Twitter Fail

I knew that Twitter was planning to increase the character limit for tweets from 140 to 280 but I thought it was yet to be rolled out to the majority of users. It came as some surprise to learn that it had been rolled out in early November of 2017. I regularly use the Twitter app on OS X for tweeting from my three Twitter accounts and had not noticed any change.

This is Twitter version 4.3.2 and so I naturally thought I'd forgotten to update. A check at the App store however, revealed that I had the latest version but it hadn't been updated since March 2017. What a joke! Anyway, I've now deleted the app and will open three separate browsers for my three separate accounts: Chrome for @SeanReeves, Safari for @BabaParvardigar and Firefox for @voodooguru1949. I could use Tweetdeck to handle the multiple accounts but I noticed that it hasn't been updated in quite a while so I'm not going to take the risk. I'll stick to browsers as much as possible now and eschew OS X apps.

UPDATE: I did finally download Tweetdeck in February of 2018 and have registered all three accounts. It seems to be working fine at the moment.

A Review of Educational Resources

Looking at my first post on this blog (Sunday, March 15th 2009), I noticed that I had a link to my Edublog's site that was still operational. My very first entry there was in September of 2007 and my last on December 24th 2008, almost exactly 9 years ago. I ceased using the Edublog site for blogging because it only offered 20Mb of storage. I'm not sure what it offers now. The blog is powered by WORDPRESS so it looks good.

I did have the Edublogs' app on my phone for a time but I've since deleted as it's really only useful if one has a class of students. Nonetheless, it's interesting to look back at past posts and read about my battles getting Ubuntu to work properly on my laptop. I'm reminded that I do have a WORDPRESS site at seanreeves.wordpress.com. It's titled Staying Healthy but I haven't made much use of it. My first entry was:

• Getting Fit (August 5th 2010) followed by 
• Zen Buddhist Meditation Technique Wins Survey (August 8th 2010)
• Ramadan and Muhammad (September 5th 2010)
• Desy and Sabina jalan jalan (September 19th 2011) and lastly 
• Weight Comparison: 2010 versus 2017 (May 19th 2017)

On the subject of students, I still have my free Moodle Cloud site active at http://seanreeves.moodlecloud.com but have made no use of it recently. I also have MAMP installed on my laptop but again haven't used it in quite a while. Having thought of MAMP however, I've taken the opportunity to download the latest version of the software: MAMP 4.2.1 (a 331Mb download from here although it's still not operational at the time of writing). May as well keep it up to date. I find it hard to let go of these relics of the past. There is of course Google Classroom as well, which I've only dabbled with briefly.

CHESS: A BUMBLED DRAW

I played a game at club level against Fritz Online and remembered that one needed a premium account to export files in PGN format. So I took a screenshot of the PGN displayed on Fritz Online and tried unsuccessfully to use OneNote and Google Docs to convert the image to text. Apparently it can be done but it defeated me. I turned to Google Keep and fortunately it was a very straightforward process. So I pasted the text into ChessX and things worked fine, so now I'm pasting the game into this blog. It's a game I should have won I'm sure but in the end was lucky not to lose, having overlooked a pin to my Queen from Fritz's Rook.

[Event "Casual Match"] [Site "Spring Hill"] [Date "2017.12.23"] [Round "4"] [White "Fritz: set to club player handicap"] [Black "Sean Reeves"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "E15"] 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.Qc2 Bb7 6.Bg2 c5 7.e3 Nc6 8.0-0 Rc8 9.a3 h6 10.Nbd2 Be7 11.b3 0-0 12.Bb2 cxd4 13.exd4 Qc7 14.Rac1 Rcd8 15.Rfe1 g5 16.Ne5 Nxe5 17.dxe5 Nh7 18.Be4 Bxe4 19.Nxe4 Qc6 20.Rcd1 b5 21.c5 Rb8 22.b4 Ra8 23.Nd6 Rab8 24.Rd2 Rbd8 25.Red1 Kg7 26.g4 Kg8 27.Rd3 Rb8 28.Rh3 Kg7 29.Ne4 Rfe8 30.Rd6 Bxd6 31.exd6+ f6 32.Nxf6 Nxf6 33.Bxf6+ Kxf6 34.Rxh6+ Ke5 35.Qc3+ Kd5 36.Qd3+ Ke5 37.f4+ gxf4 38.Rh5+ Kf6 39.g5+ Ke5 40.g6+ Kf6 41.Rh6 Rg8 42.g7+ Kxg7 43.Qg6+ Kf8 44.Rh8 Rxh8 45.Qf6+ Kg8 46.Qg6+ Kf8 47.Qf6+ Kg8 48.Qg6+ Kf8 1/2-1/2

