Chess Thread

[Daniel O'Dowd]

I know there are a few of us here partial to battles of the 64 squares, so it made sense to have a thread for such discussion, or perhaps to arrange games?

I've played Phil Makepeace, who has an ELO rating and is strong enough to play in the British Championship But my grade of 129 is far from lowly! I know Kevin Thurlow is an arbiter; I'm training to be one myself too, how often does everyone play, anyone else play online? I'm using Chesscube; I find the tactical level very low, but it provides a more interesting test of my opening repertoire than FICS ever did. (That could however also be because I take my internet chess far more seriously now, and always try to learn something productive per game.) If enough interest were had, perhaps a minitournament could be held Anyone else looking forward to the Anand-Topalov WCC match?

[Kieran Child]

I'm rated 150. I play on chess.com

I was always much more interested in using chess for puzzles though. Here's a few I made

White mates in 5. Only the white king can move.

Add on a black king so white can mate in 1.

White to play and lose his knight in 5.

[Hugh Binnie]

My rapid grade is 140 and I would like to think my standard is still lower than it should be. I play weekly but am hoping/trying to play more to see if I can get my slow play up to the same standard as my rapid play. My experience against C4Cers is limited to a couple of games, I think, against Kieran. At the very least, he's beaten me once.

[David Williams]

I inhabit that nether world of the over 50's, who cannot play chess seriously unless it takes place in some freezing inconvenient location on a winter's evening when everyone else is watching the Champions League. I play for my local club in two leagues, and my grade is 170.

I can claim to have played two Grandmasters, however. Nigel Davies in a club match, and Matthew Turner in the semi-final of Series 43. Without success, sadly.

[Ian Volante]

No idea what my grade might be, but I'm currently rated 1400+ on redhotpawn.com - correspondence chess.

[Kieran Child]

on red hot pawn, I'm "doodinthemood"
About 1600 I think. But I haven't played correspondence for yonks. I just used that site for the nifty puzzle forum.

[Charlie Reams]

But my grade of 129 is far from lowly!

Modest as ever.

[Matt Morrison]

But my grade of 129 is far from lowly!

Modest as ever.

Daniel O'Proud.

[James Doohan]

I play chess every single day without fail, love playing the game, but have no official rating as I only play on the interwebs and don't think there is a club within 100 miles of me.

At the series 60 finals Hamish told me to fly over to Dumbarton (think it was Dumbarton he said) every Tuesday to help out his club . Hamish is class

If anyone is on chess.com and wants to play let me know

[David O'Donnell]

I used to play but haven't got the chance in ages, I think my last rating was about 1800 (we use something closer to the FIDE system in Ireland).

[Kieran Child]

I play chess every single day without fail, love playing the game, but have no official rating as I only play on the interwebs and don't think there is a club within 100 miles of me.

At the series 60 finals Hamish told me to fly over to Dumbarton (think it was Dumbarton he said) every Tuesday to help out his club . Hamish is class

If anyone is on chess.com and wants to play let me know

I was on chess.com until a week ago when they banned me without warning, called me a nazi and removed my account despite me never having broken any of the rules. Still trying to clear it up and understand where on earth all the accusations have come from but the support person I'm in contact with seems completely clueless (and doesn't even capitalise 'Hitler' when he calls me it) so I think I'll never get back on there again. GAH!
Meh, here's another puzzle:

White to play and please in 6.

[David O'Donnell]

I play chess every single day without fail, love playing the game, but have no official rating as I only play on the interwebs and don't think there is a club within 100 miles of me.

At the series 60 finals Hamish told me to fly over to Dumbarton (think it was Dumbarton he said) every Tuesday to help out his club . Hamish is class

If anyone is on chess.com and wants to play let me know

I was on chess.com until a week ago when they banned me without warning, called me a nazi and removed my account despite me never having broken any of the rules. Still trying to clear it up and understand where on earth all the accusations have come from but the support person I'm in contact with seems completely clueless (and doesn't even capitalise 'Hitler' when he calls me it) so I think I'll never get back on there again. GAH!
Meh, here's another puzzle:

White to play and please in 6.

Is that not slightly pointless when there's a mate in one with Rf6?

Edit: or is this a helpmate or some variant?

[Kieran Child]

there is mate in one in my third puzzle with Qb8#, but that doesn't meet the stip.

[Daniel O'Dowd]

there is mate in one in my third puzzle with Qb8#, but that doesn't meet the stip.

