10 February 23

Today (10 February) is the 27th anniversary of the first time a computer program beat a chess champion. In 1996, IBM's chess-playing computer system "Deep Blue" achieved fame by winning the first match in a tournament against world grandmaster Garry Kasparov. Kasparov went on to win that tournament, but in a rematch one year later, Deep Blue won. So my chess board tie is on a deep blue shirt! Many forms of artificial intelligence are making news in 2023, literally -- the AI field has progressed wildly beyond game-playing into the brave new worlds of interpersonal communication, literary authorship and information storage and retrieval. You might be interested to know that my own blog posts have earned "100% human" scores when tested for the likelihood that they are generated by AI bots.

21 July 22

Yesterday (20 July) was International Chess Day (also proclaimed as World Chess Day by the United Nations in 2019). I have not played a full game of chess in recent years, but I occasionally (try to) solve some online chess puzzles. My granddaughter Evelyn (at almost 3 years old) is interested in the shapes of chess pieces!

10 February 21

Twenty-five years ago on this date (1996), the IBM computer system Deep Blue defeated human chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov in the first round of a six-game match. This was the first time in history that a computer program defeated a grandmaster under tournament conditions. Kasparov won the full match 4-2, but lost a rematch the next year. My opening move for today is wearing my chess board tie on a shirt that features an embroidered laptop.

2 June 20

Happy Birthday, Jonathan Sikora! My comrade in masterminding the Blackboard course management system for Eastern Kentucky University chose my chess board tie for today. And it's also appropriate to recognize the 104th birthday of Arthur J. Kleppinger, who taught me how to play chess, about sixty years ago!

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10 February 20

Math for today: 10 X 2 (February) = 20. It's National Umbrella Day! And today's weather in central Kentucky requires me to use one! On this date in 1996, IBM's chess-playing computer "Deep Blue" achieved fame by winning the first match in a tournament against world grandmaster Garry Kasparov. This was the first time a computer beat a human grandmaster under normal tournament rules. Kasparov went on to win the tournament, but in a rematch one year later, Deep Blue won.

11 April 19

I've needed an occasion to wear this chessboard tie, and I uncovered the birthday of chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov this Saturday (13 April 1963). He is often called the greatest chess player of all time. He achieved eternal fame in 1997 when he became the first chess champion to lose to IBM supercomputer "Deep Blue."

20 July 17

Today is International Chess Day! It's also the 48th anniversary of the first human steps on the Moon.

31 May 16

Happy Birthday, Charles Woolum! Charles was my Blackboard-support comrade several years ago, and he now works with Canvas (another learning management system) at the University of Kentucky Medical Center. He gave me this tie while we were working together, because he thought I needed a chess board!

23 May 15

I hardly ever wear a tie on Saturday, but today is a very special party day -- we are celebrating my father (in-law) Bob Wollenweber's NINETIETH birthday! (It's actually tomorrow but the open house is today.) I am responsible for "roasting" the guest of honor, and I have also prepared a slide show of photos from his life and family. He chose my "chess board" tie for the occasion.

9 March 15

Time to play my chess board tie, on the birthday of grandmaster Bobby Fischer (1943-2008). Just to keep my documentation up to date, I'll note that I wore my "gilded stripes with silver and blue" yesterday, when we attended the installation of nephew C. Nolan Huizenga as associate pastor of Second Presbyterian Church, Nashville, TN.

20 July 14

Today is International Chess Day.

17 February 14

On this date in 1996, IBM's chess-playing computer "Deep Blue" resigned in the sixth game of a tournament, giving human Garry Kasparov a 4-2 victory. In a rematch one year later, Deep Blue won by a final score of 3-1/2 - 2-1/2. In other news, today is World Human Spirit Day, when we should take time to "wonder at our achievements on this planet as humans, and to contemplate the endless possibilities we have as spirits." (Huh?)

20 June 13

Happy Almost-Summer-Solstice Day! Summer begins officially sometime tonight, 1:04 a.m. EDT (Friday) which is 11:04 p.m. MDT and 10:04 p.m. PDT (Thursday). So both today and tomorrow have daylight for 14 hours, 48 minutes, 30 seconds at my location. Today's chess board tie has no apparent connection to the solstice -- I just like this gift from my good friend and colleague Charles Woolum!

17 February 13

This is the first chance I've had to wear my "chess" tie. February 17, 1996 marked the conclusion of the first official chess tournament between IBM's "Deep Blue" computer and (human) grandmaster Garry Kasparov. Deep Blue won one game and forced two draws, but Kasparov won this first match. In May 1997, Deep Blue won the rematch!