Goddesschess

Jan

From The Economic Times of India
Mind games are not only for men
16 Mar, 2008, 0144 hrs IST
Amin Ali

Women are good at playing mind games. They can even beat the best of men at it. While some of you smile and start thinking on a completely different tangent just to shake you out of your stereotypes you got to look at Tania Sachdev.

This 21-year old is single handedly keeping the Indian flag high in the chess scene internationally. She is not only one of our biggest hopes at Olympics but has also broken into top 50 player ranking. Though yet to come to scale the towering milestones set by living legend of Indian Chess and her role model Vishwanathan Anand, the girl sure has enough talent to be a force to reckon with.

A casual chat with her and one immediately realizes that just as sharp features she has, the brain is even sharper. And she now rejoices playing a so-called ‘Man’s Sport’ and beating him at it. She knew from the very beginning when her mother initiated her into chess that she had not only had to fight the best brains around but a lot of stereotypes too. She was instantly accepted as a child prodigy when she won Commonwealth Chess title (girls U-8) at Dundee in 1993 when she was not even seven years of age. The most striking of the comments that came her way was “you don’t look like a chess player.” But the girl takes such things in her stride and says, “it is nice to perform well and make people eat their own words.”

Being only the eight Indian woman grandmaster, she knows she has a lot to learn for other Indian counterparts and superior ranked players like S. Vijayalakshmi and Dronavalli Harika to chart a long career ahead. But the girl has been in consistent form for the last few seasons winning the Women’s championship in 2007 without a single defeat, the only player to have registered such a win and was also crowned Asian women’s chess champion in 2007.

Though it has been stardom for the girl at a very early stage in life, it has also meant a lot of hard work to live up to the expectations. Also every ranking she climbs, the competition is only going to get tougher and tougher. But girl is unfazed by the all the attention that is showered on her. She finds recognition and adulation showered on her are a result of lot of hard work and loads of brain storming session while planning every move. But she quickly adds, “being noticed at the airport of being termed as a pretty face has nothing to do with her sport. You just have to keep working hard on your talent. And I love playing chess. That’s the only love I have.”

But talk of Tania and one cannot ignore Anju Sachdev, her mother who has been a pillar of strength all along. She is not just a fellow tourist with her at most of her tournaments but a strong emotional and moral support to her. Ask her about her expectation from her child and she says none. “I don’t want to pressurize my daughter by setting unreal goals. It’s her career and let her plan it. I never planned that by 20 she should have been a grand master and by 25 a world champion.” Though the mother may do her best to ease all the pressures that would surround the genius, the nation whole-heartedly expects a medal from one of the brightest youngsters our country has.

Jan

Hola darlings! I usually don't feature chess hommes at this blog or in the Chess Femme News at Goddess chess :) - but this is a special case. the USA's highest rated chess player, GM Gata Kamsky, will be playing a match in late autumn against GM Veslin Topalov. The winner of this match will have the right to a title match for the world chess championship in 2009. Gata has set up a charitable (i.e., donations are tax-deductible) foundation to support his bid for the world chess championship. In the future, the foundation will support promising chess talent. A dedicated team of the highest level chess talent is needed to support Gata in his quest to bring the world chess championship back home to the USA. Contributions to the foundation will help! The endeavor is backed by our eternally cash-strapped U.S. Chess Federation, which can offer our top chess player no help. Geez!

Jan

From the Telegraph.co.uk online:

Egyptian mummy exhibit is son of Ramesses II
By Lucy Cockcroft
Last Updated: 2:38am GMT 16/03/2008

An Egyptian mummy kept on display in a provincial museum for nearly 80 years has been identified as a son of the powerful pharaoh Ramesses II.

The 3,000-year-old relic was thought to have been a female temple dancer, but a hospital CT scan showed features so reminiscent of the Egyptian royal family that experts are 90 per cent sure it is one of the 110 children Ramesses is thought to have fathered.

Tests showed that the mummy had a pronounced over-bite and misaligned eyes, akin to members of the 19th Dynasty, and his facial measurements were found to be almost identical to those of Ramesses himself.

Experts believe that the mummified man died in his thirties between 1295 and 1186 BC of a wasting disease, likely to be cancer.

Chemical analysis also showed that the body had been embalmed using expensive materials, including pistachio resin and thyme, the preserve of priests and royalty. The story of the royal mummy was uncovered by a team from York University who were filmed carrying out the tests for History Channel series Mummy Forensics.

Gillian Mosely, the producer, said: "When the mummy was taken away for analysis we thought we were looking at a female temple dancer, we certainly didn't expect to make a significant discovery like this. It has been a very exciting and ground-breaking process.

"After conducting a series of tests, including a hospital scan, we are 90 per cent sure he is a son of Ramesses, and other evidence suggests he was probably also a priest."

The identity of the mummy, kept at Bolton Museum, Lancs, has been hidden because hieroglyphics on its sarcophagus suggested that it was a female temple dancer.

Historians now believe his body was placed in this coffin years after his death either by a grave robber who stole the original sarcophagus, or it was hidden by people hoping to protect it from thieves.
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Or this particular son of Ramesses II actually WAS a temple dancer - but after his death it was decided this was too degrading a profession for a royal male, and therefore "he" was designated as a "she" on the outer casing of the mummy. I find this a more likely explanation that that, years after this royal son's death a thief stole a female mummy and put a male royal mummy in her place! For one thing, the two mummies would not have been buried in the same tomb. Duh!

