https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl en-us ChessPub Forum Thu, 8 Oct 2026 12:53:01 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 30 https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1770291539/67#67 ChessPub Forum/ChessPublishing.com Discussion https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1770291539/67#67 Wed, 30 Sep 2026 10:53:51 GMT There is a recent video that explains some of the features: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLz4n4AX1HM" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLz4n4AX1HM</a> https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1790486444/1#1 ChessPub Forum/ChessPub.com Forum https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1790486444/1#1 Sun, 27 Sep 2026 09:06:36 GMT <a href="https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1790486444/0#0">Gene.M wrote</a> on 09/27/26 at 05:20:44:<br /><div id="486A616A4266636A616A7D0F00">I am wondering why the following topic no longer appears after sorting by column 'Last Post' (to show the topics having the most recent post dates)? </div><!--486A616A4266636A616A7D0F00--><br /><br />This happens from time-to-time, I need to carry out some Forum housekeeping, I'll do it now. <img rel="&#58;&#45;&#41;" src="https://www.chesspub.com/yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/smiley.gif" alt="Smiley" title="Smiley" /> https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1785275346/2#2 ChessPub Forum/General Chess https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1785275346/2#2 Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:09:57 GMT <br />@Marc Benford:<br />I would suggest you adopt your solutions #2 and #4 as a pair; except also go a small bit further...<br /><br />____________________________________<br />Context Dependence Rots:  Consider XSAN<br /><br /><br />All chess notations represent trade-offs, benefits and drawbacks.<br /><br />The SAN used in regular chess is good in some ways, but SAN's drawbacks are substantial and not merely minor. During tournaments, maybe 30% of amateur players have an error in the scoresheet they submit to the Organizer. Often the error can be corrected, but in 20% of these cases error cannot be corrected.<br />SAN's proneness to errors extends into replay while reading moves from a book. Just one example is the reader moving the wrong color pawn when replaying the move notation 'b4'.<br /><br />SAN is error prone because SAN suffers from its need for Context for accurate interpretation. Neither you nor I know whether 'Nxe4' is a White versus Black knight: to know we must have further contextual information, like whose turn it is, or the Origin square (instead of just the Destination square).<br /><br />SAN really failed me when I started to replay gamescores from chess960 games (FischerRandom, chess9LX, or the dubious moniker "Free Style", whatever name). Turns out our habits for quick interpretation or translation of chess moves are marinated in the context of the one traditional start setup position.<br /><br />Therefore, I feel that chess deserves to have the option of a notation which is "Context Independent", to the extreme of being fully replayable in reverse, from the end position to the starting setup position.<br /><br />An enhanced LAN notation feels like a good candidate initially. 'b3-b4' is definitely a White move, and we know it was the pawn's second move.<br />'Nf6xe4' is more informative than 'Nxe4'. 'Nf6xe4' is probably a Black knight, but this notation still lacks certainty. Plus we have no idea which type of piece was captured.<br /><br />'13... Nf6xBe4' tells us the knight's color was Black (the two extra dots ".."), and that the captured piece was a white bishop ("xB"). However, when you replay a whole game this way, you realize that you miss having the Destination square given early in the notated move. Yet 'NxBe4-f6', or 'Nxf6-e4xB', are both awkward. So,...<br /><br />Let us try '<' an alternative to the '-' for captures, and give yourself one minute to get used to it. Further, let us adopt the cleaner ':' instead of yet another lowercase letter 'x' (as David Bronstein did in 'Zurich 1953), and tag a '/' onto the end:<br /><br /><br />[A]  'N:e4<f6/B'  -  "Knight takes on square e4, coming from square f6, captures a white bishop".<br />Now the more important Destination square occurs before the Origin square.<br /><br />This notation comes close to being the best Context Independent notation that is still human-friendly (unless someone can post a better design?).