It would seem that 39.g5+ was not the best move and that better would have been 39.Qh7 after which it's clearly curtains for Fritz. White has the luxury of not being able to be checked by the Black Queen, even though quite exposed. The g pawn is a shield against the Black Rook but this pawn was lost when I followed the line that I did.

CHESS: HOW TO EMBED A FULL CHESS GAME IN A BLOG

In this blog post I challenged myself to learn how to embed an entire game into a blog post, specifically this current blog post. I succeeded without too much difficulty. I've embedded a rather wild game from the Spassky versus Fischer World Championship Match in Reykjavik in 1972.

To get it to work (using the information on chessbase link), the PGN file is pasted into the HTML between DIV tags as follows:

Then some Javascript needs to be pasted in so that the ChessBase server can be accessed.

This is similar to how LaTeX gets rendered when I'm creating a mathematical post. While viewing in a browser in Android however, the LaTeX doesn't get rendered whereas with the embedded chess game, it does. However, in the Blogger app for Android, it is not displayed.

I guess what I need to investigate now is what control I have over how the game appears and what other chess websites provide this sort of service.

[Event "World Championship 28th"] [White "Spassky, Boris V"] [Black "Fischer, Robert James"] [Site "Reykjavik"] [Result "1–0"] [Date "1972.08.06"] [WhiteElo "2660"] [BlackElo "2785"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4 Qb6 8. Qd2 Qxb2 9. Nb3 Qa3 10. Bxf6 gxf6 11. Be2 h5 12. 0-0 Nc6 13. Kh1 Bd7 14. Nb1 Qb4 15. Qe3 d5 16. exd5 Ne7 17. c4 Nf5 18. Qd3 h4 19. Bg4 Nd6 20. N1d2 f5 21. a3 Qb6 22. c5 Qb5 23. Qc3 fxg4 24. a4 h3 25. axb5 hxg2+ 26. Kxg2 Rh3 27. Qf6 Nf5 28. c6 Bc8 29. dxe6 fxe6 30. Rfe1 Be7 31. Rxe6

CHESS: The Budapest Gambit

I had been studying The Budapest Gambit via Bogdan Lalić's late 90's ebook described by the Amazon bookstore as "a relatively rare but sound attempt by Black to disrupt White's smooth development and this book provides up-to-date coverage of this sharp opening, ever-popular at club level". With the Black pieces against OS X's Chess program I played this opening but was surprised when White played 4.Qd4 which does not appear in any of the main lines covered in the book. However, there is a reference to this move in Games 73 and 74:

The book suggests that the best continuation for Black is 4...d6 which is what I played in my game. After which, play proceeds as 5.exd6 Bxd6 after which White plays 6.Nf3 in Game 74 and 6.Q4+ in Game 73. In my game, White played the former and play continued thus:

This led to the following position after Black's 19th move:

My position, I thought, was pretty solid but then White made a completely unexpected move, viz. 20.Nd5 cutting off my black-squared Bishop from the support of the Rooks.

I first tried 20...Bxf2+ but that doesn't work out so well. In the end I settled on 20...cxd5 which led to a drawn position although the program didn't concede a draw. Instead it just kept playing. Below is the situation after a seemingly interminable 169 moves, snapped from my perspective playing with the Black pieces (note HGFEDCBA file order from left to right):

I won't put down all the 169 moves but these moves (up to move 53 show where things are headed):

The chess program in OS X has a glitch whereby it crashes whenever I attempt to save the game in PGN format. It would be nice to learn how to embed a game with controls as they do on most of the online chess sites. I must investigate how to do this, otherwise my blog posts are rather limited.

