Chess Femme News

Starting off the round-up of news, this from Dylan Loeb McClain at The New York Times - not dealing with chess femmes but interesting, nonetheless, talking about chessplayers who were also musicians and/or mathematicians:

September 2, 2010, 5:12 am
Mathematicians, Musicians and Chess Masters

McClain's blog article mentions mathematician and chessplayers Adolf Anderssen, who was one-half of the game David Shenk used as a framework for his masterpiece on chess history "The Immortal Game: A History of Chess."

A nice idea - bringing together Armenian players from all around the world. Several chess femmes participated in this team event and two from the USA did quite well:

First Pan-Armenian Chess Olympiad brings together 40 ranked players
Published: Wednesday September 01, 2010
Pan-Armenian Chess Olympiad, Yerevan, August 14 - 23, 2010
Individual winners included Grikor Sevak Mekhitarian (Brazil, 3rd place), Katerina Rohonian (USA, 3rd place), Siranoush Andreasian (Armenia, 3rd place), Tigran Petrossian (Armenia, 2nd place), Tatev Abrahamian (USA, 2nd place), Poghos Nahapetyan (Russia, 1st place), and Diana Arutyunova (Ukraine, 1st place).

64th Moscow Blitz Championship
August 29, 2010
Report from Chessbase.com
Despite incredibly bad hair (what was she thinking, ohmygoddess!), WGM Valentina Gunina scored an incredible 100% - she won all 17 of her blitz games - to take the women's title. 
 
 
 
 
 

Here's a blog entry from GM Alexandra Kosteniuk's blog on the movie "Queen to Play" with video and links.
 
6th Prospero "A" Pichay Cup Open
August 21 - 26, 2010
Nine rounds, 47 players and, as far as I can tell, one lone chess femme, who did all right:
18 WGM POURKASHIYAN Atousa IRI 2308 5,0

1st Campomanes Memorial Cup Women
August 28 - September 3, 2010
Organizer(s) NCFP
Tournament director IA Wilfredo A. Abalos
Chief-Arbiter IA Casto Abundo
Site Ninoy Aquino Stadium, Manila
Date 2010/08/28 to 2010/09/03
Rating-Ø 1945
Standings after R 8 - 1 more round to go

Rk. Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3
1 WGM SHEN Yang CHN 2435 6,5 2287 2318 2344
2 WGM POURKASHIYAN Atousa IRI 2308 6,0 2313 2348 2380
3 GM ZHAO Xue CHN 2462 6,0 2282 2322 2349
4 WIM HOANG Thi Nhu Y VIE 2187 5,5 2272 2339 2387
5 WGM HOANG Thi Bao Tram VIE 2338 5,0 2218 2251 2293
6 WGM GU Xiaobing CHN 2349 4,5 2319 2366 2387
7 WFM PERENA Catherine PHI 2103 4,5 2062 2206 2273
8 WGM ZHANG Xiaowen CHN 2390 4,0 2253 2291 2329
9 PALOMO Jenny Rose PHI 1870 4,0 1922 2043 2211
10 WFM CUA Shercila PHI 2099 4,0 1770 1865 1998
11 WGM ZHANG Jilin CHN 2264 3,5 2244 2281 2331
12 DOCENA Jedara PHI 2033 3,5 2054 2196 2234
13 WIM MARIANO Cristine Rose PHI 2025 3,5 1984 2115 2297
14 NAHUDAN Eibtizam PHI 0 3,5 1906 2023 2054
15 ACEDO Rowelyn PHI 0 3,5 1848 1957 2108
16 FRAYNA Janelle Mae PHI 0 3,5 1824 1928 2073
17 JOSE Rulp Ylem PHI 2039 2,5 1753 1846 1975
18 TAMBASEN Mary Grace Phi 0 2,5 1659 1735 1842
19 MORTOS Angelina PHI 0 2,0 1919 2039 2072
20 BERNALES Christy Lamiel PHI 2004 2,0 1603 1670 1764

Annotation:
Tie Break1: rating average of the opponents (variabel with parameters)
Tie Break2: rating average of the opponents (variabel with parameters)
Tie Break3: rating average of the opponents (variabel with parameters)

From GM Susan Polgar's chess blog, about a family of chessplaying siblings - the Brunellos - two sisters and a brother:
Italian Chess News
September 1, 2010

David Shenk on the Lewis Chess Pieces

I saw this at Susan Polgar's blog. 