Was the royal mummy placed in the outer casing of a female dancer many many years later out of sheer expediency? I find this an equally unlikely explanation, as the Egyptian priesthood remained intact until at least 400 CE and retained their knowledge of ancient hieroglyphics and embalmbing techniques! They would not have made such a mistake as to put a royal male body inside a female sarcophagus!

The easiest explanation is usually the correct explanation. In this case, that means that the tomb markings on the outer casing were related to the male mummy within it - a temple dancer.

DNA tests would give us further information as far as confirming whether this is, indeed, a son of Pharaoh Ramesses II.

Jan

From The New York Times. Thousands of years ago, so-called "transgender" persons weren't persecuted and treated as social pariahs. Are we getting back to the point, historically, where people with hermaphroditic traits are "coming out" to claim their rights and place in society? By ALISSA QUART Published: March 16, 2008 It was late on a rainy fall day, and a college freshman named Rey was showing me the new tattoo on his arm. It commemorated his 500-mile hike through Europe the previous summer, which happened also to be, he said, the last time he was happy. We sat together for a while in his room talking, his tattoo of a piece with his spiky brown hair, oversize tribal earrings and very baggy jeans. He showed me a photo of himself and his girlfriend kissing, pointed out his small drum kit, a bass guitar that lay next to his rumpled clothes and towels and empty bottles of green tea, one full of dried flowers, and the ink self-portraits and drawings of nudes that he had tacked to the walls. Thick jasmine incense competed with his cigarette smoke. He changed the music on his laptop with the melancholy, slightly startled air of a college boy on his own for the first time. Rey’s story, though, had some unusual dimensions. The elite college he began attending last year in New York City, with its academically competitive, fresh-faced students, happened to be a women’s school, Barnard. That’s because when Rey first entered the freshman class, he was a woman. Rest of article. I only hope that Rey was honest and upfront with his girlfriend and told her that "he" was a actually a she.

Jan

(Somewhat lower rated players, not the most popular names on the European chess circuit, but fighting chess femmes all the same!) Information from The Week in Chess. The Russian Women's Championship 1st liga final took place in Smolensk 27th February - 6th March 2008. Anastasia Savina won with 7.5/9. 89 players. 1 Savina, Anastasia RUS 7.5 46 36.5 2202 2456 2 WGM Romanko, Marina RUS 7 51 38 2322 2369 3 WFM Tomilova, Elena RUS 7 55 41.75 2276 2420 4 WIM Solovjova, Valentina RUS 7 51 37.25 2221 2435 5 WGM Meshcheriakova, Evgenia RUS 6.5 47.5 32 2318 2338 6 WFM Akatova, Ekaterina RUS 6.5 54.5 37.75 2296 2350 7 WGM Semenova, Irina RUS 6.5 48.5 33 2270 2335 8 WIM Ivakhinova, Inna RUS 6.5 52 36.75 2250 2334 9 WIM Dolgova, Olga RUS 6.5 46.5 31.25 2217 2311 10 Schepetkova, Margarita RUS 6.5 44.5 29.75 2173 2284 11 WFM Kalmykova, Anastasia RUS 6 41 25 2124 2136 12 Gusarchuk, Anastasija RUS 6 40 23.5 2101 2138 13 Kindinova, Ekaterina RUS 6 43.5 27.75 2097 2278 14 Bezgodova, Maria RUS 6 47 28 2050 2276 15 WFM Lomako, Anna RUS 5.5 49.5 28.25 2283 2244 16 WIM Iljushina, Olga RUS 5.5 44.5 22.25 2268 2098 17 Bezgodova, Svetlana RUS 5.5 44.5 25.75 2237 2138 18 Lupik, Marina RUS 5.5 49.5 28.75 2222 2208 19 Krestianova - Tsepeleva, T RUS 5.5 49.5 28.75 2208 2189 20 WFM Manakova, Irina RUS 5.5 49.5 28.5 2200 2240 21 WFM Avdeenko, Tatiana RUS 5.5 4 6 25.75 2194 2186 22 WFM Shulakova, Svetlana RUS 5.5 48 28.25 2190 2207 23 WFM Bannikova, Anastasia RUS 5.5 46.5 24.5 2187 2193 24 WFM Zainullina, Nataliya RUS 5.5 45 26.75 2186 2187 25 WFM Korchagina, Viktoria RUS 5.5 40 23.25 2182 2100 26 WFM Karibaeva, Elvira RUS 5.5 45 23.25 2153 2122 27 Travkina, Anastasia RUS 5.5 44 23.75 2083 2167 28 Ivanova, Anna RUS 5 41.5 21.5 2169 2078 29 WFM Repina, Varvara RUS 5 41.5 20.25 2158 2041 30 Petrova, Olga RUS 5 44 22 2102 2057 31 WFM Semenova, Inna RUS 5 49.5 24 2086 2181 32 Bukhteeva, Viktoria RUS 5 40.5 16.75 2065 1960 33 Kuznetsova, Tatiana RUS 5 44 21 2051 2110 34 Miloserdova, Irina RUS 5 48 25 2015 2251 35 Semenova, Elena RUS 5 42 20.25 2012 2096 36 Smolyaninova, Marina RUS 5 39 20.75 2004 2085 37 WFM Kharmunova, Nadejda RUS 4.5 41.5 17.75 2170 2013 38 WFM Airapetian, Tatevik RUS 4.5 46.5 19 2162 2070 39 WFM Dotdaeva, Aminat RUS 4.5 42 18.25 2136 2035 40 WFM Kuular, Valeria RUS 4.5 42 19.75 2122 2058 41 WIM Lomakina, Galja RUS 4.5 36 14.25 2114 1976 42 WFM Ter-Steponianc, Antonina RUS 4.5 40 18.5 2100 2068 43 Grigorian, Marine RUS 4.5 41 16.5 2082 1984 44 WFM Malinicheva, Lidia RUS 4.5 40 14.5 2075 2046 45 Gorozhankina, Julia RUS 4.5 38 15.75 2037 2047 46 Yarullina, Alina RUS 4.5 38.5 16.5 2022 1946 47 WFM Abuladze, Lana RUS 4.5 39 14 2016 2034 48 Barinova, Valerija RUS 4.5 37 14.25 1984 1768 49 Chudinovskikh, Zinaida RUS 4.5 39 17.5 1944 2091 50 Karavaeva, Nadezhda RUS 4.5 34.5 12.5 1938 1817 51 Kulikova, Ekaterina RUS 4.5 34.5 14.25 0 1994

