This move cost Kasparov $10k (yeah, there isn’t much money in chess). This video is after 33. … Qe3?? (you can see the game here):

via grossclub.com

This looks awesome, except like most trailers these days, they give away the whole story:

via jennifershahade.com

I hear more and more about chess players giving up chess and playing professional poker, because there is more money in it. An article in the NYT talks about Ylon Schwartz, a Fide Master (USCF 2304), who is now in the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event.

I am especially interested in his view of the similarities between chess and poker:

“Chess players are trained to have excellent memories,� he said. “In poker, you need to remember betting patterns.� And strategic skill is essential in poker as well as chess. For instance, keeping the other poker players from folding when you have a good hand depends on how much you bet early on.

He said that both games had geometrical aspects. In chess, it is the shape and size of the board and positions of the pieces. In poker, it is the positions of the players betting on a hand and the number of chips they have.

“All the patience I got in chess really helps me out,�

“Empathy is the most important thing in poker,� he said. “You have to really be aware of what your opponents think. The best thing about poker is that it exposes all your weaknesses.�

“Chess is a purer game,� he said. “It is my passion. I love poker, too, but I don’t know who gets together to play poker for fun. There is always something on the line.�

Jennifer Shahade, who wrote Chess Bitch, has also been playing a lot of poker.

GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, who I wrote about a couple of years ago, is now the new Women’s World Chess Champion. I guess she isn’t into modeling much anymore, although you can still see all her photos on her website.
Kosteniuk beat 14-year old Hou Yifan of China to become the champion.

Kosteniuk said that Hou, a 14-year-old, was her most dangerous opponent and a “great talent.� Kosteniuk said she was afraid of how strong Hou would become in a few years, and predicted that Hou would soon dominate women’s competitions.

I’m really impressed with this chess program in less than 5kb of javascript.
Here is the code:

<SCRIPT>M=I=P=N=q=K=J=0
Bt=1999
Al=-Bt
Ds=[10,-10]
BE=120
G=[]
R=[]
KL=[3,3]
j=[0,1,5,3,3,9,63,0]
MV=[0,0,[1,10],[21,19,12,8],[11,9],[1,10,11,9],[1,10,11,9],0]
for(z=0;z<8;){j[z+8]=j[z]<<=4
m=MV[z++]
if(m){s=m.length
for(x=0;x<s;){m[s+x]=-m[x++]}}}x='g00000000g'
y='gggggggggg'
b=y+y+"g23456432gg11111111g"+x+x+x+x+"g99999999ggABCDECBAg"+y+y
w=x+x+x+"000111100000123321000123553210"
a='000012346900'
Y=[]
PY=[]
bY=[]
for(y=0;y<12;y++){for(x=0;x<10;x++){z=(y*10)+x
PY[z]=parseInt(a.charAt(y))
bY[z]=parseInt(w.charAt((z<60)?z:119-z),35)&7
R[z]=parseInt(b.charAt(z),35)}}R[BE]=0
d=document
cp=new Function('a','b','return b[0]-a[0]')
function Z(c,U,C,s,e,A,B,K){var z=-1,C=-C,V=8-U,b=Al,r=R,S,E=r[e],g,d
if(C<-400)return[C,s,e]
r[e]=S=r[s]
r[s]=0
if(S)G[V][G[V].length]=[S,e]
if(S-U==1&&r[e+Ds[U>>3]]>15){r[e]+=4}if(S-U==6&&(s-e==2||e-s==2)){g=s-4+(s<e)*7
d=(s+e)>>1
r[g]=0
r[d]=U+2}var L=Pz(U,K,C),N=L.length,n
if(N){if(c){L.sort(cp)
c--
var i=L[0],j=i[1],k=i[2],t
b=-Z(c,V,i[0],j,k,-B,-A,i[3])[0]
for(z=1;z<N;z++){if(b>A)A=b
n=L[z]
t=-Z(c,V,n[0],n[1],n[2],-A-1,-A,n[3])[0]
if((t>A)&&(t<B))t=-Z(c,V,n[0],n[1],n[2],-B,-t,n[3])[0]
if(t>b){b=t
j=n[1]
k=n[2]
if(t>A)A=t
if(b>B)break}}}else{b=Al
while(--N&&B>b){if(L[N][0]>b){b=L[N][0]}}}}else{J=c+1}if(g){r[g]=U+2
r[d]=0}r[s]=S
r[e]=E
G[V].length--
return[b,j,k]}function Sf(c,U,s,e,K){var E=R[e],S=R[e]=R[s]
R[s]=0
H()
U=Z(c,U,0,BE,BE,Al,Bt,K)
R[s]=S
R[e]=E
return U[0]}function mv(s,e,b){var E=R[e],S=R[s],a=S&7,u=M>>3,c=0,t=0,z=0,p
if(!M){H()
p=Pz(M,K,0)
for(;z<p.length;z++){t=t||(s==p[z][1]&&e==p[z][2])}
if(!t)return 0
if(Sf(0,8-M,s,e,K)>400)return 0}if(Sf(0,M,s,e,K)>400)c=1
var x=s%10,g=e-s,D=Ds[u],t=e%10,n=1+(N>>1)
if(Sf(1,8-M,s,e,K)<-400)J=c+1
if((E&7)==6){J=2;return 0}K=0
if(a==1){if(R[e+D]>15)R[s]+=4-b
if(g==2*D&&(R[e-1]&1||R[e+1]&1))K=s+D
if(!E&&g%10)Sh(e,e-D)}if(s==21+u*70||s==28+u*70)KL[u]&=(x<5)+1
if(e==21+u*70||e==28+u*70)KL[!u]&=(x<5)+1
if(a==6){if(g*g==4)Sh(s-4+(s<e)*7,s+g/2)
KL[u]=0}Sh(s,e)
H()
N++
M=8-M
return 1}
function H(){var z=99,Q
s0=(N<32)?4-(N>>3):(N>64)
G[0]=[]
G[8]=[]
kY=[]
pY=[[],[]]
for(;z>20;z--){a=R[z]
if(a&7)G[a&8][G[a&8].length]=[a,z]
Y[z]=bY[z]*s0
kY[z]=(N>40)||(10-2*bY[z])*s0
Q=pY[1][119-z]=pY[0][z]=PY[z]
if (N<7&&z>40){pY[0][z]=pY[1][119-z]=Q+(Math.random()*Y[z])|1
Y[24]=Y[94]=29}}}function Pz(U,K,b){
var W,X,h,E,a,v,n,k=-1,u=U>>3,V=U^8,D=Ds[u],w=[],m,T,p=pY[u],H,d=KL[u],z,c,g,e=G[U],f=e.length,B=R,J=j
for (z=0;z<f;z++){W=e[z][1]
a=B[W]
if (e[z][0]==a){a&=7
if(a>1){c=a==6
H=c?kY:Y
T=b-H[W]
n=MV[a]
if(a==3||c){for(v=0;v<8;){X=W+n[v++]
E=B[X]
if(!E||(E&24)==V){w[++k]=[T+J[E]+H[X],W,X]}}if(c&&d){
if(d&1&&!(B[W-1]+B[W-2]+B[W-3])&&CH(W-2,V,D,-1))
w[++k]=[T+11,W,W-2]
if(d&2&&!(B[W+1]+B[W+2])&&CH(W,V,D,1))w[++k]=[T+12,W,W+2]}}else{g=n.length
for(v=0;v<g;){E=0
m=n[v++]
X=W
while(!E){X+=m
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if(!E||(E&24)==V){w[++k]=[T+J[E]+H[X],W,X]}}}}}else{T=b-p[W]
X=W+D
if(!B[X]){w[++k]=[T+p[X],W,X]
if(!p[W]&&(!B[X+D])){w[++k]=[T+p[X+D],W,X+D,X]}}if(K&&(K==X+1||K==X-1))w[++k]=[T+p[X],W,K]
for(h=X-1;h<X+2;h+=2){E=B[h]+U
if(E&7&&E&8){w[++k]=[T+J[E]+p[h],W,h]}}}}}return w}
function CH(W,V,D,T){var X,E,x,m,S=W+3,a=D+2,k=MV[3],B=R
for(;W<S;W++){for(m=D-2;++m<a;){E=B[W+m]
if(E&&(E&8)==V&&((E&8)==1||(E&7)==6))return 0
E=0
X=W
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E=B[X]
if((E==V+2+(m!=D)*2)||E==V+5)return 0}}for(z=0;z<8;)if(B[W+k[z++]]-V==3)return 0}E=0
W-=3
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E=B[W]
if(E==V+2||E==V+5)return 0}return 1}function B(Q){var a=R[Q]
if(J)return
if(q==Q&&I){
O(q,I,1)
I=0
return}if(a&&M==(a&8)){if(I)O(q,I,1)
I=a
q=Q
O(q,0,1)
return}if(I){if(mv(q,Q,d.FF.h.selectedIndex,y)){I=0
if(!J){var t=Z(2,M,0,BE,BE,Al,Bt,K)
mv(t[1],t[2],0)}}}}function Sh(s,e){var a=R[s]
R[e]=a
R[s]=0
O(s,0,1)
O(e,a,1)}function Rf(a){P=a
for(var z=0;z<BE;z++)if(R[z]<16)O(z,R[z],1)}function O(x,y,z){if(z)x="i"+(x)
d.images[x].src=y+'.gif'}h='<table cellpadding=4 class=t>'
for(y=90;y>10;y-=10){h+="<tr>"
for(x=0;x<10;x++){z=y+x
if(x&&x<9){h+=('<td class='+(x+(y/10)&1?'b':'w')+'><a href="#" onclick="B(P?119-'+z+':'+z+');
return false"><img src=0.gif width=7 height=40 border=0><img src=0.gif width=25 height=40 name=i'+z+'
border=0><img src=0.gif width=7 height=40 border></a></td>\n')}}h+='</tr>\n'}h+='</table>'
d.write(h)
Rf(0)</SCRIPT>

