Sad News - IM Cristina Adela Foisor of Romania Passed Away at Age 49

IM Foișor won the Romanian Chess Championship five times, three of which were consecutive: 2011, 2012, and 2013. She represented Romania numerous times at the Women’s Chess Olympiad. She competed in the Women's World Chess Championship in 2001, 2006, 2010 and 2012. 

May she rest in eternal peace in the hands of the Great Mother.

From The Romania Journal online

International chess master Cristina Adela Foisor dies at 49

Posted by: Alina Grigoras Butu in SPORTS January 24, 2017

International chess master Cristina Adela Foisor died on Sunday aged 49, after a hard fight with a terminal disease.

She was expected to represent Romania at the Women’s World Chess Championship due in Tehran in February.

Cristina Foisor was born on June 7, 1967 in Petrosani and she will be buried in her home town on Thursday. She died on January 22 at the Timisoara County Hospital after several days of coma.

During her career, she won 5 national senior titles and more medals in team competitions. The great master chess player has  taken part in 14 Olympiads since 1988. Foisor represented the AEM Timisoara chess club, with which she won a gold medal and two silver medals at the European Champion Cup.

“She passed away after an unfair fight with a merciless disease, with her own shield and refuge being the CHESS until the last moment (…) Thank you, Cristina for everything you’ve given to chess and to life and we promise to keep you memory alive!,” reads the press release by the Romanian Chess Federation.

Cristina Adela Foisor, a graduate of the Mathematics Faculty of the Timisoara University and a teacher later on, fully dedicated to chess together with her husband, coach and international master Ovidiu Foisor, and with her two daughters, great chess master Sabina-Francesca Foisor (born in 1989, settled down in the USA) and FIDE master Mihaela-Veronica Foisor (born in 1994).

2017 FIDE Women's World Chess Championship - Final

Alas, GM Kosteniuk lost her match against GM Muzychuk 0 - 2, having seemed to have been working toward a win in Game 1.  She was therefore knocked out of the match and Muzychuk advanced to the final round.

Meanwhile, India's GM Harika Dronavalli battled and battled WGM Tan Zhongyi, only to lose 4 to 5, with Zhongyi advancing.

So we have a new women's world chess champion with whom I am not familiar, but then, I'm concentrating on local chess efforts these days, not so much on the FIDE stuff going on.  I wish her lots of luck, I hope the other women do wise things with their prize money (what they get to keep of it, that is, after FIDE takes its cut and miscellaneous "taxes" are paid, and - whatever)  and get the hell out of Iran ASAP.

Website.

The final round:

Round 6 - 

Round 6 - Game 1
SNo.	Name	Result	SNo.	Name
2	Muzychuk Anna	1/2-1/2	1	Tan Zhongyi
Round 6 - Game 2
SNo.	Name	Result	SNo.	Name
1	Tan Zhongyi	1-0	2	Muzychuk Anna
Round 6 - Game 3
SNo.	Name	Result	B	Name
2	Muzychuk Anna	1-0	1	Tan Zhongyi
Round 6 - Game 4
SNo.	Name	Result	SNo.	Name
1	Tan Zhongyi	1/2-1/2	2	Muzychuk Anna
Round 6 Tie-break
	Game 1 25'10
SNo.	Name	Result	SNo.	Name
2	Muzychuk Anna	1/2-1/2	1	Tan Zhongyi
	Game 2 25'10
SNo.	Name	Result	SNo.	Name
1	Tan Zhongyi	1-0	2	Muzychuk Anna

New Species of Human Discovered in China? Possibly...

From The Washington Post
Ben Guarino

March 3, 2017

Skulls found in China were part modern human, part Neanderthal; possibly new species