Jan

Information from The Week in Chess: The Mediterranean Flowers Women's GM Chess Tournament took place in Rijeka, Croatia 1st-9th March 2008. Carolina Lujan took clear first with 8.5/10. 1. Lujan, Carolina m ARG 2365 8½ 2500 2. Ionica, Iulia-Ionela wm ROU 2251 7½ 2409 3. Voicu, Carmen wg ROU 2290 6 2284 4. Vojinovic, Jovana MNE 2207 5½ 2256 5. Maisuradze, Nino wm GEO 2270 5½ 2250 6. Medic, Mirjana wg CRO 2248 5 2216 7. Sargac, Rajna wm CRO 2197 4½ 2185 8. Franciskovic, Borka wm CRO 2238 4 2145 9. Jelica, Mara wm CRO 2163 4 2152 10. Coimbra, Margarida wf POR 2124 2½ 2035 11. Berke, Ana CRO 2059 1995

Jan

Tbilisi 28th February - 12th March 2008. Information from The Week in Chess: 1. Melia, Salome wg GEO 2362 7½/12 2524 2. Dzagnidze, Nana m GEO 2429 7/12 2460 3. Khukhashvili, Sopiko m GEO 2387 6½/12 2435 4. Lomineishvili, Maia m GEO 2410 5½ 2333 5. Charkhalashvili, Inga wg GEO 2369 5½/12 2335 6. Tsatsalashvili, Keti wf GEO 2214 5/12 2346 7. Guramishvili, Sopiko wm GEO 2300 5/12 2321 8. Tereladze, Sopiko wm GEO 2195 5/12 2333 9. Khotenashvili, Bela wg GEO 2271 4½/12 2309 10. Khurtsidze, Nino m GEO 2441 4½ 2244 11. Khurtsilava, Inga wm GEO 2312 4/12 2276 12. Nikoladze, Sopio wm GEO 2251 3½/12 2220 13. Batsiashvili, Nino wm GEO 2317 2½ 2144

Jan

Final standings (after 9 rounds, women only): 89 players, Open won by GM Wang Hao CHN 2665 7,0 9 GM Stefanova Antoaneta BUL 2464 6,0 18 IM Gaponenko Inna UKR 2422 5,5 24 IM Tania Sachdev IND 2417 5,0 28 IM Paehtz Elisabeth GER 2420 5,0 37 WIM Nemcova Katerina CZE 2342 5,0 41 IM Arakhamia-Grant Ketevan SCO 2457 4,5 49 WFM Limontaite Simona LTU 2152 4,5 52 IM Vasilevich Tatjana UKR 2370 4,5 60 WIM Hagesaether Ellen NOR 2234 4,0 64 IM Jackova Jana CZE 2375 4,0 67 WGM Sanchez Castillo Sarai VEN 2312 4,0 71 WIM Andersson Christin SWE 2194 3,5 72 IM Zozulia Anna BEL 2344 3,5 73 WFM Steil-Antoni Fiona LUX 2122 3,5 82 Frank-Nielsen Marie DEN 1969 3,0 86 Almer Julia SWE 1914 2,5 87 Kristinardottir Elsa Maria ISL 1721 2,5

Jan

A short essay that I found very interesting about the original religion has been posted at Reality Sandwich: Imagine a time (whether prehistorical or transhistorical) when human beings lived moment-to-moment in the presence of the sacred. Religion was unnecessary. There was no separation between spirituality and life, no distinction between the sacred and the mundane, no division of the Godly and the worldly. When we lost the ongoing and immediate sense of sacredness, then we needed religion to bring us back to it. "Religion," after all, means "that which renews our connection." No matter that modern religions have been distorted into a force for separation and not connection. If we look carefully within any one of them, we will find traces of the Original Religion, the religion borne from that immediate, experiential identity with the divine. Born from the divine, it also has the potential to bring us back to the divine. Ohmygoddess! On the 5:00 p.m. national news right now - a certain "evangelical" leader here in the US believes that the symptoms of global warming are signs that we are in "THE END TIMES" (doom music here, cue thunder and lightning) and therefore true believers must NOT do anything to interfere with the outworking of God's Divine Plan. No, they can continue to zip around in their gas guzzling Suburbans and produce 1,000 pounds of non-recyclable garbage each year for every member of their households, while preparing spiritually for THE END. Well, what hogwosh. Anyone with a third grade education should be able to reason out that if it REALLY is God's plan, then no matter what puny humankind does we won't be able to interfere with it's out-working; but if it is NOT God's plan then whatever we do may have some moderating effect and could save millions of lives (humans and animals). The logical thing to do is to attempt to moderate the effects of global warming. Trying to do so is not going against God's plan if it's not God's plan. And if it IS God's plan well then He'll just pull His big old white beard and laugh His butt off at us. Duh! I like this Quote of the Day from the Dailygrail.com: ...If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers. Thomas Pynchon In a college literature course in undergrad many moons ago, I had to read Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. The only thing I remember from the whole epic is something about a light bulb in a Nazi factory that one day discovered it couldn't burn out and gained self-awareness. I believe it was called Bernie the light bulb. Whatever happened to Bernie the light bulb? Is "he" still alive??? This could be a question of grave existential import... (Edited at 6:29 p.m. oops - it's Byron the Immortal Light Bulb, not Bernie). Absolutely historical (oops, I mean hysterical) headline story from the online version of The Sun: 'Creepy gnome' terrorises town. A must watch video (to get the full 'creepy gnome' effect). Enjoy!