INDONESIAN: The 101-200 Most Frequently Used English Words Translated

The words were taken from this site. The first 100 words can be found here.

Over - You need to flip the book over --> Anda perlu membalik buku itu (membalik = flip over)

New - She bought a new car --> Dia membeli mobil baru

Sound - The sound from the house is loud --> Suara dari rumah itu nyaring

Take - I will take my bag with me --> Saya akan membawa tas saya bersamaku

Only - She is the only person here --> Dia satu-satunya orang di sini

Little - That is a little dog --> Itu adalah anjing kecil

Work - They work every day --> Mereka bekerja setiap hari

Know - We know how to make an omelette --> Kita tahu bagaimana membuat omelet

Place - The place is right around the corner --> Tempatnya tepat di tikungan (tikungan = bend)

Year - We had a great year --> Kami mengalami tahun yang indah

Live - We live near the ocean --> Kita tinggal di dekat laut

Me - She told me to hurry --> Dia menyuruhku buru-buru (suruh = tell)

Back - We need to go back --> Kita harus kembali (kembali = go back)

Give - They give money to the church --> Mereka memberi uang ke gereja

Most - Most people like to sing on their birthday --> Kebanyakan orang suka bernyanyi di hari ulang tahun mereka

Very - We liked the meal very much --> Kami menyukai makanannya sangat banyak

After - They came after we did --> Mereka datang setelah kita melakukannya

Thing - That thing is over there --> Benda itu ada di sana (benda = object)

Our - That is our house --> Itu adalah rumah kami (the non-inclusive our is required here)

Just - You came just in time --> Anda datang tepat pada waktunya

Name - My name is David --> Nama saya David

Good - That is a good dog --> Itu adalah anjing yang baik

Sentence - She wrote a long sentence --> Dia menulis sebuah kalimat panjang

Man - That man is very big --> Orang itu sangat besar

Think - I think I will eat tofu tonight --> Kupikir aku akan makan tahu malam ini

Say - They say we should read more --> Mereka bilang kita harus membaca lebih banyak

Great - You have a great car --> Anda memiliki mobil yang bagus

Much - How much does that cost? --> Berapa harganya?

Before - You should eat a good breakfast before school --> Anda harus makan sarapan yang enak sebelum sekolah

Mean - She has a mean cat --> Dia memiliki kucing jahat

Old - I am an old man --> Saya orang tua

Boy - The boy is happy in school --> Anak itu senang di sekolah

Follow - I need to follow them --> Aku harus mengikutinya

Also - She is also learning English --> Dia juga belajar bahasa Inggris

Around - She drove around the building --> Dia berkeliling gedung

Where - Where are you from? --> Dari mana kamu berasal?

Help - They help people all of the time --> Mereka membantu orang sepanjang waktu

Through - I walked through the door --> Aku berjalan melewati pintu

Line - We must stand in line for a while --> Kita harus antre untuk sementara waktu (antre = stand in line or line up)

Right - We need to turn right at the next light --> Kita harus berbelok ke kanan pada cahaya berikutnya

Too - That watch costs too much --> Jam tangan itu harganya terlalu mahal

Any - You can come any time that you want --> Anda bisa datang kapan saja yang Anda inginkan

Same - We have the same shirt --> Kami memiliki kemeja yang sama

Tell - They will tell them to come here --> Mereka akan menyuruh mereka datang kesini

Came - She came to our party --> She came to our party

Want - I want a Pepsi --> Saya ingin sebuah Pepsi

Show - She will show them her house --> Dia akan menunjukkan rumahnya padanya

Form - That form is difficult to fill out --> Formulir itu sulit untuk diisi

Three - We have three pencils --> Kami memiliki tiga pensil

Small - That is a small computer --> Itu komputer kecil

Set - They need to set the plate down --> Mereka perlu meletakkan piringnya

Put - She put her foot down --> Dia menurunkan kakinya (menurunkan = put down)

