HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: nash@visus.com (Richard V. Nash)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Re: USA/USCF Grant Agreement
Date: 9 Apr 92 17:55:10 GMT
Reply-To: nash@visus.com
Organization: Visual Understanding Systems, Pgh PA

In article <9204081511.0.UUL1.3#20523@intercal.com>  
helios!intercal.com!hwr@tssi.com (Hanon W. Russell) writes:
>                             ARTICLE I
> 
> The Department hereby awards a grant in the amount of $3,990.00 
> to the Federation to be paid upon the execution of this 
> agreement, to enable it to assist the Department in its Cultural 
> Presentations Program by carrying out the program outlined 
> herein.
> 

Not that I am ungrateful, but it probably cost the government more than $3900  
in lawyers' fees just to draw up this document.
--
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| Richard V. Nash  | Visual Understanding Systems, Inc.         |
| nash@visus.com   | Tel. (412)-488-3600   Fax. (412)-488-3611  |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
From: ark@alice.att.com (Andrew Koenig)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Re: Curious about Alpha-Beta searching
Date: 15 Apr 92 17:27:33 GMT
Reply-To: ark@alice.UUCP ()
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Liberty Corner NJ

In article <1992Apr15.120957.11505@visus.com> nash@visus.com writes:

> I'm curious. Could someone out there describe briefly what the alpha-beta  
> search algorithm is all about?

It's really very simple, though it can be described in complicated ways.

Imagine you're a chess program trying to figure out the best move
in a position.

The first thing you do is figure out what moves are legal.  No point
wasting a lot of time if there's only one legal move.  Then you decide
on a sequence to examine the moves.  For reasons we will soon discover,
it's useful to start with the moves most likely to be good, so a typical
strategy is to look at captures first, and sort those by decreasing value
of the piece captured.

Anyway, you now have a list of moves to evaluate.  Look at the first one
and do whatever you do to evaluate it.  This presumably involves looking
at all your opponent's replies.  Suppose you conclude that this move
wins a pawn.

Next you look at the second candidate move.  Again, you have to look at
all your opponent's replies.  But this time, IF YOU FIND A REPLY THAT'S
WORSE FOR YOU THAN WINNING A PAWN, YOU CAN STOP!  Thus, for example, if your
opponent has a reply to your second move that loses a piece (for you),
you don't have to look at any of your opponent's other moves.

This is why it was useful to sort the moves by estimated value.  If your
estimate is accurate, it will causes later searches to cut off earlier.

This algorithm is called alpha-beta cutoff because if you implement it,
you will find that one reasonable way to do so is to pass two numbers
down the tree during evaluation: one cut-off for each player.  For whatever
reason, probably historical, these are called alpha and beta.

The useful characteristic is that alpha-beta search yields the same result
as an exhaustive search of the same tree, but runs much faster.
-- 
				--Andrew Koenig
				  ark@europa.att.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
From: ceblair@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Charles Blair)
Subject: Re: Draw offers (was Re: More Reshevsky)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 17:23:27 GMT

sloan@cis.uab.edu (Kenneth Sloan) writes:

>Would you be so kind as to point to the particular section of the rules,
>or a published approved interpretation to support your claim?

   GUIDE TO TOURNAMENT CHESS by Lombardy & Daniels refers to  ``Are you
playing for a win?''  as a common way of offering a draw, although I
don't think they encouraged this usage.

   There are two separate things (1) danger of honest misunderstanding,
and I certainly agree that this is a risk with AYPFAW, although less so
among highly experienced players (2) a dispute about whether a draw offer
was made in any form, which means one of the two players is deliberately
lying.  I get the impression that the incident that started this thread
was a case of (2), and restricting the phrase used to offer a draw would
not have helped.

   I would like to see the clock of the future provided with a ``draw
offer button.''  While I'm dreaming, I would also like the clock to
count the number of moves and automatically claim forfeits (it would be
necessary to have some sort of reset button for illegal moves, though).
From: lumme@kontu.cc.utu.fi (Mikael Lumme)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Users vs MChess
Date: 9 Apr 92 09:04:44 GMT
Organization: University of Turku, Finland

On March 20th, I sent a note to Stuart saying
that our move was 30. axb4.  Later, I received:
>From:	IN%"cracraft@ai.mit.edu"  8-APR-1992 17:36:40.23
>M Chess plays: 	30 ... Qe7.

