SUMMER 2008

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August 17, 2008

EXAMPLES OF DIVERSE CLASSICAL OPENINGS (0053)http://chess.about.com/od/openings/tp/TopOpenings.htm) (RESERVE A L'AUTEUR)

(1) GIUCO PIANO or THE ITALIAN GAME
1.e4 d6 2.Nf3 c5 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d3 Nc6 5.O-O Bg4 6.Bg5 Qb6 7.b3 g6 8.Bxf6
This opening clears very early diagonal lines for bishops and queen to come out. After the 4th move the play can be extremely complex and there are more than one hundred variations (reserve a l'auteur).

(2) CARO KANN (DEFENSE)
1.e4 c6 2.c4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.b3 d4 7.Nb5 a6 8.Na3
e5 9.Bb2 e4 10.Ng1 Bc5 11.g3 O-O *
The characteristic move of this defense is (c6) the move of the pawn of the Queen's bishop of one case in order to advance next the Queen's pawn of two cases (d5). This will challenge Whites' grip on the center by an attack on the center square (e4). One of the variations is: 1.e4 b6 2.d4 c5 3.dxc5 bxc5 4.Qd5 Nc6 5.Qxc5 e5 6.Qe3 Nd4 7.Bd3 Nf6 8.Ne2 Bc5 9.Qg3 O-O 10.Nxd4 Bxd4 11.c3* (reserve a l'auteur)

(3) KING'S INDIAN (ATTACK) or simply INDIAN ATTACK
1.Nf3 c5 2.g3 Nc6 3.Bg2 e5 4.d3 d5 5.c4 dxc4 6.dxc4 Qxd1+ 7.Kxd1 Be6 8.Nfd2
Nge7 9.Nc3 O-O-O
The move of the King's pawn of one case (on d3 instead of d4) at the third move signals the strategy of Whites They aim at posting their queen-knight behind this pawn (at d3) in order to have a good grip on the center in conjunction with this pawn and the king-knight. With the computer playing against itself after this opening for the Whites the game ended in a stalemate which is rather good.

(4) RUY LOPEZ ( A VARIATION)
1.e4 d6 2.Nf3 c5 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.Be2 a6 7.O-O
An attack on the King's opponent pawn at the center (e5) by a combined action of the Queen's knight and the King's bishop which attacks the opponent's knight defending this pawn signals the main startegy of the Ruy Lopez. Numerous variations have been deeply studied. The main differenece between the Giuco Piano and the Ruy Lopez is the placement of the King's bishop at the third move Bc4 for the Ruy Lopez putting in check the oppoent king very early and Bb5 for the Giuco Piano trying an early mate (reserve a l;auteur).

(5) QUEEN'S INDIAN DEFENSE
1.d3 b6 2.e3 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Be2 Bb7 5.Nbd2 Be7 6.O-O c5 7.c4 Nc6 8.b3 O-O
The fianchetto* of the Queen's bishop (Bb7) is the characteristic move of the Queen's Indian Defense where in conjunction with the King's knight in f6 it takes control of the important center square e5 (reserve a l'auteur)

(6) QUEEN'S GAMBIT
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Qa4+ Nc6 4.Qxc4 Qxd4 5.e3 Qb6 6.Nc3 Be6 7.Qb5 O-O-O
8.Be2 Nf6 9.Nf3 Kb8 10.Ng5 a6 11.Qxb6
The caharacteristic move of this opening is the artifice of sacrifying the pawn of the queen-bishop in order to move the opponent's pawn out of the center and then take it after having checked the opponent king with the queen. With this opening the computer lost by letting it played against itself after (reserve a l'auteur).

(7) SICILIAN DEFENSE
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.Nc3 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Bc4 Qa5 8.O-O
O-O
The reason for Blaks' first move (queen-bishop's pawn 2 cases) is that two opponent's pawn shall not be allowed at the center. If another one shows up, it takes it. Blacks' second move (queen-knight slightly towards thecenter) is to strenghten this strategy.

(8) ALEKHINE'S DEFNSE
1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.c4 Nb6 4.c5 Nd5 5.Bc4 e6 6.d4 b6 7.Bxd5 exd5 8.Nc3
bxc5
Blacks' strategy at the opening is to attack Whites' pawn at the center and lure Whites out of the center into Blacks' defense's lines. The tactic used was the dance of the knight at the center. By playing this opening and letting then the computer play against itself blacks' advantage was
decisive as early as the 20th move.

