'Indus' Symbols in Edakkal Cave?

I'm confused by this story. If I am reading it correctly, it seems that the symbols were originally studied in 1901, and that would, logically, mean that they were found at that time or earlier. So, are there new figures that were discovered recently? Not clear from the article - or I missed the key words! At any rate, I am wondering if this is an article in response to the recent DNA study I blogged about earlier that says India was settled by two genetically distinct peoples -- punch and counter-punch -- in the never-ending Aryan Invasion battle that's been going on forever! No photos accompanied the article. Here is the article: Tuesday,29 September 2009 20:18 hrs IST Symbols akin to Indus valley culture found - Kozhikode: A rock engraving, indicating clear remnants of Harappan culture, has been found in the Edakkal caves in neighbouring Wayanad district, linking the Indus Valley civilisation with South India. "There had been indications of remnants akin to the Indus Valley civilisation in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, but these new findings give credence to the fact that the Harappan civilisation had its presence in the region too and could trace the history of Kerala even beyond the Iron Age," historian M R Raghava Varier said. The unique symbols integral to the Indus Valley culture traced in Harappa and Mohanjedaro region that stretched upto Pakistan, were found inside the caves during recent excavations by the State Archaeological Department. Of the identified 429 signs, "a man with jar cup", a symbol unique to the Indus civilisation and other compound letters testified to remnants of the Harappan culture, spanning from 2300 BC to 1700 BC, in South India, Varier, who led the excavation at the caves said. The "man-with-the-jar" symbol, an integral remnant commonly traced in parts where the Indus Valley civilisation existed, has even more similarities than those traced in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, he said. The 'man-with-the-jar' has been a distinct motif of the Indus valley symbols. The Edakkal engraving has retained its unique style as the engraver tried to attain a two-dimensional human figure, Varier said. This could be attributed to the transformation from the distinct symbols of the Indus Valley civilisation that could have taken place in due course of time, he said. The 'jar' is more or less same as those in Indus ligature. But the human figure is a little different. "These symbols form part of compound letters similar to scripts and no concerted efforts appear to have been made in the past to decipher them, with a lone exception by Iravatha Mahadevan (a scholar on the Indus valley civilisation), who could gather valuable ideas from such letters," he said. "The discovery of the symbols are akin to that of the Harappan civilisation having predominantly Dravidian culture and testimony to the fact that cultural diffusion could take place. It is wrong to presume that the Indus culture disappeared into thin air," Varier said. The symbols and pictographs found in the Edakkal cave were subjected to study for the first time in 1901 by Fawsette, a police official of the then Malabar district. Later, Varier, along with noted history scholar Rajan Gurukkal carried out further studies, which testified that the caves had remnants upto the Iron Age. The new findings could take the history of Edakkal and Kerala even beyond and throw more light into the culture of the region, Varier added.

Happy Birthday Kira Alekseyevna Zvorykina!

Soviet chess player WIM Kira Alekseyevna Zvorykina turned 90 years old on September 29, 2009. Photo: Zvorykina v. Mikhail Tal, 1952. From Alexandra Kosteniuk's chess blog, a tribute to a survivor and a woman who is an inspiration. AK wrote an overview of Kira Alekseyevna's life, who was born in Ukraine in 1919, and about meeting her at the Olga Rubtsova Memorial Tournament in August. A WIM, international arbiter, 3-times USSR chess champion (1951, 1953 and 1956), 2-times winner of the Chess Olympiads in 1957 and 1963, the winner of the Candidates tournament in 1959, 2-times vice-champion of the world (played 2 final matches in 1959 and 1960 against Elizaveta Bykova). Kira Alekseyevna recently competed in the Olga Rubtsova Memorial Tournament in Moscow, Russia, in August, 2009, which GM Kosteniuk attended and wrote about at her blog. She became the USSR Women's Chess Champion in 1951 - the year I was born.

Valencia - the Cradle of Modern Chess?

A special symposium by chess historians and scholars was presented in Valencia during the recently-concluded Karpov-Kasparov reunion chess match (September 21 - 25, 2009). So, while some came to enjoy the chess, others came to listen to historians from all around the globe present papers on how Valencia (may have been) or (was) the cradle of modern chess as we play it today in the West, and some no doubt came to enjoy both! Chessvibes presented an informative article on the topic ("Valencia and the Origins of Modern Chess"), quoting liberally from both ancient and modern sources, including the writings of chess historian Dr. (IM) Ricardo Calvo, who died in September, 2002. From the time we first met online in early 1999 until his untimely death in 2002, Ricardo Calvo was a faithful and provocative mentor to the Goddesschess people. He was an active member in the discussion boards from those early days and he sent us many articles he had written over the years for publication at the - then - fledgling Goddesschess website. You can find them, and articles written on chess in 15th century Spain and related subjects by Carmen Romeo, his widow, at Goddesschess Ch'Essays.

Zenyuk Preparing for U.S. Women's Chess Championship

She lives in "Squirrel Hill" - I take that as a good omen :) (Photo: Iryna Zenyuk, 23, of Squirrel Hill will compete in the U.S. Women's Chess Championships in St. Louis next week. Philip G. Pavely/Tribune-Review ) From the Pittsburgh Tribune Review Squirrel Hill chess player hooked on strategy, winning By Jodi Weigand TRIBUNE-REVIEW Tuesday, September 29, 2009 Every morning, Iryna Zenyuk gets on her computer to video conference with her chess coach in Ukraine who is helping her prepare for this week's U.S. Women's Chess Championship. She studies chess from 6:30 to 8:30 a.m. before heading to her job in a research lab at Carnegie Mellon University, where she is working toward a master's degree in mechanical engineering. Eventually, she hopes to earn a doctorate. Zenyuk, 23, who moved from New York City to Squirrel Hill in July to attend CMU, said the strategy of the game and thrill of winning keep her coming back to the chessboard. "The satisfaction that the game gives you -- I can't compare it to anything else," said Zenyuk, who is ranked eighth among American women chess players. "You have a vision in your game. ... It is such a thing of beauty of strategy and planning. You get to achieve all your ideas in such a short time spent." Zenyuk is a Woman International Master, one step below Grandmaster, the highest ranking awarded by the World Chess Federation. She will compete against 10 of the top 12 women players in the country during the chess championship Saturday through Oct.13 in the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, in Missouri. "She has just as much of a chance as anyone to win," said Tony Rich, the center's executive director. "She will be a fierce competitor." The hardest part of the tournament will be playing two of her closest friends: Irina Krush, who at 14 became the youngest player to win the U.S. Women's Championship in 1998, and Tatev Abrahamyan, who has played for the championship five times. "It's uncomfortable for them and for me because I have to treat them as enemies," Zenyuk said. "And then after the game we have to become friends again." The player with the most points at the end of the round-robin tournament will win $15,000, the biggest share of the $64,000 purse. Zenyuk said that if she takes first place, she might use the money for a down payment on a car. Zenyuk grew up in Ukraine and moved to the United States when she was 15 to join her mother, Polina Zenyuk, who had emigrated six years earlier. She has been playing chess since she was 4, when she started competing daily with her grandfather. By age 7, she spent two hours a day at a local chess club and played in weekend tournaments. "I didn't think of being a top player," Zenyuk said. "As I grew older, at 15 and 16, that was my goal. I put so many hours into chess, about six hours a day. You don't spend that much time for a hobby." The dedication paid off when she accomplished what she considers the highlight of her career -- defeating Grandmaster Giorgi Kacheishvili. "He is top-ranked among men in the U.S., and this win was very shocking for everybody because I was very underrated," she said. "So it was a big deal because not many people get a chance to beat a grandmaster."

Surprise! Tania Sachdev is "Girlie"

Geez! No author listed; yeah, I'd be embarassed to write something like this about one of the best female chessplayers in the world, too. From The Times of India 'Men get intimidated as I'm a chess player’ 30 September 2009, 12:00am IST So what if she’s associated with a serious sport like chess? That hasn’t stopped the 23-year-old Tania Sachdev from chilling out with friends or keeping herself up to date with the latest fashion trends. Just recently, when we caught up with her at a fashion event, she was seen flaunting a short dress with her hair stylishly done. “You know when I’m not playing chess, I’m doing this,” she said, pointing at her new dress. And not just this! Back from the Women’s World Team Championships, where India was ranked seventh, the gal’s been chilling out quite a bit with her friends too! And although she loves hitting the dance floor, she thinks she has two left feet. “But nevertheless, I still dance a lot. In fact, I thought I should relax before I got back to the practice sessions again for the Asian Indoor Games in Vietnam,” she says. However, Tania is also looking forward to the games because she wants to discover Vietnam. “I’ve heard a lot about water puppetry there. And I want to check it out for myself,” Tania says. So, with so much happening, doesn’t Tania get a lot of male attention? “Ah, where are they? No, I guess they get intimidated because I am a chess player. Moreover, I have a lot of time to do all that, right?” Absolutely, girlie!

Soon to Be WGM and WIM

Two U.S. female players have applied for titles that will be awarded at the upcoming 80th FIDE Congress in Greece (October 11 - 18, 2009): WGM Title: Batchimeg Tuvshintugs (2335) (top photo) WIM Title: Tatev Abrahamyan (2295) (bottom photo, by Betsy Dynako) Congratulations!

Bhakti wins 24th National Junior Girls Chess Championship

From The Central Chronicle Posted On Sunday, September 27, 2009 Agencies Chennai, Sept 27: Commonwealth Games gold medalist Bhakti Kulkarni bagged the prestigious 24th National Junior Girls Chess Championship with a round to spare here. Bhakti scored a whopping 9.5 pts out of ten rounds so far. On the top board today Bhakti outplayed Mitali Madhukar Patil of Maharashtra with some deceptive manoeuvres in the middle game. Bhakti's gamble paid off when Mitali blundered an exchange on the 35th move. She checkmated her opponent on the 49th move. WIM Padmini Rout of Orissa and Savetha of Tamil Nadu shared the second spot with eight points each after beating Nandhidhaa and Shalmali Gagare, respectively.

