This blog has moved

This blog has now moved address to:

http://www.geniusprophecy.com/

The move has transitioned smoothly. As far as I can see, the email subscriptions have been successfully transferred to the new address so followers do not need to take any action.

New Facebook Like Option

You can now choose to 'like' GeniusProphecy Chess using your Facebook account. Either do it on the GP Chess homepage or follow this blog link. Please support our website!

Greatest Chess Performances

I have added a new section to the homepage called 'Greatest Chess Performances'. It is split into two subheadings - 'Greatest of All Time' and 'Greatest Modern Performances', the latter which I am yet to fully compile. So far, there are games from Karpov, Kasparov, Lasker, Tal, Alekhine and Carlsen.

Bent Larsen passes away at 75

The well-known Danish Grandmaster Jørgen Bent Larsen (1935-2010) passed away on the 12th of September 2010 after a short illness at the age of 75. Born in Tilsted (near Thisted), Denmark, he is considered to be the strongest chess player ever born in Denmark and the strongest to be born in the Scandinavian region at least until the emergence of Magnus Carlsen. Larsen was a world-class player, winning the Danish Championship at least 6 times, and was a Candidate for the World Chess Championship on four occasions. Larsen was awarded the first Chess Oscar in 1967.

Click here to see ChessBase's tribute article to Bent Larsen and Lubomir Kavalek's dedication in The Huffington Post.

Reasons for Playing Chess

In a time of growing uncertainty, I have recently pondered my own motivations for playing chess. After delving to the edge of human knowledge (just kidding!), I have come to better appreciate the royal game we play. The reasons one plays chess is often difficult to explain, particularly to those who do not share our passion. I have tried to break down this reasoning scientifically.

Click here to see the article "Reasons for Playing Chess". Note that the clearly inferior article "Why Play Chess" has now become a 'subset' of this piece.

Yes, chess is a sport

Of course chess is a sport, what were you worried about? It is easy to argue chess as a mind sport, but people are often doubtful to call chess a full-fledged sport. However, the skeptics can be silenced when you flamboyantly proclaim that chess is a recognised sport of the International Olympic Committee. Whilst the IOC does approve of chess, it does not feature in the Olympics. Presumably, this is because it is too difficult to arrange - anyway, we already have a World Championship, World Cup and World Teams Olympiad! Any addition of a further world-class tournament would just be confusing.

Here is the visual evidence, from Wikipedia:

A new elusive chess engine

A new free chess engine called Houdini (version 1.03a) has purportedly overtaken Deep Rybka 4 in playing strength! The IPON rating list places Houdini first in front of several big names like Rybka, Stockfish and Naum. Houdini borrows many ideas from the source codes of Ippolit/Robbolito, Stockfish and Crafty, and is hence released as free software.

Click here to visit the Houdini website.