Jerry is the best :)

He has passed at age 88, cause not specified.

AP report: https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/boris-spassky-soviet-chess-champion-who-lost-20192861.php

8 games, 60 minutes + 30 second increment for Benjamin, i.e. classical TC though a bit quicker than some. Benjamin gets N odds in all games. Leela will play at bullet speed. The hardware is not specified in the thread I linked. Leela will apparently be running a network specially trained to play with knight odds. Match will be livestreamed on Youtube with GM Matthew Sadler commentating. It will take place over 3 days, January 25 through 27th.

For those not familiar, Leela is a neural net chess engine inspired by Alpha Chess Zero. GM Sadler is a co-author of "Game Changer", a book analyzing a bunch of games of Alpha Chess Zero, so he's just about an ideal commentator for this event. It should be interesting.

Added: official page about match: https://lczero.org/blog/2025/01/leela-vs-gm-joel-benjamin/

Results of first 5 rounds: 0-1, 0-1, .5-.5, .5-.5, 1-0. Leela has white in all games so this means Benjamin won the first two, drew the next two, then lost one (game 6 now in progress). Maybe he is getting tired. He said after the first day that he was "knackered".

Comment on Ding posting he's wearing glasses for the first time :

"People should sponsor you!"

Ding's response :

"I have no commercial value"

JFC

I mostly just have time for puzzles, as you can tell

It would function simply: If a player puts their king into check on their own move, if the opponent sees it, they can capture the king on their turn either by physically taking out the king or announcing checkmate on their turn. If the opponent doesn’t see it, the game continues as normal. Likewise, if the opponent puts the king into check, both players can respond on their turn if they notice it, or it's simply a blundered opportunity.

The classical checkmate ending can be seen as an honorable ending, wherein the player effectively resigns/surrenders, or the player can be dishonorable by drawing out the game by making one more move. I understand the redundancy of this type of ending, but it would add more personable nuance to the game.

This idea can also be extended to stalemates: The only true stalemate would be one where a capturing of the king will not occur in a finite number of moves, e.g. move repetitions, or two sole kings on the board. A stalemate by trapping the king, ie the king has no alternative moves that wouldn’t put it into checkmate, should be a victory rather than a draw — the king would be forced to make a move into check, then the opponent would capture the king on their move if they notice the possibility.

IM Levy Rozman defeats GM Pia Cramling in Battle of Generations.

spoilers for today's chessle

D45 Semi-Slav Defense: Main Line

1. d4 c6 2. c4 d5 3. Nf3 e6 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. e3 g6 6. Be2 Bg7

FEN

rnbqk2r/pp3pbp/2p1pnp1/3p4/2PP4/2N1PN2/PP2BPPP/R1BQK2R w KQkq - 2 7

A09 Réti Opening

1. Nf3 d5 2. c4 c6 3. e3 Nf6 4. Nc3 g6 5. d4 Bg7 6. Be2 e6

FEN

rnbqk2r/pp3pbp/2p1pnp1/3p4/2PP4/2N1PN2/PP2BPPP/R1BQK2R w KQkq - 0 7

semi slav to reti transposes, but lichess still says they're different, giving prescident to the move order to determine name of the position's opening.

even though the position is the same

there is no inherent point, just an observation to share

Any publicity is good publicity?