The Huntsville Chess Club will prepare to ring in the new year on Monday (12/30) with either casual chess or a tournament of some kind, depending upon how many players are present. If you’re in town, we hope to see you there!

We’ll plan to conduct casual chess this week. If you’re the first to arrive, please pick up the equipment from the info desk and if you’re the last to leave, please make sure that it gets back to them.

World’s Oldest Surviving Chess Piece Unearthed in Jordan

“The strange figurine isn’t a tiny altar, it’s a rook and demonstrates a stage in the evolution of the chess castle from a Persian chariot, archaeologist says…” Click here to read the rest of the article.

Knockout Tournament – Starts at 6pm

As a reminder, we’ll be conducting our unrated knockout tournament tomorrow, 11/25 at 6pm. Please plan to arrive as close to 5:30pm as possible to allow for us to get everyone registered, etc. The tournament is free and open to all, regardless of membership status.

Developments in Chess AI – by David Hayes

For those of you who are following the advanced artificial intelligence AlphaZero by DeepMind.  AZ was a topic of the presentation by David Hayes a few months back.  AZ beat the best chess computer engines in 2018, but was told the rules of chess (legal piece moves) before it learned to dominate the best computers.

DeepMind’s has developed a new AI called MuZero.  MuZero learned the rules of chess by simply watching it being played, and then exceeded AZ’s skill in the game.  MuZero was not given any information about its environment.

When humans are born, we have little or no information about our environment.  Despite our ignorance, our brains learn the ‘rules’ of our environment, and survive and often thrive.  We have gone into very hostile environments (the moon, deep sea, arctic, etc.), and survived, and learned with our general purpose intelligence.
Similarly, MZ has taken a step closer to a general purpose artificial intelligence like human intelligence.  MZ dominated chess faster and better than AZ, with less effort (energy).  Likewise, it did the same with shogi, go, and 75 Atari games (pacman, asteroids, etc.).  The Atari games are visually complex domains that require intelligent development of a model to decipher the blinking lights and pixels, before the intelligent development of a planning model.

MZ did this by predicting the qualities most relevant to each game’s planning.  Intuitively, MuZero internally invents game rules or dynamics that lead to accurate planning.  Not so long ago, words like predicting and intuition were use to describe only human intelligence, but not anymore.

DeepMind reports that MZ managed a 731% median normalized score compared to 192%, 231%, and 431% for previous state-of-the-art approaches IMPALA, Rainbow, and LASER, respectively, while requiring substantially less training time (12 hours versus Rainbow’s 10 days).

For more information see:  https://venturebeat.com/2019/11/20/deepminds-muzero-teaches-itself-how-to-win-at-atari-chess-shogi-and-go/

Update: We’re going to postpone the Knockout tournament to next week and this week (11/18), we’ll conduct a Quick tournament instead – with both a rated and unrated section. We should be able to have 4 rounds of G10/d5 and will plan to begin as close to 6pm as possible.

Note: To participate in the rated section, you’ll need to have current HCC and USCF memberships (unrated section is open to non-members), but the entry to both sections is FREE!

Register for HCC membership here.

Register for USCF membership here.

Please pre-register for the rated section below to help the TD get things started on time.

Next Chess Meeting Monday, 11/18.

The library will be closed on Monday, November 11th for Veterans Day.

Next week, we plan to conduct a free knockout tournament! It should be a lot of fun. Hope to see you there.

Queen’s Quest in Madison on Saturday, November 16th

Register now for the Queen’s Quest scholastic tournament in Madison!

Anyone affiliated with the Huntsville Chess Club is welcome to go over games together with the Hampton Cove Chess Club in between rounds. If you’re a home school chess player, this is a great way for you to enjoy a scholastic tournament with other people you know. If you’re a public school student and need a coach to help you out, you’re welcome to join in as well!

Click here for registration info.

Today is the last day for you to register for the Chess in a Cave tournament this Saturdayhere.

If you’re in town this weekend, Caesar Chess is hosting the Halloween Classic in Huntsville! Check out the details here.

Chess is back on at the library tonight! Come on out and grab a game. If you’re interested, we’ll be conducting our quarterly board meeting in the conference room adjacent to the playing area. It will start at 6pm.

Also, we’re still in need of volunteers to help with the chess in a cave fundraiser. Details and signup is at the link here. Even a couple of hours would be beneficial. This tournament is our primary fundraiser for the year and helps to keep benefits high and prices low. Plus, it’s always a lot of fun and you won’t want to miss out.

If you have anyone interested in signing up for the Chess in a Cave tournament (to play), the registration page is here. Registration will close on Wednesday so we can give accurate meal orders to our caterer.

The library will be closed on Monday, 10/14 – Our next meeting will be 10/21.

St. Louis Chess Club Visit

As many are already aware, I’m a chess tourist. The family joined me for some work at Ft. Knox over the weekend and with Fall Break taking place this week, we were just too close to NOT visit the St. Louis Chess Club.

World Chess Hall of Fame

St. Louis is home to the World Chess Hall of Fame! It’s free to enter and you can leave a donation if you feel so inclined. The World’s largest chess piece is a prominent entry feature.

The gift shop is inside of the Hall of Fame building and has a wide variety of chess sets, clothing, etc. There was something for everyone.

Unfortunately, 2 of the 3 floors were closed until 10/10 while they completed a couple of new exhibits. Spontaneity is not always the best way to make sure you get the most out of a trip somewhere!

A few of the exhibits on the top floor were interactive.

Kingside Diner

Across the street from the WCHOF, there is a restaurant (serves breakfast AND beer) with a chess theme.

I got way too much of a kick out of the chess themed bathroom sign…

Chess Club

In a separate building, there is an actual chess club where actual chess takes place on a mass scale. On any given day, there are multiple chess lectures and/or tournaments taking place. There is a GM “in-residence”. We got to say hi to GM Pepe Cuenca on this particular visit, who seemed to be editing an online chess lecture. We probably should have asked for a game, but didn’t want to intrude.

If outdoor chess is more your style, there were a couple of games taking place on the sidewalk in front of the club.

There were not 1, not 2, but 3 people waiting to greet us at the entrance to the club. When we mentioned that we had never visited before, they took us on a tour, which included the “Staff Only” section where chess commentary frequently takes place.

Technology was prevalent throughout the club. Interactive, giant touchscreens, exhibit information on big screen TVs, etc. It was a site to behold.

I returned that evening for some blitz chess and went 2.5/7. The club hours advertise a 5pm closing time, but I left well after 9pm and games were still going strong. The guy I played was good, but not anywhere near the best player participating, so there seemed to be a challenge for everybody, regardless of skill level. It was a lot of fun and I would highly recommend it!

National Chess Day Tournament

Don’t forget, the National Chess Day Tournament is this Saturday, 10/12 and limited to 50 participants. This tournament is NOT just for kids, but anyone U1200 or Unrated. There are a few spots available. Register here now! Even if you are not playing, please come out and check it out.

National Chess Day Rated Beginners Open

Reminder – It is the final week to register for our National Chess Day, Rated Beginners Open tournament. Click here to register now or use the form below! Note, you must be U1200 -or- Unrated and a USCF member in good standing to play. Please let us know if you need any help getting registered.

Monday Equipment Logistics

Whomever arrives to the library first on Monday, please get the equipment from the library staff at the information desk. Pat will be out of town.

Chess in a Cave

The 2019 Chess in a Cave tournament is right around the corner on November 2nd! Register using the link on our home page.