Chess E-Magazine Interactive E-Magazine Volume 2 • Issue 2 March/April 2011 Speed Chess CHESS BLOGS ALL IN THe Family - Family Members who play Chess The Art Of Chess -Henri-Robert- Marcel- Duchamp African American Chess Players Chess and the Brain White Knight Review Chess E-Magazine Table of Contents contents EDITORIAL- “My Move” 3 ARTICLE- Speed Chess 4 INTERACTIVE CONTENT BIOGRAPHY- The Art of Chess Henri-Robert- Marcel- Duchamp 6 ________________ BOOK REVIEW- “Endgame” • Click on title in 12 Table of Contents by Frank Brady to move directly to page. FEATURE- All in the Family 14 • Click on “White Family Members who play chess Knight Review” on the top of each page to return to HISTORY- Chess in the Middle Ages 18 Table of Contents. • Click on red type to LISTS- Chess Blogs 22 continue to next page • Click on ads to go HUMOR- Chess Jokes 24 to their websites • Click on email to NEWS - Chess News around the World 25 open up email program FEATURE-Black to Move 26 • Click up URLs to African American Chess Players go to websites. FEATURE-Chess and the Brain 28 ANNOTATED GAME - The Orangutan 30 COMMENTARY- “Ask Bill” 31 March/April 2011 White Knight Review March/April 2011 My Move [email protected] editorial -Jerry Wall I thought chess was supposed to be somewhat civil. I recently picked up a copy of Wired Magazine and to my surprise I read about a new sport called Chess Boxing. The article, entitled “Knight Decks Pawn” explains the sport which alternates between three White Knight minute rounds of punching in a checkerboard ring and four minutes of heart-pounding (pardon the pun) Review chess. Matches end after 11 rounds, a knockout or Chess E-Magazine whoever wins with checkmate. It started in France (I thought they didn’t like to fight) and now Chess boxing clubs are sprouting up all through Los Angeles (now Executive Editor/Writer that makes sense). Whats next? Drive-by chess moves? Bill Wall Either the chess players are trying to improve [email protected] their bodies or the athletes are trying to improve their minds but I would think either way that after about 5 rounds I probably couldn’t tell the difference between a pawn and a queen. In this issue we do an article on Publisher /Editor/ Creative chess and the brain and how it improves your cognitive Director skills, memory, intuition and spatial processing. I Gerald Wall would think that a couple blows to the head will [email protected] probably nullify that. Seems like there is a contradiction here. Whereas chess improves your brain, boxing can turn it into a pool of jello. But who am I to judge. Production/ Marketing Chess has always been about combat. Our Steve Wall article on chess in medieval days show how the [email protected] Muslims during the crusades adapted the chess moves to the strategy of combat even noticing that the knight on horseback could jump over the infantryman (sound For Subscription familiar?). Too bad we can’t just settle our differences [email protected] over a nice board of chess. Then again it looks like now if we find ourselves like in a losing position, we can always hope for a knockout. For Advertising Rates [email protected] Jerry Wall Editor © Copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved. Let us know what you think of the magazine. Perhaps you have Unauthorized reproduction, some suggestions for future articles or have other comments. in any manner is prohibited Let us know and drop me a line at: without expressed permission [email protected] from the Author or Editor. www.offthewallchess.com 3 White Knight Review March/April 2011 By Bill Wall Jerry Wall efore the invention of chess became popular in tournaments control for blitz chess with newer clocks, chess was played at with faster time controls. The digital clocks would be 3 minutes Ba slow rate. Normal chess chess clock was set at 15 minutes with a 2 second increment added time controls are one to three to 60 minutes per player (blitz after every move. hours per player. But speed chess, chess was any time control less Lightning chess is a general or fast chess, is played at faster than 15 minutes). Later, digital term for extremely fast chess. time controls. There are even chess clocks included a feature Time control could be from 1 different names to distinguish the that allowed a player to play rapid minute to 3 minutes per side. maximum duration of a game. All chess with a small time increment Usually, the term is reserved for regular chess clocks have a special per move. For example, after every 2-minute chess. device, usually called a “flag,” that move by a player, the clock would Bullet chess is sometimes the indicates that time control was met add 10 more seconds t o term for 1 minute chess games. when the flag falls. that player’s time An Armageddon chess game is Before the common use of control. usually one speed chess game that digital clocks, the regular chess determines the match or tournament clock was set to 5-minutes per side instead of a tie-breaking point (10 minutes total) for a game of system. Usually Black has draw sudden death (no increment) odds (if the game is a draw, Black blitz chess (also called wins) in Armageddon chess. 