Old Kings, New Game

From The Wall Street Journal September 26, 2009 By DAVID SZALAY What a piece of Cold War nostalgia! Fused together by their similar names, through four marathon matches over four years, they were like Siamese twins. Karpov and Kasparov. Kasparov and Karpov. So for a schoolboy of the 1980s, to see their names paired again in Spain—where they played their final world championship match in 1987—was a Proustian experience. The match they played this past week to mark the 25th anniversary of their first world-title bout was the highlight of a chess conference in the city of Valencia. The two Russians played 12 games of speed chess over three days. And just as he did in the '80s, Garry Kasparov emerged victorious, winning 9-3. Before the match he told the Spanish newspaper El País that the quality of the chess was unlikely to equal that of the five month, 48-game struggle of 25 years ago. "In this case," he said, "nostalgia will be a positive thing, and the duel will serve to put a spotlight on chess again." Some things never change, though—both players grumbled about the lighting in the hall. Chess in the second half of the 20th century was overwhelmingly a Soviet phenomenon. But the Soviet Union is gone, Spain far more prosperous, and players' fees denominated in euros. As for the players, Anatoly Karpov is scarcely recognizable—the ax-faced and hungry master of 25 years ago is now a well-fed elder statesman. He's still an active pro, if in steep decline. (He worked hard for this one, though, spending weeks training with a team of grandmasters and a supercomputer.) Mr. Kasparov hasn't played professionally for years, devoting himself instead to Russian politics. To prepare for this match he spent time with the Norwegian wunderkind Magnus Carlsen—the next great champion of the game, Mr. Kasparov says. (It will be at least two years before Mr. Carlsen gets his chance to prove that.) With the Soviet monopoly ended, chess has largely shed its political import. Chess never mattered that much in the past. In 1809 Vienna Napoleon lost to the "Turk"—ostensibly an early chess-playing machine but in fact a man in a box, operating levers to move the painted effigy's wooden hands. The emperor swept the pieces from the board and shouted "Bagatelle!"—a trifle. Only in exile on St. Helena did he take chess seriously. In 1920, a more accomplished amateur—Lenin—founded the Soviet Chess School, overruling those of his party who thought the game a luxurious and aristocratic pastime, and started the Soviet obsession with chess. Nikolai Krylenko, who headed the Soviet chess program, may have been odious—he's otherwise best known for his part in Stalin's show trials—but he was spectacularly successful in putting the Soviet Union at the forefront of world chess. For 4½ decades after World War II, with only one short interruption, the world champion was a citizen of the Soviet Union. Mikhail Botvinnik was the first champion, in 1948, and to a large extent he established the nature of the modern game. Gone was the swashbuckling improvisation of the 19th century, when men like Adolf Anderssen and Paul Morphy took their opponents apart with dashing tactical flair applauded as the summit of the art. Then, the game was primarily seen as an art, the flower of effortless individual genius. Now we would say the style of Messrs. Anderssen and Morphy lacked strategic depth. Mr. Botvinnik, the patron saint of this view, perfected chess as science, as tireless study and endless preparation, as an exercise in strategic patience. His openings were designed not to spring tactical surprises that could be used only once, but to lead to complex positions that he'd understand better and more deeply than his opponent. He was the first world-class player to be produced by Mr. Krylenko's school, and he nurtured the men who would maintain the Soviet stranglehold on the game for decades to come—including Mr. Kasparov, of whom Mr. Botvinnik said, "The future of chess lies in the hands of this young man." On the other hand, he said of Mr. Karpov, "This boy doesn't have a clue about chess." (Mr. Botvinnik himself admitted his judgment was sometimes flawed.) In the postwar period, only one man managed briefly to wrest the title from Soviet hands. Bobby Fischer grew up in New York's borough of Brooklyn. Unlike the Soviet Union, the U.S. had no state-run chess program with priority almost equal to the space program. It didn't give chess-players the status of Olympic gold medalists. But with Mr. Fischer the U.S. managed to produce probably the single most talented player of the era, if not of all time. The country might have hoped for someone less odd and objectionable. Mr. Fischer was an anti-Semite who years later was to describe 9/11 as "a good thing." Chess, it was said, was his first language. He was a grandmaster at age 15. When Mr. Fischer took on Boris Spassky in the 1972 World Championship match in Reykjavik, Iceland, he became the first non-Soviet challenger in a quarter of a century. Messrs. Spassky and Fischer were reluctant, unlikely Cold Warriors. In later years they both rejected their unlooked-for roles as champions of their systems. After decades of exile, Mr. Fischer died back in Reykjavik in 2008, an Icelandic citizen and a fugitive from American justice. Mr. Spassky has lived quietly in France since the mid-'70s. But for a few months in the summer of 1972, the two rivals and their game took on a strange geopolitical aura. Even Henry Kissinger pleaded with Mr. Fischer—who at the last minute seemed reluctant to fly to Iceland—to show the Commies what he was made of. Things got off to a shaky start for Mr. Fischer. The sort of blunder a half-decent club player would never make cost him the first game. And he didn't even show up for the second. He was erratic, petulant, unpredictable, on a monumental scale. It drove poor Mr. Spassky up the wall. But suddenly Mr. Fischer started playing things he had never played before, such as Alekhine's Defense, and playing them with devastating sharpness and insight. He improvised and made a mockery of Mr. Spassky's meticulous preparation. When Mr. Fischer won the sixth game—surprising his opponent by opening with d4, the queen pawn—Mr. Spassky stood and joined in the applause. There was more Cold War skulduggery, too. The Russians accused the Americans of using electronic devices to meddle with their man's brain. The Americans counter-accused. The Icelandic police took the place apart and, in the lighting fixtures, found only two dead flies. True to form, Mr. Fischer refused in 1975 to defend his title. Young Mr. Karpov took it by default and held it easily for another all-Soviet decade, until Mr. Kasparov challenged him. The Soviet Union was starting to feel the forces that would pull it apart—forces that young, abrasive Mr. Kasparov seemed to embody, as he faced the establishment's man. (Still, Mr. Kasparov was a member of the Communist Party.) The match turned into a war of attrition, producing 40 drawn games before it was stopped like a boxing match for the well-being of the fighters. The score then was 5-3 to Mr. Karpov. For the next three years they slugged it out, Mr. Kasparov winning each time by small and diminishing margins. In 1987, their fourth and final match, they tied at 12-12. (They met several times again, for example at a speed-chess match in Germany in 1999, playing to a draw.) Today, the top contenders are no longer predominantly Russian. While Norway's Mr. Carlsen waits for his shot at the championship, reigning champion Viswanathan Anand of India and the Bulgarian Veselin Topalov, currently No. 1 in the world rankings, will face off for the title next year. Meanwhile, chess has largely faded from the world's front pages. One exception: the matches between Mr. Kasparov and a series of computers built by International Business Machines. In 1997 the computer Deep Blue for the first time won a match against the incumbent world champion. It was purely a matter of processing speed. The computer only wants to win because we tell it to want to win. If we tell it to lose, it will—and just as happily. What's so fascinating about chess is the way that it combines two human characteristics that seem so far apart—our infinite capacity for abstraction and imagination on the one hand, and our equally infinite competitiveness on the other. It's this competitiveness which gives meaning to chess; this is probably why it's so appealing as a proxy for political conflict. And this I think is why, as they waited for the first game to start in Spain last week, Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov seemed—though little was now truly at stake—to slip back into their younger, fiercer, hungrier selves. —David Szalay is the author of two novels: "London and the South-East" and, most recently, "The Innocent," which is set in the USSR in 1972 and includes an account of the great Fischer-Spassky match of that year from a Soviet perspective.

DNA Study in India: Founded by Two Distinct Peoples

Talk about politically explosive! Oh my! You can just see what's coming - and the argument about the "Aryan" invasion of India will continue with new vigor... Article from newkerala.com Indian ancestry revealed in massive study London, Sep 25 : The largest ever DNA survey of Indian heritage has revealed that the population of India was founded on just two ancient groups that are as genetically distinct from each other as they are from other Asians. The findings of the study, conducted by a group of top international geneticists, have strong implications for health and medicine, and reveal important new information on caste in India. The study shows that most Indian populations are genetic admixtures of two ancient but genetically divergent groups, which each contributed around 40-60 percent of the DNA to most present-day Indians, Nature magazine reported Wednesday. One ancestral lineage - genetically similar to Middle Eastern, Central Asian and European populations - was higher in upper-caste individuals and speakers of Indo-European languages such as Hindi, the researchers found. The other lineage was not close to any group outside the Indian subcontinent, and was most common in people indigenous to the Andaman islands, says the study conducted by a team led by David Reich of the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Lalji Singh of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, India. Nature said that although India makes up around one-sixth of the world's population, it has been "sorely under-represented" in genome-wide studies of human genetic variation. The Indian Genome Variation database, launched in 2003 to fill the gap, has so far studied only 420 DNA-letter differences, called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), in 75 genes. In sharp contrast, the study reported by Nature has probed more than 560,000 SNPs across the genomes of 132 Indian individuals from 25 diverse ethnic and tribal groups dotted all over India. The researchers also found that Indian populations were much more highly subdivided than European populations. But whereas European ancestry is mostly carved up by geography, Indian segregation was driven largely by caste. "There are populations that have lived in the same town and same village for thousands of years without exchanging genes," said Reich. The authors of the study said the new genetic evidence refutes the claim that the Indian caste structure was a modern invention of British colonialism. "This idea that caste is thousands of years old is a big deal," said Nicole Boivin, an Oxford University archaeologist. "To say that endogamy (the practice of marrying within a caste, community or tribe) goes back so far, and that genetics shows it, is going to be controversial to many anthropologists." The study also suggests that Indian populations, although currently huge in number, were founded by relatively small bands of individuals - a finding that has clinical implications. "There will be a lot of recessive diseases in India that will be different in each population and that can be searched for and mapped genetically," Reich said. "That will be important for health in India."

