It's a drab, dark, dreary day here in Milwaukee, WI and I HATE this time of year. Each year the dark and gloom seems to affect me more and more, and I soooo fully appreciate why ancient cultures devoted so much time to feasting and spending time around massive fires and/or hearths and burning lots of torches, candles and oil lamps when they were each invented in their turn. I've followed suit and done much the same as the ancients. I've been cooking cooking cooking incredible foods since the third week of October. I pulled out all the stops, so to speak, in this room fully decorated for the Autumnal Equinox and the harvest, Hallo'een and Thankgiving days that follow, all leading up to the darkest, dreariest time of year, the Winter Solstice! I've been burning candles and using battery-operated candles and running my gas-powered fireplace, and turning on "accent" lights in every nook and cranny of this house during the dreary days!
The photo above makes the room look brighter than it actually was and it's a bit blurry because of the time auto time delay when I use it on "scene" setting. Now it's 4:32p.m. and if I didn't have this computer monitor on and Mr. Don's votive candle going (I have a photo of him on this desk and when I'm working here I keep a votive candle lit before his image in his Goddesschess memory) I would not be able to see my hand before my face, ach, as I turned off battery-operated or blew out fire-lit candles until it got a little darker! BTW, that's my view of this front room when I turn my head to the right while at my desk working. I love this room and spend most of autumn and winter evenings here (or days like this, when it never gets brighter outside than evening).
I was disappointed that the Unive (Hoogeveen) invitational tournament did not have a female player this year, so I'm not paying any attention to it. There was a large Open event run concurrently, and some female players took part. I've tried to pick out the top finishers among a very large field!
17th Unive Chess Tournament 2013 (Hoogeveen NED) Fri 18th Oct 2013 - Sat 26th Oct 2013
It was a 9 round Swiss. The official site no longer gives the option of an English translation, alas, and my Dutch is non-existent. I figured out enough (well, actually no, I didn't, I just clicked on every single fricking link until I got to the place I wanted to go!) to be able to give you these results from the Open -- winner and the female players -- not even a hand-full! -- who played in a field of 77 players:
1: GM Maim Rodshtein, ISR 2664, 7.5 TPR 2740 (winner of Open)
13: IM Tania Sachdev, IND 2438, 5.5 TPR 2428
20: WIM Lorena Sepada, ESA 2156, 5.5 TPR 2374 (well done!)
45: WIM Ilena Krasenkova, RUS 2133, 4.0 TPR 2213
72: WFM Caroline Slingerland, NED 2084, 2.5 TPR 1987 (oops! Methinks she may have fallen prey to "males are superior" syndrome)
And that's it, darlings! Four females out of a field of 77 players. That is sad.
Official website (it stinks, BTW). I could not find what the prize list was. WTF? Is it a state secret or something?
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