Happy Canada Day!

What a great country! Keep supporting Canadian chess :)

Image designed using CorelDRAW

Wacky Wednesday - Brain Teaser!

As mentioned before, I have switched the Tuesday and Wednesday topics for this week.

This one's kind of silly, but here it goes...

Monkeyopolis has a population of 12,345 monkeys. To regulate such a large group, Monkeyopolis' head monkey, Guyrilla, has made a new rule regarding 'monkey do chess' (http://www.pathguy.com/chess/MonkeyDo.htm). If a game is won, the losing monkey must give two bananas to the winning monkey. If a game is drawn, the monkeys must exchange one banana each in good faith. Fred Isachimp decides to play in a 'monkey do' tournament. He comes in with fifteen bananas. After all five games, his score is 3.0/5.0. Exactly two of his games were drawn. Assuming no bananas are consumed, created, destroyed, or given away outside of what is required by the new rule, how many bananas does Fred walk home with?

Answer below
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*
*
*
*
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V

If you said seventeen, good try, but Fred got a 1 point bye in his first game. He took home fifteen bananas. Since tournaments don't award byes to the same person (or monkey) twice, "fifteen or seventeen" is the most logical answer. That is, assuming Fred was in the pairing system every round, with no 1/2 point byes or withdrawn games.

Okay that one wasn't a very fair trick, so I'll have more brain teasers from Monkeyopolis some other time...

Twisted Tuesday - Artsy Stuff/Funny Pics

Hey Everyone!

Chess art is a Wacky Wednesday topic, but it's raining out here in T.O. (again) and photos always cheer me up :) I decided to switch the Tuesday & Wednesday topics for this week, so that I could share these with you today.

PART I: Chess art...or at least my attempts at it...

1. My first attempt at graphic design using CorelDRAW. It's a lot harder than it looks!

2. What can I say? Chess is cool!

3. Chess cat teaching birds how to play. You may question the irony of it, or how good a coach the cat could be if it holds the pencil the wrong way around, but hey, it was past midnight when I drew this!

PART II: Summer baking

I went on my usual baking craze this year. These are just a few of my creations...

1. A brownie that's too cute to eat.

2. A cupcake that's too cute to eat.

3. More cupcakes that are too cute to eat, and happen to look like checks.

4. Fudge that is NOT too cute to eat. Alright, guys, now you can dig in!

PART III: Bits and pieces from the CITL Festival

1. An "Activities" sign unintentionally made the perfect spot for kids to test out pens (notice the pen marks).

2. Mickey Mouse made his appearance on this sign.

3. This sign didn't actually get used but I think it's quite retro :)

4. Someone submitted this cute answer without a name. I love how kids write "pawn" as "pond". Chess kids are awesome.

5. The CITL t-shirt design, by Lennart, is stunning. I think I'll use it again to promote CITL in WLU's chess club. FM Hans Jung mentioned the nearby Waterloo Library as a potential opportunity if we get enough volunteers.

PART IV: A gift for mom's birthday

1. This is not chess-related, but I spent three days making it! Anything that takes three days of my time deserves a place on my blog!

2. Mom's reaction to finding out I spent three days hiding out with a latch hook.

3. Caught with nowhere to turn.

PART V: Random

1. Garfield is great...just thought I'd mention that.

Marvelous Monday - Joke!

Why do chess players despise the recent postal strike?
Answer: They can't send their "checks" in the mail.

Image: http://www.stokeseeds.com/articles.aspx?id=56496&checkCookies=1

CITL Festival + Quizzes

The Chess in the Library Festival yesterday was awesome! We have an amazing, new executive team, and a great year to come. Everyone should pitch into this program - we're hoping to build a nationwide movement for the benefit of kids, families, and chess fans everywhere!

Website: http://www.chessinthelibrary.com/

I had the honour of hosting the CITL activities. We had a puzzle contest, a CITL quiz, and a fun chess quiz. The puzzles were derived from http://homepage.ntlworld.com/adam.bozon/ChessPuzzles.htm (some were slightly modified, since we had five levels of difficulty). I will be posting the quiz questions here. Answers will be posted in a few days.

Thanks so much to Lennart, Stefan, and other volunteers who helped set up the puzzles/quizzes + assist the kids. Thanks to WIM Yuanling and CITL sponsors for providing twelve chess book prizes. With your help, the events were very successful.

Thanks also to GM Mark Bluvshtein for making a stellar speech on behalf of volunteers...including a joke about broccoli :) Eat broccoli and play chess!!! Mark's blog: http://markbluvshtein.wordpress.com/

Congrats North York Central Library for taking home the big trophy! Both the library and the trophy are beautiful - a good match!

Now for the quizzes:

CITL Quiz

1. What colour is CITL's logo?
2. How many library branches does CITL currently operate in?
3. Who is President of CITL?
4. Name three branches and leaders of those branches.
5. Name three provinces CITL operates in.
6. What year did CITL start operating and what was its first branch?
7. What library branch won last year's festival?
8. Find the names of five CITL participants + something cool about them!
9. In what town did CITL most recently open?
10. What's one thing you like about CITL?

