Three days ago, the Google Deepmind team uploaded a paper on the scientific pre-print server arXiv that is hosted by Cornell University without much fanfare (you cannot find it on the Deepmind website). Nonetheless, it was rapidly picked up by mainstream media – including the BBC among others – and chess players all around the […]
I attended the launch of Dr Shashi Jayakumar and Mr Olimpiu Urcan’s marvelous book – Singapore Chess: A History, 1945-1990 – two evenings ago at the National Library. The book is both a historical treatise – including interviews with many former top Singaporean chess players as well as archived data from multiple sources – as […]
Six-time Singapore National Chess Champion and Singapore No.2 (No.1 is Grandmaster Zhang Zhong who was formerly one of the top players of China) Goh Wei Ming has just written a long post on his blog about his decision not to be a part of any Singapore chess team under the current Singapore Chess Federation (SCF) […]
For the past few days, I and many others have been riveted by the match between Google Deepmind’s AlphaGo and Lee Sedol – one of the top 5 Go players in the world (he is variously listed as world champion as well as current world no.2, but it’s not as easy to figure out the […]
The Singapore Chess Federation (SCF) held an extraordinary general meeting (EOGM) two nights ago at the Bishan Community Club. The event even made it into the mainstream newspaper. As can be seen from today’s news, the incumbents survived the leadership challenge, although the picture painted from the news report did not accurately reflect events on the […]
While writing the previous post about Prof Lim Kok Ann, I wondered about other local doctors who are/were also good chess players. There is no association between the two of course – skills needed for chess are not necessarily useful for a physician’s work, and vice versa. Still, there are a number of doctors who at some […]
An unusual encounter took place yesterday at United Square, Singapore. During a simultaneous chess challenge organised by the Singapore Chess Federation, my old friend and chess rival Terry Toh participated – not as one of the two “simul masters” (he is currently a retired international master or IM) – but as one of the participants against […]
Another Berlin in Game 11, and for a while, Anand played very well to maintain equality. However, after achieving the incredible break 23. … b5! that opened up the b-file and gave him a minute edge, he hallucinated in a major way (or else his nerves gave way), sacrificed an exchange unsoundly, and lost. Carlsen […]
Game 10 started off well for Anand. He had a very easy draw in Game 9, and then Carlsen chose to play the Grunfeld again, reaching a double-edged middlegame position where Anand had the initiative and slightly more pleasant prospects. However, he elected not to play the critical continuation 16. d6!? and subsequently reached a […]
Had meant to post quick summaries earlier, but better late than never. Tonight starts the final quarter of the world chess championship 2014. Carlsen leads by a point, but Anand has two Whites. The games with some commentary can be found by clicking the links below: Game 7 on Chessbase or the official FIDE site […]
MIPHIDIC 