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= = = <unk> advantages = = =
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Rowson argues that both White and Black have certain advantages :
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= = = = White 's advantages = = = =
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According to Rowson , White 's first advantage is that , " The advantage of the first move has some similarities with the serve in tennis in that White can score an ' ace ' ( for instance with a powerful opening novelty ) , he has more control over the pace and direction of the game , and he has a ' second serve ' in that when things go wrong his position is not usually losing . " Second , White begins the game with some initiative , although Rowson regards this as a psychological rather than a positional advantage , " and whether it leads to a positional advantage depends on the relative skill of the players . " Third , some players are able to use the initiative to " play a kind of powerful ' serve and volley ' chess in which Black is flattened with a mixture of deep preparation and attacking prowess . " Fourth , " If White wants to draw , it is often not so easy for Black to prevent this . This advantage is particularly acute in cases where there is a possible threefold repetition , because White can begin the repetition without committing to a draw and Black has to decide whether to deviate before he knows whether White is bluffing . "
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Rowson cites as an example of the last phenomenon the well @-@ regarded Zaitsev Variation of the Ruy Lopez . After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 <unk> Nf6 5 @.@ 0 @-@ 0 Be7 <unk> b5 7.Bb3 0 @-@ 0 8.c3 d6 9.h3 Bb7 <unk> Re8 ( initiating the Zaitsev Variation ) , White can repeat moves once with <unk> Rf8 <unk> This puts Black in an awkward situation , since he must either ( a ) insist on the Zaitsev with 12 ... Re8 , which allows White to choose whether to draw by threefold repetition with <unk> Rf8 <unk> , or play on with a different move , or ( b ) play a different ( and possibly inferior ) variation by playing something other than 12 ... Re8 .
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= = = = Black 's advantages = = = =
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Rowson argues that Black also has several advantages . First , " White 's alleged advantage is also a kind of obligation to play for a win , and Black can often use this to his advantage . " Second , " White 's ' extra move ' can be a burden , and sometimes White finds himself in a mild form of zugzwang ( ' Zugzwang Lite ' ) . " Third , although White begins the game with the initiative , if " Black retains a flexible position with good reactive possibilities , this initiative can be absorbed and often passes over to Black . " Fourth , " The fact that White moves before Black often gives Black useful information " . Suba likewise argues that White 's advantage is actually less than a move , since White must tip his hand first , allowing Black to react to White 's plans . Suba writes , " In terms of the mathematical games theory , chess is a game of complete information , and Black 's information is always greater β by one move ! "
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Rowson also notes that Black 's chances increase markedly by playing good openings , which tend to be those with flexibility and latent potential , " rather than those that give White fixed targets or that try to take the initiative prematurely . " He also emphasizes that " White has ' the initiative ' , not ' the advantage ' . Success with Black depends on seeing beyond the initiative and thinking of positions in terms of ' potential ' . " These ideas are exemplified by the Hedgehog , a dynamic modern system against the English Opening that can arise from various move orders . A typical position arises after 1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.g3 b6 4.Bg2 Bb7 5 @.@ 0 @-@ 0 e6 6.Nc3 Be7 7.d4 cxd4 <unk> d6 <unk> a6 . White has a spatial advantage , while Black often maneuvers his pieces on the last two ranks of the board , but White " has to keep a constant eye on the possible liberating pawn thrusts ... b5 and ... d5 . " Watson remarks , " Black 's goal is to remain elastic and flexible , with many options for his pieces , whereas White can become paralyzed at some point by the need to protect against various dynamic pawn breaks . " He also observes that , " White tends to be as much tied up by Black 's latent activity as Black himself is tied up by White 's space advantage . " Moreover , attempts by White to overrun Black 's position often rebound disastrously . An example of this is the following grandmaster game :
