Played US National G60 and G/30 Tournaments in Santa Clara Hyatt

Last weekend I played US National G/60 and G/30 championship at October 1st and 2nd respectively at Santa Clara Hyatt hotel. Bay Area Chess arranged these as usual in different sections. I made 50% scores in both of those at 1800+ (Open) section to my relief. My last month's tournament performance was disappointing (1 win and 3 loss) while this time in G/60 it was 2 loss, 2 win and in G/30 it was 2 loss, 1 draw and 2 win. With this performance now I am a bit relaxed and I think I can still carry on playing competitive tournaments for a few more years even if I don't hit the prize lists.

Here is my G/60 result - https://bayareachess.com/events/11/usg60.php

And here is my G/30 result -https://bayareachess.com/events/11/usg30.php

With this, now I am inspired enough to teach chess to my son and other children from next week.

Quick trip to Lake Tahoe

Last month just before Eid, we went to a quick weekend trip to Lake Tahoe to have some breathe out of my busy office works. And know what, we enjoyed the short trip! We stayed in the beautiful David Walley's Resort few miles from South Lake Tahoe. The second day we spent time in South Lake Tahoe, specially on Gondola Ride. Here is a video and some pictures of that beautiful ride which goes more that 9000 feet above sea level.

Just after coming back and just before the Eid day, Ahyan started his first day at public school.



Saiful visited us from Atlanta in Eid night and spent a few days playing around Ahyan and Suhaila. I took him for a sight seeing to Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco. He bought an XBox Kinect for Ahyan.

The Last Question by Isaac Asimov (1956) - The Best Short Story I Have Ever Read

Last week I finished Nine Tomorrows by Isaac Asimov which I bought along with a bunch of other books recently from Half Price Books, Fremont. One of the short stories there is The Last Question which Asimov wrote in 1956 and rates it as one of his most favorites. The story is such a master piece by the grand master of science fiction writer that I find my vocabulary falling short to praise it! It shows Asimov's depth and breadth of ideas and his love for twists! I took the whole weekend to get out of the aura of this story and yet haven't succeeded completely (the proof is that I am writing this blog post early in the morning while late for my son's school and my office)! I can't help but share with you the story here in case you wish to read it but forget because everyday life will keep you distracted from reading such a novelty and brilliance! Here is an HTML version of it -

http://reviewsonly.blogspot.com/2011/08/last-question-by-isaac-asimov-1956.html

Let me know if you read it and if you liked it. As of now, I am reading his another short story - The Last Answer.

Shakil Became IM, Liza WIM and Zia Moves For World Chess Championship

Great news! My playing partner and gentle younger brother-like chess friend Abu Sufian Shakil has become International Master. Liza also became Women International Master, second only after WIM Rani Hamid. Moreover, Ziaur Rahman winning the 3.2 Zonal tournament will play the next cycle for World Chess Championship representing this zone.

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=179668

Shamima Akhter Liza became country's second Women International Master (WIM) after Rani Hamid, who won it in 1985, as she earned seven points from nine games in Asian Chess Zone 3.2 Championship in Sri Lanka yesterday.

Liza and Ranasinghe of Sri Lanka earned equal seven points but the latter finished top by virue of a tie breaker. Liza had earned her first WIM norm last year during Six Seasons Women's International Rating Chess in Cox's Bazar.

Apart from Liza, FIDE master Abu Sufian Shakil also earned his third and final norm of International Master from the championship as Shakil secured 6.5 points from nine matches to finish third in the men's section where GM Ziaur Rahman finished top to qualify for the World Chess Championship.