<br />I like how the four sorta-separate sections of the notation are well-delimited for the human eye to parse:<br />N e4 f6 B    ( : < / )<br /><br />But [A] fails to tell us the color of the knight or bishop. Relying on a verbose move number plus triple-dots is a context dependency, in addition to being verbose in many situations.<br />So, let's try a solution which uses Uppercase versus lowercase letters more strategically: all white pieces use Uppercase letters, while all black pieces use lowercase letters.<br />This casing strategy is slightly helped by our previous replacement of the lowercase 'x' by ':'<br /><br /><br />[B]  'n:e4<f6/B'  -  "Black knight takes on e4, from f6, captures white bishop."<br /><br />Good, now we are there except for one remaining problem: 'b' for a black bishop could confuse the eye with the 'b' column:<br />'bb2<d4', compared to say the clear 'qb2<d4'.<br />I have no perfect answer to the 'b'=black_bishop problem, but I can offer the best available solution that I chose: I use 'V' & 'v', instead of 'B' & 'b'. The idea is that, in English, a "vicar" is a "substitute for a bishop" in the Catholic church, in the majority of dictionaries. (Pronounced "VIK-err".)  So we tweak 'bb2<d4' to instead be 'vb2<d4'.<br /><br /><br />[C]  'Re5<1'  where we infer the column'e' because no override is present, is better than the unnecessarily redundant  'Re5<e1'.<br /><br /><br />Seems a shame that chess notation evolved to give sequence numbers to move-pairs (pairs-of-moves) instead of to true 'moves'. All white moves should be odd-numbered, and where occasionally needed, all black moves would be even-numbered.<br /><br /><br />XSAN:<br />I call the notation described above 'XSAN' ("eXstended Standard Algebraic Notation").<br /><br /><br />_______________________<br />Conclusion:<br />  'Context Independent' notation should be available (XSAN?)<br /><br /><br />A simple software program can easily validate XSAN, and translate XSAN into SAN, or into LAN etc.<br />However, much more complicated software is needed to validate SAN, and to translate SAN into any other notation.<br />XSAN can be a central hub for all chess notations (P-K4 Descriptive, SAN, LAN, Coordinate, etc).<br />Instead of needing one software to translate SAN into LAN, and another to translate SAN into Coordinate or Descriptive, we would need only a software to translate SAN into XSAN.<br /><br />For the creative piece types in your chess variants, you could use a two-letter pair for each piece. Later, when you want to use software that can only digest piece names being single letters, the XSAN hub could be valuable.<br /><br />Bottom line, chess deserves to have a "Context Independent" notation option.<br /><br /><br />Thanks.<br />GeneM<br />.<br /> https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1195919731/28#28 ChessPub Forum/d-Pawn Specials https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1195919731/28#28 Sun, 20 Sep 2026 15:06:10 GMT The SWA gives NO theoretical advantages ... I get that... but it yields practical advantages a plenty!<br /><br /><br />Being into chess Chess Anachronism (i.e. Chess before WWII)<br /><br />I've come to realize people underestimate a lot of the "Why" certain openings were played by Masters of bygone eras.  I built two repertoires that complement each other, basing them on popular opening moves of games pre-WWII and WWI.  (Yes I tweaked them with a modern engine  *more on that below*) <br /><br />Repertoire A)  1.d4  2. e3 and 3.Bd3 <br />Repertoire B)   1.d4  2. Nf3 and 3. e3<br /><br />Repertoire A) does indeed focus on the SWA... (A great dearth of knowledge on the SWA is Soltis' work ) <br /><br />ON... 1.d4 d5 2.e3 Nf6 3.Bd6 Nc6!? threatening 4...e5 (in my Repertoire.)  4.f4!?  and if 4... Nb4 5. Nbd2 NxB 6. pxN (solidifying the center, making ready for a central pawn push, or playing on the flanks... those are pretty easy plans to implement, I've won many a games working from this position.... ) <br /><br />Modern engines give it a 1/2 pawn advantage to black.. in other words<b> "Equal" with the best of play by a 3200 elo computer... </b> (I'll take an equal position with clear plans to attempt to implement any day over theocratical what if's)  <br /><br /> 1.d4 d5 2.e3 c5  3.c3 Nc6 4.dxc5!? walks right into a Reverse Noteboom!  (I recommend anyone into the SWA seriously to invest into this line.) <br /><br />If the reverse Noteboom is not your thing 1.d4 d5 2.e3 Nf6 3.Bd3 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5.f4  On  5... Bg4 6.Nf3 Ne4 7.0-0 e6 8.Qe1  Again about a half a pawn advantage with best play by a 3200 engine.m  Last time I checked I don't play 3200 elo opponent's!    <br /><br />on ...3...g6   * I see this the most* (shutting down the Bishop at d3)  That's a double edge sword if White knows what they are doing. For after something like   4.f4 Bg7 5. Nf3 c5 6. c3 b6 7.Nbd2 0-0 8.Qe2   <b><i>No one tells Black they have shut in their bishop at g7 as well.</i></b>   Again less than a half pawn advantage for black in a position(s) where I understand the minutia of the queenside based on Black's weakness a3-f8 diagonal. <br /><br />Other than being into Chess history why play this?  Well for one.. IMO  it defeats any and all prep by my opponent's  Will I, or won't I play a Reverse Noteboom?   or...  How much time will my opponent spend adjusting to my attacks using the a3-f8 diagonal if the played g6 and Bg7.. <br /><br />and the Marshal Variation i.e. <br /><br />1.d4 d5 2.e3 Nf6 3.Bd3 Bg4 4.Ne2... leads to exciting sharp play.  Frank Marshall played it 3 times winning all three.. Again book up on these position,  be creative and one has a serious "Sneaky" and "practical"  repertoire <br /><br /><br /> <br /><br />.         https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1596395228/2#2 ChessPub Forum/Chit Chat https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1596395228/2#2 Thu, 17 Sep 2026 20:30:51 GMT Looking back… https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1413757479/9#9 ChessPub Forum/1. e4 e5 - Non-Spanish https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1413757479/9#9 Mon, 14 Sep 2026 03:52:19 GMT There is NOTHING boring about 4.d3 h6!? with ...d6 and then either ...g6 or ...g5 coming next https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1557326176/16#16 ChessPub Forum/1. e4 e5 - Non-Spanish https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1557326176/16#16 Sun, 13 Sep 2026 16:19:26 GMT The Egregiously Horrendous Elephant Gambit: there, I fixed it for you https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1789068202/0#0 ChessPub Forum/Chess and Computers https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1789068202/0#0 Thu, 10 Sep 2026 19:23:22 GMT <br />I have made some Windows 32-bit versions <br />of the Stockfish 19 Chess engine,<br />for users who are still hanging on to their old computer.<br /><br />They can be downloaded from the following link :- <br /><br /><a href="https://www.mediafire.com/file/383htgd2mipaf44/Stockfish_19_Win32_engines.7z/file" target="_blank">https://www.mediafire.com/file/383htgd2mipaf44/Stockfish_19_Win32_engines.7z/file</a><br /><br />The download zip file size is 215 Mb<br /> https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1789039464/0#0 ChessPub Forum/Modern Benoni https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1789039464/0#0 Thu, 10 Sep 2026 11:24:24 GMT A65 Modern Benoni Penrose Variation 9...N6<br /><br />Benoni is still rather under-rated? <br /><br />Hi everyone!<br /><br />I’m looking for chess players who would be interested in taking part in a small experiment about decision-making in chess.<br /><br />You’ll be shown 8 middlegame positions taken from a real game, and for each one I’ll simply ask:<br /><br />What move would you actually play here?<br /><br />A very important point: these are not chess puzzles. There is no trick, no hidden “White to play and win,” and you’re not supposed to hunt for some exotic combination or brilliant move. Just analyse the position as you would in a real game and choose the move that feels best to you.<br /><br />It’s not a test, and I’m not interested in whether you find the “correct” move. What matters is seeing how different players make their decisions, so all playing strengths are welcome.<br /><br />It should take about 25–35 minutes.<br /><br />The only real rule is to analyse the positions on your own — no engines, databases, internet searches, or help from other players.<br /><br />If you’d like to participate, reply here or send me a private message and I’ll give you the details.<br /><br />Once the experiment is finished, I’ll publish the voting results, and I’ll also reveal the real game the positions came from, so everyone can compare the group’s choices with what was actually played.<br /><br />The first position to check after 11...Rc8 <br />WHITE to play <br />1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 e6 4. Nc3 exd5 5. cxd5 d6 6. e4 g6 7. Bd3 Bg7 8. Nge2<br />O-O 9. O-O Na6 10. Bg5 Re8 11. Qd2 Bd7 12. Ng3 Rc8 *<br /><br />Thanks!