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Lev Polugaevsky β <unk> FtΓ‘Δnik , Lucerne Olympiad 1982 : 1 . Nf3 Nf6 2 @.@ c4 c5 3 . Nc3 e6 4 @.@ g3 b6 5 . Bg2 Bb7 6 . 0 @-@ 0 Be7 7 @.@ d4 cxd4 8 . Qxd4 d6 9 . Rd1 a6 10 @.@ b3 Nbd7 11 @.@ e4 Qb8 12 . Bb2 0 @-@ 0 Suba wrote of a similar Hedgehog position , " White 's position looks ideal . That 's the naked truth about it , but the ' ideal ' has by definition one drawback β it cannot be improved . " 13 . Nd2 Rd8 14 @.@ a4 Qc7 15 . <unk> <unk> 16 . Qe2 Ne5 17 @.@ h3 ? According to FtΓ‘Δnik , <unk> <unk> <unk> is <unk> h5 ! 18 @.@ f4 Ng6 19 . Nf3 Now Black breaks open the position in typical Hedgehog <unk> d5 ! 20 @.@ cxd5 ? ! FtΓ‘Δnik considers <unk> or <unk> <unk> h4 ! 21 . Nxh4 Nxh4 22 @.@ <unk> <unk> 23 @.@ dxe6 fxe6 24 @.@ e5 ? FtΓ‘Δnik recommends instead <unk> Rxd8 <unk> Bc5 + 25 . <unk> Nh5 ! 26 . <unk> <unk> 27 . Nd5 Other moves get mated immediately : <unk> <unk> # ; <unk> Qxh3 # ; <unk> <unk> # . Rxd5 28 . Rf1 <unk> + ! 29 . <unk> Rd2 + If <unk> ( the only legal response to the double check ) , <unk> + 31.Kf4 Rf8 + forces mate . 0 β 1
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An examination of reversed and symmetrical openings illustrates White 's and Black 's respective advantages :
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= = = = = Reversed openings = = = = =
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In a " reversed opening " , White plays an opening typically played by Black , but with colors reversed and thus an extra tempo . Evans writes of such openings , " If a defense is considered good for Black , it must be even better for White with a move in hand . " Former World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik reportedly expressed the same view . Watson questions this idea , citing Suba 's thesis that Black , by moving second , has more complete information than White . He writes , " everyone has such difficulties playing as White against a Sicilian Defence ( 1.e4 c5 ) , but ... leading masters have no qualms about answering 1.c4 with 1 ... e5 . " To explain this paradox , Watson discusses several different reversed Sicilian lines , showing how Black can exploit the disadvantages of various " extra " moves for White . He concludes , " The point is , Black 's set @-@ up in the Sicilian is fine as a reactive system , but not worth much when trying to claim the initiative as White . This is true because Black is able to react to the specific plan White chooses ; in Suba 's terms , his information is indeed a move greater ! Furthermore , he is able to take advantage of dead equal positions which White ( hoping to retain the advantage of the first move ) would normally avoid . "
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Watson also observes , " Similarly , the Dutch Defence looks particularly sterile when White achieves the reversed positions a tempo up ( it turns out that he has nothing useful to do ! ) ; and indeed , many standard Black openings are not very inspiring when one gets them as White , tempo in hand . " GM Alex <unk> likewise notes that GM Vladimir <unk> , a successful exponent of the Leningrad Dutch ( 1.d4 f5 <unk> g6 ) at the highest levels , " once made a deep impression on me by casually dismissing someone 's suggestion that he should try <unk> as White . He smiled and said , ' That extra move 's gonna hurt me . ' "
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<unk> also agrees with Alekhine 's criticism of <unk> e5 2.Nf3 , a reversed Alekhine 's Defense , in RΓ©ti β Alekhine , Baden @-@ Baden 1925 , writing that Alekhine " understood the difference in opening philosophies for White and Black , and realized they just can 't be the same ! White is supposed to try for more than just obtaining a comfortable game in reversed colour opening set @-@ ups , and , as the statistics show β surprisingly for a lot of people , but not for me β White doesn 't even score as well as Black does in the same positions with his extra tempo and all . " Howard Staunton , generally considered to have been the strongest player in the world from 1843 to 1851 , made a similar point over 160 years ago , writing that Owen 's Defense ( 1.e4 b6 ) is playable for Black , but that <unk> is inferior to " the more customary [ first ] moves , from its being essentially defensive " . The current view is that Owen 's Defense is slightly better for White , while <unk> is playable but less likely to yield an opening advantage than 1.e4 or 1.d4.
