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Playing quarterback is a lot like playing chess reading the whole field (board), knowing the capabilities of each player (piece), and seeing multiple moves into the future. It just so happens that Kyler Murray is good at both playing quarterback and playing chess.

The Cardinals' second-year quarterback picked up chess in the fourth grade, according to ESPN. It's a hobby hestill plays does now, mostly via an app on his phone. Murray's chess playing has gotten a bit more attention recently thanks to the streaming series, "The Queen's Gambit," which prompted the Week 10 CBS broadcast to put together a segment called "Kyler's Gambit" where he was pictured moving around on a chess board.

It's not just a recent hobby for Murray, though. He joined the chess club at Degan Elementary School in Lewisville, Texas. It took place from 3-3:45 p.m. on Thursdays in the school's library, according to ESPN, and Murray quickly became one of the best players among the 110 club members.

"I took pride in it, for sure, just because I take pride in everything I do," Murray told ESPN in 2019. "Most athletes probably aren't going to be that good at chess, so we were coming in, beating the guys that you would call I don't call them nerds, but the guys that are supposed to be smarter than us. So it was kind of funny to see us go to the chess club and run it."

MORE: How good was Kyler Murray at baseball?

Murray finished his elementary school career as the Degan Elementary chess champion, with his final game of chess as an elementary student a win in the club's single-elimination tournament. More than a decade later, Murray still plays games, most often on his phone these days in the appChess With Friends.

He told ESPN that his username isn't exactly disguised, although he declined to reveal it. That means someone could pick up Chess With Friends and potentially play against Murray. He'd probably win, though.

Murray almost always goes with the same move, per ESPN: Moving the pawn in front of his king two spaces. From there, it's just all about seeing into the future.

"I think just because of how I was born with the feel of just how to see things before they happen, I guess," Murray told ESPN, "which applies to a lot of things."

MORE: Kyler Murray's incredible high-school football stats

Before the 2020 season, Murray continued his chess-playing with a physical board between him and his future Hall of Fame receiver, Larry Fitzgerald.

Soon after Murray sent out another tweet which read: "1-0 fellas." Because of course he'd won. The top-10 MLB and NFL Draft selection probably would be good at anything he tried, and his long-time chess play is proof of that.

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Cardinals QB Kyler Murray might be the best chess player in the NFL - Sporting News

Chess Mistakes

Even though the chess in "The Queen's Gambit" was done extremely well, the keenest eyes have found a few mistakes.

"The Queen's Gambit" mentions many, many chess terms. Here is a glossary of most of these chess terms:

Although Beth Harmon and the characters in "The Queen's Gambit" are fictional, there are many references to famous chess players. Here are some of the players mentioned in the show:

GM

GM

GM

GM

GM

Nona Gaprindashvili became the Women's World Champion at the age of 20 and held the title for 16 years (from 1962-1978). She was the first woman to be awarded the grandmaster title in history. She is widely accepted as one of the strongest female chess players of all time.

There are many other famous chess players highlighted in "The Queen's Gambit" including

It is not only chess terms and players that are highlighted in the series

The Queen's Gambit is the opening that is most referenced in the show, and the opening that the miniseries gets its name from. The opening is an excellent metaphor for Beth's lifesacrifices and hardships lead her to the top. The show displays both the Queen's Gambit Accepted and the Queen's Gambit Declined.

After 1.d4 d5 2.c4 the starting position for the Queen's Gambit is reached:

Black accepts the gambit by capturing the c4-pawn with 2... dxc4, and can decline it by playing 2... e6. Here is a short

The Sicilian Defense is another heavily featured opening. Mr. Shaibel, the janitor, was the first to introduce this opening to Beth in the first episode. It is an aggressive opening that Beth adds to her opening repertoire immediately, and is still the most popular choice to meet 1.e4 today.

The Sicilian Defense is reached after the moves 1.e4 c5:

Although there are many variations of the Sicilian Defense in the show (Sicilian dragon, Levenfish attack, Rossolimo attack, Scheveningen, and more) the Najdorf variation is mentioned and displayed the most. Benny Watts plays the Najdorf against Beth in their first meeting and Beth plays it herself. It is a very difficult opening line to master because of its many subvariations and advanced themesa challenge that does not intimidate the eight-year-old Beth.

