Millionaire Chess Announces Next Move

FM MikeKlein on 12/1/14, 11:44 PM

Millionaire Chess, the groundbreaking open event co-organized by GM Maurice Ashley and partner Amy Lee in October, announced Monday that the second edition will return to Las Vegas in October, 2015. Exact dates and host location have not yet been finalized.

The event gets its name from the $1,000,000 prize fund, easily the largest ever for an open tournament. In the inaugural edition, GM Wesley So took home the first prize of $100,000.

"While we gave due consideration to Orlando (Florida) in April (2015), we ultimately decided that the Spring was simply too soon to execute a quality tournament properly," their press release stated. It added that "odds are high" that Orlando will be considered again in 2016.

GM Maurice Ashley, having some fun at the 2013 Sinquefield Cup

"I am extremely excited to see all participants new and old at the next Millionaire Chess," Lee told Chess.com. "We have worked hard at incorporating all the feedback we have received and look forward to what the future holds."

For a wide array of opinions on how the first event ran, you can click here to see many links to chess sites and blogs.

Millionaire Chess invested a lot of resources into online coverage of the first event. (photo courtesy Billy Johnson)

Ashley and Lee hinted at some specific improvements for the second edition.

Sometime later this month the Millionaire Chess web site will undergo a "major overhaul." The revamped site will still have important logistics liks standings and registration, but will also be "dynamic" and "user friendly."

They also plan to add a "Global Satellite Program" which would allow local organizers to have events that qualify chess players for Millionaire Chess. The lowest entry fee for the first event was $1,000 so these satellite tournaments would allow people to essentially win their entry fee at a reduced cost. The structure is similar to what poker tournaments have done for years with high-entry-fee events.

"I'm looking forward to our second tournament," Ashley told Chess.com. "With our Global Satellite Program and more robust prizes below the top four places, I think folks are going to be excited about Millionaire Chess like never before!"

Millionaire Chess is clearly borrowing some of the initiatives of poker's success. On the left is FM Ylon Schwartz, 4th place finisher in the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event. He was back in Vegas for Millionaire Chess in October. (photo courtesy Billy Johnson)

About 550 players attended the first edition, well below what was needed for the tournament to be financially solvent. Ashley and Lee were quoted in the New York Times that they expected to lose money on the first edition but that Millionaire Chess is part of a multiyear plan.

GM Wesley So (right) and GM Ray Robson, being interviewed by Teryn Schaefer of Fox Sports Midwest at the 2014 Sinquefield Cup. A month later, So and Robson would go 1-2 at Millionaire Chess.

One player who plans to return is FM Kazim Gulamali, winner of the $40,000 1st prize for 2350-2499.

"Vegas is pretty ideal," Gulamali said. "When you walk around you're not surrounded by chess. I like that. It's night and day. When I'm in [big] cities I enjoy it more."

He said he would have also played in Orlando in the Spring and that for him twice per year is not too often.

GM Wesley So and his big winner's check. (photo courtesy Billy Johnson)

How did he win the big prize this past October? Blissful ignorance. Going into round seven, the final game for players not competing in Millionaire Monday, Gulamali was unaware this was his final round.

"I thought the format was nine rounds," he said. "It worked out perfectly. In my round seven game I was down two pieces in a crazy position. I was just focusing on the game."

He will likely be more aware of the format this time around. Another improvement on his part: he will be registering early for this one. Last time he missed the early deadline and paid $1,500 to participate

Referer to

http://www.chess.com/news/millionaire-chess-announces-next-move-2787

Chano Garcia, Un pelotero de ayer que vivio el odio racial

Jugo en  Almendares Park y en las ligas negras norteamericanas.
Aquella tarde en que Sussini mato' de un batazo a Le Blanc...
Participo' en el desafi'o de menos recaudacio'n. cuando Cocai'na debuto', Chano estaba en el campo corto almendarista

Por Elio Mene'ndez


Di'as atra's fue visita de esta redaccion la señora Ai'da Pedroso, viuda de Crescencio Chano Garci'a un expelotero profesional fallecido recientemente en esta capital, a la edad de 83 años.