It's an excellent piece giving a clear and concise history of the discovery and subsequent sale of the Lewis chess pieces (dated to about 1150 CE) in the early 1830s. 

I am a big fan of David Shenk.  His book "The Immortal Game: A History of Chess" is a wonderfully readable work that presents facts of chess history along with the suppositions of various authors on aspects of the ancient history and development of chess, all blended into a move-by-move description of  "The Immortal Game" - an actual chess game that took place in the mid-19th century -- a game that, ultimately, changed the way chess was played.  Someone with no prior knowledge of the game of chess will be able to read this book and afterward say "wow!"

Friday Night Miscellany

Hola Darlings! Right to it tonight -- Is there really Aramaic writing (in Hebrew letters) on the Shroud of Turin? A Vatican researcher, Barbara Frale, told Vatican Radio July 26 that her own studies suggest the letters on the shroud were written more than 1,800 years ago. The article goes on to say that Frale, who is a researcher at the Vatican Secret Archives, has written a new book on the shroud and the Knights Templar, the medieval crusading order which, she says, may have held secret custody of the Shroud of Turin during the 13th and 14th centuries.She told Vatican Radio that she has studied the writings on the shroud in an effort to find out if the Knights had written them."When I analyzed these writings, I saw that they had nothing to do with the Templars because they were written at least 1,000 years before the Order of the Temple was founded" in the 12th century, she said. Okay... Can culture be embedded in DNA? A study using Zebra finches says "yes." Hmmmm, maybe -- I'd like to read more about this. Where is it? Cf. every bit of information in David Shenk's "The Genius in All of Us" blog. I respect David Shenk's opinion. He is a man who knows how to thoroughly research and submerge himself in a subject. Among other best-selling books, Mr. Shenk wrote THE IMMORTAL GAME: A History of Chess-- or How 32 Carved Pieces on a Board Illuminated Our Understanding of War, Art, Science and the Human Brain. This is, bar none, the best non-fiction book on chess I've read. An interesting article about intra-species communication (specifically - bees) when brought together from opposite ends of the world. Why can't people do this? We are supposed to be at the top of the "evolutionary scale", aren't we???

Cooking, Mowing, Laundry and Ordering Books!

Hola darlings! It's Sunday night and it's been a busy day. Another record-breaking hot and humid day, too! Got up to 87 today - I don't know what the dew point was; yesterday it was 87 with a dew point of 69 and it felt like I was living in the jungle at the equator! One more day of heat, although tomorrow only a high of 82 with thunderstorms in the afternoon, and then the weather will drop drop drop down to "seasonal" and it will feel like the deep freeze in the low 60's during the day and 40's at night! Soooo, after I relaxed with my Sunday morning routine, feeding the critters, reading the paper on the deck, and having two - yes two! - cups of coffee (I restrict caffeine intake because of high blood pressure and normally only have 1 cup of coffee a day), I spent some hours reading the latest news from Explorator and The New York Times and making some posts here (I hope you enjoy them), I did some laundry, and I cut the front lawn. I swear I lost 5 pounds sweating, it was so steamy outside. I'd put a chuck roast with a pound of carrots into the slow cooker about 8 this morning and when it was ready about 2 p.m. I made a wine-reinforced gravy and had a feast. I stuffed myself - I love the sweetness of slow-cooked carrots covered in bordeaux gravy. The roast melted in my mouth - and I have leftovers for a few days - if I don't raid the refrigerator later on and stuff myself all over again! I love to cook but generally I don't do much serious cooking for myself. When Isis, Michelle and delion were here in July I did some cooking and loved every minute of it. There is something fundamentally satisfying about cooking a meal that everyone says is delicious and watching the food disappear at a rapid pace, just like there is something fundamentally satisfying about sweating and battling man-eating insects to create a beautiful garden. Now the Packers are on - we scored a touchdown VIA THE RUN - THE RUN! - a few minutes ago, against da Bears. Altogether now "da Bears still suck, da Bears still suck..." I just completed an order at Amazon.com - I was a good girl, I only ordered three books: Michael Weinreb's "The Kings of New York," "Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History" and "When the Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythym." There are several other books I would love to order - but I will wait until I get my Christmas bonus from the firm :) This day has been bliss! Speaking of books, David Shenk's "The Immortal Game" has come out in paperback. It is such an excellent read, I highly recommend it. The way in which he weaves the history-making game between Adolph Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky from June 21, 1851 into his narrative is superb. I suppose I shouldn't admit this, but up until I read Shenk's book, I had NEVER sat down and really gone through a game and analysis, move by move. Shenk made that game miraculously accessible to me. I look forward to his next book - he's doing research on it right now.

