Hales Corners Chess Challenge XII!

Next Saturday, October 16, 2010.

SITE: Crowne Plaza Milwaukee Airport Hotel—6401 S. 13th Street—414-764-5300
I94 to College Avenue East exit, College to 13th (one block), turn right on 13th to hotel (two blocks on right)
Mention Southwest Chess Club for discounted room rates by September 16

Information and registration form.   Four rounds, G/60:  10:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 6:00 p.m. Two section Swiss, Open and Reserve (U1600).

ENTRY FEE: $35 – Open; $25 – Reserve

(both sections $5 more after October 13, 2010)

Comp Entry Fee for USCF 2200+: Entry fee subtracted from any prizes won

Prizes:

OPEN      RESERVE

1st—$325* 1st—$100

2nd—$175* 2nd—$75

A—$100 D—$50

B & Below—$75 E & Below—$40

* guaranteed

Goddesschess Prizes for Female Players in the Open Section:

W 150 ELO or higher = $30

D 150 ELO or higher = $15

W 100 ELO or higher = $20

D 100 ELO or higher = $10

W = $10

D = $5

Goddesschess Prizes for Female Players in Reserve Section:

W 150 ELO or higher = $15

D 150 ELO or higher = $7.50

W 100 ELO or higher = $10

D 100 ELO or higher = $5

W = $5

D = $2.50

My chessplaying friend and founder of Computer Labs 4 Kids, Shira Evans, with a rating over 1700, will be playing in the Open Section. I will be playing in the Reserve Section with - UNRATED - after my name.  LOL!

Shira is very familiar with tournament play although she hasn't played in any OTB tournaments in recent years.  Me - not at all.  I've never played a game with a clock.  I will most likely be playing against people much younger than I am who are trained in chess openings, middle game and even end game technique.  I expect it won't take me an hour on my clock to lose each game, but my goal is to have one draw.  Ambitious!  I will consider that a triumph!  Maybe there will be a two year old I can fool with a Scholar's Mate - if I can remember the moves....

Hales Corners Chess Challenge XII!

I am absolutely, totally, out of my frigging mind.

I am - at least at this moment - going to play in the Hales Corners Chess Challenge XII.  I have friends, a couple, who will be visiting me over the weekend of the HCCC XII and suggested to them, somewhat off the cuff, that we all play in the tournament.  Never dreamed in a million years they might actually go for it.  Eek!

Guess what - THEY WANT TO.  What is that ancient saying about being hoisted by one's own petard?  OHMYGODDESS!

My first - and probably last - ever - official chess tournament.  Hmmm, unless I decide to play in the 2011 City of Montreal Chess Championships...  Ach!  What am I writing? 

Stay tuned...

Significant Neolithic Tomb Uncovered in Orkney!

Like - wow!

Neolithic tomb found in garden 'extremely significant'
Date: 02 October 2010
By CLAIRE SMTIH

WHEN Hamish Mowatt decided to investigate a mysterious mound as he tidied an Orkney garden, he had little idea he would uncover a hoard of bodies that had lain untouched for around 5,000 years.

Archeologists believe the tomb he discovered under a boulder outside a bistro in South Ronaldsay could lead to new insights into how our neolithic ancestors lived and died.

But they could face a race against time as water washing in and out of the newly uncovered tomb could wash away its contents and dissolve any pottery and human remains inside.

Rest of article.

More 9 Queens: Special Philadelphia, PA Event for National Chess Day!

Posted at 9 Queens on October 5, 2010 - I just saw it, sorry for the late notice:

9 Queens & ASAP Debut Philly Class on October 9th, National Chess Day

Posted by jshahade on October 5th, 2010

For the third year in a row, 9 Queens has teamed up with ASAP (After School Activities Partnership) in Philadelphia to host all-female chess classes. This year’s instructors will include 9 Queens co-founder WGM Jennifer Shahade, WIM Alisa Melekhina and Masterminds Coach Leteef Street.

The first session will be held on Saturday, October 9th, 2010 (also National Chess Day!) at the Parkway Central Library Branch (1901 Vine Street) from 2 PM to 4 PM. It will feature a Jeopardy game to test beginning and intermediate players’ chess skills.

Contact Windsor Jordan at wjordan@phillyasap.org or 215-545-2727 (ext 18) if you are interested in attending. Also mark your calender for the second session on Saturday, November 13, 2010.

9 Queens Action October 9, 2010 - Tucson, Arizona

National Chess Day in the United States is October 9, 2010.  Please support 9 Queens and its programs by coming out and participating!

A full day of fun events is planned for the community on the Second Annual All Queens Chess Day:

All Queens Tournament
Hey ladies- from 1-4 pm play in Tucson's only chess tournament exclusively for women and girls. There will be great prizes including custom Queen trophies and gift certificates from Bookmans! For more information email jhoffman@9queens.org.
Community Chess Experience
Calling all wannabe chess players- have you always wanted to play chess but never had the chance to learn the rules? The Community Chess Experience is just for you. From 2-4 pm, 9 Queens will offer free beginner chess lessons to anyone (male or female) interested in learning how to play chess. In order to promote chess literacy, Bookmans is giving out $5 gift certificates to everyone who learns how to play in the chess experience.

Queen for a Day
From 2-4 pm, come by to make your own chess crown at the chess arts and crafts station. Attention girl scouts: there will be chess activity patches available for all girl scouts who participate in any of the day's activities.

Visit 9 Queens website.

A Chess Scene from "The Queen's Gambit" by Walter Tevis

Thirteen year old Beth Harmon, recently adopted from an orphanage in rural Kentucky where she had lived since the age of 8 after her mother was killed in a car accident, is playing in her very first chess tournament.  It happens to be the Kentucky State Championship.  Beth learned how to play chess at the orphanage, taughter by the janitor, Mr. Schaibel. 

She wins her first three games, finishing at 3:30 p.m. the first day.  An evening round is scheduled for 8:00 p.m., with three more the following day:

That evening Beth was on Board Six opposite a homely young man named Klein.  His rating was 1794.  Some of the games printed in Chess Review were from players with lower ratings than that.

Beth was White, and she played pawn to king four, hoping for the Sicilian.  she knew the Sicilian better than anything else.  But Klein played pawn to king four and then fianchettoed his king's bishop, setting it over in the corner above his castled king.  She wasn't quite sure but thought this was the kind of opening called "Irregular."

In the middle game, things got complex.  Beth was unsure what to do and decided to retreat a bishop.  Se set her index finger on the piece and immediately saw she had better move pawn to queen four.  She reached over to the queen pawn.

"Sorry," Klein said.  "Touch move."

She looked at him.

"You have to move the bishop," he said.

She could see in his face he was glad to say it.  He had probably seen what she could do if she moved the pawn.

She shrugged and tried to act unconcerned, but inside she was feeling something she hadn't felt before in a chess game.  She was frightened.  She moved the bishop to bishop four, sat back and folded her hands in her lap.  Her stomach was in a knot.  She should have moved the pawn.

She looked at Klein's face as he studied the board.  After a moment she saw a little malicious grin.  He pushed his queen's pawn to the fifth square, punched his clock smartly and folded his arms across his chest.

He was going to get one of her bishops.  And abruptly her fear was replaced by anger.  She leaned over the board and placed her cheeks against her palms, studying intently.

It took her almost ten minutes, but she found it. She moved and sat back.

Klein hardly seemed to notice.  He took the bishop as she hoped he would.  Beth advanced her queen rook pawn, way over on the other side of the board, and Klein grunted slightly but moved quickly, pushing the queen pawn forward again.  Beth brought her knight over, covering the pawn's next step, and more importantly, attacking Klein's rook;  He moved the rook.  Inside Beth's stomach something was beginning to uncoil.  Her vision seemed extremely sharp, as though she could read the finest print from across the room.  She moved the knight, attacking the rook again.