2009 SPICE Cup - Norm Watch Update

Awwww, IM Ray Robson didn't make his final norm. He drew his final game with Rensch, but he needed a full point to score that final GM norm. The good news is that FM Danny Rensch scored the 1/2 point he needed for his final IM title norm! The USA has a new IM and a new GM (Ben Finegold) out of the "B" Group of the 2009 SPICE Cup. Congratulations to the new title-holders! Here are the final standings for the SPICE Cup "B" Group: 1-3 Finegold, Ben IM 2515 USA 6.0 1-3 Bhat, Vinay GM 2459 USA 6.0 1-3 Perelshteyn, Eugene GM 2542 USA 6.0 4 Robson, Ray IM 2527 USA 5.5 5 Papp, Gabor IM 2562 HUN 5.0 6-8 Rensch, Danny FM 2388 USA 4 6-8 Antal, Gergely IM 2486 HUN 4 6-8 Kuljasevic, Davorin IM 2547 CRO 4 9 Diamant, Andre GM 2526 BRA 2.5 10 Ippolito, Dean IM 2459 USA 2.0 Information from Susan Polgar's blog.

Taking a Break -

The Packers are on and it's a lovely afternoon - a big storm is headed this way so I'm headed outdoors to enjoy what's left of warmth and sun before it hits later this evening, and hopefully enjoy a Packers victory too. Donald Driver made a spectacular one-handed catch a few minutes ago, getting us to within striking distance of a score -- Time to get outside and relax. Laundry, vacuuming and blogging can wait a few hours.

Sea Cow Worship Site in United Arab Emirates

This is very interesting - the archaeologists seem certain that this is not an abbatoir but a site of worship. AFP from Yahoo News French find prehistoric animal worship site Thu Sep 24, 1:34 pm ET PARIS (AFP) – French archaeologists have discovered the oldest known place of worship dedicated to the dugong, or sea cow, on an island just north of Dubai, two research centres said Thursday. The sanctuary believed to date back to 3,500 to 3,200 years BC was discovered on Akab island in the United Arab Emirates, 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Dubai. The French archaeological mission in the Emirates and the Umm al-Quwain museum there said in the specialist magazine Antiquity that the sanctuary on the deserted island provided key details "on the rituals of prehistoric coastal societies in the Gulf." Akab was a tuna fisherman's village more than 6,500 years ago with circular buildings and a pile of dugong bones detected in the 1990s. The scientifically named "Dugong dugon" still exists in the Gulf, with adults growing up to four metres (12 feet) long and weighing up to 400 kilogrammes (880 pounds). The sanctuary was first thought to be an abattoir but on analysis was found to be a carefully constructed platform on two levels containing the remains of around 40 dugongs as well as tools, stones and ornaments. The archeologists said the Akab monument was used for rituals celebrating the giant mammal and "has no parallel in neolithic times in other parts of the world." Similar structures have been found off the Australian coast but are only several hundred years old.

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Years ago, I did some research into the legends of the "water horse" - and some authors have suggested that sea cows, seals or walruses may be the foundation for various legends of the water horse. I was fascinated by the etymological roots of the creature, variously known as:

• EACH UISCE or EACH UISGE (the Highland water horse, pronounced something like ech-ooshkya)
• AUGHISKY or AUGHISKA (same as the Highland water horse, known in Ireland, pronounced something like agh-iski)
• Related is Cabyll Ushtey, which literally translated, means something like fish horse

Notice the connection between the word mare (from Latin mare-sea), which also means horse/mare (mare = a female horse, the LL 'caballus' = male horse) in English, march in Welsh (female horse) -- "King Mark" (a/k/a "March") in the tale "Tristan and Isolde:" The king's name - March, may have meant "ass' ears", which explained why the latter legend says that he had the ears of horse or ass.

And then there is the cabyll ushtey - the fish horse - possibly so named because of the resemblance of the spiny "ruff" that runs down the middle of the head/back of such species of fish to a horse's mane. "Cabyll" might be from L caballus, a gentleman trained in arms and horsemanship, a mounted soldier: knight. However, it also might be from "cavalla" : Sp (Spanish) caballa, a fish, fr. LL., mare, fem. of L caballus) 1. CERO 2. also ca-val-ly: any of various carangid fishes (esp. genus Caranx). From Webster's Collegiate:

Cero: n. pl. cero or ceros [modif. of Sp sierra saw, cero]: either of two large food and sport fishes (Scomberomorus cavalla and S. regalis) of the warmer parts of the western Atlantic ocean. Caranx (no definition found); Carangid: adj [deriv. of F carangue shad, horse mackerel, fr. Sp caranga]:of or relating to a large family (Carangidae) of marine spiny-finned fishes including important food fishes - carangid n.

So - where am I going with all of this, you ask. Well - here's the reach. I've been fascinated for years by chess historian Pavel Bidev's description of the knight's move in chess as being related to water and that it traces out the shape of the crescent Moon. (Transcribed article at Goddesschess) As we know, the Moon is anciently and intimately related to various goddesses who are also connected to the sea and, of course, there is the well known effect of the Moon's phases upon the tides. Thus, my research into - literally - water horses.

Someday I'll put all of this research together into a coherent (I hope) article and relate it to the history of the chess piece we call the knight.

2009 SPICE Cup - Norm Watch Update

This what U.S. players needed to do before Round 8 began in order to score norms (from Susan Polgar's blog):

• IM Ben Finegold - He needs 1/2 point in 2 games to clinch his GM title. He will have White against FM Rensch in round 8 and Black against GM Perelshteyn in round 9.
• IM Ray Robson - He needs to win both of his games to clinch his GM title. He will have White against GM Diamant in round 8 and Black against FM Rensch in round 9.
• FM Danny Rensch - He needs 1 point in 2 games to clinch his IM title. He will have Black against IM Finegold in round 8 and White against IM Robson in round 9.

Here is where they stand after Round 8: IM Ben Finegold drew his game with FM Rensch. He has now earned his final GM norm and the GM title. Congratulations to IM Finegold, who really needs to change his eating habits and health regime - overweight and those dark circles around his eyes do not bode well. IM Ray Robson kept the dream for that final norm for a GM title alive by winning his game against GM Diamant. Robson needs to win Round 9 to earn that norm. A draw won't do it. FM Danny Rensch's hopes for his final IM norm are likewise still alive. With his draw against Finegold, he now needs to draw in Round 9 to clinch that norm and an IM title. Guess what - Robson and Rensch play each other in Round 9. WOW! High drama tomorrow!

40th Annual Badger Open Chess Tournament

40th Annual Badger Open Chess Tournament (A Wisconsin Tour Event) Oct 3 - Scholastic Section; Oct 3-4 for the Open and Reserve Section. Marriott Milwaukee West, W231 N1600 Corporate Drive, Waukesha, Wisconsin The 40th Annual Badger Open Chess Tournament will be held at the Marriott Milwaukee West on October 3rd and 4th. This tournament will offer a 2 day event on Saturday and Sunday, October 3rd and 4th with an Open and Reserve (U1400) section with individual cash awards. Like last year there will also be a 1 day Scholastic event on Saturday, October 3rd with 2 sections, K-4 and K-9, with both individual and team awards. Teams may consist of either school or club teams.All sections are USCF rated and require a current USCF membership to participate. This includes the 1 day Scholastic event. Open Section pre-registrations as of 9/20/09: Name Rating Veech, John 2031 Endsley, Barry E. 2000 Hoffman, Guy 1900 Liang, Yingming 1835 Coons, James J. 1810 Grochowski, A. 1754 Grochowski, R. 1735 Iyer, Venkat 1671 Liang, Awonder 1601 Pahl, Sandra R. 1527 Liang, Adream 1366 The information posted here is from the Southwest Chess Club blog, the Waukesha Chess Club website, and the Mill Valley Chess Team blog. I couldn't find the Badger Open listed in the Wisconsin TLAs at the USCF website. Okay - after having dug around online for quite awhile, I found the following further information at the Wisconsin Scholastic Chess Association website: 40th ANNUAL BADGER OPEN CHESS TOURNAMENT OCT. 3rd-4th OPEN TO ALL USCF PLAYERS. Two USCF Rated events at one location! LOCATION: MARRIOTT MILWAUKEE WEST W231 N1600 Corporate Court, Waukesha, WI 53186 Chess Hotel Room Rate of $85. Reserve Rooms Toll Free at 877-651-7666 (Until Oct. 1, mention "Badger Open") 4 SECTIONS: Open: 1st Place $250 (guaranteed); 2nd Place $150 (guaranteed). Balance of Prize Fund divided and based on the number of players in each class A-F. Reserve (U1400): Best D (U1400), E (U1200), F (U1000) Class. Scholastic K-4: Individual and Club or School Team Scholastic K-9: Individual and Club or School Team Scholastic Awards: Individual Trophies: 1st - 5th Place in K-4 and K-9; Medals to 6th - 15th Place in both Sections. Team Trophies: 1st-3rd Place Team in K-4 and K-9. ALL 4 SECTIONS ARE USCF RATED, YOU MUST BE USCF MEMBER TO PLAY, MEMBERSHIP CAN BE PURCHASED / RENEWED ONSITE (COME EARLY). The Badger Open main chess tournament is 2-day Wisconsin Chess Tour Event with two sections: Open and Reserve (Under 1400). Both will be a 5 Round Swiss with a G-120 Time Control. There is a $1200 Prize Fund, based on 50 players in the Open/Reserve Sections. 1st and 2nd Open Prize Guaranteed, A-F prizes are based on the number of players in each class - the more players in a particular class, the larger the prize fund for that class. For example, a large Class E group would mean more prize money in that class, allowing for 2nd or even a 3rd place prize. This system rewards those players who support the tournament by showing up to play, no matter what their rating might be. If more than 50 players show up, then the prize fund increases accordingly. There is also a 1-day Scholastic Only Tournament. This will be a 6 Round Swiss with a G-30 time control, and will be USCF Dual Rated (game results impacts both Regular and Quick Ratings), with a K-4 and K-9 Section. A Team Score will consist of the Top 2-4 players from the same school, OR chess club, added together. A team can have as few as 2 players, and as many as come, but only the Top 4 scores will count. Students can play in ANY Section. This is another great opportunity to build your USCF Rating by playing in the longer time-control Adult / Student Sections (Open & Reserve) or tune-up your chess tactics and skills in the 1 DAY Scholastic Only Section as the scholastic chess season begins. Flyer. Wisconsin Scholastic Chess Association members can register on-line. I sure wish it was easier to track down information for such events! I learned of this one entirely by accident while I was reading at the SWCC blog. It sounds like a great event, providing opporturnity for both scholastic and non-scholastic players. Some of Wisconsin's highest rated players will be playing in the Open section.