5-minute chess; blitz is the To compensate, White gets German word for lightning). If more time on his chess clock. you ran out of time and your flag Common time controls are 6 fell on your chess clock before minutes for White and 5 minutes you checkmated, stalemated, for Black ( or 5 minutes and 4 got a perpetual check, or there is Rapid minutes, respectively). This is also insufficient material to mate, you chess more closely known as “time odds” chess. lost on time. Before the popularity resembles a regular, In some tournaments, the of blitz chess, there was “rapid slower game of chess. There final results of the players may transit” chess in which a referee is more time to make proper plans be resolved by a series of speed would call out “move” every 10 and play more carefully with less games with shorter and shorter seconds. If a player did not make blunders and more calculation, time controls as tie breaks. a move at the end of 10 seconds, rather than rely on intuition and In speed chess, it is a common when the referee said “move,” he tactical cheap tricks. These time rule that if a player makes an illegal would lose. limits in rapid chess are often used move, the player’s opponent may in one-day chess tournaments with point out the illegal move and Blitz chess seems to be the most 5 or 6 games played in one day. claim a win. For example, if a popular type of speed chess among With digital clocks, blitz chess player leaves the King in check, experienced chess players who are could be played at 3 to 5 minutes the other player may claim the playing for fun. per side, with an additional small win, or just take the King and win. Rapid or quick chess soon increment. Usually, the time In speed chess, each player 4 White Knight Review March/April 2011 must press the clock with the regular game. Speed chess helps speed game is generally played same hand that moves the pieces you think quickly and you are for money, usually a 5-minute (in regular chess, either hand can able to practices more openings game with no increments. press the chess clock). When and total games in a short period For speed chess, the player castling, a player may use both of time. There is little time for must play much more quickly of hands to move the rook and king. deep thought. Internet chess sites course. A player will go from When capturing a piece or pawn, have speed chess time controls making 2 or 3 moves every 10 or completing a promotion (i.e., that automatically track the time minutes in a regular game to substituting a Pawn for a Queen), elapsed for you and most record making hundreds of moves in 10 both hands may be used if it is the game as well. minutes time. The speed player clear that the chess clock must be more physically is pressed after the move is alert. Once a move is determined. decided, which is usually In speed chess, players in a few seconds, he then do not need to record the “blitz chess” must move quickly and (also called 5-minute chess) moves. also quickly hit the chess “Blitz is the German word for lightning.” In 1897, perhaps the first clock. speed chess tournament One need good was held at a London chess preparation to play speed club. The time control was 30 Speed chess is more about chess. A player must know the seconds a move. reflexes, intuition and quick hand movements for capturing In 1970, Bobby Fischer won decision rather than making pieces, castling, and promoting the Herceg Novi, Yugoslavia Blitz long detailed analysis and lots a pawn to another piece before Tournament (5-minute chess) with of calculations. Speed chess is a the move happens. If a player the score fo 17 wins, 4 draws, good time to practice tactics, since is about to promote a pawn, he and 1 loss to win the unofficial recognizing chess patterns is a better put a piece (preferably a “Speed Chess Championship of crucial ability once you have less Queen) ready in the other hand the World.” Mikhail Tal took time on the chess clock.