Hard Times?

I hate to say it, but it seems our BDG has fallen on hard times. So what else is new? The whole country has fallen on hard times (but I digress). Anyway, today's example isn't domestic fare. Courtesy of TWIC, it's from the Four Nations Chess League (the most prestigious team chess event held in the United Kingdom, according to the 4NCL).

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H

McCarthy, Kevin C Unrated - Smallbone, K. 2218

0-1 (4NCL 2009-10) 3/28/2010

[#] 1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3 e6 6.Bg5 Be7 7.Bd3 c5 8.Qd2 cxd4 9.Nxd4 Nc6

[An old game from the finals of the first BDG world corresponence tournament went 9...Bd7 10.O-O-O Nc6 11.Nf3 Qa5 12.Bc4 O-O-O 13.Qe2 h6 14.Bd2 Bb4 15.a3 Bxc3 16.Bxc3 Qc7 17.Ne5 Nxe5 18.Bxe5 Qa5 19.Rd3 Bc6 20.b4 Qb6 21.Rc3 a6 22.Rf1 Rhf8 23.g4 Rd7 24.Rf4 Nd5 25.Bxd5 Rxd5 26.Bxg7 Rfd8 27.Rxf7 a5 28.Bf8 Rd1+ 29.Kb2 axb4 30.Bxb4 Kb8 31.Qxe6 Re8 32.Qxh6 Ree1 33.Qf4+ Ka7 34.Rc5 Re4 35.Ra5+ Qxa5 36.Bxa5 Rxf4 37.Rxf4 Rh1 38.Bc7! Rxh2? 39.Rf5 1-0 Roos,B-Soller,K/cr-1BDGwt fnl 1973]

10.Nxc6 bxc6 11.O-O-O Qa5 12.Rhf1 Rb8 13.Qf4 Qb4 14.Qxb4 Rxb4 15.Be3 Nd5 16.Nxd5 exd5 17.a3 Rg4 18.Bxa7 Rxg2 19.Bb8 Bh4 20.Bd6 Be6 21.a4 Kd7 22.Be5 f6 23.Bf4 Rg4 24.Kb1 g5 25.Be3 Rxa4 26.Rxf6 Rha8 27.c3 d4 28.Bc1? -156.50

[With a little help from Rybka White might have held with 28.Kc2 dxe3 29.Bf5+ Kc7 30.Rxe6 Rf4 31.Be4 Rf2+ 32.Kb1 Ra6 33.Re7+ Kb6 34.Rd6 Kc5 35.Rd4 e2 36.Bd3 Rf1+ 37.Kc2 e1=Q 38.Rxe1 Rxe1 39.Bxa6 ]

28...Bb3 29.Bf5+ Ke7 30.Re6+ Kf7 [0-1]

Generated by Aquarium

Oh, well. I have to get set up to watch Butler-Duke (the final round of the most prestigious team roundball event held in the United States, according to me).

Expert Opinion

"I guess we'll get through with them in a day."  --General George Custer, Little Big Horn, 1876.

Chess players, in my humble (but expert!) opinion, tend to put too much faith in expert opinion.

Experts, after all, can be wrong. Consider these. The Chairman of IBM in 1943: "I think there is a world market for about five computers." Or the President of Digital Equipment in 1977: "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home." (Bad English as well as bad opinion).

Grandmasters, too, who after all are super-experts, are not immune from error. Recently I was browsing my dog-eared copy of Grandmaster Ludek Pachman's Modern Chess Strategy (1963), and came across this:

"...the automaton examines all possible variations and selects the best move by rejection. This method can be employed for solving problems in which the number of possible moves is relatively small; for example, an electronic automaton in the Soviet Union (see Chess in the U.S.S.R., page 177) was able to solve the problem in the diagram:

1. e8B! Kxf6 (1. ...Kxd6 2. c8R) 2. g8R Ke6 3.Rg6#

"But the machine took twelve minutes, whereas I was able to do it in one minute. ...It is quite clear that this method cannot be used for playing a game. If the machine had to calculate for only seven moves in advance in a position with thirty alternatives, it would need 10,000 years to select the right move!"

That's incredible! But don't try this on your home computer.

(Originally published in BDG World 65, Oct-Dec 1994)