2012 Chinese Chess Championships

Final Standings.  GM Hou Yifan had a respectable showing, but not as good as 2011 when she finished in clear 5th place with 6.0.11: 

Rk.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	GM	Ding Liren	CHN	2660	8.0	0.0	41.00	5
2	GM	Yu Yangyi	CHN	2615	7.0	0.0	36.25	4
3	GM	Ni Hua	CHN	2637	6.5	0.0	33.75	2
4	GM	Wang Yue	CHN	2702	6.0	0.0	30.00	3
5	GM	Zhao Jun	CHN	2583	5.5	0.5	30.00	3
6	GM	Bu Xiangzhi	CHN	2668	5.5	0.5	28.75	2
7	GM	Li Shilong	CHN	2549	5.0	2.0	24.25	2
8	GM	Hou Yifan	CHN	2639	5.0	1.5	29.50	1
9	GM	Zhou Jianchao	CHN	2625	5.0	1.5	25.50	2
10	GM	Lu Shanglei	CHN	2514	5.0	1.0	25.00	3
11	IM	Liu Qingnan	CHN	2461	4.5	0.0	26.00	1
12	IM	Wang Chen	CHN	2490	3.0	0.0	15.00	3

Women Only Championship:

Rk.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	WGM	Huang Qian	CHN	2399	8.0	0.5	40.00	5
2	WGM	Zhang Xiaowen	CHN	2354	8.0	0.5	39.00	5
3	WGM	Ju Wenjun	CHN	2557	7.0	0.0	34.00	4
4	WGM	Guo Qi	CHN	2351	6.5	0.5	31.50	4
5	IM	Wang Yu A	CHN	2372	6.5	0.5	31.50	3
6	WGM	Tan Zhongyi	CHN	2438	6.0	0.5	32.00	1
7		Wang Jue	CHN	2366	6.0	0.5	26.00	5
8	WGM	Ding Yixin	CHN	2350	5.5	0.0	27.25	2
9		Nie Xin	CHN	2053	4.0	0.5	18.00	2
10	WGM	Gu Xiaobing	CHN	2257	4.0	0.5	16.75	2
11	WIM	Wang Xiaohui	CHN	2209	3.0	0.0	15.75	0
12		Wang Doudou	CHN	2186	1.5	0.0	7.25	0

2012 Chinese Chess Championships

Rank after Round 10

Rk.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	GM	Ding Liren	CHN	2660	7.5	0.0	34.00	5
2	GM	Yu Yangyi	CHN	2615	7.0	0.0	33.00	4
3	GM	Ni Hua	CHN	2637	6.0	0.0	26.75	2
4	GM	Lu Shanglei	CHN	2514	5.0	2.0	22.25	3
5	GM	Wang Yue	CHN	2702	5.0	1.0	24.25	2
6	GM	Bu Xiangzhi	CHN	2668	5.0	0.0	24.25	2
7	GM	Hou Yifan	CHN	2639	4.5	1.0	24.25	1
8	GM	Zhao Jun	CHN	2583	4.5	0.5	22.00	2
9	GM	Li Shilong	CHN	2549	4.5	0.5	19.75	2
10	IM	Liu Qingnan	CHN	2461	4.0	0.5	21.50	1
11	GM	Zhou Jianchao	CHN	2625	4.0	0.5	17.00	1
12	IM	Wang Chen	CHN	2490	3.0	0.0	13.00	3

