Man Ray Chess Set

Every now and then The Wall Street Journal features a chess set.  Maybe I've featured this particular "set" before, or maybe not.  It's beautiful, either way.

TECHNOLOGY

September 14, 2012, 5:52 p.m. ET

The Board Game Upgrade Your Chess Set

Man Ray designed this chess set in 1920 using found objects from his studio. Most of the pieces are geometric models made for still-life drawing (the king is a pyramid, the queen a cone, the rook a cube, the pawn a sphere). The knight—the finial of a violin—was fashioned from a box of abandoned violin necks.

Only a handful were ever produced (the maharajah of Indore commissioned a set made from silver-plated brass). This re-edition is rendered in wood, as Man Ray originally intended, and is based on a set housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

To play with this set is to create a slow moving, sculptural tableau. You'll want to take your time pondering your next move. $210, ameico.com

Who's That Lady...

...who's that lady?  Beautiful lady...who's that lady?

Lyrics from the Isley Brothers "Who's That Lady"

Who's that lady (who's that lady)
Beautiful lady (who's that lady)
Lovely lady (who's that lady)
Real fine lady (who's that lady)
Hear me callin' out to you
'Cause it's all that I can do
Your eyes tell me to pursue
But you say look yeah, but don't touch, baby
...

Reported at Yahoo News yesterday, I was just too tired to put it up last night, and fighting yawns right now but I'm struggling to stay awake to watch the finale of the Packers knock off the Bears on Thursday Night Football (NFL). 

Battle-Bruised Skeleton May Be King Richard III

By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Managing Editor | LiveScience.com – Wed, Sep 12, 2012

 

A human skeleton with a cleaved skull discovered beneath a parking lot in England may belong to King Richard III, researchers announced today (Sept. 12), though they have a long way to go in analyzing the bones to determine the identity.

The researchers note they are not saying they have found King Richard III's remains, but that they are moving into the next phase of their search, from the field to the laboratory.

"[W]e are clearly very excited, but the University now must subject the findings to rigorous analysis. DNA analysis will take up to 12 weeks," Richard Taylor, the director of corporate affairs at the University of Leicester, told reporters this morning, as recorded in a tweet.

The remains were hidden within the choir of a medieval church known as Greyfriars, where the English monarch was thought to be buried. Though the location of this church had been lost, historical records suggested Richard III was buried there upon his death in battle in 1485.

Two skeletons were discovered: a female skeleton that was broken apart at the joints was discovered in what is believed to be the Presbytery of the lost Church; the other skeleton, which appears to be an adult male, was found in the church choir and shows signs of trauma to the skull and back before death, which would be consistent with a battle injury, the researchers said.

"A bladed implement appears to have cleaved part of the rear of the skull," according to a University of Leicester statement.

In addition, a barbed metal arrowhead was lodged between the vertebrae of the male skeleton's upper back, Taylor said, adding that the spinal abnormalities suggest the individual had severe scoliosis, though was not a hunchback, as he was portrayed by Shakespeare in the play of the king's name.
Even so, the scoliosis seen in the skeleton would've made the man's right shoulder appear visibly higher than the left one. "This is consistent with contemporary accounts of Richard’s appearance," according to the university statement.

University of Leicester archaeologists began excavating the parking lot of the Leicester City Council building on Aug. 25, in search of the church and the king's remains. Since then, they have turned up the Franciscan friary, a 17th-century garden thought to hold a memorial to the king and various other artifacts.

On Aug. 31, the dig team applied to the Ministry of Justice for permission to begin exhuming the two skeletons, a process that began on Sept. 4.

"We are hopeful that we will recover DNA from the skeleton," University of Leicester geneticist Turi King said at the briefing, as recorded in a tweet by the university.

The king's tales

King Richard III ruled for England two years, from 1483 to 1485, before dying in the Battle of Bosworth Field, part of the War of the Roses, an English civil war between the House of Lancaster and the House of York.

A century later, William Shakespeare penned "Richard III," a play about the tragic king — the last English king to die in battle.

The king seemed to have his own following. "Richard III is a charismatic figure who attracts tremendous interest, partly because he has been so much maligned in past centuries, and partly because he occupies a pivotal place in English history," Philippa Langley, a representative of the Richard III society, said in a statement.

"The continuing interest in Richard means that many fables have grown up around his grave," Langley added. For instance, one far-fetched tale described his bones being thrown into the Soar River.

