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Players may not smoke in the playing area, but only in areas designated by the organiser. Mobile phones may not be used or even switched on. Players may not use any sources of advice, and may not analyse on any device. These and other matters are covered by the FIDE Laws on the conduct of the players.
Chess is an easy game to learn the moves, but a difficult game to master. Strategy is an important part of the game. First of all comes the "openings", about which a great deal is now known. The best-known move, the King's Pawn opening, is the white player moving his king's pawn on e2 forward two spaces to e4. Black can reply to that move in various ways.
The first moves of a chess game are called the "opening". A chess opening is a name given to a series of opening moves. Recognized patterns of opening moves are "openings" and have been given names such as the Ruy Lopez or Sicilian defence. They are listed in reference works such as the "Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings". There are dozens of different openings. They range from gambits, where a pawn, say, is offered for fast development (e.g. the King's Gambit), to slower openings which lead to a maneuvering type of game (e.g. the Réti opening). In some opening lines, the sequence thought best for both sides has been worked out to 20–30 moves, but most players avoid such lines. Expert players study openings throughout their chess career, as opening theory keeps on developing.
The basic aims of the opening phase are:
Players think, and chess databases prove, that White, by virtue of the first move, begins the game with a better chance. Black normally tries to equalise, or to get some counterplay.
The middlegame is the part of the game after most pieces have been developed. It is where most games are won and lost. Many games will end in resignation even before an endgame takes place.<ref name="H/W">Hooper D. and Whyld K. 1992. "The Oxford companion to chess". 2nd ed, Oxford University Press.</ref>
A middlegame position has a structure. That structure is determined by the opening. The simplest way to learn the middlegame is to select an opening and learn it well (see examples in English opening and French defence).
These are some things to look for when looking at a middlegame position:
Here is an example from the borderline between opening and middlegame. In the diagram to the left, White will operate mainly on the Q-side, and Black on the K-side.
White, to play, may wish to cope with Black playing 10...Nf4. He can do this by playing 10.g3, or by playing 10.Re1 so that if 10...Nf4 11.Bf1 will preserve the bishop (in this position an important defensive piece). Or maybe White will plough ahead with 10.c5, the key move on the Q-side.
ChessBase shows that the number of tournament games with these choices were:
The data base also shows that the overall results were significantly better for 10.Re1. What the player does is note the features on the board, and formulate a plan which takes the features into account. Then the player works out a sequence of moves. Of course, in practice, the opponent is interfering with the plan at every step!
The endgame (or "end game" or "ending") is the part of the game when there are few pieces left on the board. There are three main strategic differences between earlier parts of the game and endgame:
All endgame positions can be put into two camps. On the one hand are positions which may be won by force. On the other hand, are positions which are drawn, or which should be drawn. The ones that are drawn for certain may be legally drawn (mate could not happen) or drawn by chess experience (no sane defence could lose). All endgames in master chess revolve around the borderline between winning and drawing. Generally, once a 'textbook' drawn position is reached the players will agree a draw; otherwise they play on.
Endgames can be studied according to the types of pieces that remain on board. For example, king and pawn endgames have only kings and pawns on one or both sides and the task of the stronger side is to promote one of the pawns. Other endings are studied according to the pieces on board other than kings, e.g. rook and pawn versus rook endgame.
Basic checkmates are positions in which one side has only a king and the other side has one or two pieces, enough to checkmate the opponent's king. They are usually learned at the beginner stage. Examples are mate with K+Q v K; K+R v K; K+2B v K; K+B&N v K (this one is quite difficult).
There are two types of chess programs. One is to play against you; the other is to help you become a better player by learning more. The two types can be made to work together, though they have different functions.
Chess engines are computer systems that can play chess games against human opponents. Quite a number have been devised; they can play at master level, though their processes are quite different from a human being.
Fritz is a German chess program by Frans Morsch and Mathias Feist, published by ChessBase. It is the current market leader. There is also a different kind of Fritz called "Deep Fritz" that is made for multi-processing. The latest kinds of the consumer products are Deep Fritz 12 and Fritz 12. They came with reviews by Josh Waitzkin, who said that "Fritz is like a woman that you can't get with. It just drives (makes) you to think in ways you've never thought before".
