Shira Chess Challenge for Charity: Postscript

First of all - THANK YOU SO MUCH - to:

• GM Susan Polgar for her encouragement in undertaking this "quest" and the publicity she provided to us at the Susan Polgar Chess Daily News and Information blog.

• Chessdom.com, for giving us front-page publicity on its website the day before our match began, and their private kind words of support and encouragement.

• Current Women's World Chess Champion GM Alexandra Kosteniuk for her kind words and the publicity she provided to us at her chessblog.com.

• Chessville - who began it all with an article published on June 23, 2009 from sometimes columnist JanXena :)

• Kelly Atkins a/k/a Chessdaddy (whom I met eons ago at the message board now affiliated with Chessville), who volunteered to be my coach, despite knowing what a difficult femme I am - kiss my foot, Chessdaddy! He tried hard to whip me into shape, and I resisted every step of the way :) Despite his own fully-booked family and work schedule, he found time somehow to teach me some good stuff, and I found his analysis of Game 2 invaluable - not in preparing for Game 3, but in providing a template for patterns in my own play. I'm going to study that game a lot more.

• Laura and Dan Sherman of Your Chess Coach, who spent a lot of hours with me via email and on the telephone giving me pointers on how to play and analysis of two of my prior "practice" games from redhotpawn.com. I cannot tell you how much I learned from that time on the telephone with Dan, wow! Dan, I was even able to use "c3" in my game today - and it worked just as you said it would :) Unfortunately, I blew the game, but not because of that move. Laura, thanks for that sweet supporting shoulder to cry on!

• Don McLean, my long-suffering fiance. He's not keen on playing chess - and neither had I been until I cooked up this Chess Challenge for Charity with Shira a few months ago. Mr. Don indulged me and while he was here a few weeks ago for my 58th birthday (we were going to Las Vegas to celebrate with our friends) he willingly played four games to help me with my training. Two here at the house, and one each to and from Las Vegas. I love you with all my heart, mon homme, and I'm soooo glad I won that game at 35,000 feet flying back from Las Vegas :)

• Phil Innes and Rob Mitchell. Your enthusiasm at the beginning of this "project" was invigorating and inspirational. Rob, thanks for the practice games :)

Shira, I hate you! LOL! I hate you so much I donated $100 to your Cause at Facebook. I hope this will spur some donations. Interest in the Chess Challenge for Charity was high. Traffic at this blog where I did daily updates on the Challenge games increased substantially over average. Thank you all for your support! Donations to Shira's Foundation are 100% tax deductible to qualifying taxpayers and the Foundation accepts donations in cash and in kind - that is, if you have a working in good order laptop you'd like to donate, you can contact Shira at the Foundation for further information. If your laptop is accepted by the Foundation, you get to write off its value as a charitable deduction. Shira and I are very sorry that our plan for playing "live" games did not work out. Neither of us realized that the live play interface at chess.com is a "beta" model still a work in progress, prone to malfunctions. Oy! We are sorry that anyone who wanted to follow along with our play was not able to do so while we were playing them. You missed all of our sparkling repartee :) A summary of the action over the past several days: Game 1 http://goddesschess.blogspot.com/2009/09/shira-chess-challenge-for-charity-game.html Update for Game 2 – Technical Difficulties http://goddesschess.blogspot.com/2009/09/shira-chess-challenge-for-charity.html Game 2 http://goddesschess.blogspot.com/2009/09/shira-chess-challenge-for-charity-game_06.html Game 3 http://goddesschess.blogspot.com/2009/09/shira-chess-challenge-for-charity-game_07.html In tribute to Chessdaddy's hard work on my behalf, I post his analysis of my Game 2: Event "Online Chess"] [Site "Chess. com"] [Date "2009. 09. 06"] [Round "1"] [White "JanXena"] [Black "shirae"] [Result "0–1"] [WhiteElo "979"] [BlackElo "1421"] No time control we played in real time but without clocks game lasted about hours] [Termination "shirae won by resignation"] 1.d4 d6 2.e4 e5 3.Be3 Not a blunder by any means, but it is fundamentally wrong as it is way too passive & defensive instead of using White's advantage of having the first move to maintain the initiative and create threats. Be3 just gives Black equality and hands the initiative to her. Nf3 or dxe5 were better. 3...Be7 4.Nf3 Bg4 5.d5 [5.dxe5 Bxf3 (5...dxe5 6.Qxd8+ Bxd8 7.Nxe5 and you've won a pawn, have a big lead in development and a much better position.) 6.Qxf3 dxe5 with a nice lead in development.] 5...f5 6.h3 Bxf3 7.Qxf3 f4 8.Bd2 you're still in good shape here, but your dark-squared bishop has been pushed back to an ineffective square and will have a hard time getting active - on reason putting it on e3 wasn't so hot. OTOH, Black has gained some space and pushed the bishop away, but has really opened up her kingside 8...Nf6 9.Bd3 Again, not a blunder, but putting a piece on a square where it's ineffective and unlikely to have any scope. Remember, the opening is not just about developing pieces, but developing them to effective squares, anticipating what they'll be able to do from those squares, developing them to work with the rest of your pieces, etc. It's also about creating threats and causing your opponent problems she must address that compromise her position. If you really want to castle short and needed to get that bishop out of the way in order to do so, putting it on e2 to back up the queen, have access to the more open d1–h5 diagonal, and not be staring into the back of one of your blocked center pawns would've been better.Here, you needed to do some planning and assess the future of the game. With Black being very open on the kingside, she likely won't (or at least shouldn't) castle to that side. Also, with Black having penetrated to f4 with a supported pawn, you are gonna need to bust that up or suffer a very cramped position and be vulnerable to attack if you castle there. A rule of thumb is to attack in the direction your center pawns are pointing, meaning Black is probably going to have better attacking chances on the kingside and you on the queenside. Since Black is gonna need to castle long and you are gonna be vulnerable on the kingside, you should too, and all this means that if you both castle long, you should have the better attacking chances against your opponent's king. This also means you can afford to play g3 in the near future and start busting up Black's advanced pawns on the kingside. Moves like Nc3, Rg1, or g3 were better than Bd3. This is a good position to learn how to evaluate and assess and plan correctly. 9...Nbd7 10.Nc3 0–0 11.0–0–0 Very good! You obviously realized you would be vulnerable after 0–0. With opposite side castling, a pawn storm is almost always in order. It gets very nasty and the first one who push their pawns into the opponent's king's position and open it up usually wins. Time is VERY important here and you must make every move count. 11...c6 This is a great position to stop and assess the strengths & weaknesses of both sides, then make a plan for how to make the most of your strengths and take advantage of your opponent's weaknesses. Doing this well isn't as easy to learn as tactics, but it's not all that hard either. ALL plans MUST be based on objective analysis of the position, not on what you just WANT to do.Here, you have a very solid, secure castled king, the bishop pair, more space on the queenside, and an opportunity to launch a pawn storm on the kingside. Your weakness is that your bishops have very little range or scope, and your knight doesn't have a good advanced square to go to. A very helpful rule of thumb is that when you have bishops, open the position... usually by forcing pawn swaps in and around the center. If you have knights, or your opponent has the bishop pair, keep the position blocked and closed. You can almost put an automatic 1 in the win column in this position by simply pushing pawns in the center and on the kingside to open the position up.Shira's king is castled, but the position around him is a little loose. Her only bishop is bad (on the same color squares as her center pawns, meaning it doesn't have much scope), her knights don't have many good squares to go to, and she's behind in development.The plan for you here should be to immediately play g3, bust up Black's advanced K-side pawns, open lines for your rooks to attack down the g and/or h files, and push any remaining pawns on the K-side to attack Black's castled king. This will also open up the c1–h6 diagonal for your bishop; after you remove Black's f4 pawn you can play f4 to remove her e5 pawn then advance your own e-pawn to open the diagonal for your light squared bishop, or maybe have to reposition it to e2. Also you may need to play Ne2 to bring the knight over to the kingside to put extra pressure on f4 and g3 and perhaps on to directly assisting in the kingside attack. In a nutshell, open up lines on the kingside, throw your kingside pawns at Black's king, and throw all your pieces at him also. 12.Bc4 Unnecessary and not helpful. You're responding to Shira's threats instead of taking the initiative. You don't want to recapture here with your bishop anyway, as that gives up the bishop pair unnecessarily. Let her capture then retake with your knight or e-pawn. Best was to ignore the threat since it didn't really hurt you at all, and play g3, forcing Shira to respond to you, then follow the plan of opening up the center & K-side and flooding it with your pieces in a direct attack. 12...b5 13.dxc6+ Not a huge blunder, but a mistake nonetheless. It doesn't lose material, but it gives up your bishop (and the bishop pair, and opens up attacking lines for Black against your king. Much better was preserving your bishop and keeping the Q-side closed with Bb3. It's these little subtle things that make the difference in a good position that's easy to win from, and a hard-to-defend bad position where you become overwhelmed with problems. This move took you from having a very solid position with a decent advantage, to a position that was just about dead even, but with some potential problems. 13...bxc4 14.cxd7 Qxd7 15.g3 fxg3 16.Qxg3 Nh5 17.Qg2 Qg4 here forces a Q trade, removing most of Black's attacking chances, making you much safer and pretty much assuring you of a draw. Not necessarily better than Qg2, but would have given you an almost certain draw. 17...Rab8 18.Rdg1 Not a losing move, but I think you failed to anticipate Black's direct attack on your king and take steps to defend. Moving your king to b1 to bring your bishop to c1 in order to defend b2 was good. b3 will work, but it will also weaken the area around your king, though you should still be able to fight off and attack. 18...Bh4 19.Bh6 Looks good at first glance, but doesn't work due to Black's threats at f2 and his solid defense of g7. Easy to see why you'd play this though and it's not easy to calculate this accurately and see if it works or not. [19.Qg4 Black either has to give up the attack by trading queens, or play Qb7 and take a pawn or two and run your king around while letting you get a free piece, leaving you with a nice advantage.] 19...Rxf2 20.Qxg7+ [20.Qg4 was your only decent move here. Everything else loses the queen. Even with Qg4, you're still in some trouble, though not really lost... just down a pawn and under some pressure.] 20...Nxg7 21.Be3 [21.Rxg7+ MUCH better. You get a Q & N for a R & B. Still leaves you a pawn & rook down, but...] 21...Rf7 22.Rg2 Rbf8 23.Rhh2 Kh8 24.Kb1 Rf1+ 25.Bc1 Re1 All in all, you played MUCH better than expected. Shira by NO means ran over you. In fact, you had the advantage throughout most of the game and played well with no big mistakes until a small miscalculation near the end. Until then, all your mistakes were very small, minor things that are easily corrected. Although you lost this game, you have a LOT to be proud of and you played quite well. 0–1 Thanks, Chessdaddy :)