"Other fables, equally discredited, claimed that his coffin was used as a horse-trough," Langley said.
On Sept. 7, the archaeologists announced they had found medieval paving stones that may belong to a garden built in tribute to the king by Robert Herrick, a mayor of Leicester. The garden, and a mansion, was supposedly built over the church where Richard III was buried. In 1612, Christopher Wren, father of the famous architect, recorded seeing a 3-foot (1-meter) stone pillar in Herrick's garden memorializing the king. The pillar held the inscription: "Here lies the body of Richard III sometime King of England."

The bones will now undergo laboratory analyses, including DNA tests, which will be led by University of Leicester geneticist Turi King. The results could then be compared to those of a direct descendant of Richard's sister, who was uncovered by John Ashdown-Hill, author of "The Last Days of Richard III." From those remains, scientists have mitochondrial DNA, or the DNA inside the cell's energy-making structures, which gets passed down only by mothers.

***********************************************************

All the hoo-haaa is about Richard III, but I want to know -- WHO'S THAT LADY?  Is anyone even looking a her bones?  Can she be connected to Richard III (if it IS Richard III)?  Will DNA analysis be run on her to determine if she is from a family that reported a missing or dead female relative back in the day?  What's up with the joints?  I posted about this at Yahoo News where the article appeared, and a couple of posters suggested that the woman might have been tortured on the rack.  OHMYGODDESS!  Not just any one was tortured back then, despite what we may think. 

Is it just a coincidence that her remains were discovered in what is believed to be the PRESBYTERY, where the priests lived (or the space where they worked in the church)?  Good Grief!  Was she killed for jollies by some "holy men?" Her burial dates back to before the Roman Catholic Church was banned in England by King Henry VIII and the churches and monasteries were destroyed on his orders in the 1500s. 

I hope we will hear more about this woman in the future.

Ladies: Would YOU Behead a Man Who Raped YOU?

I asked myself that question after I read this story, and I don't know how to answer it.  What WOULD I do in such a situation?

The original story is at CNN

Turkish woman awaits trial after beheading her alleged rapist

From Talia Kayali, CNN

updated 9:21 AM EDT, Thu September 6, 2012

 

(CNN) -- A woman in Turkey is awaiting trial after beheading a man who she says raped her repeatedly for months and is the father of her unborn child. Her lawyer says the woman killed the man to protect her honor.

 

Nevin Yildirim, a 26-year-old mother of two, lives in a small village in southwestern Turkey. She said the man, Nurettin Gider, began the attacks a few days after her husband left in January for a seasonal job in another town, according to a source close to the case.

 

Yildirim said Gider threatened her with a gun and said he would kill her children, ages 2 and 6, if she made any noise, according to the source. That was the first of repeated rapes over the next eight months, the source said.

 

At one point, Yildirim said, Gider sneaked into her house while she was asleep and took pictures of her, the source said. One of the pictures shows her pregnant body. Gider threatened to publish the pictures if she didn't obey him, the source said.

 

In small villages like hers, honor is held above all else, and women carry the burden of honor for their families. Pictures like those would have been devastating for Yildirim and her family and could have posed a danger.

 

On August 28, at least five months pregnant by a man who she said continued to rape her, Yildirim said she decided she had had enough. Gider was climbing up the back wall of her house. "I knew he was going to rape me again," she said at her preliminary hearing August 30.

 

She said she grabbed her father-in-law's rifle that was hanging on the wall and she shot him. He tried to draw his gun and she fired again.

 

"I chased him," she said. "He fell on the ground. He started cussing. I shot his sexual organ this time. He became quiet. I knew he was dead. I then cut his head off."

 

Witnesses described Yildirim walking into the village square, carrying the man's head by his hair, blood dripping on the ground.

 

"Don't talk behind my back, don't play with my honor," Yildirim said to the men sitting in the coffee house on the square. "Here is the head of the man who played with my honor."

 

She threw Gider's head to the ground, the witnesses said. Video from Turkish broadcaster DHA, which arrived on the scene before the authorities, showed Gider's head on the ground.

Witnesses called authorities and Yildirim was arrested.

 

Gider was 35 and the father of two children, 15 and 9. He was married to an aunt of Yildirim's husband.

 

Yildirim told her legal representative she regrets what happened, the source said.

 

"I thought of reporting him to military police and to the district attorney, but this was going to mark me as a scorned woman," Yildirim said, according to the source. "Since I was going to get a bad reputation I decided to clean my honor and acted on killing him. I thought of suicide a lot but couldn't do it."