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Watson concludes that ( a ) " most moves have disadvantages as well as advantages , so an extra move is not always an unqualified blessing " ; ( b ) " with his extra information about what White is doing , Black can better react to the new situation " ; and ( c ) because a draw is likely to be more acceptable to Black than to White , White is apt to avoid lines that allow drawish simplifications , while Black may not object to such lines .
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= = = = = Symmetrical openings = = = = =
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Rowson writes that " in general one would assume that whatever advantage White has would be revealed most clearly in symmetrical positions . " Accordingly , Watson , Suba , Evans , and the eminent player and theorist Aron Nimzowitsch ( 1886 β 1935 ) have all argued that it is in Black 's interest to avoid symmetry . Nonetheless , even symmetrical opening lines sometimes illustrate the tenuous nature of White 's advantage , in several respects .
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It is often difficult for White to prove an advantage in symmetrical opening lines . As GM Bent Larsen wrote , annotating a game that began 1.c4 c5 <unk> b6 , " In symmetrical openings , White has a theoretical advantage , but in many of them it is only theoretical . " GM Andrew Soltis wrote in 2008 that he hates playing against the symmetrical Petroff 's Defense ( 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 ) , and accordingly varies with 2.Nc3 , the Vienna Game . However , there too he has been unable to find a way to an advantage after the symmetrical 2 ... Nc6 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7 , or after 3.Nf3 Nf6 ( transposing to the Four Knights Game ) <unk> Bb4 5 @.@ 0 @-@ 0 0 @-@ 0 6.d3 d6 7.Bg5 Bg4 <unk> Nd4 <unk> <unk> , or <unk> Ne7 8.c3 Ba5 <unk> c6 <unk> Ng6 <unk> d5 , when <unk> ? ! e4 ! may even favor Black .
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Moreover , symmetrical positions may be disadvantageous to White in that he has to commit himself first . Watson notes that it is even difficult for White to play <unk> in a symmetrical position , since almost every move has certain drawbacks . Fischer once went so far as to claim that after 1.Nf3 Nf6 <unk> g6 <unk> Bg7 4 @.@ 0 @-@ 0 0 @-@ 0 <unk> d6 ( Reinhard β Fischer , Western Open 1963 ) , " ' Believe it or not , ' Black stands better ! Now , whatever White does , Black will vary it and get an asymmetrical position and have the superior position due to his better pawn structure ! " However , GM Paul Keres responded in <unk> magazine , " We just don 't believe it ! " In symmetrical positions , as the Hodgson β Arkell and Portisch β Tal games discussed below illustrate , Black can continue to imitate White as long as he finds it feasible and desirable to do so , and deviate when that ceases to be the case .
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Further , a particular extra move is sometimes more of a liability than an asset . For example , Soltis notes that the Exchange French position arising after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 <unk> exd5 4.Nf3 Nf6 " is pretty equal . " The same position , but with Black 's knight moved to e4 , arises in Petroff 's Defense after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 <unk> d5 . That position offers White better chances precisely because Black 's extra move ( ... Ne4 ) allows the advanced knight to become a target for attack .
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Finally , symmetrical positions may be difficult for the white player for psychological reasons . Watson writes that anyone who tries the Exchange French , " even if he thinks he is playing for a win , assume [ s ] a psychological burden . White has already ceded the advantage of the first move , and knows it , whereas Black is challenged to find ways to seize the initiative . " Two famous examples of White losses in the Exchange French are M. Gurevich β Short and <unk> β Korchnoi . In M. Gurevich β Short , a game between two of the world 's leading players , White needed only a draw to qualify for the Candidates Matches , while Black needed to win . Gurevich played passively and was outplayed by Short , who achieved the necessary win , qualified for the Candidates , and ultimately went on to challenge Kasparov for the World Championship . In <unk> β Korchnoi , the Italian IM fell victim to Korchnoi 's whirlwind mating attack , losing in just 14 moves .
