Audible: Deep Thinking by Gary Kasparov - Chess

This has been on the wish list to read for a while and as my Audible listening habits have improved (nay become addictive) as of late I managed to sneak it in. It harkens back to the Gary Kasparov experience of Man v Computer in chess competitions that started in the 1980's. It eventually saw a specialist machine called Deep Blue defeat the then World Champion Gary Kasparov in a match of six chess games. A competition of grey matter versus silicon logic circuits (see below, the Audible listing a fascinating and revealing read): 

I certainly discovered some "new things" from it and I don't pretend to be any sort of real Chess aficionado, other than knowing the base rules. Fascinating motivational factors were at play for IBM then went from Chess Experiment (in a sort of partnership with Kasparov to understand teh Chess Problem) to an "out and out" campaign focus to "win at all costs" (as in secretly hiring Grand Masters on NDA agreement [allegedly] for prestige and correlated stock-price benefit. From my programming background I know my Min-Max and Alpha-Beta Pruning - but the constructed "Opening Book" strategy was new (and this is where the Grand Masters really helped Deep Blue) used at the start of the game to gain a strong "middle game" baseline (starting position) .. where the silicon computation attack of the ply (pushing the "horizon effect" as long away as possible) was computed in earnest .. the ne the computational threads of Deep Blue tries to reach out to the end game database. Fascinating that Deep Blue beat Kasparov and then was put out to rest, rather than lead an Artificial Intelligence revolution. Crazy to also think that now, Deep Blue [with all its dedicated Chess hardware] is no longer thought of as impressive Chess Machine, its capacity is now well passed and outplayed by algorithms running on general purpose computers and smart phones.

If anything I earned a greater sense of respect for Gary Kasparov and what he went through. I found it a revealing, frank and humbling read. 

Good Old Fashioned Board Game Fun: Stratego

Well, this was a 'second chance impulse' buy. I first saw it in a local "Yorkshire Store" shop, one sells all manner of goods, with a rambling toy section [sometimes useful for picking up cheap "counters" and the like for games] - I had it in my clammy hands but put it back down. Driving home, I regretted it, though I was in a little bit of a quandary as to what it actually was (and for £20 was I going to just get a pile of "plastic tat?"), A fortnight later I was in the same store looking up at (probably) the same box and it was a case of "green for go in my head" <the sound of the cash register follows or rather a "beep" in these modern times> - done deal, item bought (see below, I opened it up and was well satisfied that it was not the feared "plastic tat" but a nicely presented, mounted board, with good plastic playing pieces, simple instructions and even better, "something" that could be extended in traditional maverick Wargames Design fashion): 

But who would play it with me "out of the box"? My youngest son (11) started but he then aborted after a few moves, sad emoji. Next I tried my "old sad puppy dog eyes" on the wife and much to my surprise she acquiesced and we played a couple of games, in the wings my eldest son (16) eyed events with interested curiosity but it was my (14) daughter who took up the gauntlet - egged on by the wife ("you go beat him" [I gave no mercy in my games with the wife]) and I'll be damned if she nearly did and took me to the wire (I was facing a "female team" at this point). Great fun, great fun, so it looks like the dark nights will be partially filled with more than a few battles. Thank you Yorkshire Store and Jumbo Games ;) 

Update: The daughter expressed an added interest to move onto chess :)   

Work of the Week: Zugzwang

 noun

CHESS

1. a situation in which the obligation to make a move in one's turn is a serious, often decisive, disadvantage.

   "black is in zugzwang"

A friend passed this on to me and on reflection I think I have made a few of them in my time ;) 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_chess

Corona Virus: Things you find in the back of cupboards - Long lost chess pieces

It is amazing what turns up when you have time on your hands to go rooting through the back of cupboards (Corona Virus post again). I am convinced these have been missing for a decade or more (see below, not the Isle of Lewis chess pieces but still a welcome find nevertheless):

Thankfully I also know where the board is!

The Oldest Game of War (I Play): Chess

After twenty five years of inactivity the "local" Chess Club have enticed me back with an "old beginners class".

Naturally I was annihilated four times by better players (one humorously very drunk, while I was getting a little bit mellow myself). My highlight of the night was a proudly staged a Dunkirk style evacuation from the board in one game, making my opponent fight for every inch and pawn of the board. It will probably take me four years of practice before I come back with a D-Day win.

Missed rolling a dice though, it didn't quite seem to qualify as a game because of that! Good fun and the "leaning curve" has started all over again.

;)