 

Yildirim said she was worried people would judge her children because of what happened, the source said.

 

"Now no one can call my children bastards," she said, according to the source. "I cleaned my honor. Everyone will call them the children of the woman who cleaned her honor."

 

The source said Yildirim went to a health clinic a while ago seeking an abortion, but health workers told her she was 14 weeks pregnant and abortion was not an option.  In Turkey, abortion is allowed during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, after which it is permitted only to save the life or health of the mother or in cases of fetal impairment, Human Rights Watch said.

 

At her hearing, Yildirim said she doesn't want to keep the baby and that she is ready to die, the source said. The public prosecutor's office has ordered a medical examination to decide whether Yildirim may have an abortion and to assess her mental stability, the source said.

 

Yildirim's father, Zekeriya Yildiz, told DHA his daughter did not report the alleged abuse to anyone in the family.  "If she would have told us, we would have taken other precautions," he said.

Yildirim is in the local jail while she awaits trial.

 

In a report last year, Human Rights Watch decried gaps in Turkish law that it said leave women and girls unprotected from domestic abuse. Some 42% of women older than 15 in Turkey and 47% of rural women have experienced physical or sexual violence at the hands of a husband or partner at some point in their lives, the group said.

 

"She has lived through a terrible trauma. She must be charged with self-defense," said Gursel Oztunali Kayir, a sociologist at Akdeniz University and a member of Antalya Women Support Organization.

 

 

How is someone CHARGED with SELF-DEFENSE?  Is this the equivalent of "involuntary manslaughter" in U.S. law? 

Large Henge Discovered in Kent

Ancient henge discovered in North Downs
Tuesday, September 04 2012

by Chris Hunter

 

An ancient ceremonial site the size of Stonehenge has been discovered on the North Downs.

Archaeologists have uncovered a stone age henge near Hollingbourne
Picture: Paul Wilkinson

The exact purpose of the site - a neolithic “henge” near Hollingbourne - remains shrouded in mystery, but a large amount of burnt bone and pottery uncovered suggest it was used in a ritual capacity for almost 2000 years, as far back as 2500BC, the end of the Stone Age.

Dr Paul Wilkinson (pictured below) of the Kent Archaeological Field School, which led the investigation, said the first tantalising clue had come in the form of a circular mark spotted in satellite images of a tract of land called The Holmsdale, near the Pilgrims Way.

Digging began last month and has revealed a 50 metre wide henge - a large earthwork consisting of a circular area surrounded by a ditch and a perimeter bank - which has horn shaped entrances to the east and west.

“I couldn’t believe the size of it,” said Dr Wil.kinson. “When you saw it you knew it was special.
“It’s a magnificent monument which would have taken a lot of time to create. It’s a brilliant site.”

Also uncovered in the dig were antlers and cattle shoulder blades, which archaeologists believe could have been used as pick axes and shovels by the workers who first dug the henge out.

The lack of any sign of habitation within the circle further strengthens the theory that it had a ritual use.

The burnt remains of human bones are likely to have been from cremations, while its east-west entrances could have been aligned to mark the sunset and sunrise.

With the surrounding landscape blocked from view, those standing in the henge can see only the sky - so could the henge and its alignment have some astronomical or astrological purpose?

Dr Wilkinson says looking at prehistory is like “looking into a void” and any theories are speculative.
“With prehistory, it’s very enigmatic but really we have no idea,” he said. “We approach it from 21st Century mind-set but you have to put your head into the heads of those who built it, which is difficult.”

But the discovery is undoubtedly significant.

Previously discovered Bronze Age barrows, ancient springs and trackways nearby meant the area was long known to have prehistoric importance, but the discovery of a henge - rare in South East England and almost unheard of in Kent - makes the site doubly significant.

Hales Corners Chess Challenge XVI!

Hola darlings!

It is hard to believe, but Goddesschess has been sponsoring prizes for the Hales Corners Chess Challenges since HCCC VIII!

To end all of the suspense -- yes, Elie-Mae -- er, Ellen Waynek, has convinced me to play in Challenge XVI.  Seriously, I do not expect to win a single game, but I will try my damndest to do so unless my head explodes first.  Hope it doesn't do it during a game though, YECH! 

