January 19th, 2013 - Challenge a grandmaster to a game of chess

I love the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer.  It made me want to play chess the minute that I saw it for the first time.  The problem is that I lacked both the skill of a grandmaster...and a chess board.  Maybe if I hired Ben Kingsley I wouldn't have this problem...

I've rectified the situation for this blog.  I went out today and purchased a board, and decided to challenge someone.  And who better to challenge than a chess Grandmaster.

The rank of "Grandmaster" is awarded by FIDE, which is the world chess organization.  Once this rank is bestowed, it is carried for life.  As of 2012, there were 1380 grandmasters still living in the world.  At random, I chose Gata Kamsky, a Soviet born American chess player.  He is currently the Rapid Chess Champion.  Which means that I am in for quite the gambit.

The chess board is set up as a grid, with the bottom edge assigned letters from a to h, and the side edge numbered from 1 to 8.  I set up the board, and made my first move, pawn to g4 (notated simply as g4), otherwise known as Grob's Attack.  It's an unconventional move, apparently, so maybe that will throw old Kamsky off.

To alert Kamsky of my challenge, I added him as a friend on Facebook, and sent him this simple message: "g4."  If he answers, I plan on playing him via Facebook correspondence.  Check back to see how quickly I lose!