The Najdorf variation of the Sicilian Defense is reached after the moves 1.e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6:

Here is a short

The Caro-Kann Defense is another mainstream opening that appears in the miniseries. Beth's friend and opponent in the final round of the 1963 Kentucky State Championship, Harry Beltik, plays this defense against her, and Benny Watts is talking about this opening with a small crowd when Beth first meets him. Unlike the Sicilian Defense, the Caro-Kann is not aggressive and has a very solid reputation. It is reached after the moves 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5:

Here is a short

This hypermodern opening for White was played by Beth against Mr. Ganz, Duncan High School's chess coach. Unlike the popular openings 1. e4 and 1. d4, the Reti opening does not begin the game with a pawn move. Instead, it develops a knight to control the center and begins with 1. Nf3:

You can learn more about the Reti opening

Shirley Munson, one of Mr. Ganz's students and treasurer of the chess club, asks Beth if she plays the King's Gambit. This dialogue occurs when both girls are on their way to Beth's simul in Duncan High School's chess club. The King's Gambit is a romantic attacking opening and was one of the most popular openings of the 19th century, though it has fallen out of favor in more recent times. It begins with moves 1. e4 e5 2.f4:

Here is an

Beth mentions that she played "the Marshall" when talking to her mother while playing in the US Open. She is referring to the Marshall Attack, an aggressive and advanced variation for Black in the very popular Ruy Lopez opening. After the moves 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 the Ruy Lopez' starting position is reached:

The Marshall Attack occurs after the moves 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. 0-0 Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 0-0 8. c3 d5:

This advanced line is covered in great detail in a

Do you need a refresher on what happened in each episode? Then read these episode summaries for each episode below:

Elizabeth "Beth" Harmon goes to an orphanage after her mother dies when she is only eight-years-old. She soon develops an obsession with chess after seeing the janitor, Mr. Shaibel, playing it in the basement. She also becomes addicted to tranquilizers that the staff gives to all of the orphans.

Teenage Beth gets adopted and moves to a house in the suburbs. As she struggles to adapt to her new life, she devises a plan to enter a chess tournament.

Beth goes to Cincinnati to play in a tournament and her performance puts her in the limelight. Many tournaments and media appearances later, Beth sets her eyes on the US Open.

Beth takes Russian classes and widens her social circle. She goes to Mexico City to play in an invitational tournament where she faces Grandmaster Borgov for the first time. Beth's mother comes along to meet an old friend.

Beth is back in Kentucky and reconnects with an old opponent who offers to help her prepare for the US Championship.

After training with Benny Watts in New York, Beth goes to a tournament in Paris where she will face Borgov again. However, a crazy night sends Beth on a self-destructive streak.

Beth gets reunited with an old friend and comes to terms with her past and priorities. She goes to Russia to play the biggest match of her life.

We hope you enjoyed this article and the miniseries. Keep an eye on this article, as we will be expanding on it as more content is created! Let us know your favorite part of the show in the comments below.

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The Queen's Gambit On Netflix - All The Info - Chess.com

The Washington State Chess Team won the first State Chess Cup after competing against 30 teams over the past few months - and all of it was done virtually.

REDMOND, Wash. Did you know Washington state is home to the newest national champions? The chess champions, that is -- checkmate!

The Washington State Chess Team has officially won the first State Chess Cup. They competed against 30 teams over the past few months and earned the championship cup after knocking out Team Michigan in the finals.

"This is a big deal because Washington is just not on the national map for chess," said Team Captain Jacob Mayer.

The competition was organized to be virtual because of the coronavirus pandemic and organizers said that boosted the number of participants because there was no travel barrier.

The chess matches all took place online and players had to also connect on Zoom to provide an alternate view to avoid cheating.

Spectators watched online and Seattle Twitch host Tim Moroney streamed all four games in each round to provide commentary and strategy analysis.

Team Washington state is comprised of a up to eight people with four competing as a roster team.

The championship team featured Kyle Haining, Derek Zhang, Rushaan Mahajan and Advaith Vijayakumar.

The competitors admitted that chess is experiencing a boom thanks to the popularity of the Netflix series Queens Gambit.

Mayer said timing is everything and chess is growing by the day.

"The whole quarantine situation has also given people more time to stay home and take up a new hobby and chess is perfect for that," said Mayer.

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Washington state team crowned national chess champions - KING5.com

A collegiate chess competition isnt a typical excuse for a college student to pull an all-nighter.

However, for one student on the University of Missouri chess team, competing at the recent 2020 U.S. Online Collegiate Rapid and Blitz Championship, his last round didnt finish until around 4 a.m. local time in India. As the global coronavirus pandemic has caused life adjustments for many people around the globe, Mizzous chess team has also adjusted to competing in virtual chess tournaments while five team members are at Mizzou and the others are overseas in their home countries.