Friday Night Miscellany

Some kind of critter was out in the yard last night rummaging around for food and was making the strangest kind of noise - it sounded sort of like "CRRAAAAKKKKEEEE" (very loud, or pehaps it just sounded loud because at that time of the early morning there was nothing else out there making noise!); there would be a couple of "crakes" and then silence for a little while, and them more "crakes." It was about 2:39 a.m. I staggered out of bed and peered out of the window but it was too dark to see anything without a moon. So I went around the upstairs and shut the windows so I wouldn't hear the "crake" noise anymore and tried to get back to sleep. I have no idea what it was. There are some juvenile raccoons who hang around, perhaps it was one of them. I figure there must have been some other critter out there rummaging around too, otherwise the first critter would not have been making the loud "crake" noises. Ah, such is life in the suburbs... In the quickest time yet, we already have a review/summary/report or whatever you'd like to call it of our Goddesschess Eighth Anniversary get-together during my recently concluded vacation. To save download time a lot of the pics are done in minis and there is also a separate photo gallery; if you click on a mini pic it turns into a larger photo but hopefully not so large that it will take forever to download on dial-up. Now that vacation is over Random Round-up has been updated and we're back on schedule to update it every Sunday. I don't think I mentioned that I finished David Shenk's "The Immortal Game - A History of Chess" a few weeks ago - what an excellent book, I highly recommend it. It's not dry, dull and boring like HJR Murray's tome on the origins and history of chess - and certainly not 800 plus pages - these days I only read Harry Potter novels that are that long! Shenk hits all the highlights, particularly with respect to the mysteries surrounding the origins of chess and the early days of the game's development. He frames each chapter in the book by a series of moves in the "Immortal Game" between Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kierseritsky on June 21, 1851, in London - a game that was a throw-away, a practice game - but it didn't turn out that way... Shenk struck a good balance between writing for a non-chessly audience while providing enough meat for serious chessophiles. Now, onto the spooky and wierdo stuff - what the heck is this I've been reading about "Mothman?" What is Mothman, anyway? Lately over at the Daily Grail there are items that refer to Mothman. At least some bloggers see a connection between this Mothman and bridge collapses (recently occurred in Minnesota and one in China), and other disasters. Is Mothman some kind of omen or harbinger? Check out this headline (in red ink, no less) from the Gulf Daily News: Tissir masters 42 in stimulation chess Oh my! Well, if you live long enough, I guess you'll see just about everything... "It was a really enjoyable event, and I feel that it was very educational for the young and amateur players that took part," Tissir told the GDN afterwards. Double Oh My! Educational, heh? Er, it turns out this was a "simultaneous" game by IM Mohammed Tissar, although it certainly may have been "stimulating!" One of those "lost in translation" things... Ah, Viktor Korchnoi won Banja Luka 2007. I wish he had emigrated to the United States - the history of chess here might have gone a whole different path with such a player "on our side." Chessbase has a nostalgic article about the history of the Banja Luka tournament. Oh, by the way, I don't believe for a single second that the Russian Chess Federation "mistakenly" sent a 16-year old Kasparov to Banja Luka in 1979 under the assumption that it was a "junior" tournament. Ha! What a joke! Okay, that's it for tonight. It's supposed to start raining tomorrow around 4 p.m. so I cut the grass in the backyard tonight after trudging home from a long hard day at the office; since I hadn't cut for nearly 2 weeks it was rather long, with the rain we've had lately. Yes, rain! It seems the drought is over, at least for this area of southeast Wisconsin. Unfortunately, the farmers in the northern part of the state can't say the same, and it's too late for them. We're talking about crop losses in excess of 60-70%. Anyway, since the grass in the back was rather tall, it took more effort than usual, and somewhat longer than usual, to get it cut to my exacting specifications. On the plus side, I got a real good work-out. On the minus side, I'll probably sleep until 7 a.m. tomorrow and blow half the day recuperating from overdoing it today! Tomorrow the plan is to cut the front yard as soon as it's decent enough to rev up the gas power mower without disturbing the neighbors toooo much. I do try to keep the front yard presentable for the neighbors, so it isn't nearly as shaggy and overgrown as the backyard was, as I cut it last week Saturday morning. Then it's party party - my birthday is Sunday and I'm celebrating tomorrow night AND on Sunday, whooppee, while dodging in between thunderstorms. 'night.

