Ken Rogoff: Economic Guru

I have the highest respect for Ken Rogoff. I think he would be an excellent choice as the Treasury Secretary. Of course I am a little biased :)

Game 'hard-wired' into economic guru

Saturday, April 30, 2011 03:06 AM

Ken Rogoff is a 58-year-old economist who chose that field over chess.

His doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980 launched him on a distinguished career, including positions as chief economist at the International Monetary Fund and a professor at Harvard University.

The author of a column syndicated in 50 countries and 13 languages, he is frequently consulted by political leaders and interviewed by the media.

Although he no longer plays chess competitively, he hasn't abandoned his early passion for the game. Formerly a precocious and high-ranked American player, he earned the grandmaster title in 1978.

"I think about chess all the time," he recently told the magazine New in Chess.

"I'm not thinking about it with any depth, but I think part of my brain is hard-wired to play chess. I'll think about it in boring meetings, ... walking along. It's something I do to relax."

Rogoff has found his chess experience useful during his career, particularly for maintaining calm in challenging situations - and in negotiations, where chess taught him "to think about what the other person is thinking in a very disciplined way."

Source: http://www.dispatch.com

No peace

In his remote grave, Fischer has no peace

Saturday, April 23, 2011 03:06 AM

Privacy isn't what it used to be.

The latest challenge is Amazon.com's bargain-priced version of its electronic reader, the Kindle, which will feature ads on its home page.

The book reader of yesterday has been transformed into a targeted consumer.

I can't imagine Bobby Fischer - a voracious reader who haunted bookstores and libraries - surviving such developments.

The chess legend furtively guarded his privacy from other players, businessmen and media types continually on "the search for Bobby Fischer."

He managed to keep out of the public eye for 20 years. But, today, a single Twitter post would blast his bunkerlike privacy to smithereens. Anything known of his location or habits could be instantly revealed to thousands.

Fischer adamantly turned down commercial offers. He fled publicity.

But even his 2008 death didn't grant relief.

He was buried, as he instructed, in a quiet church graveyard in Iceland. But tour buses continue to discharge their contents at his grave site.

Source: http://www.dispatch.com

Defensive and even conspiratorial

On Chess: Paranoia served Fischer well on board

Saturday, April 16, 2011 03:06 AM
Shelby Lyman - Columbus Dispatch

Bobby Fischer was characteristically defensive and even conspiratorial. His anti-Semitic theories, for one, were off-the-wall.

But his fears weren't always so patently without merit, as when he claimed that the "Russians" had tried to rig a tournament against him by accepting quick and easy draws against one another.

His dread of journalists was motivated by grievous experiences at the hands of a sensationalistic press.

His quirky, outspoken manner made him an easy, if not appetizing, target.

Fischer clearly was aware of the issue of paranoia.

During an appearance on Dick Cavett's talk show in 1971, Fischer looked over his shoulder and declared humorously: "The paranoids are after me."

Years earlier, when told by grandmaster Pal Benko that he was paranoid, Fischer replied: "Sometimes paranoids are right."

Chess is a duopoly of aggressive action and defense.

Fischer dreaded losing, especially via unforeseen events on or off the chessboard. On the defense, he strove above all to do away with such possibilities.

One might say - not necessarily pejoratively - that his chess style had a "paranoid" quality.

Source: http://www.dispatch.com

Considerable number of abilities and qualities

Standouts talentedbut not amazingly so
Saturday, December 25, 2010 02:53 AM
The Columbus Dispatch
Shelby Lyman

Perhaps the best overall statement on the psychology of the chess player is found in a small book published in Moscow in 1926: The Psychology of Chess Play by D'yakov, Petrovsky and Rudik.

A summary is provided in the 1965 book Soviet Chess by D.J. Richards.

The object of a study cited in both books was the extraordinary group of grandmasters - including Jose Capablanca, Emanuel Lasker, Akiba Rubinstein, Carlos Torre, Richard Reti, Savielly Tartakower, Frank Marshall and Efim Bogoljubov - competing in the 1925 Moscow International Tournament.