Shredder, also a ChessBase product, is claimed to be the strongest engine at present.
Rybka, a product by Vasik Rajlich, is Shredder's main rival.
Chess databases do not actually play. They give access to the recorded history of master chess. There are two components. First, there is the software, which lets one search and organise the database material. Then there is the actual database, typically one to four million games.
In practice, databases are used for two purposes. First, for a player to train his/her ability at specific openings. Second, to look up specific opponents to see what they play, and prepare against them beforehand.
The existence of chess databases is one of the reasons young players can achieve mastery at an early age.
ChessBase is the biggest database, and widely used by masters. Although it can be used online, most users download the software and data onto their computer. If that computer happens to be a laptop, then they might take the laptop to tournaments, to help prepare for games. Players may not use computers or any other aid during games, but much preparation goes on behind the scenes. ChessBase has to be purchased, and it is not cheap.
This is a Dutch magazine for advanced players, which runs an on-line database called NicBase as part of its services. NicBase is free, and has over a million games.
Chessgames.com runs an on-line database of games. It is partly free, but requires registration. Full access to all its facilities is by a fairly modest subscription. It has over half a million games on its database.
There are websites which a player can join (for a fee) and play on line. In this case, the subscriber will play against other subscribers, not a computer. All standards of players are amongst the members, and various events are on offer at different rates of play. The two leaders in this market are:
These are endgames for improvers, based on reviews by John Watson.
Gold
Gold is a soft, dense, yellow metal. It is a chemical element. Its chemical symbol is Au. Its atomic number is 79. As a precious metal, it has been used for many thousands of years by people all over the world, for jewelry, and as money. Gold is important because it is rare, but also easier to use than other rare metals. It is also used to repair and replace teeth and in electronic equipment such as computers. The color of this metal is also called "gold".
Mining methods for gold are similar to other metals. Gold is so valued that the discovery of a new place to mine has sometimes caused a gold rush. The deepest workplaces for miners in the world are in South African gold mines.
Often, gold is found as a native metal. This means it is not part of an ore, and does not need smelting. It may be in large, pure nuggets but more often must be separated from other minerals and soil.
Most of the gold on Earth is deep inside the Earth's core because it is dense. Nearly all discovered gold was deposited on the surface by meteorites.
In chemistry, gold is chemical element 79, a transition metal in Group 11. It has an atomic weight of 199.966 a.m.u. Its symbol is Au, from the Latin word for gold, "aurum". It is a "noble metal" meaning it has low chemical reactivity.
Gold is very soft. It is malleable, meaning a goldsmith can hammer it into thin metal sheets. It is also ductile, which means it can be pulled into wire. When it is used in money or in jewelry, it is often alloyed with silver or some other metal to make it harder.
Most metals are gray in color. Gold is yellow because of the way its electrons behave. The only other metal in common use that has a non-gray color is copper. Caesium also has a gold-like color, but it is not commonly used as a metal because it reacts with water.
Gold is a fairly good electrical conductor, but not as good as copper or silver. Copper and brass electrical connectors, especially those used with computer and audio/video equipment, are often plated with gold for corrosion resistance.
Gold can mean that something or someone is very good or has done very well. A gold medal is often the given to the first-place winner in a race or other sports. Something that is in some way good may be given gold status.
Metallic gold is non-toxic, which is unusual for a heavy metal. Soluble gold compounds, however, are toxic to the liver and kidneys. Gold is non-flammable, even in a pure oxygen environment or when finely powdered. It does not react with most household or laboratory chemicals. Gold is commonly processed with cyanide, which is highly toxic. Most of the cyanide is destroyed in the production process, so it is not present in the final product, but it can be a hazard to workers in a gold processing plant. Since gold conducts electricity, gold jewelry should never be worn when working with electricity.
Century
A century is a way to describe a length of time. One century is one hundred years. The ancient Romans used the word "centuria" to describe a group of about one hundred soldiers, organized into a single unit.