Klein  looked at her, annoyed.  He studied the board and moved the rook, to the very square Beth had known, two moves ago, that he would move to.  She brought her queen out to bishop five, right above Klein's castled king.

Still looking annoyed and sure of himself, Klein brought a knight over to defend.  Beth picked up her queen, her face flushing, and took the pawn in front of the king, sacrificing her queen.

He stared and took the queen.  There was nothing else he could do to get out of check.

Beth brought her bishop out for another check.  Klein interposed the pawn, as she knew he would.  "That's mate in two," Beth said quietly.

Klein stared at her, his face furious.  "What do you mean?" he said.

Beth's voice was still quiet.  "The rook comes over for the next check and then the knight mates."

He scowled.  "My queen - "

"Your queen'll be pinned," she said, "After the king moves."

He looked back to the board and stared at the position.  Then he said, "Shit!"  He did not turn over his king or offer to shake Beth's hand.  He got up from the table and walked away, jamming his hands into his pockets.

Beth took her pencil and circled HARMON on her score sheet.


That's what he gets for that nasty little smirk of a smile...

Chess Femme News

Several photos taken by IM Irina Krush during the Chess Olympiad in Mansky Kamsky were published at Chess Life Online:

Irina Krush's Siberia Photo Gallery
By IM Irina Krush
September 28, 2010

Irina also made the cover of the October, 2010 Chess Life Magazine.  I've got to say, I thought the cover looked - well - strange.  But then I don't know diddly sqat about yoga.  Featuring Krush as the benign(?) aspect of Kali - but with eight arms rather than four...hmmm...  Photo of cover from ebookee.com


At the Huffingtonpost.com (Huffington carries GM Lubomir Kavalek's excellent chess column) Claire Wasserman did an interesting short blog about her involvement in Chess in Schools:

Claire Wasserman
Development Associate at Chess-in-the-Schools
Posted: October 5, 2010 01:47 PM
How to Make Chess Cool (and Other Marketing Conundrums)


The press in Malayasia loves young WIM Irene Kharisma Sukandar - check out the list of articles on WIM Sukandar at the end of the linked article

From the Jakarta Post: SPORTS
Irene closes on men’s chess title, RI team rank plunges

Agnes Winarti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 10/05/2010 1:18 PM | Sports

Indonesian Woman Grandmaster Irene Kharisma Sukandar edged closer on Sunday to her goal to win a men’s International Master title, as the 18-year-old university student collected significant points to add to her current 2372 rating at the 39th World Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia...

The individual Gold Medal won in the Olympiad by a female Cuban chessplayer, along with the excellent results of the Cuban Women's Chess Team is also big news in her home country.  I don't understand not dating an important article like this but here it is - with no date on it:

Cuba's Yaniet Marrero won Gold Medal at World Chess Olympiad 2010 

WGM Yaniet Marrero

Cuban Women’s Squad: an historic forth place
Las Tunas, Cuba, Oct 4, (P26).- Cuban Grandmaster Yaniet Marrero won Gold Medal in the third board in the World Chess Olympiad 2010, which ended in the Russian city of Khanty-Mansysk.  Marrero gave an excellent performance in the defense of the third board to take first place with 87.5 percent of effectiveness with seven of eight possible points. 

Cuban Women’s Chess Squad Excelled at Chess Olympiad The Cuban women’s squad achieved the forth spot on Sunday at the Chess Olympiad, described by Caribbean specialists as a historic feat, taking into account their 25th place achieved  in the competition  held in Dresden 2008. 

Evidence of Spiral-Formed Settlements - Oldest in the World?

From The Australian
Unearthed Aryan cities rewrite history
From: The Sunday Times October 04, 2010 12:00AM



Map of Chelyabinskaya region (red arrow is the city of Chelyabinsk,
Russia), showing also Iran, Pakistan and northern India.

 BRONZE Age cities archaeologists say could be the precursor of Western civilisation is being uncovered in excavations on the Russian steppe.

Twenty of the spiral-shaped settlements, believed to be the original home of the Aryan people, have been identified, and there are about 50 more suspected sites. They all lie buried in a region more than 640km long near Russia's border with Kazakhstan.

The cities are thought to have been built 3500-4000 years ago, soon after the Great Pyramid in Egypt. They are about the same size as several of the city states of ancient Greece, which started to come into being in Crete at about the same time.

If archeologists confirm the cities as Aryan, they could be the remnants of a civilisation that spread through Europe and much of Asia. Their language has been identified as the precursor of modern Indo-European tongues, including English. Words such as brother, guest and oxen have been traced back to this prototype.

"Potentially, this could rival ancient Greece in the age of the heroes," said British historian Bettany Hughes, who spent much of the northern summer exploring the region for a BBC radio program, Tracking the Aryans.

"We are all told that there is this kind of mother tongue, proto-Indo-European, from which all the languages we know emerge.

"I was very excited to hear on the archeological grapevine that in exactly the period I am an expert in, this whole new Bronze Age civilisation had been discovered on the steppe of southern Siberia." [Except, it was discovered more than 20 years ago!]

She described driving for seven hours into the steppe grasslands with chief archeologist Gennady Zdanovich. "He took me to this expanse of grass; you couldn't tell there was anything special. Then, as he pointed to the ground, suddenly I realised I was walking across a buried city," she said.

"Every now and again you suddenly notice these ghostly shapes of fortresses and cattle sheds and homes and religious sites. I would not have known these had he not shown them to me."

The shape of each of the cities, which are mainly in the Chelyabinsk district, resembles an ammonite fossil, divided into segments with a spiral street plan. The settlements, which would each have housed about 2000 people -- the same as an ancient Greek city such as Mycenae -- are all surrounded by a ditch and have a square in the middle.

The first city, known as Arkaim, was discovered in 1989, soon after the soviet authorities allowed non-military aerial photography for the first time.

The full extent of the remains is only now becoming apparent. Items that have so far been dug up include many pieces of pottery covered in swastikas, which were widely used ancient symbols of the sun and eternal life. The Nazis appropriated the Aryans and the swastika as symbols of their so-called master race. Ms Hughes believes that some of the strongest evidence that the cities could be the home of the Aryans comes from a series of horse burials.

Several ancient Indian texts believed to have been written by Aryans recount similar rituals. "These ancient Indian texts and hymns describe sacrifices of horses and burials and the way the meat is cut off and the way the horse is buried with its master," she said. "If you match this with the way the skeletons and the graves are being dug up in Russia, they are a millimetre-perfect match."

[Note: The Nazi swastika was reversed from the ancient goddess-honoring symbol.  The term "Aryan" has political connotations; most specialists prefer the term proto-Indo-Iranians to identify the steppe-ranging people of this region in ancient times, the possible inventors of the first wheeled carts/wagons and speakers of a proto-Indo-European language from which many languages descended].

Another Statue of Amenhotep III Uncovered in Egypt

From the Star Tribune:

Archaeologists in Egypt unearth 3,400-year-old granite statue of pharaoh
Associated Press
Last update: October 2, 2010 - 11:50 AM


This photo cracks me up.  You really can't see the important
statue of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, but front and center is
Zahi Hawass, LOL! 

CAIRO - Archaeologists have unearthed the upper part of a double limestone statue of a powerful pharaoh who ruled nearly 3,400 years ago, Egypt's Ministry of Culture said Saturday.