Interview with David Shenk on "The Immortal Game"

Howard Goldowsky has written a book "Engaging Pieces" and one of his interviews, with author David Shenk, who wrote best selling "The Immortal Game", is excerpted at the Skittles Room at Chess Cafe. I've had "The Immortal Game" since November but have only recently begun reading it. It's a book I highly recommend - it's well written and engaging, and Shenk has managed to achieve just the right balance between scholarship, history and storytelling. Here's part of the excerpted interview (I don't know how long the Skittles Room link will be valid): Excerpt: Engaging Pieces Interviews and Prose for the Chess Fan by Howard Goldowsky HG: How did you convince your editors that a book about chess would sell, and who is your target readership? DS: This book is not solely for chess players. I dearly hope that all chess players will appreciate it, and I’m gratified by a number of recent comments from serious players that it holds their interest, but it’s also for anyone who loves to read about history and ideas. The history of chess is a spectacular lens on the history of civilization over the last 1,500 years. In the book, I tried to balance an appreciation for the game itself with an appreciation for how the game has influenced ideas over many centuries. In many ways, it’s impossible to understand the evolution of modern thought without chess as a crucial tool. For the insider, my ambition was nothing less than to write a formidable companion to Murray. Obviously, my book doesn’t have anything close to the level of detail or scholarship that Murray’s does. But I hoped that by fleshing out chess’s cultural and intellectual significance, and by conveying the power of the game, we’d have something that would sit nicely alongside his definitive history. For the more casual audience, who knows and cares nothing of Murray, the book has to stand on its own, which I hope it does. HG: Chess certainly has transcended many time periods and cultures. What, in your opinion, makes the game so addictive? DS: Chess’s cultural and historical transcendence is the single curiosity that drove this book. How could one game resonate with 7th century Persians, 8th century Muslims, 11th century Spaniards, and on and on up to 21st century school kids all over the world? The answer, I think, comes in two parts. First, the game itself has a magical combination of accessibility and near-infinite complexity. A five-year-old could learn to play, and yet the game could also occupy the full-time attention of an adult for many decades. Chess obviously touches on spatial and abstract qualities that tickle the brain; it’s fun to play regardless of one’s level of education, background or other interests. Secondly, there is a strong social resonance that seems to take place everywhere the game has traveled. People feel connected to it, because each army represents a social hierarchy. People reading the book will be blown away, as I was, by how popular chess has been as a social and political metaphor throughout the centuries. Chess actually helps us understand ourselves in all sorts of ways, and that has helped insure the game’s survival as other games have come and gone. More about "The Immortal Game." More about "Engaging Pieces."