To celebrate our 9th -- yes 9th (count 'em on your fingers -- I did!) -- sponsorship of chess femme prizes for the Hales Corners Challenges sponsored by my beloved adopted chess club, the Southwest Chess Club (used to be known as the Southwest Chess Club of Hales Corners), in southeast Wisconsin, Goddesschess will be providing a little bit extra by way of special gift bags for the top-finishing females in the Open and Reserve sections - one each. 

Well, I don't expect most chessplayers to know that the number 9 ends a full cycle in numerology, before the cycle begins all over again, with number 1.  For us, this event is something special.  Some profound events have happened in the lives of each of the principals of Goddesschess since Hales Corners Challenge XV in April 2012.  I won my very first, and very probably last, chess game in a tournament during Challenge XV.  I do not know if we will be able to continue. We'll do our damnedest (is that a word???) to continue to do so.  You know, it is an old saying "Where there is a will, there is a way."  Well, we'll see about that.  We definitely have the will.

Oy, so here I am getting all sappy and sentimental, but you need to REGISTER to play, darlings!  PRINT OUT the registration form and mail it in with your check.  By the way, top female finishers in the Open and Reserve Sections from Hales Corners Challenge XV fees are covered by Goddesschess - you don't pay anything, ladies! 

Hey, William Williams, will you show up?

I hope to see you all there, darlings!  Ellen Wanek and I will be playing in the Reserve Section. Ellen does so much for chess for kids and Chess in the Park in the Sheboygan area!  She thinks I'm a heroine, but SHE really is the ONE! 

Chess Femmes, can we break a record for Challenge XVI and have the most female chessplayers ever percentage wise?  We've been consistently breaking records, can we do it again?   Please!!!!

"Lily Was Here" by Dave Stewart and Candy Dulfer

When I first heard this song on a local smooth jazz radio station some years ago (since defunct, alas), I decided that in my next life I sm going to come back as a tall, cool blonde iin a black dress (like in the Hollies' song) who plays a hot hot hot saxophone!

Lily Was Here:



Here is Candy Dulfer in 2009 playing "Lily Was Here" with Soul and Funk (check out that black dress!):

Another Theory About What Caused King Tut's Death

This is pretty interesting.  We are all probably pretty familiar with portrayals of Akhenaten, but not so much necessarily with the other pharaohs mentioned in this article.

Tutankhamun's death and the birth of monotheism
05 September 2012 by Jessica Hamzelou
Magazine issue 2881

TUTANKHAMUN'S mysterious death as a teenager may finally have been explained. And the condition that cut short his life may also have triggered the earliest monotheistic religion, suggests a new review of his family history.

 

Since his lavishly furnished, nearly intact tomb was discovered in 1922, the cause of Tutankhamun's death has been at the centre of intense debate. There have been theories of murder, leprosy, tuberculosis, malaria, sickle-cell anaemia, a snake bite - even the suggestion that the young king died after a fall from his chariot.

 

But all of these theories have missed one vital point, says Hutan Ashrafian, a surgeon with an interest in medical history at Imperial College London. Tutankhamun died young with a feminised physique, and so did his immediate predecessors.

 

Paintings and sculptures show that Smenkhkare, an enigmatic pharaoh who may have been Tutankhamun's uncle or older brother, and Akhenaten, thought to have been the boy king's father, both had feminised figures, with unusually large breasts and wide hips. Two pharaohs that came before Akhenaten - Amenhotep III and Tuthmosis IV - seem to have had similar physiques. All of these kings died young and mysteriously, says Ashrafian. "There are so many theories, but they've focused on each pharaoh individually."

 

Ashrafian found that each pharaoh died at a slightly younger age than his predecessor, which suggests an inherited disorder, he says. Historical accounts associated with the individuals hint at what that disorder may have been.

 

"It's significant that two [of the five related pharaohs] had stories of religious visions associated with them," says Ashrafian. People with a form of epilepsy in which seizures begin in the brain's temporal lobe are known to experience hallucinations and religious visions, particularly after exposure to sunlight. It's likely that the family of pharaohs had a heritable form of temporal lobe epilepsy, he says.

 

This diagnosis would also account for the feminine features. The temporal lobe is connected to parts of the brain involved in the release of hormones, and epileptic seizures are known to alter the levels of hormones involved in sexual development. This might explain the development of the pharaohs' large breasts. A seizure might also be to blame for Tutankhamun's fractured leg, says Ashrafian (Epilepsy & Behavior, doi.org/h8s).