A ministry statement said the team of Egyptian archaeologists discovered the 4-foot (1.3-meter) by 3-foot (0.95-meter) statue of Amenhotep III in Kom el-Hittan, the site of the pharaoh's mortuary temple in the southern city of Luxor.

The temple is one of the largest on the west bank of the Nile in Luxor.

The statue portrays Amenhotep III wearing the double crown of Egypt, which is decorated with a uraeus, and seated on a throne next to the Theban god Amun.

Amenhotep III, who was the grandfather of the famed boy-pharaoh Tutankhamun, ruled in the 14th century B.C. at the height of Egypt's New Kingdom and presided over a vast empire stretching from Nubia in the south to Syria in the north.

The pharaoh's temple was largely destroyed, possibly by floods, and little remains of its walls. But archaeologists have been able to unearth a wealth of artifacts and statuary in the buried ruins, including two statues of Amenhotep made of black granite found at the site in March 2009.



Supreme Council of Antiquities, HO In this undated

hand out picture released, Saturday, Oct.2, 2010, the

unearthed double limestone statue  of Ahmenhotep III.

 Here is a much better photo of - I believe - the newest recovered statue of Pharaoh Amenhotep III.

More coverage:

Egypt unearths 3,400-year-old granite statues
Associated Press,
Posted on Sat, Oct. 02, 2010 09:43 AM

Luxor yields Amenhotep III statue
Press TV
Sun Oct 3, 2010 4:53PM
(an excellent photo of the double statue - one side is headless, eek!)

More Info in Ground Zero Ship Mystery

New Clues Emerge About World Trade Center Boat’s Past
October 1, 2010 12:53pm Updated October 2, 2010 11:07
The wooden pieces of the 18th-century boat found at the World Trade Center site are being preserved in Maryland.
(Please visit the website for a slideshow)
By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

LOWER MANHATTAN — Eleven weeks after a Revolutionary War-era ship emerged from the muck at the World Trade Center site, researchers are still trying to unlock its past.

A shadowy outline of a story has emerged — from the vessel’s birth in a small shipyard to its death in the landfill that overtook the Hudson River — but exact dates and names remain a mystery.

"It’s very interesting," said Michael Pappalardo, senior archaeologist with AKRF, the firm that unearthed the boat. "What happened? That’s a great question."

Pappalardo joined maritime historian Norman Brouwer and conservator Nichole Doub at a panel Thursday night to update the public on their progress and on the work that lies ahead. Sponsored by the New York Academy of Sciences and the Tribute WTC Visitor Center, the lecture in 7 World Trade Center drew more than 100 people.

The boat’s modern saga started on July 13, when workers at the World Trade Center noticed an unusually curved piece of wood 25 feet below street level, just south of Liberty Street.

Over the next two weeks, archaeologists dug out a 32-foot long section of the 18th-century boat’s hull, documented it exhaustively, disassembled it and carted it off to the Maryland Archeological Conservation Laboratory.

Once there, conservators cleaned the mud off the worm-eaten wood — enduring a low-tide stench — and placed it in a carefully calibrated solution to prevent it from deteriorating.

At the same time, Brouwer was sorting through the evidence for clues to the boat’s history.

He noticed that the boat’s floorboards were irregular and "fitted together like a puzzle," suggesting it was built in a small town near a forest, not in one of the major east coast shipyards, which used standardized planks.

Once it set sail, the merchant ship likely spent its days traveling up and down the Atlantic coast, bringing wood and food down to the West Indies and returning with sugar, salt, molasses and rum, Brouwer said.

While in the Caribbean, the boat picked up an infestation of Teredo worms, which ate away at the wood. By 1797, it was buried in the landfill used to extend Manhattan’s shoreline westward.

More information about the boat’s owner and crew could come from the hundreds of artifacts found in and around the boat, including ceramics, musket balls, a buckle, a British button, a coin, animal bones, dozens of shoes and a human hair with a single louse on it. Brouwer also hopes tree experts will be able to date the wood.

Down in Maryland, the preservation process has just begun. To permanently stabilize the wood, some of the larger pieces will have to sit in a chemical solution for up to six years. Only then could the boat could be reassembled for display, Doub said.

Doub, Brouwer and Pappalardo all said the boat provided a rare look into the past, and they noted that if any one thing had been different — the oxygen level in the river clay, the location of the Deutsche Bank building — the boat would never have stayed intact for so long.

"It was purely by chance," Pappalardo said. "It was lucky."

How Did a 2,000 Year Old Phoenician Shekel End up in Massachusetts?

An intriguing archaeological mystery!

September 30, 2010

Salem man finds 2,000-year-old shekel on the shore
By Kendra Noyes, Staff Writer
The Salem News Thu Sep 30, 2010, 06:00 AM EDT

MANCHESTER — What a builder thought was a quarter has turned out to be a 2,000-year-old shekel, the kind of coin Judas was paid to betray Jesus.

The coin was found during the reconstruction of a Manchester wharf in the spring of 2006, and now the finder and property owner are trying to solve the mystery of how it got there.

Phillip Pelletier of Salem was reconstructing the wharf at 7 Norton's Point Road in Manchester when he found what he thought was a quarter in a small hole in the sand. He pocketed the change without thinking twice and set it aside when he got home.

But later, after a closer look, Pelletier realized the coin wasn't a quarter at all. He brought it to one of his wife's co-workers, a coin collector, who identified the silver piece as a shekel of Tyre. The collector told Pelletier the 90 percent silver coin dated to biblical times and was the type of silver used to pay Judas for the betrayal of Jesus.

Pelletier said he is shocked he found a 2,000-year-old coin in Manchester but finds it ironic that he discovered the shekel on Holy Thursday, the day that commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles; it was after the meal that Judas betrayed Christ.

Pelletier said he held on to the coin for a while, thinking he had struck big. Some further research, however, revealed the coin was worth about $800 or so. The worldwide coin source online lists the coin as worth about $1,000.

Curiosity got the best of Pelletier, though. "I had to find out where it came from," he said.

He called Anita Brewer-Siljeholm, the owner of 7 Norton's Point Road, to see if there were coin collectors in her family who might have lost the shekel. Brewer-Siljeholm said she had no history of coin collectors in her family and was just as puzzled by the ancient coin being on her property.

"It's a complete mystery to me as to how it got there," Brewer-Siljeholm said.

Pelletier gave the coin to Brewer-Siljeholm so she could photograph and research it. Brewer-Siljeholm said she would return the coin to him after she finished her search, according to Pelletier. Brewer-Siljeholm still has the coin.

Brewer-Siljeholm rented a metal detector to search the area for significant metals on her property after Pelletier suggested it. She said she found no other substantial artifacts.

Pelletier and Brewer-Siljeholm said they wanted to get the story out so they could solve the mystery of how a Phoenician shekel arrived in Manchester.

Brewer-Siljeholm said she took the coin to J.G.M. Numismatic Investments, a Beverly coin and jewelry dealer, which verified it as a real shekel of Tyre. The inspector first weighed the coin to confirm its authenticity; the coin had worn and lost some of its mass, Brewer-Siljeholm said. The appraiser also noted that there was evidence the coin had been submerged in water for a significant time. The authenticity was verified, but no formal paperwork or record was drawn up by the company, she said.

The shekel was minted by the Phoenician-Judean city of Tyre, which is in present-day Lebanon, from 126 BC to 66 AD. The coin replaced the Greek coinage of Alexander the Great. The silver shekel features a graven image of Melkart (Baal), the Phoenician deity on one side; the reverse is an Egyptian-style eagle with its right claw resting on a ship's rudder, which is associated with Hercules. The Greek inscription on the coin is "Tyre, the Holy and Inviolable," followed by the date.