Jan

In honor of Women's History Month: From About.com Lithuanian born archaeologist Marija Gimbutas was a respected scholar in Indo-European studies of the Bronze and Neolithic periods. She is probably one of the best known scholars in this field, primarily for her news-making theories concerning evidence for a woman-focused religion six thousand years ago, called the Goddess cult. She conducted archaeological work at sites such as Sitagroi, Anza and Achilleion. A prolific writer, Gimbuta's work included a melding of language, myth, ethnography and archaeology. Trained at Tubingen and Harvard universities, Gimbutas was a fellow of the Peabody Museum at Harvard, and taught and conducted research at the University of California at Los Angeles. Although her theories are considered speculative, particularly by researchers such as Ruth Tringham and Peter Ucko, there is no doubt that her fearless emphasis on the potential for female headed cults has influenced the study of ancient Bronze and Neolithic cultures. I did a quick search at Amazon.com - here are some interesting titles written (or co-authored) by Marija Gimbutas:

The Language of the Goddess by Marija Gimbutas and Joseph Campbell
The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe: Myths and Cult Images, New and Updated Edition by Marija Gimbutas
The Living Goddesses by Marija Gimbutas and Miriam R. Dexter
The Civilization of the Goddess: The World of Old Europe by Marija Gimbutas

There are also videotapes of lectures given by Gimbutas, and various papers in compilation with others.

Wikipedia biograpy.

An interview with Marija Gimbutas, October 3, 1992 (I don't know who the interviewer is; scroll to bottom of page for link to interview)

Joseph Campbell & Marija Gimbutas Library at the Pacific Graduate Institute

Obituary from The New York Times

Signs Out of Time - The Story of Archaeologist Marija Gimbutas (great graphics too)

Jan

US court ruling keeps location of shipwreck treasure secret 1 day ago WASHINGTON (AFP) — US treasure hunters who allegedly extracted rich spoils from a sunken wreck in Spanish waters hailed three court rulings Wednesday that protect the secret location of their find. The legal dispute began in May last year when Odyssey Marine Exploration announced that it had found half a million silver coins and hundreds of gold objects, somewhere in "international waters in the Atlantic Ocean". Spain filed claims with a court in Tampa, Florida, arguing that if the shipwreck was Spanish or located in Spanish waters, any treasure would belong to Spain. Odyssey said in a statement that US judge Mark Pizzo had issued three orders "that the company believes will help to expeditiously move these cases forward". Two of the rulings were made in reference to a Spanish request to "compel compliance and to declare certain materials as not confidential", it said. The judge ruled that although artifact summaries and pictures are not confidential, "in the interest of protecting the site, other information including the preliminary site assessments, the site plans, the photographs of the sea bed and the photomosaics should remain confidential at this time." Odyssey also said the court indicated that the company does not have to open its research files to the Spanish government "at this stage of the litigation and that the information Odyssey has provided to Spain thus far is sufficient". Odyssey has argued that the fact the coins have been identified as being Spanish does not mean they were found on a Spanish ship. Spanish police seized and searched two Odyssey Explorer vessels as they left Gibraltar in July and October, acting on the orders of a Spanish judge looking into the origin of the sunken treasure. A judge in Florida earlier this year ordered Odyssey to tell Spain the exact location of the wreck. The information will remain confidential to protect the interests of the company, which fears other treasure seekers may poach its find.

Jan

Please check out the video accompanying this story, it's WAY COOL! Some years ago, after I treated myself to a matinee of "Lord of the Dance" in Las Vegas (I believe it was the 2001 trip), I took three older ladies from my church out for a special outing - we went down to the old Milwaukee Auditorium to see "Riverdance" on a Saturday afternoon in March. Oh, what a wonderful show, a show to make you stand up in the aisles and dance. Well, none of us did that - quite. Instead, we sat sedately in our seats but our legs and feet were moving like mad! I can't dance worth a fig, but watching those magical performances touched me in a way I can't describe. There is just something about the Irish dance (and the music, too) - Anyway, in honor of St. Patty's Day, please check out this wonderful story from The New York Times: For Bronx School’s Dancers, the Moves Are Irish and the accompanying video link. WONDERFUL! I dare you not to tap your toes and want to get up and dance too. The dancers are African-American, Hispanic (is the correct term now Latino?) and from lots of other cultures, but no Irish - and these kids had never heard of Ireland! WHAT? Now that's a separate commentary on the state of our schools these days - they no longer teach geography in grade school??? These kids have never heard of "Danny Boy" and seen "Going My Way" with Bing Crosby. Oy! Anyway, check it out, the video wrongly spelled "Keltic Dreams." Yes, I know I know, it's pronounced "Keltic" with a hard "k" sound, not a "cs" sound, but damn it, it's still spelled "Celtic" and, as Professor Chipping said in "Good Bye, Mr. Chips," he'd be damned if he pronounced Cicero as "Kickero!" Amen to that!

