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A comparison of an original and deepfake video of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

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LISBON, Portugal Facebook is wrong to shut down its facial recognition system, according to Gary Kasparov, the former world chess champion and chairman of the Human Rights Foundation.

The decision, announced Tuesday, is "stupid" Kasparov told CNBC at the Web Summit tech conference in Lisbon.

"It's bowing to this public outrage," Kasparov said Wednesday, just days after Facebook rebranded itself to Meta. "Personally, I think it's stupid for a simple reason: Facebook can shut it down, the Chinese will not."

Facebook did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.

Born into what was then the Soviet Union, Kasparov became the youngest ever undisputed World Chess Champion in 1985 at age 22. In 1997 he became the first world champion to lose a match to a computer: IBM's Deep Blue.

Today, he says he is pro-technology and against overregulation.

"Any technological feature that's available, for me, it doesn't make any sense to block it," Kasparov said. Privacy campaigners would strongly disagree.

He added: "It's insane to think that in the era of global internet, you can actually start forcing companies in America or in Europe to follow these rules and to abandon new features."

Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov speaks during 2018's Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal.

Pedro Fiuza | NurPhoto | Getty Images

The decision to shut down the facial recognition system on Facebook comes amid a barrage of news reports over the past month after Frances Haugen, a former employee turned whistleblower, released a trove of internal company documents to news outlets, lawmakers and regulators.

Facebook said in a blogpost that there are "many concerns" about the use of facial recognition technology in society, noting how regulators are still in the process of providing a clear set of rules governing its use.

"Amid this ongoing uncertainty, we believe that limiting the use of facial recognition to a narrow set of use cases is appropriate," the social media giant said.

Ending the use of the face recognition system is part of "a company-wide move away from this kind of broad identification," Facebook said.

In 2012, Facebook acquired Israeli start-up Face.com for reportedly under $100 million, snapping up a team of developers who focused on facial recognition for mobile apps. The deal came just months after Facebook acquired Instagram, CEO Mark Zuckerberg's biggest effort at the time to move the business to mobile.

In July 2020, the company agreed to pay a $650 million settlement after it was sued for collecting and storing biometric data without first getting user consent, which is prohibited by the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act.

- Additional reporting by CNBC's Salvador Rodriguez.

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Facebook should not have bowed to public outrage and shut down its facial recognition system, former world chess champion says - CNBC

Last weekends Scarborough congress attracted a bumper entry of 300, as tournament regulars greeted the resumption of a popular fixture. Competitive chess in the north-east is recovering well from the pandemic. The British championship and a GM tournament were staged in Hull. and an invitational in North Tyneside.

The 4NCL national league, played online last season, returns over the board shortly with 80 teams against 94 before Covid-19. There will be new champions, for Guildfords record breakers have retired after83 matches andeight years without defeat.

County teams plus local clubs and leagues, which have an older demographic, have beengenerallyless resilient, although a few havesuccessfullytapped in to the online chess boom inspiredby Netflixs Queens Gambit. Battersea, Camberley, Kingston, Richmond and Surbiton, all in a suburban belt, have booming memberships.

The Carlsen v Nepomniachtchi $2m, 14-game world championshipmatch which starts in Dubai on November 26 should be a further stimulus. How can an interested FT reader join in?

You can start a game online very quickly by logging on tolichess.org. For over the board chess, log on toenglishchess.org.uk, then click Find a Chess Club for one near you or Calendar for details of future one-day and weekend congresses open to players of all strengths.

Puzzle 2443

Roland Scott v Joseph Blake, Edinburgh1920.White (to play) is queen for bishop up, but can you find his only winning move?A century ago, Scott solved the puzzle and won the British championship.

Click here for solution

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Online chess booms while over the board play recovers from the pandemic - Financial Times

The 2021-2022 Bughouse World Championship is a tournament where players will gather to play a series of bughouse matches. The event runs from November 8 through January 2022 and will have a $5,000 prize fund.

Here's all the information you need to know about this event:

Matches of the 2021-2022 Bughouse World Championship will be broadcast on Chess.com's events Twitch channel, as well as on co-organizer Chuck Moulton's channel. Make sure you tune in to keep up with all the action!

The event features a $5,000 prize fund, which will be divided as follows:

Open

U2000

Bonus Prizes

The event will feature a round-robin group stage, with the two top teams advancing to a knockout stage. Players will be divided into an open or a U2000 section according to their bughouse rating.

Open Section

U2000 Section

Bughouse is a four-player chess variant where two teams compete against each other. Teams are formed by a white and a black player, who play on separate boards against the other team's white and black players. If a player captures an opponent's piece, their teammate can use the captured piece on their own army.

To learn more about bughouse, read this article about the variant. You can also play it by visiting our Variants page and selecting bughouse inside the "most popular" tab.

The event is open to all who wish to participate. If you're interested in playing in the event, please fill out the official sign-up form below. Registrations will be closed on November 5.

Follow this link:
2021 Bughouse World Championship: All The Info - Chess.com

It is autumn in earnest, Keats season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, and a columnists fancy naturally turns to thoughts of positional chess.