2009 SPICE Cup - Norm Watch Update

Wow! Well, I knew it would be a bust when I tried to snatch looks at the Antal-Robson game in progress today at the office. DID NOT WORK! Meh! I figured it would be an epic battle, as both players were in do or die situations as far as their norm hopes. After an exhausting game, the players agreed to a draw. That pushed Antal out of contention to score a GM norm, as he needed 3.0/3; the half point in Round 7 grounds any chance. Hope for Robson remains alive by a slim margin, however; he now needs to win his final two games to earn that third GM norm. Can he do it? How much pressure can a person take? How much pressure can a 14 year old person take? The result of Finegold's game was the first to be reported. He needed to score 1.0/3 for his final GM norm, and he moved toward that goal with a draw today against GM Andre Diamant. He now only needs 0.5 in his final 2 games to clinch his title. After Round 6, FM Rensch needed to score 1.5/3 for his third IM norm and title. He drew his game today with GM Bhat and so he needs to score 1.0 in his final 2 games. Stay tuned!

Rare Coins Discovered in England

I wonder if there would be merit to the U.S. enacting a national "treasure act" like Great Britain did. Would it work the same way that it seems to have worked in England - that is - encouraging people who find antiquities to turn them over to the government for official inquest, determination as "treasure trove" and then splitting proceeds with the land owner if the object(s) is purchased by a museum. Or would it work the other way - to encourage more looting of tribal lands, burial mounds, and ancient settlement sites? I don't know -- but this is certainly an interesting find, and it seems everyone will benefit: the finder, the land owner, and the public through the display of the rare coins at the museum that purchased them. Story from BBC News Rare coins find excites experts 25 September 2009 Four silver coins dating from Norman England have been found in Gloucestershire. It is believed they were minted in Gloucester in 1073-1076 and represent an unrecorded type of penny. The coins were found by a metal detector enthusiast but details of the site have not been revealed. Archaeologist Kurt Adams said the coins, which are just 0.8mm thick and about the size of a 10p piece, were incredibility rare. Treasure Act Reports of the coins are already exciting collectors because of their rarity, Mr Adams said. "Coins dating to the age of William I [William the Conqueror] are very rare finds, but these are unique," Mr Adams said. "The finder reported them to me and I have taken them in under the 1996 Treasure Act and reported the find to the coroner who will hold a Court of Inquest to prove they are treasure. "I'll then send the coins to the British Museum for examination. "If experts there decide they want the coins they have to be independently valued and the museum would have to find the money." "Half of that would go to the landowner and half to the finder.

Updated Family Tree of Confucius

I love this story! I had no idea Confucius' family tree even existed, let alone to 83 generations! Story from BBC News Confucian family tree 'triples' Friday, 25 September 2009 Two million people are now recognised as being descendants of the Chinese philosopher Confucius, more than tripling the number in the last count. The announcement was made as the fifth update to Confucius' family tree was unveiled on the 2,560th anniversary of his birth, say Chinese state media. Last updated in 1937, the book lists all 83 generations of descendents. For the first time women, ethnic minorities and descendants living overseas have been included. The 43,000-page document, spreading over 80 books, was unveiled at a ceremony in Confucius' home town of Qufu, said Xinhua news agency. It adds 1.4 million names to the family tree of Confucius, known in China as Kong Fuzi, and is believed by the authorities to be the world's largest. "Confucius' family tree is a national treasure," said Kong Deyong, a 77th generation descendant and head of the International Confucius Association. Mr Kong said the family tree was important not only for academic research, but also for "helping Confucius' descendants around the world discover their ancestors and strengthen family bonds". Confucianism has traditionally given women a lower status than men in its strict hierarchy, so female descendants were not counted, but genealogists announced in 2006 that they had decided to "move with the times". Mr Kong said that even if many descendants were not Chinese nationals or Han Chinese - the majority ethnic group in China - "we should count them in because we are one big family". Kong Dejun, a former university teacher who travelled from Switzerland for the ceremony, said being included in the book was "the most exciting moment in my life". "In terms of genes, Confucius' blood is flowing in our body," she told Xinhua, adding that the inclusion of women "shows Chinese females' status is improving". The new family tree cost 10m yuan ($1.4m; £1m) to produce, paid for by the descendants. Confucius was dismissed as bourgeois and a relic of China's feudal past by Mao Zedong during the 1960s Cultural Revolution. But Confucian thought has enjoyed a surge in popularity in recent years and the Chinese government has even funded a film of the philosopher's life, starring Hong Kong actor Chow Yun-Fat.

5,000 Year Old "Venus" Figurine Found

Only goes to show, you can't keep a good woman down! The one photograph with the story isn't very good, but you can see the white "Venus" figurine on the left, and the "seal" on the right, held by the man in the photograph. Story at todayszaman.con 5,000-year-old Venus figure found in Çanakkale 25 September 2009, Friday A 5,000-year-old Venus figure has been found as part of an excavation being carried out in Çanakkale's Ezine district. The excavation began in the field three weeks ago in cooperation with Germany's University of Tübingen. Assistant Professor Rüstem Aslan, who is vice head of the excavation, told the Anatolia news agency that the aim of the dig is to find settlements outside Troy from the Bronze Age. Some interesting findings have been unearthed during the excavation, Aslan said. “We found a 5,000-year-old Venus figure, which used to represent woman at the time, as well as a seal with which people used to mark their belongings in prehistoric ages. Such a seal is a rare piece. In addition to these items, we also found stone axes, well-processed and embellished pots and spindle-whorls, which were used for spinning wool.”

Navrati Celebration at Assam’s Kamakhya Temple for Kumari Puja

From Thaindian News Devotees throng Assam’s Kamakhya temple for Kumari Puja September 24th, 2009 - 11:40 pm ICT by ANI Guwahati, Sep 24 (ANI): Hundreds of devotees thronged revered Kamakhya temple in Assam state on Thursday for Kumari Puja organised during Hindu festival of Navratri, in which young girls are worshipped. Kumari Puja is held at the Kamakhya temple every year prior to Durga Puja celebrations that began on Saturday and end on “Navami” (the ninth day of the Navratri festival). The tradition is as old as that of the origin of Kamakhya temple. It is believed that the Goddess, although omnipresent, surely exists in the virgin. Reverence to female children as goddesses is an age-old custom of India. The Kamakhya temple situated in Guwahati, main city of Assam, on the banks of river Brahmaputra, is dedicated to goddess Kamakhya, consort of Shiva, Hindu God of destruction. It is believed that at Kamakhya, the Goddess appears in the form of a virgin. So some of the pilgrims worship the living virgin as Goddess in this temple. Worship of a living woman as Goddess is of purely Tantric origin. It is stated that virgin worship is nothing but Shakti worship. The virgin worship is performed along with Durga, Kali and other Mahavidyas. The salutation mantra of virgin worship is the same as vidya’s salutation mantra. Sometimes, it is also seen that the virgin is fed and clad and saluted without any mantra. The tantrics believe that the virgin is the Goddess incarnate. “Her name is not Kamakhya but Kamakshi. People come here as their wishes are fulfilled here and that’s why we have come all the way from Bihar,” said Chandreshwar Pathak, a devotee from eastern Bihar. (ANI)

Treasure Trove - England!

From AP/Associated Press via Yahoo News Huge hoard of Anglo-Saxon treasure uncovered in UK By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Writer Raphael G. Satter, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 39 mins ago PHOTO SLIDESHOW!!! LONDON – It's an unprecedented find that could revolutionize ideas about medieval England's Germanic rulers: An amateur treasure-hunter searching a farmer's field with a metal detector unearthed a huge collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver artifacts. The discovery sent a thrill through Britain's archaeological community, which said Thursday that it offers new insight into the world of the Anglo-Saxons, who ruled England from the fifth century until the 1066 Norman invasion and whose cultural influence is still felt throughout the English-speaking world. "This is just a fantastic find completely out of the blue," Roger Bland, who managed the cache's excavation, told The Associated Press. "It will make us rethink the Dark Ages." The treasure trove includes intricately designed helmet crests embossed with a frieze of running animals, enamel-studded sword fittings and a checkerboard piece inlaid with garnets and gold. One gold band bore a biblical inscription in Latin calling on God to drive away the bearer's enemies. The Anglo-Saxons were a group of Germanic tribes who invaded England starting in the wake of the collapse of the Roman Empire. Their artisans made striking objects out of gold and enamel, and their language, Old English, is a precursor of modern English. The cache of gold and silver pieces was discovered in what was once Mercia, one of five main Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and is thought to date to between 675 and 725. Rest of article.

