2020-08-25

chess.com and cheating

So chess.com has some sophisticated method of detecting people who cheat, and they are kicking 500 people a day off their site for cheating. So far they have kicked off 400,000 people. https://www.chess.com/article/view/online-chess-cheating  

2020-08-14

Automated Chess board - Losing to a Ghost

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQLOj-TylGg

This automated chess board has a feature where you can play other humans on the internet.  Or you can play against a computer. However, this is far easier on a computer screen.  Even a phone or tablet is not so bad, and you have to use a phone app anyway to drive the board.

I saw something in the video that made it looked like the app is integrated with the chess.com website.

The presenter is a pretty terrible chess player.   He was getting crushed by a computer at "level 1".  This was most likely Stockfish at level 1.  Both the websites chess.com and lichess.org let you play Stockfish at multiple levels if you don't want to be humiliated by a human being, so I just now tested this out.  Levels 1 to 4 played so poorly that I couldn't stand to play them. I had to get up to level 6 just to be a little bit challenged but won anyway. 


2020-08-05

Get Free Coffee at Panera Bread

I've been getting free coffee for about 3 weeks.  I need to cancel the coffee subscription by the end of September in order not to be charged.


2020-08-02

George R.R. Martin

On this day in 1996, George R.R. Martin published A Game of Thrones. Did you know he is a USCF life member and earned his living as a tournament director in the early 70s? Working on weekends 2 days a week gave him 5 days a week to write!  




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