The Roman numeral for 100 is "C". The word for 100 in Latin is "centum".
A centenary is a celebration of something that happened 100 years ago. A bicentenary celebrates 200 years, a tercentenary 300 years.
A centenarian is someone who is 100 years old or more.
Centennial means something that happens every 100 years, or that lasts 100 years.
Kilogram
The kilogram is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI). It is in widely used in science, engineering, and commerce worldwide. The kilogram is exactly the mass of one litre of water.
As of May 20, 2019, the definition of the kilogram is based on the Planck constant as .
There are attempts to define the kilogram in other ways. One example specifies a number of atoms of a certain substance (at a certain temperature).
One kilogram is a little more than 2.2 pounds. One tonne is one thousand kilograms. One litre of water weighs almost exactly one kilogram, at , at sea level. This was the basis of the definition of the gram in 1795.
In 1879, the piece of metal was made. It was officially chosen to be the kilogram in 1889. It was made of 90% platinum and 10% iridium. Those metals were chosen because they do not rust or corrode like most metals. It is stored in a vault at the BIPM in Sèvres, France. From 1795 to 1799, the unit of mass was not called "kilogram" but was called "grave".
The original kilogram is kept inside bell jars. Over time, dust can collect on it. Before it is measured, it is cleaned to get the original size.
The kilogram is a unit of mass. In normal language, measuring mass defines how "heavy" is something. This is not scientifically correct. Mass is an "inertial property". It measures the tendency of an object to stay at a given speed when no force acts on it.
Sir Isaac Newton's laws of motion contain an important formula: "F" = "ma". "F" is force. "m" is mass. "a" is acceleration. An object with a mass ("m") of one kilogram will accelerate ("a") at one meter per second per second when acted upon by a force ("F") of one newton. This about one-tenth the acceleration due to earth’s gravity.
The weight of matter depends on the strength of gravity. The mass of matter does not. The mass of an object is the same everywhere. Matter has invariant mass assuming it is not traveling at a relativistic speed with respect to an observer. According to Einstein’s theory of special relativity, the relativistic mass (apparent mass with respect to an observer) of an object or particle with rest mass "m" increases with its speed as "M"=γ"m" (where γ is the Lorentz factor). This effect is vanishingly small at everyday speeds, which are by orders of magnitude less than the speed of light, but becomes noticeable at very high speeds. For example, traveling at just 10% the speed of light with respect to an observer—exceedingly fast compared to everyday speeds (about )—increases an object’s relativistic mass just over 0.5%.
As regards the kilogram, relativity’s effect upon the constancy of matter’s mass is simply an interesting scientific phenomenon that has zero effect on the definition of the kilogram and its practical realizations.</ref> Objects are "weightless" for astronauts in microgravity. However, the objects still have their mass and inertia. Astronaut must use ten times as much force to accelerate a ten-kilogram object at the same rate as a one-kilogram object.
A common swing, as shown in the picture, can show the relationship of force, mass and acceleration. Someone could push an adult on the swing. The adult would accelerate slowly. They would only swing a short distance forward before the swing would change direction. If a child is sitting on the swing, then the child would swing forward faster and further.
Second
The second (symbol: s), is a unit of time. There are around 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and 24 hours in a day. This tradition dates back to the Babylonian.
In science, a second is the time it takes for a caesium atom to vibrate 9,192,631,770 (around 9 billion) times. Scientists measure the second this way because the length of a day changes all the time. For example, when the dinosaurs lived, a day was about an hour shorter. Vibrations of atoms on the other hand always take the same time. This atomic second is also called the SI second.
Metric prefixes are frequently combined with the word "second" to denote subdivisions of the second, "e.g.", the millisecond (one thousandth of a second) and nanosecond (one billionth of a second). Though SI prefixes may also be used to form multiples of the second (such as “kilosecond”, or one thousand seconds), such units are rarely used in practice. More commonly encountered, non-SI units of time such as the minute, hour, and day increase by multiples of 60 and 24 (rather than by powers of ten as in the SI system).
One heartbeat of an adult at rest, will last about one second.