Mizzous coach, Cristian Chirila, a Romanian grandmaster, said accommodating all of the different time zones for his players was not a huge undertaking because the team had already hosted many meetings and practices online.

Weve been able to continue practicing normally, more or less, Chirila said. Were lucky as chess players, in that regard.

An unprecedented season

Grigory Oparin, the captain of the Mizzou chess team, is earning a graduate degree in Spanish while regularly participating in online chess competitions. The continuous journey of improvement inspires Oparin to keep playing, even during a pandemic that has changed the way the sport looks. Playing chess online, using online platforms and video conference apps has its added challenges fatigue from focusing intensely on a computer screen, potential internet connection issues and even the necessity to make quick moves on the virtual chessboard with a computer mouse.

Playing chess online is just a completely different experience than playing over the board, Oparin said. When youre playing over the board, you see your opponents emotions and the way hes handling the pressure. You cant do that when youre playing online, just staring at your screen, moving some virtual pieces.

However, playing online has not been a barrier to the teams success.

Grigory Oparin competes next to teammate Chris Repka during the 2020 U.S. Online Collegiate Rapid and Blitz Championship.

At the virtual 2020 U.S. Online Collegiate Rapid and Blitz Championships, the team placed fourth overall out of 25 teams for the rapid championship and earned a bronze award for the blitz championship. In addition, Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova and Olga Badelka took silver and bronze awards, respectively, in the womens section.

Collegiate chess is becoming increasingly competitive. Some of the teams Mizzou competed against had more than twice as many players as Mizzou did including top-level grandmasters. Oparin, a grandmaster himself, earned a fourth place individual finish in the blitz championship.

Coach Chirila looks forward to the opportunity to physically see all of his team members face-to-face, especially as some of the new players could not travel to Mizzou due to the pandemic.

We all miss touching the chess pieces by hand, Chirila said.

Chirilas ultimate goal for the Mizzou chess team remains to win a national championship, whether over the board or on a computer screen.

Eric Stann is a research news strategist at the University of Missouris News Bureau.

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On Chess: Mizzou's Chess Team Proves Capable Of Winning Even In A Virtual Space - St. Louis Public Radio

FOOTBALL | GRAEME SOUNESS

Sunday November 22 2020, 12.01am, The Sunday Times

Football is facing the biggest crossroads since it was invented. The evidence is unequivocal heading a ball can lead to brain damage and dementia. Id be a dinosaur to suggest otherwise. If it can be proved that one person has dementia as a result of heading the ball, and it has been, then thats enough for me to accept we must do something to eliminate it.

What that is, I dont know yet, but I do know that it will change the game forever. Football will face a challenge to remain the worlds No 1 sport. The balancing act is to preserve the game we all love as much as possible while ensuring that nobody suffers brain damage playing it.

I have played with

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Outlawing heading would turn football into chess but game has to act to break dementia link - The Times

11/22/2020 Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books about chess training and chess strategy. In the second part of his new ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving" Herman explains how to find ways to improve the activity of your pieces. | Photo: Hans Hoornstra

ChessBase 16 - Mega package Edition 2021

Your key to fresh ideas, precise analyses and targeted training! Everyone uses ChessBase, from the World Champion to the amateur next door. It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.

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Lots of books have been written about strategic thinking in chess. In general, quite abstract theories are sometimes put forward on how a club player can master this essential part of the game of chess. This often turns out to be disappointing in practice.

Strong players often have the right orientation in a certain position quite quickly and then the question is of course how they do that. This episode looks very specifically at how a player can improve the activity of his pieces and possibly disrupt that of the opponent.

To do this, we first look at which side of the board the battle scene is located on. To determine which pieces are already active and which can still be improved, we use colors just to show the difference between the white and the black army. It is not surprising that in this game increasing activity leads to a ruthless attack. Have a look at this diagram for yourself.

At which side of the board do you think both players are looking now? And which pieces of White are already doing something there? Which pieces should preferably be activated even more? And how can White combine his plan of attack with increasing his own activity? In this episode, we look at how the white player manages to bring all his pieces into play to make his attack work at full speed.

This week's show (for Premium Members only)

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Understanding before Moving 2: How to improve the activity of my pieces - Chessbase News

Neighbors please be mindful of social distancing guidelines while you do your part to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. See the latest guidance from the CDC here.

This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

While located in Fremont, Any location is welcome!

Who are we? - Our School 😉

Please take thought of our offered activity in a cost that is affordable to the families therein giving all students some fun and learning and perhaps the new ones to CHESS an opportunity to learn and see to further their skills within the sport and or not ... never know till try.

