Due to Umakant Sharma matter, suddenly Bluetooth (and of course Mr. Umakant Sharma :) ) got the popularity and media attention in chess world. Before we move to Bluetooth device, lets see the short summary of Umakant Sharma matter. In the seventh round of Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee Memorial All India Open FIDE Rating Chess Tournament, playing with black pieces against IM Shetty Rahul, Umakant Sharma found with a blue tooth device, the device was found in his cap while his Mobile phone was in the bag near to his seat.
Based on these bare facts, the tournament committee decided that Umakant Sharma will have to leave the tournament to which Umakant agreed. The tournament committee will now refer the matter to AICF for further enquiries and necessary action.

In the last week there was a buzz about Umakant Sharma and Bluetooth device. Now the question arises what is this Bluetooth, how it works, is it recently invented, how it can benefit a chess player.

I am sure chess players must have heard about Bluetooth but they might not be knowing much about it. So if you are curious about the bluetooth devices then you are at the right place. I have tried my best to write about bluetooth in the simple words still few of you might find this article little techie.

Before we go into Bluetooth lets see how electronic devices work :
When you use computers, entertainment systems or telephones, the various pieces and parts of the systems make up a community of electronic devices. These devices communicate with each other using a variety of wires, cables, radio signals and infrared light beams, also variety of connectors, plugs and protocols. There are many ways of connecting electronic devices to one another. For example - Component cables, Electrical wires, Ethernet cables, WiFi, Infrared signals etc.

When any two devices communicate with each other, they have to agree on a number of points before the conversation can begin. The most important point of agreement is physical, here they have to decide : will they communicate over wires or through some form of wireless signals? If they decided to use wires, then how many wires would be required and similarly several more questions arise. Bluetooth is a smart device which handles all these complexities. Lets move to Bluetooth.

What is Bluetooth :

Bluetooth is the name for a short-range radio frequency (RF) technology that operates at 2.4 GHz and is capable of transmitting voice and data. The effective range of Bluetooth devices is 32 feet (10 meters). Bluetooth transfers data at the rate of 1 Mbps, which is from three to eight times the average speed of parallel and serial ports.
In simple words, A Bluetooth connection is wireless and automatic, and it has a number of interesting features that can simplify our daily lives.

Why is the technology called Bluetooth?

The heart of the Bluetooth brand identity is the name which refers to the Danish king Harald "Bluetooth". In the beginning of the Bluetooth wireless technology era, Bluetooth was aimed at unifying the telecom and computing industries. Choosing this name for the standard indicates how important companies from the Nordic region (nations including Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland) are to the communications industry, even if it says little about the way the technology works.

How Bluetooth works :

As mentioned earlier, two devices must agree on a number of points, Bluetooth handles it in a very effective way. Bluetooth can connect up to eight devices simultaneously, you might think they would interfere with one another but other RF (Radio Frequency) devices do not interfere with Bluetooth Devices that is because Bluetooth radios operate on 2.4 GHz frequency band that is shared among other devices (microwave ovens, cordless phones, garage door openers etc. ). Bluetooth radios switch frequencies at such a rapid pace (1,600 times per second! ) and the data packets are so small that interference from devices is just not possible. When Bluetooth-capable devices come within range of one another, an electronic conversation takes place to determine whether they have data to share or whether one needs to control the other. The user doesn't have to press a button or give a command, the electronic conversation happens automatically.