Goddamn spell check. Rook not took.
What would be the rating of a top chess player in the late 1800s today
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Chess will be pointless in 200 years since most people will have transhuman augments that will make human calculation make a cannonlake processor look like crap.
patzermike wrote:
Annecdote: Alekhine was once on a train. The passenger sitting next to him was studying a position on a miniature chessboard. The amateur did not recognize Alekhine, but he noticed Alekhine looking at the position. He challenged Alekhine to a game. As they set up the pieces Alekhine removed his queen's took. The amateur said "Sir, you are arrogant to offer me took odds. You don't know who I am or how well I play.". Alekhine replied, "If I couldn't offer you took odds I WOULD know who you are."
haha nice 
i like this one
Capablanca used to tell this story to friends.
"I was playing in a tournament in Germany one year when a man approached me. Thinking he just wanted an autograph, I reached for my pen, when the man made a startling announcement. 'I've solved chess!' I sensibly started to back away, in case the man was dangerous as well as insane, but the man continued: 'I'll bet you 50 marks that if you come back to my hotel room I can prove it to you.' Well, 50 marks was 50 marks, so I humored the fellow and accompanied him to his room."
"Back at the room, we sat down at his chess board. 'I've worked it all out, white mates in 12 no matter what.' I played black, perhaps a bit incautiously, but I found to my horror that white's pieces coordinated very strangely, and that I was going to be mated on the 12th move!"
"I tried again, and I played a completely different opening that couldn't possibly result in such a position, but after a series of very queer-looking moves, once again I found my king surrounded, with mate to fall on the 12th move. I asked the man to wait while I ran downstairs and fetched Emmanuel Lasker, who was world champion before me. He was extremely skeptical, but agreed to at least come and play. Along the way we snagged Alekhine, who was then world champion, and the three of us ran back up to the room."
"Lasker took no chances, but played as cautiously as could be, yet after a bizarre, pointless-looking series of maneuvers, found himself hemmed in a mating net from which there was no escape. Alekhine tried his hand, too, but all to no avail."
"It was awful! Here we were, the finest players in the world, men who had devoted our very lives to the game, and it was all over! The tournaments, the matches, everything - chess had been solved, white wins."
About this time Capa's friends would break in, saying "Wait a minute, I never heard anything about all this! What happened?"
"Why, we killed him, of course."
Ahh! That man was a member of the secret society of chess monks. They not only know chess so well that not even top flight engines have a chance against them but study martial arts on par with the Shao-lin monks as well. A funny story:
Kasparov was hiking in the Himalayas one day and suddenly felt someone knock him out! He was dragged to a beautiful tropical paradise within the mountains. Such weather was very unusual for that altitude. An old man with a long beard sat on the floor with a chess board before him and said, "Welcome, Kasparov. Yes, we may be a remote mountain community but we know all about you. Shall we play a game at knight odds?" Kasparov arranges the board where he doesn't have a knight and the old man says, "Guess again!" Kasparov grins, laughs on the inside and says, "Okay, game on!"
Kasparov lost as white while his opponent started down a whole knight! "This is totally bogus!" Retorted Kasparov, the old man grins and says, "Come back within a few years and maybe you'll be ready."
Chess isn't solved to a win for white, but Capablanca lost to that guy simply because they didn't have the skill to counter him
Players like Bourdonnais would adjust to modern opening quickly and probably be one of the top players. These past masters understood how to play chess, they found their move otb and had to make plans from the opening. Someone mention a modern master will play dry and positional chess to not give past masters a chance to attack, maybe you should look at some of their boring games Morphy complaint about. Staunton played a lot of dry games and there was Harrwitz another boring player and Morphy dispatch him quickly and Morphy handle another positional player Loewenthal and beat Loewenthal decisively. Bourdonnais had a profound understanding of Isolate Queen's pawn structure and he beat McDonnell convincingly.
These past masters can really play chess and they did most of their discoveries on a chess board, not a team of grandmasters or chess programs.
Feb 27, 2015
0
#167
One day in 1970 Euwe (long since retired from serious chess) was on an airplane. The passenger next to him had a chessboard and asked Euwe to play. During the game Euwe made an en passant capture. The amateur was confused about the rules for en passant and complained that the move was illegal. Instead of arguing and explaining Euwe took the move back and played a different move. At the end of the game the amateur was ruefully studying the wreckage of his position. Euwe heard the guy mutter to himself "how could I lose so badly to a beginner who doesn't know the rules?"