 Game #2 so far:       1  e4    e5     13  O-O-O Na6   25  Rxf8+  Kxf8
                       2  f4    ef     14  Nd4   Ng3   26  Qc2    Kg8
 8 - - - - r - k -     3  Nf3   d6     15  Bb5   Qe5   27  Qf5    g3
 7 - - p Q q - b p     4  d4    g5     16  Rhe1  Nc5   28  Qd7    b5
 6 p - - p - - - -     5  h4    g4     17  Nb3   Nxb3  29  a3     b4
 5 - - - P - - - -     6  Ng1   f5     18  cb    a6    30  axb4   Qe7
 4 - P - - - - - P     7  Bxf4  fe     19  Bd3   Bf5
 3 - P N - - - p -     8  Nc3   Nf6    20  Bb1   Rae8
 2 - P - - - - P -     9  d5    Bg7    21  Bf4   e3
 1 - K - R - - - -    10  Nge2  O-O    22  Bxe3  Bxb1
   a b c d e f g h    11  Qd2   Nh5    23  Kxb1  Nf1
                      12  Bg5   Qe8    24  Rxf1  Qxe3


If you want to be in on the vote for the next move,
send your suggestion (along with any comments 
that you may have) to me.

If you are participating for the first time in game #2,
Please include some indication of your chess playing strength.
From: g0m0078@tamsun.tamu.edu (Giri)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Re: Shortest/Longest Games
Date: 12 Apr 92 19:21:47 GMT
Organization: Texas A&M University, College Station

In my previous article I had stated that the game between
reti and tartakover was the shortest involving where a 
GM was checkmated but I found 1 more game which was shorter
which was played between dake and Pauli.

Reti tartakover
e4 c6
d4 d5
nc3 de4
ne4 nf6
qd3 e5
de5 qa5+
bd2 qe5
o-o-o ne4
qd8+ kd8
bg5+ kc7
bd8 mate


Dake pauli
e4 e6
d4 d5
nc3 bb4
nge2 e4
a3 bc3
nc3 nc6
qg4 nd4
qg7 nc2
ke2 qd3


Have Fun,


giri
_____
From: etcmng@iitmax.iit.edu (Michael N Goldshteyn)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Help with bishop's oppening line
Date: 8 Apr 92 23:25:59 GMT
Organization: Illinois Institute of Technology

Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Help with an opening line
Followup-To: 
Distribution: world
Organization: Illinois Institute of Technology
Keywords: 


I would like to know if anybody has any information on the opening line:

1. e4 e5
2. Bc4 Nf6
3. Nf3 Nxe4
4. Nc3 Nxc3
5. ?

This is a bishop's openning variation that I can't seem to be able to find
any printed information on. If anybody has any comments (please include book
or game references) I would be very appreciative!

Thanks in advance
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: ECO books
Followup-To: 
Distribution: world
Organization: Illinois Institute of Technology
Keywords: 


I am still awaiting someone's response to my message about places that I can
order the ECO books from, or stores in the Chicago area that sell them.

Thanks
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Help with a variation of the bishop's oppening
Followup-To: 
Distribution: world
Organization: Illinois Institute of Technology
Keywords: 

Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Help with an opening line
Followup-To: 
Distribution: world
Organization: Illinois Institute of Technology
Keywords: 


I would like to know if anybody has any information on the opening line:

1. e4 e5
2. Bc4 Nf6
3. Nf3 Nxe4
4. Nc3 Nxc3
5. ?

This is a bishop's openning variation that I can't seem to be able to find
any printed information on. If anybody has any comments (please include book
or game references) I would be very appreciative!

Thanks in advance
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: ECO books
Followup-To: 
Distribution: world
Organization: Illinois Institute of Technology
Keywords: 


I am still awaiting someone's response to my message about places that I can
order the ECO books from, or stores in the Chicago area that sell them.

Thanks
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: help with an oppening
Followup-To: 
Distribution: world
Organization: Illinois Institute of Technology
Keywords:
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Candidate Semifinals Rounds 1 and 2
Supersedes: <92104.082144CARRERAS@EVALUN11.BITNET>
Organization: Valencia University - Computer Center
Date: Monday, 13 Apr 1992 08:36:05 EST
From: Francisco J. Carreras <CARRERAS@EVALUN11.BITNET>

The (10 game) matches of the Semifinals of the Candidate Tournament
began in Linares, Spain, last Saturday, with the following results,
in the first two rounds:
Karpov 1-0 Short,    Yusupov 1-0 Timman.
Short .5-.5 Karpov,  Timman.5-.5 Yusupov
Unfortunately, I haven't got the games.
Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Tuesday, 14 Apr 1992 20:43:41 CDT
From: <U55342@uicvm.uic.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Re: old opening?
Distribution: na