Under the International System of Units, the second is currently defined as the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom. This definition refers to a caesium atom at rest at a temperature of (absolute zero). The ground state is defined at zero magnetic field. The second thus defined is equivalent to the ephemeris second.
The international standard symbol for a second is s (see ISO 31-1)
1 international second is equal to:
There are 31,536,000 seconds in a common year, 31,622,400 seconds in a leap year, and 31,557,600 seconds in a Julian year
Originally, the second was known as a "second minute", meaning the second minute (i.e. small) division of an hour. The first division was known as a "prime minute" and is equivalent to the minute we know today. Third and fourth minutes were sometimes used in calculations.
The factor of 60 comes from the Babylonians who used a sexagesimal (base-60) numeral system. However, the Babylonians did not subdivide their time units sexagesimally (except for the day). The hour had been defined by the ancient Egyptians as either 1/12 of daytime or 1/12 of nighttime, hence both varied with the seasons. Greek astronomers, for example Hipparchus and Ptolemy, defined the hour as 1/24 of a mean solar day. Sexagesimally subdividing this mean solar hour made the second 1/86,400 of a mean solar day.
Greek time periods, for example the mean synodic month, were usually specified quite precisely because they were "calculated" from carefully selected eclipses separated by hundreds of years—individual "mean" synodic months and similar time periods cannot be measured. Nevertheless, with the development of pendulum clocks keeping "mean time" (as opposed to the "apparent time" displayed by sundials), the second became measurable. The seconds pendulum was proposed as a unit of length as early as 1660 by the Royal Society of London. The duration of a beat or half period (one swing, not back and forth) of a pendulum one metre in length on the Earth's surface is approximately one second.
In 1956 the second was defined in terms of the period of revolution of the Earth around the Sun for a particular epoch, because by then it had become recognized that the Earth's rotation on its own axis was not sufficiently uniform as a standard of time. The Earth's motion was described in Newcomb's Tables of the Sun, which provides a formula for the motion of the Sun at the epoch 1900 based on astronomical observations made between 1750 and 1892. The second thus defined is
This definition was ratified by the Eleventh General Conference on Weights and Measures in 1960. The "tropical year" in the definition was not measured, but calculated from a formula describing a tropical year which decreased linearly over time, hence the curious reference to a specific "instantaneous" tropical year. Because this second was the independent variable of time used in ephemerides of the Sun and Moon during most of the twentieth century (Newcomb's Tables of the Sun were used from 1900 through 1983, and Brown's Tables of the Moon were used from 1920 through 1983), it was called the ephemeris second.
When atomic clocks were made, they became the basis of the definition of the second, rather than the revolution of the Earth around the Sun.
Following several years of work, Louis Essen from the National Physical Laboratory (Teddington, England) and William Markowitz from the United States Naval Observatory (USNO) determined the relationship between the hyperfine transition frequency of the caesium atom and the ephemeris second. Using a common-view measurement method based on the received signals from radio station WWV, they determined the orbital motion of the Moon about the Earth, from which the apparent motion of the Sun could be inferred, in terms of time as measured by an atomic clock. As a result, in 1967 the Thirteenth General Conference on Weights and Measures defined the second of atomic time in the International System of Units (SI) as
The ground state is defined at zero magnetic field. The second thus defined is equivalent to the ephemeris second.
The definition of the second was later refined at the 1997 meeting of the BIPM to include the statement
The revised definition would seem to imply that the ideal atomic clock would contain a single caesium atom at rest emitting a single frequency. In practice, however, the definition means that high-precision realizations of the second should compensate for the effects of the ambient temperature (black-body radiation) within which atomic clocks operate and extrapolate accordingly to the value of the second as defined above.
Sometimes in role-playing games a second is used to refer to a small period of time or a single turn of combat. It is used as a standard moment of time, and does not necessarily refer to a real second, and could be shorter or longer depending on the scenario.
Orange (color)
Orange is a color. It is the combination of red and yellow.
Orange is the color of an orange fruit, which is where the name of the color comes from. Before the orange fruit was introduced to England in the 1500s, this color was called "yellow-red". The first recorded use of "orange" as a color name in English was in 1512, in the court of King Henry VIII.
