Jonathan Berry lecture at the Grand Pacific Open

While I wasn't able to participate in the tourney, I managed to attend a chess lecture by Jonathan Berry on "A Few Endgames". The crowd was small enough to make it open and intimate.

Before I forget, I should add that Berry made mention of a very handy website for chess endgames. It's called an Endgame Tablebase and can be used for ANY endgame with six pieces or less. Basically, you place the six pieces or less on the board (including the two kings) , note which side is to play, and the website will churn out an endgame solution. There is a similar Nalimov Tablebase over here.

Jonathan Berry's endgames follow. I will add them as I am able.

I first heard about the Chess Viewer Deluxe on Susan Polgar's Chess Discussion Board. The Board was moderated by Nikolai Pilafov. Nikolai has obviously been doing some more work on his Viewer and you are seeing the results of those efforts. Now if I can just figure out how to display a game fragment or problem ... Here are Nikolai's instructions on how to publish a chess game on your blog if you are interested in trying the same thing on your own.

Firstly, an endgame problem that shows some basics from a simple king and pawn ending.

After that is a very long game (153 moves) in which rook, bishop and pawn prevail over rook and bishop. On 55... Rb2 check, it really looks as if White should settle for the draw by trading the rooks and so on. However, Kovalevskaya played on and managed, instead, to trade off the opposite-colored bishops for the win.

What's up with me?

Hello again, friends. I haven't posted anything in a number of months. It had been my plan to teach a chess course at the local community centre in Duncan but, alas, not enough interest was shown and the course was cancelled.

My bad luck, however, was in contrast to the good work of Arnie Nermo from Abbotsford, B.C., who has helped towards creating a Canadian first ... the first Board of Education Approved Chess Course in a public school in Canada! Well done, guys! Arnie also provided a short history on How to Start a High School Chess Course.

I was down in Victoria this past weekend to check out the 2009 Victoria Chess Festival, aka the Grand Pacific Open, and to finally meet Jonathan Berry who was giving a chess lecture during the weekend. I was only able to attend the lecture. If I am able I will share my notes from Berry's lecture. He spoke on "A Few Endgames" and I also took the opportunity to purchase the first volume of "Chess on the Edge" from the Chess and Math booktable. Now I have another chess book that I haven't read. Heh.

P.S. to Chess and Math. Next time, guys, how about being organized enough to provide your customers with a receipt? I very nearly walked away from the amateurism of it all.