Saturday, December 4, 2010

2010 Women's World Chess Championship

The big one is underway and Round 1 half-finished  Since I can't get my desk top to work properly I can't do a Chess Femme News page in html, so I'll have to report results and what not here.  It's not that there is a lack of news, but what Chess Femme News does is gather it all together in one spot that will be accessible as long as I stay online, months and years after the official site disappears.  Makes it easy for people who want to look back for whatever reason.
Here are the R1 results:
World Chess Championship Women 2010 (Antakya) TUR Thur 2nd Dec 2010 - Sun 24th Dec 2010
Round 1 Results:
PrSNoNameFedTitleRatingResultsSNoNameFed.TitleRating
11Kosteniuk, AlexandraRUSg25071-064Mezioud, AminaALGwm2029
263Greeff, MelissaRSAwg20820-12Koneru, HumpyINDg2600
33Hou, YifanCHNg25911-062Heredia Serrano, CarlaECUwm2087
461Mona, KhaledEGYwg20930-14Kosintseva, TatianaRUSg2581
55Dzagnidze, NanaGEOg25511-060Kagramanov, DinaCANwm2101
659Aliaga Fernandez, Ingrid YPERwf21540-16Stefanova, AntoanetaBULg2548
77Muzychuk, AnnaSLOm25301-058Zuriel, MarisaARGwm2208
857Yildiz, Betul CemreTURwm22251/2-1/28Cramling, PiaSWEg2526
99Harika, DronavalliINDm25251/2-1/256Nadig, KruttikaINDwg2230
1055Caoili, ArianneAUSwm2242- +10Ju, WenjunCHNwg2524
1111Lahno, KaterynaUKRg25221-054Ozturk, KubraTURwm2264
1253Demina, JuliaRUSwg23230-112Cmilyte, ViktorijaLTUg2514
1313Chiburdanidze, MaiaGEOg25021-052Meenakshi SubbaramanINDwg2328
1451Soumya, SwaminathanINDwg23320-114Socko, MonikaPOLg2495
1515Sebag, MarieFRAg24941-050Vasilevich, IrinaRUSm2333
1649Baginskaite, CamillaUSAwg23360-116Ruan, LufeiCHNwg2480
1717Mkrtchian, LilitARMm24791/2-1/248Zhang, XiaowenCHNwg2339
1847Lomineishvili, MaiaGEOm23470-118Zatonskih, AnnaUSAm2478
1919Zhu, ChenQATg24771-046Muminova, NafisaUZBwm2360
2045Fierro Baquero, Martha L.ECUm23630-120Zhao, XueCHNg2474
2121Paehtz, ElisabethGERm24741/2-1/244Zawadzka, JolantaPOLwg2368
2243Ding, YixinCHNwg23701-022Hoang Thanh TrangHUNg2473
2323Pogonina, NatalijaRUSwg24720-142Kovanova, BairaRUSwg2380
2441Shadrina, TatianaRUSwg23841-024Danielian, ElinaARMg2466
2525Muzychuk, MariyaUKRm24621-040Cori T., DeysiPERwg2384
2639Ovod, EvgenijaRUSm23871-026Shen, YangCHNwg2461
2727Ushenina, AnnaUKRm24601/2-1/238Huang, QianCHNwg2402
2837Foisor, Cristina-AdelaROUm24031/2-1/228Skripchenko, AlmiraFRAm2460
2929Dembo, YelenaGREm24541/2-1/236Munguntuul, BatkhuyagMGLm2409
3035Romanko, MarinaRUSm24141/2-1/230Zhukova, NataliaUKRg2447
3131Rajlich, IwetaPOLm2446- +34Houska, JovankaENGm2421
3233Khukhashvili, SopikoGEOm24301/2-1/232Turova, IrinaRUSm2439

Games ended in draws go to rapid chess play-offs - later today I think --

USA's WGM Camille Baginskaite is out of the tournament after falling behind the white pieces to China's WGM Ruan Lufei, who outranks her by about 150 points.  So, not unexpected.  But I'm sorry to see one of our two players go.  The only one left now is IM Anna Zatonskih, who with the black pieces defeated IM Main Lomineishvili of Georgia (the Georgian players are powerhouses and always dangerous, whatever their ELO rating).  GO ANNA!

Other coverage:

The Week in Chess Round 1, includes videos from Europe Echecs which didn't play very well for me, lots of stops and starts, despite being run on my trusty Toshiba laptop.  Hmm...