Rank after Round 10

Rk.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	WGM	Huang Qian	CHN	2399	7.5	0.0	35.00	5
2	WGM	Zhang Xiaowen	CHN	2354	7.0	0.0	31.75	4
3	WGM	Ju Wenjun	CHN	2557	6.5	0.0	29.00	4
4		Wang Jue	CHN	2366	6.0	1.0	24.00	5
5	IM	Wang Yu A	CHN	2372	6.0	0.0	25.75	3
6	WGM	Guo Qi	CHN	2351	5.5	0.5	27.25	3
7	WGM	Tan Zhongyi	CHN	2438	5.5	0.5	26.00	1
8	WGM	Ding Yixin	CHN	2350	4.5	0.0	19.50	1
9		Nie Xin	CHN	2053	4.0	0.0	16.00	2
10	WGM	Gu Xiaobing	CHN	2257	3.5	0.0	11.75	2
11	WIM	Wang Xiaohui	CHN	2209	2.5	0.0	10.75	0
12		Wang Doudou	CHN	2186	1.5	0.0	6.25	0

Woooo Woooo!

Just a quick note!  Goddesschess blog has gone over 500,000 page views sometime between yesterday and today and we're very happy about that.  Yeah, that number is nothing compared to what the largest and most popular chess websites receive on a daily basis, but considering we're just a little poopnoodle blog about Chess, Goddess, and Everything, we're very happy and grateful to our fans for supporting us all these years.  Thank you, darlings!

2007 Goddesschess anniversary celebration.  Mr. Don photographed our reflections in the "bubble" at
Millennium Park in downtown Chicago, Illinois, USA.  It was damn hot and steamy that day!

The Goddesschess crew will be celebrating the 13th anniversary of the Goddesschess website online on May 6, 2012.  Since April, 2007 when this blog was started up, Goddesschess also features a weekly "Random Round-up" to provide our viewers with new and intriguing content.  We have continued to work hard to bring you new and original content on ancient board games, the development and theory of board games, cards, dice, etc., and of course, chess, by historians, writers, researchers, archaeologists, anthropologists and interested "amateurs" (such as ourselves, ahem).  Check out the latest additions to Ch'Essays, Chesstories, and Chess Quest.  Our very newest addition (not yet added to a category), is Stewart Culin's "Chess and Playing Cards" abstracted from his 1908 "report" to the United States Museum of National History, a/k/a The Smithsonian. 

Lady Ka-Nefer-Nefer Can Stay in the USA

From The Washington Post
Federal judge rules 3,200-year-old Egyptian mummy mask can remain at St. Louis Art Museum

By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, April 5, 5:40 PMAP

Lady Ka-Nefer-Nefer - looking pretty
good for being 3200 years old.  Got to
get me some of that khol.

ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis museum can keep hold of a 3,200-year-old mummy’s mask, a federal judge has ruled, saying the U.S. government failed to prove that the Egyptian relic was ever stolen.
Prosecutors said the funeral mask of Lady Ka-Nefer-Nefer went missing from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo about 40 years ago and that it should be returned to its country of origin. The St. Louis Art Museum said it researched the provenance of the mask and legitimately purchased it in 1998 from a New York art dealer.
U.S. District Judge Henry Autry in St. Louis sided with the museum.

The U.S. government “does not provide a factual statement of theft, smuggling or clandestine importation,” Autry wrote in the March 31 ruling.

“The Government cannot simply rest on its laurels and believe that it can initiate a civil forfeiture proceeding on the basis of one bold assertion that because something went missing from one party in 1973 and turned up with another party in 1998, it was therefore stolen and/or imported or exported illegally,” the judge wrote.

A message left with Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities was not returned.

The 20-inch-long funeral mask of painted and gilded plaster-coated linen over wood with inlaid glass eyes was excavated from one of the Saqqara pyramids, about 16 miles south of Cairo, in 1952. Ka-Nefer-Nefer was a noblewoman who lived from 1295 BC to 1186 BC.

U.S. government investigators suspect the mask was stolen sometime between 1966, when it was shipped to Cairo for an exhibit, and 1973, when the Egyptian Museum discovered it was missing.
The art museum bought the mask in 1998 for $499,000 from a New York art dealer, and it has been on display at the museum in Forest Park ever since.

U.S. Attorney Richard Callahan said a decision on whether to appeal has not been made.