Modern humans outlasted the Neanderthals by about 40,000 years and counting. But don’t pat yourself on the back too firmly for outliving those troglodytes. Neanderthals crafted tools and tamed fire. They cared for their dead. Animal horns and blackened fire pits encircling the remains of a Neanderthal toddler suggest a 42,000-year-old funeral rite. If a Neanderthal indeed wore a talon necklace, as a collection of polished eagle claws indicate, they beat us to jewelry, too. Perhaps one of your ancient ancestors found the claw necklaces sexy: Some scientists theorize humans gave Neanderthals genital herpes and tapeworm parasites. Their proportions, however, remained distinctly Neanderthal. Neanderthal bodies were shorter and stockier, more Gimli son of Gloin than Gigi Hadid. Their skulls were built differently, too, with a few features — like heavy brow ridges — particularly unlike ours. Which makes a pair of newly described skulls something of a wonder. The partial skulls have features up to this time unseen in the hominid fossil record, sharing both human and Neanderthal characteristics. “It is a very exciting discovery,” as Katerina Harvati, an expert in Neanderthal evolution at the University of Tübingen in Germany, who was not involved with the research, told The Washington Post. “Especially because the human fossil record from East Asia has been not only fragmentary but also difficult to date.” Excavators dug up the skull cap fragments in 2007 and 2014, in Lingjing, located in China’s Henan province. The diggers discovered two partial skulls in a site thought to be inhabited 105,000 to 125,000 years ago, during an epoch called the Pleistocene. The owners of the skulls were good hunters, capable of fashioning stone blades from quartz. Ancient bones of horses and cattle, as well as extinct woolly rhinoceros and giant deer, were found strewn near the skull remains. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and at Washington University in St. Louis described the skulls as having a “mosaic” of features. Writing Thursday in the journal Science, they noted similarities with three groups: The brow ridges of the skulls were modest and the skull bone mass was reduced, like features of early modern humans living in the Old World. The skulls had a broad and flat brainpan, like other eastern Eurasian humans from the mid-Pleistocene epoch. Their semicircular ear canals and the enlarged section at the back of the skull, however, were like a Neanderthal’s. “Eastern Asian late archaic humans have been interpreted to resemble their Neanderthal contemporaries to some degree,” Xiujie Wu, an author of the study at the Chinese Academy of Sciences‘ Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, said in a statement. “Yet it is only with the discovery of two human crania,” she said, “that the nature of these eastern Eurasian early Late Pleistocene archaic humans is becoming clear.” The large brains of these archaic humans ruled out Homo erectus and other known hominid species, the scientists wrote. The researchers were vague about what they thought the species might be, describing them only as archaic humans. But Wu told Science Magazine that the fossils could represent “a kind of unknown or new ar­chaic human that survived on in East Asia to 100,000 years ago.” Other experts speculated that these skull caps could represent a little-known human relative: the mysterious Denisovans, a species that currently exists only as sequenced DNA taken from finger bone and a tooth found in a Siberian cave. Thought to live some 100,000 to 50,000 years ago, the Denisovans shared genetic material with humans as well as Neanderthals. A 2015 analysis of the specimen scraps indicated that the Denisovans lived for some 60,000 years side-by-side with Neanderthals and humans in Asia. (That humans interbred with Neanderthals is, of course, old news. Many humans who have Eurasian ancestry carry bits of Neanderthal DNA, around 2 to 5 percent of it, within their genes. In the process of swapping DNA, Neanderthals lent us genes for bad skin while boosting our immune responses.) The cranial remains “show an intriguing combination of Neanderthal-like as well as archaic features,” Harvati said. “This would be the combination that one would expect based on the ancient DNA analysis of Denisovans, who were closely related to Neanderthals.” The paper did not mention Denisovans, the study authors said, because DNA extraction attempts failed to yield genetic material. But the lack of even a nod toward the Denisovans in the new report was a point that Philipp Gunz, an evolutionary anthropologist at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, found surprising. The fossils, which Gunz called “remarkable,” as he told The Post, “certainly look like what many paleoanthropologists (myself included) imagine the Denisovans to look like.” Time may tell — if scientists can pull off a successful laboratory analysis. “Unfortunately, however, it is not possible to infer skull morphology from ancient DNA directly,” Gunz said. “I therefore hope that future studies will be able to extract ancient DNA from these or similar specimens.”

GM Alexandra Kosteniuk in Final Four at 2017 Women's World Chess Championships

Unfortunately, the female players were forced to wear hajib in order to play in Iran.  PUKE.  Some players sat out, saying no thanks to this woman-hating "custom."

But I'm rooting for Alexandra, a long-time friend of Goddesschess, whoop whoop!  She chose to participate, as did many other highly ranked female chessplayers.

FIDE coverage link.

The Semifinal matches of the Women's World Chess Championship started in the Espinas Palace Hotel (Tehran) on February 23.

Four players continue competing for the chess crown: Tan Zhongyi (China) faces Harika Dronavalli (India), and Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia) meets Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine). These matches consist of two games with the following time control: 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the rest of the game, plus 30 bonus seconds after each move. If the match is tied 1-1, it is continued on the tie-break with quicker time controls.

