interests

Off the clock

Two systems I like to take apart when I am not building software. A chessboard and a Formula 1 lap. The instinct behind both is the same, which is to understand how a thing really works, learn from mistakes, try to outsmart everyone else, and then enjoy watching it work.

chess · the game of the century

Find the move Fischer found

Bobby Fischer is thirteen years old. He is Black, it is his move, and Donald Byrne has just played 17.Kf1. Almost every sensible move keeps the game roughly level. One move wins it. Find it.

Your move. Tap a piece, then the square you want it on.

[ Byrne vs Fischer · Rosenwald Memorial, New York · 1956 ]

This is an interactive puzzle: find Fischer's move, then replay the game. The starting position is shown above and the full game is listed below. Enable JavaScript to play it.

1. Nf3 Nf6

2. c4 g6

3. Nc3 Bg7

4. d4 O-O

5. Bf4 d5

6. Qb3 dxc4

7. Qxc4 c6

8. e4 Nbd7

9. Rd1 Nb6

10. Qc5 Bg4

11. Bg5 Na4

12. Qa3 Nxc3

13. bxc3 Nxe4

14. Bxe7 Qb6

15. Bc4 Nxc3

16. Bc5 Rfe8+

17. Kf1 Be6

18. Bxb6 Bxc4+

19. Kg1 Ne2+

20. Kf1 Nxd4+

21. Kg1 Ne2+

22. Kf1 Nc3+

23. Kg1 axb6

24. Qb4 Ra4

25. Qxb6 Nxd1

26. h3 Rxa2

27. Kh2 Nxf2

28. Re1 Rxe1

29. Qd8+ Bf8

30. Nxe1 Bd5

31. Nf3 Ne4

32. Qb8 b5

33. h4 h5

34. Ne5 Kg7

35. Kg1 Bc5+

36. Kf1 Ng3+

37. Ke1 Bb4+

38. Kd1 Bb3+

39. Kc1 Ne2+

40. Kb1 Nc3+

41. Kc1 Rc2#

formula 1 · spa-francorchamps

A hot lap of Spa

I follow Formula 1 more closely than is strictly reasonable. Spa-Francorchamps is my favourite lap on the calendar. The outline here is the real circuit, traced from public map data. Hover the track or the speed trace and the two stay in step.

0% · — km/h

Spa-Francorchamps · 7.004 km · ~1:44 lap (illustrative)

The track outline is real, traced from public circuit map data (the open f1-circuits dataset). The speed trace is not telemetry. It is an illustrative model I shaped by hand to match Spa’s corner sequence, and the lap time is a round approximation, not a measured result.

formula 1 · lights out

Lights out and away we go

Formula 1 races are won and lost at the start. Five red lights come on, they go out at a moment you cannot predict, and you go. Here is that moment. Press when the lights go out, not before.

No time yet

This measures the time from the lights going out to your press. It also includes your screen and input lag, so treat it as a bit of fun and not a lab result. The grid places you would gain or lose are a playful illustration, not a real prediction.

This is an interactive reaction test. Enable JavaScript to arm the five start lights, wait for them to go out, and see how fast you react.

chess and formula 1 · fun facts

How much do you actually know?

Two things I can talk about for longer than anyone asked. Pick a topic and see how many you get. Every answer comes with the reason it is worth knowing.

The interactive quiz needs JavaScript. Here are the facts anyway.

Chess

In the 1956 Game of the Century, Bobby Fischer beat International Master Donald Byrne. How old was Fischer at the time? 13 years old. At just 13, Fischer beat Donald Byrne with a stunning queen sacrifice starting 17...Be6, a game later dubbed the Game of the Century.
The word checkmate comes from the Persian phrase shah mat. What does shah mean? King. Checkmate derives from the Persian shah mat, where shah means king and mat is usually rendered as helpless or defeated.
If a player whose turn it is has no legal move but is NOT in check, what is the result under modern rules? The game is a draw. Under modern rules a stalemate is always a draw, though in some earlier eras it counted as a win or even a loss for the side that caused it.
Who is generally recognized as the first undisputed World Chess Champion, crowned in 1886? Wilhelm Steinitz. Steinitz became the first undisputed world champion in 1886 by beating Johannes Zukertort, and his successor Emanuel Lasker went on to hold the title for a record 27 years.
Claude Shannon's 1950 estimate for the number of possible chess games, the famous Shannon number, is roughly what? about 10^120. Shannon estimated roughly 10^120 possible games, vastly more than the estimated 10^80 atoms in the observable universe.
When may a pawn capture another pawn en passant? Immediately, on the move right after the enemy pawn advances two squares. The right to capture en passant is lost if not used immediately, and it is the only pawn capture that does not end on the captured piece's square.
In 2021 a computational project estimated the total number of legal chess positions. What was the figure? about 4.8 x 10^44. John Tromp's Chess Position Ranking project estimated about 4.8 x 10^44 legal positions with 95 percent confidence.
Because the 50-move rule prevents endless play, a single chess game has a maximum theoretical length. What is the commonly cited figure? about 5,949 moves. By squeezing in the maximum captures and pawn moves before the 50-move rule forces a draw, the longest possible game works out to a widely cited 5,949 moves.

Formula 1

Spa's famous uphill sweep Eau Rouge takes its name from what? A local stream whose water runs reddish from iron oxide. Eau Rouge means red water, after the iron-oxide stones that stain the stream running beneath the track.
Under the points system used since 2010, how many points does the winner of an F1 Grand Prix score? 25. A win has been worth 25 points since 2010, up from the 10 points a victory earned from 1991 through 2009.
The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is the longest track on the current F1 calendar. About how long is one lap? 7.004 km. At 7.004 km Spa outstretches its nearest calendar rivals, Las Vegas and the Jeddah street circuit.
The chaotic first-lap crash at the rain-soaked 1998 Belgian Grand Prix collected roughly how many cars? 13. David Coulthard triggered a chain reaction in heavy spray that wiped out 13 cars and forced the race to be stopped and restarted.
In which season did Formula 1 introduce the Drag Reduction System (DRS) to help overtaking? 2011. DRS arrived in 2011, partly a response to Alonso being stuck behind Petrov in the 2010 title decider at Abu Dhabi.
Whose long-standing record of five drivers' titles did Michael Schumacher finally surpass in 2003? Juan Manuel Fangio. Fangio's five titles from the 1950s stood as the record for 46 years until Schumacher took his sixth in 2003.
F1's current turbo-hybrid era, built around 1.6-litre V6 power units, began in which year? 2014. The 1.6-litre V6 turbo hybrids replaced the naturally aspirated 2.4-litre V8s in 2014, adding energy recovery through the MGU-K and MGU-H.
Which long straight at Spa follows the Eau Rouge and Raidillon complex and is the track's prime overtaking spot? The Kemmel Straight. Cars stream out of Raidillon flat out and top 300 km/h along the roughly 1 km Kemmel Straight before braking hard for Les Combes.