“We’re just looking to make sure we haven’t missed the tiniest bit of circumstantial evidence,” Callahan said. “We’re back to the drawing board and studying it.”

Museum officials have said they researched the mask’s ownership history before buying it and had no indication there were questions about how it arrived in the U.S. The museum’s research showed the mask was part of the Kaloterna private collection during the 1960s, before a Croatian collector, Zuzi Jelinek, bought it in Switzerland and later sold it to Phoenix Ancient Art of New York in 1995. The art museum purchased the mask from Phoenix Ancient Art.

St. Louis Art Museum attorney David Linenbroker said the museum is confident the ruling will mean that the mask can remain permanently in St. Louis.

“We don’t have any interest in possessing a stolen object,” Linenbroker said. “We’ve been facing all this innuendo for years.”

He said the legal process provided an opportunity for someone to prove the mask had been stolen, but no one did.

“We’re confident we’re the rightful owner,” Linenbroker said.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

The Reconstructed Lion Figure of Stadelhole

I think I've posted about this previously, but this is a fairly current article from Archaeology Magazine online and it gives a lot of good background/details about the painstaking reconstruction process of this fragile mammoth ivory figurine originally excavated in 1939.

New Life for the Lion Man

Volume 65 Number 2, March/April 2012

by Jarrett A. Lobell

Using recently uncovered fragments, archaeologists may be able to finally piece together one of the world’s oldest works of art 

On August 25, 1939, archaeologists working at a Paleolithic site called Stadelhole (“stable cave”) at Hohlenstein (“hollow rock”) in southern Germany, uncovered hundreds of mammoth ivory fragments. Just one week later, before they could complete their fieldwork and analyze the finds, World War II began. The team was forced to quickly fill the excavation trenches using the same soil in which they found the ivory pieces. For the next three decades, the fragments sat in storage at the nearby City Museum of Ulm, until archaeologist Joachim Hahn began an inventory. As Hahn pieced together more than 200 fragments, an extraordinary artifact dating to the Aurignacian period (more than 30,000 years ago) began to emerge. It was clearly a figure with both human and animal characteristics. However, only a small part of the head and the left ear had been found, so the type of creature it represented remained a mystery.

Between 1972 and 1975, additional fragments from excavation seasons in the 1960s, which had been stored elsewhere, and still others picked up from the cave’s floor, were taken to the museum. Yet it took until 1982 for paleontologist Elizabeth Schmidt to put the new pieces together with Hahn’s earlier reconstruction. Schmidt not only corrected several old errors, but also added parts of the nose and mouth that made it clear that the figurine had a cat’s head. Although the artifact is often called Lowenmensch (the “lion man”), the word mensch is not specifically male in German, and neither the gender of the animal nor of its human parts is discernible. Five years later, to conserve the figurine, the glue that held it together was dissolved. It was then carefully put back together, revealing that only about two thirds of the original had actually been recovered.

This changed in 2008, when archaeologist Claus-Joachim Kind returned to the site at Hohlenstein. Kind removed the old backfill from the hastily concluded excavation of 1939. Over the next three years, Kind’s team found several hundred more small mammoth ivory fragments. “In 2009, when we found the first ones, it was a huge surprise,” says Kind. “But this is exactly the spot where the fragments of the figurine were originally found, so I knew right away that some belonged to the lion man. It had clearly been damaged during the earlier excavations. Only the larger pieces were collected and the smaller ones left behind,” he adds. Kind was able to fit several of the new pieces to form part of the back and neck, and a computer simulation of the lion man was created, showing the placement of several more previously unattached fragments. “At the end of the 2011 season, all the backfill will have been removed. There will be no more pieces left,” says Kind. “We hope that the lion man will finally be complete.”

Jarrett A. Lobell is executive editor at ARCHAEOLOGY.