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Rowson gives the following example of Black outplaying White from the Symmetrical Variation of the English Opening . He remarks , " there is something compelling about Black 's strategy . He seems to be saying : ' I will copy all your good moves , and as soon as you make a bad move , I won 't copy you any more ! ' "
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Hodgson β Arkell , Newcastle 2001 : 1 @.@ c4 c5 2 @.@ g3 g6 3 . Bg2 Bg7 4 . Nc3 Nc6 5 @.@ a3 a6 6 . Rb1 Rb8 7 @.@ b4 cxb4 8 @.@ axb4 b5 9 @.@ <unk> axb5 Here Rowson remarks , " Both sides want to push their d @-@ pawn and play Bf4 / ... Bf5 , but White has to go first so Black gets to play ... d5 before White can play d4 . This doesn 't matter much , but it already points to the challenge that White faces here ; his most natural continuations allow Black to play the moves he wants to . I would therefore say that White is in ' Zugzwang Lite ' and that he remains in this state for several moves . " 10 . Nf3 d5 10 ... Nf6 11 @.@ 0 @-@ 0 0 @-@ 0 <unk> d6 <unk> Bd7 would transpose to the Portisch β Tal game below . 11 @.@ d4 Nf6 12 . Bf4 <unk> 13 . 0 @-@ 0 Bf5 14 . <unk> 0 @-@ 0 15 . Ne5 Ne4 16 @.@ h3 h5 ! ? Finally breaking the symmetry . 17 . <unk> The position is still almost symmetrical , and White can find nothing useful to do with his extra move . Rowson whimsically suggests <unk> ! ? , forcing Black to be the one to break the symmetry . 17 ... Re8 ! Rowson notes that this is a useful waiting move , covering e7 , which needs protection in some lines , and possibly supporting an eventual ... e5 ( see Black 's twenty @-@ second move ) . White cannot copy it , since after 18.Re1 ? Nxf2 Black would win a pawn . 18 . Be3 ? ! Nxe5 ! 19 @.@ dxe5 <unk> ! Rowson notes that with his more active pieces , " It looks like Black has some initiative . " If now <unk> , Bxe5 " is at least equal for Black " . 20 . <unk> Bxe5 ! 20 ... Nxf2 ? <unk> ! wins . 21 . Nd4 Bxd4 22 . Bxd4 e5 Rowson writes , " Now both sides have their trumps , but I think Black has some advantage , due to his extra central control , imposing knight and prospects for a kingside attack . " 23 @.@ b5 Rc8 24 . Bb2 d4 Now White has a difficult game : Rowson analyzes <unk> ? ! <unk> <unk> Bc2 <unk> <unk> <unk> Bc4 ! , winning ; <unk> hxg4 <unk> Nxf2 ! <unk> Bc2 , winning ; <unk> ! ? Rc2 ! with advantage ; and <unk> ( risky @-@ looking , but perhaps best ) Nc3 ! <unk> <unk> <unk> <unk> , and Black is better . 25 @.@ b6 ? Overlooking Black 's threat . 25 ... Nxf2 ! 26 . <unk> If <unk> , Bc2 forks White 's queen and rook . 26 ... Ne4 27 @.@ b7 Rb8 28 @.@ g4 hxg4 29 @.@ hxg4 Be6 30 . Rb5 Nf6 ! 31 . <unk> Qxf6 32 . <unk> Bc4 33 @.@ g5 <unk> + 0 β 1
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The opening of the following game between two world @-@ class players , another Symmetrical English , took a similar course :
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Lajos Portisch β Mikhail Tal , Candidates Match 1965 : 1 . Nf3 c5 2 @.@ c4 Nc6 3 . Nc3 Nf6 4 @.@ g3 g6 5 . Bg2 Bg7 6 . 0 @-@ 0 0 @-@ 0 7 @.@ d3 a6 8 @.@ a3 Rb8 9 . Rb1 b5 10 @.@ <unk> axb5 11 @.@ b4 cxb4 12 @.@ axb4 d6 13 . <unk> Bd7 Once again , White is on move in a symmetrical position , but it is not obvious what he can do with his first @-@ move initiative . Soltis writes , " It 's ridiculous to think Black 's position is better . But Mikhail Tal said it is easier to play . By moving second he gets to see White 's move and then decide whether to match it . " <unk> Here , Soltis writes that Black could maintain equality by keeping the symmetry : 14 ... <unk> <unk> Bh3 . Instead , he plays to prove that White 's queen is misplaced . 14 ... Rc8 ! <unk> Nd4 ! Threatening 16 ... <unk> + . <unk> <unk> <unk> <unk> 18.Qd2 Qc7 <unk> Rc8 Although the pawn structure is still symmetrical , Black 's control of the c @-@ file gives him the advantage . Black ultimately reached an endgame two pawns up , but White managed to hold a draw in 83 moves .