Shakil had earned his first IM norm back in 2009 from the National Chess Championship and then secured the second one from a competition in Indian state Orissa last year, according to information provided by Bangladesh Chess Federation.

http://www.prothom-alo.com/detail/date/2011-03-30/news/142789

বাংলাদেশের দাবায় একটা ভালো দিন গেল পরশু। এশিয়ান জোনাল চ্যাম্পিয়নশিপের ৩.২ অঞ্চলের খেলায় চ্যাম্পিয়ন হয়ে আগেই বিশ্বকাপ দাবায় খেলার সুযোগ মিলেছে গ্র্যান্ডমাস্টার জিয়াউর রহমান ও শামীমা আক্তারের (লিজা)। কাল পাওয়া গেল আরও একটি সুসংবাদ।
এশিয়ান জোনাল চ্যাম্পিয়নশিপে তৃতীয় হওয়া আবু সুফিয়ান (শাকিল) পেলেন আন্তর্জাতিক মাস্টারের খেতাব। এর আগে দুটো নর্ম পূরণ করা আবু সুফিয়ানের তৃতীয় নর্ম পূরণ হয়েছে শ্রীলঙ্কায়। সুফিয়ানের সঙ্গে শামীমা আক্তার হয়েছেন মহিলা আন্তর্জাতিক মাস্টার। রানী হামিদের পর দ্বিতীয় মহিলা দাবাড়ু হিসেবে এমন অর্জন শামীমার।

37th People's Chess Tournament In Long Weekend

Last weekend I was quite busy with the 37th People's Chess Tournament in Fremont Marriott. As it was a long weekend, I registered it online through www.bayareachess.com after renewing my US Chess Membership.

After a successful World Cup Cricket 2011 opening ceremony in Dhaka where Bryan Adams, Shankar-Ehsan-Loy, Runa Laila, Sabina Yasmin et al perfomred in the midst of mind blowing fireworks, we gathered in Shahriar's house for the India vs Bangladesh opening match of the world cup in 19th February. He arranged lots of people and we had a nice time gossiping together (Ezaz, Amin, Dhanad, Sayeem, Wali Bhai, Sumit Bhai, Mamun Bhai, Dipu Bhai and some others). Although we lost due to a huge score from Sehwag (175) that took India's total to 370/4 in 50 overs, we gave it a fight by scoring 283/9 without being all out.

That meant I didn't get much sleep for the next morning's chess game in the tournament at 11:30 AM. 

I won the first game nicely, drew a lost game against Kevin, got a win by forfeit in third round, won playing well in fourth game, drew a completely won game in fifth and finally lost a drawn Rook ending in the final (sixth) round. Despite this, I was in the prize list for my group (AB - 1700 to 1899) winning $66. I was jointly 6th-7th-8th for 4.0 out of 6 games. Look at the link below and check the AB section for my name in red in the prize list! I also gained 30 US Chess rating and my new rating now is 1797. I am planning to participate in short tournaments in future as well. This tournament was a 5 hour each game tournament for 6 rounds (move 30/90 + 60 each) spanning 3 days. My colleague Ganesh came twice during the tournament to watch my games and the final evening Amin, Shusmita, Ahyan and Suhaila came. Ahyan was very happy to see this vast gathering of chess players in Fremont Marriott (200+ participants in several groups).

http://bayareachess.com/events/11/221sp.php

In case you are interested for my games, please check my chess blog for the game notations to replay yourself at - http://chess4you.blogspot.com. I am showing you one game here out of those whichI was very happy to win due to it's attack and counter-attacking nature where I kept my head cool under time pressure.

Finally I purchased Shusmita, Ahyan and Suhaila's Bangladesh return trip air tickets calling Cathay Pacific Airways. They will start at 11th March early morning (5 minutes after midnight) and will come back at 6th May. I purchaseed Suhaila's full ticket instead of saving the money so that Shusmita can go comfortably with Ahyan and her. It will be quite difficult for her to handle such a big trip without me while going from San Francisco to Dhaka with a stop over of 10 hours 40 minutes in. Hing Kong. It will purchase my ticket later next month which will be April 9th to May 6th as I could manage 4 weeks leave from office. I received Ahyan and Suhaila's No Visa Required seal in their passports yesterday from Bangladesh Consulate of Los Angeles.