© 2012 by the Archaeological Institute of America

Compare to the much later, but equally beautiful, Guennol Lioness Demon (Guennol Lioness). Mesopotamian, Proto-Elamite (Iran), ca. 3000-2800 B.C. White magnesite or crystalline limestone. H. 8.8 cm (3 1/2 in.); W. 6.2 cm (2 1/2 in.). She was sold at auction for over $57 million in 2007 to a private collector from amother private collection.  The proceeds went to the former owner's charitable trust.  Her legs are missing - they were thought to have been made of gold or silver.

 

2012 Chinese Chess Championships

Two more rounds to go!

Rank after Round 9

Rk.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	GM	Ding Liren	CHN	2660	7.0	0.0	28.75	5
2	GM	Yu Yangyi	CHN	2615	6.5	0.0	27.50	4
3	GM	Ni Hua	CHN	2637	5.0	0.0	21.50	1
4	GM	Lu Shanglei	CHN	2514	4.5	2.0	18.25	3
5	GM	Wang Yue	CHN	2702	4.5	1.0	19.50	2
6	GM	Bu Xiangzhi	CHN	2668	4.5	0.0	18.50	2
7	GM	Zhou Jianchao	CHN	2625	4.0	1.0	15.50	1
8	GM	Hou Yifan	CHN	2639	4.0	0.5	19.25	1
9	GM	Li Shilong	CHN	2549	4.0	0.5	15.50	2
10	GM	Zhao Jun	CHN	2583	3.5	1.0	16.00	1
11	IM	Liu Qingnan	CHN	2461	3.5	0.0	16.25	1
12	IM	Wang Chen	CHN	2490	3.0	0.0	11.00	3

Rank after Round 9

Rk.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	WGM	Huang Qian	CHN	2399	7.0	0.0	28.50	5
2	WGM	Zhang Xiaowen	CHN	2354	6.5	0.0	26.00	4
3	WGM	Guo Qi	CHN	2351	5.5	1.0	24.25	3
4	WGM	Ju Wenjun	CHN	2557	5.5	1.0	21.00	3
5		Wang Jue	CHN	2366	5.5	0.0	17.50	5
6	IM	Wang Yu A	CHN	2372	5.0	0.0	21.75	2
7	WGM	Tan Zhongyi	CHN	2438	5.0	0.0	20.25	1
8	WGM	Ding Yixin	CHN	2350	4.0	0.0	15.75	1
9		Nie Xin	CHN	2053	3.5	0.0	13.75	2
10	WGM	Gu Xiaobing	CHN	2257	3.0	0.0	8.50	2
11	WIM	Wang Xiaohui	CHN	2209	2.0	0.0	7.75	0
12		Wang Doudou	CHN	2186	1.5	0.0	5.50	0

Animal Effigy Mounds in Peru?

So, does this shed any light on whether mound building spread from the north to the south, or from the south to the north? Or was it concurrent in both Peru and North America? And if so, does that say anything about possible immigration patterns from the Old World to the New World?

Mysterious Animal-Shaped Structures Are Oldest Known

Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer

Date: 29 March 2012 Time: 12:11 PM ET

Manmade mounds shaped like orcas, condors and even a duck may be the oldest evidence of animal mounds outside of North America, according to former University of Missouri anthropologist.

Writing in the magazine Antiquity, Robert Benfer, a professor emeritus, describes a series of mounds, some more than 1,300 feet (400 meters) across, in coastal valleys in Peru. Archaeological evidence at the sites pegs some at more than 4,000 years old.

"It's going to shake everybody's views," Benfer told LiveScience. "The previous oldest animal figures were at Nazca and they're 2,000 years old."

The Nazca Lines are simple stone outlines of animals decorating the Nazca Desert in Peru. Like the newly discovered mounds, they may have had ritual significance. In addition, the shapes likely coincided with the constellations these ancient people saw in the Milky Way.

"Ancient" Statue a Fraud

Fascinating!  So, the original charges of  "looting antiquities" are going to have to be amended to "attempted sale of FAKE antiquities."  LOL! 

