Friday Night Miscellany

Unbelievably, the weekend is here - I love working only 4 days a week! All too soon, though, it will be over, and I'll be back at the desk and the daily grind. How long until retirement??? The weather promises to break tonight. It's been hot and humid, tropical, yucky. The mosquitoes are as big as B-52's and bent on suicide missions - they bite me despite buckets of insect repellent - Deep Woods Off does not work! The wind showed up today - and even through 20 mph this morning on the way to the bus stop at 7:30 a.m. one of the little buggers managed to land on my arm and tried for blood. No go, little bugger, SWAT! Tonight it's supposed to drop down to 54 degrees F - I'll believe it when I feel it - and then, and only then, will turn off the central air. I got the new issue of Chess Life in the mail yesterday. I haven't opened it yet. The cover is Bobby Fischer. Yesterday's news. Is this what the editorial committee at USCF has been reduced to? With so many up and coming players and events worldwide to write about and give us some analysis of interesting games, they write about Fischer. Boorrriiinnnggg! Some good news - Hou Yifan has been playing on the Chinese "team" that beat the Russians and is whipping the English and she hasn't been relegated to playing only women. So far at the Liverpool Chess International 2007 (Match Tournament), she as drawn with GM David Howell, lost to GM Gawain Jones, defeated GM Nicholas Pert, and drew with GM Nigel Short, with 2 rounds to go. I saw this report earlier today: Zeynab Mammadyarova boycotted Baku chess tournament [ 07 Sep 2007 17:40 ] " I refused to attend the second internationals women tournament in Baku", Azerbaijan national chess team member Zeynab Mammadyarova told APA-Sport. She did not attend the women's tournament because of her sister Turkan Mammadyarova. "I did not know that my name was among the tournament participants. Ilaha Kadimova and Nargiz Umudova were among the participants. I protested against Nargiz as my sister Turkan is stronger than Nargiz in rating and has more experience. But the organizers did not accept my protests and I decided not to attend. Strong chess players should be invited to the tournament in Baku. This is the reason for low results of Azerbaijani representatives". /APA-Sport/ That's it - I'm pooped and calling it a night!