One Night In Bangkok

Cyberchess · Post by **Cyberchess** » Sat Aug 01, 2015 5:25 pm

There is an excellent article replete with photos of GM Garry Kasparov’s 2013 trip to Southeast Asia, where he was introduced to the chess variants ASEAN Chess, Traditional Burmese/Myanmar Chess and Makruk Thai Chess.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/kasparov-v ... d-thailand

While the first 2 are relatively unknown outside of their principalities, GM Vladimir Kramnik is a huge proponent of the Makruk Thai Chess variant, and played a well-annotated match with the German journalist Dr. Renè Gralla in 2004.

http://www.chessvariants.org/oriental.d ... amnik.html

Murray Head Sends His Regards,
John

Cyberchess · Post by **Cyberchess** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 3:42 pm

There is an interesting and informative article formerly published in Chess Life magazine (March, 1999) on material imbalances in chess by GM Larry Kaufman:

http://home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Art ... alance.htm

In the following article, GM Kaufman relates his experience with and assessment of various chess/shogi relatives/variants:

http://www.shogi.net/shogi-l/Archive/1999/Nfeb07-06.txt

People experienced in the arts of both chess and shogi acknowledge that material imbalances play a much greater part in determining the outcome of a chess match as they do in the game of shogi. This I believe to be primary factor that, at least for the time being, prevents the computer from reigning supreme in the shogi world. In the game of shogi, it is common practice for the higher rated player to give a material handicap – often times of several pieces – to a lower rated or beginner opponent. GM Kaufman is one of the foremost experts on shogi handicapping, and has long been heralded as the strongest western player @ 5 Dan.

Knight Odds Regards,
John