The Polgar "Experiment" and Me

My goodness - here it is Thursday already. Just one more day to make it through at the office and once again I'll be having my lovely weekend. I don't care if the forecast is for cold and rain; I don't care if my grass is now a foot high (the weather and/or time constraints haven't permitted me to pull out the power mower, but it is ready to go; I changed the oil, put in a new spark plug and had the blade sharpened 2 weekends ago); I don't care that the dust is now half an inch thick and there's moldy food in the fridge. My weekends - ahhhhhh.... I have to tell you (whoever may read this), it is really liberating to be able to just come here, by myself, at the end of the day, and post my thoughts. There's no traffic counter here, so I can imagine that millions are going to - soon - be awed by the eruditeness (is that a word?) of my posts or, conversely, that only a select few who manage to follow carefully placed clues here and there - succeed in finding this secret treasure trove of chess profundity. Ha! Because I've had David Shenk's project on my mind, and the Polgar sisters and other chess "prodigies" naturally figure into that, and given the recent bent of my entries here, today I did a little internet searching under "the Polgar experiment." That led to a lot of interesting articles, and those led to a few other searches, that also led to interesting articles. The upshot of what I've found, thus far, in conjunction with what I've read at David Shenk's blog, is that I too could - if I had the will (desire), persistence, patience, and time - develop a certain level of expertise in chess, perhaps even become a GM. If I wanted to give it 10 years of full-time activity :) I'm not kidding about that 10 year figure. According to Herbert A. Simon who has been researching the subject since the 1960's, he says it takes approximately a decade of heavy labor to master any field. "Even child prodigies, such as Gauss in mathematics, Mozart in music and Bobby Fischer in chess, must have made an equivalent effort, perhaps by starting earlier and working harder than others." No wonder the great chessplayers seem to be made these days at such early ages; if they wait until they're out of college to learn the game, they have to "make a living" and can't devote the time/effort/will necessary to mastering the game - that - what was it called? - "effortful study." It's a tantalizing thought, let me tell you. Me - Jan Newton - a GM. Hell - I'd settle for beating Licenser and Kreider soundly in 10 moves or less :) Could six months of concentrated study do it, do you think? Hmmm... Here are some of the articles: Scientific American "The Expert Mind," by Phillip E. Ross, July 24, 2006 Psychology Today "The Grandmaster Experiment," by Carlin Flora, July-August, 2005 issue