Shira Chess Challenge for Charity: Game 3

Hola darlings! It's another gorgeous day here, but that didn't help my chessplaying today, oy! I fell flat on my face nearly out of the gate and it went downhill from there. My only consolation is that I managed to play enough defense to make Shira chase me halfway around the board before she was finally able to close in on checkmate :) I even teased her about it, saying I was making her work for it. Naughty JanXena! For whatever reason, I just had nothing today! I'm embarrassed to post this game here, I played so poorly. Oh well. Here goes - don't laugh too hard at me! [Event "Online Chess"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2009.09.07"] [Round "1"] [White "shirae"] [Black "JanXena"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "1455"] [BlackElo "945"] [TimeControl - none - we played without clocks and finished in about 1.5 hours] [Termination "shirae won by resignation"] 1.d4 d5 2.Bg5 f6 3.Bf4 Nc6 4.Nf3 Bf5 5.e3 e6 6.Bd3 Qd7 7.a3 Bd6 8.Bxd6 Qxd6 9.Bxf5 O-O-O 10.Bd3 g6 11.Nbd2 g5 12.h3 h6 13.c4 Nge7 14.Rc1 f5 15.b4 Qd7 16.b5 Nb8 17.Ne5 Qe8 18.c5 Rf8 19.c6 Nexc6 20.bxc6 Nxc6 21.Nxc6 bxc6 22.Qa4 Rd6 23.Qxa7 Kd7 24.Bb5 Ke7 25.Qxc7+ Kf6 26.Qxd6 cxb5 27.Rc7 Rf7 28.Qe5+ Kg6 29.Rxf7 Qxf7 30.O-O g4 31.Rc1 Kg5 32.Rc7 Qg6 33.Rg7 1-0 I am sooooo glad the match is over! Now I can relax! It was fun, but exhausting. I sincerely doubt now that I would ever be able to play in a tournament, even if I could get my game up to snuff. I don't have the physical stamina. Right now I feel like a wrung-out dishcloth, although I feel better now than at 11:30 a.m., about when the game finished, because I walked down to the store to relieve some of the built-up stress and tension almost immediately after I signed off to Shira. At least today my head didn't ache! It just wasn't working at all, LOL! I think I must have left my brain in bed this morning. My faithful coach Kelly Atkins a/k/a Chessdaddy, did an analysis of Game 2 for me, and I even understand it! That's rather scary, actually :) He was very encouraging too, about the level of my play in Game 2. He said something to the effect of "you played better than you led me to believe you could." Alas, Chessdaddy, not today! I'm sorry. I will sit down soon and play over Game 2 the slow way on a real board (I get too confused trying to do it online), and also Game 1 when I have that analyzed. I can't stand the thought of looking at Game 3! Here is a picture of Shira (again at Starbucks) taken during our game today. Of course she looks happy! She won all three games, boo hoo hoo. Part of me wants to get REVENGE! The rational part of me is saying "Oh for goddesssake, Jan, concentrate on something you do well, like writing and researching. Forget chess." Oy - now I've to listen to good angel/bad angel battle it out on my shoulders for the next couple of days. Geez!

Goddess Anahita of Persia

(Image: The winged-angel Goddess Anahita flanked by felines, wearing her golden crown of stars). I really enjoyed reading this! I found it at Iranian.com Anahita – Lady of Persia by Nabarz 02-Sep-2009 By Payam Nabarz The following is based on the Anahita chapter from ‘The Mysteries of Mithras: The Pagan Belief That Shaped the Christian World’. By Payam Nabarz, Inner Traditions, 2005. Mighty Anahita with splendor will shine, Incarnated as a youthful divine. Full of charm her beauty she will display, Her hip with charming belt she will array. Straight-figured, she is as noble bride, Freeborn, herself in puckered dress will hide. Her cloak is all decorated with gold, With precious dress Anahita we shall behold. -Original poem based on Kashani’s Persian folk songs, from an Avestan invocation to Anahita. Dusk of Shabe Yalda (Yule) 777 B.C. somewhere on a beach by the Caspian sea. A young Magi (who later was to be known as the prophet Zoroaster) has been keeping a night vigil. His solitary fire is the only light for miles around and his recitation of Aban Yasht the hymn to angel-goddess Anahita the only sound to be heard apart from the waves gently crashing onto the beach. “Angel-Goddess of all the waters upon the earth and the source of the cosmic ocean; she who drives a chariot pulled by four horses: wind, rain, cloud, and sleet; your symbol is the eight-rayed star. You are the source of life, purifying the seed of all males and the wombs of all females, also cleansing the milk in the breasts of all mothers. Your connection with life, means warriors in battle prayed to you for survival and victory. A maid, fair of body, most strong, tall-formed, high-girded, pure, . . . wearing a mantle fully embroidered with gold; ever holding the baresma [sacred plant] in your hand, . . . you wear square golden earrings on your ears . . . a golden necklace around your beautiful neck, . . . Upon your head . . . a golden crown, with a hundred stars, with eight rays . . . with fillets streaming down.” 1 The Magi’s prayer is answered by the sea in the form of a vision; as midnight approaches and time slows, the sea parts. A large silver throne appears; on either side of it sits a lion with eyes of blue flame. On the throne sits a Lady in silver and gold garments, proud and tall, an awe-inspiring warrior-woman, as terrifying as she is beautiful. Tall and statuesque, she sits, her noble origins evident in her appearance, her haughty authority made clear and commanding through a pair of flashing eyes. A dove flies above her and a peacock walks before her. A crown of shining gold rings her royal temples; bejeweled with eight sunrays and one hundred stars, it holds her lustrous hair back from her beautiful face. Her marble like white arms reflect moonlight, and glisten with moisture. She is clothed with a garment made of thirty beavers, and it shines with the full sheen of silver and gold. The planet Venus shines brightly in the sky. 2 Time passes.....history takes place.... The Sassanian Empires fades and Islam arrives in Iran. 900 C.E. Moslem pilgrims make their way to the 1100-year-old shrine of Bibi Shahr Banoo, the Islamic female saint, near the old town of Rey (South of Tehran). Town of Rey is thought to be 5000 years old, the site of this shrine with its waterfall is believed by some to have been an Anahita shrine at one time. It is also close to the Cheshmeh Ali Hill (the spring of Ali Hill), which is dated to 5000 years ago. Perhaps this is an echo of Mithra-Anahita shrines being close to each other and then becoming linked to later Islamic saints, a process seen frequently in Christianized Europe too; for example, sites sacred to the Celtic goddess Brigit became sites dedicated to Saint Brigit. Furthermore, according to Susan Gaviri in Anahita in Iranian Mythology (1993): “. . . it must not be forgotten that many of the famous fire temples in Iran were, in the beginning, Anahita temples. Examples of these fire temples are seen in some parts of Iran, especially in Yazad, where we find that after the Muslim victory these were converted to Mosques.”8 Time passes.... history takes place.... Pilgrims continue to visit the Pre-Islamic Zoroastrian shrine of Pir e Sabz, or Chek Chek (“drip drip,” the sound of water dripping), in the mountains of Yazd. This is still a functional temple and the holiest site for present-day Zoroastrians living in Iran, who take their annual pilgrimage to Pir e Sabz Banu, "the old woman in the mountain,” also called Pir e Sabz, “the green saint,” at the beginning of summer. Pir means “elder,” and it can also mean “fire.” The title of Pir also connotes a Sufi master. Sabz means green.9 Pilgrims also continue to visit Pir e Banoo Pars (Elder Lady of Persia) and Pir e Naraki are located near Yazd. (The dates are unclear.) The Pir Banoo temple is in an area that has a number of valleys; the name of the place is Hapt Ador, which means Seven Fires.10 Time passes.... history take place..... yet she is still remembered.... “Tomorrow (21.8.03), I (Jalil Nozari) will take part in a ceremony to commemorate a very poor, old woman, a relative of mine, who died recently. Her name was Kaneez. The name in modern Farsi has negative connotations, meaning a “female servant.” But, in Pahlavi, the language spoken in central Iran before the coming of Islam, it meant “a maiden,” a virgin, unmarried girl. Indeed, it has both meanings of the English “maid.” Anahita, too, means virgin, literally not defiled. But this is not the end of story. When I was a child, there was a place in Ramhormoz, my hometown, that now is under a city road. In it, there was a small, single-room building with a small drain pipe hanging from it. Women in their ninth month and close to delivery time stood under this pipe and someone poured water through it. There was the belief that getting wet under the drain would assure a safe delivery of the baby. The building was devoted to Khezer (the green one).* Yet, the cult is very old and clearly one of Anahita’s. The role of water and safe child delivery are both parts of the Anahita cult. My deceased aunt, our Kaneez, was a servant of this building. The building was demolished years ago to build a road, and Kaneez is no more. I wonder how will we reconstruct those eras, so close to us in time yet so far from our present conditions. It is also of interest that there exist remains of a castle, or better to say a fort, in Ramhormoz, that is called “Mother and Daughter.” It belongs to the Sasanides era. “Daughter,” signifying virginity, directs the mind toward Anahita. There are other shrines named after sacred women, mostly located beside springs of water. These all make the grounds for believing that Ramhormoz was one of the oldest places for Anahita worshippers.”12 Full article. We have seen the Goddess on a throne flanked by felines in may other cultures - the oldest to my knowledge is from Catalhoyuk (Chatalhoyuk), located in modern-day Turkey. The association of the Goddess with "wild beasts" is age-old, as indicated by one of her myriad titles "Mistress of Beasts"; in the Greek tradition she was embodied as Artemis. The crown with "eight rays" is an obvious reference to Venus, revered by the Sumerians and associated with the Goddess Inanna and immortalized on some of the 20-squares game boards excavated from the graves of Ur by Woolley. The association of the Goddess with a water shrine, often in a cave or outcropping of rock, is also extremely ancient. Ancient sacred places, sometimes built upon over and over and over through the millenia (such as Chatres Cathedral built upon the site of ancient goddess worship in France), were usually built upon or near water - a spring, a stream, a river, or upon a sacred island, and also associated with outcroppings of rock, sacred mountains and plateaus (the Acropolis in Athens, for instance). A modern example is the shrine at Lourdes, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Birds (dove, peacock, owl) are likewise associated with the earliest renderings of the Goddess. There are "bird goddess" drawings that are as old (maybe older) as the drawings in the caves as Lascaux, for instance. The use of the double-entendre pir ("old, elder;" "fire") is reminiscent of how both the ancient Egyptians and the Chinese love to use "pun" words with double meanings. What I find particularly interesting about this article - and what I didn't know before - is the term "chek chek" -- "drip drip" -- a sound uniquely associated with water! Also learned the word "chemesh" meaning "spring" (of water). This will add to my "well" of research (pun!) about the true meaning of the name of the game we call "chess" today. And what is that sacred plant that Zoroaster saw the Goddess holding in her hand in that awe-inspiring vision that night on the shores of the Caspian Sea? Might it have been a mandrake plant (chatrang in Pahlavi)? Chatrang - the Persian name for chess...