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Tal himself lost a famous game as White from a symmetrical position in Tal β <unk> , USSR Championship 1974 .
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= = Tournament and match play = =
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In chess tournaments and matches , the frequency with which each player receives white and black is an important consideration . In matches , the players ' colors in the first game are determined by drawing lots , and alternated thereafter . In round robin tournaments with an odd number of players , each player receives an equal number of whites and blacks ; with an even number of players , each receives one extra white or black . Where one or more players withdraws from the tournament , the tournament director may change the assigned colors in some games so that no player receives two more blacks than whites , or vice versa . The double @-@ round robin tournament is considered to give the most reliable final standings , since each player receives the same number of whites and blacks , and plays both White and Black against each opponent .
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In Swiss system tournaments , the tournament director tries to ensure that each player receives , as nearly as possible , the same number of games as White and Black , and that the player 's color alternates from round to round . After the first round , the director may deviate from the otherwise prescribed pairings in order to give as many players as possible their equalizing or due colors . More substantial deviations are permissible to avoid giving a player two more blacks than whites ( for example , three blacks in four games ) than vice versa , since extra whites " cause far less player distress " than extra blacks , which impose " a significant handicap " on the affected player . Tournaments with an even number of rounds cause the most problems , since if there is a disparity , it is greater ( e.g. , a player receiving two whites and four blacks ) .
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= = Solving chess = =
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Endgame tablebases have solved a very limited area of chess , determining perfect play in a number of endgames , including all non @-@ trivial endgames with no more than six pieces or pawns ( including the two kings ) . Seven @-@ piece endgames were solved in 2012 and released as " Lomonosov tablebases " .
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Jonathan Rowson has speculated that " in principle it should be possible for a machine to ... develop 32 @-@ piece tablebases . This may take decades or even centuries , but unless runaway global warming or nuclear war gets in the way , I think it will eventually happen . " However , information theorist Claude Shannon argued that it is not feasible for any computer to actually do this . In his 1950 paper " Programming a Computer for Playing Chess " he writes :
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With chess it is possible , in principle , to play a perfect game or construct a machine to do so as follows : One considers in a given position all possible moves , then all moves for the opponent , etc . , to the end of the game ( in each variation ) . The end must occur , by the rules of the games after a finite number of moves ( remembering the 50 move drawing rule ) . Each of these variations ends in win , loss or draw . By working backward from the end one can determine whether there is a forced win , the position is a draw or is lost . It is easy to show , however , even with the high computing speed available in electronic calculators this computation is impractical . In typical chess positions there will be of the order of 30 legal moves . The number holds fairly constant until the game is nearly finished as shown ... by De Groot , who averaged the number of legal moves in a large number of master games . Thus a move for White and then one for Black gives about 103 possibilities . A typical game lasts about 40 moves to resignation of one party . This is conservative for our calculation since the machine would calculate out to checkmate , not resignation . However , even at this figure there will be <unk> variations to be calculated from the initial position . A machine operating at the rate of one variation per microsecond would require over 1090 years to calculate the first move !
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It is thus theoretically possible to " solve " chess , determining with certainty whether a perfectly played game should end in a win for White , a draw , or even a win for Black . However , according to Shannon the time frame required puts this possibility beyond the limits of any feasible technology .
