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:
Pr	SNo	Name	Fed	Title	Rating	Results	SNo	Name	Fed.	Title	Rating
1	1	Kosteniuk, Alexandra	RUS	g	2507	1-0	64	Mezioud, Amina	ALG	wm	2029
2	63	Greeff, Melissa	RSA	wg	2082	0-1	2	Koneru, Humpy	IND	g	2600
3	3	Hou, Yifan	CHN	g	2591	1-0	62	Heredia Serrano, Carla	ECU	wm	2087
4	61	Mona, Khaled	EGY	wg	2093	0-1	4	Kosintseva, Tatiana	RUS	g	2581
5	5	Dzagnidze, Nana	GEO	g	2551	1-0	60	Kagramanov, Dina	CAN	wm	2101
6	59	Aliaga Fernandez, Ingrid Y	PER	wf	2154	0-1	6	Stefanova, Antoaneta	BUL	g	2548
7	7	Muzychuk, Anna	SLO	m	2530	1-0	58	Zuriel, Marisa	ARG	wm	2208
8	57	Yildiz, Betul Cemre	TUR	wm	2225	1/2-1/2	8	Cramling, Pia	SWE	g	2526
9	9	Harika, Dronavalli	IND	m	2525	1/2-1/2	56	Nadig, Kruttika	IND	wg	2230
10	55	Caoili, Arianne	AUS	wm	2242	- +	10	Ju, Wenjun	CHN	wg	2524
11	11	Lahno, Kateryna	UKR	g	2522	1-0	54	Ozturk, Kubra	TUR	wm	2264
12	53	Demina, Julia	RUS	wg	2323	0-1	12	Cmilyte, Viktorija	LTU	g	2514
13	13	Chiburdanidze, Maia	GEO	g	2502	1-0	52	Meenakshi Subbaraman	IND	wg	2328
14	51	Soumya, Swaminathan	IND	wg	2332	0-1	14	Socko, Monika	POL	g	2495
15	15	Sebag, Marie	FRA	g	2494	1-0	50	Vasilevich, Irina	RUS	m	2333
16	49	Baginskaite, Camilla	USA	wg	2336	0-1	16	Ruan, Lufei	CHN	wg	2480
17	17	Mkrtchian, Lilit	ARM	m	2479	1/2-1/2	48	Zhang, Xiaowen	CHN	wg	2339
18	47	Lomineishvili, Maia	GEO	m	2347	0-1	18	Zatonskih, Anna	USA	m	2478
19	19	Zhu, Chen	QAT	g	2477	1-0	46	Muminova, Nafisa	UZB	wm	2360
20	45	Fierro Baquero, Martha L.	ECU	m	2363	0-1	20	Zhao, Xue	CHN	g	2474
21	21	Paehtz, Elisabeth	GER	m	2474	1/2-1/2	44	Zawadzka, Jolanta	POL	wg	2368
22	43	Ding, Yixin	CHN	wg	2370	1-0	22	Hoang Thanh Trang	HUN	g	2473
23	23	Pogonina, Natalija	RUS	wg	2472	0-1	42	Kovanova, Baira	RUS	wg	2380
24	41	Shadrina, Tatiana	RUS	wg	2384	1-0	24	Danielian, Elina	ARM	g	2466
25	25	Muzychuk, Mariya	UKR	m	2462	1-0	40	Cori T., Deysi	PER	wg	2384
26	39	Ovod, Evgenija	RUS	m	2387	1-0	26	Shen, Yang	CHN	wg	2461
27	27	Ushenina, Anna	UKR	m	2460	1/2-1/2	38	Huang, Qian	CHN	wg	2402
28	37	Foisor, Cristina-Adela	ROU	m	2403	1/2-1/2	28	Skripchenko, Almira	FRA	m	2460
29	29	Dembo, Yelena	GRE	m	2454	1/2-1/2	36	Munguntuul, Batkhuyag	MGL	m	2409
30	35	Romanko, Marina	RUS	m	2414	1/2-1/2	30	Zhukova, Natalia	UKR	g	2447
31	31	Rajlich, Iweta	POL	m	2446	- +	34	Houska, Jovanka	ENG	m	2421
