Week in Review: Recent Chess News

Whew - what a busy and tiring day. September here was gorgeous, but Mother Nature flipped a switch the first week in October and it's been unrelentingly rainy, windy, cold, miserably cloudy, dark dark dark and dank! More of the same was forecast for yesterday with some relief (partly cloudy but still cool/cold) forecast for today. Yesterday when I woke up, I expected it to be raining. It wasn't! It was still very windy, and cool/cold, but it was dry, and about 1:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. the clouds blew out unexpectedly and the sun appeared! It was still too windy and wet to consider doing serious yard work. But today dawned dry again (no rain overnight as was forecast), much less windy, and when the sun chased away some early morning clouds by 9:30 it felt like a heat wave out there! LOL! It was great! Early on I had on my heavy duty Badger Alloys sweatshirt (inherited from brother-in-law Fred) and was out back well before 9 a.m. picking up and breaking down major branches that were scattered all over the grass for the past several weeks of intermittent strong winds. I got the biggest ones out of the way, but I won't kid you - there were lots of smaller ones left behind. I should have raked, but once the sun came out I was itching to get the lawnmower out and cut the front lawn. I waited until the respectable hour of 9:30 a.m. Grass out front got cut; I raked some leaves, did some pruning, cleaned the leaves off the driveway; then my buddy Ann and I went to Menards where I picked up some needed supplies to repair my cedar picket fence. We lunched at Olive Garden, took a leisurely ride in the country to enjoy the day and the autumn colors which were showing in all of their glory in the clear (not watery) sunlight. The sky was so blue today! When I got home I turned on the radio and listened to the tail-end of the Packers/Cleveland Browns game (Packers won 31-3), then I fired up the lawnmower again and tackled the back yard, which has not been cut for 3 weeks. An hour later it was done, and I sure need a shower, peeeuuuhhh! But first I pulled out one of the lawn chairs I had put away earlier this morning and sat out on the deck for awhile listeing to post-game analysis, just enjoying the sun and relatively balmy temperatures. Now the sun has set and it's cooled off quite a bit, but thanks to the sunlight pouring in today, the house heated up (with no help from the furnace, which I shut off this morning) to about 70 degrees. My crazy next store neighbors are now out (in the almost dark) cutting their lawn - well, at least they're doing it, their lawn was looking shaggy! Here are various links to news events during the past week - I'm just too tired this evening to put them up at Chess Femme News. There should be enough here to fill your reading schedule for a couple of days! On USWCC Boston herald http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/other_sports/general/view/20091014anna_zatonskih_wins_us_womens_chess_championship/srvc=home&position=recent Story in Iryna Zenyuk http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09288/1005637-53.stm The abolish women titles bullshit article from the WST http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09288/1005637-53.stm And commentary on it at Chessbase http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5834 On Zatonskih clinching title at the Gambit blog http://gambit.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/zatonskih-is-us-womens-champion-again/ News brief on Iryna Zenyuk finishing 8th (I'm sure she was VERY disappointed with her performance) http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/yb/136431286 Coverage in the Examiner http://www.examiner.com/x-16932-Chess-Examiner~y2009m10d13-2009-US-Womens-Chess-Championship-has-a-winner-with-a-round-to-go Chessbase article on USWCC http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5833 Article on Nana Alexandra http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5827 Arne at Chessvibes on abolishing women's titles http://www.chessvibes.com/columns/abolishing-women%e2%80%99s-titles-a-different-perspective/ Report on USWCC by Peter Doggers at Chessvibes http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/zatonskih-clinches-2nd-consecutive-u-s-womens-championship-title/ Zatonskih's performance rating: 2817. Don't think I've reported on Nanjing - this report from Chessvibes too http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/xu-yuhua-wins-nanjing-gp-tournament/ European Club Cup -here is the official site with link to chess-results http://www.ecc2009.com/eng.htm Jen Shahade's reaction to the WST bullshit article about abolishing women's titles http://main.uschess.org/content/view/9786/343/ And commentary from the always-entertaining Elizabeth Vicary chess blog http://lizzyknowsall.blogspot.com/2009/10/wsj-article-about-womens-titles.html http://www.chessvibes.com/columns/valencia-lectures-part-2-the-amazing-story-of-the-lost-chess-book/ Modern chess invented in Valencia lecture part 2 Tania Sachdev http://lifestyle.in.msn.com/fashion/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3309562 Is this the same cause? One of the same people is involved - Tania is going to be a model in a fashion show to show "solidarity" with a convicted rapist? Oh my. http://www.merinews.com/article/anand-jons-sister-organises-a-solidarity-fashion-show/15786672.shtml Movie about a woman learning how to play chess and how to cheat on her husband http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/movies/news/story/1294359.html Article on Armenian Women's Team at the World Team CC http://www.aysor.am/en/news/2009/10/23/sport2/