End - The end is coming --> Akhir akan datang

Does - She does not like spinach --> Dia tidak suka bayam (does is implied)

Another - We had another friend come by --> Kami punya teman lain yang datang

Well - He did very well --> Dia melakukannya dengan sangat baik

Large - She drank a large Coke --> Dia minum Coke besar

Must - We must watch that game --> Kita harus menonton pertandingan itu

Big - We have a big house --> Kami punya rumah besar

Even - Two is an even number --> Dua adalah angka genap

Such - We had such a good time --> Kami menikmati saat yang sangat baik

Because - We ate a sandwich because we were hungry --> Kami makan sandwich karena kami lapar

Turn - We will turn the wheel --> Kami akan memutar roda

Here - We are here right now --> Kami di sini sekarang

Why - Why did they come? --> Mengapa mereka datang?

Ask - I will ask them again --> Saya akan bertanya lagi

Went - She went home --> Dia pulang ke rumah

Men - There are five men inside --> Ada lima pria di dalamnya

Read - I read every day --> Saya membaca setiap hari

Need - I need to eat --> Aku butuh makan

Land - The land is expensive --> Tanahnya mahal

Different - They have a different opinion --> Mereka memiliki pendapat yang berbeda

Home - I will go home --> Aku akan pulang (pulang = go home)

Us - She bought us dinner --> Dia membelikan makan malam untuk kami

Move - They will move home --> Mereka akan pindah rumah

Try - I will try again --> Aku akan mencoba lagi

Kind - She is a kind person --> Dia adalah orang baik

Hand - Her hand is big --> Tangannya besar

Picture - I took a picture --> Aku berfoto

Again - They came again --> Mereka datang lagi

Change - We will change cars --> Kami akan mengganti mobil

Off - Please turn the lights off --> Matikan lampu (matikan = turn ... off)

Play - I will play with my friends --> Saya akan bermain dengan teman-teman saya

Spell - I need to spell that word --> Saya perlu mengeja kata itu

Air - The air is nice --> Udara bagus

Away - I will go away --> Aku akan pergi (pergi = go away)

Animal - A cat is an animal --> Seekor kucing adalah binatang

House - We have a nice house --> Kami memiliki rumah yang bagus

Point - She made a good point --> Dia membuat titik yang bagus

Page - Please write on the page --> Silahkan tulis di halaman

Letter - She wrote a nice letter --> Dia menulis surat yang bagus

Mother - My mother is here --> Ibuku ada disini

Answer - She gave a good answer --> Dia memberikan jawaban yang bagus

Found - I found my keys --> Saya menemukan kunci saya

Study - I study every day --> Saya belajar setiap hari

Still - She is still at home --> Dia masih di rumah

Learn - I will learn about a new book --> Saya akan belajar tentang sebuah buku baru

Should - We should go home --> Kita harus pulang

American - She is an American --> Dia orang Amerika

World - The world is small --> Dunia ini kecil

CHESS: The Rules for Drawing

If the last 50 consecutive moves have been made by each player without the movement of any pawn and without the capture of any piece, the game can be declared a draw by either of the opponents. The other player's approval is not required, and the game ends immediately and is recorded as a draw for both players.

I was under the misapprehension that a draw could be claimed if 50 consecutive moves had been played without the capture of a piece. I'd forgotten or never knew about the requirement for no pawn moves to have occurred either. I had reason to recall the rule because I ended up playing a 3-D game on OS X that I eventually lost and in which Black carefully avoided a draw. It was an instructive game and it was surprising that I could hold out for as long as I did. Here are the moves:

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e3 c5 4. c3 cxd4 5. cxd4 e6 6. Nc3 Bd6 7. Bd3 O‑O 8. O‑O Nc6 9. a3 Bd7 10. Bd2 Qb8 11. h3 a6 12. Rc1 Rc8 13. Qe2 Qa7 14. Na2 Rc7 15. b4 Rac8 16. Rc2 Ne4 17. Rfc1 b5 18. Be1 e5 19. dxe5 Nxe5 20. Nxe5 Bxe5 21. Rxc7 Rxc7 22. Rxc7 Qxc7 23. f3 Bh2+ 24. Kf1 Ng3+ 25. Bxg3 Bxg3 26. Qc2 Qxc2 27. Bxc2 Be5 28. e4 dxe4 29. Bxe4 Be6 30. Nc1 Bc4+ 31. Kf2 Bd4+ 32. Kg3 Bb2 33. Nd3 Bxd3 34. Bxd3 Bxa3 35. Be4 Bxb4 36. Bc6 Bd6+ 37. Kf2 b4 38. Ke2 b3 39. Kd2 Bb4+ 40. Kc1 Bc3 41. Bb7 a5 42. Bc6 Kf8 43. Ba4 b2+ 44. Kb1 f5 45. Bc2 Bd4 46. Ka2 g6 47. Kb3 Ke7 48. Kc4 Be5 49. Bb1 Ke6 50. Kc5 h5 51. Kc4 h4 52. Kd3 a4 53. Ke3 g5 54. Kd3 a3 55. Ke3 Bd6 56. Kd4 Kf6 57. Ke3 Ke5 58. Ba2 Bc5+ 59. Kd3 Kf4 60. Ke2 Kg3 61. Kf1 Bd4 62. Bb1 Kf4 63. Ke2 Bb6 64. Ba2 Bg1 65. Bb1 Bb6 66. Ba2 Bd4 67. Bb1 Kg3 68. Kf1 Be3 69. Ba2 Bd2 70. Bb1 Kf4 71. Ke2 Bb4 72. Ba2 Bd6 73. Bb1 Kg3 74. Kf1 Kf4 75. Ke2 Kg3 76. Kf1 Bc5 77. Ba2 Bb6 78. Bb1 Bd4 79. Ba2 Kf4 80. Ke2 Bb6 81. Bb1 Kg3 82. Kf1 Kh2 83. Ba2 Bd4 84. Bb1 Bc3 85. Ba2 Kg3 86. Bb1 Be5 87. Ba2 Bc3 88. Bb1 Be5 89. Ba2 Kf4 90. Ke2 Bc7 91. Bb1 Kg3 92. Kf1 Bb6 93. Ba2 Bf2 94. Bb1 Bd4 95. Ba2 Bc5 96. Bb1 Bb6 97. Ba2 Ba5 98. Bb1 Bc3 99. Ba2 Bd2 100. Bb1 Kf4 101. Ke2 Bb4 102. Ba2 Kg3 103. Kf1 Bc5 104. Bb1 f4 105. Ba2 Bb6 106. Bb1 Bc5 107. Ba2 Be3 108. Bb1 Bf2 109. Ba2 Be3 110. Bb1 Bf2 111. Ba2 Bb6 112. Bb1 Kh2 113. Ba2 Bd4 114. Bb1 Kg3 115. Ba2 g4 116. hxg4 h3 117. gxh3 Kxf3 118. g5 Ke3 119. h4 Kd2 120. h5 Kc2 121. g6 Bg7 122. Kf2 b1=Q 

I'll show the position I reached before it all went wrong for me. Black has just played 25...Bxg3 and I mistakenly decided to exchange Queens, after which the White pawn on a3 cannot be defended.

White has just played 34.Bxd3 and Black is now ready to play 34...Bxa3 and there's nothing White can do about it. Things look grim for White.

It would seem that two connected Black pawns on the queenside would be unstoppable if the White King is not present but such is not the case because the White Bishop is quite up to the task of holding off the Black pawns all by itself. However, White must keep the Black King from penetrating to the queenside. Because White can move the Bishop from b1 to a2 and back again, the White King cannot be forced to yield ground to the Black King. On move 53, Black played 53...a3 and Black did not move another pawn until 50 moves later:

Now Black on move 104 is well aware that another King or Bishop move would result in a draw because 50 moves would have passed since the last capture or pawn move. To avoid this, Black plays 104...f4, moving the pawn on f5 to f4.

After Black's 115th move, 115...g4, things fell apart quickly for White. I don't think there are viable drawing options for White but I'm not completely sure.