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Hans @-@ Joachim <unk> , a professor of mathematics and biophysics at the University of California at Berkeley , further argued in a 1965 paper that the " speed , memory , and processing capacity of any possible future computer equipment are limited by certain physical barriers : the light barrier , the quantum barrier , and the thermodynamical barrier . These limitations imply , for example , that no computer , however constructed , will ever be able to examine the entire tree of possible move sequences of the game of chess . " Nonetheless , <unk> did not foreclose the possibility that a computer would someday be able to solve chess . He wrote , " In order to have a computer play a perfect or nearly perfect game [ of chess ] it will be necessary either to analyze the game completely ... or to analyze the game in an approximate way and combine this with a limited amount of tree searching . ... A theoretical understanding of such heuristic programming , however , is still very much wanting . "
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Recent scientific advances have not significantly changed that assessment . The game of checkers was solved in 2007 , but it has roughly the square root of the number of positions in chess . Jonathan Schaeffer , the scientist who led the effort , said a breakthrough such as quantum computing would be needed before solving chess could even be attempted , but he does not rule out the possibility , saying that the one thing he learned from his 16 @-@ year effort of solving checkers " is to never underestimate the advances in technology " .
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= = Quotation = =
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" You will win with either color if you are the better player , but it takes longer with Black . " β Isaac <unk>
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= Frederick Reines =
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Frederick Reines ( <unk> @-@ ness ) ; ( March 16 , 1918 β August 26 , 1998 ) was an American physicist . He was awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physics for his co @-@ detection of the neutrino with Clyde Cowan in the neutrino experiment . He may be the only scientist in history " so intimately associated with the discovery of an elementary particle and the subsequent thorough investigation of its fundamental properties " .
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A graduate of the Stevens Institute of Technology and New York University , Reines joined the Manhattan Project 's Los Alamos Laboratory in 1944 , working in the Theoretical Division in Richard Feynman 's group . He became a group leader there in 1946 . He participated in a number of nuclear tests , culminating in his becoming the director of the Operation Greenhouse test series in the Pacific in 1951 .
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In the early 1950s , working in Hanford and Savannah River Sites , Reines and Cowan developed the equipment and procedures with which they first detected the supposedly undetectable neutrinos in June 1956 . Reines dedicated the major part of his career to the study of the neutrino 's properties and interactions , which work would influence study of the neutrino for many researchers to come . This included the detection of neutrinos created in the atmosphere by cosmic rays , and the 1987 detection of neutrinos emitted from Supernova SN1987A , which inaugurated the field of neutrino astronomy .
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= = Early life = =
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Frederick Reines was born in Paterson , New Jersey , one of four children of Gussie ( Cohen ) and Israel Reines . His parents were Jewish emigrants from the same town in Russia , but only met in New York City , where they were later married . He had an older sister , Paula , who became a doctor , and two older brothers , David and William , who became lawyers . He said that his " early education was strongly influenced " by his studious siblings . He was the great @-@ nephew of the Rabbi Yitzchak Yaacov Reines , the founder of Mizrachi , a religious Zionist movement .
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The family moved to Hillburn , New York , where his father ran the general store , and he spent much of his childhood . He was an Eagle Scout . Looking back , Reines said : " My early childhood memories center around this typical American country store and life in a small American town , including Independence Day July celebrations marked by fireworks and patriotic music played from a pavilion bandstand . "
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Reines sang in a chorus , and as a soloist . For a time he considered the possibility of a singing career , and was instructed by a vocal coach from the Metropolitan Opera who provided lessons for free because the family did not have the money for them . The family later moved to North Bergen , New Jersey , residing on Kennedy Boulevard and 57th Street . Because North Bergen did not have a high school , he attended Union Hill High School in Union Hill , New Jersey , from which he graduated in 1935 .
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From an early age , Reines exhibited an interest in science , and liked creating and building things . He later recalled that :
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The first stirrings of interest in science that I remember occurred during a moment of boredom at religious school , when , looking out of the window at twilight through a hand curled to simulate a telescope , I noticed something peculiar about the light ; it was the phenomenon of diffraction . That began for me a fascination with light .