Its no secret most chess players are attracted to the flashy and the spectacular. Were drawn to the tactically decisive queen sacrifice, the five-move mating combination, the short and sharp over the subdued and subtle.

But as the poet knew, there are quieter pleasures to be gleaned in the patient nurturing of tiny positional advantages, the calm, steady exploitation of a backward pawn or a misplaced knight, the satisfying harvest of a ripe field of small assets that produce the winning endgame.

Take, for instance, the mellow fruitfulness of American GM Fabiano Caruanas Capablanca-worthy Round 5 win over the fine British GM David Howell at the FIDE Grand Prix Swiss Tournament, now reaching the halfway point in Riga, Latvia.

Caruana chooses a modest line against the super-solid Berlin Ruy Lopez, and claims an edge when Black gives up a good defender and several tempi trying to eliminate Whites bishop pair: 9. Bg3 Nh5?! (Howell will miss this knight) 10. Nbd2 Qf6 11. Bxc6 bxc6 12. d4!? exd4 13. e5!, following the classic strategy of striking in the center if youre opponent is working on the wing.

After 13Qg7 14. cxd4 Bb6 15. a4!, the White threat of a4-a5 forces Black to imprison his own bishop on b6, a sidelining that Caruana skillfully exploits for the rest of the game. In true Capablanca fashion, Whites positional edge leads to a petite combination that wins a critical pawn: 20. Re1 (Rxc6? dxe5 solves all of Blacks problems) Rfe8 (c5 21. d5 maintains the bind) 21. exd6 Rxe1+ (cxd6 22. Rxe8+ Rxe8 23. Rxc6 and the Black d-pawn must fall, too) 22. Qxe1 Rxd6 23. Rxc6! (not a hard combination for a top grandmaster to spot, but it was Whites superior positional play that led to the tactical double attack) Rxc6 (Qf6 24. Rxd6 Qxd6 25. b3 Bxd4 26. Qxa5, with a superior endgame) 24. Qe8+ Kh7 25. Qxc6, and, in one last nice touch, 25Bxd4?? now would fail to 26. Qe4+.

Whites edge is just a pawn, but Caruanas pressure eventually forces a queen trade and the White knight continues to embarrass Howells ill-fated bishop: 28. Qxe6 fxe6 29. Nc4 Kf6 (very neat is 29Bxd4 30. Nxa5 Bxb2 31. Nb3! and the Black bishop has no good way back to the long diagonal to stop the a-pawn; e.g. 31Be5 32. a5 c6 33. a6 Bb8 34. Na5 c5 35. Nc6 c4 36. Kf1! and wins) 30. Nxb6 cxb6 31. g4 e5 32. dxe5+ Kxe5 33. g3 Kd4 34. f4!, and Black resigns as White will win on the queenside lines like 34Ke4 35. f5 Ke5 36. Kf2 h5 37. gxh5 Kxf5 38. g4+! Kf6 39. Ke3.

The stakes are high in Riga: The top two finishers from the Swiss event and a parallel womens competition earn a place in the 2022 Candidates Tournament for a shot at a world title match.

-

With Veterans Day also looming on the November docket, we thought we should check in on the action at one of our favorite tournaments, the annual NATO Chess Championship featuring teams from the U.S. and other countries of the Western military alliance.

Competing against some strong German and East European squads, the U.S. punched above its weight with a very respectable fifth-place finish in the 31st running of the championship held in Blankenberge, Belgium last month. Poland edged Greece to top honors but Air Force Capt. Jason Loving along with Air Force 1st Lt. Eigen Wang a stalwart of the U.S. team scored a fine upset victory over Polish master Mateusz Sypien in their personal top-board encounter, with a positional piece sacrifice that led to an overwhelming attack.

Loving as Black wins the opening battle in this Closed Sicilian, as after 13. c4 Qc7 the White bishops have been neutralized and the knight on d1 is a problem child complicating Sypiens development plans. When White castles kingside, Loving does not hesitate to strike: 17. Qe2 0-0-0 18. a3?! (see diagram; the stronger 18. h4 shuts down the kingside for the moment, but Black can just prepare more methodically for the break with moves like Kb8 and Rdg8 while White has next to no counterplay) h4! 19. g4 (the attacking lines also open up on 19. Nxh4 Nxh4 20. gxh4 Bxf4) Bxf4!, a devastating way to open the kingside files for a killer attack.

Blacks initiative does not let up for a second in the ensuing play: 24. Kf1 Be3! 25. Nxe3 dxe3 26. Bh4 (Qxe3 Nd4 27. Bh4 R3g4 28. Nxd4 cxd4 29. Qh3 Rxg2 30. Rxg2 Bxg2+ 31. Qxg2 Rxg2 32. Kxg2 Qxe5, and Whites forces are no match for the marauding Black queen) exf2 27. Bxg3 Rxg3 28. Qxf2 Rg4, and now Loving is up a pawn and is still on the attack.

Its over when the Black queen gets in on the fun: 32. Nxg2 Qh8! 33. b4 Qh3 34. bxc5 bxc5 35. Kg1 f4, and theres nothing to be done about the killer threat of 36f3; Sypien resigned.