KChess - Chess For Kindle

Today I found KChess, the chess software for Kindle in Amazon. It's built by Oak Leisure Systems Software and is available for $2.99 only.

It has 10 levels of strength, level 1 being the easiest and 10 the strongest. I was surprised to see how good even Level 1 plays. I have won against that after some accurate play and had to play all through a rook end game to win against Level 2. I am now playing against Level 3 and looks like this is the level where I will be stopped for the moment. The app is surprisingly well designed. I wish I could save the games that I play - that's one thing that can be done as additional feature in future release of this app.

I am so happy to get this. This game itself made me think again - Kindle Rocks!

Update: After a few days, I started winning regularly against the highest level (Level 10). I have been playing it now in both my Kindle DX and the new Kindle 3 that I bought for Shusmita this valentines's day.

Salesforce.com Chess Tournament Round 2: Ashik vs Ron

I won the round 2 of chess tournament in Salesforce.com a little earlier playing with black. My opponent was Ron Pragides who sits in seventh floor in the same building as mine. He is Senior Director of Software Engineering. Shishir and Maithili joined me to watch the game. The chess clock we had actually ran out of battery so Ron did an interesting thing. He downloaded a chess clock in his iPhone where we set 20 minutes for each of us. It served the purpose fine!



Ron made the first mistake but I made a follow up mistake too to bring him back in the game. So it went down to Ron to make the final mistake by him through which I was able to mate him. Unlike round 1, this time I was ahead of time.

World Cup is in God's Hand

As world cup cricket 2011 is approaching, some interesting cricket jokes are also on the horizon. Here is one -



I am eagerly looking forward to the opening game of 19th February that will be held in my backyard in Dhaka between Bangladesh and India!

I won the first round of the Chess Tournament in Salesforce.com

I played the first round of the four round chess tournament in Salesforce.com. I won with White, although I felt I am out of touch by a good margin due to the lack of practice. My opponent was Didier Prophete who is PMTS and sits in 3rd floor in the same building as I do. Also I took lot more time than my opponent to move.

However, I will do some practice before next rounds so that I don't make simple miscalculations.



Soon after this, I exchanged the queens to make sure there is nothing left in the board except my Rook and Didier's Bishop while I have a bunch of queens side passed pawns to march for promotion. So he resigned here while I had some 3 minutes left in the clock as opposed to his 9 minutes.

Last few days I finished Himu Rimande and Kichukhkhon by Humayun Ahmed.

New York Trip, Winter 2011

The eve of last year and the whole new year 2011 so far, I have been occupied with my daughter Suhaila and shopping with Ammu for my brother Rasel's marriage. I used my second week of paternity leave from office to visit my Uncle, Aunt and cousins in New York as well as send my Mom to Dhaka with my friend Paul. As a bonus we got snow, lots and lots of snow and snowfall in New York! In that sense this trip during 11th January to 17th January was a highly successful one.

Ezaz dropped us in San Francisco Airport early morning so that we could catch our Delta Airlines flight at 8:30 AM on time. Kakku received us in JFK airport, New York. in the evening. That very night there was continuous snow fall that we watched over the window and enjoyed. As usual Abir, Asif, Roton, Kakku and Aunt were highly delighted to see Ahyan and Suhaila. The next day morning I and Ahyan got down in front of Kakku's house to help him clean snows and take some pictures during that time. The pictures for this trip are at my picasa web album - http://picasaweb.google.com/ashikuzzaman/NewYorkTrip2011#

I went to Paul's house, Jackson Heights, Jamaica, met with Ullash - freely roaming around the streets of New York. Because due to heavy cold and low temparature Ammu, Shusmita, Ahyan or Suhaila couldn't get out of the house much except when we went to Long Island in Dali Aunt house for a dinner invitation. 15th January, Saturday morning Ammu went to Dhaka with Paul and his family from JFK in Emirates. Despite Ammu's recent pain in the leg, she refused to take wheel chair assistance. That same day we went to Nandita's house where Sangita and Beatris were also there to spend time with us. Before coming back to New York, I purchased 2 luggage and filed them with books from Muktodhara of Jackson Heights and all sorts of food from Jamaica. The foods that were outstanding - Sagor Kachchi Biriyani and sweets, Ghoroa Kachchi and Muglai Porota, Pran Mango Juice, various achar and sauces, bhorta, Vapa pitha, Chitoi pitha, Patishapta pitha etc.