Top score at the festival: 10/10
Second highest: 8/10

Fun Chess Quiz

1. When was chess invented?

a) Millions of years ago
b) Thousands of years ago
c) Hundreds of years ago
d) Yesterday

2. In May 2011, who was the top ranked chess player in the world (FIDE rating 2817)?

a) GM Garry Kasparov
b) GM Magnus Carlsen
c) GM Viswanathan Anand
d) GM Hikaru Nakamura

3. One of the following is not a true chess variant. Which is it?

a) Hedgehog Chess
b) Bomb Chess
c) Bug Eyed Monster Chess
d) Chicken Chess

4. “Scacchi” means chess in what language?

a) Greek
b) Spanish
c) Italian
d) Chicken Language

5. The longest game of chess ever played lasted how many moves?

a) Between 100 and 150 moves
b) Between 150 and 200 moves
c) Between 200 and 250 moves
d) More than 250 moves

6. What does ECO stand for?

a) Educational Chess Organization
b) Encyclopedia of Chess Openings
c) Early Childhood Opportunities
d) Easy Candle Oils

7. What is a “pig” in chess?

a) A player that eats too much before a game
b) An isolated pawn deep in the opponent’s territory
c) A move that wins a lot of material
d) A rook on the 7th rank

8. Who said “chess is life”?

a) GM Bobby Fischer
b) GM Anatoly Karpov
c) GM Mark Bluvshtein
d) GM Alexander Alekhine

9. What did the USSR (around Russia) ban in 1930?

a) Simultaneous Chess
b) Correspondence Chess
c) Blind Chess
d) All Chess

10. Which chess piece was once called an “asp”?

a) Pawn
b) Knight
c) Rook
d) King

11. Which country was the first to issue a stamp with a chess theme?

a) Poland
b) Armenia
c) United States
d) Bulgaria

12. How many possible positions exist after white and black make their first move?

a) 200
b) 300
c) 400
d) 500

13. The first game between astronauts in space and people on earth ended in a:

a) win for the astronauts
b) win for people on earth
c) draw
d) crash

14. GM Judit Polgar’s husband held what type of job?

a) magician
b) construction worker
c) veterinarian
d) plumber

15. GM Alexander Alekhine found what kind of animal to be good luck?

a) cat
b) dog
c) rabbit
d) elephant

Top score at the festival: 7/15
Second highest: 6/15
Top score by a volunteer: 8/15

THANKS AGAIN TO EVERYONE WHO MADE THIS EVENT POSSIBLE! KEEP SUPPORTING CHESS IN CANADA!

Totally Thursday - Tournament Announcement

Consider attending the 2nd Annual CITL Festival, being held at North York Central Library this Saturday. I will be there all day helping with activities, so come pick up a happy face pin if you're around! As usual, I will only have free pins for the first five people who submit the coupon above to me at the event. Coupons will be available for the CYCC and Canadian Open soon!

For more information about the CITL Festival, check out Yuanling's blog: http://yuanlingyuan.blogspot.com/

Wacky Wednesday - Personality Quiz

Happy summer! Now that spring cleaning season is over, it's time to figure out your chess organization habits :)

What is your typical organization habit on the chess board?

For each of these questions, select the answer that suits you best!

Question 1: In the middlegame, what are you most likely to do?
(a) Attack certain areas of the board with specific pieces, having little emphasis on other areas and pieces
(b) Coordinate between many pieces, making sure you structurally control as much of the board as possible
(c) Sometimes go for spontaneous attacks, and sometimes coordinate pieces quietly

Question 2: How often do you sacrifice a pawn?
(a) Rarely
(b) From time to time
(c) Very often

Question 3: In the first ten moves, do you tend to castle?
(a) Depends on the opening
(b) Sometimes, but it isn't the highest concern
(c) Always

Question 4: Of the following, what type of endgame would you most likely enter into?
(a) Tight pawn endgame
(b) Unclear endgame with a couple pieces (rooks or minors, same for both sides) and pawns
(c) Highly unbalanced endgame involving pawn races and asymmetric material (such as B vs. N, opposite colour bishops, R vs. minor, etc.)

Question 5: Where is the majority of your focus directed?
(a) Can be anywhere on the board, often multiple areas where you see the most play
(b) Usually an area on one of the wings where you have the strongest initiative; the other areas don't seem to matter as much
(c) The centre

Total up your points:

Q1 (a) 3 points (b) 1 point (c) 2 points
Q2 (a) 1 point (b) 2 points (c) 3 points
Q3 (a) 2 points (b) 3 points (c) 1 point
Q4 (a) 1 point (b) 2 points (c) 3 points
Q5 (a) 2 points (b) 3 points (c) 1 point

Score:

5 points - 8 points
You don't mind a mess -

Who needs organization when you only have to create an advantage in one area of the board? You go against traditional thinking and come up with your own terms - spontaneous attacks, material imbalances, ... - as long as you feel you can benefit, there's no need to worry if a large part of the board is a mess. However, don't let your rebellious side take away from basic structure. Make sure you are logically placing pieces and deciding on good moves that will emphasize your creative potential.

9 points - 11 points
You're dynamic -

You follow the best of both worlds - a bit spontaneous, and a bit coordinated. This gives you the most possibilities in your games. Only thing to watch - make sure you're not allowing the possibilities to overwhelm you, or try so hard to fulfill both sides of the coin (spontaneous, coordinated) that you miss out on important chances in one or the other. Get to know situations you'll likely encounter, such as different openings, and determine how you should effectively deal with them.

12 points - 15 points
You like to keep organized -

Coordinating pieces and following general structural rules are key elements in your decision making. Anything that looks a bit "off", such as a sacrifice, is avoided - in fact, you could probably write a whole book on how to keep your position stable. While many envy your elegant play, try to be open to different possibilities. Positional rules are often guidelines that can be followed in most cases, but not all. Take time to look for creative solutions!