Official Website Round 1 - By the way, thanks for putting up a different icon that wasn't an imitation of Goddesschess' 11 year old icon :)  Your new icon is lovely.

Susan Polgar's always timely blog (and she adds her insights, too)

Chessdom R1 live coverage

Winter Is Here

Driveway after a couple of shovel passes.
After a quick lunch, I noticed the sun was trying to break through the clouds and it had stopped snowing.  So, I put on my hat, rubber bottomed-slippers and gloves, grabbed my shovel (after spraying it with silicone) and cleaned off the deck. That is first priority here as that's where the squirrels come to be fed :) 

Then I headed out to the front, cleared my small porch and worked a quick path to the road.  The snow was not light and fluffy as promised, it was fricking wet and heavy!  And, while I was out there, the wind whipped up from the northeast and it started snowing again.  But I got a start, anyway.
Looking to the southeast.
I'm still wrestling with the desktop upstairs.  I implemented another fix, I will run up there after this post, open IE, and see if it worked.

In the meantime, I took some photos of our first measurable snowfall down south here.  Up north (Michigan/Wisconsin border and Minnesota/Wisconsin border) there was a lot of measurable snow a couple of weeks ago.
Looking to the northeast from the front porch.  Buster,
one of my buddies from next store, is near the corner
line of the fence.

Desk Top No-Go

Hola Darlings!

It's been snowing here since I don't know when, because I was asleep when it started.  It's not deep but it's been consistent, it seems we are getting some bands of lake-effect snow, which is never good!

I've been trying unsuccessfully since last night to get my old desktop to open it's home url - or any url.  Thank Goddess my trusty Toshiba laptop is working just fine, no problems with yahoo.com opening as my home page.  I have been searching and reading about various fixes for this problem including those at Microsoft, which I generally can't understand because they are far too technical for me.  I have tried emptying this and that, resetting this and that, unplugging the desk top from the modem, etc.  In desperation, I tried System Restore 3 times to three different dates, but that did not help.  I am still unable to open the desktop to my home page or to type in any other url (which worked on Wednesday and Thursday) since last night.  I also tried changing the default url for home page and I got a repeating feed-back loop (or whatever it is called) on that site too!  Arrrrggghhhh!  I also tried opening IE without add-ons.  Still get the same problem.

So, what I had hoped would be a productive morning creating a Chess Femme News page for the 2010 Women's World Chess Championship has been utterly wasted.  It's now nearly 1:00 p.m. and I've got jack-squat done.  I am pissed off.  I am hungry so am stopping for a quick lunch, and I have a page full of "new" solutions that I will run back upstairs to try.

My concern is how on earth to transfer the information from the desktop to the new Acer laptop I bought if I can't get get the desktop to open so I can download the necessary transfer tool to move the data from one computer to the other.  Crap, crap, crap! 

In absolute desperation, I am now going to try a MSCONFIG and hunt for anything that looks strange and delete it.  I will probably blow myself and the computer up in the process.  Sigh.  Eat first, then blow myself up...

Friday, December 3, 2010

Friday Night Miscellany

My old desktop upstairs has got an issue - I think it's called something like a repeating loop and I cannot get the home page to open up (yahoo.com).  It started two nights ago but eventually I was able to get it to the New York Times and after that I was able to get back to yahoo and everything was fine.  I did the same thing last night but tonight I could not get to any alternate url no matter what I tried.  So I have to cut this short and do some googling to find out what the heck I can do to fix the problem. 

Archaeologically, Peru is an amazing country.  There is not a month that goes by without some new discovery coming out of Peru.  It was the site of Caral, which was as old as some of the settlements in the Indus Valley, Mesopotamia and Egypt.  I have done lots of blog posts about discoveries in Peru.  So it doesn't surprise me that its residents approximately 8,000 years ago were getting high on coca leaves!
1 December 2010 Last updated at 21:20 ET
Coca leaves first chewed 8,000 years ago, says research

Another ancient site plundered in Iran and the government does the same old, same old "What site?  There is no site.  What pictures?  What farmer?  What complaint?  And by the way, any archaeologist who talks to the press will lose his job and be barred from working again in Iran.  And we'll get your little dog, too..."
From the CAIS (Circle of Iranian Studies) site
Smugglers discovered and plundered a Parthian Dynastic site in Masjed-Soleiman
Friday, 03 December 2010 13:07
LONDON, (CAIS) -- Smugglers in search of treasures in an area known as Shanzdah-Maylee (Šānzdah-Māylē / sixteen-mile) have discovered and plundered an ancient tappeh (archaeological mound) in a depth of four meters, according to a recent report by the Persian service of Mehr News Agency.