The game Tan Zhongyi-Harika Dronavalli was level until move 21, when Harika decided to change the pawn structure, after which Tan Zhongyi got a pleasant King side initiative. It seems Black had enough resources to defend the position but probably Indian player underestimated the danger. White managed to bring all his pieces to organize killing attack on the opponent's King.

Anna Muzychuk tried to surprise Alexandra Kosteniuk by choosing French Defence, the rare guest in her games, but it didn’t work out as former world champion was perfectly ready. Inaccurate 10... Qc7 let White to gain a long-term initiative out of the opening and after 19.Na6 Alexandra Kosteniuk got a position with a pawn up.
After the first time trouble it turned out that White’s win is debatable.
It was not possible to find a non-human line 43.Kg1!! fe 44.Qe5!! with victory and after "normal" 43.Nd4 the character of the game has changed as Black started to create threats against White’s King.

Nevertheless, it looked like Alexandra is not risking to lose this game at any moment but the tables were turned after 56.Ne5? Anna immediately responded with 56...Ng5 and White cannot defend against two threats Re5 with Nf3 and Nh3. A few moves later former World Champion had to resign. In a post-game interview Anna Muzychuk called her victory “a miracle”.

The second game of semifinal will be played at 3 p.m. local time on 24th of February. Alexandra Kosteniuk and Harika Dronavalli will obviously try to equalize the score.

Iranian Chessplayer Barred from National Team for Refusing to Wear Headscarf

Teenage Iranian chess master banned from national team for refusing to wear a headscarf

Washington Post
Marissa Payne
February 21, 2017

To most observers, nothing stood out about Dorsa Derakhshani last month when she competed at the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival. The 18-year-old female grand master fared fine on the board, twice using the Four Knights defense, and looked like any other teenager you might see in the British territory that borders southern Spain.

But to the head of the Iranian Chess Federation, Derakhshani practically committed an act of treason.

Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh didn’t have a problem with Derakhshani’s play, but her headwear. Derakhshani wore a simple headband in her long hair, instead of a hijab, Iran’s traditional headscarf, which became a compulsory accessory for women after the 1979 revolution. As a result, Pahlevanzadeh announced on Monday that Derakhshani would be kicked off the national team.

Derakhshani’s younger brother Borna, 15, who also entered the tournament, was also kicked off the team. His offense was agreeing to play an Israeli opponent, a strict no-no in the country that doesn’t recognize Israel as a state.

“Unfortunately, what shouldn’t have happened has happened,” Pahlevanzadeh told the semiofficial Fars News Agency on Monday (via Radio Free Europe). “Our national interests have priority over everything.”“As a first step, these two will be denied entry to all tournaments taking place in Iran,” he continued, “And, in the name of Iran, they will no longer be allowed the opportunity to be present on the national team.”

Neither sibling has commented publicly on the news.

That the two young chess masters received such a harsh punishment is not a surprise. Sports in Iran and other parts of the Middle East have long been affected by the region’s strict cultural norms and precarious political stance.

Last year, American chess master Nazi Paikidze did not compete in the chess world championships in Iran because of the country’s requirement that she don a hijab.“Some consider a hijab part of culture,” Paikidze said in an Instagram post announcing her decision. “But, I know that a lot of Iranian women are bravely protesting this forced law daily and risking a lot by doing so. That’s why I will NOT wear a hijab and support women’s oppression.”The hijab made different headlines earlier in the year, however, when U.S. fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad became the first American to win a medal wearing the traditional headscarf. Muhammad earned a bronze in the team saber event alongside hijab-less athletes Monica Aksamit, Dagmara Wozniak and Mariel Zagunis.“I have to challenge this idea that in some way we don’t belong because of our race or our religion,” Muhammad, whose parents converted to Islam before Muhammed was born, said last year.

She added: “Like within any religion, Muslims have conservatives, we have liberals, and we have everything in between. To paint all Muslims with one broad stroke can be frustrating.”

Special Trip for Goddesschess' 18th Anniversary!!!

Hola Darlings!

I wish Don had lived to come with us, he would have LOVED this!  But, alas. He departed this Earthly Coil in October 2012.  Miss him every single day.

Map of Aude Pays Cathar Region, France, Google Maps.