Vengo a pedirle escriba algo sobre Chano para que los jovenes lo conozcan..
-Pero, es que yo muy poco de la actividadbolebolera de Cha'no, a quien no tuve' oportunidad de verlo jugar.

-No importa que usted no lo haya visto, en este album hay bastante sobre el.

Y pone en mis manos, o mejor, sobre mis rodillas, el albultado libro de amarillento recortes y paginas desprendidas que cautelozamente comienzo ojear.

A medida que lo leo hago apuntes en una cuartilla de papel aparte, y segun me adentro en el album me indentifico con Chano, quien efectivamente fue un bune pelotero que se destacio alla por la decada del 20, años en los que jugo beisbol profesional en Cuba y en los Estados Unidos.

Los recortes de periodicos dicen de su gran habilidad defensiva y versatilidad para desempeñarse en el cuadro (ss, 2b,3b0, y por lo que se aprecia en numerosos box scores se embasaba con frecuencia, pues regularmente aparece como primero o segundo bate en la alineacion.

Luego de debutar en los Almendares, de Joseito Rodriguez en 1922, jugo al siguiente año con los propios azules, bajo la tutela de Adolfo Luque, posteriormente lo hizo con el Habana, de Miguel Angel Gonzalez y en 1925 con el Marianao.

Por esa epoca, Chano jugo tambien en la Liga Profesional del Oriente junto a los mejores peloteros de cubanos y del besibol negro de Estados Unidos que participaban en las contiendas de la Liga Profesional Cubana, alternando con estrellas del calibre de Marcel, Dreke, Duncan, Oms, Lundy, Sam LLoyd, Charleston, Dihigo, Mayari, Cando Lopez y tantas otras figuras estelares

-----sera continuado

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This goes for further reference to those that for envy or who know why pretent to know the law and start to creating problem where I dont see no pronblem at all

§ 107 . Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use⁴⁰

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Does anybody still care about chess?

By David EdmondsBBC

Magnus Carlsen has just beaten Vishy Anand in the World Chess Championship

Continue reading the main story

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• Profile: Magnus Carlsen
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In the summer of 1972, newspaper editors were not short of headlines.

Henry Kissinger was trotting around the globe as the US sought to extricate itself from Vietnam.

The Ugandan Asians were in flight, expelled by the mad, bad President of Uganda, Idi Amin.

Sectarian riots had broken out in Northern Ireland; Chile appeared to be heading towards anarchy.

And there was a burglary at the Watergate complex in Washington DC - the repercussions of which would soon bring down the president.

So there was no dearth of news.

Yet, holding an almost daily place on the front pages was a chess match in the tiny Icelandic capital of Reykjavik.

Never before or since has chess captured the world's imagination in quite this way.

It became known as "The Match of the Century".

At stake was the world crown.

Mesmerising personality

The two players were the Soviet champion Boris Spassky and the challenger Bobby Fischer.

Fischer's strident demands nearly torpedoed the contest and the fascination the match aroused owed much to his troubled, mesmerising personality.

Although in 1972 the US and the USSR were in a period of detente, Fischer was able to frame the match as the Cold War in microcosm.

He was a solitary American taking on the previously invincible Soviet chess machine.

Spassky playing Fischer: Their world championship match was followed around the world

The Soviets had dominated chess since World War Two: For them chess was a tool in a wider propaganda war.

Over four decades later, and the world chess championship is again front page news.

At least it is in Norway.

That the Norwegians are gripped by this contest is understandable.

The current world champion is 23-year-old Norwegian Magnus Carlsen.

He has just beaten the Indian, Vishy Anand, himself a former champion, but who, at 44, is probably past his peak.

Carlsen first captured the crown from Anand only last year.

But while Carlsen's fortunes were followed in Norway by chess players and non-chess players alike, he is a less familiar figure outside the country.

Coverage of his retention of the world title was scant in the British media, and it hardly helped that the denouement came on the same day that Lewis Hamilton's secured the Formula One world drivers' championship.

