GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (2757) vs. GM Vassily Ivanchuk (2710)4th Gideon Japhet Mem Cup Jerusalem ISR, Feb. 7, 2018. White to win. Answer to puzzle in tomorrow's Record-Bee. (courtesy)
Recently I learned that the chess app. on Facebook will soon be discontinued, and this is a real shame as I have been using it on and off for over 14 years. Perhaps longer. One will still be able to enjoy playing chess on the website, but soon no longer on Facebook.
I dont really know why this is so, but while messing around with the game apps the other day, I discovered something precious and meaningful. This relatively simple app. had many functions useful for playing against digital opponents, as well as for learning the finer points of the game.
Primarily though, I used it to challenge my friend, the devious and dangerous Michael Chen. Sadly and tragically, my friend Mike passed away last year due to complications with COVID-19. His death hit me really hard as he was a great friend and a kind person to all who had the fortune of knowing him.
I set up a Go Fund me account to name a scholarship in his honor at his alma mater, Citrus College in Glendora California, where we first met while I was studying page design and trying to master Adobe graphics programs. Even though I moved to Northern California nearly a decade ago, Mike and I would still communicate frequently through the magic of social media, Facebook especially.
Nearly five hundred miles apart, we could still use chess notation and Facebook and challenge each other to a game or two or three in real time. However, what I discovered searching through the archives was a game from the summer of 2009, nearly a whole week before my birthday that year, probably the first one he and I played against each other in this digital arena. A game I lost on time playing black.
A chess tutor once told me that you should jot down the moves to every game you play and to play back through them, as a way of examining where you went wrong if you lost. Whenever Mike and I played in person he was always meticulously writing down each move, but I did not always do so, perhaps out of laziness, or perhaps because I did not have the time to pour over previous games.
It is a pity that most of our one-on-one matches were lost in time, so imagine my delight at seeing this game archived on the app, played so long ago with my late friend. For those chess buffs among us, Mike played e4 and I countered with Nf3, the Nimzowitsch defense, an off-beat opening where black allows white to create a large center with e4 and d4 pawns, so they can attack it later.
The game continued as follows: Nc3, b6, Nf3, Bb7 (I fianchetto the bishop which the computer analyzed as excellent) Bb5, which the analysis labeled an inaccuracy because it overlooks an opportunity to prepare a bishop for development. Nf6, 0-0, e5. Qe2 followed (although the app states Bxc6 was best because the queen move missed an opportunity to win a pawn.)
The game went on with: Bd6, Nd5, a6 Ba4, b5, Bb3, 0-0, a4 (which was the last move analyzed and was labeled as excellent.) Then came, Nxd5, Bxd5, Nd4, Nxd4, Bxd5. And there the review ends, perhaps at this point black was out of time, although I am not sure what time controls were set and the app doesnt make it clear. It is easy to see that Mike was the superior player, the app analyzed every move and rated him at 75.2 in accuracy versus only 67 on my end.
Mike nicked named me the infiltrator because of my habit in those days of trying for the quick win by attempting to infiltrate the back rank with my pieces delivering the final blow, trapping the enemy king.
This is how a lot of our digital games went, although once in a blue moon I would catch him napping or hed make a rare blunder and I would pull out the miracle win. This only served to make him mad and hed proceed to trounce my three games in a row. LOL. Rest in peace Michael Chen and Chess.com Facebook app. I shall miss you both greatly. The infiltrator signing off.
Ariel Carmona Jr. is a 19-year veteran of the journalism industry and the Managing editor of the Lake County Record-Bee, when he isnt covering the news he spends his free time in the service of Cassa.
Continued here:
This one is for Mikey: infiltration not allowed - Lake County Record-Bee