NBA Finals - Aging Veterans show their mettle

As expected the reigning NBA Champions Dallas Mavericks got swept disappointingly.That makes one of my other favorite teams the Boston Celtics my lone hope of enjoyment in the NBA Finals.Boston Celtics has been an absolute surprise in the post season. I have been waking up early on the weekend at around 5 AM to watch the postseason games and i like to watch the LA Clippers as they are probably the most entertaining team to watch with CP3,Blake in the mix but was also happy that SA Spurs went through to the Conference Finals.Aging teams like Spurs and Celtics proved their mettle and class even in the case of a shortened and physically taxing season.The level of play that Kevin Garnett ,Paul Pierce and Tim Duncan able to perform in their late thirties is nothing short of amazing.The Spurs and Celtics personify what Team basketball looks like.Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli are like the best wingmen for the centre Tim Duncan who still has the best post moves in NBA.Rondo has really matured into a All Star Hall of Fame Point Guard who cares of he doesnt average 25 points a game he is a PG his job is to make others better which he excels in.... I hope either the Spurs or the Celtics win.

Yipeeee !!!! Anand is still the World Champion

Im thrilled to say that Anand has retained his World Crown. but Im also disappointed that he needed a tie break to win against a lowly ranked challenger in Boris Gelfand. I was watching the Rapid Games live on Chessbomb. No one held a decisive positional advantage in any of the four games but in each one of them Anand was well ahead of time proving to everyone that he is still the "Speed King" in chess.

This was such a good news for Anand and India. He clearly deserves a Bharat Ratna for his FIVE yes FIVE World Tiles. But i have to agree with Kasparov that this was by far the lowest quality in World championship Chess.I hope in 2014 Anand gets to meet the rising young players like Carlsen or Nakamura or even maybe Anish giri for the World Championship.Then maybe he can retire as he has already reached his retirement age in Chess. I have embedded the Chess analysis of the decisive Game in the Rapid Game Tie-break below. Anand will probably go down in history as the best defensive player in the world.

Jimmy Kimmel - about his life with Ellen

One of my favorite late night comedians Jimmy Kimmel He is really maturing now......

To kill a Mocking Bird - Favorite Dialogues Part 2

Great Script from an Amazing Movie with perfect acting !!!!!

To kill a mocking bird - Favorite dialogues Part 1

Nice Review on the shortest game of World Chess Championship History

Game theory 101 : General Battle

A really weird Soccer Match

Another great post by Presh Talwalkar on a really weird soccer match where both the teams used Game Theory

Yesterday I wrote about a weird World Cup game where nobody tried to score.
There is amazingly an even weirder game on record. The infamous game is about a team advancing in a tournament by scoring an own goal.
In the 1994 Shell Caribbean Cup, Barbados needed two clear goals to advance against Grenada. Losing or winning by one goal meant not advancing. The wrinkle was a rule that goals in overtime would count double to reward a team winning a close game.
The stage was set for an unusual match. Professor Mike Shor of Vanderbilt University writes about the resulting craziness where scoring an own goal was rational:

Barbados needed to win by two goals. With less than ten minutes left in the match, Barbados led by exactly two goals and began to play very defensively. In the 83rd minute, Grenada finally scored, making the score 2-1. Barbados tried to answer but, with only three minutes remaining, was unable to score. Members of the Barbados team contemplated their options. To advance, they needed either to score one more goal in the last three minutes (winning by two), or force the game to extra time where a goal would count as if they won by two. Barbados scored on their own net, tying the game at 2-2.
This is not yet the odd part of the match. The Grenada players, initial shock abating, developed their own strategy. If they could score on Barbados in the waning minutes, they would win the match and advance. But, if they could score a goal on themselves, they would lose by one goal which was still enough to advance. For two minutes, Grenada tried to score on either goal, with Barbados players split between defending their own goal and that of their opponents!
Normal time ended in a tie and the game did go to overtime, in which Barbados scored a game winner and advanced
[emphasis mine]

Professor Shor’s cleverly dubbed the game “which goal is mine.”
Barbados managed to advance but it was eliminated in the next round. No penalties were given to either team since they were both trying to win (albeit in an odd way akin to the puzzle about fixing a broken bet).
The lesson is that simple and seemingly smart rules can have a devastating impact on competition and good play. And much of this can be anticipated if one uses game theory to consider the incentives by thinking ahead and reasoning backwards.
There is a video which shows highlights and the own goal (sadly it omits the chaos where Grenada tried to score on either goal)

Anand fought back with an early win

Back to the World Championships this time im not that excited as Anand is playing a lowly ranked player in Gelfand but still he managed to lose Game 7 after a string of draws. But Fortunately he came back on a Gelfand blunder in Game 8 with one of the shortest victories ever in World Championships.

I believe Anand should try to finish this series as soon as possible cause leaving it till the end is not going to help anybody but still Anand still holding on to the World title at his age is remarkable.

Max Payne is back !!!!!

Hoping it is as good as the first two parts of the Series.

Dark Shadows

Went to the recent Johnny Depp starrer "Dark Shadows" at PVR.This movie was certainly intriguing. Johnny depp as usual was wonderful in this movie couldnt tell the same for the rest of the cast.This movie has mostly received negative reviews but deservingly. Just thought that the Director - Actor Combo which brought us "Edward Scissor Hands" and "Sleepy Hollow" could have bought up a lot more thrill and passion in the storyline. Im especially disappointed in the scope available to the cast in the screenplay.

div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> There isnt much of a role to anyone except for Johnny and Eva Greens character.Tim Burton could have got a lot more townspeople of Collinwood involved in this movie just like sleepy Hollow and Edward Scissorhands. Still the movie was watchable once for its comedic moments interspersed with corny dialogues

Me at New York

Adele : I'll set Fire to the Rain

Adele - Ill set fire to the Rain Live at the Royal Albert Hall. What a powerful Voice like an Opera singer.
 

SINGAPORE AT NIGHT

Photos taken from my trip to Singapore

The Walking dead : Game

The Walking Dead is a different kind of Zombie game. this is not the typical blood/gore slasher game we are looking at a Heavy Rain type Zombie game with more emphasis on character development rather than gameplay. Such games are getting popular these days. With Episode 1 i believe that they have achieved their goal. Cant wait for episode 2.