What are the moves of the opening? Are you perhaps wondering if there
is an opening called "The Old Opening"? I'm confused! :)

                                                    See Ya!
                                                     Bert


........................................................................
: Bertrand L. Wilson                :"My friends, we can and we will,  :
: Department of Linguistics         : never, never surrender to what   :
: University of Illinois at Chicago : is right."          Dan Quayle   :
:                                   :                                  :
: U55342@UICVM.UIC.EDU              : "What a waste it is to lose      :
:                                   :  one's mind."       Dan Quayle   :
:...................................:..................................:
From: breuker@cs.rulimburg.nl (Dennis Breuker)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Yusupov - Timman, 3rd game
Date: 16 Apr 92 08:15:38 GMT
Reply-To: breuker@cs.rulimburg.nl (Dennis Breuker)
Organization: University of Limburg, Maastricht

Yusupov - Timman, 3rd game
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0 5.Bd3 c5 6.Nf3 c5 7.0-0 Nbd7 8.cxd5 exd5
9.a3 Bxc3 10.bxc3 Re8 11.a4 c4 12.Bc2 Ne4 13.Bxe4 dxe4 14.Nd2 b6 15.f3 Bb7
16.fxe4 Bxe4 17.Nxe4 Rxe4 18.Ra2 Nf6 19.Raf2 Qd6 20.Rf5 Rae8 21.h3 h6 22.a5 Qe6
23.Qf3 Re7 24.Qg3 Nd5 25.Qb8+ Kh7 26.axb6 axb6 27.Bd2 f6 28.Qa8 Nxe3 29.d5 Qd6
30.Bxe3 Rxe3 31.Qa1 Qg3?! 32.Qb1 Re1 33.Qxb6 R7e2?! 34.R5f2 f5?! 35.d6 Rxf1+
36.Kxf1 Re5 37.Qd4 Qh2 38.Re2 Rxe2 39.Kxe2 Qxg2+ 40.Kd1 Qh1+ 41.Kc2 Qg2+
42.Qd2 Qe4+ 43.Kc1 Qh1+ 44.Kc2 Qe4+ 45.Kc1 Qh1+ 46.Kc2
1/2 - 1/2

After an old fashioned variation (7...Nbd7) Timman gained a decisive
advantage. According to the newspapers he could have played better a few times:

1)	31...Rxh3! 32.gxh3 Qg3+ 33.Kh1 Qxh3+ 34.Kg1 Qg3+ 35.Kh1 Re4
	36.R5f4 Rxf4 37.Rxf4 Qxf4 38.Qd1 Qd6 with a won queen-ending
	(three pawns up).

2)	33...Qd3

3)	34...Rxf1+ 35.Kxf1 Rxf2+ 36.Qxf2 Qd3+ and 37...Qxd5 with a
	pawn up in a queen-ending. Timman believed this was a draw,
	but Dvoretski (Yusupov's secondant) wasn't so sure.

	  1   2   3
--------+-----------
Yusupov | 1  1/2 1/2
Timman  | 0  1/2 1/2


Dennis Breuker
(breuker@cs.rulimburg.nl)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
From: nolan@helios.unl.edu (Michael Nolan)
Subject: Re: WordPerfect on Frame font
Reply-To: nolan@helios.unl.edu
Organization: University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Date: 16 Apr 92 23:12:04 GMT

Dennis Baker <helios!canal.crc.uno.edu!DCBCS@tssi.com> writes:

>Uh... I hope this is what you were looking for.  I'm not sure what "WordPerfect
>of FrameMaker" is, or how this is different from WordPerfect.  

I think he meant 'WordPerfect _or_ Framemaker'.  May you never make a typo!

>Now I have a question for the rest of the net.  Now that we've found a good
>diagram-maker, I'm looking for software that produces that chess "figurine"
>font, the kind the Informants use.  Anyone know where I can find this software
>and how much "moo-la" is being asked for it?

At one time John Renner at Adobe was looking into this, but other projects
(including those Adobe pays him for) have apparently supplanted this.  I, too,
would like a Type 1 font with Informant symbols.  Symbols has some of them,
as does Zapf Dingbats.  If I could justify spending $250+ for Fontographer,
I'd do it myself.