 
It will be Georgia a/k/a Isis, and myself, two of the founding members of Goddesschess - making a special, very special, journey.  We had hoped to lure Georgia's daughter Michelle (Goddess #3) to come along with us, and she may yet decide to do so, but she has been concentrating on establishing a new career in Entertainment Engineering since graduating last June with a double Major in Engineering (Civil and "Entertainment" Engineering, which encompasses everything from soup to nuts in the engineering world of putting live performances together).  The little girl I first met in 1999 when she was 9 years old is now all grown up, and an uber-smart, sophisticated and - of course - gorgeously beautiful young woman.  Michelle has accompanied us on our various adventures throughout the years, and embarked upon many of her own in the ensuing years.

Hey Girls!  Jan, Isis, Michelle at
Maison Newton II, August 2008.

This summer, Isis and I will be going to the Languedoc region of France for ten days, to visit an ancient homeland of the Great Mother Goddess, as well as pay tribute to the Cathars.

We will reminisce about the early days of the Goddesschess website, when it first came online on May 6, 1999, and how it all came about. And we will talk about what the future holds.  We aren't getting any younger on the chronological calendar but of course, in our hearts, we are eternally young and gorgeous, darlings -- you know, the original Bambi (me) and Candi (Isis), those Goddesses of Las Vegas, the two, the only, the absolutely irresistable, irreplaceable and irrepressible Las Vegas Showgirls!!!  WHOOP, WHOOP, WHOOP!  I certainly hope to be around for another 30 years or so, blogging to the bitter end, but you never know what the Great Mother Goddess has in store for you.  So, as my mother used to say, "MAKE HAY WHILE IT RAINS.  HA!"

Yeah, make sense of that and you'll be well on your way to understanding moi, darlings :)))

Stay tuned!  Just as the spring and summer brings the juices of life flowing back into Mother Earth to blossom forth, be fruitful and multiply, may the "sap" once again flow freely in these somewhat arthritic bones of my own, LOL!  Sciatica be damned!  I'll fly across the friggin' Atlantic Ocean strapped up standing all the way if I have to, down in the luggage compartment - the heated area with the pets (sometimes it hurts too much to sit for very long, OUCH!)

Happy 2017!

Hola darlings!

I am still among the living, just busy with domestic engineering projects.  Feathering my retirement nest, getting a lot of redecorating and some renovations out of the way now rather than waiting any longer.  I'm not getting any younger, you know.

HAPPY 2017!

Oh I know, the Clueless Orange Man who is NOT MY PRESIDENT is itching to start World War III while licking Vlady Baby Putin's butt crack and giving the middle finger to our European allies and NATO.  The man is a menace.  We'll see how long he lasts.  Already he is the least popular president among Americans in American history.  And he hasn't even been officially inaugurated yet.  HE IS A BIG FAT DOWNER, NO LIE.  Las Vegas has been running betting lines for months on (1) when he will be impeached and (2) when he will be assassinated.

I'm ignoring him as much as possible.

Goddesschess WILL be supporting the 2017 Grand Pacific Open again this year, held around Easter-time every year in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia.  We have increases the prizes for the chess femmes this year and also provide a small stipend to the organizers help fund the appearance of a WGM.

We will also be continuing our support of the yearly events sponsored by our adopted chess club, Southwest Chess Club.  The first this year is the Hales Corners Challenge XXV (we've been supporting the Challenges since Challenge VIII) on April 22, 2017.

A full flyer hasn't been posted yet, but here are the details for Challenge XXV:

USCF Grand Prix Points: 10. Chess Magnet School Junior Grand Prix. Wisconsin Tour Event. 4SS, G/60;d6.
2 Sections: Open & Reserve (under 1600). Olympia Resort Hotel, 1350 Royale Mile Rd., Oconomowoc, WI 53066; 1-800-558-9573 (mention Southwest Chess Club for $99 room rate).
EF: $40-Open, $30-Reserve, both $5 more after April 20. Comp EF for USCF 2200+.
$$GTD: Open: 1st-$325, 2nd-$175, A-$100, B & Below-$75; Reserve: 1st-$100, 2nd-$75, D- $50, E & Below-$40.
Goddesschess prizes for Females in addition to above prizes: Open: $50 per win/$25 per draw; Reserve: $20 per win/$10 per draw; Perfect Score Prize for Females: $80 in Open/$40 in Reserve.
Reg.: 8:30-9:30.
Rds.: 10-1-3:30-6.
Entries/Questions to: Robin Grochowski, 3835 E. Morris Avenue, Cudahy, WI 53110; rgrochowski@wi.rr.com; 414-861-2745.