In a recent episode of a British game show, Pointless, fewer people recognized Carlsen's name than that of the 1972 champion - Bobby Fischer.

This raises a puzzle. Why has the public profile of chess declined?

Political context

Football requires no grand political narrative to captivate spectators.

When Real Madrid play Barcelona, tens of millions watch around the world.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

The world champion has been transformed from a demi-god to a flawed and fallible mortal.”

The rivalry between these teams has a rich history, but we do not need to understand much about this background to persuade us to turn on the TV.

It is enough that the game will feature some of the finest players in the world, and that the viewer can anticipate some dazzling skills.

But to break into the mainstream, chess has always needed to be framed within a wider political context.

The Fischer-Spassky match fuelled a worldwide chess mania.

There was a run on chess sets, prize money for competitions shot up, chess books proliferated.

This didn't last long, although subsequent title matches were still deemed newsworthy.

There was the ferocious rivalry between the loyal Russian communist Anatoly Karpov and the awkward dissident Victor Korchnoi, who sought political asylum in the West and whose name therefore became unmentionable in the USSR.

The non-chess world was enthralled by plots, both real and imaginary.

These included the allegation that when Karpov was sent a yogurt during the game, his team was using the fruit flavour to pass on a secret message.

Karpov and Kasparov had several memorable duels

Later, after the Berlin Wall fell, and the Soviet Union imploded, the brilliant champion, Garry Kasparov, came to embody the new spirit of democracy, and of perestroika against Karpov, who listed Marxism as one of his hobbies.

The loss of a Cold War political narrative has not been the only blow to chess.

During the Fischer-Spassky match games were adjourned after five hours, and resumed later.

That would never happen now because computers would be used to calculate the best continuations. So once begun, games have to be played out to the end.

That's a relatively trivial way in which computers have revolutionised chess.

Pinnacle of chess

The real change has been a gestalt-shift in how the human competitor is viewed.

Nobody - and no thing - could compete at Fischer's level in 1972.

He represented the pinnacle of chess, its supreme exponent.

His mental powers seemed somehow magical, unfathomable.

And whilst at one level Carlsen's capacities are no less astounding - his rating, after all, is the highest in history - the aura has largely dissipated.

Garry Kasparov, a brilliant champion, was beaten by a computer

In 1997, an IBM computer, Deep Blue, beat Kasparov, the reigning champion.

Now, almost everyone could be smashed by their mobile phone.

Spectators know that a machine with Carlsen's position could find some stronger moves.

Indeed, any spectator can plug a grandmaster position into their computer to check for the best options.

Online following

As a result, the world champion has been transformed from a demi-god to a flawed and fallible mortal.

It would be a mistake, however, to be overly pessimistic about the future of chess.

The computer age has not been all bad for the game.

Recently the Sunday New York Times announced it was dropping its chess column. This was taken as a further sign of the demise of chess.

In fact, the internet has led to a migration from old forms of media to new.

People can now play speed chess with opponents on the other side of the world.

They can follow tournaments online: The London Chess Classic, a tournament that takes place each December, can attract nearly half a million followers.

The Carlsen-Anand game will be followed by millions.

A recent poll put the number of chess players in the world in the hundreds of millions.

What's more, there's no sign that computers are close to "solving" chess.

Bobby Fischer, seen here in 1962, is now just the 14th highest rated player of all time

If anything, silicon power has opened up fresh possibilities - showing that moves and strategies that might previously have been dismissed as obviously unsound are in fact viable.

Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised by these surprises.

There are more permutations in chess than there are atoms in the universe.

And it's the boundless complexity of the game that allows it to be a continual source of delight, wonder and, yes, beauty.

Chess has been around for centuries.

And if it doesn't capture the newspaper headlines these days, still, it has an enduring appeal.

Rumours of its death are greatly exaggerated.