From BBC News
3 April 2012 Last updated at 11:23 ET

'Ancient' Greek statue found in sheep pen is fake

Fake antiquity!

An "ancient" Greek statue found in a sheep pen north-west of Athens last week has now been deemed a fake.

At first, archaeologists at Greece's Culture ministry thought the figure of a woman dated from the 6th century BC.  Now, a closer examination has found moulding marks and traces of bubbles which prove it is a copy, sources at the ministry told news agencies.

Two men were arrested last week for allegedly trying to sell the statue for half a million euros (£417,000).   They are currently awaiting trial on charges of looting antiquities.

The figure is 1.2m (4ft) tall and depicts an archaic maiden, but experts are now certain it is a cast rather than an original sculpture.

They say it is an identical copy of a statue found in the Acropolis in Athens, and not an item of "priceless historical value" as originally thought.

2012 Chinese Chess Championships

Rank after Round 8

Rk.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	GM	Ding Liren	CHN	2660	6.5	0.0	22.75	5
2	GM	Yu Yangyi	CHN	2615	6.0	0.0	20.75	4
3	GM	Ni Hua	CHN	2637	4.5	0.0	17.00	1
4	GM	Lu Shanglei	CHN	2514	4.0	1.0	14.50	3
5	GM	Wang Yue	CHN	2702	4.0	0.0	15.25	2
6	IM	Liu Qingnan	CHN	2461	3.5	2.0	14.50	1
7	GM	Bu Xiangzhi	CHN	2668	3.5	2.0	13.50	1
8	GM	Zhou Jianchao	CHN	2625	3.5	2.0	12.00	1
9	GM	Hou Yifan	CHN	2639	3.5	1.0	14.50	1
10	GM	Li Shilong	CHN	2549	3.5	1.0	11.75	2
11	IM	Wang Chen	CHN	2490	3.0	0.0	9.50	3
12	GM	Zhao Jun	CHN	2583	2.5	0.0	11.00	0

Rank after Round 8

Rk.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	WGM	Huang Qian	CHN	2399	6.0	0.5	23.00	4
2	WGM	Zhang Xiaowen	CHN	2354	6.0	0.5	20.25	4
3	WGM	Guo Qi	CHN	2351	5.0	0.0	19.50	3
4	WGM	Ju Wenjun	CHN	2557	4.5	2.0	17.00	2
5		Wang Jue	CHN	2366	4.5	1.5	12.75	4
6	WGM	Tan Zhongyi	CHN	2438	4.5	1.0	17.25	1
7	IM	Wang Yu A	CHN	2372	4.5	0.5	16.75	2
8	WGM	Ding Yixin	CHN	2350	3.5	1.0	11.75	1
9		Nie Xin	CHN	2053	3.5	0.0	12.50	2
10	WGM	Gu Xiaobing	CHN	2257	3.0	0.0	7.75	2
11	WIM	Wang Xiaohui	CHN	2209	1.5	0.5	4.75	0
		Wang Doudou	CHN	2186	1.5	0.5	4.75	0

All I Want for Easter: The Serpent and the Egg

Wow!  Faberge is opening a "shop" on Madison Avenue in New York City.  I wouldn't even be able to afford to cross the threshhold, but stare in the windows - you betcha, darlings!

Oooooooooooooooh, as Bambi and Candi, those famous (some say infamous) Las Vegas Show Girls are wont to say...

Bambi:  Candi, you noticed, of course, the serpentine theme in conjunction with the egg.  In effect, this is a form of the Universe put into miniature to wear around one's neck.

Candi:  Cool!  I just want to go visit that store, don't you, Bambi? 

Bambi:  Ooooooooooooooooooh, to be sure. 

Candi:  You know, Bambi, I am wondering whether she might not have got her inspiration for this fabulous necklace design from William Blake.

Bambi:  William Blake?  Oh Candi, I'm soooooo proud of you!  You've been dipping into the books in our Library again, haven't you.

