English Chess Forum

This is how science works you have a hypothesis, then you test it against data. In this case the data very strongly supports the hypothesis. The back testing of data verifies that the anti-cheating process are very accurate at detecting cheating. That is not the same as being infallible. There's a ...

Roget, you have pointed out on here a sad lack of parental reponsibility in some cases and at times acts of complete irresponsibility. You cannot expect the service providers to cater for all such things. A line has to be drawn somewhere. John, judging by the first word and last sentence in your re...

The amusing one is king and bishop versus king and bishop. If they're same-coloured bishops, over-stepping the time control results in a draw. Except that it's not possible to over-step the time control with that material. As soon as the K + same-coloured bishop vs. K + same-coloured bishop positio...

9.2.2.2 ………………………………………………………………... The castling rights are lost only after the king or rook is moved. This law probably needs clarification after the law changes of Jan 2018 with regard to touch move which indirectly affects this law too. Since then the accepted way of looking at those situations ...

I think this set is a referred to as a design of John Calvert, who worked out of Fleet Street London during 1790-1820 approx. This does not mean the set was made by him or made during that period as his designs were well used and copied with or without modification both in the UK and abroad. Modern ...

Stewart Reuben wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 21, 2021 1:23 pm

….. And gradually the noise grew, but
I don't remember when it reached its crescendo.

I guess that bit needs to go into the pedants thread !

What is the missing number in this sequence: -101250000, -1728000, -4900, 360, 675, 200, ? Bearing in mind it is possible to fit a polynomial of degree 6 through 7 points you can offer any number as the solution. You could also overfit the data and produce any number of polynomials. This means that...

Hi Kevin, are you sure that was a brilliancy prize? Looks to me more like a best game prize! We might have seen the last of brilliancy prizes as the criteria for selection is pretty much the same as those for suspicion of cheating! ie the move(s) should take everyone including the judges by surprise...

Hi Phil, The term "hash table" as used for chess engine computer programs is not the usual meaning or purpose compared to applications in general computing, although hashing techniques are used. This is similar to misuse of the word "variance" when chess ratings are discussed.

I am wondering if someone can help, please with the first name of DG Mackay, This might be a difficult one. The tournament chart in 1953 shows him as DG, unlike the 6 or so players above him where first names are shown. However Leonard Barden the "human chess Google" played in the event as did John...

"a small constant coefficient multiplied by the circle's radius" This suggests to me the appropriate mathematical word is annulus. This is a shape composed of two concentric circles , with the same centre but different radii. The drawing shown is not an annulus as it has irregular shape however. It...

I don't think this is very likely to be malicious spam. In junior events 30-40 years ago, players were often given certificates confirming they had competed. Perhaps his dad still has one he received !

But does a Jaffa cake count as one of your five fruit and veg per day !

I dislike, even to this day, doing puzzles from books and magazines with Black to play and have to solve them 'upside down.' In helpmate problems, it's conventional to have black move first, which means both sides make the same number of moves. It somehow seems more appropriate for a helpmate probl...

I've seen similar instances of this before, involving transpositions, but their occurring in this way makes it particularly easy to illustrate. If evidence of the Ken Regan and similar programs was ever to be subjected to a determined attempt in a court of law to discredit it, this inconsistency of...