Media comments on chess

[JustinHorton]

Sorry about that, I edited my post while you were making yours!

What I think I'm confused by is the "ten straight wins" thing. She won eight straight games in Rome, but not ten - is James eliding two things?

[NickFaulks]

She won eight straight games in Rome

Only four of them were against grandmasters.

[NickFaulks]

If she did that today, can you imagine what the ACP crowd would be saying?

[Stewart Reuben]

Roger >That would have been Sofia in an Italian tournament. At the time, was it not a record performance rating?<

At that time it would have been, though not necessarily the highest. The reason is, at that time, they had no way of giving a number for 100% scores. Thus Fischer's 11/11 in 1964 in the US Closed could have no number attached to it. Quite apart from the fact that FIDE Ratings did not exist at the time!

Fed up with the situation, I introduced Ra + 735 for the notional 100% TPR. Later this was amended to 750. There can be no 'correct' theoretical number for 100% in the system. 99% is 677. The equivalent ECF number is 50 for 100%.

Perhaps Sofia won 10 games in a row against GMs. That seems unlikely. But it may depend on the rules, perhaps she did so, interspersing draws or even losses against non-GMs. That record remains Fischer's 20 including the two 6-0 in the Candidates.

[Matt Mackenzie]

13 consecutive wins in the Candidates, but IIRC not all the 7 he finished the Interzonal by beating were GMs?

[JustinHorton]

Rubinetti

[Stewart Reuben]

Fischer won 20 consecutive games in the World Championship cycle, starting indeed with the win against Rubinetti in the Interzonal. It then went, Uhlman, Taimanov, Suttles, Mecking, Gligoric, Panno (if you include that, basically he won on default). Then 6 wins against Taimanov, 6 against Larsen and the first game of the match against Petrosian.
But, according to ChessBase Fischer played a game in Buenos Aires drawn against Szmetan after the Interzonal. He also gave a simul and played in a Manhattan blitz tournament. He didn't win all those games. Chessbase don't always get games in the true sequence.

[Matt Mackenzie]

That game with Szmetan is from the Buenos Aires tournament pre-interzonal, I believe.

[Stewart Reuben]

Today is Ray Keene's 1000th puzzle in the Sunday Times. I suggested some time ago that there be a special prize, normally it is £20. The prize will be Kasparov's 'My Great Predecessors' series. Each Friday he has a competition in the Spectator and one in Saturday's Times.

[Mick Norris]

Today is Ray Keene's 1000th puzzle in the Sunday Times. I suggested some time ago that there be a special prize, normally it is £20. The prize will be Kasparov's 'My Great Predecessors' series.

Why, has he read them

[Richard Bates]

Today is Ray Keene's 1000th puzzle in the Sunday Times. I suggested some time ago that there be a special prize, normally it is £20. The prize will be Kasparov's 'My Great Predecessors' series.

Why, has he read them

I'm sure it won't be his personal copy.

[JustinHorton]

Today is Ray Keene's 1000th puzzle in the Sunday Times. I suggested some time ago that there be a special prize, normally it is £20. The prize will be Kasparov's 'My Great Predecessors' series.

Surely we've already read most of that series in his column?

[JustinHorton]

Back to proper journalists. Sid Lowe's weekly round-up from La Liga writes of Quique Setién, coach of Las Palmas:

He complains that football has been distorted by money and doesn’t seem to much like the way the game has gone, saying in one interview that he’d sometimes rather play chess than watch a game on telly.

(Looking it up, he said it in 2013 to El País.)

[JustinHorton]

Meanwhile a long Guardian piece by Alex Hern discusses the upcoming man v computer Go match in which Demis Hassabis is heavily involved. Goes over some familiar ground (Deep Blue etc) fairly interestingly but then trips up by telling us

The first move of a game of chess offers 28 possibilities

because apparently...

[Christopher Kreuzer]

BBC article on the upcoming computer Go match between AlphaGo and Lee Se-Dol here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35746909

Will put more details in the 'Computer Go' thread, which may be the more appropriate one.