The real question is how did this ancient coin arrive in Manchester?

Brewer-Siljeholm called it an "unsolved mystery" and acknowledged her research has suggested there are hundreds of ways the coin could have gotten to Manchester.

Brewer-Siljeholm noted the harbor is very close to where the coin was found and thought that the Phoenicians may have came here to trade with the Vikings. "The Phoenicians were great sailors," she said.

The house was owned by two other families before Brewer-Siljeholm's family purchased it in 1951. The home was built in 1890 and its first owners owned the Waltham Watch Co., which may have had a connection to coin collecting, she said.

Brewer-Siljeholm said, to her knowledge, there was no history of coin collectors in the other owners' family, either.

"The only other plausible explanation I've heard to date is that a bird such as a sea gull picked it up and dropped it there," Brewer-Siljeholm said. Pelletier also noted that it could have been buried or dug up from underground by a squirrel or other creature.

2010 Chess Olympiad - It's Over!

Open - final top 10:

Rk. SNo Team Team Games + = - TB1 TB2 TB3 TB4
1 2 Ukraine UKR 11 8 3 0 19 380,5 31,0 143,00
2 1 Russia 1 RUS1 11 8 2 1 18 379,5 28,0 157,00
3 11 Israel ISR 11 7 3 1 17 367,5 29,0 148,00
4 5 Hungary HUN 11 8 1 2 17 355,5 26,5 157,00
5 3 China CHN 11 7 2 2 16 362,0 29,0 147,00
6 4 Russia 2 RUS2 11 8 0 3 16 355,0 29,5 144,00
7 6 Armenia ARM 11 7 2 2 16 345,0 27,0 147,00
8 16 Spain ESP 11 7 2 2 16 332,0 28,5 137,00
9 9 United States of America USA 11 7 2 2 16 315,5 27,0 141,00
10 10 France FRA 11 6 4 1 16 311,5 25,0 149,00

Ivanchuk on Board 1 was incredible for Ukraine (8.0/10 points, with 1 draw and 1 loss), as was Board #4 Efimenko (8.5/11 with no losses)!  Both players will add double digits to their ELOs.  Well done!

Team Hungary - one can only ask "what if" - Leko had performed up to his rating - in this Olympiad, he did not, with 4.5/10 including two losses.  Judit Polgar also had 2 losses, but she still garnered 6.0/10 and a PR of 2703, above her ELO of 2682.  The star of the Hungarian team was GM Zoltan Almasi on Board 2 who will add about 12 points to his ELO.  Well done! 

Team USA - Kamsky played well, the others were - disappointing (except for youngster and Olympiad rookie Hess, who didn't have much opportunity to play). 

A great medal for Team Israel, who came in ranked 11th.  As for Russia 1, well, they should have medaled - good thing for them they did.  One can only imagine what Putin would have done if they did not - is there anyone left to fire in the whole of Mother Russia?

And the ladies - here are the top 10 final:

Rk. SNo Team Team Games + = - TB1 TB2 TB3 TB4
1 1 Russia 1 RUS1 11 11 0 0 22 439,5 34,0 147,00
2 2 China CHN 11 9 0 2 18 386,5 31,5 146,00
3 4 Georgia GEO 11 7 2 2 16 384,0 29,0 155,00
4 18 Cuba CUB 11 8 0 3 16 348,5 30,0 136,00
5 6 United States of America USA 11 7 2 2 16 336,5 28,5 140,00
6 10 Poland POL 11 7 2 2 16 336,0 29,5 132,00
7 26 Azerbaijan AZE 11 8 0 3 16 320,0 28,0 136,00
8 12 Bulgaria BUL 11 7 2 2 16 296,5 24,5 147,00
9 3 Ukraine UKR 11 7 1 3 15 366,5 28,5 156,00
10 5 Russia 2 RUS2 11 6 3 2 15 335,5 26,5 152,00

China and Georgia battled back (some news accounts had writtten off both teams in earlier rounds after some match losses) to earn well-deserved medals. Well done, Ladies. Cuba and particularly Azerbaijan are pleasant surprises in the top 10 relative to their start positions.  Both of those teams should be very proud of the way they played.

In the final round, Russia 1 played Russia 2. :

Bo. 5 Russia 2 (RUS2) Rtg - 1 Russia 1 (RUS1) Rtg 1½:2½ 1.1 WGM Pogonina Natalija 2491 - GM Kosintseva Tatiana 2573 ½ - ½
1.2 WGM Girya Olga 2414 - GM Kosteniuk Alexandra 2524 ½ - ½
1.3 IM Bodnaruk Anastasia 2399 - IM Galliamova Alisa 2482 ½ - ½
1.4 WGM Kashlinskaya Alina 2358 - WGM Gunina Valentina 2465 0 - 1

I guess Gunina didn't get the memo. Will Putin banish her to Mansky Kamsky for not drawing her final game against a much lower rated player, hmmm???

USA Women met Indian Women in the final round:

Round 11 on 2010/10/03 at 11:00
Bo. 6 United States of America (USA) Rtg - 8 India (IND) Rtg 2½:1½
5.1 IM Krush Irina 2490 - IM Harika Dronavalli 2515 ½ - ½
5.2 IM Zatonskih Anna 2480 - IM Tania Sachdev 2382 ½ - ½
5.3 WFM Abrahamyan Tatev 2352 - IM Karavade Eesha 2365 1 - 0
5.4 WGM Baginskaite Kamile 2328 - WGM Meenakshi Subbaraman 2336 ½ - ½

The match loss by India dropped the team out of the top 10 to 17th place, which must be a bitter disappointment for a team that started ranked 8th. I wish USA and India had been able to play other teams, because I like both teams very much.

As this is a USA-oriented blog, here are the individual totals for the USA Women's Team:

5. United States of America (USA / RtgAvg:2413, Captain: Khodarkovsky, Michael / TB1: 16 / TB2: 336,5)
Bo. Name Rtg FED 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Pts. Games Rp w we w-we K rtg+/-
1 IM Krush Irina 2490 USA 1 1 1 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 7,0 11 2494 7 6,55 0,45 10 4,5
2 IM Zatonskih Anna 2480 USA 1 ½ 0 ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 6,5 10 2454 6,5 6,72 -0,22 10 -2,2
3 WFM Abrahamyan Tatev 2352 USA 1 1 0 1 0 ½ 0 ½ 1 1 6,0 10 2358 6 5,82 0,18 15 2,7
4 WGM Baginskaite Kamile 2328 USA 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 6,0 8 2354 6 5,48 0,52 15 7,8
5 WGM Foisor Sabina-Francesca 2293 USA 1 ½ 1 ½ 0 3,0 5 2279 3 2,85 0,15 15 2,3

It was, perhaps, fitting, that Abrahamyan had the decisive game in the final round.  She often pushes the envelope and sometimes goes over the edge, resulting in a ZERO where another player would play for a draw - one has only to look at her game line in this Olympiad.  She earned 6.0/10 on Board 3 despite 3 losses!  Abrahamyan has won two Goddesschess Fighting Chess Award prizes for her performances at U.S. Women's Chess Championship.  A leopard cannot change her spots.  Do she and Nakamura date?  Just saying - chesswise - they seem a perfect match...

Irina Krush was a rock-solid Board 1 and had no games off.  Zatonskih disappointed, although her game did seem to pick up a bit in the second half of the Olympiad.  Baginskaite delivered, as she has in many past Olympiads for the American women.  She played 8 games on Board 4 and garnered 6.0, with no losses. 

Women playing on Open teams:

GM Judit Polgar - see above (Team Hungary).