 

Tuthmosis IV had a religious experience in the middle of a sunny day, recorded in the Dream Stele - an inscription near the Great Sphinx in Giza. But his visions were nothing compared with those experienced by Akhenaten. They encouraged Akhenaten to raise the status of a minor deity called the "sun-disk", or Aten, into a supreme god - abandoning the ancient Egyptian polytheistic traditions to start what is thought to be the earliest recorded monotheistic religion. If Ashrafian's theory is correct, Akhenaten's religious experiment and Tutankhamun's premature death may both have been a consequence of a medical condition.

 

"People with temporal lobe epilepsy who are exposed to sunlight get the same sort of stimulation to the mind and religious zeal," says Ashrafian.

 

"It's a fascinating and plausible explanation," says Howard Markel, a medical historian at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. However, the theory is almost impossible to prove, he adds, given that there is no definitive genetic test for epilepsy.

 

Orrin Devinsky, a neurologist at the New York University Langone Medical Center, thinks the theory must remain speculative.

 

"The exact timing of Akhenaten's religious conviction is not so clearly documented, and most cases of sudden religious conversion are not due to epilepsy," he says. "Monotheism could be related to epilepsy, or bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia, or drug intoxication from a fungus - but this paper does not sway me to any of these options."

 

Markel agrees: "Do we know that a seizure led to monotheism? It's a nice idea, but we don't know," he says. "It's a very interesting hypothesis, but it's just that - there's no definite proof."

And We Have Confirmation of "Neanderthal" Right Handedness and Capacity for Language

Of course so-called Neanderthal communicated with each other, probably in ways we cannot even comprehend now.

Neanderthal's Right-Handedness Verified, Hints at Language Capacity
ScienceDaily (Aug. 27, 2012) — There are precious few Neandertal skeletons available to science. One of the more complete was discovered in 1957 in France, roughly 900 yards away from the famous Lascaux Cave. That skeleton was dubbed "Regourdou." Then, about two decades ago, researchers examined Regourdou's arm bones and theorized that he had been right-handed.

"This skeleton had a mandible and parts of the skeleton below the neck," said David Frayer, professor of anthropology at the University of Kansas. "Twenty-plus years ago, some people studied the skeleton and argued that it was a right-handed individual based on the muscularity of the right arm versus the left arm."

Handedness, a uniquely human trait, signals brain lateralization, where each of the brain's two hemispheres is specialized. The left brain controls the right side of the body and in a human plays a primary role for language. So, if Neandertals were primarily right-handed, like modern humans, that fact could suggest a capacity for language.

Now, a new investigation by Frayer and an international team led by Virginie Volpato of the Senckenberg Institute in Frankfurt, Germany, has confirmed Regourdou's right-handedness by looking more closely at the robustness of the arms and shoulders, and comparing it with scratches on his teeth. Their findings are published August 23 in the journal PLoS ONE.

"We've been studying scratch marks on Neandertal teeth, but in all cases they were isolated teeth, or teeth in mandibles not directly associated with skeletal material," said Frayer. "This is the first time we can check the pattern that's seen in the teeth with the pattern that's seen in the arms. We did more sophisticated analysis of the arms -- the collarbone, the humerus, the radius and the ulna -- because we have them on both sides. And we looked at cortical thickness and other biomechanical measurements. All of them confirmed that everything was more robust on the right side then the left."

Frayer said Neandertals used their mouths like a "third hand" and that produced more wear and tear on the front teeth than their back ones. "It's long been known the Neandertals had been heavily processing things with their incisors and canines," he said.

Frayer's research on Regourdou's teeth confirmed the individual's right-handedness.  "We looked at the cut marks on the lower incisors and canines," said the KU researcher. "The marks that are on the lip side of the incisor teeth are oblique, or angled in such away that it indicates they were gripping with the left hand and cutting with the right, and every now and then they'd hit the teeth and leave these scratch marks that were there for the life of the individual."

Frayer said that the research on Regourdou shows that 89 percent of European Neandertal fossils (16 of 18) showed clear preference for their right hands. This is very similar to the prevalence of right-handers in modern human populations -- about 90 percent of people alive today favor their right hands.

Frayer and his co-authors conclude that such ratios suggest a Neandertal capacity for language. "The long-known connection between brain asymmetry, handedness and language in living populations serves as a proxy for estimating brain lateralization in the fossil record and the likelihood of language capacity in fossils," they write.

More on the Deciphering of DNA of Denisovan - Girl!

From BBC News - always so well written!