Jan

This is one subject that fascinates me - the peopling of the Americas - how it happened and when it happened. My home state, Wisconsin, figures in the picture too! Photo: Butchered mammoth - Excavation of the Schaefer mammoth in Wisconsin, thought by archaeologists to date to about 14,500 years ago. (Image courtesy D. Joyce)

Estimates for peopling of Americas getting earlier
March 13, 2008
Courtesy Science
and World Science staff

Archeologists are presenting what they call the latest evidence that a traditional account of the peopling of the Americas is wrong.

The mainstream view prevailing in the past several decades holds that humans entered the continent about 12,000 years ago using a temporary land bridge from northeastern Asia to Alaska. These migrants would have given rise to a culture of mammoth hunters known for their unique stone projectile-points and dubbed Clovis, after remains found near Clovis, N.M., in the 1930s.

But in recent years evidence has turned up that the first Americans might have been considerably older, some archaeologists argue. A new review published in the research journal Science contends that that the first Americans had their roots in southern Siberia, ventured across the Bering land bridge probably around 22,000 years ago, and migrated down into the Americas as early as 16,000 years ago.

In the paper, Ted Goebel of Texas A&M University and colleagues argue that the latter date is when an ice-free corridor in Canada opened and enabled the migration. The new account is bolstered by genetic evidence and the discovery of new archaeological sites and more accurate dates for old sites, according to the researchers.

Genetic evidence, they wrote, points to a founding population of less than 5,000 people at the beginning of the second migration in Canada. Moreover, they added, archaeological evidence suggests the Clovis culture may have been relative latecomers to the Americas or descendants of earlier Paleo-Indian populations represented at archaeological sites such as Monte Verde in Chile. That site is thought to have been occupied 14,600 years ago. The research by Goebel and colleagues appears in the journal’s March 14 issue.
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Related story: Indian DNA links to 6 'founding mothers,' March 13, 2008.

Jan

I'm too tired to report on this tonight, darlings. Susan Polgar has a report on the current results and standings after Round 3: 1-3. GM CRAMLING Pia 2524 SWE 2½ WGM YIFAN Hou 2527 CHN 2½ IM ATALIK Ekaterina 2408 TUR 2½ 4-6 IM KRUSH Irina 2473 USA 2 IM DRONAVALLI Harika 2455 IND 2 WGM XUE Zhao 2517 CHN 2 7 IM JAVAKHISHVILI Lela 2470 GEO 1½ 8-10 IM USHENINA Anna 2484 UKR 0 WIM YILDIZ Betul Cemre 2207 TUR 0 GM CHEN Zhu 2548 QAT 0 Whoa! After the great chess Ushenina played at Aeroflot in the Women's section (finished 2nd place women's) it's a shock to see her with zero points after 3 rounds. What's going on? On the other hand, I feel somewhat prescient (ahem) when I pointed out in my Chessville column (posted March, 2008) that Ekaterina Atalik could not be counted out of a good showing at this event. Hey - not so smart on my part (despite flashes of brilliance by Atalik) - she's playing on home turf for a home (adopted home) crowd!

Jan

An example of a "day in the life of" - yours truly, lol! Maybe it's the way I was raised; maybe it's my law school training. I learned how to research in the days before personal computers! I'd spend hours digging through stacks of dusty books trying to find a hint of a precedent or, more usually, some teensy bit of dicta to use upon which to hang an argument. All I know is, when I'm on the trail of something, I have a bulldog determination to pursue it to the very end. Now, this can at times cause problems :) But on the whole, my stubborness has served me well. In the last few days a question showed up in my email related to the early medieval period of chess in Europe. There was an author cited and a book he wrote that contained a legend concerning the invention of chess by a philosopher called either Xerxes or Philometer. The researcher was attempting to track down the author and the book: John de Vigney and "[The] Moralization of Chess," which is accounted the earliest book to reference the specific Xerxes/Philometer legend about the invention of chess. I haven't had much time of late to devote to research, I've barely had time to respond to my emails and I've been staying up way past my bedtime to post a few items here; well, we all have these "crunch" periods in our lives. But this particular "question" intrigued me. I vaguely recalled reading something years ago about "Xerxes" inventing chess - at the time I thought it was a reference to the great Persian King! So, I thought I'd see what I could track down earlier tonight. I pulled out my trusty old H.J.R. Murray "A History of Chess." Mind you, I think Murray is full of baloney as far as his interpretations of the evidence but as a resource for meticulously researched citations, he is the Gold Standard. And, sure enough, in his practically non-existent Index, was listed "Philometer." I won't go into all the gory details of plodding through Murray's tedious writing. Suffice to say that I discovered in Murray that Jacobus de Cessolis, in his famous (infamous) "Sermon", made specific reference to the legend of chess being invented by the philosopher Xerxes. de Cessolis' work is dated to the latter part of the 13th century CE. Could de Cessolis be the mysterious John de Vigney? It didn't seem so - as "of Cessolis" did not show any resemblance to "of Vigney" to me. But, knowing the vagaries of translation and how language changes over time, I was keeping an open mind. But - what did seem obvious was that "The Moralization of Chess" was a rather bad translation of another title - I guessed - from Latin. The "Sermon" (actually a lengthy four-part book) that de Cessolis wrote was titled "Liber de moribus hominum et offciis nobilium" and as far as I could decipher in my non-existent Latin translation skills, none of that related in any way to anything about "chess" (something like "scaccum" in Latin). However, the information about de Cessolis and "Xerxes" and the invention of chess was contained in Chapter V of Murray, entitled "The Moralities." That seemed fertile ground within which to dig a little further, since the title of the book I was looking for had something to do with "morality" or "moralization" and "chess." Sure enough, after skimming through a few more pages of Murray, I came across the name of John of Waleys. Hmmmm, I thought - John de Vigney - John of Waleys? I read that John of Waleys is also known as Johannes Gallensis, and he wrote a book entitled "Quaedam moralitas de scacciario" (which I roughtly translated from the Latin as something to do with "The Morality (or Morals) of Chess." That sounded suspiciously like "The Moralization of Chess" to me. John of Waleys' book is dated to around 1260 CE, which would date it probably earlier than de Cessolis' "Sermon" and, therefore, could have been available to de Cessolis as a reference to the Xerxes/Philometer legend. My intincts tell me I've found John de Vigney and his "The Moralization of Chess." He was actually John of Waleys (a/k/a Johannes Gallensis) and the book's title is something like "The Morality (or Morals) of Chess." Ahhh, an evening's worth of research ends in a pay off. Wish that was always the case!