We reached back to San Francisco, the next day by JetBlue airport. Dhanad just came from Bangladesh the same day morning. He got healthier as when I last saw him Dhaka, he was as thin as me. Amin and Sumit Bhai picked us from aiport. IN the evening we had a big gathering/party in house as many of our friends with their family paid a visit to us - Ezaz, Shahriar, Sumit Bhai, Amin, Ashfaq, Hasinur.

Measuring Average Differently: Highest Runs Per Innings Discounting Not Out

Happy new year 2011! Last year 2010 was a very important year for me primarily due to the birth of our second daughter Suhaila. The last few days of the year I spent mostly with Ammu and Ahyan shopping for Rasel's engagement and marriage. It's lot of fun. Also I thoroughly enjoyed the India vs South Africa test series during this time. Sreeshant excellent bouncer to make Jack Kallis helpless in the second test turning him into a C shape will remain in my memory as long as I cherish test cricket.

Here is an important number in cricket for batsmen with some modifications from me as a new year gift for the readers - highest batting average. The traditional way of measuring batting average is to divide the total career runs scored by the number of innings he played excluding the not out innings. This way we know before getting out, the batsmen scores how many runs on an average. Forget about the Bradman's magical 99.94, then the good batsmen averages around 50 to 60 runs before getting out once. Amongst our current players, Sangakkara, Tendulkar and Kallis are top in this list. You can get a pick of that list from CricInfo in the following URL - http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/282910.html

A few writers tries to say that the high average of Tendulkar is due to his many not out innings and Lara for his reason is in the lower 50s because of only 6 not out innings in his career (and o boy, 3 of them I call recall are 400*, 375* and famous 153*)! Instead they were saying that if you measure runs per test (no matter if the batsmen could play in both innings or one innings) and discount not outs, then Lara is quite ahead. That is a very unfair comparison because Lara played almost in all Tests in both the innings while Tendulkar didn't get a chance to play in the second innings in many Tests. Instead I believe the measurement below I gave (Runs Per Innings) will give the view they wanted to have, how many runs a batsmen score on an average in each innings played without giving any special tribute for remaining not out in any innings. I have taken a minimum of 5000 test runs scored to filter out bolwers and batsmen I am not interested about. Bradman again obviously comes first with 87.45. Apart from him there are only 10 batsmen who are above 50 with the second placed Jack Hobbs at 53.03.