Part of Ancient Bible Discovered at Egyptian Monastery

Fragment from world's oldest Bible found hidden in Egyptian monastery Academic stumbles upon previously unseen section of Codex Sinaiticus dating back to 4th century By Jerome Taylor, Religious Affairs Correspondent Wednesday, 2 September 2009 A British-based academic has uncovered a fragment of the world's oldest Bible hiding underneath the binding of an 18th-century book. Nikolas Sarris spotted a previously unseen section of the Codex Sinaiticus, which dates from about AD350, as he was trawling through photographs of manuscripts in the library of St Catherine's Monastery in Egypt. The Codex, handwritten in Greek on animal skin, is the earliest known version of the Bible. Leaves from the priceless tome are divided between four institutions, including St Catherine's Monastery and the British Library, which has held the largest section of the ancient Bible since the Soviet Union sold its collection to Britain in 1933. Academics from Britain, America, Egypt and Russia collaborated to put the entire Codex online this year but new fragments of the book are occasionally rediscovered. Mr Sarris, 30, chanced upon the fragment as he inspected photographs of a series of book bindings that had been compiled by two monks at the monastery during the 18th century. Over the centuries, antique parchment was often re-used by St Catherine's monks in book bindings because of its strength and the relative difficulty of finding fresh parchment in such a remote corner of the world. A Greek student conservator who is studying for his PhD in Britain, Mr Sarris had been involved in the British Library's project to digitise the Codex and quickly recognised the distinct Greek lettering when he saw it poking through a section of the book binding. Speaking from the Greek island of Patmos yesterday, Mr Sarris said: "It was a really exciting moment. Although it is not my area of expertise, I had helped with the online project so the Codex had been heavily imprinted in my memory. I began checking the height of the letters and the columns and quickly realised we were looking at an unseen part of the Codex." Mr Sarris later emailed Father Justin, the monastery's librarian, to suggest he take a closer look at the book binding. "Even if there is a one-in-a-million possibility that it could be a Sinaiticus fragment that has escaped our attention, I thought it would be best to say it rather than dismiss it." Only a quarter of the fragment is visible through the book binding but after closer inspection, Father Justin was able to confirm that a previously unseen section of the Codex had indeed been found. The fragment is believed to be the beginning of Joshua, Chapter 1, Verse 10, in which Joshua admonishes the children of Israel as they enter the promised land. Speaking to The Art Newspaper, Father Justin said the monastery would use scanners to look more closely at how much of the fragment existed under the newer book binding. "Modern technology should allow us to examine the binding in a non-invasive manner," he said. Mr Sarris said his find was particularly significant because there were at least 18 other book bindings in the monastery's library that were compiled by the same two monks that had re-used the Codex. "We don't know whether we will find more of the Codex in those books but it would definitely be worth looking," he said. The library in St Catherine's does not have the laboratory conditions needed to carefully peel away the binding without damaging the parchment underneath but the library is undergoing renovations that might lead to the construction of a lab with the correct equipment to do so. The Bible: A brief history Although earlier fragments of the Bible have survived the passage of time, the Codex Sinaiticus is so significant because it is by far the most complete. The full text that has been discovered so far contains virtually all of the New Testament and about half of the Old Testament. But whenever an ancient version of the holy book is found, it often raises questions about the evolution of the Bible and how close what we read today is to the original words of Christ and his early followers. The Old Testament was written largely in Hebrew (with the odd Aramaic exception) but it is by no means a homogenous entity. Protestant and more recent Catholic versions of the Bible tend to use the Masoretic Text, a variation of the Hebrew Old Testament that was copied, edited and distributed by Jewish Masorete scholars between the 7th and 11th centuries. Earlier Catholic translations and the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches use the Septuagint, an ancient Greek version of the Hebrew text that was translated between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC. In studying the early history of the New Testament, historians have about 5,650 handwritten copies in Greek on which they can draw, many of which are distinctly different. As Christianity consolidated its power through the first millennia, the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John came to form the key elements of the New Testament. But other apocryphal writings were discarded along the way. The Shepherd of Hermas, for instance, is a Christian literary work of the 2nd century which appears in the Codex Sinaiticus and was considered part of the Bible by some early Christians but was later expunged. The most well-known apocryphal gospel is that of Thomas, a collection of 114 numbered sayings attributed to Jesus that was discovered in 1945. As it never refers to Jesus as "Christ", "Lord" or the "Son of Man" (and lacks any mention of the miracles attributed to Jesus in the other gospels) it is perhaps not surprising that it never made it into later versions of the Bible.