Jan

We are pleased to announce that this year Goddesschess is sponsoring a $350 "Fighting Chess" prize for the upcoming 2008 U.S. Women's Chess Championship! GM Susan Polgar has graciously agreed to select the game from the Championship that best embodies the qualities of fighting chess in the tradition of the renowned Polgar sisters. Thank you GM Polgar!!! For our readers who may not be familiar with GM Susan Polgar, a brief summary of some of her many accomplishments:

First woman to earn the GM (International Grandmaster) title in chess, in 1991
World Women's Chess Championship 1996-1999
Head of the Susan Polgar Chess Foundation
Head of SPICE (Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Institute), Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas (a new Institute devoted to the development of chess at the university level across the country as well as cross-disciplinary study of the benefits of chess learning)
Author/co-author of two semi-biographical books as well as educational books and chess CDs and instructional materials on chess
Author of many articles for chess publications including the United States Chess Federation's magazine Chess Life and monthly columnist at the popular online chess magazine, Chess Cafe

GM Susan Polgar is one of three sisters who, together with Sofia and Judit, were trained in chessplaying from an early age by their parents. Several books have been written about the achievements of one or more of the chessplaying sisters and scores of articles have been written about their accomplishments.

GM Susan Polgar has been and continues to be a tireles advocate promoting the benefits that are acquired from learning and playing chess, particularly among young people.

With the assistance of the Susan Polgar Chess Foundation and now, SPICE, and through the generosity of many sponsors, GM Polgar has spearheaded the development of several premier chess tournaments and events for girls and boys, including the Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls, SPICE Summer Camp, the World Open Chess Championship for Girls and the World Open Chess Championship for Boys (2008 information).

GM Polgar also has a dynamic international presence on the internet, hosting one of the most popular chess blogs and a hot chess discussion forum.

More about the 2008 U.S. Women's Chess Championship from the USCF website:

The 2008 Frank K. Berry U.S. Chess Championship is now slated for May 13-21 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It is sanctioned by the USCF and will be a 9-round Swiss System event with 24 contenders. The 2008 Frank K. Berry U.S. Women's Chess Championship will be held at the same time and location, as a 10-player round robin. International Arbiter Frank K. Berry is again sponsoring this year's events as he did last year in nearby Stillwater. The move to Tulsa is intended to simplify travel for the players. The Frank K. Berry U.S. Women's Chess Championship Prizes -$25,000 Seeding - The 10 contenders for the title will be determined as follows:

U.S. Women's Champion (Irina Krush)·
6 Top-Rated Women players on the March Rating List·
3 Wild Cards selected by Frank K. Berry (One of these wild cards will be top female finisher at the Qualifier Open).

MonRoi will again be a sponsor, and will carry the official website and host LIVE games from both events for viewing online. In the event of a tie for first place at the championship, in both the events, there will be a playoff for the title similar to previous years. The final announcement of the players will be made in April on Chess Life Online.

The championship organizing committee consists of Frank K. Berry, Jim Berry, and Tom Braunlich; with assistance from Bill Goichberg, Bill Hall, and John Donaldson.