31 August 2012 Last updated at 02:17 ET

DNA of girl from Denisova cave gives up genetic secrets

By Helen Briggs BBC News

The DNA of a cave girl who lived about 80,000 years ago has been analysed in remarkable detail.

The picture of her genome is as accurate as that of modern day human genomes, and shows she had brown eyes, hair and skin.

The research in Science also sheds new light on the genetic differences between modern humans and their closest extinct relatives.

The cave dweller, a Denisovan, was a cousin of the Neanderthals.

Both groups of ancient humans died out about 30,000 years ago, but have left their mark in the gene pool of modern people.
Shadowy past
The Denisovans have mysterious origins. They appear to have left little behind for palaeontologists save a tiny finger bone and a wisdom tooth found in Siberia's Denisova cave in 2010.

Though some researchers have proposed a possible link between the Denisovans and human fossils from China that have previously been difficult to classify.

A Russian scientist sent a fragment of the bone from Siberia to a team led by Svante Paabo at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

He thought it might belong to an early modern human, but the results came as a surprise.

DNA analysis revealed a human who was neither a Neanderthal nor a modern human but the first of a new group of ancient humans.

Gene catalogue

Dr Paabo's team has now sequenced the genome of the Denisovan in much greater depth, using a new technique for studying ancient DNA.

The quality of the genome sequence is similar to that seen in genome studies of modern day humans.

"This is an extinct genome sequence of unprecedented accuracy," said Dr Matthias Meyer, the chief researcher on the study.

"For most of the genome we can even determine the differences between the two sets of chromosomes that the Denisovan girl inherited from her mother and father."

The scientists compared the girl's genome with that of Neanderthals and 11 modern humans from around the world.

This allowed them to catalogue the gene changes that make modern humans different from the two groups of extinct humans that were their closest relatives.

They include changes to only a single DNA letter in several genes involved in the wiring of the brain and nervous system, as well as those that affect the eye and the skin. [Emphasis added].

Dr Paabo said further investigation of changes in genes involved in connecting up the brain will be exciting to pursue.

He told BBC News: "To me the most exciting thing is having a good genome from our very closest extinct relatives which we can now compare ourselves to.

"It's a catalogue of what makes everyone on the planet unique compared with our closest extinct relatives."

The most detailed genetic analysis yet of the Denisovans also confirms that they bred with the ancestors of some people alive today, the researchers said.

It shows that about 3% of the genes of people living today in Papua New Guinea come from Denisovans, with a trace of their DNA lingering in the Han and Dai people from mainland China. [Emphasis added].

The genetic variation of Denisovans was very low, suggesting that although they were found in large parts of Asia their population remained small.


No matter what they say, like breeds with like to produce not only viable but also fertile offspring!  I probably will not live to see it, but someday scientists will inevitably acknowledge that so-called Neanderthal, Denisovan and Modern humans were all grapes from the same vine, making not only reproduction possible, but also producing offspring capable of producing offspring of their own.  That is the key - capable of producing offspring of their own.  Fertility.  I'm thinking that in the final analysis, a lot more DNA resemblance among the three "species" science continues to insist exist in humans will also be found as we get more sophisticated at recognizing an decoding "sequences."  I probably won't live to see that, either.  But there's hope.  There is always hope.

2012 Chess Olympiad - Final Standings

I'll get the Open out of the way first.  Top 10 finishers:

Rk.	SNo		Team	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4
1	3		Armenia	ARM	11	9	1	1	19	397.0	29.0	155.00
2	1		Russia	RUS	11	9	1	1	19	388.5	28.5	157.00
3	2		Ukraine	UKR	11	9	0	2	18	363.0	29.5	147.00
4	6		China	CHN	11	8	1	2	17	390.5	29.5	157.00
5	5		United States Of America	USA	11	7	3	1	17	361.0	30.0	142.00
6	9		Netherlands	NED	11	8	0	3	16	329.0	29.0	133.00
7	27		Vietnam	VIE	11	6	4	1	16	313.5	29.0	126.00
8	25		Romania	ROU	11	8	0	3	16	310.0	29.0	128.00
9	4		Hungary	HUN	11	7	1	3	15	368.0	28.0	151.00
10	7		Azerbaijan	AZE	11	6	3	2	15	344.0	29.0	144.00

A creditable finish for Team USA-Open.