Egyptian First Dynasty Contacts Further Than Thought

Concrete evidence dating to the First Dynasty (c. 3000 BCE according to the article) of Egypt's contacts with and possible spread into the Middle East, in the form of a partial archaic hieroglyphic inscription discovered in Israel on the northern coast of the Sea of Galilee. New Evidence for Relations with Egypt’s First Dynasty at Tel Bet Yerah Monday, 31 August 2009 09:53 A fragment of a carved stone plaque bearing archaic Egyptian signs was the highlight of the second season of excavations at Tel Bet Yerah (Khirbet el-Kerak). The site lies in northern Israel, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, along an ancient highway which connected Egypt to the wider world of the ancient Near East. Work was completed there last week by a joint team from Tel Aviv University and University College London. Excavation director Raphael Greenberg of Tel Aviv and David Wengrow, who headed the UCL contingent, noted that the four cm long fragment was the first artifact of its type ever found in an archaeological context outside Egypt. It depicts an arm and hand grasping a scepter and an early form of the ‘ankh sign, and can be attributed to the period of Egypt’s First Dynasty, at around 3000 BCE or shortly after. Finds of this nature are rare even within Egypt itself. The signs are executed to a high quality, and bear comparison with those on royal cosmetic palettes and other monuments dating to the origins of Egyptian kingship. Earlier discoveries, both in Egypt and at Bet Yerah, have indicated that there was direct interaction between the Early Bronze Age site, then one of the largest in the Jordan Valley, and the Egyptian court. The new discovery suggests that these contacts were of far greater local significance than had been suspected. This year’s excavations also provided new insights into contacts between the early town and the distant north when large quantities of “Khirbet Kerak Ware” (a distinctive kind of red/black burnished pottery first found at Tel Bet Yerah) were found in association with portable ceramic hearths, some of them bearing decorations in the form of human features. “The hearths are very similar to objects found in Anatolia and the southern Caucasus”, noted Greenberg, “and most were found in open spaces where there was other evidence for fire-related activities. The people using this pottery appear to have been migrants or descendants of migrants, and its distribution on the site, as well as the study of other cultural aspects such as what they ate and the way they organized their households could tell us about their interaction with local people and their adaptation to new surroundings.” A special focus of this year’s excavations was the large fortified structure that has been identified by experts in early Islamic history as the Umayyad palace of al-Sinnabra. Its colorful mosaic floors, discovered decades ago but long concealed from view, were revealed and properly recorded for the first time. Deep and massive foundations showed that the structure had at least two major phases of use, and that it must have been an impressive monument before it was razed and its stones carted away for re-use outside the site. Some of these foundation walls showed severe cracking, perhaps related to the massive earthquake of 749 CE that destroyed many sites along the Jordan Valley. The structures excavated in 2009 are all within the area designated as the Bet Yerah National Park, in the northern part of the ancient mound.

Latest on DNA Research and Human Migration

Detailed world map showing directions and times of major migration of modern humans. New research shows they spread out of Africa 20,000 years later than previously thought at around 55-60,000 years ago. © Trends in Ecology Well, frankly, I don't buy this. Too many gaps in populations, for one thing. And a 20,000 year spread between this research and prior recent research - all supposedly the latest? I think we need to refine our DNA analysis a WHOLE LOT MORE before we go re-writing history. Hell, I'm still not sure I BUY the postulated "truth" that genetic diversity is greatest at the source and thins down (gets less diverse) as it spreads out. Totally counter-intuitive! Wouldn't diversity grow greater as it spreads from the source and comes into contact and interbreeds with others of its kind? Well, what do I know about DNA? Nada! So let the experts continue their studies, and I'll continue to watch and see what develops. Here's the story: Humans spread out of Africa later September 4, 2009 Scientists, including the Natural History Museum’s origins expert Professor Chris Stringer, re-examined how scientists get dates for key events in human evolutionary history. They did this by finding new ways to analyse the data obtained from mitochondrial (mtDNA). Mitochondria are the tiny structures in each human cell that produce the cell’s power. They contain their own DNA and this is inherited through the mother. ‘We tried alternative ways to date recent episodes in human evolution, such as our split from Neanderthals, and we found these events occurred more recently in time,’ says Prof Stringer. The new analysis revealed modern humans separated from Neanderthals around 300-400,000 years ago rather than previous estimates of 500-600,000 years. The research suggested that modern humans migrated out of Africa between 55-60,000 years ago rather than the previous dates of 70-80,000 years. They also got more recent dates for other crucial events such as the age of our African ancestral mother, known as mitochondrial Eve, from who all recent humans (Homo sapiens) descended. She was found to have lived around 110-130,000 years ago, rather than previous estimates of 150,000-200,000 years ago. ‘The new dates are consistent with the most recent fossil and archaeological data for Neanderthal evolution, our exit from Africa and our arrival in Asia, Australia, Europe and the Americas,’ says Prof Stringer. ‘And they also cast doubt on ideas of an early exit from Africa towards China and Australia.’ More information: Chris Stringer, Phillip Endicott, Simon Y.W. Ho, and Mait Metspalu's Evaluating the Mitochondrial Timescale of Human Evolution paper is published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution. Source: American Museum of Natural History (news : web)

2009 Montreal Open Chess Championship

a/k/a Championnat de Montreal (2009) Prior post Next weekend! September 11 - 13, 2009. This year the organizers have made a special effort to reach out to the chess femmes in the community and abroad, and have had good success! First, efforts to attract a WGM to play in the Open were successful! WGM Salome Melia (GEO 2441), ranked 44th in the world of active female players, is coming all the way from Europe to participate in the Open. Goddesschess was pleased to provide financial support for this endeavor. At this moment, Melia is the 2nd ranked player in the Open. Second, the Open has lured Zahira El Ghaby (2050 - I do not know under which flag she will be playing) out of inactivity! Now living in Beaumont, Quebec, Canada, she is a two-time Female Champion of Morocco (2002, 2003), Arabian Champion U-18 (2001), and a Chess Olympiad gold medalist (Instanbul, 2000), scoring 6.5/7 and a 92.9% win ratio to earn her Gold. She represents a dangerous unknown! Third, Kelly Wang (CAN 1580), who is 9 years old and entering Grade 4 this year in school, is playing. Thus far, she is the highest-rated chess femme in the B Group and has a good shot at winning the Goddesschess prize for chess femmes in that group. Also playing in the B Group is 12th-grader Marguerite Yang (CAN 1317). In the C Group, Mei Chen Lei (CAN 1516) is coming from Toronto to play. She is friends with WGM Meenakshi Subarraman who had planned to play in the Championship, but lost employer financial support due to global economic conditions and, therefore, will not be appearing in 2009. But both players are scheduled for the 2010 Championship! These are some of chess femmes who will be competing for the title "Female Champion of Montreal" this year! Stay tuned! We are still hoping for more chess femmes. The organizers have reduced registration fees for all chess femmes by $10 as an inducement for more chess femmes to come out and play. The organizers have also waived registration fees for all Chess 'n Math players as long as they don't have a long game rating with FQE or other Federations. Goddesschess' own Don McLean will be on-site throughout the Tournament taking photos, video, and interviews with as many chess femmes who will talk to him! We will publish everything at the Goddesschess blog and/or website. At the conclusion of the Tournament, Monsieur McLean (a Montreal native) will hand out the monetary prizes and certificates to the chess femmes who have won the Goddesschess class prizes. Please come out and support this historical Montreal Tournament. We hope to see you there!

Shira Chess Challenge for Charity: Game 2

Hola darlings! Well - I had Shira on the run for awhile, sort of. LOL! I resigned at the end while both of us still had quite a bit of material on the board - my head aches something fierce. I don't know if it's tension - or too much attempted use of atrophied parts of my brain - or staring so intently at the computer screen for an hour and a half. Or all three! My attacking plan didn't work, alas. I struggled along for a bit after losing my queen without being able to take Shira's in exchange - I overlooked her knight and perhaps there was a move in there that could have still salvaged something but I didn't see it. The story of my chessplaying! I hope I get props for giving it the old college try! I don't have patience when it comes to playing gradual kill-my-pieces-off-one-by-one-defense and lose the game anyway. Shira makes mistakes in her play, but I haven't been able to capitalize on them while I always get punished for mine. NOT FAIR! Boo hoo hoo. For what seemed like such a long involved smash-mouth type of game, though, I was shocked that we only played 25 moves! Wow! I feel like it was at least 100! Or maybe it's that I feel 100... Now I've got to go cut the grass in the other part of the yard and I've already got the sprinkler going. I'm going to nurse my bruised chess ego and aching head out on the deck this afternoon and enjoy this beautiful weather with my feet up, a BIG glass of cheap wine and listen to smooth jazz on the radio until I fall asleep and get a sunburnt face. There's more laundry to do but that can wait! Here is the PGN from Game 2: Event "Online Chess"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2009.09.06"] [Round "1"] [White "JanXena"] [Black "shirae"] [Result "0-1"] [WhiteElo "979"] [BlackElo "1421"] (No time control - we played in real time but without clocks - game lasted about 1.5 hours] [Termination "shirae won by resignation"] 1.d4 d6 2.e4 e5 3.Be3 Be7 4.Nf3 Bg4 5.d5 f5 6.h3 Bxf3 7.Qxf3 f4 8.Bd2 Nf6 9.Bd3 Nbd7 10.Nc3 O-O 11.O-O-O c6 12.Bc4 b5 13.dxc6+ bxc4 14.cxd7 Qxd7 15.g3 fxg3 16.Qxg3 Nh5 17.Qg2 Rab8 18.Rdg1 Bh4 19.Bh6 Rxf2 20.Qxg7+ Nxg7 21.Be3 Rf7 22.Rg2 Rbf8 23.Rhh2 Kh8 24.Kb1 Rf1+ 25.Bc1 Re1 0-1 Let me tell you, I'll be SO glad when this is over tomorrow. Playing competitive chess is draining. Right now, in addition to my aching head, I feel chewed up and spit out - I think I need a ham sandwich. Shira sent along a photo of a screen shot of this game in progress from Starbucks, where she settled into play once again. Same time, same place, tomorrow! Tomorrow, tomorrow, there's always tomorrow...

