again, we have our own preferences, of course. You can view them at any browser you like. But for great live chess experience, I suggest using Chrome and Firefox. Haven't taken my shot on Opera, Safari etc. Maybe, later.

In the meantime, you can start singing "...chessbomb, chessbomb, you're my chessbomb."

Paragua wins Pangasinan tourney

Mark Paragua, the 25 years old world simul record holder wanna be, just added one more title to show off before his attempt at breaking the world record later this year. Mark captured the Gov. Espino Rapid chess tournament. Mark should win one or two more tournaments to add to his credibility and his competency before the date of the simul. By mid-November, it's wise if he'll skipped from participating in any tournaments for his preparation. Report by NM Marlon Bernardino:

GM PARAGUA BEATS NM PASCUA; TOPS GOV. ESPINO CHESS; POCKETS P10,000

GM Mark Callano Paragua turned back National Master (NM) Haridas Pascua in the seventh and final round to snare the title and the top prize of P10,000 in the inaugural Gov. Amado T. Espino Jr. Cup Open Rapid Chess Championships at the Narciso Ramos Sports and Civic Center in Lingayen, Pangasinan, held over the weekend.

The Tondo, Manila born Paragua, the 2003 Southeast Asian Games most bemedalled athlete prevailed with the white pieces after 40 moves of Reti Opening to finish undefeated in the two-day (October 24 and 25) tournament with a total 6.5 points on account of six wins and a draw, organized by Menard Pulido, the founder/ Vice President, Pangasinan Chess Association; Vice President-NAPCA Northern Luzon, Vice President PACE Northern Luzon and Coordinator of NCFP in Pangasinan.

After winning the first three rounds against the local player here in Pangasinan, Paragua subdued NM Allan Macalla in the fourth, drew with fellow GM Rogelio “Joey”Antonio Jr., in the fifth, then toppled Dick Gicain in the sixth before beating NM Pascua in the seventh round enroute to the championship’s trophy.

Yahoo! GeoCities, farewell and thanks for the freebies!

GeoCities, a Yahoo! free web hosting which started in 1994 and one of the precursor of the idea of "free" webpage hosting will officially closed today, October 26. For those of us who are a web geek and 30 plus years, Geocities may probably the first free webhosting we have started. There is no denying that Geo is the Facebook/Twitter of its day. Surely, with blogspot, wordpress, etc, one may don't even care. But fact remains that Geocities is the first proof that you could have something really popular, useful and still not make any money on the internet.

GM Mark Paragua to set a new simul world record?

PHOTO shown: from left to right: Albert Rivera, RP and US Master Almario Marlon Bernardino Jr., Robert Racasa, GM Mark Paragua, Department of Tourism (DOT) Undersecretary for Sports and Wellness Ms. Cynthia Carrion and Noli Cruz during a courtesy call of the organizing group Touch of Gold Enterprises on Thursday at the Department of Tourism in T. M. Kalaw, Manila.

Breaking. My eyes nearly popped out of it's socket with this one. We just received an email report from NM Marlon Bernardino that GM Mark Paragua will try to set a new world record for simul chess and the event will be dubbed "1 vs 600, Beat the Mark". This is a herculean task. Come on, 600 players in two days? He's facing no patzers here. If park and kanto chess boys will be allowed to participate then this record breaking attempt might turn a different course. Not impossible of course but having some doubts, things we thought we could only imagine. But anyway go ahead and good luck Mark and beat the mark! In the meantime here's Bernardino's full report.

GM MARK PARAGUA TRIES TO BREAK THE GUINNESS SIMUL CHESS WORLD RECORD
DUBBED AS “1 V.S. 600: BEAT THE MARK”
BY: MARLON BERNARDINO

MARK PARAGUA, the first Filipino to reach super grandmaster status, aims to put the Philippines in the world chess map once again as he tries to break the Guinness simultaneous chess world record on December 27 to 28, 2009.

The two-day event will be held at the historic Ninoy Aquino Stadium or San Andres Gymnasium in Manila.

“The ultimate test for mind and body endurance dubbed as “1 vs. 600: Beat the MARK” will pit the young grandmaster against 600 players at the same time. There will also be 400 reserves for a total of 1,000 opposing players present during the event.” Said journalist Noli Sangil Cruz.

The current record is held by Iranian GM Morteza Mahjoob, who faced 500 opponents simultaneously last August 13, 2009 at the Engelab Sports Complex in Tehran, Iran.

The Guinness World Record for the largest number of simultaneous games played in a single session was initially set in 1996 Swedish Grandmaster Ulf Anderson, who took on 310 opponents. This record was broken in 2004 by British IM Andrew Martin, author of many of our openings training DVDs. Martin played against 321 opponents, scoring 294 wins, 26 draws and 1 loss for a winning percentage of 95.64%. In August 2005 GM Susan Polgar played against 350 players simultaneously at the Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Finally, in February this year, Bulgarian GM Kiril Georgiev played a simultaneous exhibition against 360 opponents before broke by Morteza.