Basque Country (greater region)
The Basque Country (Basque: Euskal Herria) is a region in Southwestern Europe that is within the borders of France and Spain.
It is the home of the Basque people. It is at the western end of the Pyrenees on the Bay of Biscay. Its boundaries are complicated, as it consists of seven districts: four within Spain and three within France.
No one knows when the Basques came to Europe. Many say that they have been in Europe since the Neolithic period at the end of the Stone Age, but others say that they were here even earlier.
The first written information about the Basque Country is from the Roman times, when the Basque people already spoke their own language. During the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Basque Country was isolated from the invading Goths.
During the Muslim invasion of Southern Europe, the Basque Country split in two: the Castilian and the Navarrese lands. A war with France later split the Navarrese zone in two.
After the Reconquista, the Castilian Basque lands and Navarre became part of the new country: Spain. Since then, Basque people from the Spanish area of the Basque Country have had their own government and have fought to gain the northern part of the Basque Country from France.
Today, three of the Basque districts in Spain (Araba, Bizkaia, and Gipuzkoa) form the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country. The political unit is one of 17 autonomous communities in Spain.
The fourth Basque district in Spain (Navarra) is its own separate autonomous community of Spain.
The three districts in the North (French) Basque Country are Lapurdi (Labourd), Nafarroa Beherea (Basse-Navarre) and Zuberoa/Xiberoa (Soule).
The entire region has a surface area of 20,664 km (7978 sq mi). The Autonomous Community of the Basque Country has 7,234 km (2793 sq mi), and its population is about 2,000,000 - about 5% of the total population of Spain. Basque and Spanish are spoken, and its largest city is Bilbao although the capital is Vitoria-Gasteiz.
M-theory
M-theory is a new idea in small-particle physics that is part of superstring theory that was initially proposed by Edward Witten. The idea, or theory, often causes arguments among scientists, because there is no way to test it to see if it is true. If ever proven true, M-theory and string theory would mean big progress for science.
To understand M-theory one must first have some knowledge of string theory. For hundreds of years, scientists have thought that the simplest objects in the universe are points, like dots. String theory says that this is wrong and that the simplest objects in the universe are shaped like pieces of string. These strings are so small that even when looked at very closely they look like points. Each basic particle is created by the strings vibrating in different patterns. The reason scientists had not thought of this idea for so long is that strings are much harder to work with than points. They seem to break such rules as causality and special relativity, which says that information cannot travel faster than the speed of light.
String theory has been developed because of a very important problem that has existed for almost 100 years. Albert Einstein's theory that describes the universe on very large scales (it is called general relativity), and it disagrees with two theories that describe things on very small scales (they are called quantum mechanics and the standard model). There are also problems with the Standard Model: it includes about 20 numbers that seem to have no explanation; it has too many "basic particles" - some scientists think it needs to have fewer; and it does not include gravity, which is needed to explain weight.
Many of these problems can be solved by thinking of basic particles as strings. Now there is only one number with no explanation, which gives the size of the strings. String theory includes particles that cause gravity, called gravitons; finding this out delighted the scientists who work on string theory. So, string theory successfully brings General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics together.
But there are some problems with string theory. Normally, we think of the universe as having 4 dimensions, or "basic directions". 3 of these basic directions can be thought of as "up/down", "forward/backward" and "left/right". The other direction is time. String theory needs 10 basic directions.
These six other directions can be explained if they are "curled up", so they are much too small to see. For example, by following the path of a spiral, it is possible to go a great distance along it without moving very far. The 6 other directions can be thought of as tiny spirals - strings can move along them a great distance but not seem to move. This can be looked at as a mathematical trick—a trick that has little to do with the real world that can be seen and touched. Such tricks are allowed if they give a theory that can better tell us how things work.
Another problem with string theory is that there are 5 different versions of it. Each version allows different kinds of strings and says they work in different ways. String theory is supposed to be a "theory of everything" so there should be only one version, not 5. M-theory solves this problem.