Saavedra Endgame Study

This was the endgame study I posted as a puzzle on my other chess blog but no one found the solution after 3 days. Here's a video explaining the famous endgame study:-






Also for a change I put this video in YouTube (for the first time) instead of Flash videos. At least with YouTube it has a bigger exposure and I don't need to have my own webspace to host Flash files as I did with my older videos.

Donations for China Earthquake victims

This is my second post on natural disasters and the human tragedy that resulted. I'm talking about the recent quake in China and my heart sank when I saw the pictures of the children killed by falling buildings. Even though I don't live in China, I am Chinese and I do have relatives living in Hainan, China. Thankfully that was not the area hit by the quakes.

I'm also heartened by the fact that a online casino website is helping out with donations to the victims of the quake. I'm talking about BackgammonMasters.com which is an online backgammon site that also host blackjack tournaments.  It is commendable that they are channeling proceeds of prize money from the blackjack and backgammon tournaments directly to UNICEF organization.

For every $1 donated from a months worth of tournament buy-ins, Backgammon Masters will be donating $5. That's very generous of them and I salute their efforts.

Online backgammon and blackjack tournaments will be offered for the whole month, 24/7 to help towards this cause. So if you are into Blackjack or Backgammon, do drop in, register with the online casino website and join the online tournaments with buy-ins that ranges from $4.50 and $200. Where else can you have a good online game of backgammon and contribute to a good cause at the same time?

Myanmar/Burma disaster

It is feared up to 1 million people may have died in this disaster, and although this is disputed, if Nargis did kill this many people, it would be the deadliest cyclone ever recorded, and the third deadliest natural disaster ever recorded in history, behind the Yellow River floods of 1887 and 1931 in China. At least 10,000 people have been reported to have perished in the delta town of Bogale.One aid worker has claimed that the death toll from the cyclone and its aftermath may reach 300,000; if this was correct it would be the 2nd deadliest cyclone and fourth deadliest natural disaster.

~ Wikipedia

Got an email from Fide Trainer / FM Peter Long relaying the appeal by Myanmar Chess Federation for donation.

Here's a quote from the email:-

I just met Maung Maung Lwin, President of Myanmar Chess Federation at the ASEAN Age Groups in Danang, Vietnam www.aseanagegroups.blogspot.com and he asked me to help circulate the attached appeal to the chess world.

Maung has tirelessly and singlehandedly kept Myanmar chess alive for over 20 years and despite losing all his businesses (factory, restaurant, etc.) in the recent Cyclone Nargis he is more concerned about his people's plight and is still helping promote chess by agreeing to be our Chief Arbiter here!

More information at http://www.thefidetrainer.blogspot.com/

Backgammon Masters to enlist MIT "21" team

There's a new movie coming out called “21” starring Kevin Spacey which features MIT “Blackjack Teams” of students who are able to beat the odds in the Las Vegas Casinos.

Back in real life, BackgammonMasters the makers of backgammon online games, has decided to put their blackjack software to be tested by the real-life MIT "Blackjack Teams" to see how they measure up. Yes they actually exist and The MIT Team will be using their unique strategies to increase their odds of winning in the online game. The results should be very interesting to see.

In addition, Backgamomon Masters is allowing Blackjack enthusiasts to "Tell a Friend Bonuses" so that more people can test the system.

One distinct difference between online Blackjack and the real casino version is that the online game rooms will have  an innovative basic Blackjack calculator allowing players to see the statistics and hence, increase their odds of winning. Of course this is not allowed in real casinos!

Matrix Chess

Since it's a nice quiet Sunday, let's just take a break from serious chess study and enjoy this animation ... :)

Backgammon and chess

Backgammon is yet another board game like chess but it's quite different. Like chess, backgammon has been subjected to extensive computer analysis and that has resulted in backgammon software that is capable of beating world-class human players.

One major difference is backgammon has more of an element of chance in it compared to chess so it's quite popular as a online betting game.

One such site that has backgammon as it's main game online is http://www.backgammonmasters.com.  This site has a very international approach as they have included multilingual features into their website where their game lobby supports 14 different languages including French, German, Spanish, English, Portuguese, Danish, Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish, Greek, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, and now Bulgarian. Even their online support which currently supports English will be manned by multilingual operators in future.

Besides backgammon, the site also offers blackjack and poker software. Of course, this means the site is an online betting site so it's similar to casino/gambling site where real money is used. It's also natural for the site to support multiple currencies like USD, Euros, GBP and Canadian dollars.

So if you are into entering online backgammon tournaments with money at stake then take a look at backgammonmasters.com.

How to create a chess blog in 10 minutes

Here's a new video created specifically to encourage the chess community to take up blogging.

Chess is such a small niche that if only a few of my regular blog readers start up their own blog, it would mean a big percentage of increase in the chess blogosphere.

This video starts from the very basics:

• registering an email from Gmail,
• register a free blog at blogger.com,
• choosing inserting a picture and even
• inserting a whole playable javascript chess game diagram.
  

All that in under 10 minutes.

Review: Backgammon website

I'm looking at other boardgames sites offering online games other than chess for once. I chose to look at backgammon as it is the closest boardgame to chess (other than draught).

The site that turned up often on the search engine is BackgammonMasters. A close cursory glance at the site, I think to myself that more chess sites should follow them in terms of marketing and site design.

BackgammonMasters Game Lobby looks simply enticing. Besides backgammon they also offer games such as blackjack game online as well as poker online. Of course, you play against other human opponents.

The good thing for beginners is the help resources where you can read up and learn some blackjack basic strategy. That's important for any online game to get beginners by providing good materials for them to read first.

As for me, I'm not much of a gambler but I am interested in blackjack game online. Perhaps later I can do a more detailed review on this site when I've got my feet wet.

The website itself has undergone a major revamp where they've introduced a new look as well as improved user navigation. From what I can see from first looks, they have done a pretty good job.