Media comments on chess

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Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Fri Aug 21, 2020 11:13 am

"Cartoon from latest Private Eye (No.1527)

Letter in 1528 points out the board was the wrong way round.

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JustinHorton
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by JustinHorton » Fri Aug 21, 2020 11:20 am

Kevin Thurlow wrote:
Fri Aug 21, 2020 11:11 am
"several orders of magnitude more complicated than chess.

Is that right?"

Luckily, a good Go player (and mathematician) just walked into the room! The answer is "Yes". I got a rapid explanation, which I'll try to summarize. Although a computer has beaten the World Champion heavily, it hasn't really done much on opening theory etc. Apparently at Go, you can't repeat positions, so if an opponent makes a capture, you can't just recapture in the same place, so you have to threaten something elsewhere first. As may be obvious, I have never played Go, so I may have misunderstood. I guess as the board has 361 points, instead of 64 squares, that increases the possibilities somewhat as well.
Does this mean, for instance, that even high-level human play is much more inaccurate (in so far as we can tell, perhaps) in Go than in chess, where by "inaccurate" we mean suboptimal?
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

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Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Fri Aug 21, 2020 1:32 pm

"Does this mean, for instance, that even high-level human play is much more inaccurate (in so far as we can tell, perhaps) in Go than in chess, where by "inaccurate" we mean suboptimal?"

It seems that they're not really sure what best play is! So, yes. In opening theory, which only goes a few moves deep anyway, for years players have started near the edge of the board, (point 44, then 36, I believe), but people have wondered if starting in the middle would be better. When Alpha-Zero played the world champion, in one game it played something that the watching experts condemned as unsound, but it worked. But Alpha-Zero did play "normal" openings for the most part. Early chess computers were taught by humans so did do mainstream things, but Alpha-Zero taught itself chess and go.

I don't know Go at all, so hope I'm interpreting the comments correctly.

Paul Cooksey
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Paul Cooksey » Fri Aug 21, 2020 1:52 pm

The computing power to solve Go greater than for the 32 man tablebases. But relative complexity for a human a matter of opinion.

I feel a bit sorry for the serious Go players, we had a couple of decades to come to terms with computers surpassing us in chess. But the Go players went from believing their game was unbreakable to AlphaZero very quickly.

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Mon Aug 24, 2020 1:21 pm

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cr ... -UQAvD_BwE

turned up as an annoying advert whilst "Cracking the Cryptic" played on Youtube. The set looked interesting, but some of the people using it had the board set up wrongly of course.

LawrenceCooper
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by LawrenceCooper » Mon Aug 24, 2020 6:54 pm

"This isn't chequers, it's chess and you're about to play with masters" trailer for Yellowstone.

Simon Rogers
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Simon Rogers » Tue Aug 25, 2020 10:21 am

The Sunday Times Culture Section 2nd August
There was a cover story about the filming of Flash Gordon.
Brian Blessed who played Prince Vultan talks about how he choreographed the Hawkmen attack against Ming's battleship, War Rocket Ajax.
"He says he advised the great Von Sydow, veteran of 11 Ingmar Bergman films - including The Seventh Seal, in which he plays chess with Death - on how to play the baddie, telling him to lead with his hands because Ming is a " magician and a bit of a sex pest "."

Stewart Reuben
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Stewart Reuben » Wed Aug 26, 2020 7:07 pm

In case you haven;t seen this video about the MSO. I didn't have time to watch all of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpXHJpxQRJ0

Chris Rice
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Chris Rice » Thu Aug 27, 2020 2:16 pm

Trailer for a new chess film Critical Thinking with lines such "Chess is the great equaliser" and the some pre-game prep "Just remember your mind can be a weapon". It's based on a true story from 1998, five LatinX and Black teenagers from the toughest underserved ghetto in Miami fight their way into the National Chess Championship under the guidance of their unconventional but inspirational teacher.

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Thu Aug 27, 2020 2:41 pm

""Chess is the great equaliser" and the some pre-game prep "Just remember your mind can be a weapon". "

With lines like that, I can't wait!

NickFaulks
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by NickFaulks » Thu Aug 27, 2020 2:42 pm

Chris Rice wrote:
Thu Aug 27, 2020 2:16 pm
five LatinX and Black teenagers
I am sufficiently in touch to know that black has to be written with a Capital B nowadays, but LatinX is new to me.
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a QR code stamped on a human face — forever.

Stewart Reuben
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Stewart Reuben » Thu Aug 27, 2020 3:41 pm

How about a festival of films on, more-or-less, the same theme.
Most come from the US.

Tim Spanton
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Tim Spanton » Thu Aug 27, 2020 3:45 pm

NickFaulks wrote:
Thu Aug 27, 2020 2:42 pm
Chris Rice wrote:
Thu Aug 27, 2020 2:16 pm
five LatinX and Black teenagers
I am sufficiently in touch to know that black has to be written with a Capital B nowadays, but LatinX is new to me.
From Wikipedia:

Latinx is a gender-neutral neologism, sometimes used instead of Latino or Latina to refer to people of Latin American cultural or ethnic identity in the United States. The ⟨-x⟩ suffix replaces the standard ⟨-o/-a⟩ ending of nouns and adjectives that are typical of grammatical gender in Spanish. Its plural is Latinxs.

The term was first seen online around 2004. It has later been used in social media by activists, students, and academics who seek to advocate for individuals living on the borderlines of gender identity.

Both supporters and detractors point to linguistic imperialism as a reason for respectively supporting or opposing the use of the term. A 2019 poll found that use of Latinx has grown to 2% nationwide in the United States (with a 5% margin of error).


I guess Mr Rice is well-woke

NickFaulks
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by NickFaulks » Thu Aug 27, 2020 4:51 pm

Thanks, Tim. I really am trying to adapt to the new world.

" A 2019 poll found that use of Latinx has grown to 2% nationwide in the United States (with a 5% margin of error)."

Er, yes. If it were -3%, what would that signify?
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Tim Spanton
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Re: Media comments on chess

Post by Tim Spanton » Thu Aug 27, 2020 5:04 pm

NickFaulks wrote:
Thu Aug 27, 2020 4:51 pm
Thanks, Tim. I really am trying to adapt to the new world.

" A 2019 poll found that use of Latinx has grown to 2% nationwide in the United States (with a 5% margin of error)."

Er, yes. If it were -3%, what would that signify?
No idea - it's all Greekx to me

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