Monday, December 1, 2008

Translation, Please!

I saw this earlier today at Susan Polgar's blog and it showed up tonight in a news search. My reaction is still - huh? What is this article saying? The article was reported at Panorama.en - and is titled "Armenian Information Portal." Here is the article: 17:22 01/12/2008 AZERI CHESS PLAYERS UNDER PRESSURE Zeiynab Mamediarova, who is the best chess player of Azerbaijan, said that Azeri women chess players were under pressure as “enemious character” against Armenians is sowed among them. According to Azeri media, Mamediarova admitted that the most difficult meeting in Dresden was the one with Armenians when they have been crucially defeated by 4-0 points. “The only reason of that defeat was the pressure on us. Armenians did not have such feelings and they managed to get well prepared to the game. Any game with Armenia is much spoken in our country and everything is accepted not as it is to be,” she said. Source: Panorama.am
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Okay, first of all the article had her name spelled wrong: it's Zeinab Mamedjarova, although I understand the regional variations due to pronunciation - but the name as spelled in the article did not show up in a FIDE search of players. The reporter should have checked the data base of chess-results.com for information on how this player's name is spelled for FIDE purposes. Mamedjarova is rated 2351 and she is a WGM. Second, Mamedjarova is not the best player in Azerbaijan - she is the highest rated female player in Azerjaiban. Third, what is "enemious?" It is not an English word with which I am familiar. Well - whatever - what I want to really know is, who was actually sowing the "enemious character" among the players? Was it the Azerbaijan team, or was it the Armenian team? My interpretation of this article is that it was the Azerbaijan players who were overwhelmed by their "enemious character" against the Armenian players. In other words, they let their national political hatred toward the Armenians get the better of them, and totally psyched themselves out. Oh my. My feeling in this case is that the Azerbaijanis deserved to lose the match, but that's just based on personal belief. More of that Chess Goddess justice being sprinkled about, perhaps (as She did in the case of the Russians being blanked out of Team medals this Olympiad, after the Georgian Women's Team was "blanked out" of playing at the Women's World Chess Championships in Nalchik, Russia, in August, 2008). Fourth, I have no idea what this phrase in the final sentence means: "is accepted not as it is to be” - what??? Does this mean that because of the animosity between the countries, Azerbaijanis put more emphasis on victories in chess over Armenians, perhaps believing that the Azerbaijanis somehow have a moral right to victories over the Armenians and therefore, it should happen? (And if it doesn't happen, as it did not in the case of the Women's Teams in the Olympiad, what does that mean? That the Azerbaijan female chess players were somehow at fault?) Well, if that is so, then perhaps the Azerbaijanis should re-think their national animosity toward the Armenians, as the Chess Goddess definitely seems to be in favor of the Armenians and, as we know, She is Never Wrong. Fifth, the salient point of the article (for me) is this: the Armenians did not let any pressure (internal or external) get to them. They were well prepared for the match and they won - they played the best chess they could and did not allow any distractions to get in the way.

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