My 'ideal' font would have chess pieces, the letters a-h and numbers 0-9, 
some punctuation/parentheses/brackets, and the Informant symbols all in one
font, so I can do annotated figurine algebraic without having to switch fonts 
every few keystrokes.  If possible, it should also avoid mapping them into
the range where 'CTRL' or 'OPTION' would be needed, because some PC programs
don't deal with these well.  [I wound up patching CHEQ for the PC to map
the pieces on dark squares to the numbers and letter W so I could use it
with ATM and Lotus Write for Windows.  At least I got some good out of 
reading the Adobe Type I specs!]
---
Michael Nolan
nolan@helios.unl.edu
From: drchip@cup.portal.com (MYRON A LIEBERMAN)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Re: Sammy Reshevsky
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 92 23:06:36 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)

Yes, you are correct. Sammy Reshevsky would not compromise the Sabbath for
even playing regularly scheduled games or traveling. He was a bridge between
powerful chess community of the thirties and today's chess community. There w
quite a while when Rueben Fine and Sam Reshevsky were the only active world
class players in America as far as the public was concerned. He will be misse
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
From: mwj@beta.lanl.gov (William Johnson)
Subject: Re: Shortest GM game (was Re: Goldman analysis)
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 15:45:48 GMT

In article <1992Apr8.160622.24826@colorado.edu> perlman@qso.Colorado.EDU (perlman eric) writes:
>>)This reminds me of the record of the shortest GM game of all time.
[much stuff deleted]
>Arpad Foldeak, in his book on the Olympiads from 1924-68, has the score
>of one Olympiad game which was only 4 moves long.  I'll find it tonight
>and post it tomorrow.

I'll save you the trouble.  It was Combe (Scotland)-Hasenfuss (Austria),
1928 Olympiad if I remember correctly: 1 c4 c5 2 d4 dc 3 Nf3 e5 4 Nxe5 Qa5+
and White resigned.  However, this doesn't really answer the original question
as neither player was a GM and Combe wasn't particularly strong.

The Olympiads provide lots of opportunities for brevities involving GMs, but
they typically are a matter of GM vs. fish rather than GM vs. GM.  This was
particularly true when the Olympiad format was round-robin prelims followed
by round-robin finals constructed according to the prelim scores.  This
format more or less guaranteed pairings like USSR-Andorra at least once per
prelim section.  (I get the impression that accelerated pairings in the
recent Olympiads run on the Swiss system have reduced the incidence of these
blowouts.)  It is mildly entertaining sometimes to go through some of these
GM-fish squashes to get some idea of what GM technique is like.

-- 
Bill Johnson				| "This is a bit complicated, so let
Los Alamos National Laboratory		| me explain it backwards."  (first
Los Alamos, New Mexico USA		| line of a memo from a fellow Los
!cmcl2!lanl!mwj (mwj@lanl.gov)		| Alamos physicist who will go unnamed)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
From: jlwestm@ptsfa.PacBell.COM (Jeff Westman)
Subject: Chicago Area Chess Clubs
Organization: Pacific * Bell
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 17:33:32 GMT


I will be doing some out-of-town travel soon to the Chicago area.  Can
anyone tell me the location(s) and day(s) of some clubs?  Specifically, I
will in the suburb of Oak Brook.

Thanks in advance!

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  Jeff Westman  Pacific*Bell                                                 |
|         UUCP:  {att,bellcore,sun,ames,decwrl,pyramid}!pacbell!jlwestm       |
|     INTERNET:  jlwestm@ptsfa.PacBell.COM                                    |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

-- 
Jeff
From: lb2e+@andrew.cmu.edu (Louis Blair)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Re: Shortest GM game (was Re: Goldman analysis)
Date: 10 Apr 92 21:27:01 GMT
	<1992Apr9.213754.24584@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu>
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

>The shortest game between two GM's I know occured during (Tadam!):
>
>	Spassky -- Fisher  1972 World title match
>
>
>
>Spassky won a game after playing his first move ... ;-)

If I remember correctly, Fischer had the first move in that
game, so no moves at all were played.
From: DCBCS@CANAL.CRC.UNO.EDU (Dennis Baker)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Re: Goldman analysis
Date: 6 Apr 92 14:33:00 GMT
Article-I.D.: canal.01GIIR9L4UZ48X2O9Q

Louis Blair writes:
>After 1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 de 4 Nxe4 Nd7 5 Bc4 Ngf6 6 Qf3 e6
>7 Bg5 Be7 8 O-O-O O-O, Goldman suggests 9 h4 with the comment,
>"A sharp continuation which establishes an outpost for the White
>knight at g5 and presages an attack on the castled king."  After
?a page and a half of analysis he concludes that white has "the
>superior game".