Shira Chess Challenge for Charity: Update for Game 2

Last post of the night! Shira, playing as "shirae" and I, playing as "JanXena", will be meeting tomorrow morning (Sunday September 6) at 10:00 a.m. CST (Wisconsin time) at http://www.chess.com/ to play Game 2 of our 3-game match! Because of the technical difficulties that we experienced earlier today when we started our game using the "live play" feature at the chess.com website (Shira got disconnected about 8 minutes into our game), we will be playing Game 2 using the regular "online chess" feature. As I posted earlier (the first post under this date) , Shira and I ended up using the regular "online chess" feature to play Game 1, since all moves from Game 1 were lost when Shira's computer lost the internet connection to our "live" game. In a time crunch and not knowing what else to do, we played Game 1 using the "online chess" feature instead. Honestly, I do not know if anyone will be able to follow along as we play Game 2 - and we apologize for this. This particular interface at chess.com is not designed for "real-time" play -- it jumps on my screen when either of us makes a move, for instance (Shira reported the same phenomenon when I asked about it), and then I have to scroll up to get back to the playing board, but the website does update once each of us hits the "submit move" button! It's just that sometimes we forget to hit the "submit move' button. And whether folks who are not playing the game can actually view it as we play, we do not know. We had considered switching our forum to another site (such as ICC), but given the pre-match publicity that said our games would be played at chess.com, we concluded it would be best to continue playing the games at chess.com - just not in the "live game" format we had envisioned. Once again - our apologies. We had not envisioned this problem! So, if you are not able to follow along while Shira and I play Game 2 tomorrow, I will publish the PGN of our game here. And hopefully a photo or two. I do not think you will want to see me at 10 a.m. without make-up and combed hair, and in my yard-work junk clothes - but Who knows, maybe someone out there will like a funky JanXena.

Ethnic Unrest In China Continues - with Fall-Out

It doesn't take a genius to predict that we haven't heard the last of this, and the inept response of the Han Chinese majority is only adding fuel to the fire. Darlings, trust me, firing a party underling to cover up for the gross incompetence of a politburo member isn't going to cut it in this situation in the long run (and it may not be as long as they think). China a Ousts Top City Official in Wake of Unrest By KEITH BRADSHER and XIYUN YANG Published: September 5, 2009 HONG KONG — The top Communist official in Urumqi in western China was dismissed on Saturday as a large deployment of the military police appeared to have brought a measure of peace to the city after two days of large street protests. Li Zhi, the party secretary of Urumqi, lost his post, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday evening. He became the most senior person to be removed since ethnic tensions erupted there in rioting in July. Beijing officials also sent to Urumqi a special medical inspection unit from the People’s Liberation Army to investigate reports that people had been stabbed with needles. It is somewhat unusual for China’s leaders to replace a senior local official so quickly after protests — in this case, while large deployments of armed police officers are still blocking intersections in Urumqi and most shops are still closed. The Beijing leadership has often sought to avoid giving the impression of giving in to public pressure. The removal of Mr. Li “shows that Xinjiang is viewed as a strategic region where there cannot be the kind of social protests we have seen in recent days,” said Nicholas Bequelin, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. The latest protests were notable for including large crowds of people who specifically called on Friday for the removal of Mr. Li’s boss, Wang Lequan, the powerful party secretary of restive Xinjiang region, of which Urumqi is the capital. Mr. Wang, a member of the Politburo believed to be a close ally of President Hu Jintao, has run the nominally autonomous region for 15 years and is famous within China for taking a hard line toward minorities. “They want to protect Wang Lequan, because firing a Politburo member would send a message they do not want to send,” namely that hard-line policies toward ethnic minorities can be questioned, said Li Cheng, the research director of the Brookings Institution’s China Center. Rest of article. I think the unintentionally funniest line in this article is the one about the special medical inspection unit! And just what are they going to say - even if they uncover the truth that probably 99.9% of the people who were reportedly pricked with needles weren't pricked by needles at all! You can be sure they aren't going to tell the truth, even if they wish to. Urumchi is, of course, famous for red-haired, blue-eyed mummies found buried in the desert outside the city proper in the 1970's, but rumored to have existed for thousands of years before then. NOVA did a special on them a few years back, you can probably find it online. Western scholars have yet to receive free access to the mummies, which are maintained under, I am given to believe, not very good conditions to their conservation. The mummies are a delicate subject in modern China as they predate the Han Chinese presence in northwestern China by a couple thousand years at least, and maybe more. I understand the oldest Urumchi mummy burials are some 4,000 years old. The Han Chinese did not establish a presence in the area until the Han Dynasty c. 220 BCE - 220 CE, with the establishment of the gate-way city of Dunshuang on the Silk Road. And, to be fair, not all of the mummies uncovered had red hair and blue eyes, but I believe it has been pretty much established by other archaeological evidence that many of the Urumchi mummies are related to people who originated far to the west and may have migrated east in one or more waves over a couple thousand years, beginning in 2500 BCE or so. Something the Han Chinese Communist rulers do not wish to acknowledge. Some of the mummies were buried in woven plaids which I understand are remarkably similar to the clan plaids worn by the people who eventually settled in northern Scotland. Some of the mummies (female and male), possibly shamans, tentatively identified as such because of the grave goods with which they were buried, were uncovered wearing tall pointed hats made of felt - similar to how we depict "witches" in the west today (think of the hat worn by the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 movie classic "The Wizard of Oz") - in addition to small woven cloth or felt bags filled with medicinal herbs (including cannabis) and herbs prized for their magical qualities, as well as other talismans. If my memory serves, a few of the 'shamans' were buried with colored throwing sticks -- perhaps for use in divination? The photo above is an example of one of the tall felt hats recovered from a mummy burial. Rather reminds me of that talking hat in the Harry Potter movies... So, the history of non-Han people in the Tarim Basin area is long-standing with links back to peoples of non-Han Chinese stock is ancient. An informative article, with several photographs, including the heart-breaking image of the red-haired infant, gives a good overview.

