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I just bought some nice e-books on sale from Forward Chess. They have a number of interesting titles at big reductions.

These e-books have game viewers (so you can play through the games) and Stockfish engine (so you can examine variations and evaluations).

I got:

Famous book "Life and Games of Mikhail Tal" ($9.99), as my old low-quality Batsford paperback fell apart on first reading years ago;

"The Livonian Knight: Selected games of Alvis Vitolinsh" ($4.99). I am a fan of Vitolinsh and many such less-known tactical wizards.

Can also recommend Vol. 1 of Andrey Terekhov's Vassily Smyslov biography, which I already own in physical form.

I'm also seriously considering the (physical, from Thinkers Publishing) book "Forgotten Genius: Life and Games of Albin Planinc". Planinc was a spectacular tactician who had mental problems and a short career. But the book is too pricey :-(

Wow! An actual check mate on the board - and between Hans Niemann and Magnus Carlson no less!

Yes, that was funny. On the video, Jan Gustafsson (good to see him commenting again) says "He blundered mate in one!...Hans living rent-free in Magnus Carlsen's head...I didn't think that was possible!"

Brendan, you can also find a really sad video of Ivanchuk vs. Naroditsky blitz from the same event. Danya played the King's Indian. Chuky, one of 2 players (Kramnik) to cause Garry Kimovich to abandon the KID, lost on time and broke into tears at the board.
It's from Chessbase India, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_evi2X-PY0c

World Chess Blitz Championship Final - controversial outcome.
This was a match of four games between Carlsen and Nepo. It finished 2-2 after Nepo led 2-0. The regulations then stipulated that they draw for colours and play more games until someone wins. They played three more games, all drawn, and Carlsen then proposed that they stop and agree to share the title. The arbiters decided to phone the FIDE President (a Russian, as is Nepo) for permission to grant the players' request. Permission granted, so the regulations were ignored for the second time if you include the 'no jeans' dress code climb down after the concurrent Rapid Championship from which Carlsen withdrew after refusing to change his trousers. This made the national press. Unfortunately chess often makes the news bulletins only when there is a row.

I think FIDE showed weakness and allowed Carlsen twice to get his own way. Many of the players are furious about it and social media is awash with comments. Even if the dress code rule was a bad one it had been agreed to by the players. As for the title sharing, that was disgraceful and not what chess fans and probably the sponsors wanted. It would never happen in professional tennis or golf and the chess was specifically a knockout tournament. Ok, so what should happen if Carlsen and Nepo went on to collude in playing out an endless succession of draws? Disqualify them and award the title to the winner of a third-place playoff between the losing semifinalists. Would Wimbledon finalists collude in an endless tiebreak in order to share the title? Golf plays sudden death extra holes even though the Majors are not knockout tournaments, though I suppose the 'cut' is a partial one.

Once you start messing about with regulations, you tend to have trouble.
At golf, even in a casual friendly, if I hit a ball and find it out of bounds or lose it I expect to go back and repeat the shot for a 'stroke and distance' penalty. If a kind opponent says, 'Oh it's only a friendly, just play another ball from here', I insist on the proper rule, wondering what other rules we can ignore. Otherwise what's the point of scoring and possibly getting a wrong result? We may as well just enjoy playing shots for the sake of it.

If you got as far as this, thanks for reading my rant. 😖

I quite agree. There should be a winner. You might recall a similar thing happened in the Olympic Men’s High Jump in 2021. Rather than have a jump-off, the two good friends wanted to share it and were both given gold. Fast forward to the most recent renewal in Paris. The Kiwi, Hamish Kerr, didn’t want to share, and promptly won the jump-off. Good on him, I say.

https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/us/high-jumpers-still-refuse-to-share-olympic-gold-even-after-three-years-of-a-similar-massive-controversy-know-the-inside-story/articleshow/112476643.cms

I agree, but didn't make a fuss about it because I am (to put it extremely mildly) not a fan of FIDE.

There's been much speculation / conspiracy theory babble about Carlsen (et al.) *wanting* to cause a schism with FIDE. See for instance
https://gmalexcolovic.substack.com/p/fischers-ennui-and-the-jeans-scandal

Paul

I read your interesting rant.

Re Golf - surely it is OK to just play "another shot from here" in a friendly. Going back is tedious and holds others up I have found.

Re Bridge

I have started again and find that you were involved in establishing the Grading System. Well done - it seems better than the chess one

PaulH @261
Clubs are allowed to introduce a local rule for balls lost or out of bounds to play another from that place, with a 2 stroke penalty, and many have done so. It speeds up play.

chrise@265 and grunger@264

You are quite right about the golf. I tend to be over-pedantic about the rules of any game I play. The best solution is to play a provisional ball if in doubt. We don't do that enough.

My role on the bridge grading committee was very limited. I was invited only because I wrote to the EBU to urge an alternative to the purely cumulative master point system. I was used to the long established chess system which took into account bad results as well as the good. It also factors in the strength of one's opponent. It means youngsters can quickly rise up the rankings whereas in bridge it can take most of a lifetime to become a grandmaster. Once the EBU changed Direct Individual Membership to 'Pay to Play' in affiliated clubs, it was able to collect detailed results from every club session, and thus the data for a grading system.

The brains behind the maths was Mike Christie. There was some grumbling from traditionalists but the master point system was not abandoned and still runs in tandem with the NGS (National Grading System). A boost for the committee was the co-opting and support of Peter Lee, a leading bridge player. He is still the only person to have won the British Chess Championship (1965) and its bridge equivalent, the Gold Cup. His profession: statistician.

Paul

Thanks - interesting re Peter Lee. i believe Mestel is good at bridge as well as chess