Archaeological vandals aren't limited to the Old World, they're here in force in the New World, too.
Entertainment
2,300-Year-old Maya ruins destroyed for pastureland
Published December 03, 2010
| EFE
Mexico City – An ancient Mayan residential complex some 2,300 years old was destroyed by heavy machinery in the southeastern Mexican state of Yucutan to clear the land for pasture on a private ranch, officials told Efe.

According to experts at the National Anthropology and History Institute, or INAH, the Maya site near the town of Chicxulub dates to the 300 B.C. Preclassical Period and is registered as No. 15 in the Yucutan archaeological catalog.

"The presence of remains were previously known in the area and for that reason INAH will act quickly," the communications chief of the public institute, Julio Castrejon, said.

Yeah, right - and what are you going to do now? The site is GONE, dude.

Okay, got to go.  Need to get the desktop upstairs moving again so I can work on Chess Femme News - they'll be games to report from the Women's World Chess Championship tomorrow.

2010 Women's World Chess Championship

First round pairings - play begins December 4.  Per draw, all uneven matches (odd numbered games?) the players with better rating will have white pieces:

World Women's Chess Championship Hatay 2010
Pairings of First Round
TablePr. N.NameFed.TitleRatingPr. N.NameFed.TitleRating
11Kosteniuk, AlexandraRUSg250764Mezioud, AminaALGwm2029
22Koneru, HumpyINDg260063Greeff, MelissaRSAwg2082
33Hou, YifanCHNg259162Heredia Serrano, CarlaECUwm2087
44Kosintseva, TatianaRUSg258161Mona, KhaledEGYwg2093
55Dzagnidze, NanaGEOg255160Kagramanov, DinaCANwm2101
66Stefanova, AntoanetaBULg254859Aliaga Fernandez, Ingrid YPERwf2154
77Muzychuk, AnnaSLOm253058Zuriel, MarisaARGwm2208
88Cramling, PiaSWEg252657Yildiz, Betul CemreTURwm2225
99Harika, DronavalliINDm252556Nadig, KruttikaINDwg2230
1010Ju, WenjunCHNwg252455Caoili, ArianneAUSwm2242
1111Lahno, KaterynaUKRg252254Ozturk, KubraTURwm2264
1212Cmilyte, ViktorijaLTUg251453Demina, JuliaRUSwg2323
1313Chiburdanidze, MaiaGEOg250252Meenakshi SubbaramanINDwg2328
1414Socko, MonikaPOLg249551Soumya, SwaminathanINDwg2332
1515Sebag, MarieFRAg249450Vasilevich, IrinaRUSm2333
1616Ruan, LufeiCHNwg248049Baginskaite, CamillaUSAwg2336
1717Mkrtchian, LilitARMm247948Zhang, XiaowenCHNwg2339
1818Zatonskih, AnnaUSAm247847Lomineishvili, MaiaGEOm2347
1919Zhu, ChenQATg247746Muminova, NafisaUZBwm2360
2020Zhao, XueCHNg247445Fierro Baquero, Martha L.ECUm2363
2121Paehtz, ElisabethGERm247444Zawadzka, JolantaPOLwg2368
2222Hoang Thanh TrangHUNg247343Ding, YixinCHNwg2370
2323Pogonina, NatalijaRUSwg247242Kovanova, BairaRUSwg2380
2424Danielian, ElinaARMg246641Shadrina, TatianaRUSwg2384
2525Muzychuk, MariyaUKRm246240Cori T., DeysiPERwg2384
2626Shen, YangCHNwg246139Ovod, EvgenijaRUSm2387
2727Ushenina, AnnaUKRm246038Huang, QianCHNwg2402
2828Skripchenko, AlmiraFRAm246037Foisor, Cristina-AdelaROUm2403
2929Dembo, YelenaGREm245436Munguntuul, BatkhuyagMGLm2409
3030Zhukova, NataliaUKRg244735Romanko, MarinaRUSm2414
3131Rajlich, IwetaPOLm244634Houska, JovankaENGm2421
3232Turova, IrinaRUSm243933Khukhashvili, SopikoGEOm2430
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