GM Victoria Cmilyte, Lithuania, Board 3:
Cmilyte had a sub-par performance, with 5.0/9 including 3 losses, but she did win her game in R11.  Her performance rating of 2424 is quite a bit below her ELO of 2513.

GM Zhu Chen, Qatar, Board 3:
Zhu Chen garnered 7.0/11 (1 loss but 6 draws).  Her performance rating of 2366 is well below her ELO of 2480.

GM Keti Arakhamia-Grant, Scotland, Board 2:
5.5/10, with 3 wins, 2 losses, and 5 draws.  Her performance rating was 2395.  Her ELO is 2451.

WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni, Luxembourg, Board 5:
Finished her Olympiad appearance with a draw (her team won 3.0/1.0 against Wales).  Her score was 5.0/8 (3 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss) for a PR of 2014, below her ELO of 2152. 

Canadian Women, disappointed by their 67th place finish (started at 58th), despite fine performances by Boards 1 and 2:

67. Canada (CAN / RtgAvg:2054, Captain: Shi, Shao Min / TB1: 10 / TB2: 217)
Bo. Name Rtg FED 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Pts. Games Rp w we w-we K rtg+/-
1 WIM Yuan Yuanling 2189 CAN 1 0 1 ½ 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 7,5 11 2271 6,5 4,43 2,07 15 31,0
2 WIM Kagramanov Dina 2086 CAN 1 1 1 0 1 0 ½ 0 1 5,5 9 2111 4,5 3,50 1,00 15 15,0
3 Lacau-Rodean Iulia 2024 CAN ½ ½ 0 1 0 0 1 ½ 0 3,5 9 1908 3 3,32 -0,32 15 -4,8
4 Orlova Yelizaveta 1917 CAN 1 1 0 ½ 1 0 0 0 3,5 8 1915 2,5 2,18 0,32 15 4,8
5 Kagramanov Dalia 1866 CAN 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 3,0 7 1810 2 2,21 -0,21 15 -3,2

Who won individual medals for board performances? Info from the official website:

Board 1
Rk. Name Rtg Team % Pts Rc Rp
1 GM Kosintseva Tatiana 2573 Russia 1 70 7/10 2479 2628
2 WGM Mamedjarova Zeinab 2234 Azerbaijan 81.8 9/11 2361 2623
3 GM Hou Yifan 2578 China 72.7 8/11 2398 2573

Board 2
Rk. Name Rtg Team % Pts Rc Rp
1 IM Kosintseva Nadezhda 2565 Russia 1 85 8.5/10 2366 2662
2 WGM Ju Wenjun 2516 China 86.4 9.5/11 2327 2636
3 WIM Pham Le Thao Nguyen 2304 Vietnam 85 8.5/10 2185 2481

Board 3
Rk. Name Rtg Team % Pts Rc Rp
1 WGM Marrero Lopez Yaniet 2324 Cuba 87.5 7/8 2175 2511
2 IM Melia Salome 2439 Georgia 70 7/10 2309 2458 (a personal favorite player)
3 WGM Berzina Ilze 2283 Latvia 81.8 9/11 2188 2450

Board 4
Rk. Name Rtg Team % Pts Rc Rp
1 IM Gaponenko Inna 2469 Ukraine 93.8 7.5/8 2247 2691
2 IM Bodnaruk Anastasia 2399 Russia 2 87.5 7/8 2233 2569
3 WIM Vasiliev Olga 2293 Israel 77.8 7/9 2159 2379

Board 5
Rk. Name Rtg Team % Pts Rc Rp
1 IM Muzychuk Mariya 2464 Ukraine 72.2 6.5/9 2265 2431
2 WGM Kashlinskaya Alina 2358 Russia 2 61.1 5.5/9 2247 2327
3 IM Khotenashvili Bela 2464 Georgia 62.5 5/8 2194 2289

Open Section medals:

Board 1
Rk. Name Rtg Team % Pts Rc Rp
1 GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2754 Ukraine 80 8/10 2650 2890 (a personal favorite player)
2 GM Aronian Levon 2783 Armenia 75 7.5/10 2695 2888
3 GM Nepomniachtchi Ian 2706 Russia 2 72.2 6.5/9 2655 2821

Board 2
Rk. Name Rtg Team % Pts Rc Rp
1 GM Sutovsky Emil 2665 Israel 81.3 6.5/8 2644 2895
2 GM Almasi Zoltan 2707 Hungary 70 7/10 2652 2801
3 GM Wang Hao 2724 China 75 7.5/10 2590 2783

Board 3
Rk. Name Rtg Team % Pts Rc Rp
1 GM Teterev Vitaly 2511 Belarus 87.5 7/8 2517 2853
2 GM Eljanov Pavel 2761 Ukraine 70 7/10 2588 2737
3 GM Rublevsky Sergei 2683 Russia 3 72.7 8/11 2552 2727
4 GM Polgar Judit 2682 Hungary 60 6/10 2631 2703 (a personal favorite player)
(honorable mention for Polgar)

Board 4
Rk. Name Rtg Team % Pts Rc Rp
1 GM Karjakin Sergey 2747 Russia 1 80 8/10 2619 2859
2 GM Efimenko Zahar 2683 Ukraine 77.3 8.5/11 2572 2783
3 GM Giri Anish 2677 Netherlands 72.7 8/11 2555 2730

Board 5
Rk. Name Rtg Team % Pts Rc Rp
1 GM Feller Sebastien 2649 France 66.7 6/9 2583 2708
2 GM Bartel Mateusz 2599 Poland 77.8 7/9 2486 2706
3 GM Babula Vlastimil 2515 Czech Republic 77.8 7/9 2448 2668

Auction Watch: Christie's Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds October, 2010

Article at FT.com: (The Financial Times of London):

Sale of the week: Islamic and Indian art
By Simon de Burton
Published: October 1 2010 23:37 | Last updated: October 1 2010 23:37
Sale: Islamic and Indian Art
Location: Christie’s, 8 King Street, London SW1. tel: +44 (0) 20 7839 9060
Date: Tuesday (October 5). On view Sunday 2pm-5pm; Monday 9am-4.30pm

Christie's online catalog for the sale.

Ohmygoddess!  Incredibly beautiful and rare art and artifacts.  Wish I was a billionaire.  Damn, I should have married so and so back in 1972...  Oh well. 

A few gameboards, etc. are up for auction.

A very beautiful intricately inlaid folding chessboard/case.  Here is the info from Christie's website along with a small photo:

Lot 162/Sale 7871
Estimate (Set Currency) £40,000 - £60,000
($62,920 - $94,380)

Lot Description
A SPANISH IVORY-REVETTED MICRO-MOSAIC GAMING BOARD
SPAIN, SECOND HALF 15TH CENTURY
Formed as a rectangular box hinged in the centre, the exterior worked as a chessboard with alternating squares of plain ivory and micro-mosaic star-form panels, the edges decorated with alternating panels of chequered ivory and mosaic star lozenges, each end with one floral bouquet facing the player, the interior with a recessed backgammon board with geometrically-decoated darts on an ivory ground, the centre with floral sprays within stepped cartouches in rectangular frames with mirco-mosaic spandrels, the outer edges with ivory plaques pierced with holes alternated with square panels with mosaic stars, splits to ivory, some losses to inlay
Open 19in. (49.2cm.) square; closed 19 x 9½in. (48.2 x 24.1cm.)