Age's are from K ~ 6th Grade

~ Register Here ~

Worry not if they not even know what a pawn is, as we have taught such to now a level in months to playing mini tournaments in our class all online.

We use the software ChessKid.Com and are organized to which have many students in current and the factor of them interacting is just as important as the sport itself

So join us and try it out it will be fun (to keep safe and fun, all students "must" register. Join the day, two or three ...

All regular Chess classes this coming week and private 1-1 Chess classes are closed for break as to bring about this Chess Camp 😉

Here is one of our student in learning 😉

~ Register Here ~

Who are we? - Our School 😉

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Local Event: Thanksgiving Chess Camp For The Little Ones ~ Keep Em Active 😉 - Patch.com

Genius Gary Kasparov has given valiant help to the Netflix miniseries.

It even convinces chess fans.

There are sports that generally make for good fictional stories. This is the case of boxing, for example, which has already given us classics from Rocky to The Angry Bull. And then there are others, like football, who have been less generous in this regard. Chess fell more into the latter category. But that seems to have changed.

Gambito de Dama, the Netflix miniseries that debuted less than a month ago and has been at the top of the platform ever since, is proof that this ancient sport, in which games can last for days , is fertile ground for stories and tension.

Part of the credit is the care with which, even though it was a fictional story, it was linked to reality, to the Soviet domination of chess during the Cold War. Another part of the credit is in the cast, especially the talented Anna Taylor-Joy whom NiT talked about at length in a recent article.

Still, all of this might be insufficient if it didnt work when placing the pieces on the board. There had to be something real about the game itself, through the seven episodes that make up the mini-series.

The brilliant Garry Kasparov.

To keep things running smoothly, creators Scott Frank and Allan Scott have relied on help from those who understand the subject. One of those helpers came from Bruce Pandolfini, an instructor and former chess player who had previously consulted on the book of the same name that inspired the series. But theres a reason the games we see on screen are even more believable than the ones in the book: Garry Kasparov.

Kasparov is the Russian talent who, when he doesnt stand out as one of the uncomfortable voices of Vladimir Putin, is dedicated to making history in the chess world. Kasparov was the youngest player to become a world chess champion in 1985, when he was 22. It wasnt until 2002 that 18-year-old compatriot Ponomariov broke the record. For almost 20 years, from the first title to the abandonment of high competition in 2005, Kasparov was number one in the world rankings.

He was also the representative of humanity in a classic game against Deep Blue, a supercomputer designed to beat the best chess minds in the world. In 1996, the computer won one game, but Kasparov won the game, winning three and drawing two more. The following year, another dispute, with the Deep Blue software update, and even so there was balance, with the computer to tie the dispute in its favor to the sixth game.

The moment was historic and worth documentaries, but Kasparov himself admits that few works of fiction can convey the mannerisms, detail, tactical changes, and the tension experienced in a high-level chess tournament.

Kasparov agreed to advise the creators of Damas Gambito and ended up recreating games while also giving advice on how things go in a big tournament. The result is something Kasparov himself is proud of as a spectator. In a recent interview with Slate, Kasparov pointed out how he came to discover little-known genius games to model the movements of pieces on the miniseries set.

Damas Gambito has already become one of the Netflix hits of the year. For Slate, Kasparov admits hes doing everything he can to promote the sport. Recently on his Facebook he shared a report which showed another successful move, now off the board. Since the series launched, research on how to play chess has skyrocketed nearly 300% online. There are new fans for this painting because of the miniseries. With luck, a new super-talent appears, influenced by the miniseries, the story of which would make another great on-screen story.

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How Dama's Gambito nailed the chess world re:Jerusalem - re:Jerusalem

The unstoppable force meets the immovable object.

That phrase might be the best way to describe Sundays game between the Green Bay Packers and the Indianapolis Colts.

The matchup between the Packers offense and the Colts defense in particular will be fun to watch. Green Bays offense hasnt faced a challenge quite like the Colts defense and vice versa:Indianapolis hasnt seen anything quite like the Green Bay offense.

Something has to give. Both teams are nearly identical in DVOA with Green Bay 7th and the Colts 5th. The Packers will be looking to avoid a repeat of their loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and it will be interesting to watch how the team responds to any adversity and punches thrown their way early. If theres been one disturbing trend of Matt LaFleurs tenure, its that his teams often fold when they go down multiple scores early. That cant happen if they want to beat the Colts.