Caruana-Howell, FIDE Grand Prix Swiss 2021, Riga, Latvia, October 2021

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. d3 Bc5 5. c3 O-O 6. O-O d6 7. Bg5 h6 8. Bh4 g5 9. Bg3 Nh5 10. Nbd2 Qf6 11. Bxc6 bxc6 12. d4 exd4 13. e5 Qg7 14. cxd4 Bb6 15. a4 a5 16. Nc4 Be6 17. Rc1 Nxg3 18. hxg3 Bxc4 19. Rxc4 Rad8 20. Re1 Rfe8 21. exd6 Rxe1+ 22. Qxe1 Rxd6 23. Rxc6 Rxc6 24. Qe8+ Kh7 25. Qxc6 Qg6 26. Qd7 Kg7 27. Ne5 Qe6 28. Qxe6 fxe6 29. Nc4 Kf6 30. Nxb6 cxb6 31. g4 e5 32. dxe5+ Kxe5 33. g3 Kd4 34. f4 Black resigns.

Sypien-Loving, 31st NATO Chess Championship, Blankenberge, Belgium, October 2021

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. g3 g6 4. Bg2 Bg7 5. d3 e6 6. Be3 Nd4 7. Qd2 Ne7 8. Nd1 b6 9. c3 Ndc6 10. f4 d5 11. e5 d4 12. Bf2 Bb7 13. c4 Qc7 14. Nf3 h5 15. O-O Nf5 16. h3 Bh6 17. Qe2 O-O-O 18. a3 h4 19. g4 Bxf4 20. gxf5 gxf5 21. Bxh4 Rdg8 22. Bf6 Rxh3 23. Rf2 Rhg3 24. Kf1 Be3 25. Nxe3 dxe3 26. Bh4 exf2 27. Bxg3 Rxg3 28. Qxf2 Rg4 29. Re1 Qd8 30. Rd1 Nd4 31. Ne1 Bxg2+ 32. Nxg2 Qh8 33. b4 Qh3 34. bxc5 bxc5 35. Kg1 f4 White resigns.

David R. Sands can be reached at 202/636-3178 or by email at dsands@washingtontimes.com.

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Savoring the mellow joys of positional chess - Washington Times

Reason'sDecember special issuemarks the 30th anniversary of the collapse of the Soviet Union. This story is part of our exploration of the global legacy of that evil empire, and our effort to be certain that thedire consequences of communism are not forgotten.

If the Soviet Union was notoriously incapable of producing blue jeans, smokeable cigarettes, and durable cars in the numbers its citizens craved, it was unrivaled at producing world-class chess grandmasters. From the end of World War II until the Evil Empire dissolved in 1991, all but one world championthe American Bobby Fischer, who claimed the title in 1972 from one Soviet and surrendered it to another in 1975 when he refused to defend his crownrepresented the USSR.

None was better than Garry Kasparov, who became world champion in 1985 at the tender, record-setting age of 22 and held the title until 2000. Widely considered the greatest chess player in modern history, he held the global top ranking for a total of 255 months between 1984 and his retirement in 2005.

Yet Kasparov was never a pliant supporter of the system that produced himfar from it. Born in 1963 to parents who were Jewish and Armenian, two minorities regarded as suspect, and raised in the relatively provincial city of Baku, Azerbaijan, he grew up feeling alienated from the Soviet Union's cultural and political centers in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Because of his chess prowesswhich he emphasizes was greatly nurtured by the same government that immiserated and imprisoned so many of his countrymenhe was able to travel abroad for competitions, and he describes youthful trips to France and Germany as nothing short of revelatory. The casual "abundance" of what used to be called "the free world" "just felt different," he says. "I could immediately see the quality of life.It was different and it was more natural." Beyond the Iron Curtain, he encountered the anti-communist works of George Orwell and was able to read exiled dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn's suppressed indictments of totalitarianism.

Kasparov joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1984 but was critical of the regime during that decade. In 1990, he joined the Democratic Party of Russia and became increasingly outspoken in favor of human rights, representative democracy, and limited government. In post-Soviet Russia, he used his celebrity and influence to spearhead attempts to build civil society and conduct fair elections, emerging as a leading critic of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. He aborted a run for president in 2007 only after authorities made it impossible for his followers to meet. By the early 2010s, he had been arrested for participating in unauthorized anti-government demonstrations and was widely believed to be the author of a popular petition demanding Putin's resignation. Today he resides in New York City and Croatia with his wife and two of his children; they cannot return to Russia for fear of persecution.

Kasparov continues to lobby for freedom, in the former Soviet Union and beyond. Since 2011, he has served as the chairman of the Human Rights Foundation, an organization that focuses on reform in closed societies such as North Korea, Venezuela, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and several former Soviet republics.

In September,Reason's Nick Gillespie spoke with the chess grandmaster in New York about what it was like to be the beneficiary of a catastrophically failed Soviet system and what lessons the worldespecially American democratic socialistsshould remember three decades after its collapse.

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Garry Kasparov: Greatest Soviet Chess Champion on the Awful System That Created Him - Reason