Candi:  Well, yes, I have.  I just love looking at all of the pretty pictures:

(Image from blog William Blake's Spiritual Journey).

Bambi:  Well, you can't depict it any more clearly can you, Candi?  The Serpent and the Egg.

Candi:  Eggactly. 

From Vogue Online:

Fabergé Whips Up An Outrageous Egg for Easter

by Emily Holt

When it comes to decorated eggs (and with Easter around the corner, why shouldn’t it?), Fabergé is the epitome of opulence.

You don’t see many of its elaborately jeweled, over-the-top golden orbs on display these days, but that could change in May when the storied house opens its first stateside store on Madison Avenue in New York.

To celebrate, creative and managing director Katharina Flohr has designed a one-of-a-kind necklace inspired by the only Fabergé egg to have ever been commissioned by an American: an ornate, pink wonder created in 1902 for Consuelo, Duchess of Marlborough, née Vanderbilt. (Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg is currently the proud owner.) “Of all the eggs, I think it’s the most beautiful,” says Flohr. “It’s the one I would want to own. I’m just so taken by the elegance of the color and its luminosity.”

So spellbound was she that Flohr took over a year to interpret the objet into wearable art, perfecting its vibrant peony hue. The pendant itself is the size of a chicken egg. “It’s not delicate,” she admits with a laugh. Around it is coiled a serpent sparkling with 580 diamonds—similar to the snake that slithers up the front of the original sculpture— and from it dangles a tassel of pearls and diamond briolettes.

Worn low on the décolletage, “it has that sort of sophistication, that effortlessness and glamour that is very American,” Flohr says. And how does she envision a woman of great liquid and cosmic fortune wearing it? Well, in a very American way. “I’m imagining it with a big Oscar de la Renta skirt,” she says, “and a white button-down shirt.” [Oh please!  The necklace is gorgeous but this woman's fashion sense for how this necklace should be worn - meh.]

April 02, 2012 2:31 p.m.                               

 

 

2012 Chinese Chess Championships

Getting to crunch time, and GM Hou Yifan dropped a spot:

Rank after Round 7

Rk.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	GM	Ding Liren	CHN	2660	6.0	0.0	19.50	5
2	GM	Yu Yangyi	CHN	2615	5.0	0.0	15.25	3
3	GM	Ni Hua	CHN	2637	4.0	0.5	12.75	1
4	GM	Wang Yue	CHN	2702	4.0	0.5	12.50	2
5	GM	Li Shilong	CHN	2549	3.5	0.0	10.00	2
6	IM	Wang Chen	CHN	2490	3.0	2.0	8.00	3
7	IM	Liu Qingnan	CHN	2461	3.0	1.5	11.25	1
8	GM	Zhou Jianchao	CHN	2625	3.0	1.5	9.50	1
9	GM	Lu Shanglei	CHN	2514	3.0	1.5	9.00	2
10	GM	Hou Yifan	CHN	2639	3.0	0.5	10.25	1
11	GM	Bu Xiangzhi	CHN	2668	2.5	0.0	8.50	0
12	GM	Zhao Jun	CHN	2583	2.0	0.0	7.00	0

Rank after Round 7

Rk.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	WGM	Huang Qian	CHN	2399	5.5	0.0	17.50	4
2	WGM	Zhang Xiaowen	CHN	2354	5.0	0.0	16.25	3
3	WGM	Guo Qi	CHN	2351	4.5	0.0	14.50	3
4	WGM	Ju Wenjun	CHN	2557	4.0	1.5	13.00	2
5		Wang Jue	CHN	2366	4.0	1.0	9.00	4
6	WGM	Tan Zhongyi	CHN	2438	4.0	0.5	13.00	1
7	IM	Wang Yu A	CHN	2372	4.0	0.0	12.75	2
8	WGM	Ding Yixin	CHN	2350	3.0	1.0	9.75	1
9		Nie Xin	CHN	2053	3.0	0.0	9.50	2
10	WGM	Gu Xiaobing	CHN	2257	2.5	0.0	5.00	2
11	WIM	Wang Xiaohui	CHN	2209	1.5	0.0	4.00	0
12		Wang Doudou	CHN	2186	1.0	0.0	2.75	0