Lot 163/Sale 7871
Estimate (Set Currency) £20,000 - £25,000
($31,460 - $39,325)

Another incredibly beautiful chess/backgammon board (this image shows a peek atg the backgammon board on the inside of the box):

Lot Description
A NASRID IVORY AND EBONY INLAID GAMING BOARD
SPAIN, 15TH CENTURY
Formed as a box hinged in the centre, the exterior worked as a chessboard with alternating ivory and ebony squares, triangles of geometric mosaic motifs around the sides, two further lines with finer mosaic triangles inlaid with silver wire along the short sides, opening to reveal a backgammon board with alternating white and brown wood triangles along each side, the centre of each face with a lozenge of mosaic work and clusters of four stars at each point, modern hinges, small areas of restoration
18¼ x 21¼in. (46.5 x 54cm.)

Chess Femme News!

Armenian press continues to write about their Open and Women's Chess Olympiad Teams even though, with only 1 round to go, neither team  has a chance for a medal, despite going in with high hopes (particularly Armenia's Open Team). A great show of support for the home teams:

At Panarmenian.net
World Chess Olympiad last round scheduled for October 3


October 2, 2010 - 14:08 AMT 09:08 GMTPanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian men and women’s teams will rival France and Slovenia respectively in the last round of the World Chess Olympiad on October 3.

Men pairs are: Levon Aronian – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Vladimir Akopian – Fressinet Laurent, Gabriel Sargissian – Vladislav Tkachiev, Arman Pashikian – Romain Edouard.

Women: Elina Danielyan – Anna Muzychuk, Lilit Mkrtchyan – Jana Krivec, Lilit Galoyan – Darja Kaps, Nelly Aghinyan - Vesna Rozic.

Currently, Armenian men’s team is 6th; women are in the 15th place.


Big news in Uganda as the Ugandan Women's Team defeats the Ethiopean Women:
CHESS: Uganda outwits Ethiopia
Friday, 1st October, 2010 E-mail article Print article
By Phillip Corry


Chessbase's report on Round 10 Action: Ukraine Crushes France; Russian Women are Gold
01 10 2010


Chessdom's report on Russian Women Win Gold with One Round to Go, including interesting information on how the tie-breaks are calculated


Chessvibe's report on Round 10 and the Russian Women's Victory.  Kudos to Chessvibes for putting up a selection of women's games, even though they are at the very bottom of the scroll-down list - see the list near bottom of article linked.  I believe that if the games were stripped of identification markers so that we were not able to readily pick out "Grandmaster so and so's game v. Grandmaster so and so" the ranking of these games in terms of interesting play would be a lot different! Some folks might be able to pick out a few games that exhibit tell-tale markers of the play of certain GMs, but overall, the average (and even above-average) player would not be able to discern a gender turn in the moves.  The bias against "women's chess" is so silly. 




IM Dronavalli Harika of India,
contemplative before a game

 Mainstream press coverage of the Indian Women's Team loss to China, which put them out of medal contention:
Indian eves out of medal contention
PTI, Oct 2, 2010, 11.30am IST
The Times of India

Indian Women played without the presence of the second highest rated female player in the world:  GM Koneru Humpy.  Certainly Humpy is good enough to play on the Open Team, and may have aided in that team's quest for a medal. I don't doubt that she would have been a valuable addition to the Indian Women's Team.  I don't know or care who is "right" or "wrong" in the dispute between Koneru and the official chess federation of India (the official federation at the moment - there is another organization contending for that role) - I just find it very sad because, ultimately, the game of chess itself and chess fans everywhere are the losers.  Frankly, in a game that is struggling for financial support and where all except the top few players in the world cannot make a living doing what they love and are best at, no one (that includes organizations) can afford to offend the game and its audience these days!  Like - duh!

Press coverage of the Vietnamese Women's Team:
Vietnamese girls shine at World Chess Olympics
Nhan Dan (not dated)

Wisconsin Scholastic Chess Federation - Fall, 2010 Newsletter

WSCF Website.

In addition to several events:

Oct 2 - Kenosha Tournament (sorry about the late announcement)
Oct 5 - WFB Club Begins
Oct 15 - Blitz Tournament
Oct 23 - Saylesville Tourny
Nov 6 - Lakeview - Kenoahsa Tourney
Nov 6 - Trinity Lutheran - Okauchee
Nov 13 - Sun Prairie Tourney
Nov 19 - 21 International Folk Fair Tournament/Simuls
Nov 26-27 Chess Camp
Dec 4 Community HS Tournament
Dec 11 Fairview Charter Tourney

two new chess clubs have been added:

The first is in Kenosha and meets the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month.  The club meets from 6:00 to 8:00 at Lakeview Technology Academy at 9449 88th Avenue, Pleasant Prairie, WI 53158.   The club is free for drop in players and members will pay dues, the amount as yet to be decided. Club leaders are Alan Cargille and Tom Chryst.

The second club is in Whitefish Bay and begins October 6th from 7:00 to 9:00 pm.  The "Whitefish Bay Community Chess Club" meets at Roundy Memorial Baptist Church at 1250 E. Hampton Avenue. The first 10 week session of the club ends December 15 with one week off for Thanksgiving.   You can sign up for the club the first 3 weeks on site or you can sign up on-line (unfortunately, no link was provided) at or go to WSCF's website (see above).  Fee for the 10 week session is $40 or $5 for 1 evening. Students will recieve instruction at their level, participate in club tournaments and have lots of fun. Chris McElduff, local chess instructor will lead, teach and organize the club. Email for further information. 

Wisconsin has a young scholastic player who has been invited to play in the World Youth Chess Championships October 19 - 31, 2010, but his family needs financial assistance to make this dream a reality:



Awonder with his Co-Champion
Trophy at Supernations IV

 Send Awonder To Greece!

Awonder Liang of Van Hise Elementary in Madison is 7 years old , in second grade and is going to Greece. He has qualified in the U8 category to participate in the World Youth Chess Championships next month from Oct 19 - 31.

Awonder has competed in over 60 tournaments in only 27 months and as of this writing is rated 1812. Awonder qualified as one of 40 participants to represent the US at the World Championships where he will play 11 rounds of chess in as many days. Last December Awonder became the National 1st grade Champion.

The cost to send him to Greece is more than his family can afford so there is a fund set up to collect funds for his journey. Join WSCF in helping Awonder go to Greece by sending your donation to: Send Awonder to Greece, account #182374870661, c/o US Bank, 3609 University Ave., Madison, WI, 53705.

You can read more about his trip and his exploits in this Wisconsin State Journal article.

Ancient Egypt at the University of London - November, 2010!

A reminder of earlier posts!

Medicine, Health and Disease in Ancient Egypt
Saturday 6 November 2010

The Pyramid at the Lourve, Paris, France

Ancient Egyptian Art and Modern Design
Saturday 20 November 2010

Bloomsbury Summer School in Egypt
10 - 17 November 2010
For other interesting Egyptology events please contact the Bloomsbury Summer School: Lucia Gahlin.

Queen's Gambit

Hola!  I have finally started reading The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis.  I do not remember who it was who recommended the book (sorry) - it was someone at this blog - so whoever you are, thank you!

I knew Tevis had written The Hustler and The Color of Money but I'd no idea he had also written The Man Who Fell to Earth - which as a movie years ago absolutely blew me away.  Some of the imagery in that film is still vivid in my mind although I did not always understand what was going on in the film.  Astoundingly, David Bowie played the man who fell to Earth from the sky - yeah, the musician David Bowie.  The film was a stunning experience.  I'd no idea beforehand what it was about, except that it was classed as "science fiction" and I'm a big fan of science fiction - not the blood and guts stuff (alien monsters ripping humans or each other apart) but I like a good story like Star Wars type stuff - and so I went to see it on a date.  I don't remember who the date was - but I remember that film :)

Tevis, who once was an English professor, died in 1984; The Queen's Gambit was published in 1983.  Prior to his death he did some interviews, two of which I found recordings of online, and they are absolutely fascinating.  You can find them at Wired for Books: interviews with Walter Tevis.  The MP3 worked for me.