Chess Femme News

A few updates - haven't had time to put these on the Chess Femmes News website, maybe this weekend. I hope you enjoy these: From the Shreveporttimes.com Young chess whiz wins tournament By Jane Bokun • janebokun@gannett.com • September 23, 2009 Emmie Wysywany and her coach are taking the game of chess to a whole new level. Chess whiz Emmie, 10, represented Louisiana recently at the National Chess Tournament in Lubbock, Texas. When the smoke cleared, Wysywany won the state title. "I love playing," she said. Following eight days of concentrated chess, Wysywany won three games but lost the final games. The competition included adults representing all 50 states. The daughter of Ken and Jill Wysywany is not the only one in her family to star at chess tournaments. Siblings Alexandra, Francis and Anna also play the game. The family even has a chess coach named Tommy Beckham, who works with the children on a daily basis and drives from Greenwood to do it. Rest of article. From The New York Times Chinese Women Remind the World of Their Prowess By DYLAN LOEB McCLAIN Published: September 19, 2009 Sometimes when a champion emerges from a country that is not known for its chess, it can presage a new power in the game. when Xie Jun of China won the Women’s World Chess Championship in 1991, it was not clear if she was an anomaly. Any doubts have long since been put to rest: China is a world power in chess, particularly among women. China has produced three world champions — Xie, Zhu Chen in 2001-4 and Xu Yuhua from 2006-8 — and has four of the world’s top 20 players. China reaffirmed its status at the Women’s World Team Championship in Yingbo, China, Sept. 2-11. It fielded two squads in the 10-team competition, and its A team edged out Russia and Ukraine for the title after an unusual finish. Rest of article. (Note: There is, or was, some controversy about whether the last match-game may have been thrown so that China could/would win the title. I don't know enough about chess to be able to express an opinion as to that.)

2009 SPICE Cup

I usually don't report on tournaments where just chess dudes are playing, but because this is a Polgar/SPICE event, I'm making an exception! Polgar and SPICE (in conjunction with Texas Tech University) have worked practically 24/7 and have done a tremendous job of putting together world-class chess events and bringing lots of excitement to U.S. chess through the SPICE Cup and other SPICE-sponsored tournaments - in just two years. It's amazing to me how quickly I, one of the audience, have gotten used to seeing Polgar put on these quality events, and it seems like it's been a long time, but it's only been a little over two years since Polgar first made the announcement of the formation of SPICE at Texas Tech in the Spring, 2007 commencement address which she gave to that graduating class. This Tournament's B Group action is exciting, I have to say! It looks like IM Ben Feingold has a good chance to score his final GM norm - he has only to get 1 out 3 points! And 14-year old IM Ray Robson is still technically alive to scoring his final GM norm too, although he faces a much greater task than Feingold. Robson needs to score 2.5 out of 3. Can he do it? Oh my! Other norms are still possible too - here is the complete breakdown courtesy of Susan Polgar's chess blog: B group 1. IM Finegold 5.0 (needs 1/3 for GM norm and title) 2-3. GM Bhat, GM Perelshteyn 4.0 4. Robson 3.5 (needs 2.5/3 for GM norm and title) 5. IM Antal 3.0 (needs 3/3 for GM norm and title) 6-8. IM Papp, IM Kuljasevic, FM Rensch (needs 1.5/3 for IM norm and title) 2.5 9. GM Diamant 2.0 10. IM Ippolito 1.0 Of course, there is lots of fabulous chess taking place among the players in the A Group, too (what is wrong with Akobian? I do not think he is outclassed by the competition - does he have the flu or something?) - but you know, I always love an underdog and with American players vying for norms, call me sentimental - I'm rooting for them all the way! There has been something of an "explosion" of American-born chessplayers earning GM and IM titles the past couple of years - it is a very exciting time in American chess. Of course, I would like to see more chess femmes participating in the mix. Could Abby Marshall (first female to win the Denker) be our first home-grown GM? Stay tuned...

When Was the Great Pyramid Started?

New research claims an exact start date for the construction of the Great Pyramid: August 23, 2470 BCE. Exact Date Pinned to Great Pyramid's Construction? Andrew Bossone in Cairo for National Geographic News September 21, 2009 The Egyptians started building the Great Pyramid of Giza on August 23, 2470 B.C., according to controversial new research that attempts to place an exact date on the start of the ancient construction project. A team of Egyptian researchers arrived at the date based on calculations of historical appearances of the star Sothis—today called Sirius. Every year around the time of the Nile River floods, Sothis would rise in the early morning sky after a long absence. "The appearance of this star indicates the beginning of an inundation period" for the Nile, said team leader Abdel-Halim Nur El-Din, former head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. Throughout their history, "Egyptians … started their main buildings, the tombs, and the temples at the beginning of the inundation"—an auspicious time, since floodwaters brought fresh soil, maintaining the region's fertility. In addition, pharaohs always started building their tombs at the starts of their rules. Khufu, the pharaoh meant to be buried in the Great Pyramid, took power in 2470 B.C., according to Nur El-Din and colleagues. The researchers therefore compared the modern calendar, the ancient Egyptian calendar, and the cycle of the star to find the exact day Sothis would have appeared that year. The team believes the ancient Egyptians observed the star from July 17 to 19, and the inundation period began 35 days later—on August 23. Rest of article.

"Trojan" Couple Buried Together

Hmmm, let's see what the carbon-dating says - and what happened to the 'lower parts' of their bodies? What's missing, exactly? I could not tell from the photographs. Archaeologists find suspected Trojan war-era couple Tue Sep 22, 2009 12:14pm EDT ANKARA (Reuters) - Archaeologists in the ancient city of Troy in Turkey have found the remains of a man and a woman believed to have died in 1,200 B.C., the time of the legendary war chronicled by Homer, a leading German professor said on Tuesday. Ernst Pernicka, a University of Tubingen professor of archaeometry who is leading excavations on the site in northwestern Turkey, said the bodies were found near a defense line within the city built in the late Bronze age. The discovery could add to evidence that Troy's lower area was bigger in the late Bronze Age than previously thought, changing scholars' perceptions about the city of the "Iliad." "If the remains are confirmed to be from 1,200 B.C. it would coincide with the Trojan war period. These people were buried near a mote. We are conducting radiocarbon testing, but the finding is electrifying," Pernicka told Reuters in a telephone interview. Ancient Troy, located in the northwest of modern-day Turkey at the mouth of the Dardanelles not far south of Istanbul, was unearthed in the 1870s by Heinrich Schliemann, the German entrepreneur and pioneering archaeologist who discovered the steep and windy city described by Homer. Pernicka said pottery found near the bodies, which had their lower parts missing, was confirmed to be from 1,200 BC, but added the couple could have been buried 400 years later in a burial site in what archaeologists call Troy VI or Troy VII, different layers of ruins at Troy. Tens of thousands of visitors flock every year to the ruins of Troy, where a huge replica of the famous wooden horse stands along with an array of excavated ruins. (Writing by Ibon Villelabeitia; Editing by Ralph Boulton)

Moutai Prince Cup China National Chess King/Queen Championships

September 17 - 25, 2009 Eight Chinese men and eight Chinese women compete for money and titles. The men are only playing each other, as are the women. Here are the chess femmes: 1 Hou Yifan g CHN 2585 1994 2 Zhao Xue g CHN 2542 1985 3 Ruan Lufei wg 2486 1987 4 Xu Yuhua g 2485 1976 5 Shen Yang wg 2453 1989 6 Ju Wenjun 2443 1991 7 Tan Zhongyi 2435 1991 8 Huang Qian wg 2424 1986 Rank after Round 6 Rk. Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3 1 GM Hou Yifan CHN 2585 4,5 0,5 13,25 3 2 Ju Wenjun CHN 2443 4,5 0,5 12,50 3 3 GM Zhao Xue CHN 2542 3,5 0,0 7,25 3 4 Tan Zhongyi CHN 2435 3,0 0,0 7,50 1 5 GM Xu Yuhua CHN 2485 2,5 0,0 7,50 0 6 WGM Shen Yang CHN 2453 2,0 1,5 4,25 1 7 WGM Huang Qian CHN 2424 2,0 1,0 5,75 0 8 WGM Ruan Lufei CHN 2486 2,0 0,5 6,00 0

InventiChess 2009

GM Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria and IM Anna Muzychuk are playing in the Invitational (website). Here are the standings after Round 5: 1. IGM E. Sutovsky 4.0 2. IGM E. Bacrot 3.5 3. IM A. Muzychuk 3.0 3. IGM G. Sargissian 3.0 4. IGM K. Sasikiran 2.5 4. IGM B. Socko 2.5 4. IGM A. Stefanova 2.5 5. IM B. Michiels 2.0 6. IGM J. Timman 1.5 7. IGM D. Howell 0.5

'Princess' Treasure to Go on Display

Kirkleatham Museum to display jewels from Cleveland grave of Anglo-Saxon princess By Culture24 Staff Published: 21 September 2009 Five "high-status" female graves and one sword burial lie in the Street House cemetery, located in farmland in East Cleveland An "unparalleled" hoard of gold jewellery found next to the body of an Anglo-Saxon princess in a secret Teesside Royal burial field will be revealed to the public with a £275,000 Lottery-funded display. The precious haul of fine pieces were placed in the grave on a decorated wooden bed in the second half of the seventh century, and are thought to have belonged to members of the Northumbrian royal family. It will go on show at The Kirkleatham Museum in Redcar, alongside a new Anglo-Saxon gallery including a reconstruction of the burial, a touring exhibition and learning programmes. "This is the only discovery of this kind and of this calibre in the North East and it is really important that we keep the pieces here for local residents and visitors to come and admire," said Ivor Crowther, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in the North-East. "These rare finds are a spectacular insight into the lives of the people who lived in the region long ago. The jewellery will provide an excellent learning tool and thrilling museum exhibition." Alan Pearce, Museums Curator for Kirkleatham Museum, said he was "absolutely delighted" with the cash award. "It recognises the quality of the objects and the unique story of a princess and her royal bed burial in East Cleveland," he added, announcing plans to open the exhibition by Easter 2011. "We can now conserve and research the jewels and create a stunning exhibition to enable everyone to appreciate and get close to them." Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure and Tourism Councillor Sheelagh Clarke praised the HLF for helping the Council to create "a really exhilarating attraction." "I know they are as excited as we are about these finds," she said. "It just shows what a rich and varied cultural heritage we have in East Cleveland." Referenced venues Kirkleatham Museum Kirkleatham, Redcar, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, TS10 5NW, England

Be Surprised By How Much Difference You Can Make!