Typical Research Project Part 2 - Goddess Synchronicity

Ohmygoddess! I didn't think this would happen HERE - I mean, whoever is going to read this blog - but I guess I should know by now that one can always expect the unexpected when dealing with the Goddess of Chess. Synchronicity has been the sounding bell in my relationship with chess and my research since I and my chessly cohorts first embarked upon this path way back in December, 1998. Why should I be surprised when it shows up here? I shouldn't be - but I was! I must be getting old, sigh. After I wrote my prior post "Typical Research Project" this afternoon, I visited David Shenk's blog and wrote a post about a few examples of chessplayers that I thought fit the profile of his research. I'd been meaning to do that for some time but did not get around to it until earlier this afternoon. Mind, I've not yet finished David's book "A History of Chess" - I'm not quite to the half-way point. I then settled down to a couple of hours of reading on my deck, and then a 2 hour nap on my recliner. Ahhhh, I love my weekends! This evening, I visited Chessville and made a few posts there under my favorite topic, about women in chess/women and chess. Some people at Chessville evidently don't think much of me, comparing me to Sam Sloan (seriously!) But that's been done in private email - the people who (so I've been told) don't like me don't post such stuff at the Chessville forum, where folks could then debate the merits of whether I am, actually, a female Sam Sloan. Like the title of Jen Shahade's first book (that I didn't like at first because I thought it was denigrating to women, but after past and recent experiences, I have a better understanding about why Ms. Shahade titled her book that way), once a chess bitch, always a chess bitch. And proud of it. I just wish I could play chess as well as I think I can write... (Har!) Anyway, one of the posts awaiting me at Chessville was about the performance of the Kosintseva sisters in the recently concluded 2007 European Individual Chess Championships. I'd done a few posts there on the progress of that event, including the high drama of the sister versus sister game (it ended in a draw). Tatiana Kosintseva took first place with an impressive 10/11 score and had an even more impressive performance rating of 2774 - which puts her right up there with the elite chessplayers of the world. Her ELO is 2459 so her performance rating is STAGGERING. TN is 21 years old. Her older sister (by a year), Nadezhda Kosintseva, finished in 3rd place with 8/11; NK also had a fine performance rating of 2568, almost 100 points above her current ELO rating of 2475, but not staggering. GM Antoaneta Stefanova, no slouch when it comes to bringing the goods, finished in second place after a strong second-half performance, with 8/11 and a performance rating of 2572, also nearly 100 points above her current ELO of 2496. You can read more about all of this stuff here at my Chess Femme News report. All in all, it was a really impressive event. Lo and behold, while I was perusing through GM Susan Polgar's chess blog tonight, I discovered this article posted there, from that new chess guy over at the New York Times (McClain) - all about the Kosintseva sisters! Knock me over with a feather! The article also mentioned David Shenk's book "A History of Chess" - I haven't yet got to the part in his book where he talks about the Polgar sisters - and now I feel rather silly for having done that post at his blog - of course David Shenk would have known about the Polgars and their training, duh. What was I thinking??? I will keep following the Kosintseva sisters' chess careers with interest. Will they continue to improve and work their way up the ELO ladder? Or will they, like so many chess femmes before them and around them, seem to plateau and, eventually, drop out of the game altogether? It's a tough way of life, professional chess. There are so many other easier ways to make a living.

Typical Research Project

Before I run to the supermarket and then cut the grass (it's overdue for a trim), I thought I'd share a bit about one of my current "research projects." I've just finished reading Cathy Forbes' 1992 book "The Polgar Sisters - Training or Genius?" (I highly recommend it - I believe she was unfairly vilified for writing this book, and I find that many of her insights into the Polgar sisters have proven to be true) and later this afternoon I'll settle down on the deck, a tall ice-filled glass of cheap vino at hand under the shade of a 7 foot umbrella (it's supposed to get up to 80 and I don't want to get sunburnt) and start reading Susan Polgar's latest book "Breaking Through," which will, presumably, cover much of the same territory that Forbes covered in her 1992 book. Of course, though, from an entirely different perspective. After that, "Chess Bitch" by IM Jennifer Shahade is on the list. The object of this burst of reading about female chessplayers is to fill in background information for two articles I'm working on for Goddesschess - one inspired by David Shenk's latest research project into whether geniuses are born or created - well, that's not an exact description of what he's working on, that's my paraphrase of how I understand his research at the present time. Shenk wrote a book last year that I'm also reading (in between all the other reading projects I'm juggling) - "The Immortal Game - A History of Chess" and I think he did an excellent job of capturing the mystique and allure of chess. Oh yes - he also provided a ton of fascinating information about the game I love - and hate. Chess is a black hole that sucks you in - whether as a player or as an historian, which, I guess, is my avocation - chess historian. But not your average historian, because for the most part I could care less about who played who with what opening when; nope, I and my cohorts in chess history apostacy are interested in the really ancient stuff, the stuff that lead to the invention of such games as senet, twenty squares (the Royal Game of Ur), mehen, backgammon, chess, liubo, xiang qi, etc. And I've gotten totally off subject, lol! Once my research is done, one article will be about sexual discrimination in chess; the second article will be an examination of Shenk's intriguing research, but only in connection with chessplayers (i.e., are they "born" or "made?") I hope to have them both written soon; I've got bits and pieces saved on the computer already, but it's always a struggle to pull everything together and try to make a cohesive, understandable whole. I enjoy writing; I consider myself rather good at it (ahem). Still, it's MUCH easier to just continue to do research - one then never has to commit anything into final form for death by a thousand pinpricks and slurs of the critics...