I forced myself to put down the novel (which I started last night after working on the Family Tree project for hours) to do a few other things this morning - like blogging, LOL!  It was difficult, let me tell you!  I am totally captivated by the character of Beth Harmon and her world, which is all too shudderingly vivid.  Tevis' prose is "dense" - he packs tons of emotions and imagery into rather a few words (relatively speaking), it's absolutely amazing what he does with words.  Not the type of novel prose I'm used to reading but for this story it absolutely works - I "get it" at a visceral level and see the scenes inside my mind in technicolor. By the way, Beth is NOT plain.  Today she would be "Top Model" material.  But by the standards of the 1950's/early 1960's she is not "cute."  Any person who has that kind of intensity radiate out of herself  would be a powerful magnet, and to express her power through the moves of chess pieces - Damn, I wish Tevis was still alive, I would love to have a sit down with him and ask him more about this female character he created. 

It is interesting that over the years several projects to bring the novel to film petered off into nothingness - the most recent (2008) involved Keith Ledger, who died before much of the project came to fruition. 

Turning this book into a film would involve unique challenges, I think, because so much is interior and cerebral/mental - but after seeing how "Searching for Bobby Fischer" was put together, a film that also captivated me and is one of my all-time favorites, I believe The Queen's Gambit could be done.  The right sets, the right music to evoke the emotions that accompany the incredible revelations she discovers in blinding flashes, and the emotional roller-coaster that is Beth's interior life.  There is a scene, her first visit to Morris' book store, where she sees, all lined up in rows, dozens of books on chess - Goddess!  I know that feeling - oh, not about chess books, but what those books represent.  I know Beth.  The challenge would be to find the right actresses to portray her. 

Wikipedia info
Review by Michael Schaub (August, 2003) at Bookslut
Buy it at Amazon

Goddess Guanyin Enroute to Taiwan

From People's Daily Online (notice the "see how nice we play with Taiwan" touch by the Chinese government, but then, this is the propaganda newpaper geared toward English language folks)  By the way, the photo is hilarious!  The Goddess is gettng ready to do some deep sea diving  by the looks of it :)

1,000 statues of Buddhist goddess to be sent to Taiwan temples
19:38, September 27, 2010

Statues of Buddhist goddess Guanyin are seen at Laotangshan port in Zhoushan, east China's Zhejiang Province, Sept. 27, 2010. More than 300 Chinese monks and nuns boarded an Italian passenger ship with 1,000 statues Monday to the port of Keelung in southeast China's Taiwan. The statues, which are to be given as gifts to several temples in Taiwan, are from the Putuoshan Mountain that is famous for Buddhism culture. (Xinhua/Wang Dingchang)

Guanyin is also known as Kuanyin (and various other spellings), the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, and she has been ever popular. 

Check out Seven Syllable Kuan Yin Mantra by Robin Beck - you'll see the iconography is often identical to that of the Christian Virgin Mary with (and without) Christ Child

British Columbia to First Nations: We WILL Pave, But We'll Be Careful :)

Ancient history could be paved
9,000-year-old First Nations site threatened
Brian Lewis, The Province
Published: Friday, October 01, 2010

There's a vacant piece of property on the Fraser River's southern bank, slightly upstream from the Alex Fraser Bridge, that looks remarkably ordinary.

However, this changes abruptly once R.G. Matson, a professor emeritus in archeology from the University of B.C., explains what's beneath your feet.

What you are actually standing on is abundant evidence of human history that stretches back before the days of Stonehenge in the U. K or the pyramids in Egypt.

This is the Glenrose Cannery archeological site in North Delta, where since 1969 scientists have dug deep into its earth and discovered artifacts and other remains that confirm that ancient First Nations peoples were using this location as a temporary summer food-gathering place as long as 9,000 years ago.

It's certainly one of B.C.'s oldest heritage sites and it's also well known internationally in archeological circles, but as important and priceless as it is, that's still not going to stop the B.C. government from building the $1.2-billion South Fraser Perimeter Road over it.

And that's why a small gathering of concerned citizens and community groups assembled earlier this week to hear Matson explain the site's importance and why it should be protected.

"When I started work on this site in 1973, it was the first piece of West Coast archeology that I did, but ultimately, it may be the most important," he tells us.

Previous archeological excavations show evidence of human habitation such as stone and bone spear points, knives and other tools, as well as animal remains including elk, deer, harbour seal, shellfish and salmon.

Matson says the oldest traces have been found more than eight metres below the current surface and represent the Old Cordilleran period, which is between 5,000 and 9,000 years old.

However, from an artifact point of view, the site's most productive layers were found between about five and six metres deep, which represents the St. Mungo Period from between 3,500 and 5,000 years ago.

"You have to realize that, in this site's earliest days, the Lower Mainland and Fraser River delta looked very different," Matson says. "Richmond didn't exist, because that lower part of the delta hadn't been formed yet. Point Roberts was an island and this site was, in fact, at the Fraser River's mouth."

The Glenrose site is unique because its deepest parts are much older than similar archeological sites farther downstream on the Fraser, Matson says.

"Some of the questions that future archeologists will have can only be answered by having this site preserved," he warns.

Richelle Giberson, a nearby neighbour who is organizing a campaign to save the site, is particularly frustrated by a lack of information from the Gateway Project group, the B.C. government agency building the four-lane, 40-kilometre SFPR that will connect Deltaport with Highway 1 in Surrey.

"Nobody at Gateway has any answers, other than to tell me there will be an impact on it," Giberson says. "Why are we building a freeway though this site?"

A Ministry of Transportation spokesperson said Thursday that steps are being taken to minimize impacts on the archeological site, but declined to go into details.

"I think we're going to have to watch this site like a hawk," Matson adds.

© The Province 2010

The Peopling of America: Did Australian Aborigines Get Here First?

Did Australian Aborigines reach America first?
Thursday, 30 September 2010by Jacqui Hayes
Cosmos Online

SYDNEY: Cranial features distinctive to Australian Aborigines are present in hundreds of skulls that have been uncovered in Central and South America, some dating back to over 11,000 years ago [9000 BCE or older].

Evolutionary biologist Walter Neves of the University of São Paulo, whose findings are reported in a cover story in the latest issue of Cosmos magazine, has examined these skeletons and recovered others, and argues that there is now a mass of evidence indicating that at least two different populations colonised the Americas.

He and colleagues in the United States, Germany and Chile argue that first population was closely related to the Australian Aborigines and arrived more than 11,000 years ago.

Cranial morphology
The second population to arrive was of humans of 'Mongoloid' appearance - a cranial morphology distinctive of people of East and North Asian origin - who entered the Americas from Siberia and founded most (if not all) modern Native American populations, he argues.

"The results suggest a clear biological affinity between the early South Americans and the South Pacific population. This association allowed for the conclusion that the Americas were occupied before the spreading of the classical Mongoloid morphology in Asia," Neves says.

Until about a decade ago, the dominant theory in American archaeology circles was that the 'Clovis people' - whose culture is defined by the stone tools they used to kill megafauna such as mammoths - was the first population to arrive in the Americas.

Clovis culture
They were thought to have crossed the Bering Strait from Siberia into Alaska at the end of the last Ice Age, some 10,000 or so years ago, following herds of megafauna across a land bridge created as water was locked up in glaciers and ice sheets.

But in the late 1990s, Neves and his colleagues re-examined a female skeleton that had been excavated in the 1970s in an extensive cave system in Central Brazil known as Lapa Vermelha.

