Guest Column: Technology and Chess

This continues a new category of posts: Guest columns where friends and readers share how technology is reshaping their hobby – basket weaving, rugby – whatever.

This time it is my daughter, Rita Mirchandani on chess.

Daughter? But before you scream nepotism, let me tell you she was the top ranked girl in Florida the last couple of years. She could beat me within a few weeks after she started to play!

“Chess has been played for almost 1,500 years since its origins in India. From there it spread gradually around the world and can truly be called the world’s first global game. But while it has traveled far and wide, the game itself has remained largely unchanged - except in the technology available around it. In recent years, the technology has really exploded.

Let me explain.

Learning

Chess can be an intimidating game to start with. I can imagine how frustrating it would have been for a young person a few generations ago who learned the game from their parents, or just by observing others. I am sure there were plenty of heated arguments about the constraints which vary with every piece (moves a rook can make versus the bishop), the strategy behind various opening and closing moves, the time limits for a move and the unique way of notating your opponent’s and your moves.

Today, there is software like HIARCS, web communities like ICC – where you can play anytime day or night with beginners or grandmasters. It also helps that we can measure ourselves and our peers against standardized rating systems like that the US Chess Federation (USCF) maintains on anyone who plays in a rated tournament. It is an elaborate algorithm and is maintained constantly for thousands of players – a feat which I hope you agree would not have been doable without modern computers.

Competing

Today you can compete against yourself, play bughouse chess with more than one opponent, play accelerated “blitz” chess and many other wild variants folks have created to make chess more popular. Would you believe chess boxing which is supposed to bring out both brain and brawn in the competitors? Probably inspired the cap pictured below. With surface computing evolving, I have a feeling we may end up with even interesting forms of chess.

But when it comes to tournaments, chess is cautious about allowing technology because of the unfair advantage it can provide individual competitors. Cheating at chess is as old as the game itself and we have moderators at each tournament to watch for disputes about “touch moves” or psychological mind games that would make Bobby Fischer blush.  Today’s electronics have allowed for more creative ways of cheating than frequent trips to the rest room – like having an accomplice send text messages or even via a bluetooth headset stitched into a cap. 

One technology you are allowed to use is a clock. Well, allowed may be an overstatement. Requirement is more like it to make sure chess games do not last as long as cricket matches. But nothing is simple in chess – so our clocks have various delays built in. Given how desperate players get when they are about to lose on time, rather than board position, I can see atomic clocks someday providing chess an even greater degree of precision.

More recently, I have used Monroi devices in a couple of tournaments. They are used to digitally notate moves and can be used to wirelessly transmit the moves to a server so parents and fans around the world can watch your match live. That is a far cry from my parents anxiously waiting in the tournament hall for me to come out with a thumbs up or down, and for me having to decipher my hand written notes to my coach. My impatient father, who took me to tournaments in many cities, would rather have been on his laptop working away in the hotel room while occasionally taking a peek at the screen with my game live.

Computing

Growing up I was enthralled with IBM’s Deep Blue which became the first computer to win a chess tournament against a reigning world champion chess master, Gary Kasporov. My dad tells me computing has evolved so much that a single computer could likely simultaneously play every Grand Master alive and win most of those games.  Makes me proud chess has helped the evolution of computers. And that it helps young kids to take a more active interest in science and technology.

Chess has itself benefited from the evolution of computers. Take tracking tournament tie-break algorithms the USCF uses for scholastic tournaments.

“In this order: 1. Modified Median 2. Solkoff 3. Cumulative 4. Kashdan 5. Games between tied players 6. Most times playing Black 7. Coin Toss.”

Try doing this on the back of a napkin for 5,000 kids as in the tournament I was part of in Nashville a few years ago :)  

BTW, the photo of me is from that tournament

Chess also competes with technology. Growing up, my brother and I had so many other electronic distractions from Xboxes to DVDs. Younger kids today have even more digital alternatives so good to see chess becoming available on iPhones and Wii devices.

Community

While technology has clearly helped, it is the community which makes chess so fulfilling. I am grateful to have learned from a wide range of generous folks. I had a coach from Cuba, an internet coach from California, and advice from countless players and tournament organizers who helped me analyze each game I played.

I have been inspired by Susan Polgar, winner of many Olympics gold medals and a prominent lady grandmaster, and have been privileged to be invited to tournaments she organizes for young girls. To do my part to give back to the community, I now help Coach Willard Taylor, who encouraged my early interest in chess and is excellent with young kids, teach chess to a group of 3rd grade students at Berkeley High.

Summary

Chess is a fantastic hobby. Very affordable if you stick to local chess clubs and internet play. Somewhat more expensive if you play in tournaments around the world. But I have ended up with very good friends in just about every US state as a result of the tournaments I played in different cities.

And we unabashedly give each other unsolicited advice – not just about chess. You could say chess world was an established social network way before MySpace or Facebook became popular.”

Below Photo Credit - Zazzle.com

Comments

[Thomas Otter]

Rita, lovely post. This must make your Dad very proud, and rightly so. Well done with your dedication to the wonderful game. Your Dad's love and patience are also exemplary.

I taught myself from a book as a kid, and I recently gave the same book to my eldest daughter. I will show her your post as encouragement to keep at it.

I used to love blitz chess with the clock. There is nothing like winning a game when you are down and out because your opponent forgot to push down his/her clock.

I recently rediscovered chess on-line, and I play regularly against my brother and other friends from around the world. My openings are still a bit rusty, but it is great to be playing again. You would thrash me though, even with my sneaky English Opening...