GM Susan Polgar and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk are co-chairs of the FIDE Women's Chess Committee (they will hold their chairs through the 2010 FIDE elections). Yesterday (September 21, 2009), GM Kosteniuk posted at her blog that the FIDE 80th Annual Congress will be held in the period from October 11th to 18th in Kallithea, Halkidiki, Greece. During this time, the Women's Chess Committee will meet. This Committee is not light-weight! Almost all of the participants are famous titled female chessplayers with years of international playing experience under their belts. They know the ins and outs of playing professional competitive chess against males and females over many years - they've seen it all: [Co-chairs: GM Susan Polgar and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk] Secretary IM Martha Baquero Fierro Ecuador Councilor 1 GM Xie Jun China (former Women's World Champion) Councilor 2 GM Maya Chiburdanidze Georgia (former Women's World Champion) Member 1 GM Antoaneta Stefanova Bulgaria (former Women's World Champion) Member 2 GM Xu Yuhua China (former Women's World Champion) Member 3 GM Zhu Chen Qatar (former Women's World Champion) Member 4 GM Nona Gaprindashvili Georgia (former Women's World Champion) Member 5 Mrs Franca Dapiran Italy GM Kosteniuk asked for suggestions and recommendations to present to the Committee, and several people responded. I put in my two cents' worth, too. I liked what I wrote so much (hey, I'm an egotistical Leo, what can I say?), I'm posting it here, too: In countries where the culture encourages equality between females and males, we can encourage more girls and women to play chess by offering separate prizes for the females who play in mixed events. While I enjoy reading about and looking at the games in female-only chess events because they are gender-neutral, women playing against other women is a velvet trap ratings wise. The way to advance one's ELO is to play against and eventually prevail against higher-rated players. When the best players in the world are ranked 2760 and above (all men), one must bite the bullet and mix it up with the guys. The best female player in the world today has dropped below 2700; and the top range of other female players is below 2600: 1 Polgar, Judit g HUN 2687 0 1976 2 Koneru, Humpy g IND 2595 25 1987 3 Hou, Yifan g CHN 2585 9 1994 4 Zhao, Xue g CHN 2542 8 1985 5 Kosintseva, Tatiana m RUS 2536 11 1986 Rating alone may not be a true representation of one's relative playing strength, but it is what is looked at by everyone as a measure of success. Until women are encouraged through prizes and other incentives to play A LOT OF chess against males, as a whole females will not escape the ELO ghetto that they stay in by playing against each other and, I think, as a consequence, may continue to subconsciously consider themselves as second-class players. I'm working with others to encourage more girls and women to participate in small to medium sized local and regional tournaments. We do this by offering prizes for the female players. We have had success. This has encouraged us to put more money into local events. Start local and go global. Players like GM Kosteniuk, GM Susan Polgar, IM Jennifer Shahade, and many others are working tirelessly to promote the game of chess for females. We need all of these efforts, and more! And we need support. Stop schmoozing about it and start doing something about it! Get out and volunteer to teach chess to little ones. Start a program at a local library. Put your money where your mouth is - contribute to local programs that promote chess literacy. Contribute to organizations such as 9Queens and the Susan Polgar Foundation that support female chess initiatives. Got $100? Fund some prizes for chess femmes at a local chess tournament, and then work to publicize that event as much as possible. That's what we do - and let me tell you - it works! THOSE THINGS are just a few of what you can do to make a difference. Chessplayers are really cool people. Put your coolness to good use: do a little mentoring; publicize promotional efforts and chess femme results on blogs and websites; engage in outreach. It's as easy as starting a conversation with the person sitting next to you on the bus or standing in line at Starbucks :) People aren’t put off by chess – they are intrigued by it, and sometimes slightly frightened because they think you have to be a ‘genius’ to learn to play. You can show them otherwise. Enthusiasm is contagious. GM Kosteniuk has given everyone at the Hales Corners Chess Challenge X (Milwaukee, Wisconsin October 17, 2009) a big boost by providing, without charge, books, CDs and DVDs to hand out to chess femmes who participate in the tournament! GM Susan Polgar is donating her time without charge to determine the winner of the 2009 Goddesschess Fighting Chess Award in the 2009 U.S. Women's Chess Championship (she also did this in 2008). You don't get if you don't ask! So get out there and start doing, and ask – you’ll be amazed at what can happen.

Updates to the Look/Feel of this Blog

Sorry that I haven't been posting much of late. It's been an exhausting summer and particularly the last three weeks. Oy! Rewarding as all get out, but exhausting, darlings, that's no lie. Now, there is lots of end-of-season yard work to perform, besides the usual rush during the weekend to get laundry, housecleaning, grocery shopping done, plus investment club stuff plus taking care of a TON of Goddesschess business. Whew! Sometime yesterday, I have no clear recollection of exactly when, which is somewhat disturbing, hmmm... I started reading Dan Brown's latest, and after I slogged through a slow start of 100 pages or so it's now getting rather gripping, I must say :) Certainly makes the hour bus ride to and from the office go much faster, but the damn book weighs a ton and slows me down, and I don't need any help these days to be slow, thank you very much (NOT), Dan Brown. Ach! Today I did some modest updates to the blog:

• I added an important link to Sacred Threads with original essays by Tracy Boyd, who has been doing research on the goddess and related subjects even longer than we have, and we're passed ten years now online. Please check out Ms. Boyd's essays, they are very finely wrought, completely annotated, utterly absorbing and written in 'plain English' and not high-falutin' academia language that no one understands, not even the author. While we Goddesschess folks were plugging away at that old Art Bell message board on our particular topic "IS CHESS THE GAME OF THE GODDESS?" way back in December, 1998, Ms. Boyd was doing her own goddess-related research. Those Art Bell posts became The Goddesschess Weave and formed the basis for the beginning of our website, Goddesschess. Meanwhile Ms. Boyd was creating her own wonderful Weave. We highly recommend Ms. Boyd's essays, which will provide a depth of information on the goddess and ancient traditions that we have discovered complements perfectly much that we have discovered and written about at Goddesschess.
• Our list of sponsorships was getting a bit long and long in the tooth, so I cut it off at 2009's sponsorships. Goddesschess is now maintaining a list of our sponsorships, more or less current :)
• I also added a banner created by Mr. Don celebrating our sponsorship of the 2009 Fighting Chess Award for the U.S. Women's Chess Championship. I love the symbolism that Mr. Don has incorporated into this banner. There are the wings, of course, which are emblematic of the winged goddesses of old and also of the United States' sacred symbol of the bald eagle. Wings represent freedom, but also the search for, striving for and ultimately the achievement of enlightment as the winged body strains ever higher toward the Heavens. There is the glistening Pearl of Wisdom/Pearl Without Price in the center, which also represents each of the female participants in the 2009 Championship. The pearl in the center also represents many sacred moon goddesses; and if you shift perspective just slightly, that orb becomes a glistening sun symbol, representative of the rarest and oldest of all mother goddesses - the Sun goddess (who, in later times, became the 'Mother of the Sun.') The blue color represents both the color of the sky and the Heavens and also the 'mare' -- the sea, to which many moon goddesses are closely allied. That 'sea' color, that gorgeous blue, is reflected in semi-official national anthems of the USA: God Bless America and America (the Beautiful), as well as in the blue field of America's star-spangled banner. By the way, those stars represent goddesses :) But don't tell anyone.

Okay, that's it for the night. "The Lost Symbol" is calling my name. My middle name seems to be synchronicity these days, and isn't it just a pip that we should meet up with Tracy Boyd AND Mr. Don creates that lovely banner for the 2009 U.S. Women's Chess Championship AND I should happen to have started Dan Brown's absolutely symbolic-laden tome -- all at the same time.

And it all makes perfect sense. But I tell you darlings, I sure wish I'd stop dreaming about chess - and then waking up at 2 AM and tossing and turning thinking about that last stupid move I made - all the rest of the night. The bags under my eyes now have bags of their own. It's not a pretty sight, and make-up does NOT cover them. Arggggghhhhh!

Oh Goddess, please either make me a real good player real fast, or let me just forget all about it, okay? I can't take this! I do not think you wish to kill off this faithful servant yet - well, unless I did something that really got you P.O.d? But then, join the crowd!

Southwest Chess Club: Cool Autumn Breezes Blowing Swiss

This Thursday, September 24, a new tournament starts at the Southwest Chess Club. The Cool Autumn Breezes Blowing Swiss is a two section, four round tournament with games on September 24 and October 1, 8 and 15 (7 PM start time each night). Time Control is Game in 100 minutes. See details below. Start time 7:00 p.m. this Thursday. Registration is 6:30-6:55 p.m. Registration closes at 6:55 sharp, and if you arrive after first-round pairings are prepared, you will have to take a 1/2-point bye in the first round. However, if you want to play but anticipate being a few minutes late, please e-mail Tom Fogec at: tfogec@wi.rr.com, or call Tom (414-425-6742) prior to 5:00 p.m. on September 24, so he can include you in the pairings. If you need a first round, half point bye please let Tom know as soon as possible. Location: St. James Catholic Church, 7219 S. 27th Street , Franklin , WI 53132 Tom Fogec Tournament Director 414-425-6742 tfogec@wi.rr.com Cool Autumn Breezes Blowing Swiss: September 24 & October 1, 8, & 15 4-Round Swiss in Two Sections (Open and Under 1600). Game/100 minutes. USCF Rated. EF: $5. (One ½-Point Bye Available for any round (except round four) if requested at least 2-days prior to round). TD is Fogec; ATD is Grochowski.

