Hillel Aloni (30.ix.1937-26/27.v.2017)

A great man has left us.

Dear chessfriends, 

It is with deep sadness to inform you that Hillel Aloni, the composer, player, teacher and the father of endgame study composition in Israel has passed away last Friday, just 4 months before he turned 80. 

He was the mentor of all Israeli study composers and his contribution to the development of our art is invaluable. 

 May he rest in peace. 

                         Kind regards,  Yochanan Afek

(via e-mail)

(1) Posted by Paz Einat [Sunday, May 28, 2017 08:28]

Very sad news from Israel - Hillel Aloni passed away yesterday

The funeral will be held today at his town of residence, Netanya. Our condolences to Yoel (Hillel's twin brother) and his family.
Hillel's contribution to Chess Problem Composition in Israel was huge. Briefly, he is the father of endgame studies in Israel, edited the studies sections in our magazines (Shachmat, Haproblemai & Variantim) and raised so many talented study composers.

The Aloni Jubilee tourney we announced will now, sadly, be: Hillel Aloni Memorial Tourney for studies published in Variantim this year. Prize fund of at least $300, judge Ofer Comay.

Our hearts are with Yoel, Hillel's twin brother. This is a reminder that the #3 problems published in Variantim in 2016-2017 will take part in Yoel Aloni 80 Jubilee Tourney with a prize fund of at least #300.

(via MatPlus Forum)

Erdogan orders attacks against U.S. citizen in the U.S.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ael30RH3gbU

In the history of the U.S., Erdogan now is one of the few the foreign government leaders who orders attacking U.S. citizens in the U.S.

20 years ago: Deep Blue defeats Kasparov

The (arguably?) strongest player of the pre-Carlsen era, Garry Kasparov, spectacularly lost his match against the computer Deep Blue when on 11 May 1997 his entire game broke down, leading to one of the most spectacular losses of his career.

For the first time in history, a reigning world chess champion was defeated by a computer in a match with long games.

What followed was an ugly argument between Kasparov and IBM, supposedly Kasparov alleged that IBM did not only have the computer make the moves for the sixth game.
Was Kasparov victim to "a ploy to boost IBM's stock market" (as Wikipedia says a movie made in 2003 suggests), or did we witness the world champion losing fair and square?

IBM published the logs of Deep Blue, and possibly Kasparov fell into a trap he built himself by choosing a weak opening that usually a computer would play horribly. Did the tricks of the world champion fire back, or was he tricked otherwise?

Twenty years later, some questions still are left unanswered.

Dear Trump protesters...

...I understand very well that Donald Trump is a polarizing personality, and as a supporter of him I also see many of his decisions and opinions critical, especially those that could very well destroy the future of this planet, such as his belief that there is no man-made global warming, and the stupid actions he took on this belief.

There is however one thing you need to understand.

Chess is not part of your problem. If you see people playing chess on the street and you feel like you must demonstrate, leave the chess players alone!

(To everyone else the linked article on ChessBase also might be interesting.)

Holy man with six letters?

http://en.chessbase.com/post/study-of-the-month-the-hour-of-the-holy-men

Bishop - in the fifth Study of the Month article!