As my friend NM Alberto Prieto would say about such moves (9 h4), if
I ignore it will it go away!  Like I said, Black has no pawn weakness
on the kingside to be overly worried about such attacks.  Still, Black
hasn't freed his game with a, for instance, ...c5.  Curiously, I tried
to grab the pawn here.  After 10 Qxe4 Bxg5+ 11 hxg5 Qxg5+ 12 f4 Qg6...
naah.  This is no fun.  The problem in this position, even back to 9 h4,
is where does Black's counterplay come from?  With this in mind, perhaps
better than 6...e6 is 6...g6.  This move would eliminate all the Qe4, Bd3
lineup worries.  Plus, it seems that in this type of setup, White would
have preferred to have developed his queen to d2, after developing the QB,
to attempt to weaken the black king position by swapping off the dark-
squared bishops.  What does Goldman say about 6...g6?

Dennis Baker
<DCBCS@uno.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
From: "REYNOLDS, MARK ANTHONY" <helios!physics.ucla.edu!reynolds@tssi.com>
Subject: Re: Books on Morphy?
Organization: Chessnews list (chessnews-request@tssi.com)
Date: Sat, 18 Apr 1992 00:25:00 GMT


>> Could anyone recommend a good book or two on Paul Morphy?
>>
>> Primarily, I'm interested in getting as many of his games as possible,
>> although biographical info is OK, too...

> The one that has most of his games is the book by Seargent, it is now
> put out by Dover, so it is fairly cheap, $5-$10.  I have it and I
> like it.  It has quite a bit of biographical info as well.
>
> If you can read German, there are books on Morphy by Lowenthal and
> Maroczy from about 100 years ago, but you'd have to search your local
> libraries.  The Seargent book is based alot on the Lowenthal book.

Sorry about the sketchy info in my last post, but I now have the book
in front of me.  It is titled, "Morphy's Games of Chess" by Philip W.
Sergeant, reprinted by Dover.  It has 300 of his games, many of which
are casual, consultation, simultaneous, and/or blindfold. 
But as the introduction states, the casual games are as good, and
sometimes better than his "serious" games.  This is because he
played lots of games in Europe against the strongest players of the
day, and most of them were not in an official match setting.

He gives a list of references that include:
"Paul Morphy's Bames of Chess," by J.J. Lowenthal, London 1860
"Paul Morphy: Sein Leben und Schaffen," by Max Lange, Leipzig 1894
"Paul Morphy," by Geza Maroczy, Leipzig 1909

So take your pick.  Although I believe that the Dover reprint is the
only generally available book in English on Morphy (at least I haven't
seen any others).


Anthony Reynolds
reynolds@physics.ucla.edu
From: linb@UCS.ORST.EDU (Benjamin Lin)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Re: Looking for improvement suggestions
Date: 10 Apr 92 01:06:14 GMT
Article-I.D.: talon.1992Apr10.010614.10336
Organization: University Computing Services - OSU

Of course it is possible to beat players 400 or more points higher rated than
you.  When I was 1500, I beat a 2000, drew a 2100, drew a 2200 and beat a 1900
all in a 6 round tournament.  I losed to a 1900 and a 2100 in the other
rounds.  In that same tournament, there was a 1400 player who scored 4.5/6
and won the Master prize!  Only when you become convinced that you will lose
because your opponents vastly out-rates you will you definitely lose.  You
have to believe that you have a good chance to win, or you might as well not
play.  (or just play for fun :-) )  Of course, I don't expect to beat
professional players all the time :-(  but I will give it a try.

Also, it is not surprising at all for a player rated 1000 to beat another
player rated 1600.  The reason the player is rated 1600 is that he/she makes
quite a few mistakes in each game.  As long as the opponent takes advantage of
a few of them, an upset should not be too rare.  I have lost my fair share to
players rated much below me and beaten some players higher rated than me.  It
all depends on the game and not so much on the ratings.  I hope you higher
rated players keep that in mind and not laugh at us lower rated players the
next time you meet us otb.

Just my $.02
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
From: wlm@panix.com (William Moran)
Subject: Re: Good-bye Reshevsky stuff
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 04:15:56 GMT
Organization: PANIX - Public Access Unix Systems of NY


Reshevsky may have been a nice person or not. He was certainly a great
chess player. As someone who witnessed him being obnoxious for no good
reason (he was being obnoxious to two people I considered friends), I
was kind enough not to post nasty stories about him. He is dead. Did he
run over your dog? Why are you so hung up on him? You even make his
religion sound as if it were a ploy used to gain advantage. Why don't
you let it drop? You made a request for stories, and the request was in
bad taste (given the norms of society and Reshevsky's inability to respond),
and now you try to defend the request because you didn't like him? You are
not making your request look better.

Bill Moran