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Ironically , Reines excelled in literary and history courses , but received average or low marks in science and math in his freshman year of high school , though he improved in those areas by his junior and senior years through the encouragement of a teacher who gave him a key to the school laboratory . This cultivated a love of science by his senior year . In response to a question seniors were asked about what they wanted to do for a yearbook quote , he responded : " To be a physicist extraordinaire . "
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Reines was accepted into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , but chose instead to attend Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken , New Jersey , where he earned his Bachelor of Science ( B.S. ) degree in mechanical engineering in 1939 , and his Master of Science ( M.S. ) degree in mathematical physics in 1941 , writing a thesis on " A Critical Review of Optical Diffraction Theory " . He married Sylvia Samuels on August 30 , 1940 . They had two children , Robert and Alisa . He then entered New York University , where he earned his Doctor of Philosophy ( Ph.D. ) in 1944 . He studied cosmic rays there under Serge A. Korff , but wrote his thesis under the supervision of Richard D. Present on " Nuclear fission and the liquid drop model of the nucleus " . Publication of the thesis was delayed until after the end of World War II ; it appeared in Physical Review in 1946 .
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= = Los Alamos Laboratory = =
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In 1944 Richard Feynman recruited Reines to work in the Theoretical Division at the Manhattan Project 's Los Alamos Laboratory , where he would remain for the next fifteen years . He joined Feynman 's T @-@ 4 ( Diffusion Problems ) Group , which was part of Hans Bethe 's T ( Theoretical ) Division . Diffusion was an important aspect of critical mass calculations . In June 1946 , he became a group leader , heading the T @-@ 1 ( Theory of Dragon ) Group . An outgrowth of the " tickling the Dragon 's tail " experiment , the Dragon was a machine that could attain a critical state for short bursts of time , which could be used as a research tool or power source .
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Reines participated in a number of nuclear tests , and writing reports on their results . These included Operation Crossroads at Bikini Atoll in 1946 , Operation Sandstone at Eniwetok Atoll in 1948 , and Operation Ranger and Operation Buster β Jangle at the Nevada Test Site . In 1951 he was the director of Operation Greenhouse series of nuclear tests in the Pacific . This saw the first American tests of boosted fission weapons , an important step towards thermonuclear weapons . He studied the effects of nuclear blasts , and co @-@ authored a paper with John von Neumann on Mach stem formation , an important aspect of an air blast wave .
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In spite or perhaps because of his role in these nuclear tests , Reines was concerned about the dangers of radioactive pollution from atmospheric nuclear tests , and became an advocate of underground nuclear testing . In the wake of the Sputnik crisis , he participated in John Archibald Wheeler 's Project 137 , which evolved into JASON . He was also a delegate at the Atoms for Peace Conference in Geneva in 1958 .
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= = Discovery of the neutrino and the inner workings of stars = =
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The neutrino was a subatomic particle first proposed theoretically by Wolfgang Pauli on December 4 , 1930 , to explain undetected energy that escaped during beta decay when neutron decayed into a proton and an electron so that the law of conservation of energy was not violated . Enrico Fermi renamed it the neutrino , Italian for " little neutral one " , and in 1934 , proposed his theory of beta decay which explained that the electrons emitted from the nucleus were created by the decay of a neutron into a proton , an electron , and a neutrino :
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<unk> β p + + e β + Ξ½
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e
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The neutrino accounted for the missing energy , but Fermi 's theory described a particle with little mass and no electric charge that would be difficult to observe directly . In a 1934 paper , Rudolf Peierls and Hans Bethe calculated that neutrinos could easily pass through the Earth , and concluded " there is no practically possible way of observing the neutrino . " In 1951 , at the conclusion of the Greenhouse test series , Reines received permission from the head of T Division , J. Carson Mark , for a leave in residence to study fundamental physics . Reines and his colleague Clyde Cowan decided to see if they could detect neutrinos . " So why did we want to detect the free neutrino ? " he later explained , " Because everybody said , you couldn β t do it . "
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According to Fermi 's theory , there was also a corresponding reverse reaction , in which a neutrino combines with a proton to create a neutron and a positron :
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Ξ½
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e + p + β <unk> + e +
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The positron would soon be annihilated by an electron and produce two 0 @.@ 51 MeV gamma rays , while the neutron would be captured by a proton and release a 2 @.@ 2 MeV gamma ray . This would produce a distinctive signature that could be detected . They then realised that by adding cadmium salt to their liquid scintillator to enhance the neutron capture reaction , resulting in a 9 MeV burst of gamma rays . For a neutrino source , they proposed using an atomic bomb . Permission for this was obtained from the laboratory director , Norris Bradbury . Work began on digging a shaft for the experiment when J. M. B. Kellogg convinced them to use a nuclear reactor instead of a bomb . Although a less intense source of neutrinos , it had the advantage in allowing for multiple experiments to be carried out over a long period of time .