I was at the DreamIt funding day demos today (which was great) and I was talking with some of the guys about the Singularity. Most of them didn’t know what it is, but a few of them did. Still, the ones that knew about it didn’t totally buy into it - they said it hadn’t really made an impact on their day-to-day decisions. I told them that it has totally changed my thinking.
And so now I am reading this article about Peter Thiel, and “the Paypal Mafia”, and I read this quote from Elon Musk:

“Peter, Max, and I are not directly aligned philosophically,” he says. “Peter’s philosophy is pretty odd. It’s not normal. He’s a contrarian from an investing standpoint and thinks a lot about the singularity. I’m much less excited about that. I’m pro-human.”

That made me laugh.
Peter also has a hedge fund, Clarium Capital, which is doing really well. He’s also a tournament chess master (currently rated 2287 USCF and 2199 FIDE). He hasn’t really played recently - his last big match was the 104th US Open in LA 5 years ago - but it looks like he only played two games and then dropped out (he won both of the games).
The oldest tournament record that USCF has for Thiel is the Mc Ilrath Memorial in Burlingame, CA way back in 1992. He went 5-0 to take clear 1st place.
By the way, I totally agree with his view of chess:

“Taken too far, chess can become an alternate reality in which one loses sight of the real world,” he says. “My chess ability was roughly at the limit. Had I become any stronger, there would have been some massive tradeoffs with success in other domains in life.”

I think it is a great tool for analytical thinking and strategy training. But it takes a lot of time and thought and eventually you need to be productive and put away the pieces and apply that training. Plus, there’s no money in it. And computers are way better. But it is great for children and young adults and it is a very beautiful game.

At least according to Rybka 3.0, the best chess player ever in the history of the game, who is rated well over 3000.

Some things are just too complex for the human brain. Take the game of chess, for example. The estimated number of possible games of chess is 10^123. Just to give you an idea of how much that is, there is an estimated 3.2 x 10^78 atoms in the universe. This means there are about 10^44 unique chess games for every atom in the universe. The best human players only think ahead three to five moves on average. If a player wants to compete in the upper echelons of chess, they must use their intuition.
And chess is SIMPLE compared to the stock market.

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Gary Kasparov’s press conference is interrupted by a flying penis.

According to the Moscow Times, the prank was staged by “a couple of pro-Kremlin Young Russia activists.”