Fatma Neslişah Osmanoğlu, or Neslişah Sultan, Has Died

I hope her children gave her joy.  I hope she loved her husband and that he loved her.  I am happy for her sake that she was able to return to her beloved homeland and lived there for many years; but always, it seems, with a whisper of nostalgia and sadness for the things that used to be, and never will be again. 

Twice-exiled former Ottoman princess dies

By SUZAN FRASER | Associated Press – 8 hrs ago

The princess, daughter and son. Photo
from video - see link at end of article.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Neslisah Osmanoglu, an Ottoman princess who married an Egyptian prince and was twice forced into exile when both royal households were abolished, has died. She was 91.

Neslisah Sultan, or Princess Neslisah, died in Istanbul on Monday, according to her nephew, Abdulhamid Kayihan Osmanoglu. He didn't give the cause of death, but new reports said it was a heart attack. A funeral ceremony was being held Tuesday for the princess, who was the oldest member of the Ottoman dynasty.

Neslisah Sultan was born in Istanbul on Feb. 4, 1921, two years before the Turkish Republic replaced the Ottoman Empire, which had ruled Turkey, parts of the Middle East and eastern Europe for 600 years. Her grandfather, the last Ottoman Sultan Vahdettin, and all other members of the dynasty were sent into exile in 1924, and the princess spent her childhood and adolescence in Nice, France, before moving to Egypt.

"When we were in exile we lived longing for the country," she told historian Murat Bardakci, whose biography of the princess was published last year. "My mother had friends who would go to Istanbul. I would ask them to bring me back a bit of soil from Istanbul, but none did."

Ottoman princesses were traditionally married to members of Muslim royal families, and in 1940, Neslihan Sultan married Egyptian Prince Muhammed Abdel Monem. Prince Monem headed a regency committee that ruled from July 1952 to June 1953, when the new rulers of Egypt turned the country into a republic. The royal couple were placed under house arrest, accused of being part of an international plot against the Egyptian government of Gamal Abdel Nasser, but acquitted and forced to leave the country.

Exiled for a second time, Neslisah Sultan returned to live in France with her husband. In 1952, the Turkish government allowed female members of the Ottoman family to return to Turkey, and the prince and princess moved to Istanbul in 1957.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan praised the late princess. "She was the poster-child for nobleness who carried the blood of Osman," he said in Parliament, referring to Osman I, the Anatolian ruler who established the Ottoman Empire. "We remember her with high regard and our blessings."

The princess took the surname Osmanoglu, or son of Osman, along with other surviving members of the dynasty.

"When I go out in the streets, I see that all nice things were built by my grandfathers," she told Bardakci. "I therefore cannot help think that they belong to me. I feel like I am a part of this place and that I belong to this land."

Prince Monem, who was born in 1899, died in Istanbul in 1979. Neslisah Sultan is survived by a son, daughter and a grandson.

Associated Press writer Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed.


April 3, 2012:  From Today's Zaman
Eldest Ottoman princess, Neslişah Osmanoğlu, buried in İstanbul

Interesting You-Tube video
La Princess Neslishah Sultan Ottomane

Durga Pooja in Full Swing in India

Indian devotees dance during the immersion of idol to the Hindu goddess Durga, Agartala, India, April 2, 2012. Vasant Durga Puja is observed during the Chaitra Navratri festival that is significantly performed during the Spring season. (Arindam Dey/Demotix/Corbis)  From ABC's Today in Pictures. 

