BBC Documentary: Seeking The Endgame Part 2

The second and final part of this 2 part documentary is now available online at the BBC World Service.

Alternatively, you can download the entire documentary in the form on a MP3 file straight from their website.

Hiarcs 13 v Rybka 4 Opening Books War

The general chess public swooned when Jiri Dufek's Rybka 4 Opening Book (see image on right) hit the market (yes, the very same opening book that Topalov reportedly paid for and used for his World Chess Championship match against Anand earlier this year in Sofia).

But now, a new threat looms over the horizon in the form of the latest update to the Hiarcs opening book - Hiarcs 13c.

A few reports are now trickling in that this updated opening book is beating Rybka4 because Rybka is choosing less than stellar opening lines.

How does that affect me, you may ask?

Well, for the majority of players (those < 2,000 Elo rating), it probably does not matter. However for players above this rating level, things start to get hot under the collar.

Games can be won or loss straight out of the opening (as Anand can testify in Game 1 of the Topalov-Anand WCC match) and every advantage you have, you will use.

One of the main advantages of the Hiarc Opening Book is that it is constantly being revised and improved upon. When you purchase the Hiarcs opening book, you get a year's subscription which promises at least 4 periodic updates.

Sadly Chessbase/ChessOk's offering of Jiri Dufek's Rybka 4's opening book does not have such a feature.

As a chess engine, Hiarcs adopts a slightly different approach to Rybka. In the words of the programmer, Hiarcs tends to think positionally rather than analytically. As anyone who has used Hiarcs knows, Hiarcs tends to think in a more natural human-like way when finding evaluations.

Sadly, Hiarcs 13 was not sold and released as a Chessbase product as was Hiarcs 12 but that does not equate to mean that it is in anyway an inferior product to Rybka 4.

Both chess engines are inhumanely strong.

PS: I don't work for Hiarcs btw and am in now way affiliated to them.

BBC Documentary: Seeking The Endgame

I'm sure some of you may have seen the Chessbase article on the recent BBC documentary: Seeking the Endgame.

For those who prefer to download and listen to it on their iPod/MP3 player devices, you can obtain the complete mp3 file from here:

Seeking The Endgame Part 1 (MP3)

Duration: 23 mins

Amongst the list of those interviewed is our very own Australian GM Ian Rogers.

The Ford Memorial Catchup

Apologies for the lack of updates.

The Ford Memorial at Norths has gone underway. Due to some circumstances, I was unable to take part this year.

The greatest shock of the tournament so far was FM Greg Canfell (2315) drawing against Benjamin Cheung (1729). A superb result for young Benjamin.

The young guns are doing very well in this tournament after 3 games played.

Jack Ruan, Oscar Wang and Anton Smirnov are on 3 points each with Benjamin half a point behind followed by Vincent Cheng and Harry Ruan on 2 points each.

My brother-in-law Steven is currently on 2.5 points.

I cannot help but notice that the number of participants for this year's Ford has dropped. Last year, we had 89 participants but this year, it had fallen to around 79 - a fall of 10%.

Chess Discount Sales Closing?

http://www.chessdiscountsales.com/whatsnew/2010/Sep/sep10.htm

"Closing Down Sale

30% off all products

Some items up to 90% off

Limited stocks"


I'm very surprised that Peter is closing down his Chess Discount Sales shop in the city and I do hope it's a misprint.

I've purchased items from Peter before and it's very sad that the only chess shop in the city is shutting down if this is indeed true. Other bookstores and gameshops don't stock the same wealth of chess related materials as his shop.

Peter has always been very generous and helpful towards the local chess community and has also been a faithful local sponsor for many important local and national chess tournaments like the Australian Open.