August 2, 2008

Yesterday in the game I thave tried to generate conjunctural errors in my mate's game in creating many situations where my opponent think he was capturing a piece but in fact it was losing a more important piece and all the advantages in the game at my next move. This was a direct application of the conditional probability (of Bayesian statistics) in which one event was directly linked to another n addition to the importance this "school" of statistics can give to the theory of the opening, the theory that stresses the importance of the opening in Chess (that the computer cannot understand).The many judgment errors given by the site Bayesian Belief Nets are:

  1. Overconfidence fallacy
  2. Hindsight bias
  3. Conjunction fallacy
  4. Conservatism bias
  5. Fallacies associated with causal and diagnostic reasoning
  6. Denial of Uncertainty
  7. the fallacy of Availability: it is the collective term used to describe the following range of fallacies people make when judging.
  8. the fallacy linked to Adjustment of uncertainty : When asked to make predictions, for example, people often select a salient (but not necessarily relevant) starting point and adjust their guesses from there.
  9. the fallacy linked to Representativeness: it is the collective term used to describe the following range of fallacies people make (when judging probabilities):

This test was given to some people:

Which city has more inhabitants?

How confident are you that your answer is correct?

If you answer 50%, then you are guessing. If you answer 100%, then you are absolutely sure of your answer.

Towards the end of the information-gathering process, most judges were overconfident about their judgements.

Ref.: Bayesian Belief Nets , http://www.dcs.qmw.ac.uk/%7Enorman/BBNs/BBNs.htm

July 27, 2008

Is Chess closer to art or to science? It is difficult to know. However, because chess obeys to Bayesian statistics it is also linked to science. I have spoken often of Bayesian Statistics in my journal. To have a prior notion I refer you to the chapter V of my manuscript on chess - Le Jeu d'Échecs et la Statistique Bayésienne/Chess & Bayesian Statistics - beginning a t page 13. Then, I will suggest you to read the artticles of this huge and free internet encyclopedia that is Wikipedia on the subjects: Frequentism and Bayesianism. Those are the two major and more reliable lines and schools of probability in science and statistics. I will suggest you also to read the articl e of this encyclopedia on the theory of probability that explain further the difference between the two schools and its article on the Bayes' theorem which probability or Bayesian inference it is related to.Those probabilities are often called conditional or marginal probabilities. Finally, I will refer you to two educative networks on Bayesian statistics: Bayesian Belief Nets which has uploaded a free internet book on the subject and The Los Alamos Center for Bayesian Methods in Environment, Safety and Health which is distributing a tutorial software. (Reserve a l'auteur: p.1, p.2, p.3, p.4 , p.5, p.6 and so on). One of the major application of Bayesian inference that I have found in chess is the opening called the Giuoco Piano which opens so many lines of attacks - for the queen, the king's bishop and knight, then the queen's bisop and, in the case it is refused or prevented at the the third move, the queen's knight.

Next time, since I know that chess may reveal some learning disabilities, I will present a short text on health assessment, mostly neurological assessment. I wil try to make it fit to both adults and children learning problems.

July 21, 2008

This week has begun with two games played against a kid of Asian ethnicity of less than 10 years old. Therefore, let us return to Piaget. I have already spoken of Piaget in my article of AUGUST 27 , 2007 which title is Chess, kids' development and learning. In particular, I have said at about this age, the child is capable of some kind of coding and interpretation, begin to acquire some concepts and make some simple inferences i.e., to draw sone conclusions from what is evident and to reason somewhat from circumstantial facts.
     Those new functions acquired by the child, i.e., the formation of concepts and the development and aquisition of rules are intimately related to the developmental functions like the one I have mentioned at the last section of this page, such as the growth of memory. Children should also begin to learn to be more attentive to details and to look for various solutions for a problem before attempting to solve it; in other words, they should be able to be able to focus their attention on some details - the development of the faculty of mental concentration - and, at the same time, to have a larger view of the problems - the development of mental flexibility. Children with Attention Defict Disorder, highly impulsive children do not develop well these abilities. Alternatively, children without Attention Defict Disorder may tend to perseverate too much on some details while neglecting other relevant features. "This is akin to a propensity in very young children that Piaget called centration." (Levine MD, M.D.; Developmental variation and learning disorders; p..179; Educators Publihing Service Inc.; 1987)

The week ended with playing with an old friend and chessmate. Most of the games ended with a battle of pawns while I have came with a new strategy which consisted at simplifying the game by an early exchange of pieces in order to avoid bad surprise due to a moment of inattention. Finally, having seen that my friend has become accustomed to this strategy I tried two classical openings - the Ruy Lopez and the Queen Gambit (Gambit de la Reine) (reserve l'auteur: p.1, p2 & p.3). With them, the issue of the game was decided more early and since the middle game while with my previous opening and strategy, it was decided often at the end game.
    Still another opening that I will come with at the Chess and Checkers' House in Central Park is the King Indian Defense having tried it with my computer and having been victorious when I made the computer playing against itself after that I did myself the first five moves; it looks like a variation of this opening .