Texas Tech's Knight Raiders Repeat as National Collegiate Champs

Congratulations to Texas Tech University and its chess program.  Another national trophy for the display cabinets.  Will it be the last one?  As those who follow chess may know, GM Susan Polgar is departing Lubbock for St. Louis and a university no one has ever heard of, and most of the top chess players she recruited to the Texas Tech Knight Raiders are going with her.  Texas Tech's chess program has been effectively gutted.

Report from kcbd.com

Texas Tech chess team repeats as National Champions
Posted: Apr 01, 2012 10:42 PM CDT
Updated: Apr 01, 2012 10:42 PM CDT

Provided by Texas Tech University:

The Texas Tech University Knight Raiders are national champions – again.

For the second straight year the Knight Raiders won the President's Cup, a premier event that is known as the Final Four of College Chess and determines the country's top intercollegiate team.

The three-day event in Washington D.C. began Friday and concluded Sunday with the Knight Raiders repeating as national champions with eight points. The University of Texas at Dallas and University of Maryland Baltimore County finished second with 7.5 points each, and New York University finished fourth.

Susan Polgar, Knight Raiders head coach and director of the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE), is the first woman in history to lead a men's Division I team to two straight national championships.

"It was total teamwork. Nothing was decided until the final second," Polgar said. "We are very proud and happy to bring another Final Four Championship to Texas Tech."

Knight Raiders who participated in the tournament are GM Georg Meier, a freshman finance major from Germany; GM Elshan Mordiabadi, a business graduate student from Iran; GM Anatoly Bykhovsky, a sophomore finance major from Israel; and GM Andre Diamant, a sophomore economics major from Brazil. Also in accompaniment are two alternates: GM Denes Boros, a sophomore psychology major from Hungary; and IM Vitaly Neimer, a freshman finance major from Israel.

The SPICE program is a unit of the Division of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement.

2012 Chinese Chess Championships

Rank after Round 6

Rk.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	GM	Ding Liren	CHN	2660	5.0	0.0	14.00	4
2	GM	Yu Yangyi	CHN	2615	4.0	0.0	10.25	2
3	GM	Ni Hua	CHN	2637	3.5	0.0	9.50	1
4	GM	Wang Yue	CHN	2702	3.5	0.0	9.00	2
5	GM	Li Shilong	CHN	2549	3.5	0.0	8.25	2
6	GM	Zhou Jianchao	CHN	2625	3.0	0.0	7.75	1
7	IM	Liu Qingnan	CHN	2461	2.5	1.0	8.50	1
8	GM	Hou Yifan	CHN	2639	2.5	0.0	8.00	1
9	GM	Lu Shanglei	CHN	2514	2.5	0.0	5.75	2
10	GM	Zhao Jun	CHN	2583	2.0	0.5	6.25	0
	GM	Bu Xiangzhi	CHN	2668	2.0	0.5	6.25	0
12	IM	Wang Chen	CHN	2490	2.0	0.0	5.00	2

Rank after Round 6

Rk.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	WGM	Huang Qian	CHN	2399	4.5	0.0	13.25	3
2	WGM	Guo Qi	CHN	2351	4.5	0.0	12.75	3
3	WGM	Zhang Xiaowen	CHN	2354	4.0	0.0	11.00	2
4		Wang Jue	CHN	2366	4.0	0.0	8.00	4
5	IM	Wang Yu A	CHN	2372	3.5	0.0	10.25	2
6	WGM	Ju Wenjun	CHN	2557	3.5	0.0	9.50	2
7	WGM	Tan Zhongyi	CHN	2438	3.0	0.0	9.00	0
8	WGM	Ding Yixin	CHN	2350	2.5	0.0	5.75	1
9	WGM	Gu Xiaobing	CHN	2257	2.5	0.0	4.00	2
10		Nie Xin	CHN	2053	2.0	0.0	4.25	1
11		Wang Doudou	CHN	2186	1.0	0.5	2.00	0
12	WIM	Wang Xiaohui	CHN	2209	1.0	0.5	1.75	0

Article at Chessbase.com, March 31, 2012