That's as maybe, but as David points out, a puzzle should never have more than one solution, or it is cooked.

[Kieran Child]

there is mate in one in my third puzzle with Qb8#, but that doesn't meet the stip.

That's as maybe, but as David points out, a puzzle should never have more than one solution, or it is cooked.

It doesn't have more than one solution. There is only 1 way to please in 6, which is the stip.

[Kevin Thurlow]

I do play chess, and write about it, as well as acting as arbiter. Current grade is 173, but happily after 7 games this season I'm averaging 219, which is pleasing obviously, but rather difficult to maintain. FIDE rating is 2070. I dislike internet chess and play mainly at my local club, plus a few tournaments - not the weekend ones normally, far too stressful, but 'game a day' events like Gausdal, Guernsey, Gibraltar, Biel etc. I managed to draw with GM M Ivanov at the last Gausdal I played, but have beaten GMs at Rapidplay tournaments. But Rapidplay doesn't count really!

Travelling to the longer events and writing about the game does mean I've met people like Kasparov, Anand, Carlsen, Korchnoi, Judit Polgar, Timman, Spassky, Petrosian, Bronstein, Tal, Larsen, Botwinnik, Smyslov.... etc. (And most of the top English players of course.) Their skill doesn't seem to have rubbed off though. Even copying their mannerisms doesn't help.

[Jojo Apollo]

I'm not that good at Chess, but I enjoy playing Chess Titans (on level 8). Nice quick games, which improves your tactical play and good fun also.

[David O'Donnell]

there is mate in one in my third puzzle with Qb8#, but that doesn't meet the stip.

That's as maybe, but as David points out, a puzzle should never have more than one solution, or it is cooked.

It doesn't have more than one solution. There is only 1 way to please in 6, which is the stip.

Then your puzzle is pointless and untidy. Why would anyone bother with a six move mate when there is a 1 ply option?

[Kieran Child]

^ The stip isn't "mate in 6"

[Phil Makepeace]

I've played Phil Makepeace, who has an ELO rating and is strong enough to play in the British Championship

While this is true insofar as I've qualified for the main British on two occasions, I'm by no means 'up there'. My current English grade is 183 and my International ELO 2042, which puts me in the realm of the reasonably strong club player. Imagine me being in the Blue Square Premier of the English chess world; able to very occasionally take points off the big boys but usually kicking around with the enthusiastic amateurs. I'll be playing in the lower reaches of the Middlesex team this season.

[Kevin Thurlow]

Both Dave Ledger and Simon Gillam (who are more than useful players) have appeared on Countdown in the old 9-round era.

[David O'Donnell]

Both Dave Ledger and Simon Gillam (who are more than useful players) have appeared on Countdown in the old 9-round era.

I believe Jerry Humphries is 2000+.

For those stumbling upon this thread and wondering what sort of strength these ratings represent then this, borrowed from the international FIDE system, is a rough approximation.

Rating range Category
2600+ World Championship contenders
2400-2600 most Grandmasters (GM) and International Masters (IM)
2300-2400 FIDE Masters (FM)
2200-2300 FIDE Candidate Masters (CM), most national masters
2000-2200 candidate masters (USA), experts
1800-2000 Class A, category 1
1600-1800 Class B, category 2
1400-1600 Class C, category 3
1200-1400 Class D, category 4
below 1200 novices

An English grade can be approximated to an Elo rating by multiplying by 8 and adding 600. An English grade of 100 is approximately 1400 Elo, while 200 ECF equals 2200 Elo.

Though I know they altered the English system so I am not sure if this is still up to date.

[Kevin Thurlow]

David is right - the ECF Grading System has indeed changed - see the English Chess equivalent of this forum for about 20 pages of comments! Conversion to FIDE is now ECF x 8, then add 650. So
100 = 1450
150 = 1850
200 = 2250 etc.

The FIDE system is a bit inflationary, so players have to be over 2600 to be in the top 100 in the world, (30 years ago, if you were 2600+ you were top 10), so you probably don't really get to be a world championship contender until you're approaching 2700 nowadays. Having said that, if you have a higher rating, you still have to prove you're better...

Phil said, "My current English grade is 183 and my International ELO 2042, which puts me in the realm of the reasonably strong club player. Imagine me being in the Blue Square Premier of the English chess world; able to very occasionally take points off the big boys but usually kicking around with the enthusiastic amateurs."

This description is pretty accurate!