Thursday, May 4, 2023

LCCC on Monday - 2023 Fischer 960 Tournament Begins - And Some Old Chess Facts

 


Robert James Fischer came up with the idea of randomly shuffling the pieces on the back row before the start of a chess game. There are 1130 possible positions, but only 960 have the king in between the rooks to allow castling. Hence, Fischer 960 was born!

The Livingston County Chess Club meets every Monday night between 4pm and 10pm at the Buffalo Wild Wings in the Green Oak Mall in Brighton, MI. 

Stop in for some friendly chess, good food and 'refreshments'. Everyone of all ages and playing strength are welcome to attend. And free lessons to all beginners!

We will be having our Fischer Random 960 Tournament this Monday! It’s free to enter. Be sure to do that! The tournament will begin around 6 or 6:30 PM. Games will be 45 minutes per player with a 5 second delay.

One round each night for usually 3 or 4 weeks. It always depends on how many entries we have. It’s a lot of fun!

Now for some old fun chess facts:

Hans Muller, an Austrian Grandmaster wrote a thesis on the English Opening, only to lose to GM Arthur Dake, who played the English Opening against Muller. He beat him in 21 moves.

In 1935, The Champions Tournament was played at the Williamsburg Chess Club and none of the 36 games ended in a draw!

In a double round robin tournament held in Baden-Baden, Germany in 1870, Anderssen beat Steinitz 2 – 0, Steinitz beat Neumann 2-0, and Neumann beat Anderssen 2 – 0.

In a tournament in Mexico in 1935, there were three Americans playing and nine Mexicans. The Americans won all their games against the Mexicans, but Dake beat Fine, Fine beat Steiner and Steiner beat Dake for a three way tie for first place.

In 1889, William Steintz was arrested as a spy by the New York police when his notes and moves from his cable chess match against Russian Mikhail Tchigorin were misinterpreted as a secret code.

In 1834, in a match between Louis La Bourdonnais and Alexander MacDonnell, in game 62, La Bourdonnais had 3 pawns on the 7th rank waiting to promote, while MacDonnell had 1 pawn on the 7th rank.

In the 21st round of a tournament in New York City in 1924, David Janowski had 3 pawns on the 7th rank waiting to promote, while Edward Lasker had 1 pawn on the 7th rank.

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