Iran Typical Treatment of Female Prisoner

The current dictators who run Iran call themselves a "theocratic" nation under God's law. HA! I hope Michelle Obama reads this article. Report from Associated Press. Woman's case reflects prisoners' treatment in Iran By SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI, Associated Press Writer Scheherezade Faramarzi, Associated Press Writer – 48 mins ago BEIRUT – The interrogator politely apologized for grilling the prisoner about her role in the mass protests over Iran's disputed presidential election. Then the prisoner was made to sit facing a wall in the courtyard of Iran's Evin Prison, blindfolded, handcuffed and covered in an all-enveloping chador for four and a half hours under the blazing sun. "America is our enemy," the interrogator told her. "Why are you so naive and can't see this? It's exploiting the situation here and wants to ransack the country. They don't have your interest at heart. The ordeal of Nazy, a 29-year-old university student who worked with the campaign of defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi, gives a rare glimpse of what is happening to detained protesters. Nazy spoke to The Associated Press by telephone from Tehran after her release on the condition that only her first name be used, to protect herself and her family. Thousands have been arrested since incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner, despite cries of fraud. The opposition claims detainees were savagely raped by their jailers and at least 69 people were killed, including some from beatings in prison. The account from Nazy, who is known in reformist circles, could not be independently backed up. But former prisoners and human rights groups have noted that such treatment of prisoners — a mix of intimidation and persuasion known as white torture — is widespread, and that ordinary people along with well-known opposition politicians have been subjected to it. "This case is one of thousands that take place in Iran," said Mohammad Javad Akbarein, an analyst who was himself jailed in 2001. "The majority of prisoners experience white torture. But it's worrisome when people become complacent when prisoners are not subjected to black torture and forget that their rights, dignity and honor are trampled on." June 20 was a tense Saturday, the day after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared the presidential vote would stand and warned opposition leaders to end street protests or be responsible for bloodshed. "We knew that from that day on anyone who comes into the street may have to pay a high price for it," said Nazy. Nazy was on her way to buy a book in Tehran's downtown Enqelab Street and planned to attend a demonstration that afternoon at 4. Before leaving home, she stuffed a bunch of white wristbands that said "change" into her backpack along with a folded poster she had prepared for the afternoon demonstration. White is the color of Karroubi's supporters. At noon, Nazy had just climbed out of the car in front of the bookshop when a man in a white vest, blue shirt and white sneakers twisted her arm and slapped handcuffs on her. He pushed her forward and ordered her to walk a few yards in front of him in the busy street. No sooner had she started walking that two clean-shaven young men in tight blue jeans and wearing green wristbands_ the color of the other defeated reformist candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi — caught up with her. "Don't make any noise; when you reach the narrow street we will help you escape," one of them told her. But when she reached the street that led to the "Protective Police," the men pushed her inside the gate. They had duped her. She walked into a huge courtyard packed with disciplinary police officers and with vans and jeeps. Nazy saw five or six men beaten as they were led into the detention center. Nazy herself was hit a couple of times on her back, led into a basement and interrogated. A female guard pulled out a poster from Nazy's bag. "Ha, instead of saying 'In the Name of God,' she's written 'In the Name of Democracy' on the poster," the guard mocked Nazy. "I'll show you what democracy really is." Another guard came in and challenged Nazy for being a member of the 'One Million Signature' campaign — a group pressing for changes in Iran's laws on women. "Why don't you live your life quietly?" she said. "Do you really consider yourself a woman? We are women who work to bring bread to the table, just like normal people. You ought to do the same and work. You call collecting signatures work?" She said Nazy's family was looking all over town for her and added, "Why don't you use your brain a little?" Nazy said she was working for the woman's rights. "Can't you find a better way to fight for our rights?" the officer asked her. By 4 p.m. the number of detainees — mostly men picked up at the protest sites — had swelled to more than 100. Nazy and two other women waited for several hours in a van while more female demonstrators were brought in. It was dark by the time the van, which seated 12, was filled with 19 women plus two female and one male officers. They sat three to a seat, blindfolded, their hands tied to the chairs. Every time they said a word, they were smacked in the head. At one point, the male officer threw six heavy bottles full of water on their heads. Nazy slightly lifted her blindfold and watched guards hit around 60 men — mostly young — in the head with batons. Blood streamed down their faces and soaked their shirts. The women were driven to the Vozara Monkerat (Moral Police), a temporary jailhouse for prostitutes and drug addicts. The officers dumped them inside the green metal gates of the building and left. No one at the Monkerat knew why the 19 women were there, who had brought them, what their offenses were. They shoved every five of them into a 3 by 2 meter (10 by 6 feet) carpeted room where they couldn't even stretch their legs. The rooms were dark, with no windows. By the time dawn broke, the women were screaming. A young mother was wailing. She had left her three-year-old child in the house alone to shop at the corner store when she was arrested. After 15 hours, they were allowed to use the toilet, and only once. Just before midnight, the women were escorted up the stairs into a room with a big library. They were given forms to fill: reason for their detention. The middle-aged interrogator — in a short-sleeved white shirt and white pants and a golden chain around his neck — did not look like a typical officer of the regime. Nor did his assistant, a young man also clean-shaven and wearing chains. A few minutes later, a young, thin man wearing a suit walked in. "Do you realize your crime is much heavier than others?" the new man asked Nazy. "Because you are with the ("One Million Signature') campaign." "I don't even know why I have been arrested," she replied. He wrote at the bottom of the paper: "to be released on billion rial (about $100,000) bail." He told her to sign the paper so she could go home that night. Her charge was: disruption of law and order, action against national security, destruction of public property, participation in illegal gathering. She said did not accept any of the charges. "Then you will stay right here," he said. "Put on her handcuffs and blindfold and take her downstairs," he told the guard. Nazy was terrified. She didn't want to stay there alone, and was worried about her family. "If I sign it means I accept the charges?" she asked the man. He said the charges would remain whether she signed or not. She was afraid that if she accepted the charges, they would slap a prison sentence on her. "Don't sign. Stay here until you die," the man threatened her. The young assistant tried to persuade her to sign. "Will I then go home tonight?" she asked him. "Yes. Don't you see you are signing bail?" he assured her. The moment she signed, the interrogator said: "Put on her handcuffs and blindfold and take her to Evin." "But you said I will be going home tonight!" Nazy said. "Who do you think you are that I have to answer to you? Take her to Evin!" the man snapped. Rest of article.

Shira Chess Challenge for Charity: Game 1

Hola! Shira and I played the first game of our match this morning! What a fiasco! Even though I signed in 15 minutes early at chess.com, I couldn't figure out how to use the thing - not exactly intuitive for my level of computer incompetence! I should have tried a practice game at chess.com with Shira before D-Day. Live and learn. Finally, with emails and a telephone call from Shira, we were able to get on the same live gameboard and the game started. I thought it was going okay for me - I was white starting out, but then disaster struck! Shira, who was playing from a Starbucks because she doesn't have internet where she's staying, got disconnected. All of a sudden a message flashed up on my screen that I'd won by resignation, which I misunderstood at first thinking that it had meant Shira had won because I'd resigned, but I hadn't! I had no idea what was going on and was panicking and really upset (I could use other words to describe my emotional state at the time, but I am attempting to be restrained) at that stupid interface! Resign - me? On like move 17? No way! I'd at least play to move 20. Phone rings - it's Shira - she got bounced off the internet! Oh @!%$&^$$*@! And a few more $%@*%">$%@*%@ just for good measure. What to do? We ended up playing a game on the regular chess interface at chess.com - without clocks. This time I'm black. We started right about 10:30 a.m. and the game ended shortly before noon - I was checkmated! Ach! My poor nerves. Still, that's no excuse. I made some REALLY DUMB MOVES - particularly the last one, LOL! Oh well. Here's our game in PGN - at first I couldn't even figure out how to lift THAT from chess.com! When I clicked on the PGN link to "open" - all that happened is that my Chess Base Lite opened up (a tool that I've no real idea how to use). By trial and error I eventually discovered that at chess.com I can actually do a copy of the Moves List and paste it into a document. [Event "Online Chess"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2009.09.05"] [Round "1"] [White "shirae"] [Black "JanXena"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "1361"] [BlackElo "1039"] [TimeControl "1 in 1 day"] [Termination "shirae won by checkmate"] 1.d4d5 2.Nf3Nf6 3.Bg5Nc6 4.e3Ne4 5.Bh4Bf5 6.Bd3Qd6 7.Nbd2O-O-O 8.O-Og6 9.Qe2h6 10.a3g5 11.Bg3Qd7 12.Ne5Nxe5 13.Bxe5f6 14.Bxe4Bxe4 15.Nxe4dxe4 16.Bg3h5 17.h3h4 18.Bh2Kb8 19.Qg4Qxg4 20.hxg4Rc8 21.c4e6 22.Rfd1Bd6 23.Rd2Bxh2+ 24.Kxh2b6 25.Rad1Rhd8 26.d5b5 27.dxe6Re8 28.cxb5Kb7 29.Rd7Rxe6 30.R1d4Kb6 31.a4Kc5 32.b4+Kb6 33.R4d5c6 (c6? Ohmygoddess, JanXena! What were you thinking? Actually, I totally missed the fact that Shira could/would advance the h file pawn, which is exactly what she did. Now how stupid am I? That's a hypothetical question, darlings!) I might have perhaps been able to stave off the inevitable for another move or two if I hadn't committed hari kiri on move 33. I honestly lost sight of the forest for the trees. As far as I can tell, though, with my limited knowledge, the game-turner was much earlier when I misplayed something - now I cannot remember what - on the right side of the board. I will take a look at this game and the other two that Shira and I will be playing the next two days, but not until this is all over! My heart can't take it. I suppose I should have a second and pour over the game to try and spot Shira's weaknesses and hunt down and eliminate all the myriad of mine - but honestly darlings, I need to vacuum, go to the supermarket, put the next load of laundry in, and then cut the front lawn. And just about the time the mosquitoes are coming out at 6 p.m., I might be able to sit down on the deck (after scrubbing off all the bird poop from the lawn chairs), put my feet up, and drown my sorrows in White Zinfandel :) Here are two photos that Shira took of her chess-playing nook at Starbucks! The first photo is a screen shot of our game in progress, I received it via email at 10:58 a.m. See you tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. - probably at chess.com because that is where all the information said we would be playing. Drat!