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In 1953 , they made their first attempts using one of the large reactors at the Hanford nuclear site in what is now known as the Cowan β Reines neutrino experiment . Their detector now included 300 litres ( 66 imp gal ; 79 US gal ) of scintillating fluid and 90 photomultiplier tubes , but the effort was frustrated by background noise from cosmic rays . With encouragement from John A. Wheeler , they tried again in 1955 , this time using one of the newer , larger 700 MW reactors at the Savannah River Site that emitted a high neutrino flux of 1 @.@ 2 x 1012 / cm2 sec . They also had a convenient , well @-@ shielded location 11 metres ( 36 ft ) from the reactor and 12 metres ( 39 ft ) underground . On June 14 , 1956 , they were able to send Pauli a telegram announcing that the neutrino had been found . When Bethe was informed that he had been proven wrong , he said , " Well , you shouldn β t believe everything you read in the papers . "
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From then on Reines dedicated the major part of his career to the study of the neutrino β s properties and interactions , which work would influence study of the neutrino for future researchers to come . Cowan left Los Alamos in 1957 to teach at George Washington University , ending their collaboration . On the basis of his work in first detecting the neutrino , Reines became the head of the physics department of Case Western Reserve University from 1959 to 1966 . At Case , he led a group that was the first to detect neutrinos created in the atmosphere by cosmic rays . Reines had a booming voice , and had been a singer since childhood . During this time , besides performing his duties as a research supervisor and chairman of the physics department , Reines sang in the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus under the direction of Robert Shaw in performances with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra .
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In 1966 , Reines took most of his neutrino research team with him when he left for the new University of California , Irvine ( UCI ) , becoming its first dean of physical sciences . At UCI , Reines extended the research interests of some of his graduate students into the development of medical radiation detectors , such as for measuring total radiation delivered to the whole human body in radiation therapy .
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Reines had prepared for the possibility of measuring the distant events of a supernova explosion . Supernova explosions are rare , but Reines thought he might be lucky enough to see one in his lifetime , and be able to catch the neutrinos streaming from it in his specially @-@ designed detectors . During his wait for a supernova to explode , he put signs on some of his large neutrino detectors , calling them " Supernova Early Warning Systems " . In 1987 , neutrinos emitted from Supernova SN1987A were detected by the Irvine β Michigan β Brookhaven ( <unk> ) Collaboration , which used an 8 @,@ 000 ton Cherenkov detector located in a salt mine near Cleveland . Normally , the detectors recorded only a few background events each day . The supernova registered 19 events in just ten seconds . This discovery is regarded as inaugurating the field of neutrino astronomy .
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In 1995 , Reines was honored , along with Martin L. Perl with the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work with Cowan in first detecting the neutrino . Unfortunately , Cowan had died in 1974 , and the Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously . Reines also received many other awards , including the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Prize in 1981 , the National Medal of Science in 1985 , the Bruno Rossi Prize in 1989 , the Michelson β Morley Award in 1990 , the Panofsky Prize in 1992 , and the Franklin Medal in 1992 . He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1980 and a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1994 . He remained dean of physical sciences at UCI until 1974 , and became a professor emeritus in 1988 , but he continued teaching until 1991 , and remained on UCI 's faculty until his death .
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= = Death = =
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Reines died after a long illness at the University of California , Irvine Medical Center in Orange , California , on August 26 , 1998 . He was survived by his wife and children . His papers are in the UCI Libraries . Reines Hall at UCI was named in his honor .
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= = Publications = =
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