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The New Threat to National Security: Chess Clocks

I am one day late with my post but better late than never. I just wanted to share that I have been stopped twice by airport security. They've wanted to use some kind of scanner device to check my chess clock.

The new terrorist threat: eccentric chess players.

On a more serious note, they probably suspected there was some kind of explosive inside the clock.

It's Coming Tomorrow

A new post will be at your internet "door" tomorrow.

Stay tuned!

Why I Have Been Away

You're probably wondering where the chess blogger is. I am still here and working on more posts. I've just been depressed, busy, angry, anxious, disorganized, lazy, and tired for a lot of the past month or so.

A Delightful Game I Played

For any interested person's viewing pleasure.

1.e4 e5

2.Nf3 Nc6

3.Bb5 a6

4.Ba4 Nf6

5.0-0 Be7

6.Re1 b5

7.Bb3 0-0

8.c3 d5

9.ed5 Nd5

10.Ne5 Ne5

11.Re5 c6

12.Bd5 cd5

13.Qf3 Bb7

14.d4 Bd6

15.Rel Qh4

16.g3 Qh3

17.Be3 Rae8

18.Nbd2 f5

19.Bf4 Bf4

20.Qf4 Re4

21.Ne4 fe4

22.Qh4 Qf5

23.f4 ef3

24.Re5 f2+

25.Kf1 Qd3+

26.Re2 Re8

27.Qh5 Rf8

28.Kg2 g6

29.Qg4 Bc8

30.Qg5 Qf3+

31.Kf1 Qh1++

Just copy and paste the notation into the window at this site: http://www.lutanho.net/pgn/pgnviewer.html

On the 20th move, I give up a rook for a knight -- and this is called an exchange sacrifice in chess lingo -- to take back with the f-pawn. This opens a file for my rook to assist in a mating attack on the king,

I felt the stress of playing carefully after it since I was at a material disadvantage.

A joyful kind of stress ( : ( :

Sorry and an Update

From now on, I won't make promises to write more that I am not very sure I will follow up on. I do have plans to keep this blog active, but want to take a step back while I decide what direction to take it in. A plan for a three part series on the Missouri Open has been scrapped, but I will likely annotate some of the games I played in it.

Stay tuned!

Fischer Thoughts-Rothbard Follow Up

Murray Rothbard's piece on Fischer is a mixture of the good and the bad. To the best of my knowledge, Rothbard's understanding of chess and its history wasn't too extensive but he makes some valid points. Its never bothered me that Fischer violated U.N. sanctions in Yugoslavia so I'm on board when Rothbard defends him.

When asked about the "sanctions" against him, Bobby heroically pulled out a letter from the U.S. Treasury, warning him that if he went through with the match, he would be violating UN sanctions and subject to fine and imprisonment. Bobby met this challenge by heroically spitting on the Treasury letter, and declaring that he doesn't recognize the sovereignty of the United Nations in fact, that the world would be a lot better without the UN.

On the other hand, Rothbard is too quick to dismiss charges against him at times.

Two: Bobby makes excessive, trivial, and loony demands of tournament directors. And yet, virtually all of these supposedly wacko demands have now been adopted, and chess experts have begun to see their merits. For example: It was Bobby's correct charges of Soviet conspiracy that forced the international chess authorities to change the way they pick championship contenders, turning from tournaments (where deliberate draws can be concocted) to one-on-one matches, where such conspiracies cannot take place. Bobby has also pioneered in changing tournament time clocks, to guard against being rushed to beat the time clock. This innovation showed a principled regard for the good of the game, since one of Bobby's attributes as a chess player is that he himself was virtually never in time trouble.

So, Fischer isn't always wrong but his demands on tournament directors, not to mention other players, have reached ridiculous heights at times. For proof, a great book to turn too is Bobby Fischer Goes to War: How the Soviets Lost the Most Extraordinary Chess Match of All Time that deserves quoting here:

Just before midnight on 9 May, the thirty-three-old Benko came looking for Bisguier in Fischer's room; he needed some help in analyzing his adjourned game with Petrosian. Fischer and Benko started scrapping- What Bisguier calls "fisticuffs". The following day, Fischer wrote to the tournament organizing committee, saying Benko should be fined and/or expelled from the tournament. It was a letter they chose to ignore.
Pg.14

This passage is included in a paragraph documenting Fischer's desire to have Bisguier only assist him.