32	33	Khukhashvili, Sopiko	GEO	m	2430	1/2-1/2	32	Turova, Irina	RUS	m	2439

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 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
	Table	Pr. N.	Name	Fed.	Title	Rating	Pr. N.	Name	Fed.	Title	Rating
	1	1	Kosteniuk, Alexandra	RUS	g	2507	64	Mezioud, Amina	ALG	wm	2029
	2	2	Koneru, Humpy	IND	g	2600	63	Greeff, Melissa	RSA	wg	2082
	3	3	Hou, Yifan	CHN	g	2591	62	Heredia Serrano, Carla	ECU	wm	2087
	4	4	Kosintseva, Tatiana	RUS	g	2581	61	Mona, Khaled	EGY	wg	2093
	5	5	Dzagnidze, Nana	GEO	g	2551	60	Kagramanov, Dina	CAN	wm	2101
	6	6	Stefanova, Antoaneta	BUL	g	2548	59	Aliaga Fernandez, Ingrid Y	PER	wf	2154
	7	7	Muzychuk, Anna	SLO	m	2530	58	Zuriel, Marisa	ARG	wm	2208
	8	8	Cramling, Pia	SWE	g	2526	57	Yildiz, Betul Cemre	TUR	wm	2225
	9	9	Harika, Dronavalli	IND	m	2525	56	Nadig, Kruttika	IND	wg	2230
	10	10	Ju, Wenjun	CHN	wg	2524	55	Caoili, Arianne	AUS	wm	2242
	11	11	Lahno, Kateryna	UKR	g	2522	54	Ozturk, Kubra	TUR	wm	2264
	12	12	Cmilyte, Viktorija	LTU	g	2514	53	Demina, Julia	RUS	wg	2323
	13	13	Chiburdanidze, Maia	GEO	g	2502	52	Meenakshi Subbaraman	IND	wg	2328
	14	14	Socko, Monika	POL	g	2495	51	Soumya, Swaminathan	IND	wg	2332
	15	15	Sebag, Marie	FRA	g	2494	50	Vasilevich, Irina	RUS	m	2333
	16	16	Ruan, Lufei	CHN	wg	2480	49	Baginskaite, Camilla	USA	wg	2336
	17	17	Mkrtchian, Lilit	ARM	m	2479	48	Zhang, Xiaowen	CHN	wg	2339
	18	18	Zatonskih, Anna	USA	m	2478	47	Lomineishvili, Maia	GEO	m	2347
	19	19	Zhu, Chen	QAT	g	2477	46	Muminova, Nafisa	UZB	wm	2360
	20	20	Zhao, Xue	CHN	g	2474	45	Fierro Baquero, Martha L.	ECU	m	2363
	21	21	Paehtz, Elisabeth	GER	m	2474	44	Zawadzka, Jolanta	POL	wg	2368
	22	22	Hoang Thanh Trang	HUN	g	2473	43	Ding, Yixin	CHN	wg	2370
	23	23	Pogonina, Natalija	RUS	wg	2472	42	Kovanova, Baira	RUS	wg	2380
	24	24	Danielian, Elina	ARM	g	2466	41	Shadrina, Tatiana	RUS	wg	2384
	25	25	Muzychuk, Mariya	UKR	m	2462	40	Cori T., Deysi	PER	wg	2384
	26	26	Shen, Yang	CHN	wg	2461	39	Ovod, Evgenija	RUS	m	2387
	27	27	Ushenina, Anna	UKR	m	2460	38	Huang, Qian	CHN	wg	2402
	28	28	Skripchenko, Almira	FRA	m	2460	37	Foisor, Cristina-Adela	ROU	m	2403
	29	29	Dembo, Yelena	GRE	m	2454	36	Munguntuul, Batkhuyag	MGL	m	2409
	30	30	Zhukova, Natalia	UKR	g	2447	35	Romanko, Marina	RUS	m	2414
	31	31	Rajlich, Iweta	POL	m	2446	34	Houska, Jovanka	ENG	m	2421
	32	32	Turova, Irina	RUS	m	2439	33	Khukhashvili, Sopiko	GEO	m	2430