Now, the women!  Top 10 finishers:

Rk.	SNo		Team	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4
1	2		Russia	RUS	11	8	3	0	19	450.0	33.0	155.00
2	1		China	CHN	11	8	3	0	19	416.0	31.5	154.00
3	4		Ukraine	UKR	11	7	4	0	18	408.5	30.5	154.00
4	6		India	IND	11	8	1	2	17	336.0	28.0	148.00
5	10		Romania	ROU	11	8	0	3	16	313.5	28.5	129.00
6	8		Armenia	ARM	11	8	0	3	16	313.0	26.5	140.00
7	14		France	FRA	11	7	1	3	15	347.5	29.0	147.00
8	3		Georgia	GEO	11	6	3	2	15	344.0	28.5	144.00
9	26		Iran	IRI	11	7	1	3	15	339.0	31.0	132.00
10	5		United States of America	USA	11	6	3	2	15	326.0	29.5	133.00

Team USA Women managed to squeak into the Top 10 but, frankly, I'm not impressed.  I don't know what happened - disharmony on the team?  Personality clashes?  Bad coaching decisions?  But we should have done better than we did.

Team Georgia Women managed to climb up to 8th place, but what a big disappointment from them, too! 

Iran? IRAN, where the women barely are allowed to play the game, let alone compete, finishes in 9th place?  Well, what a dilemma for the Ayatollah and Clueless Leader Ahmadwhateverhisnameis.  Will they tout this finish to the world, demonstrating how "advanced and equal" the sexes are in their theocracy under Sharia law, while simultaneously banning the women from giving interviews to national press or, Idol Forbid, going on television to encourage other women to become independent and critically-thinkers by taking up the game?  Ha ha ha!  I'm happy for Team Iran Women, because this is a great showing for them.  I'm all for encouraging women to independence and critical thinking.  May Caissa by with them.

JUDIT WATCH! 

All right, now is the tine for me to finally look -- I'm on pins and needles.  How did Judit do in the last round???  Wow!  Team Hungary Open had a VERY tough assignment in the final round: they played Armenia!

9. Hungary (HUN / RtgAvg:2708, TB1: 15 / TB2: 368)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED		2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pts.	Games	Rp	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	GM	Leko Peter	2737	HUN		1	½	½	½	½	½	0	½	1	½	5.5	10	2710	5.5	5.83	-0.33	10	-3.3
2	GM	Almasi Zoltan	2713	HUN	½		½	1	0	1	1	½	½	1	0	6.0	10	2655	6	6.63	-0.63	10	-6.3
3	GM	Polgar Judit	2698	HUN	1	½	1	½	½	1		½	1	1	½	7.5	10	2744	7.5	6.79	0.71	10	7.1
4	GM	Berkes Ferenc	2685	HUN	½	½	1	1		½	0		1	1	½	6.0	9	2625	6	6.59	-0.59	10	-5.9
5	GM	Balogh Csaba	2668	HUN	1	½			½		½	½				3.0	5	2564	3	3.43	-0.43	10	-4.3

Judit drew her game with GM Vladimir Akopian. 

GO JUDIT GO!  I am so happy for her for this very good performance.  She's the only member of Team Hungary Open to ADD points to her ELO, and her performance rating was Team highest.  Excellent!  Judit's new ELO will go over 2700 once again.  And to think that people were saying that she had was past her prime.  HA!  And I'll say it again for good measure -- HA! 

If you are interested in looking further at Team Hungary Open, you can find all of the match-ups and results here. 

GAPRINDASHVILI CUP

Gaprindashvilicup (Best federation = sum (open + women))

Rk.	flag	Team	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4
1		Russia	38	838.5	61.5	312.00
2		China	36	806.5	61.0	311.00
3		Ukraine	36	771.5	60.0	301.00
4		Armenia	35	710.0	55.5	295.00
5		United States of America	32	687.0	59.5	275.00
6		Romania	32	623.5	57.5	257.00
7		Germany	30	650.5	53.0	292.00
8		India	30	645.5	53.5	293.00
9		Netherlands	30	614.5	56.0	266.00
10		Hungary	29	671.0	55.5	280.00

INDIVIDUAL BOARD PERFORMANCES

Board 1
Rk.			Name	Rtg	Team	%	Games	RtgAvg	Pts.	Rp
1		GM	Hou Yifan	2599	China	72.2	9	2479	6.5	2645
2		GM	Dzagnidze Nana	2547	Georgia	75.0	8	2432	6.0	2625
3		GM	Lahno Kateryna	2542	Ukraine	70.0	10	2459	7.0	2608