Mysterious Ruins May Explain Maya Exodus

From USA Today Mysterious ruins may help explain Mayan collapse ('9/21/2009 2:53 AM')) 17h 52m ago By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY Ringing two abandoned pyramids are nine palaces "frozen in time" that may help unravel the mystery of the ancient Maya, reports an archaeological team. Hidden in the hilly jungle, the ancient site of Kiuic (KIE-yuk) was one of dozens of ancient Maya centers abandoned in the Puuc region of Mexico's Yucatan about 10 centuries ago. The latest discoveries from the site may capture the moment of departure. "The people just walked away and left everything in place," says archaeologist George Bey of Millsaps College in Jackson Miss., co-director of the Labna-Kiuic Regional Archaeological Project. "Until now, we had little evidence from the actual moment of abandonment, it's a frozen moment in time." The ancient, or "classic" Maya were part of a Central American civilization best known for stepped pyramids, beautiful carvings and murals and the widespread abandonment of cities around 900 A.D. in southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and El Salvador. They headed for the northern Yucatan, where Spanish conquistadors met their descendants in the 1500s (6 million modern Maya still live in Central America today). Past work by the team, led by Bey and Tomas Gallareta of Mexico's National Institute of Archaeology and History, shows the Maya had inhabited the Puuc region since 500 B.C. So why they headed for the coast with their brethren is just part of the mystery of the Maya collapse. New clues may come from Kiuic, where the archaeologists explored two pyramids and, most intriguingly, plantation palaces on the ridges ringing the center. Of particular interst: a hilltop complex nicknamed "Stairway to Heaven" by Gallareta (that's "Escalera al Cieloa" for Spanish-speaking Led Zeppelin fans) because of a long staircase leading from Kiuic to a central plaza nearly a mile away. Rest of article.

Does Dionysus' Birth Myth Reveal Ancient Knowledge?

I've no idea what to make of this -- is this plausible? Athens News Agency: News in English, 09-09-20 [03] Dionysus myth a clue to ancient neonatal care? Ancient Greeks may have had considerable knowledge about how to care for premature babies, according to an analysis presented on Sunday during the 15th Hellenic Conference on Perinatal Medicine taking place in Thessaloniki. This was posted by doctors from Agios Savvas oncological hospital in Athens, working in collaboration with private colleagues in Hania. In an essay entitled "Mythological description of an incubator", the doctors say that the description given in ancient myths of the birth of the god Dionysus and how he was cared for very closely approximates the requirements for an incubator used in modern hospitals. According to some versions of the myth, Dionysus was born prematurely in the eighth month of pregnancy and had a low birth weight. He was carried by the god Hermes to Mount Nysa and delivered into the care of the Hyades, the nymphs of warm rain, that placed him in a cave having all the requirements of an incubator - an air filter, double lining and protection from draughts. The ancient myth-makers did not, of course, describe technological appliances or fixtures but rather natural items that appear to serve an equivalent purpose. The 'air filter' is a stand of pines planted by the Hyades at the entrance of the cave, the 'double lining' is formed by the branches of a virgin vine and the small god is protected from draughts by a covering of thick-leaved ivy. Combined, these served to maintain a warm and slightly moist - in other words thermically neutral - environment for the newborn. The above is all in the realm of myth and may only indicate a flight of the imagination by some bolder story-teller of antiquity, rather than evidence that the ancients knew how to care for premature babies. According to the doctors, however, it would be a strange coincidence if the makers of the myth had hit upon the requirements needed without this knowledge having arisen from some specific experience or practice of the time. Caption: ANA-MPA file photograph of an ancient sculpture depicting the god Dionysus.

Goddess Reunion Has Political Undertones

From www.chinapost.com.tw Sea Goddesses in north Taiwan have a reunion TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Twenty-one goddesses of the seas, or Matsu, in north Taiwan had a reunion at the February 28 Memorial Park in the heart of Taipei, yesterday. One of the Matsus was enshrined there in 1888 by Liu Ming-chuan, the first governor of Taiwan. The other 20 are her avatars. Mayor of Taipei Hau Lung-pin was joined by his counterpart in Keelung Chang Tung-yung in a reunion ceremony this morning. Images of Matsu came from all over north Taiwan for the reunion. The goddess of the seas at Guandu in suburban Taipei did not take part in the reunion. The temple Governor Liu founded was torn down to make the New Park by the Japanese colonial government, with the image of Matsu removed to Sanchih near Tamsui. The park was given the present title in memory of the February 28 Incident of 1947. Tens of thousands of innocent people were massacred by government troops sent from China in March 1947 to suppress the spontaneous riots across Taiwan. Hau and Chang begged for blessings from all the goddesses of the seas for the people of north Taiwan. ************************************************************************************* Learn more about this goddess: Wikipedia

Chess Training - 1

Hola! This will probably be my only post tonight. I'm very tired, sorry. It's been a LONG event-filled day. Earlier today I finished up my game - by resignation - with Chessdaddy (a/k/a Kelly Atkins), who acted as my coach leading up to the Shira Chess Challenge. I was hanging in there as black - so I thought - until a few moves back I, absolutely unforgivably, hung my bishop to a pawn. OH SHIT. After that, it was curtains, and to add to my embarrassment, I'm sure I missed a move or two that may have led to me hanging on a bit longer. Sigh. In the meantime, I started a new game with Shira about a week ago - it is in early moves, given both of our schedules. And earlier this evening I challenged Chessdaddy to a rematch :) Don't know if he'll accept. In the meantime, Mr. Don has steadfastly refused (ha!) to accept any of my challenges to play another game of chess - online. He says he is too busy. Yeah, and I'm sitting around doing nothing? Trust me, darlings, Mr. Don is going to be met at the door when he arrives for Christmas with my replica Lewis chess pieces already set up on a custom-made elm and cherry board (a gift from one of my legal mentors) before the fireplace, chilled and heavily-liquored up eggnog readily at hand. He will NOT be able to refuse, unless he wishes to sleep overnight in the nearest snowbank.

Friday Night Miscellany

A brief post before calling it a night - spent the entire time since arriving home from the office taking care of other Goddesschess business. I need a secretary! First story up - poor squirrels (literally!) in West Virginia suffering from severe drop off in food supply during Recession - Mother Nature style. As the humans go, so, it seems, are the squirrels. Hard times for both these days. Anyone out there remember the Bermuda Triangle hoo-ha that became popularized back in the 1970's? I read a book by Charles Berlitz way back then -- I don't remember how I found my way to it -- but it may very well have been that book that started me on a non-stop journey into the netherworlds of alternate history, so-called 'quasi-science,' etc. etc. Now, nearly 40 years later, I'm more selective in what I read - but just as curious as I was then, and always, the questions are there. These days the questions are mostly directed toward ancient board games, but not always :) Here, then, appears at the Daily Grail a story about how two Bermuda Triangle mysterious disappearances may have been solved. I thought it totally fascinating. Volkswagen will be coming out with a car that gets 240 miles per gallon! Got to love the next-generation Beetle! Nature Gone Amok! Report of bunnies attacking snakes! Ohmygoddess! And how about this report of a squirrel attacking and killing a bat? Ohmygoddess! Never-reported-before behavior that I find extremely unsettling and upsetting. Seriously, are these harbingers of Mother Nature planning a Berserker? Definitely NOT something I want to see. Huge money dumped to river to appease Goddess -- Goddess Manasha, to be exact. The article noted in its last paragraph: No devotees, mostly fishermen, ventured back to the waters to retrieve the currency notes fearing divine curse. Er, do these curses work the same way the curses that were laid upon those who violated the ancient tombs of the Pharaohs were supposed to work - that is to say, NOT AT ALL, in deterring theft and stealing from the goddess and/or deceased? I bet 1 lakh some just waited until the last lingerers and reporters were out of the area before diving in...

WGM Salome Melia's Simul at Pi Cafe

The Quebec Chess Federation (Fédération québécoise des échecs), has a report (in French, with photographs) on WGM Salome Melia's simul at the Pi Cafe, held last night, her last night in town. Final simul score: 8.5/9 Melia v. chess hommes :) I am sorry there were not more there to play. It looks like one or perhaps two tables paid but were not able to participate. As far as I can tell from the photographs (not publishable here), no chess femmes signed up for the simul. I would have - if I could have been there. Damn! Melia finished in second place at the recently concluded 89th Montreal Open Chess Championship, earning the title "Female Champion of Montreal." The 89th Championnat had the highest number of players in a long long time, including many chess femmes and scholastic players! Way to go! For the 90th Championnat, I understand the Organizing Committee is aiming for 20% chess femme participation and is looking to increase the participation of scholastic players. The combination of experienced chess hommes and younger players, with a sprinkling of chess femmes interspersed across all playing levels, from the Open to Group D, seems to have worked a great magic in the 89th Montreal Open Chess Championship, something everyone is looking to repeat in next year's Championnat. I understand that this morning WGM Melia took a bus to Toronto to catch a flight back to Europe. Au revoir, la belle WGM. Montreal fell in love with you! WGM/IM Melia will be competing on a team in the upcoming 14th Women's European Club Cup (October 3 - 11, 2009). Melia will also be on the Georgian Women's Chess Team in the upcoming European Women's Team Chess Championship. I will report on Melia's results in both of these events.