Paragua’s second/ trainer will be Asia’s First GM Eugene Torre and World Chess Cup bound GM Rogelio “Joey” Antonio Jr. in the event organized by Touch of Gold Enterprises in close cooperation with the Department of Tourism, Manila Sports Council (MASCO) Chairman Niño dela Cruz, City of Manila, Filway Marketings Inc. CEO/ President Hector "Chito" Tagaysay and Meralco Chess Club.

Wilfredo “Willie” Abalos of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) will head the list of International arbiters (IA) that includes Gene Poliarco, national masters Erwin Carag and Elias Lao along with RP six-time executive champion Dr. Jenny Mayor. For inquiries, you can call or text mobile no. 0919 849 3648 for complete details

Bicentennial 199 chess match up

Just saw this one from Mig Greengard's Daily Dirt Chess blog. 100-year-old Aaron Schwartzman plays an exhibition chess match with 99-year-old Francisco Benkö in Ajedres chess club in Argentina. This two actually combine a total of over 200 years, with months and weeks counting since the day of their birth. It maybe, yes maybe, the unofficial oldest exhibition match up, in terms of participants, in any sport. The game however ended in a very short draw which is quite understandable. You don't want to spend the remaining few years of your life agonizing over a recent defeat from an old rival. I was thinking if Kobe and Shaq can do their own one-on-one bicentennial match up on the basketball court if ever they reach their hundreds many years from now. That is even more interesting.

Correction

Please allow me to make a bit of a correction. I'm referring to GM elect Ronald Dableo and NOT GM Darwin Laylo, of course, as I stated in my previous post. My apologies. "Darwin" and "Dableo" confuses me, I guess. And thanks to anonymous commenters for quickly pointing this one out. Just some mental lapses on my part :)

Missing in FIDE. What the...

GM elect Ronald Dableo failed to made it among those who awarded the lifelong title of chess grandmaster at the 80th FIDE Congress held last October 11-17 in Halkidiki, Greece and it may have something to do with his current rating that is short of the required 2500 or over. No International Master was awarded for Filipinos as well. But the most alarming (or intriguing) development is that the Philippines and NCFP is not being recognized by FIDE at all! We are supposed to be occupying the no. 30 to 33 spot but we're gone! Even US based GM, Rogelio Barcenilla is listed on "conditional" section. This is grave news. What exactly is happening here? Are we suspended or what? And for what reasons?

Chess in building child's self confidence

We know that building self confidence early in a child's life can bring positive results as the child grow up. We all know it. Question is, how? You guessed it right. Teach them to play chess! Why chess? Here's from an article by Frank “Boy” Pestaño for SunStar.com, Building Child's Self Confidence, as republished in his chess blog, Chessmoso. You may have already read countless of times in the past about the benefit of chess to everyone but hey, just one more push! We are all in one here anyway.

Playing chess has many benefits and one is promoting self-confidence. You can learn many techniques and skills that you can apply in daily life.

Every time you win a game, you improve self-esteem and self-confidence.

Chess is a thinking game. It is a fair game in that the player is responsible for the fate of the game and there is no other intervention in the game either in the form of luck or chance.

If children were taught this noble game at a tender age and encouraged to play, they would perform better in academically and outshine others.

If your child has a history of school failure and academic problems, teach him/her to play chess. In due time, you will see great improvements not only in the personality but also in the intellectual capacity of the child

Chess players show intense concentration, abstract thinking, and mental strategies that are extremely difficult to understand and learn.

With more self-confidence, you can face the many difficulties of life. A child develops the attitude that he can do it and that he can achieve his dreams.

Continue reading from Frank Pestano chess blog

Wesley So skips World Junior Chess Championship, 21 October- 4 November

Study first, play later. At 16, Wesley So should be graduating in high school and would start finding a good university, most probably, abroad, (sure there's some offer), to improve his chess, studies and of course, way of living. And for sure, he will be graduating from high school this year, as Wesley decided to skip the the World Junior Chess Championship that will start tomorrow, October 21 till November 4 in Mar Del Plata, Argentina. We are not sure either if the World Youth Chess Championship this coming November in Antalya, Turkey is also part of Wesley's schedule. What we know for now is that Wesley will be playing for the World Cup of Chess slated this December in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia in December. I think this is also a good time for soul searching for Wesley So, a time spent away from chess as he failed miserably at SPICE Cup 2009.

Some of our other top players also decided to skipped some major tournaments here and abroad to concentrate and give more time to their studies. GM John Paul Gomez is a graduate of Mechanical Engineer at La Salle and is vent to get his license sooner than later. IM Julio Catalino Sadorra, I believe, is in Dallas Texas now for some scholarship program in one of the top college school there. Remember this post?