Jan

From my local newspaper: At least 1 in 4 teen girls has sex-related disease Results of federal study startle experts Associated Press, Journal Sentinel staff Posted: March 11, 2008 At least one in four teenage American girls has a sexually transmitted disease, suggests a first-of-its-kind federal study that startled some adolescent-health experts. Some doctors said the numbers might be a reflection of both abstinence-only sex education and teens' own sense of invulnerability. Because some sexually transmitted infections can cause infertility and cancer, U.S. health officials called for better screening, vaccination and prevention. Only about half of the girls in the study acknowledged having sex. Some teens define sex as only intercourse, yet other types of intimate behavior, including oral sex, can spread some diseases. Among those who admitted having sex, the rate was even more disturbing - 40% had an STD. High rates of sexually transmitted disease continue to be problematic for Milwaukee, which led the nation in the number of new chlamydia cases reported in 2005, according to a report released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in October. The city is planning to add more managers and outreach workers to its STD/HIV clinics this year. Among Wisconsin high school students surveyed in 2007, 44.6% reported ever having sex, while 32.9% reported having sex with one or more partners in the past three months, according to a state report. Of those who recently had sex, 61.4% said that they used a condom. The same report found that 9,628 teens ages 15 to 19 were infected with either chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis or genital herpes in 2006. The majority of the cases were in Milwaukee County, where nearly 80% of cases occurred within 10 city ZIP codes - 53206, 53210, 53205, 53212, 53218, 53216, 53208, 53209, 53225, 53224. Responding to the federal report released Tuesday, Elizabeth Alderman, an adolescent medicine specialist at Montefiore Medical Center's Children's Hospital in New York, said: "This is pretty shocking." [Say WHAT? "Pretty" shocking? It's a full-blown outrageous scandal that every thinking person in this damned city should be on their rooftops screaming about this at the top of their bloody lungs!] "To talk about abstinence is not a bad thing," but teen girls - and boys, too - need to be informed about how to protect themselves if they do have sex, she added. Ellen Kruger, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans, agreed, saying that teens need to hear the dual message that STDs can be prevented by abstinence and condoms. The overall STD rate among the 838 girls in the study was 26%, which translates to more than 3 million girls nationwide, researchers with the CDC found. They released the results at an STD prevention conference in Chicago. Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the study shows that "the national policy of promoting abstinence-only programs is a $1.5 billion failure, and teenage girls are paying the real price." Similar claims were made last year when the government announced the teen birth rate rose between 2005 and 2006, the first increase in 15 years. The new study by CDC researcher Sara Forhan relied on slightly older data. It is an analysis of nationally representative records on girls ages 14 to 19 who participated in a 2003-'04 government health survey. The teens were tested for four infections: human papillomavirus, or HPV, which can cause cervical cancer and affected 18% of girls studied; chlamydia, which affected 4%; trichomoniasis, 2.5%; and genital herpes, 2%. John Douglas, director of the CDC's division of STD prevention, said the results are the first to examine the combined national prevalence of common sexually transmitted diseases among adolescent girls. He said the data, now a few years old, likely reflect current prevalence rates. Disease rates were significantly higher among black girls; nearly half had at least one STD, vs. 20% among whites. Kawanza Newson of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report from Milwaukee. *********************************************************************************** Instead of teaching our girls about sex, we've wasted $1.5 billion dollars on touting "sexual abstinence." Well, guess what - it hasn't worked! Take your heads out of the sand, people. The amount of ignorance among teenagers and late pre-teens about sex and its consequences is staggering! Young girls - too young - are having sex - unprotected sex, whether you like it or not. Get over your religious phobias and get out of denial. Face the facts! This study cannot be denied - and its starkly horrifying information should not be downplayed and buried on page 23 of the "local" section of the newspaper! Girls get pregnant; they get venereal diseases; they get AIDS. The boys and men who are having unprotected sex with these girls are infected themselves and passing along the diseases to multiple parnters. And what happens to the babies to whom the young mothers pass these diseases on - the article doesn't even talk about that! What about the staggering cost to our society of so many young lives wasted? 1 in 4 teenaged girls in the United States has a sexually transmitted disease - VD. Among certain populations, the figure is a staggering 40%. In the age of antibiotics and condoms - it seems to me we've got a higher VD infection rate than we had in the Middle Ages! The impact has been disproportionately felt in 0ur black and Latino communities. How do we teach our beautiful young women to have respect for themselves and to give themselves a chance to discover their full potential? How do we remedy this horrible situation? I won't mince words. Bring back REAL sex education in the schools, for one thing, because for sure our girls aren't learning what they need to know about at home! (Probably their parents don't know themselves!) Separate boys from girls and really TEACH them the nitty gritty facts about the consequences of unprotected sex and the price paid (and it will be paid, one way or another). Teach the girls how to have self-respect - teach them how to play chess. What, you say? Chess? But it's been proven over and over and over again that chess, at low cost, teaches our young ones to develop critical thinking skills, independent thought, creativity, self-reliance, confidence, courage, judgment and - self-respect. A young girl needs all of these things today, and most of all, self-respect, to navigate a world that has totally turned its back on them - "the experts were 'startled'?". Oh please!

Jan

Fascinating report on the "computer" dating to 2nd century BCE recovered from Antikythera ship wreck:

Mysteries of computer from 65BC are solved
From Thoth Web posted March 10, 2008

A 2,000-year-old mechanical computer salvaged from a Roman shipwreck has astounded scientists who have finally unravelled the secrets of how the sophisticated device works. The machine was lost among cargo in 65BC when the ship carrying it sank in 42m of water off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera. By chance, in 1900, a sponge diver called Elias Stadiatos discovered the wreck and recovered statues and other artifacts from the site.

The machine first came to light when an archaeologist working on the recovered objects noticed that a lump of rock had a gear wheel embedded in it. Closer inspection of material brought up from the stricken ship subsequently revealed 80 pieces of gear wheels, dials, clock-like hands and a wooden and bronze casing bearing ancient Greek inscriptions.

Since its discovery, scientists have been trying to reconstruct the device, which is now known to be an astronomical calendar capable of tracking with remarkable precision the position of the sun, several heavenly bodies and the phases of the moon. Experts believe it to be the earliest-known device to use gear wheels and by far the most sophisticated object to be found from the ancient and medieval periods.

Using modern computer x-ray tomography and high resolution surface scanning, a team led by Mike Edmunds and Tony Freeth at Cardiff University peered inside fragments of the crust-encased mechanism and read the faintest inscriptions that once covered the outer casing of the machine. Detailed imaging of the mechanism suggests it dates back to 150-100 BC and had 37 gear wheels enabling it to follow the movements of the moon and the sun through the zodiac, predict eclipses and even recreate the irregular orbit of the moon. The motion, known as the first lunar anomaly, was developed by the astronomer Hipparcus of Rhodes in the 2nd century BC, and he may have been consulted in the machine's construction, the scientists speculate.

