GM Daneil Narodtisky wins Timber Moose Chess18 2023!
The world's first Chess18 event is in the books! GM Daniel Naroditsy took first place despite giving handicaps to most of the other players. Guari Shankar placed second.
GM Larry Kaufman had to withdraw after round 4, prompting GM Kayden Troff to leave the commentary booth for the playing hall to compete in the final three rounds. Scores against Kaufman and Troff were excluded from the final standings. Three points were awarded for a win, one point for a draw.
The event games are available at chess.com
Anna is a Spanish-Swedish chess master and streaming star. She is nominated for 2023 Chess Streamer of the Year.
Daniel is a grandmaster, author, commentator, streamer, and chess celebrity. He is the chess columnist for the New York Times.
Eric is an International Master and leading chess streamer with over 160 million views on YouTube.
Gauri is a FIDE Master. He won multiple national junior championships, including the 2011 US Junior Championship.
James Canty III is a FIDE Master, streamer, and entrepreneur. He is also a coach, commentator, and content creator for Chess.com.
Kostya is an International Master and chess coach, and a popular streamer at ChessDoJo.
Larry is a Grandmaster, author, and contributor to many chess engines, including Komodo Dragon. He won the 2008 FIDE Senior World Championship.
Nemo is a FIDE Master and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She won the Canadian women’s chess championship at age 16.
Kayden is Utah’s first and only native Grandmaster. A popular chess coach, he’s co-founder of ChessDawgs.
Chess18 is a hybrid of traditional chess and chess960, an attempt to better trade-off the virtues and weaknesses of each. Chess18 uses only the 18 starting positions from chess960 that have, like traditional chess, the rooks in the corners and the kings on the e file.
For at least 100 years – Lasker was the first we know – elite players have complained that standard chess was “played out.” Capablanca became famously bored of standard chess and spent much effort developing variants, including a proposal to swap the starting position of the knights and bishops “to inject new life into the game.” Fischer’s rationale for creating chess960 was centered on his complaint that chess was played out and rewarded brute memorization at the expense of creativity and imagination. Kramnik has been experimenting with no-castle chess and other, more radical variants. And when Carlsen disappointed the chess world announcing he would not defend his world champion title, most of his rationale stemmed from the process – months of memorizing computer analysis – being joyless. Clearly, many players want more variety than standard chess.
Chess960 has been generally well received and is currently the most accepted variant. But critics have identified drawbacks that limit its widespread adoption. The primary complaint is that eliminating opening preparation altogether kills an important and treasured dimension of the game. Another criticism is that many starting positions have gimmicky castling patterns, and positions that feel too far removed from traditional chess. Commenting on Fischer’s invention, Kasparov proposed choosing perhaps 10-20 starting positions from among the 960, allowing for new positions but few enough to be played with sufficient frequency to each develop their own opening theory. Many other players and commentators have made similar criticisms and suggestions.
Chess18 attempts to synthesize these ideas by accepting Fischer’s framework, modified by Kasparov’s suggestion for fewer positions and, by choosing the positions most similar to traditional chess due to identical castling moves, conveniently ending up with a number of starting positions within Kasparov’s suggested range. The rules of play are identical to chess, and the legal starting positions are easy to remember and explain, a crucial consideration for the world’s most popular game.
Chess18 actually expands rather than eliminates opening theory, but expands it so dramatically that it ensures even elite players will be out of their preparation within a handful of moves. (If players were to spread their opening preparation across 18 starting positions, their knowledge of any position would be only 1/18th – less than 6% – of the theory they currently know of standard chess.)
While I believe in the promise of Chess18, until now the potential has been wholly speculative, and I’m excited to finally submit the format for play by titled players at Timber Moose Chess18.
Chess18 attempts to synthesize these ideas by accepting Fischer’s framework, modified by Kasparov’s suggestion for fewer positions, and, by choosing the positions most similar to traditional chess with identical castling, conveniently ending up with the number of starting positions within Kasparov’s suggested range. The rules of play remain unchanged and the starting positions are easy to remember and explain, a crucial consideration for the world’s most popular game.
Chess18 actually expands rather than eliminates opening theory, but expands it so dramatically that it ensures even elite players will be out of their preparation within a handful of moves. (If players were to spread their opening preparation across 18 starting positions, their knowledge of any position would be only 1/18th – less than 6% – of the theory they currently know of standard chess.)
While I believe in the promise of Chess18, until now the potential has been wholly speculative, and I’m excited to finally submit the format for play by titled players at Timber Moose Chess18.
For 2023 Timber Moose Chess18 the starting positions will be randomly selected immediately before the start of each round. The starting position for Chess1 will not be used, and positions 2-4 (queen starting on d file) will have doubled odds of selection. No position will be used twice.
The Chess18 starting position for each round:
Round 1: chess5 -QBN BN
Round 2: chess12 - NBB QN
Round 3: chess9 - BQN NB
Round 4: chess15 - NNB QB
Round 5: chess6 - QNB NB
Round 6: chess2 - BNQ NB
Round 7: chess4 - NNQ BB
Round 8: chess17 - BBN NQ
Round 9: chess10 - NQB NB
Submit your best Lincoln Logs story to be entered to win a trip to Utah to help break the Lincoln Log Guinness World Record at Timber Moose Lodge! Share with your friends to vote for your story!
The Winner and their guest will be flown to Utah for a 4-night, 5-day stay at Timber Moose Lodge, America's Biggest Log Cabin, to participate in the Guinness World Record breaking build!
Contest Start Date: July 14, 2021
Contest Close Date: August 4, 2021
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