Stay tuned!  We're not going anywhere, unless Herr Trump's brown shirts decide I am a major threat to the security of the United States and I disappear.  I doubt that will happen, but if it don't show up after a few months, you'll know what happened.

Oh Oh...

Happy Holidays to all!  For those of you who want to see this year's Christmas tree and skip all the blah blah blah, drop down to the end of the post.

It has been bitterly cold here -- we are under one of those nasty Polar Vortexes and we have had about 16" of snow over a span of 9 days.  Today blossomed less cold but extremely windy.  So windy that gigantic drifts are forming everywhere on the streets, in my driveway, on my sidewalk, and on everyone else's too, and there isn't a thing we can do about it until the winds die down.  That may be on Thursday. Windchills today were hovering around 10 below zero F to zero F, and it felt positively balmy outside compared to the past three days when windchills were 20 to 30 below zero F.  We are running about 29 degrees F below normal temperatures for this time of year.  I dread to think what January and February (always the worst two months of winter) will bring - weatherwise and otherwise.

Not to be outdone by Mother Nature, Father Time and History is throwing up all kinds of vomit (literally) all over the world the past several months, and 2017 promises to continue the unabated horrors.  St. Januarius's miracle blood refused to liquify on December 16th this year.  No bueno.  When this has happened in the past, BAD THINGS have happened.  Now this could not possibly be connected to the U.S. gone mad election of that man who is NOT my dictator, could it...

Or could it?

An ancient vial of 'miracle' blood failed to liquefy, and that's a bad omen for 2017

7:19 a.m. E 

One of the most famous recurring miracles — even if one not quite sanctioned by the Catholic Church — is the liquefaction of the dried blood of San Gennaro, or St. Januarius, a bishop of Naples martyred around 305 A.D. and the city's patron saint. Starting in 1389, the vial of San Gennaro's blood typically turns liquid three times a year: on the Saturday before the first Sunday of May; on his saint's feast day, Sept. 19; and on Dec. 16, the day Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 1631. The blood liquefied on Sept. 19 this year, but not on Dec. 16. "In local lore, the failure of the blood to liquefy signals war, famine, disease, or other disaster," Catholic News Agency reports.

The relic failed to liquefy in September 1939, when World War II broke out; during a cholera outbreak in Naples in 1973; and in 1980, the year of a deadly earthquake, Italy's La Stampa newspaper says. But Msgr. Vincenzo De Gregorio, the abbott of the Chapel of the Treasure of San Gennaro, took a philosophical view. "We must not think of disasters and calamities," he counseled, according to the ANSA news agency. "We are men of faith and we must pray." Peter Weber

Well, I've been praying my butt off for months to the Great Mother Goddess for a miracle to get rid of Herr Hitler Donald Trump a/k/a the Antichrist before he manages to start WWIII and the Zombie Apocalypse by doing something - anything - to strike him down and, preferably, Mike Pence too, all in one fell swoop.  I keep hoping for reports of miracle lightning bolts appearing out of the sky to strike them down.  But nope - nothing yet.  So -- it looks like we are going to suffer through some dire visitation from Fate during 2017, unless the Great Mother intervenes.

Here is this year's Christmas tree.  Not my best effort, heart just is not in it this year.  Talk to y'all after the holidays - maybe.

Are You Investigating Moving to Canada? Forget It - They Don't Want Us Unless We're Billionaires...

My commentary on the election results in my home country.  I hope we survive four years of this.  In the meantime, pee your pants laughing as I just did and remember I did not vote for this when the missiles start flying, darlings:

Hales Corners Chess Challenge XXIV: Goddesschess Prizes Awarded

Hola darlings!

Another successful edition of the HCCC is in the books.

Here is the rundown on $835 in Goddesschess prize money paid out to our winners this event.

The prize structure is open-ended; for instance, if ten chess femmes entered and played in the Open, and they each won all of their games, the total prize payout from Goddesschess would be $2,000 ($50 x 4 rounds x 10 femmes).  In the Open, a win by a female player is worth $50 and a draw is worth $25; in the Reserve, a win by a female player is worth $20 and a draw is worth $10.  The top female player in each Section also receives paid entry into the next HCCC if she chooses to enter.  Beginning a Challenge or two ago, we also instituted a perfect score prize for the chess femmes, one for each Section: $80 in the Open, $40 in the Reserve.  All Goddesschess prizes are in addition to what a player qualifies for under the tournament's prize structure.