Most amateurs under-value a master strength, let take NM.Reb take away his opening knowlege let say he play the tame Colle system against all amateurs with different playing strength; he will probably win all his games. It is not the opening that makes a master, it is their great understanding of the game and the pattern regconition. I am an expert and masters are the most difficullt to beat or draw and any player below masters is a cake walk. When a 1600 player said a grandmaster will have a difficult time beating him with knight odds, he doesn't know what he is talking about.
Feb 27, 2015
0
#169
Magikstone wrote:
We're all amatuers.
At spelling, you are. But speak for yourself. There are professionals in your midst.
Feb 27, 2015
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#170
Magikstone only claims that with knight odds he can beat GMs at chess, not spelling.
Give him a break spellcheck doesn't work on this site.
Magikstone wrote: A grandmaster can beat me, no doubt. But not a knight down. Let me explain why. All I would have to do is keep trading pieces.
Boy you are delusional!!! If a grandmaster will let you exchange pieces, a grandmaster has profound understanding in the chess game. You can be up a piece and the grandmaster will dictate the course of game not you. 1600 player are the easiest to beat, I have to play one in the first round in my chess club and have no problem beating them; I am not even master level. Even when I was 1800 uscf a 1600 uscf was not much competition and I would beat them regular.
If you guys were to look at the games of our chess.com blitz 1600's, you would see for yourselves just how well these guys can play. I just played a game against one where he sacced a knight where it was unclear when he would get any compensation for it. Lo and behold, his intuition was right, twenty fives moves later I was up a piece but in a lost position.
Ziryab wrote:
Magikstone wrote:
I belong to the class of 1600's on chess.com blitz. You know what that means? It means there is no one alive, not even fischer, could beat me down a whole freakin knight. Once you reach my level, the only way to beat me is to use all of your pieces. You guys are over estimating the grandmasters and clearly underestimating the strength of amatuers.
LOL a lowly 2200+ master could give you Knight odds and win every game, you have an incredibly bloated opionion of how strong a 1600 player is.
Magikstone wrote:
If you guys were to look at the games of our chess.com blitz 1600's, you would see for yourselves just how well these guys can play. I just played a game against one where he sacced a knight where it was unclear when he would get any compensation for it. Lo and behold, his intuition was right, twenty fives moves later I was up a piece but in a lost position.
Magikstone please tell me you are joking.
Knight odds is nothing for a master+ player against you. You suck. You are day dreaming. You are a weak n00B.
Feb 27, 2015
0
#176
Haha. Stop. You're killing me! Oho. You sir are either the most deluded patzer I have ever encountered, or a brilliant comedian. Please!! Tell me more.
Magikstone wrote:
If you guys were to look at the games of our chess.com blitz 1600's, you would see for yourselves just how well these guys can play. I just played a game against one where he sacced a knight where it was unclear when he would get any compensation for it. Lo and behold, his intuition was right, twenty fives moves later I was up a piece but in a lost position.
Check out these games. Jerry (National Master) is nearly always playing down a minor piece and sometimes even a rook. Its bullet but it still shows what masters are able to do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw_E_LrhGGI
Why such disdain for players below 2300? They are chess artists too. I've seen 1100's on this site play beautiful games, sure with more mistakes, but I can't help but appreciate their attemps at victory. Every chess player is a hero, an artist, and if he goes over his games using fritz, a scientist.
Magikstone wrote:
If you guys were to look at the games of our chess.com blitz 1600's, you would see for yourselves just how well these guys can play. I just played a game against one where he sacced a knight where it was unclear when he would get any compensation for it. Lo and behold, his intuition was right, twenty fives moves later I was up a piece but in a lost position.
I view the game you mention and both suck as players. No, your opponent intuition was incorrect and he was lost; it was your inability to refute his unsound sacrifice. You both play bad chess, that is your 1600 level chess skills is a lack of understand for the basic chess skills.
You don't understand the King's Indian Attack and you and your opponent played it poorly.
Annecdote: Alekhine was once on a train. The passenger sitting next to him was studying a position on a miniature chessboard. The amateur did not recognize Alekhine, but he noticed Alekhine looking at the position. He challenged Alekhine to a game. As they set up the pieces Alekhine removed his queen's took. The amateur said "Sir, you are arrogant to offer me took odds. You don't know who I am or how well I play.". Alekhine replied, "If I couldn't offer you took odds I WOULD know who you are."