6th-7th Century CE Stone Goddess Found in Kashmir

(Image: Gajalakshmi From Bharhut and Sanchi, 3rd - 2nd Century B.C. The article is a fascinating history of the lotus in India. This is not the Gajalakshmi in the article. Notice, however, the dual elephants arising out of the center of dual lotuses - an allusion to a very old Indian creation myth. Out of the midst of endless waters, the lotuses appeared, and opened. Out of the center of their flowers appeared the elephants, which I assume represent an allusion to earth or land mass - something big and solid out of the midst of the waters. The Egyptian creation myth is remarkably similar, with a primeval mound of earth arising out of the midst of the waters, as is the description of how land came to "arise" out of the midst of the waters in the Biblical account in Genesis. See Pavel Bidev's article for some interesting analysis of the water element in the ancestor of chess. ) Story at Taragana.com Sixth century stone sculpture of Hindu goddess discovered in Kashmir September 4th, 2009 SRINAGAR - An ancient sculpture of Hindu Goddess of wealth Gajalakshmi has recently been discovered at Nagbal Lesser village in Jammu and Kashmir. The sculpture, carved out of brownish limestone, is now kept for further examination at the office of Archives Archaeology and Museum in Srinagar. It will be shifted to Sri Pratap Singh Museum for public display later. “As far as the object (sculpture) is concerned it is very important. According to our earlier examination, the statue dates back to the 6th or 7th century. It’s of brownish colour and from the perspective of craftsmanship, it is finely chiselled out,” said Khurshid Ahmad Qadri, Director, Archives Archaeology and Museums of Jammu and Kashmir. The statue, measuring nine inches in height and five inches in width, is seated on the lotus throne placed between two lions. The main sculpture is enclosed in a stone frame, the top of which projects the shape of elephant motifs towards the head of the deity. The idol holds a lotus in her right hand and cornucopia in her left hand. The other end of the drapery covering the lower body of the sculpture does not go behind its shoulder but is wrapped around in pleats beneath the chest of the deity. The carving and costumes of the sculpture speak volumes about skilled craftsmanship of the ancient Kashmiri art. “As far as its art is concerned, this art form connects it to the Gandhara School of Art. The Gandhara School of Art was founded in the first century BC. The theme cultivated by Gandhara artists later reached Kashmir. The costume we get to see in this sculpture shows a confluence of Greek and Indian art forms,” said Iqbal Ahmad, a historian. This is the only sculpture found from the Lesser Kokernag area of Kashmir so far. However, the presence of pottery in an around the Lesser village reveals presence of some ancient settlements. By Afzal Bhat (ANI) I would love to see a photograph of this little goddess. The tip off that she might have something to do with an elephant was the "gaja" at the front of "Lakshmi," who is the goddess for good luck, wealth and good fortune. The clothing she wears definitely links her to the Gandhara tradition - so I'm wondering if this tentative dating is too late,or the Gandhara influence lasted longer that I'm aware (I'm sure no expert!) Notice the lotus - used twice. First, as a throne, and then as a emblem in her right hand. The lotus tradition is very ancient and links Egypt and India in a unique way. And even more intriguing, the goddess is seated on the lotus/throne between two lions! Shades of the Mother Goddess from Catalhoyuk (dates to some 9,000 years ago), who is seated on her throne between two felines! The feline throne for the goddess was a recurring theme from Catalhoyuk onward, across many cultures. Did it spread through cross-cultural contact and exchange, and thence absorbed into local legends, myths and religious iconography as time went on? Or was it independently invented again and again as an iconic image of the Mother Goddess over thousands of years, with no reference to the usage in other cultures? Here's a final thought as I drift off to la-la land - could the name Catalhoyuk (pronounced Chatal--), the place where we first see the Mother Goddess on a throne flanked by twin felines, possibly be related to Caturanga (prounced Chatur--) and the land where a new image of Gajalakshmi seated on a throne flanked by two lions was discovered?

World Women Team Chess Championship

This report based on coverage from Chessdom: Standings after Round 3 and Round 3 Team Results: Standings 1 Poland 6 MP 7.5 GP 2 Georgian 5 MP 7.5 GP 3 China One 4 MP 7 GP 4 USA 3 MP 7 GP 5 Ukraine 3 MP 6 GP 6 India 3 MP 5.5 GP 7 Russia 2 MP 5.5 GP 8 Armenia 2 MP 4.5 GP 9 Vietnam 1 MP 5 GP 10 China Two 1 MP 4.5 GP Vietnam - USA 2 : 2 WGM Hoang Thi Bao Tram 2265 - IM Krush Irina 2458 1 - 0 WIM Pham Le Thao Nguyen 2301 - IM Goletiani Rusudan 2391 ½ - ½ WFM Hoang Thi Nhu Y 2114 - WIM Melekhina Alisa 2220 ½ - ½ WFM Vo Thi Kim Phung 2078 - WFM Abrahamian Tatev 2275 0 - 1 China Two - Poland 1½:2½ Tan Zhongyi 2435 - IM Rajlich Iweta 2465 1 - 0 WIM Zhang Xiaowen 2391 - WGM Zawadzka Jolanta 2414 0 - 1 IM Wang Yu A 2380 - IM Dworakowska Joanna 2345 0 - 1 WFM Ding Yixin 2321 - WGM Majdan Joanna 2361 ½ - ½ Ukraine - Georgia 1 : 3 WGM Zhukova Nataliya 2457 - GM Chiburdanidze Maia 2506 ½ - ½ IM Gaponenko Inna 2438 - GM Dzagnidze Nana 2535 0 - 1 IM Muzychuk Mariya 2443 - IM Javakhishvili Lela 2472 0 - 1 WGM Zdebska Natalia 2410 - IM Khukhashvili Sopiko 2451 ½ - ½ India - China One 1 : 3 IM Dronavalli Harika 2474 - GM Hou Yifan 2585 ½ - ½ IM Sachdev Tania 2405 - GM Zhao Xue 2542 0 - 1 WGM Karavade Eesha 2391 - Ju Wenjun 2443 ½ - ½ WGM Mary Ann Gomes 2396 - WGM Huang Qian 2424 0 - 1 Armenia - Russia 2 : 2 IM Danielian Elina 2489 - IM Kosintseva Tatiana 2536 ½ - ½ IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2468 - IM Kosintseva Nadezhda 2493 ½ - ½ WGM Galojan Lilit 2326 - IM Kovalevskaya Ekaterina 2436 1 - 0 WIM Andriasian Siranush 2234 - WFM Gunina Valentina 2437 0 - 1

Shira Chess Challenge: GAME ON!

Hola darlings! The time has counted down, my 3-game chess match with Shira is nearly here! (Photo right: Shira Evans, taken at Ashkelon, Israel, 2009. Photo left: Jan Newton, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July, 2008) My training is nearly at an end - I have one last game going on - with my coach, Chessdaddy a/k/a Kelly Atkins. I made a really STUPID move two moves ago to grab a piece - ACH! I should have known it looked too easy. It wasn't a poisoned pawn - it was a poisoned Bishop. ACH! But I still have hopes of coming out ahead material-wise when the slaughter of exchanging pieces is done because, in the final analysis (NO guarantee my final analysis is correct, mind you), I have a Knightess placed just where she can grab a pawn once the slaughter is done. Since Chessdaddy does NOT read this blog, I feel fairly confident in sharing this interim strategy with you :) Tomorrow (Friday) I'm taking a day off from chess (except for my final training game - wth Chessdaddy). Here are the particulars about the SHIRA CHESS CHALLENGE FOR CHARITY MATCH: DATES: September 5, 6 and 7, 2009 TIME: 10:00 a.m. Central Standard Time (Wisconsin time, USA) PLACE: http://www.chess.com/ HANDLES: Jan Newton of Goddesschess plays as JanXena and Shira Evans of Computerlabs for Kids Foundation plays as shirae. Shira and I will be playing one game each day, starting at 10:00 a.m. CST, over the Labor Day weekend. Each of us will have one hour on our clocks, no increment. Membership at chess.com is free. I honestly have no idea how this works - my guess is that if you are not already a member at chess.com you will have to sign up if you want to watch our games, and then you search under one or the other of our "handles" - JanXena or shirae, to find our games. I hope you will check in and watch some part of one or more of our games! I've been practicing, darlings, training really hard! Well, okay, I haven't won a game yet in my online training games but I DID win that game against Mr. Don when we were coming back from Las Vegas last week :) Cheer on your favorite - the unrated undergoddess or the Chess Goddess with peak USCF rating of 1727 (EEK!) And, if you should be so inclined, please make a contribution to Shira's Foundation and help the kids that she helps. Thanks once again to Laura and Dan Sherman of Your Chess Coach for their help in my training. Wish I could have you sitting as little angels on my shoulders while I'm playing against Shira :)

Virgin Mary as 'Terrorist'

I found this article absolutely fascinating! I do not understand why a female who becomes a suicide bomber (or by proxy, such a female's family) would feel flattered to be compared to the Virgin Mary who, after all, is a symbol of (1) Patriarchal Religious Repression and (2) an underground symbol of Goddess worship - both things which Islam purports to abhor :) From Yahoo News Israel: pictures of St. Mary as terrorist removed By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer Amy Teibel, Associated Press Writer – Thu Sep 3, 11:11 am ET JERUSALEM – The Israeli journalists' union on Thursday took down a series of pictures that superimposed the faces of female Palestinian suicide bombers on Madonna-and-child paintings after the images sparked a public furor. Yossi Bar-Mocha, the head of the National Federation of Israeli Journalists, said his organization removed the pictures from its Tel Aviv headquarters for fear they would offend people who lost relatives in militant attacks. One of the artists, Galina Bleikh, said their intention was not to glorify or justify the bombers' actions. She and her partner, Lilia Chak, tried to address a subject that "pains the whole country" in the exhibit, titled ""Woman, Mother, Murderer: An Exhibit on Female Terror," she explained. "How can a woman who comes into the world with the role of loving and giving life become a source of hatred and murder?" Bleikh added, speaking before the pictures were taken down. Neither of the artists could immediately be reached afterward. The seven canvases, part of a larger exhibition, splice the bombers' faces onto works by Botticelli, Raphael and other eminent artists. Bleikh told The Associated Press that the show's concept was sparked by a suicide attack near her Jerusalem home carried out by a female bomber. "The message is that the baby in the arms of a woman is in danger," she said. "The contrast of the symbol of love, the Madonna, with the face of a killer — it works. It hurts the souls of women who look at it." That message did not filter through to some of the politicians and relatives of terror attack victims who objected to the works. The art display was to open without the seven contentious pieces on Thursday night. Lawmaker Yochanan Plesner of the Kadima Party called the exhibit a "despicable" public relations ploy. Almagor, an Israeli organization representing victims of militant attacks, said the paintings glorified the bombers. "These pictures will become a hit in the Arab world," said Dr. Aryeh Bachrach, head of Almagor's bereaved parents forum. "Depicting Palestinian women murderers as saints is an important propaganda achievement for terror organizations," said Bachrach, whose son was killed by Palestinian gunmen while hiking in the West Bank in 1995. Journalists' union head Bar-Mocha said he was unaware of the pictures' content ahead of time and after consulting with board members and legal counsel, decided the sensibilities of terror victims' relatives trumped concerns over freedom of expression. "If I must hear the cries of the bereaved families who lost their loved ones at the hands of these murderers, then I would favor them over these murderers and the images that are depicted as Christian saints," he said. The uproar was reminiscent of a controversy that arose in 2004 in Sweden after an Israeli-born artist mounted an installation showing a small ship carrying a picture of a female suicide bomber sailing in a rectangular pool filled with red-colored water. The artist, Dror Feiler, said the piece was mean to call attention to how weak, lonely people can be capable of horrible things. But the then-Israeli ambassador to Sweden, Zvi Mazel, said the exhibit glorified suicide bombers and he threw a spotlight at the installation, trying to damage it and causing a diplomatic flap between the two countries.

