Some Chess News (Not Necessarily Just the Chess Femmes)

I'm so glad to see traditional press coverage of at least some chess news in the USA - in a regular newspaper and not relegated to a chess column.  All chess fans know they can find just about any chess news they want online, but informing the general public of chess news that deserves to be told - that's a different story.

Kayden Troff (Bill Brussard, ABC4 News)

A short story on Kayden Troff, who won a silver medal at the World Youth Chess Championship
ABC4.com
Salt Lake City, Utah
12-year-old Utahn #2 chess player in the world
WEST JORDAN, UT (ABC 4 News) - The sport of chess is very strategic and takes quite a bit of wisdom, but a 12-year-old from Utah has taken a top spot in the sport. West Jordan's own Kayden Troff won big in Utah, the country and now he is #2 in the world.

This next story is MAJOR.  I don't think that people who are not familiar with chess can fully appreciate just how major it is.  This is WOW story.

Los Gatos Times
Mercurynews.com
After almost giving up on chess, Los Gatos teen brings home world championship
Julia Prodis Sulek
Posted: 11/01/2010 06:37:54 PM PDT
Updated: 11/02/2010 01:16:10 PM PDT

When Steven Zierk was just 8, he was called a chess prodigy, a child whose talents at calculations and competition were beyond his years.

Around his hometown of Los Gatos, the shy little boy with spiky blond hair was known as "that chess kid." Expectations were endless. How far could he go? Would he stick with it?

Well, now, a decade later -- and after a five-year hiatus that crushed his coach and relieved his mother -- the 17-year-old Los Gatos High School senior has stormed back with a world championship gold medal he brought home from Greece over the weekend.

To wrap up my post this evening (my friend's family tree is still to be completed), I came across this remarkable tribute to William Jones, who is perhaps best known to chess historians as the author of "Caissa."  Mr. Jones, I never knew thee.  But this online essay revealed more of who you were to my amazed comprehension.  Well, you get it, dontcha, even if my comment is not most elegantly phrased. 

Chess & Sanskrit: Persian Jones in Old Calcutta
Jeremy Bernstein
November 2, 2010

Jones made a list of things he planned to do in India, among them writing a history of chess—at age 17 he had written a Latin poem about chess that can be found translated in some chess anthologies.
I attempted to "illustrate" the English translation of Jones' classic poem with famous paintings to highlight the action throughout the course of the poem.  It was one of the earlier entries at the then fledgling Goddesschess website :)