Chess Femme News

Just a brief update tonight - I've got a casserole calling my name that hasn't even been started yet and it's 8:45 .m. and I'm taking the rest of the night off! From GM Alexandra Kosteniuk's blog, the following: One year ago today, she became the 12th and currently ruling Women's World Chess Champion after defeating GM Hou Yifan 2.5/1.5. Sorry - I missed this earlier (adding it now as I'm munching on my casserole at 10:28 p.m.) GM Kosteniuk is also playing on a team in the 14th Women's European Club Cup, October 3 - 11, 2009 in Ohrid, Macedonia. She is part of the Monte Carlo (Monaco) team, winner of the last two Women's title,s that boasts the following players: GM Kosteniuk (2516); GM Humpy Koneru (2595); GM Pia Cramling (2535); GM Monika Socko (2476); IM Almira Skripchenko (2448). Also, GM Kosteniuk announced yesterday, September 16, 2009, that she would be taking part in the FIDE World Blitz Chess Championship in Moscow November 16 - 18, 2009, with a stellar cast of players (19 others, 20 in all). She's going to have her work cut out for her, despite her great record at playing blitz. She is a qualified player/invitee to the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, 20 November to 15 December 2009. Since no announcement has been made by GM Kosteniuk (yet?), does this mean she will not be playing in the World Cup? I posted at her blog tonight and asked her.

2009 Montreal Open Chess Championship: Hebert Talks Chess

Thanks to the webmaster of the 2009 Montreal Open Chess Championship for posting this link at Facebook! It's an English translation (somewhat rough) of a September 14, 2009 column done in French by IM Jean Hebert, who took first place in the Montreal Open Championship. It provides unique insight into the Championnat. Enjoy! (Image: Photo from the Championnat of IM Jean Hebert and his son, outside the playing venue). Hébert parle échecs Volume 2, number 35 Week of september 14, 2009

Chess Femme News

I did a short update (very short) to Chess Femme News the other night. I'm way behind again and hope this weekend to catch-up and update July through September, 2009. Whew! I'm practically back to normal schedule again which means only 30 hours a week work for Goddesschess instead of the 50 I've been putting in lately. Piece of cake :) Here is more news about chess femmes from around the internet! Chessdom has the following reports:

• The Serbian Women Team Championship (September 14 - 22, 2009)
• "Krk Mediterranean Golden Island" (September 11 - 18, 2009) in Baška on the Croatian island of Krk
• 2009 European Women's Team Chess Championship (October 21-31, 2009) Novi Sad, Serbia - a line up of some (most?) of the teams. The newly-crowned Female Champion of the Montreal Open, WGM Salome Melia (GEO 2432), is playing on the Georgian team in this event. Go Salome, Go!

Speaking of Salome, I believe today is her last day in Montreal after her successful appearance at the 2009 Montreal Open Chess Championship. She has been seeing the sights around town and being wined and dined. She has charmed everyone she has met and they all wish for her to return to Montreal as soon as possible. Tonight Melia is playing a simul at my favorite chess hang-out in Montreal, Cafe Pi - in fact, while I'm typing this it's already in progress, because Montreal is an hour ahead of Milwaukee time. I hope that the Montreal chess community turns out full force to support this event.

Mr. Don has added lots of new links and information about the 2009 Montreal Open Chess Championship at Goddesschess under the "Public Square" column (right hand column). He's working on an article about the Championnat and what it meant to him to have a part in this traditional Montreal (his home town) event, but I believe tonight he's taking some time off to go the Melia simul at Pi :)

Info on 2009 Montreal Open Chess Championship and the Melia simul at Pi tonight:

http://goddesschess.blogspot.com/2009/09/2009-montreal-open-chess-championship_5153.html

http://goddesschess.blogspot.com/2009/09/2009-montreal-open-chess-championship_5384.html

From The Week in Chess (scroll down to info):

• FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, 20 November to 15 December 2009, reports a partial list of qualifiers or potential qualifiers: Current Women's World Chess Champion GM Alexandra Kosteniuk is ON the list. Will she play? Is this a possible reason why the final list of the Russian Women's Team for the European Women's Team Chess Championship hasn't been finalized yet - because - because? GM Judit Polgar is listed as a possible participant, by way of average 7/2008 & 1/2009 rating. Stay tuned! Lots to be determined yet.
• 2nd Fide Women Grand Prix The 2nd Fide Women Grand Prix is also take place in Nanjing in 27th Sept - 9th October 2009 with the top 12 players in the world. Gujuan Tzu blog in. http://blog.sina.com.cn/chessnews Soooo - who's going to play in what? Evident conflicts for several chess femmes, who will need time to prepare for whatever event they decide to play in

No report about chess femmes would be complete without the latest news on the Polgar sisters!

The Unive Tournament in Hoogeveen takes place 16th-24th October 2009 with a new sponsor. The main four player tournament has: Vassily Ivanchuk, Judit Polgar, Sergei Tiviakov and Anish Giri. There is an open alongside.

GM Susan Polgar of SPICE is busy with all of the thousand last-minutes things to take care of in putting on the SPICE Invitational, this year featuring both "A" and "B" groups of players from around the world. Of course, it's not just the Invitational, there are also Open and Scholastic Tournaments!

GM Susan Polgar will also once again be acting as judge to decide the winner of the Goddesschess Fighting Chess award (in the tradition of the fighting chess of the Polgar sisters) for the 2009 U.S. Women's Chess Championship, reprising her role from the 2008 Championship.

Hidden Goddess Figurines Discovered

(Image: from original article at Live Science) Ancient Aphrodite Figures Hint at Pagan Resistance Excerpted from a Live Science story at Yahoo News Mon Sep 14, 2:07 pm ET Three figurines of Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of love, have been found buried underground in the remains of a shop in a Roman city built in the second century B.C. The hidden figures hint at the reluctance of some denizens of the Roman Empire to give up their pagan beliefs despite the spread of Christianity. The ancient treasure, buried for more than 1,500 years, was uncovered during the tenth season of excavations that are being carried out by researchers of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa. The hidden statues were discovered when the researchers exposed a shop in the southeastern corner of the forum district of Sussita, which is the central area of the mountaintop Roman city that existed through the Roman and Byzantine periods and destroyed in the great earthquake of 749 A.D. Sussita, also known as Hippos, is located in Israel and sits on a hill overlooking the Sea of Galilee. The city was originally built by Greek colonists, but later came under Roman rule. The researchers say it was clear the followers had wished to hide the figurines, as they were found complete. "It is possible that during the fourth century A.D., when Christianity was gradually becoming the governing religion in the Roman Empire, there were still a number of inhabitants in Sussita who remained loyal to the goddess of love and therefore wished to hide and preserve these items," said Arthur Segal, one of the excavation's leaders. The clay pieces are 9 inches (23 cm) tall and represent the common model of the goddess of love known to the experts as Venus pudica, "the modest Venus." This name was given to the form due to its upright stature and the figure's covering her private parts with the palm of her hand. (Venus is the Roman name for the goddess of love. The term 'aphrodisiac' comes from the Greek name of the goddess.

Forced Marriage and Child Rape

Yemni girl, 12, dies in painful childbirth updated 11:31 a.m. EDT, Mon September 14, 2009 By Mohammed Jamjoom CNN AMMAN, Jordan (CNN) -- A 12-year-old Yemeni girl, who was forced into marriage, died during a painful childbirth that also killed her baby, a children's rights group said Monday. Fawziya Ammodi struggled for three days in labor, before dying of severe bleeding at a hospital on Friday, said the Seyaj Organization for the Protection of Children. "Although the cause of her death was lack of medical care, the real case was the lack of education in Yemen and the fact that child marriages keep happening," said Seyaj President Ahmed al-Qureshi. Born into an impoverished family in Hodeidah, Fawziya was forced to drop out of school and married off to a 24-year-old man last year, al-Qureshi said. Child brides are commonplace in Yemen, especially in the Red Sea Coast where tribal customs hold sway. Hodeidah is the fourth largest city in Yemen and an important port. More than half of all young Yemeni girls are married off before the age of 18 -- many times to older men, some with more than one wife, a study by Sanaa University found. While it was not immediately known why Fawziya's parents married her off, the reasons vary. Sometimes, financially-strapped parents offer up their daughters for hefty dowries. Marriage means the girls are no longer a financial or moral burden to their parents. And often, parents will extract a promise from the husband to wait until the girl is older to consummate the marriage. Children's organization UNICEF issued a statement Monday saying: "Child marriages violate the rights of children in the most deplorable way. The younger the girl is when she becomes pregnant, the greater the health risks for her and her baby. "Girls who give birth before the age of 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s. Child marriage denies girls of their childhood, deprives them of an education and robs them of their innocence." "More must be done to address the underlying causes in order to prevent tragic deaths like those of 12-year-old Fawziya and her baby," the statement added. The issue of Yemeni child brides came to the forefront in 2008 with 10-year-old Nujood Ali. She was pulled out of school and married to a man who beat and raped her within weeks of the ceremony. To escape, Nujood hailed a taxi -- the first time in her life -- to get across town to the central courthouse where she sat on a bench and demanded to see a judge. After a well-publicized trial, she was granted a divorce. The Yemeni parliament tried in February to pass a law, setting the minimum marriage age at 17. But the measure has not reached the president because many parliamentarians argued it violates sharia, or Islamic law, which does not stipulate a minimum age. [Very interesting. We all know the mullahs can read anything they want into the verses of the Qoran, but they can't find a principle that says you don't "marry" and rape 12 year old children?] Read more: 10-Year Old Child bride gets divorced after rape, beatings Child bride's nightmare after divorce In the United States, people are sent to prison for raping 12 year old girls. A pre-teen, let alone a teenager, is not physically ready to give birth although she may be menstruating. That doesn't mean one is a 'woman'. Bones are growing, the pelvis is usually yet too narrow to properly support a pregnancy let alone give birth. This is a horrible form of child abuse and yet it is permitted because of 'culture?' That is DISGUSTING.