2nd Women World Team Chess Championship

Whew! How quickly that year passed! This international team event is here again - this time represented by 10 teams. Doesn't exactly read "world" to me with only 10 teams, but what the heck. The USA is in it, bringing their Not really A Team except for the top-2 (minus GM Susan Polgar, of whom it is probably hopeless we'll ever see her play again in serious competition), so let's see what happens. Here are the teams competing and my quick takes on the the players/teams: China A 2490 1 GM Hou Yifan 2584 (if her handlers allow, she'll top 2700 but will want to get married) 2 GM Zhao Xue 2544 (vastly under-rated) 3 WGM Shen Yang 2453 (ditt0) 4 Ju Wenjun 2443 5 WGM Huang Qian 2424 (unknown quantity) Geogia 2474 1 GM Chiburdanidze, Maia 2506 (wily veteran who knows what it takes to win) 2 GM Dzagnidze, Nana 2536 (steady performer) 3 IM Javakhishvili, Lela 2470 (under-estimated because of her beauty) 4 IM Lomineishvili, Maia 2427 5 IM Khukhashvili, Sopiko 2430 Russia 2468 1 IM Tatiana Kosintseva 2539 2 IM Nadezhda Kosintseva 2482 (wow, both Kosintseva sisters on the same team, oh oh) 3 IM Ekaterina Kovalevskaya 2436 (has not performed up to expectations but keeps trying) 4 IM Marina Romanko 2447 5 IM Valentina Gunina 2437 Ukraine 2444 1 IM Anna Ushenina 2478 (except for Zdebska, unknown to me, a steady team of competitors) 2 WGM Natalia Zhukova 2461 3 IM Yanovska Inna 2428 4 IM Maria Muzychuk 2441 5 WGM Natalya Zdebska 2412 India 2390 1 IM Harika Dronavalli 2474 (I love each of these ladies, but they will have their hands full) 2 IM Tania Sachdev 2423 3 WGM Kruttika Nadig 2361 4 WGM Eesha Karavade 2359 5 WGM Gomes Mary Ann 2332 Poland 2378 1 IM Iweta Rajlich 2448 (under-rated) 2 WGM Jolanta Zawadzka 2387 (steady but unspectacular) 3 WGM Joanna Majdan 2382 4 IM Joanna Dworakowska 2345 5 WIM Karina Szczepkowska-Horowska 2327 USA 2372 1 IM Irina Krush 2458 2 IM Anna Zatonskih 2466 3 IM Rusudan Goletiani 2391 4 WIM Alisa Melekhina 2270 (progress stalled - maybe deciding between chess and - ?) 5 WFM Tatev Abrahamian 2273 (a charming chess femme, but not competition for the others) Armenia 2372 1 IM Elina Danielian 2503 (steady but unspectacular veteran player, she's seen it all) 2 IM Lilit Mkrtchian 2479 (dangerous - came into her own in 2008 Womens' WCC) 3 WGM Lilit Galojan 2323 (needs more experience against higher-rateds) 4 WGM Nelli Aginian 2322 5 WIM Siranush Andriasian 2235 China B 2356 (the Chinese Chess Federation is probably laughing up it's sleeve at the world) 1 Tan Zhongyi 2435 2 WIM Zhang Xiaowen 2391 3 IM Wang Yu 2380 4 WFM Ding Yixin 2343 5 Wang Xiaohui 2231 Vietnam 2177 (untested hopefuls, will learn a lot and finish 8th to 10th) 1 WGM Hoang Thi Bao Tram 2274 2 WIM Pham Le Thao Nguyen 2314 3 WFM Hoang Thi Nhu 2119 4 WFM Pham Bich Ngoc 2105 5 WFM Vo Thi Kim Phung 2073 So much for my prognostications and uninformed opinions :) How'd the Teams do after Round 1? See Chess-Results.com for team-by-team round results. Standings after Round 1 (by Team): Rk. SNo Team Games + = - TB1 TB2 1 8 China Team One 1 1 0 0 2 3,0 2 1 Poland Team 1 1 0 0 2 2,5 3 9 Georgian Team 1 1 0 0 2 2,5 4 4 Ukraine 1 0 1 0 1 2,0 5 5 India Team 1 0 1 0 1 2,0 6 6 Armenian Team 1 0 1 0 1 2,0 7 7 Russian Team 1 0 1 0 1 2,0 8 2 Vietnam Team 1 0 0 1 0 1,5 9 10 American Team 1 0 0 1 0 1,5 10 3 China Team Two 1 0 0 1 0 1,0 Annotation:Tie Break1: Matchpoints (2 for wins, 1 for Draws, 0 for Losses)Tie Break2: points (game-points)

Promising Method to Decipher Ancient Writing

From Yahoo.com - fascinating stuff! It will be interesting to see how quickly this technology is adapted as the author envisions. Computer algorithm to decipher ancient texts By Ari Rabinovitch - Wed Sep 2, 2009 9:51AM EDT BEERSHEBA, Israel (Reuters) - Researchers in Israel say they have developed a computer program that can decipher previously unreadable ancient texts and possibly lead the way to a Google-like search engine for historical documents. The program uses a pattern recognition algorithm similar to those law enforcement agencies have adopted to identify and compare fingerprints. But in this case, the program identifies letters, words and even handwriting styles, saving historians and liturgists hours of sitting and studying each manuscript. By recognizing such patterns, the computer can recreate with high accuracy portions of texts that faded over time or even those written over by later scribes, said Itay Bar-Yosef, one of the researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. "The more texts the program analyses, the smarter and more accurate it gets," Bar-Yosef said. The computer works with digital copies of the texts, assigning number values to each pixel of writing depending on how dark it is. It separates the writing from the background and then identifies individual lines, letters and words. It also analyses the handwriting and writing style, so it can "fill in the blanks" of smeared or faded characters that are otherwise indiscernible, Bar-Yosef said. The team has focused their work on ancient Hebrew texts, but they say it can be used with other languages, as well. The team published its work, which is being further developed, most recently in the academic journal Pattern Recognition due out in December but already available online. A program for all academics could be ready in two years, Bar-Yosef said. And as libraries across the world move to digitize their collections, they say the program can drive an engine to search instantaneously any digital database of handwritten documents. Uri Ehrlich, an expert in ancient prayer texts who works with Bar-Yosef's team of computer scientists, said that with the help of the program, years of research could be done within a matter of minutes. "When enough texts have been digitized, it will manage to combine fragments of books that have been scattered all over the world," Ehrlich said. (Editing by Jon Hemming)

Edmonia Lewis: Great 19th Century Female Sculpter

(Image source)

Through an email inquiry I received earlier today about the Kleopatra statue we mentioned and photographed in our July, 2008 Goddesschess anniversary vacation tour of the Milwaukee Shriners' Temple (scroll down to about mid page to see two photos of Kleopatra), I got curious about plaster of paris statues (I believa the Kleopatra statue we saw at the Shriners' Temple was made out of plaster of paris) and did some research, which led me to this article at the Smithsonian Magazine from 1996.

I was not aware of this Native American/African American female sculpter who made her mark in the 1860's and 1870's in Europe. Among her most famous works - the Death of Cleopatra, first exhibited in 1876.

When I googled a photo of the sculpture, I was stunned by its power and beauty.

Both the artist and the sculpture have amazing stories!

The Object at Hand, by Steven May, Smithsonian magazine, September 1996

Website devoted to Edmonia Lewis

There are several images of  "The Death of Cleopatra" online. A review of those images will reveal intricate and delicate details of the artist's vision.