[Event "trial"]
[Site "Home"]
[Date "2008.07.21"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Charlemagne": computer]
[Black "Future Champion": Roger
[Result "*"]

1.e4 d6 2.d4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 g6 5.Bg5 Bg7 6.e5 dxe5 7.dxe5 Qxd1+ 8.Rxd1
Nfd7 9.Bb5 a6 10.Bxd7+ Nxd7 11.O-O b6 12.Rd2 h6 13.Bf4 g5 14.Bg3 g4 15.Nh4
Nxe5 16.Re2 Nc6 17.Nd5 O-O 18.Nxc7 Ra7 19.Re4 Bxb2 20.Rxg4+ Bg7 21.Re4
Rd8 22.c4 Rd2 23.a4 Nd4 24.Nd5 Bb7 25.Rxd4 Bxd4 26.Nf3 Rd3 27.Nxd4 Bxd5
In this variation that I have imagined, the fianchetto of the Blacks' King's Bishop, the placement of the bishop on its wider diagonal so that its span of action can be wider , is done inexorably at the 5th move after securing the defense, by playing first the king's pawn and the queen's pawn one case (1) and (2), [then the king's bishop pawn one case (3) and the king's knight moderately towards the center (4)] rather than to have been tried without success at the 3rd move and forced to be postponed till the 9th move in the classical opening below. (Mnemotechnics: again 4 moves for the opening)

The classical King Indian Defence is:

1.e4 Nf6 2.Nc3 g6 3.e5 Nh5 4.d4 d6 5.Be3 Nd7 6.Nf3 c6 7.exd6 exd6 8.Bd3
Bg7 9.Bg5 f6 10.Qe2+ Qe7 11.Qxe7+ * but the Blacks are losing against the computer here.

Finally, I will try to explain what might cause frequent involuntary illegal moves by old chessmates and by young children (reserve a l'auteur). I woulld have first thought of Impaired visuospatial skills, like the one they may find in Alzheimer (reserve a l'auteur). However, the body does not exhibit any memory impairment at my knowledge as you can encounter among the kids while their memory has not yet reached their full development.

July 14, 2008

This summer has begun by a change of my usual opening that finishes with the the king castling on its side. As I saw that the less strong players at the Chess and Checkers' House can deal with this opening pretty easily I chose now to make the king castle on the queen side or to offer it this opportunity, an opening that most players are not used with. Every time the new opening confered to me big advantages and let me coordinate my moves more easily. However, when I wanted to try it with my computer the later has prefered to make the king castle on its side, probably because it was easier. With the king castling on the side of the queen, the game came, indeed, to be more complicated and it has been hard most of the time to predict who will win till we got to the end game or the last part of the end game. Today, for example, I try it by making my computer playing against itself after that I played myself the the opening. For most of the game, the victory was indecisive and while the computer has carrried a small advantage during the game, it has finally succumbed, but the program has stopped to work and has given an error message when it was clear that the computer was going to lose the game. Here are the moves of the first part of the game (on my last trial):

[Event "trial"]
[Site "home"]
[Date "2008.07.14"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Future Champion"": ROGER]
[Black "Charlemagne: computer"]
[Result "*"]

1.d3 d5 2.e3 e5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Bd2 Nf6 5.Nge2 O-O 6.Na4 Bxd2+ 7.Qxd2 Na6 8.O-O-O
Bd7 9.Nac3 c5 10.Ng3 b5 11.d4 cxd4 12.exd4 exd4 13.Qxd4 Nc7 14.Bd3 a5 15.a3
Rb8 16.Qh4 b4 17.Nb1 bxa3 18.Nxa3 Re8 19.Rhe1 Rb4 20.Rxe8+ Qxe8 21.Qg5
h6 22.Qd2 Qe5 23.c3 Rb6 24.f4 Qe7 25.Re1 Re6 26.Rxe6 Qxe6 27.f5 Qb6 28.Qf4
Qg1+ *

By comparing the two openings I saw that light players were more apt at exploiting my errors during the middle game when I castle on the king side than I when castle on the queen side, probably because the game came to be a little bit more complicated with this later opening. This is the proof that chess really obeys to Bayesian statistics "rules" with the opening very crucial in the game and with each consecutive error lessening your chance to win, but when the opening is very strong and leads you to a stronger middle game, it increases much your chance to win. I played with the whites and my computer played with the blacks .
    Yesterday
, I played different players at the park. I won all the games (5 in total) that I played against my old Hispanic chessmate, Alberto, lost against a new player, the young man Oliver from Great Britain who was visiting (4 in total). However, Oliver lost against a middle aged man from India who has lost badly then to me. Finally, I beat another old white man, an usual player at the Chess and Checkers' House, probably for the first time; I did it having played strong with my king, which with the help of its rook put his king defended by its own rook in check and took the later consecutively. A strong showing at the Chess and Checkers' House!


Developmental Phenomenology

Phenomology is the philosophy that considers to be true what is experimented, what is lived, what is objective rather than what is imagined, supposed, possible or subjective. It gave birth to Existentialism which is the philosophy based on acting, on doing, on actual experience. Developmental phenomology is in the psychology of education the growing of memory, the faculty to remember, through the learning process.

To be a good chess player, to improve yourself in chess, you have to learn; that can be done and should be done by a variety of means: playing chess or experimenting, reading chess books or studying the rules and technics, writing about chess or commenting about the tactics and strategies.

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* Fianchetto: the development in chess of a bishop from its original position to the second square of the adjacent knight's file