Remarkably, scans showed the device uses a differential gear, which was previously believed to have been invented in the 16th century. The level of miniaturisation and complexity of its parts is comparable to that of 18th century clocks.

Some researchers believe the machine, known as the Antikythera Mechanism, may have been among other treasure looted from Rhodes that was en route to Rome for a celebration staged by Julius Caesar.

One of the remaining mysteries is why the Greek technology invented for the machine seemed to disappear. No other civilisation is believed to have created anything as complex for another 1,000 years. One explanation could be that bronze was often recycled in the period the device was made, so many artefacts from that time have long ago been melted down and erased from the archaelogical record. The fateful sinking of the ship carrying the Antikythera Mechanism may have inadvertently preserved it. "This device is extraordinary, the only thing of its kind," said Professor Edmunds. "The astronomy is exactly right ... in terms of historic and scarcity value, I have to regard this mechanism as being more valuable than the Mona Lisa." The research, which appears in the journal Nature today, was carried out with scientists at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens where the mechanism is held and the universities of Athens and Thessaloniki.

Copyright: The Guardian

Jan

I find articles about equines very interesting, because of the association of the horse with the game of chess. The knight piece of today's chess still reflects this close association, while the rook, which was known as a tower in some countries and a joker (fool), leaper and boat in others, was in pre-Islamic times a chariot - in Pahlavi, the language spoken in the ancient Persian empire at the time before the Islamic conquest - "ruhkh." As I understand the current state of research, horses were first domesticated in about 4000 BCE on the steppes of Eurasia for the nomadic peoples of the area. There were no horses in the Middle East at the time, though. The great civilizations of Sumer and Eqypt knew only the onager or wild ass. I believe horses were not introduced into the Middle East until perhaps 2000 BCE; and began to be bred seriously as war animals only with the advent of the spoked wheel chariot which was introduced into the Middle East sometime after its invention in Armenia circa 1800 BCE. Here is the article about evidence for domestication of the donkey from The Telegraph (Calcutta): Donkey didn’t have dog’s life- Signs of earliest domestication & high rank G.S. MUDUR New Delhi, March 10: Donkey skeletons from a burial place of ancient Egyptian rulers have yielded the first hard evidence for the earliest domestication of donkeys about 5,000 years ago. The remains, found in brick-lined graves, show signs of spondylosis and vertebral disc degeneration caused by the strain of turning into beasts of burden, an international research team said. The donkeys from Abydos, about 480km south of Cairo, provide the earliest direct evidence of the use of donkeys for transport rather than for meat, Fiona Marshall at the Washington University St. Louis and her colleagues said in a research paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The animals resembled wild asses, but displayed joint wear typically associated with the microscopic fractures that arise in the vertebral bones after overloading and strain. “Genetic research has suggest African origins for the donkey,” said Marshall, an archaeologist trying to decipher the origin and spread of pastoralism in Africa. But an exact time and place for domestication has been hard to pinpoint because signs of early domestication can be hard to see, she said. Archaeologists believe the domestication of the donkey was a key event in the history of human civilisation. Donkeys are tough and capable of carrying heavy loads in arid regions. Their domestication could have allowed the distribution of food across ancient Egypt and facilitated trade with other cultures in Africa and western Asia, according to the researchers. Marshall and her co-workers from Denmark and Germany examined 10 donkey skeletons from three graves in the mortuary complex of one of the founder dynasties of Egyptian kings. The positions of the donkeys’ graves suggest that the beasts of burden were accorded the same importance as court officials. “This was a great surprise,” Marshall said. “The donkeys occupied special tombs in which you would normally find the highest courtiers of ancient Egypt,” Marshall said. “This suggests that they were greatly valued by the pharaoh. It’s possible they were used to carry something very important,” she said. None of the seal impressions contained a royal name for the identity of the king for whom the burial complex was built. But the iconography of the seals and the configuration of the architecture suggest a date close to the beginning of the Early Dynastic period, about 3000 BC, the researchers said in their report. The donkeys were between 8 and 13 years of age — in their prime adulthood. The joints of all the animals showed heavy wear. Joint wear on the feet suggested that the damage had resulted from loading rather than from pulling, the researchers said.

Jan

March 12, 2008 Egypt thwarts smugglers seeking mummy millions CAIRO (AFP) — Egyptian police have arrested three would-be smugglers trying to sell intricately painted Pharaonic-era mummies for more than five million dollars, a security source said on Wednesday. Tourist police in the town of Fayyum, south of Cairo, arrested the men on Tuesday as they sought to sell the four mummies and other looted artefacts on the international antiquities black market. The source said the mummies appeared to have been stolen from an illegal dig carried out by the men near Minya, 120 kilometres (75 miles) south of Fayum, and are likely previously unknown to antiquities authorities. "One of the mummies is of a child, the other three are of men, all covered with linen and plaster," the source said, adding that another 10 small statues and a Pharaonic sarcophagus decorated with hieroglyphs were also seized. "These smugglers were arrested before they could sell the mummies to antiquities traders for 20 million Egyptian pounds (5.3 million dollars)," the source said. The tourist police in Fayyum are now trying to work out exactly how old the artefacts are and who the mummies are. The smugglers face a minimum of three years in jail.