Your Moment of Zen III

It’s cold and snowy in Chicago today. Maybe this will help.

The World is Flat

Well, maybe not all of it, but the part that is this chess set certainly is. Here's the skinny:

New Wave Chess & Checkers

New Wave Chess & Checkers is the world's lightest, simplest yet most tenacious game board.

This 8 3⁄4" square board is an inventive breakthrough in play on flat surfaces.

It allows flat game pieces to stand up on the board with a full 3-D effect.

The pieces can't be blown away or shaken out!The pieces move only when you want to move them. Another design innovation allows a checker piece to turn into a king simply by rotating it to show its crown.

New Wave Chess & Checkers is highly portable and can be played anywhere, indoors or outdoors.

What do you think? How would you like to play 5-minute blitz on this thing? What would Ovid make of the checker that morphs into a chess king?

Double click on the image to enlarge it and get a better look.

Here’s to Women

It’s International Women’s Day. Here’s our salute to the women of chess. Click of the screen to watch the slide show; click twice to enlarge it.

Is Hookah Chess the Next Big Thing?

As yet the signs are few and far between, but if you have a trend-spotter’s sense of what’s around the bend, you may be able to discern the early signs of a confluence between hookah lounges, which seem to be the rage these days, and chess, a tony and dignified form of leisure that some apparently see as consonant with upscale smoking.

As it was with steak joints and cigars a few years ago, there may be a marriage of convenience in the works between an emerging, popular trend angling for respectability and a marginally popular but age-old game with respectability to spare.

Among the evidence for this trend is a plan by the Chicago Chess Meetup Group to hold a meeting at a hookah bar tomorrow at noon.

Is this a real trend or a blip on the screen? Is it good for chess? Vote in our poll in the right-hand column.

Blaze Logo Unveiled

In one of the first steps toward making the Chicago Blaze a full part of the U.S. Chess League, Commissioner Greg Shahade today unveiled the team’s new logo on the league’s Web site. I think it’s gorgeous. The logo was created by Michael LeGrand and Dan Halka under Greg’s direction and with a lot of input from Blaze people here in Chicago. Many thanks for a great job. As the USCL site explains, the emblem represents the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and the surviving Water Tower on North Michigan Ave., whose structure conveniently happens to suggest a bunch of chess rooks.

The Chicago Blaze will be a new expansion team in the USCL, a league of professional chess teams from around the country. Until now the league has had no Chicago team, but the area’s top players have rallied around the Blaze and should make it a contender from day one. Details here and here, and stay tuned for more Blaze developments in the weeks and months ahead.

By the way, in case you hadn’t heard, Mrs. O’Leary’s cow has been all but totally exonerated and cleared of any culpability in starting the fire. Alas, however: justice delayed is justice denied, and the poor bovine is no longer here to enjoy the sweet satisfaction of getting her good name back.

Don’t Be a Quitter

Do as I say, kids, not as I do. I admit that I have resigned many a chess game sooner than I should have because I couldn’t (or simply didn’t want to) face the humiliation and discomfort of playing out a losing position. But that doesn’t mean you should. Every generation wants the next one to have it better than it did, and that’s what I want for you. So for this week’s Wacky Wednesday game, I’ve selected a mercifully short object lesson in why you shouldn’t quit a game until it is truly lost.

Here’s the game.

Black resigns after 11. Bxc3+.

Notice that with 9. Rd1 I contrive to set up a simple discovered check, which my worthy opponent obligingly walks right into. He (or she) takes my knight, and in recapturing with my bishop I also put the king in check with the rook.

Black then resigns. Why? Well, I can only imagine she (or he) thinks she’s about to lose a piece. She has to get out of check, and if she moves her king White captures the bishop on the next move (12. fxg4) and Black is down in material. Some people find the loss of a piece dispiriting and resign.

But it doesn’t have to be. Black can get out of check and pull his (or her) bishop to safety with the same move: 11. ... Bd7. He probably didn’t see this move.

Here’s one possible continuation, courtesy of the Crafty chess engine: 12. Bc4 Ke7 13. Bxf7 Be6 14. Bxe6 Kxe6 15. 0-0 Rad8 16. Kf2 Rhf8 17. Kg3. White probably has a bit of an advantage, but the game is far from lost for Black.

Moral of the story: if you’re in a spot, especially some kind of double attack, look for a move that will deal with both threats. You won’t always find one, but sometimes you will.

Don’t forget to check in with Polly for more Wacky Wednesday action.

Obama on Education

He doesn’t mention chess by name, but clearly it’s implied in “a whole host of other things.” Obama wants a broad curriculum full of enrichment activities is how I read this; more evidence that he’s a chess guy. And the rest of what he says makes sense to me, too. What do you think?

Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan.

Happy Casimir Pulaski Day, especially to those who have the day off.

(revised Monday PM)