Player	Span	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	Runs Per Innings	100	50	0
DG Bradman (Aus)	1928-1948	52	80	10	6996	334	99.94	87.45	29	13	7
JB Hobbs (Eng)	1908-1930	61	102	7	5410	211	56.94	53.03921569	15	28	4
KC Sangakkara (SL)	2000-2010	94	156	12	8244	287	57.25	52.84615385	24	34	4
KF Barrington (Eng)	1955-1968	82	131	15	6806	256	58.67	51.95419847	20	35	5
V Sehwag (ICC/India)	2001-2010	86	148	6	7670	319	54.01	51.82432432	22	27	12
WR Hammond (Eng)	1927-1947	85	140	16	7249	336*	58.45	51.77857143	22	24	4
BC Lara (ICC/WI)	1990-2006	131	232	6	11953	400*	52.88	51.52155172	34	48	17
L Hutton (Eng)	1937-1955	79	138	15	6971	364	56.67	50.51449275	19	33	5
SR Tendulkar (India)	1989-2010	176	288	31	14532	248*	56.54	50.45833333	50	59	14
GS Sobers (WI)	1954-1974	93	160	21	8032	365*	57.78	50.2	26	30	12
DPMD Jayawardene (SL)	1997-2010	116	190	13	9527	374	53.82	50.14210526	28	38	11
Mohammad Yousuf (Pak)	1998-2010	90	156	12	7530	223	52.29	48.26923077	24	33	11
JH Kallis (ICC/SA)	1995-2010	144	244	37	11677	201*	56.41	47.85655738	38	54	10
RT Ponting (Aus)	1995-2010	152	259	28	12363	257	53.51	47.73359073	39	56	14
SM Gavaskar (India)	1971-1987	125	214	16	10122	236*	51.12	47.29906542	34	45	12
GC Smith (ICC/SA)	2002-2010	90	157	9	7422	277	50.14	47.27388535	22	29	10
GS Chappell (Aus)	1970-1984	87	151	19	7110	247*	53.86	47.08609272	24	31	12
IVA Richards (WI)	1974-1991	121	182	12	8540	291	50.23	46.92307692	24	45	10
Younis Khan (Pak)	2000-2010	65	116	8	5440	313	50.37	46.89655172	17	21	13
ML Hayden (Aus)	1994-2009	103	184	14	8625	380	50.73	46.875	30	29	14
R Dravid (ICC/India)	1996-2010	149	257	29	12027	270	52.75	46.79766537	31	59	8
Javed Miandad (Pak)	1976-1993	124	189	21	8832	280*	52.57	46.73015873	23	43	6
KP Pietersen (Eng)	2005-2010	70	122	6	5630	227	48.53	46.14754098	17	21	7
RB Kanhai (WI)	1957-1974	79	137	6	6227	256	47.53	45.45255474	15	28	7
RN Harvey (Aus)	1948-1963	79	137	10	6149	205	48.41	44.88321168	21	24	7
DCS Compton (Eng)	1937-1957	78	131	15	5807	278	50.06	44.32824427	17	28	10
Inzamam-ul-Haq (ICC/Pak)	1992-2007	120	200	22	8830	329	49.6	44.15	25	46	15
CH Lloyd (WI)	1966-1985	110	175	14	7515	242*	46.67	42.94285714	19	39	4
KD Walters (Aus)	1965-1981	74	125	14	5357	250	48.26	42.856	15	33	4
WM Lawry (Aus)	1961-1971	67	123	12	5234	210	47.15	42.55284553	13	27	6
JL Langer (Aus)	1993-2007	105	182	12	7696	250	45.27	42.28571429	23	30	11
M Azharuddin (India)	1984-2000	99	147	9	6215	199	45.03	42.27891156	22	21	5
AR Border (Aus)	1978-1994	156	265	44	11174	205	50.56	42.16603774	27	63	11
G Boycott (Eng)	1964-1982	108	193	23	8114	246*	47.72	42.04145078	22	42	10
SR Waugh (Aus)	1985-2004	168	260	46	10927	200	51.06	42.02692308	32	50	22
MD Crowe (NZ)	1982-1995	77	131	11	5444	299	45.36	41.55725191	17	18	9
G Kirsten (SA)	1993-2004	101	176	15	7289	275	45.27	41.41477273	21	34	13
GA Gooch (Eng)	1975-1995	118	215	6	8900	333	42.58	41.39534884	20	46	13
