Gaziantep, Turkey Steps Forward for Women's Chess

News for women's chess: Chess dudes reach an agreement on hosting women's chess events. From left to right: Vice General Secretary of the Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality (GMM) Mr. İbrahim Evrim, Prof. Dr. Kıvanç Güngör, Ali Nihat YAZICI, the Major of Gaziantep Dr. Asım Güzelbey, Boris Kutin, General Secretary of GMM İbrahim Fuat Özçörekçi, Mr. Fatih Ekinci Ach, I know using the term "women's chess" raises the hairs on the back of some necks, but let's face it - there is a chess ghetto where female chess players reside because they mostly play each other, only in women's events, and therefore practically guarantee lower ratings for themselves. Well, says I, why shouldn't the women receive the same level of prize funding as the chess dudes? Is it their fault that they may be rated 300 ELO points lower than the 'best' chess players in the world, or is it the system that reinforces and perpetuates the differences between top women's and top men's ELOs? It's not as if the chess femmes play any less fiercely against each other than their male counterparts do, and - there is some justification for the view that female players actually play more fiercely and with killer instinct that the top male players, who tend toward those "grandmaster draws" following well known boring "lines" when playing each other. Exhibit Number One is the remarkably few draws played by the chess femmes in the 2009 U.S. Women's Chess Championship. Whatever. There is some excellent news for female chess players that came out of Turkey last month. Since my desktop is still down and today I couldn't figure out how to get it directly linked to DSL (I thought I was doing it right), I don't have access to the program that I use to publish Chess Femme News at Goddesschess, which I had hoped to get back up and running and update, so now I'm like two months behind - but that's off topic. Here is the news, which I read at Susan Polgar's blog and also at Alexandria Kosteniuk's blog. In a nutshell, the FIDE chess dudes, the chess dudes of the Turkish Chess Federation and chess and non-chess dudes of the City of Gaziantep, Turkey have reached an agreement regarding hosting and providing prizes for the 2011 European Women Individual Chess Championship, European Women Rapid Championship, and European Women Blitz Championships with a prize fund of 150.000€ with projected prizes the same for 2012 and 2013 if Gaziantep wins the bids for those events. The prize fund will be a record and ECU and TSF will try to make the events a record in Guinness Book. 2011 is clear since there is no other bid for the event. Considering high prize funds, Gaziantep will be a strong candidate for 2012 and 2013 events to get it if there is no stronger bid to the ECU. Gaziantep Municipality Sport Club will also sponsor a female team in the Türkiye İş Bankası Chess League. The aim will be to win European Club Cup for women. In addition, over the next four years Gaziantep will invest in programs to promote chess for women and children and will open a chess museum. The goal is to start hosting many women's international chess events and make Gaziantep the premiere center for women's chess events. I laud these goals. Will Gaziantep and Turkey come through? Stay tuned...

Turkish Housewife Opens Her Own Museum

Okay - how could this person possibly afford to do this - is she independently wealthy? Does she have some other source of income? Where did these objects come from that she is now displaying in her "museum"? How did she acquire them? Did she buy them and, if so, for how much? Were they gifts to her and, if so, from whom and when? Did she dig them out of the ground herself and, if so, where and when, and did she meet all requirements for legal export/import of ancient antiquities? Where did the money come from for the lady to purchase a house to use as a museum? Was this article done as the equivalent of Turkey's "April Fool's Day"? Inquiring minds want to know! Story from Hurriyet Daily News.com January 4, 2009 Housewife opens museum GAZİANTEP - After collecting historical artifacts in her home, housewife Füsun İşsever has bought a historical Gaziantep house, restored it and turned it into a museum. The latest pieces she has added to her museum are three important artifacts from the Roman Empire. İşsever lives in the southeastern city of Gaziantep. She said she had dreamed of setting up a museum for many years and, so she could display historical artifacts to a wider audience and in a historical space. She said she had bought an old Antep house right next to the city’s historic castle and began to display nearly 1,500 artifacts. "Glass, porcelain and hand-made clothes are on display at the museum, which is called the Medusa Culture and Art House. There is also a jewelry store in the museum. A jeweler from Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar and a filigree master from Mardin’s Midyat district work in the store." İşsever added that the glassware in the museum was Turkey’s second largest collection after the Koç Foundation collection. Rare figures in the museum The museum has recently put on display four important artifacts from the Roman Empire. One of them features a queen giving birth, the child is born dead and an angel takes him to heaven. Another 3,000-year-old artifact depicts the Greek god of wine drinking, and people playing the flute and having fun behind him. İşsever said it was a very rare item. A 3,500-year-old wine cube depicts Zeus, Apollo and Alexander the Great returning from war. An ancient Greek bowl portrays running horses, carriages, and a queen.

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Did you catch that? Alexander the Great appearing on a 3,50o year old "wine cube?" Darlings, Alexander the Great died in the 4th century BCE!