The findings, using a battery of tests, didn't discover a special chess aptitude per se. Surprisingly, the ability to calculate wasn't mentioned. Equally surprising, the study observed that "The masters' memories were generally not exceptional."

But the psychologists found that "The master must possess a considerable number of abilities and qualities rarely found in one individual."

Among the 16 qualities listed were the ability to distribute attention over many factors, a contemplative mind, powers of synthetic thought and imagination, the ability to think concretely and objectively and an active intellect.

Source: http://www.dispatch.com

Chess makes kids smarter

Game cultivates boldness, true grit
Saturday, December 18, 2010 02:53 AM
The Columbus Dispatch
Shelby Lyman

Educators like to emphasize the cognitive values of chess. It is taken for granted that chess somehow makes kids smarter.

Indeed, children who play the game reportedly improve their grades, test scores, attendance and deportment. Chess often is a schoolteacher's dream.

For most of the children involved - at least in the beginning - the game is primarily a form of combat. They like to announce "check," capture pieces and - above all - win.

Their enthusiasm for battle on the chessboard was shared by an impressive group of military leaders, including Napoleon, King Charles XII of Sweden, Peter the Great and Robert E. Lee, all of whom included chess sets in their personal effects during military campaigns.

Chess is undeniably a war game, and all of us - if not eager or reluctant predators - are at least keen on not being someone else's prey.

Chess is a superb instrument for teaching defense as well as attack. Both depend on well-conceived aggressiveness.

In 1929, Alexander Ilyin-Zhenevsky, a top Russian chess player and dedicated revolutionary, offered a classic observation about the game:

"After all," he declared, "chess develops in a man boldness, presence of mind, composure, a strong will and a sense of strategy."

Source: http://www.dispatch.com

Chess is a way of life

Writer was able to perfect game, too
Saturday, December 4, 2010 02:50 AM
By Shelby Lyman
The Columbus Dispatch

Larry Evans - who died Nov. 15 in Reno, Nev., at the age of 76 - is known to many through his books and chess columns.

But he was also a dominant player who won five U.S. championships. His performances in chess Olympiads and other international forums were also notable.

Evans was a self-taught product of a time when there were few chess teachers and virtually no scholastic programs.

He gained the U.S. title for the first time at age 19, exhibiting a tenacious, material-grabbing bias. That reflected the opportunistic style of New York chess parlors, where games once were played by amateurs and hustlers for as little as 10 cents a contest. Winning was everything.

Evans' sophistication and charm in most circumstances belied his scrappy, mean-streets psychology at the chessboard.

Evans' paean to the game - written almost 40 years ago and republished recently in the Mechanics' Institute chess newsletter - is without parallel.

"Chess is a way of life. It slays boredom and exhilarates the spirit," Evans wrote. "You're always thinking, always in present time. You know you're alive. You are always being challenged and threatened. There is no social purpose - only the joy of trying to create a pocket of beauty in a noisy world."

Source: http://www.dispatch.com

Skipping the usual route

ON CHESS
Phenom forsaking usual title route
Saturday, November 27, 2010 02:53 AM
The Columbus Dispatch

Chess and other competitive heroes often fight their most difficult battles away from the playing area.

So it might be for Magnus Carlsen, whose ascent to the top of the chess pyramid has been seemingly effortless - until now.

The 19-year-old prodigy has publicly waded into the murky realm of chess politics.

He has announced in a formal letter that he won't take part in the upcoming world championship cycle of matches, to be played during a five-year period.

The format, he says, is onerous, favoring the world champion. He also takes issue with the seeding procedures and the length of the cycle.

He emphasizes that "The proposal to abolish the privileges of the world champion in the future is not in any way meant as criticism of, or an attack on, the reigning world champion, Viswanathan Anand, who is a worthy world champion, a role-model chess colleague and a highly esteemed opponent."

Carlsen intends to continue to hone his skills on the tournament trail.

But, because of his decision to skip the championship cycle, he will lose at least five years in his quest for the world title - whatever the long-term result of his call for reforming a selection system that is widely acknowledged as cumbersome.

Shelby Lyman is a Basic Chess Features columnist.

http://www.dispatch.com