S Chanderpaul (WI)	1994-2010	129	219	34	9063	203*	48.98	41.38356164	22	55	13
AJ Strauss (Eng)	2004-2010	81	146	6	6024	177	43.02	41.26027397	19	23	12
CG Greenidge (WI)	1974-1991	108	185	16	7558	226	44.72	40.85405405	19	34	11
Zaheer Abbas (Pak)	1969-1985	78	124	11	5062	274	44.79	40.82258065	12	20	10
RB Richardson (WI)	1983-1995	86	146	12	5949	194	44.39	40.74657534	16	27	8
ME Trescothick (Eng)	2000-2006	76	143	10	5825	219	43.79	40.73426573	14	29	12
AC Gilchrist (Aus)	1999-2008	96	137	20	5570	204*	47.6	40.65693431	17	26	14
MC Cowdrey (Eng)	1954-1975	114	188	15	7624	182	44.06	40.55319149	22	38	9
MJ Slater (Aus)	1993-2001	74	131	7	5312	219	42.83	40.54961832	14	21	9
MA Taylor (Aus)	1989-1999	104	186	13	7525	334*	43.49	40.45698925	19	40	5
JH Edrich (Eng)	1963-1976	77	127	9	5138	310*	43.54	40.45669291	12	24	6
DI Gower (Eng)	1978-1992	117	204	18	8231	215	44.25	40.34803922	18	39	7
CH Gayle (WI)	2000-2010	91	159	6	6373	333	41.65	40.08176101	13	33	15
VVS Laxman (India)	1996-2010	119	196	30	7856	281	47.32	40.08163265	16	49	12
HH Gibbs (SA)	1996-2008	90	154	7	6167	228	41.95	40.04545455	14	26	11
PA de Silva (SL)	1984-2002	93	159	11	6361	267	42.97	40.00628931	20	22	7
RR Sarwan (WI)	2000-2009	83	146	8	5759	291	41.73	39.44520548	15	31	10
IM Chappell (Aus)	1964-1980	75	136	10	5345	196	42.42	39.30147059	14	26	11
GR Viswanath (India)	1969-1983	91	155	10	6080	222	41.93	39.22580645	14	35	10
DC Boon (Aus)	1984-1996	107	190	20	7422	200	43.65	39.06315789	21	32	16
MP Vaughan (Eng)	1999-2008	82	147	9	5719	197	41.44	38.9047619	18	18	9
ME Waugh (Aus)	1991-2002	128	209	17	8029	153*	41.81	38.41626794	20	47	19
SC Ganguly (India)	1996-2008	113	188	17	7212	239	42.17	38.36170213	16	35	13
SP Fleming (NZ)	1994-2008	111	189	10	7172	274*	40.06	37.94708995	9	46	16
GP Thorpe (Eng)	1993-2005	100	179	28	6744	200*	44.66	37.67597765	16	39	12
Saleem Malik (Pak)	1982-1999	103	154	22	5768	237	43.69	37.45454545	15	29	12
DB Vengsarkar (India)	1976-1992	116	185	22	6868	166	42.13	37.12432432	17	35	15
ST Jayasuriya (SL)	1991-2007	110	188	14	6973	340	40.07	37.09042553	14	31	15
DL Haynes (WI)	1978-1994	116	202	25	7487	184	42.29	37.06435644	18	39	10
MA Atherton (Eng)	1989-2001	115	212	7	7728	185*	37.69	36.45283019	16	46	20
JG Wright (NZ)	1978-1993	82	148	7	5334	185	37.82	36.04054054	12	23	7
AJ Stewart (Eng)	1990-2003	133	235	21	8463	190	39.54	36.01276596	15	45	14
MS Atapattu (SL)	1990-2007	90	156	15	5502	249	39.02	35.26923077	16	17	22
N Hussain (Eng)	1990-2004	96	171	16	5764	207	37.18	33.70760234	14	33	14
CL Hooper (WI)	1987-2002	102	173	15	5762	233	36.46	33.30635838	13	27	13
A Ranatunga (SL)	1982-2000	93	155	12	5105	135*	35.69	32.93548387	4	38	12
IT Botham (Eng)	1977-1992	102	161	6	5200	208	33.54	32.29813665	14	22	14
N Kapil Dev (India)	1978-1994	131	184	15	5248	163	31.05	28.52173913	8	27	16
MV Boucher (ICC/SA)	1997-2010	138	194	23	5257	125	30.74	27.09793814	5	33	16