Highest rated chess players:

• 1 Magnus Carlsen, May 2014

• 2 Garry Kasparov, July 1999

• 3 Fabiano Caruana, Oct 2014

• 4 Levon Aronian, Mar 2014

• 5 Viswanathan Anand, Mar 2011

• 6 Veselin Topalov, July 2006

• 7 Vladimir Kramnik, May 2013

• 8 Alexander Grischuk, Oct 2014

• 9 Teimour Radjabov, Nov 2012

• 10 Hikaru Nakamura, Jan 2014

• 11 Alexander Morozevich, July 2008

• 11 Sergey Karjakin, July 2011

• 13 Vassily Ivanchuk, Oct 2007

• 14 Bobby Fischer, Apr 1972

• 15 Anatoly Karpov, July 1994

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-30006019

Are We on war against a different civilization no from Earth?

Get the big picture following this video

Is Russian under attack?
How do we help on this war

I only say,get your own firepower in case government can no hold this situation and we the people has to do something about it

10 File-Sharing that You need to know about Them

By Serdar Yegulalp

 

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Computerworld | Jul 13, 2012 7:00 AM PT

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http://www.computerworld.com/article/2505487/web-apps/10-file-sharing-options-dropbox-google-drive-and-more.html

Remember the first time you tried to send a 4GB video file as an email attachment? Anybody who has tried to share a large file with a friend or colleague understands all too well to the problems that are involved. Email attachments can get rejected, especially if you don't know what the upper limit on a file size is for sender or recipient. Uploads and downloads can be arbitrarily slow. And the clunkiness of the whole process makes it hard to get real work done.

In the bad old days, if you wanted to distribute files that were too hefty for your email to handle, you had few choices. You could buy some web-hosting space and use that to distribute files on the fly to your co-workers and collaborators, you could burn a disc or copy the file to a USB drive and drop that in an envelope, or you could use that fabled legacy transport protocol, Sneakernet. Nowadays, however, there's a bevy of free services that offer tons of storage and bandwidth.

In this piece, I examine 10 file-hosting services that can be used to distribute files to an audience via links or email. Four are dedicated to sending and hosting large files in a corporate context (MediaFire, RapidShare,ShareFile and YouSendIt), while the other six (Box,Dropbox, Google Drive, Minus, SkyDrive and SugarSync) are more general, personal-use file-storage services that have mass distribution as an adjunct feature.

All of the services in question allow download links to be generated from uploaded files, which makes it easy to distribute them to a mailing list or other group. That said, they've all got a different mix of storage capacities, helper apps and quirks.

To check file transfer times for each service, I uploaded a 100MB ZIP file that contained a mixture of PDF documents, JPG images and TIFF images, using a connection with an average 2 megabit/second upload speed.

In the following descriptions, I deal mainly with the file-sharing features of each service. Computerworld has reviewed a few of these services separately, looking at their other tools more thoroughly; in that case, we've provided a link to the review.

Dedicated file-sharing services

While there are currently a variety of cloud storage services out there, they were preceded by dedicated file-sharing services, whose main purpose was to allow people to upload and download files that were too large to send via email. These services may be more focused, but they also tend to offer the chance to share larger files.

MediaFire

MediaFire Click to view larger image.

MediaFire is useful if you have lots of files you want to distribute, as long as they're under 200MB each. Uploads are scanned with the BitDefender antivirus engine; common document types can be previewed directly at MediaFire's site via a Flash-based previewer. Distribution includes sending file links to social media (Facebook, Twitter) and emailing via contact lists from a variety of programs including Outlook, Plaxo, vCards and many more.

The MediaFire Express desktop application is currently in beta but shows a fair amount of thought. It provides a drag-and-drop target for quick uploading of files and folders; after uploading, a pop-up appears with a quick link to the uploaded files.

Free account storage space: No limit

Free account max file size: 200MB

Paid account storage space: No limit

Paid account max file size: 4GB ($9/month); 10GB ($49/month)

File storage expiration: None as long as account is not inactive for more than 128 days

Other paid options: Uploads do not expire for lack of activity; direct links to files without interstitial pages; removal of ads; custom domains and branding

Time to upload 100MB file: 6 min. 30 sec. (includes BitDefender scan)

to read more

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