Board 2
Rk.			Name	Rtg	Team	%	Games	RtgAvg	Pts.	Rp
1		GM	Zhao Xue	2549	China	80.0	10	2334	8.0	2574
2		IM	Muzychuk Mariya	2466	Ukraine	66.7	9	2401	6.0	2526
3		WGM	Yildiz Betul Cemre	2341	Turkey	86.4	11	2193	9.5	2502

Board 3
Rk.			Name	Rtg	Team	%	Games	RtgAvg	Pts.	Rp
1		GM	Kosintseva Nadezhda	2524	Russia	88.9	9	2342	8.0	2693
2		WGM	Zawadzka Jolanta	2377	Poland	81.8	11	2276	9.0	2538
3		IM	Sachdev Tania	2379	India	81.8	11	2260	9.0	2522

(Happy to see Sachdev step it up a notch for this Olympiad.  Congratulations to her for her fine performance!)

Board 4
Rk.			Name	Rtg	Team	%	Games	RtgAvg	Pts.	Rp
1		WGM	Huang Qian	2449	China	80.0	10	2307	8.0	2547
2		IM	Collas Silvia	2261	France	83.3	9	2196	7.5	2469
3		GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2489	Russia	77.8	9	2248	7.0	2468

Congratulations one of my favorite players, GM Kosteniuk, on her Bronze Medal!)

Board 5
Rk.			Name	Rtg	Team	%	Games	RtgAvg	Pts.	Rp
1		WGM	Pogonina Natalija	2448	Russia	81.3	8	2236	6.5	2487
2		WFM	Castrillon Gomez Melissa	2181	Colombia	87.5	8	2043	7.0	2379
3		WIM	Davletbayeva Madina	2165	Kazakhstan	72.2	9	2191	6.5	2357

It was a China and Russia gold medal fest for board performances.

WIM, IM, WGM and GM FIDE-Titles (unofficial)

No.	FideID		Name	Team	FED	After Rd.	Pts.	Games	New Title
1	13903284	WFM	Baciu, Diana	Moldova	MDA	11	7	11	WIM
2	3804178	WFM	Chumpitaz Carbajal, Ann Linsay	Peru	PER	11	6.5	9	WIM
3	2114160	WFM	Feliciano Ebert, Vanessa	Brazil	BRA	11	7	9	WGM
4	4403070	WFM	Franco Valencia, Angela Maria	Colombia	COL	11	6	10	WIM
5	5212499		Frayna, Janelle Mae	Philippines	PHI	9	6	9	WIM
6	5105994		Garcia Morales, Ivette Alejandra	Mexico	MEX	11	7	9	WIM
7	14201437	WFM	Gevorgyan, Irina	Uzbekistan	UZB	10	5	9	WIM
8	8602689	WGM	Huang, Qian	China	CHN	11	8	10	IM
9	13401521	WGM	Mamedjarova, Zeinab	Azerbaijan	AZE	10	6	10	IM
10	13403508	WGM	Mammadova, Gulnar	Azerbaijan	AZE	10	7	10	IM
11	7101570	WFM	Medina, Warda Aulia	Indonesia	INA	11	6.5	10	WIM
12	3900517		Montilla, Jorcerys	Venezuela	VEN	11	7	9	WIM
13	14201526	WIM	Muminova, Nafisa	Uzbekistan	UZB	10	6	9	IM
14	13704788	WIM	Nakhbayeva, Guliskhan	Kazakhstan	KAZ	11	6.5	10	IM
15	322750	WGM	Nemcova, Katerina	Czech Republic	CZE	11	8.5	11	IM
16	4182146	FM	Pustovoitova, Daria	IBCA	IBCA	11	6.5	10	WIM
17	13700090	WIM	Saduakassova, Dinara	Kazakhstan	KAZ	11	7	9	WGM
18	14100126	WFM	Shvayger, Yuliya	Israel	ISR	11	6	9	WIM
19	7101198	WIM	Sihite, Chelsie Monica	Indonesia	INA	11	7	9	WGM
20	6300278	WCM	Sop, Selen	Turkey 2016	TUR16	10	7	9	WIM
21	13505300	FM	Stetsko, Lanita	Belarus	BLR	11	7	9	WGM
22	937266	WGM	Vojinovic, Jovana	Montenegro	MNE	11	8	11	IM
23	6302920	WGM	Yildiz, Betul Cemre	Turkey	TUR	11	8.5	10	IM
24	1122320	WGM	Zawadzka, Jolanta	Poland	POL	11	9	11	IM

Official Website.