Each October beginning with the HCCC in October 2013, in memory of Don McLean, Goddesschess' late webmaster, researcher, writer and reporter, we also fund a Don McLean memorial prize of $100 for the top male scorer in the Open and $50 for the top male scorer in the Reserve.

Open Section:
Anupama Rajendra won $150 (also won free entry to HCC XXV, $40)
Ritika Pandey won $100
Susanna Ulrich won $50
Megan Chen won $25

Reserve Section:
Simran Bhatia won $60 (also won free entry to HCC XXV, $30)
Madeline Weber won $50
Miriam Luevano won $40
Ellen Wanek won $40
Aradh Kaur won $40
Radhika Gupta won $40
Kai Mills won $20
Nika Kwon had zero points and thus did not win anything

There was no perfect score by any of the chess femmes this Tournament.

Don McLean Award:

Open Section:
Erik Sanntarius won $100

Reserve Section:
Sidharth Rane won $25
David Mertz won $25

Congratulations to all of the Goddesschess prize winners, and hope to have you all return for the Hales Corners Chess Challenge XXV in April 2017!

Hales Corners Chess Challenge XXIV

Hola everyone!

The HCCC XXIV is now underway at the beautiful Olympia Resort Hotel in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.  It is a long and grueling day - I know because I played in a few (a very few; my poor brain couldn't take the strain): Four rounds with the last round beginning at 6 p.m. (first round began at 10 a.m.).

Here's the breakdown of players from Southwest Chess Club's Tom Fogec ("CF's" are chess femmes):

Open--41 entered--4 CF's--9.8%

Reserve--37 entered--8 CF's--21.6%

Total--78 entered--12 CF's--15.4%

Good luck to all of the players, but you know I'm particularly rooting for those chess femmes!

Women's U.S. Chess Champion's Stand Against Iran Makes The Washington Post

National coverage - good for the current U.S. Women's Chess Champion and good for The Washington Post in publicizing her principled stand against this kind of religious tyranny and sexism!

The American Chess Champion Challenging Iran's Hijab Fetish

By Asra Q. Nomani and Masih Alinejad
October 5, 2016

Last week, FIDE, the international chess federation, quietly announced that Iran would host next year’s Women’s World Chess Championship, which means contestants will have to cover their hair with scarves to comply with a “modesty” law fundamentalist clerics put in place after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

As British Grandmaster Nigel Short spread the news, expressing concern, the 2016 U.S. champion, Nazi Paikidze-Barnes, a Georgian American, made a morally courageous move: Paikidze said she would skip the competition rather than comply with a law that denies women and girls fundamental human rights.

“I will NOT wear a hijab and support women’s oppression. Even if it means missing one of the most important competitions of my career,” the chess champion said. [visit link to read the article in its entirety].

FIDE To Meet With Iran To Discuss "Player Comfort" At Women's World Chess Championship

The easy solution is for Iran to demonstrate how diplomatically magnanimous it is by waiving this horrid law's forced enactment on non-Muslim female visitors to the country.

What is the U.S. Chess Federation's position on this horrendous imposition of a Muslim religious rule on non-Muslim players?  It would be like all players coming into the United States to play in a chess tournament being forced to wear a crucifix around their necks upon pain of prosecution and threat of being jailed because - you know - this is the "Christian culture" of our country!

Well, you all know or should know that is horse manure and would never fly in the world today despite certain "christian" factions in the United States who would like to turn this country into a theocracy, but this is no different from Iran forcing a head scarf upon non-Muslim females who, if they want to play in the championship, have no choice but to go to Iran.  That sucks.

I hope ALL of the female players will choose not to play if they are required to wear a head scarf.

Female chess players protest wearing hijab at Iran world championship 

By Elizabeth Roberts, for CNN
Updated 7:35 AM ET, Fri September 30, 2016

(CNN) - Some of the world's top female chess players are upset that the next world championship will be held in Iran, where players are expected to wear head scarves.

The US women's champion, Nazi Paikidze-Barnes, will not be taking part in the event in Tehran next February due to her concern over the issue. Meanwhile former Pan American champion Carla Heredia -- who did not qualify for the Tehran tournament -- also called for the 64 women who are playing there to protest against the hijab rule.