Hula hoop chess anyone?

Just saw this one from ChessBase and I remember Mr. Rosario, the Filipino chess blogger from down under who maintains the The Closet Grandmaster blog recently argue about chess people who "damages" chess with their strange presentation of the game. Lately, we saw videos of strange new sport called chess boxing. Now this chess videos may interest you even more. Hula hoop chess. I say this is one of the best and fun way, not to mention the creativity, to get rid of those excess around our waist while playing chess. For some reasons, I can't post the video in this blog perhaps the Fox video does not compatible with blogspot. Just watch the video on their site.

This chess blogger highly suggest that you do try this!

Philweb Human Plus National Executive Grand Prix Active Chess Championships results

Marlon Bernardino, the 32 year old sports journalist and RP, US National Master and constantly updating and contributing to ChessHeroes with chess news and events about the Philippines, well, the guy just finished a decent second in the recently held Philweb Human Plus National Executive Grand Prix Active Chess Championships last Saturday at Quezon Memorial Circle, Quezon City, just half a point behind NM Mirabeau Maga. Here's his complete report:

MAGA RULES PHILWEB-HUMAN PLUS NATIONAL EXECUTIVE CHESS; BERNARDINO WOUND UP SOLO SECOND PLACE

Final Standings:

4.5 points--- NM Mirabeau Maga

4.0 points--- RP and US Master Almario Marlon Bernardino Jr.

3.0 points--- NM Julius Sinangote, NM Efren Bagamasbad, NM Allan Macalla

2.5 points--- NM Ronald Llavanes

2.0 points--- Fide Master Randy Segarra, NM Ali Branzuela, RP six-time executive champion Dr. Jenny Mayor

1.5 points--- NM Ric Portagalera, NM Allan Sasot, Jerry Areque

NATIONAL MASTER (NM) Mirabeau Maga of Davao City ruled the 9th leg of the 2009 Philweb–Human Plus National Executive Grand Prix Active Chess Championships on Saturday at the Human Resources Conference Room, Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Elliptical Road, Quezon Memorial Circle, Quezon City.

Maga scored 4.5points in the five-round Swiss System event to take the Group A Open Division crown by half a point and pocket the P5,000 champion's purse. RP and US Master Almario Marlon Bernardino Jr., a Bandera/ CDN sportswriter and radio commentator wound up solo second place with 4.0 points to received the runner-up prize of P2,000.

National Masters (NMs) Julius Sinangote of Caloocan City, Efren Bagamasbad of Manila and Allan Macalla of Davao City finished with 3.0 points apiece to end up sharing third places to fifth placers, while Philippine Airforce bet NM Ronald Llavanes of Bicol finished with 2.5 points for solo sixth placers.

Other participants were Fide Master Randy Segarra (2.0 points), NM Ali Branzuela(2.0 points), RP six-time executive champion Dr. Jenny Mayor (2.0 points), NM Ric Portagalera (1.5 points), NM Allan Sasot(1.5 points) and Jerry Areque (1.5 points).

Ric dela Pena, meanwhile captured the Group B crown with 4.5 points while Ritchie Evangelista, Mark Oliver Ingcad, Ricardo Jimenez and Joel Cocjin tallied 4.0 points each to finished second to fifth placers.

Organized by the Philippine Association of Chess Executives (PACE), using the 25-minute time control format and hosted by DAR Secretary Nasser Pangandaman, Director Nelia Manahan of Bureau of Agrarian Reform Information and Education (BARIE), DAR Employees Association president Nanette Pascual, DAR employee Lito Dormitorio and Philweb Corporation headed by lawyer Cliburn Orbe.

Is Peruvian Jorge Cori the youngest GM in the world?

LivingPeru.com just released a claim that South America just produced the youngest chess grandmaster in the world, and 9th in the history of chess. And we are talking about the Peruvian chess prodigy, Jorge Cori, age 14 and 12 months old. But with a rating of just 2445, Cori may fell short of the distinction. Even though he has achieved 3 GM norms, he will not be awarded the GM title until he has a rating of 2500 or over because FIDE still requires every aspiring GM who notch their third and final norm to raise, if they haven't done so, their rating to 2500 to be considered a full time grandmaster. Should we say, he's currently a GM elect instead?

But on the other hand, if his recent results not yet counted, say later tournament he participated before the article got published at Living Peru.com, and subsequently brings him a whopping 55 extra rating points, and it "count" retrospectively from the day he completed his norms, then we may have indeed the newest and the youngest chess grandmaster previously held by Anish Giri.

We haven't heard anything from other giant chess sites such as chessdom, chessbase, chessvibes et al about the news to verify the claim. Let us wait and see.