Archive for Columns
Monday, May 13, 2013 13:46
Recently I saw the movie A Late Quartet, directed by Yaron Zilberman, about four professional musicians in a famous string quartet struggling with rivalry, love and old age. Playing a little bit of classical piano myself, I found it interesting to see a Hollywood movie taking the subject of classical music itself seriously. It also reminded me of...
Tuesday, March 05, 2013 10:42
The three-move draw (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 ½-½) between Pavel Eljanov and Wesley So at the Reykjavik Open has re-opened the never-ending debate on (short) draws in chess. Was it acceptable? Does it matter if such a last-round draw lasts 10 moves, or 15? Let's look at a few different arguments which have been expressed in recent years.
Eljanov-...
Monday, October 29, 2012 23:11
Last week, when I read about the recent cheating scandal in the German Bundesliga, GM Falko Bindrich's open letter responding to the accusations and especially the comments below the article, I immediately thought of a book on cheating I happened to be reading: Dan Ariely's The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How we Lie to Everyone - Especially...
Tuesday, September 11, 2012 14:49
Although it’s not the most popular genre around, there is definitely a market for chess books on psychology and subjective experience. For me, Jonathan Rowson’s Chess for Zebras (2005) is still one of the highlights in this category. While reading this book, I often found myself wondering how I had managed to survive without it!
I had the same...
Monday, July 16, 2012 17:05
I’m normally a bit skeptical when chess players give lectures – cobbler, stick to thy last! – but Vishy Anand’s recent Accenture lecture (posted on ChessVibes) is an absolute must-see for every chess enthusiast.
Vishy Anand during his Accenture lecture in Madrid | Photo Accenture España
The lecture, on the ambitious topic of decision-making, is...
Saturday, June 23, 2012 18:15
Today exactly 100 years ago, one of the greatest minds of the 20th century was born in London (from where I happen to be writing this article): Alan Turing. He’s famous, of course, for his ‘invention’ of the modern computer and his still very relevant musings on artificial intelligence, as well as for his role in World War II as a cryptanalyst....
Monday, June 11, 2012 23:06
I am spending many an evening of my summer holiday on the beautiful island Sardinia, Italy, re-reading detective stories I devoured as a teenager (Sherlock Holmes and Father Brown, mostly) and not thinking a lot about chess.
Because I didn't have internet access for some days, I even missed the rapid climax of the Word Championship match in Moscow...
Saturday, May 19, 2012 22:02
One of the good things about the Anand-Gelfand World Championship match is that it generates a lot of debate on some essential points: what’s the proper format to determine the best player in the world; should chess always be spectacular; does computer-dominated professional chess have a future; and what’s the market value of chess anyway?...
Sunday, May 13, 2012 20:00
What’s the best and most unique thing about chess? Of course it’s the fact that we have long lasting world championship matches. The immense tension is not restricted to one or two hours (football, tennis), or a few days at most (cricket, snooker), but lasts several weeks or even months. This is something we should praise, not condemn.
Boris...
Monday, March 05, 2012 11:28
In Woody Allen’s recent movie Midnight in Paris (2011), a young Hollywood writer named Gil Pender (played by Owen Wilson) is brought back to Paris of the 1920’s. There, to his delight, he meets his heroes Hemmingway and Fitzgerald as well as artists such as Picasso, Dali and Man Ray. For chess players, the movie has just one flaw: Marcel Duchamp...