Meanwhile the Colts are looking to separate themselves from the Tennessee Titans in the AFC South after the Titans got off to a fast start. The defense was mentioned above as being stout but what Philip Rivers has brought to the offense cant be overlooked. Rivers has started feeling more comfortable in head coach Frank Reichs scheme and the veteran quarterback is showing he still has what it takes.

Sunday should be a very exciting matchup and should be a good barometer for the Packers as they prepare for a playoff run.

Now for todays curds.

Packers confident they can make some noise against Colts top-ranked defensePackersNews.com

The Colts are solid at all three levels of the defense and like LaFleurs offense, they tend to keep things simple and do those simple things really really well. Its worked so far.

Good on good: Colts defense a big test for Packers offense, and vice versaPackers.com

For the Packers, Sundays game represents a chance for LaFleur to correct some errors. The ill-advised receiver screens against Jacksonville wont work against the speedier Colts defense. Thankfully the game is indoors so weather wont play a role in that decision.

David Bakhtiaris mega-contract means tough 2021 decisions, cuts for PackersESPN

Stop me if if youve heard this before: the Packers have some big decisions to make even with David Bakhtiari and Kenny Clark now under contract for the long haul.

Saints expected to start Taysom Hill at QB vs. FalconsNFL.com

If youre going to pay Taysom Hill the kind of money the Saints are, you have to see if he can be your post-Drew Brees QB1. Sunday will provide the first real extended look at Hill as a traditional passer.

Puerto Rico Policeman Accused Of Robbing Home Depot While In UniformHuffington Post

Officers uniforms have their names on them in most places so this had to have been surprising on multiple levels.

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Packers will have an interesting chess match against the Colts defense - Acme Packing Company

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a lot of peoples interests online, whether thats playing Dungeons & Dragons over Zoom or taking virtual workout classes. But at least one of these interests, online chess, dates back at least 1,000 years. Why is playing chess online so popular?

You love badass games. So do we. Let's play together.

Chess is a deceptively simple gameeasy to learn, but hard to master, as one adage goeswhere each player has 16 pieces. These are eight pawns, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and a king and queen. The board has 64 squares, like a checkerboard, and is easy to refer to using a classic grid notation system used in maps and even the game Battleship: A, B, C, ... along one axis and 1, 2, 3, ... along the other.

The Amazing Math Inside the Rubiks Cube

What this all means is that in order to play a game of chess online, you can work with two players who each have a complete chess set and send moves in word form. Even for the pawns, which are identical, players say knights pawn, bishops pawn, and so forth. That means the earliest online chess players were able to do the same thing: noting moves using grid notation and relative terms for their pieces.

Many of the most masterful chess games require very few moves, compared with how amateurs tend to play. High-level chess players think many steps ahead and can often telescope what their opponents will decide to do. And since each piece has a restriction, like pawns that can only move one square unless its their first move and take other pieces only diagonally, chess is a popular subject for study by game theorists, statisticians, combinatoricians, and more.

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The mathematical nature of the moves has made chess a popular thing to program, and chess-playing artificial intelligence has advanced beyond human players in key ways. A computer first beat a human in 1996, and after a few high-profile incidents, chess tournaments are kept very secure to prevent any kind of computer-aided cheating. Chess engines can run in tandem and give insights as viewers watch major chess matches online.

For a long time, people playing chess online in predecessor systems like bulletin boards could exchange short strings of characters that indicated their moves. You can do this with just lettersK for king, Q for queen, and so forthwith N for knight, since K is already in use.

The Long, Winding History of Rock Paper Scissors

But online chess players, at least, have had another option since at least 1995, when documentation from Unicode confirms the chess pieces were part of the character set likely from the very first version of Unicode. Like card suits, logic and math notation, and certain map and public safety symbols, the people who designed computer fonts knew users were likely to need these special characters to put into newspaper chess columns, for example, or for the actual printing of maps without separate typesetting.

Today, that means almost any online chess arena can introduce full notation with all pieces represented in their real grid. That means games can be pretty low-techno one needs plug-ins or rendered artwork, and exchanging moves is only a few technical steps past sending them back and forth in emails or even the mail. And when much of online chess takes the form of speed matches played in 3 or even 1 minute (!), the less technical overhead, the better.

AI Is Now the Champion of Computer Chess

If you want to wade into online chess, check out Chess.com for both games and a ton of lessons and help as you get started. The Free Internet Chess Server dates back decades, with browser games and an option to download their app. And Lichess, which is "just" 10 years old, is an open-source chess platform that hosts a million games a day.

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Chess Online: How to Play and Win Chess | Chess Tips & Strategies - Popular Mechanics