The skeleton - along with a treasure trove of other finds - had been first unearthed by a Brazilian-French archaeological team that disbanded shortly after its leader, Annette Laming-Emperare, died suddenly. A dispute between participants kept the find barely examined for more than a decade.

The oldest female skeleton, dubbed Luzia, is between 11,000 and 11,400 years old. The dating is not exact because the material in the bones used for dating - collagen - has long since degraded; hence, only the layers of charcoal or sediment above and below the skeleton could be dated.

"We believe she is the oldest skeleton in the Americas," Neves said.

Luzia has a very projected face; her chin sits out further than her forehead, and she has a long, narrow brain case, measured from the eyes to the back of the skull; as well as a low nose and low orbits, the space where the eyes sit.

These facial features are indicative of what Neves calls the 'generalised cranial morphology' - the morphology of anatomically modern humans, who first migrated out of Africa more than 100,000 years ago, and made it as far as Australia some 50,000 years ago, and Melanesia 40,000 years ago.

New finds in seven sites
When Neves first announced his discovery of Luzia in the late 1990s, he faced criticism from a number of archaeologists, who claimed the dating was not accurate. He has since returned to excavate four other sites, and is still cataloguing skeletons from the most recent dig.

In total, there are now hundreds of skeletons with the cranial morphology similar to Australian Aborigines, found in seven sites - as far north as Florida in the United States to Palli Aike in southern Chile.

In 2005, he published a paper in the U.S journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, analysing the characteristics of a further 81 skeletons he recovered from one of four sites, in which he said strengthened his argument that there were migrations to the Americas from at least two major populations.

Not related to Native Americans
In June 2010 in the journal PLoS ONE, Neves and colleagues Mark Hubbe of Chile's Northern Catholic University and Katerina Harvati from Germany's University of Tübingen, showed that it was not possible for the Aborigine-like skeletons to be the direct ancestors of the Native Americans.

Nor was it possible for the two populations to share a last common ancestor at the time of the first entrance into the continent, they argued, based on the 57 cranial measurements that can be made on a skull.

So far, almost all DNA studies of Native Americans points to a single entry from Siberia. This may mean that the original population died out, or simply that DNA studies have been too narrow, argue a number of archaeologists

Genetic evidence needed
"The lack of a perfect match between morphological and molecular information can be easily explained by a very frequent event in molecular evolution: loss of DNA lineages throughout time," Neves says.

"At first, I thought there had been a complete replacement of the population [in South America]," just as there was a replacement of a similar population in East Asia during the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary.

However, he now thinks that the original people were, at least partly, absorbed into the colonising groups. "I have not detected anything that could say they interbred [such as skulls exhibiting mixed cranial features]. "But I think we will. It would be unlikely if these people lived side-by-side for 10,000 years and did not interbreed," he added.

Neves is now calling on molecular archaeologists - experts in the recovery and analysis of DNA - to turn their focus to the question of who Luzia's Aborigine-like people were.

2010 Chess Olympiad - 1 Round to Go!

Russian Women 1 have the gold locked up, they can mail it in tomorrow and still win, evidently.  China, whom some (who shall remain nameless) had counted out about 4 rounds ago, is in place to win a medal, as is Ukraine, Georgia and - well, you can read all about it at Susan Polgar's blog:

Top Standings (Open and Women) After R10
Possible Medal Scenarios for Open and Women (like figuring out the wild cards in the NFL) 

I've lost interest since neither American team is in the medal hunt - I've been concentrating on the Family Tree project, realizing about 4 days ago that I've still got much to do on my family's tree and more to do yet on a couple of Tree projects that I'm doing as surprise gifts. 

Report on Russian Women 1's win at official website.  The Russian press is acting like it's a miracle, which is pretty funny, actually, considering how strong the team is; but then, since the Russian Open and Women's Teams didn't do squat in Dresden in 2008 a lot of pressure was/is on the players this year to WIN, and thereby prove that a tolatarian regime where most of the top players no longer live in the country because it absolutely sucks to do so is still a mighty chess power with nuclear weapons and He-Man Putin, the man behind the curtain.  Cough cough.  So, kudos to the Russian Women 1. The Kosintseva sisters are fab, darlings.  I really would like to see them mix it up a lot more in open tournaments against higher rated male players instead of staying in the women's ratings ghetto.  I really would like to see them move elsewhere and earn a decent living for their chessly efforts.  Sigh.

US Open Team (Men) are in 14th place.  US Women are in 8th place.  There is day off tomorrow, which is very strange since then 1 game and closing take place on Sunday.  What a silly schedule. The players would probably have benefited most from a 4 game/off day/4 game/off day/3 games schedule.  Perhaps the rationale behind this schedule was to give the Russian teams a day off for prep before the final round - but it cuts all ways as the other teams who are in the hunt for medals also get time for more prep.  Best scenario on Sunday in my book:  Ivanchuk of Ukraine is the hero!

Judit Polgar watch: 

Polgar is playing Board 3 on the Hungarian Open Team, which is currently in 5th place after R10 in possibly in medal contention (see link to SP's blog above - Possible Medal Scenarios...).  Judit had two losses out of 9 games and played 9 straight; she did not play R10.  Her score is 5.5/9 which is not the best on her team, but her performance rating is 2712 so that's good (it's above her current ELO of 2682). 

Since R11 will be crucial to Hungary's chances for a medal, I expect she will play unless she is on her death bed. 

There is excellent news for Canada today: IM Thomas Roussel-Roozmon earned his third GM norm and with the ratings points earned at the Olympiad, will qualify for the GM title! Hooray! Here is the info:

IM Thomas Roussel-Roozmon 2484 CAN 6,5/9 (with no losses) PR 2600 ELO + 16.3

Team Canada started in 53rd in the Open and is currently in 41st, an excellent showing with one more round to fight for higher position.

Canadian Women, who started in 58th place, are in 53rd place after R10, so they are still playing to move up in final position. Here are the stats for the Canadian women through R10:

53. Canada (CAN / RtgAvg:2054, Captain: Shi, Shao Min / TB1: 10 / TB2: 185,5)
Bo. Name Rtg FED 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Pts. Games Rp w we w-we K rtg+/-
1 WIM Yuan Yuanling 2189 CAN 1 0 1 ½ 1 0 1 1 1 1 7,5 10 2317 6,5 4,05 2,45 15 36,8
2 WIM Kagramanov Dina 2086 CAN 1 1 1 0 1 0 ½ 0 4,5 8 2075 3,5 2,91 0,59 15 8,9
3 Lacau-Rodean Iulia 2024 CAN ½ ½ 0 1 0 0 1 ½ 3,5 8 1936 3 2,87 0,13 15 2,0
4 Orlova Yelizaveta 1917 CAN 1 1 0 ½ 1 0 0 3,5 7 1945 2,5 1,86 0,64 15 9,6
5 Kagramanov Dalia 1866 CAN 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 3,0 7 1810 2 2,21 -0,21 15 -3,2

As you can see, WIM Yuan Yuanling is the best on the team and the workhorse - playing 10 out of 10 and no doubt will be back on Board 1 on Sunday to try and move her team up a few more notches in the final standings. Canadian Women will face Venezuela on Sunday. They started in 54th place (one below Canadian Women) and are currently in 63rd place.

By the way - Russian Women 2 play Russian Women 1 on Sunday. Yeah. Who doesn't think that Russian Women 1 will lay down to help Russian Women 2 currently in 5th place) possibly into medal contention? But perhaps I'm being overly cynical, darlings :)

I'll be back on the Olympiad Sunday to do a wrap-up.