Sacrifices are great. Its visually appealing and I loved it too when I first started.

But on looking back I think what makes the greatest chess players is their intelligence and ability to calculate quickly and accurately.

Here is an example of one of Fischers greatest games. It really shows his great insight.

It is a game from 1971 against Petrosian. Here is the link http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044351

After the 21st move Fischer has a great knight and there is no way an amateur would give it for the useless bishop. But that's exactly what he did.

Fischer's insight was that in this particular position getting rid of the bishop allows his rooks to invade into the enemy's position quickly (which is exactly how the game ended).

At that time this move was criticized by top gradmasters as a blunder.

I just brought this up to show that chess is really a game of intelligence.

Regards.

Dude died at a power of 2 which is also the number of squares on a chess board. Poetic.

The number of 1x1 squares on a chessboard. The number of squares on a chessboard is 204

1, 8x8 square 4, 7x7 squares 9, 6x6 squares 16, 5x5 squares 25, 4x4 squares 36, 3x3 squares 49, 2x2 squares 64, 1x1 squares

> The number of squares on a chessboard is 204

The number of squares on a chessboard is infinite, if you don't limit yourself to edges already drawn for you.

Yes, and of course you should really generalize that so that the number of squares on a board with nxn single squares is sum(i=1..n) i*i

This thread is pedantic.

By thy way:

  sum(i=1..n) i*i = n/6 + n^2/2 + n^3/3

Proof?

This proof helps: http://pirate.shu.edu/~wachsmut/ira/infinity/answers/sm_sq_c...

From that: sum bla= n(n+1)(2n+1)/6, then you go distribute

Nice. How did I get the result in the first place?

I know that this sum can be expressed as a cubic polynomial. So I just evaluated the sum at four data-points (n=0,1,2,3) and used those to determine the four coefficents by solving a linear equation system.

Turns out that drawing a picture really helps: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=101532

You can usually come up with a clever picture only after you understood the problem - not before.

That's very keen observation indeed!

that's very interesting.

:-(

Fischer is my hero. If you are even mildly interested in chess, you should analyze his games. His games can only be called 'outrageous'. He would sacrifice a queen and couple of steps later he would win when no one else see it coming!

I usually sit with an open mouth for a five minutes when I analyze his games. They are masterpieces.

you must be referring to the game of the century against Bryne. Fischer played that game when he was 13 years old.

In later years he rarely sacrificed much.

Fischer's style of chess is considered the most universal in that he has no preferences he just plays the best moves for the position.

Kasparov considered Fischer to be 10 years ahead of the top grandmasters. In 1972 he had scores over the grandmasters (candidates matches) of 6-0.

Yes. He was incredible.

"In later years he rarely sacrificed much."

IIRC, he did that against Tal too.

Either way, his games are a thing of beauty to see and wonder "how did he think of that?"

It's somewhat funny that all the great hackers I know in person tend to suck at chess. Did you noticed the same?

My high point at chess was when I was 8 and beat some newb with the four move checkmate. My chess career quickly went downhill from there.

Depends on what you mean by "suck" -- I don't know any hackers who are IM strength or better, perhaps because of the enormous amount of time you need to devote to both programming and chess to become an expert. But I know lots of good hackers who are also above-average chess players.

Actually I've noticed exactly the opposite.

He's been an embarrassment to the game for the last 30 years. With respect to that, good riddance.

he hasn't been playing for the last 30 years- he has only embarassed himself.

I think it was generally understood that he was mentally unstable. He went on and on about the Jews, but he was 1/2 or even 100 percent Jewish himself, and he was aware of the fact. You can go to any insane asylum and tell the people that they are "embarassing themselves" but it's a little disingenuous.

> He stood up to the government coz of what he believed in.

Yeah, what he believed was that the Holocaust didn't happen, and that Jews are filthy and evil and controlling the government and everything else. Glad he stood up for what he believed in.

In the interest of full disclosure, one could reference

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer

All I kept thinking as I read through this was, "How could someone so brilliant say things so hateful and illogical?"

I don't know. There are probably many theories (mental illness jumps out as one possibility).

As far as Bobby Fischer is concerned, his downfall and later public pronouncements were tragic, but not as tragic as the loss of a human life. May he rest in peace.

Brilliant people seem to go crazy kinda often.

No. He played A soviet in a Serbia in violation of an embargo.

If you're going to argue that embargos are wrong, please start with the one against South Africa under apartheid.

I am not saying that embargoes are bad in all situations. Trade embargoes against certain countries make sense.

But I hope you will agree with me that branding someone a traitor just because he played with another dude is kinda extreme.

It's not a question of "branding someone a traitor". There was an embargo against Serbia at the time, and the 1992 Fischer-Spassky chess match constituted a major commercial transaction (considering the press coverage and the $5 million prize money at stake). The State Department told Fischer about the consequences of playing the game well before it happened -- not only did he play the game anyway, he spat upon the letter from the State Department. IMHO he got pretty much what he deserved for that sort of behavior -- why not just play the match somewhere else, anyway?

Did anyone die when he spat on the letter? I don't care for his political views either. But I don't think anyone should be chased around the world like that because of the views they hold.

He wasn't chased around the world for spitting, or for the views he held -- he was accused of violating the trade embargo, which is a serious allegation.

I would have violated the trade embargo for prize money that big.

I respect that you disagree with me but rational argument would be better than downmods.