"Iran has hosted chess tournaments before and women were always forced to wear a hijab," Paikidze-Barnes told CNN.

"We don't see this event being any different, forced hijab is the country's law." This, she said, is "religious and sexist discrimination."

She added: "If the venue of the championship is not changed, I will not be participating. I am deeply upset by this. I feel privileged to have qualified to represent the US at the Women's World Chess Championship and to not be able to due to religious, sexist, and political issues is very disappointing."

World Sports Issue

Meanwhile Heredia, originally from Ecuador and now living in Texas, said: "This is not only about 64 players, this is a world issue, a women's rights issue. That's why I'm speaking up. Sports should be free of this type of discrimination."
She said she hoped Iran would agree for women to play without hijabs without fear of punishment.

Islamic dress 

Islamic codes of behavior and dress are strictly enforced in Iran. In public places, women must cover their heads with a headscarf.

Susan Polger, the chairman of FIDE's Commission for Women's Chess, has so far not received any complaints from players on the matter. However, she said, if complaints come in, the commission will handle them "professionally and diplomatically."

Polger, who is retired from competing, said she has never had to play a tournament wearing a headscarf. However, she said that speaking personally, she would not have an issue with wearing one out of respect for a country's culture. [This isn't about "culture" - it's about misogynistic systemic oppression of females.  Of course, GM Polgar is - or should be - well aware of that.  She's been subject to plenty of misogynistic systemic oppression during her own playing career - like in 1986 ...]

Why Iran? 

Iran was the only country which made a proposal to host the event, a World Chess Federation (FIDE) spokeswoman told CNN in a statement. She added that since there were no objections from any of the other 150 national chess federations -- including the US (what she did tell you is that it's run by a majority of old men with 19th century ideas and the female players are NOT consulted] -- FIDE's General Assembly accepted the proposal.

FIDE is "reviewing all possible solutions for the players' comfort and will discuss all the issues with the organizers in Iran during meetings in the next few weeks," said the spokeswoman, adding that the organization had so far not received any complaints from players competing. [I don't believe this - but even if this is true, it would be because players fear making "official" complaints and being blacklisted by FIDE, which routinely punishes players who "do not go along."]


The irony that nobody is talking about is that if it were a men's knock-out championship, the male players wouldn't be forced to alter their appearances in any way.  Where is the fairness?  Where is the equality?

Top Female Chessplayers Threaten Boycott of World Championship Scheduled In Mysogynist Iran

My first knowledge of and comments about this outrage were made in the post immediately below this one earlier today, but really, I doubt my loyal readers would have to read my comments in order to know where I stand on this subject.
This article is from the Guardian:

'We won't wear hijabs': Chess queens threaten to boycott world championships in Iran after being told they MUST wear Islamic headscarfs

• Female chess players will have to wear hijab at a 2017 tournament in Iran 
• 
  US champion Nazi Paikidze threatened to pull out of the games in Tehran
• 
  Pan American champion Carla Heredia also voiced her anger at the move
• 
  All women in Iran must wear hijab if not they will face arrest or punishment

By BEN CLERKIN FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 11:33 EST, 29 September 2016 | UPDATED: 04:07 EST, 30 September 2016

Top women chess players are threatening to boycott the world championship in Iran because they will be forced to wear hijabs.

Female Grandmasters will risk arrest if they do not cover up to compete in the strict Middle Eastern country due to host the knock-out tournament next year. 

The World Chess Federation, known by its French acronym Fide, has now been accused of failing to stand up for women’s rights after telling players to accept the laws and respect ‘cultural differences’, The Telegraph reported.

US women's champion Nazi Paikidze said: ‘It is absolutely unacceptable to host one of the most important women's tournaments in a venue where, to this day, women are forced to cover up with a hijab.

‘I understand and respect cultural differences. But, failing to comply can lead to imprisonment and women's rights are being severely restricted in general. It does not feel safe for women from around the world to play here.’

She added: ‘If the situation remains unchanged, I will most certainly not participate in this event.’

The headscarves have been mandatory for women in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.  The strict regulation is enforced by the country’s ‘morality police’ and any woman found not wearing one in public faces arrest, a fine or public reprimand.

The UK government warns women travelling to Iran of the ‘strictly enforced’ dress code and says ladies must cover their heads with a scarf in public and wear trousers or long skirts.

Former Pan American champion Carla Heredia, from Ecuador, added: ‘No institution, no government, nor a Women's World Chess Championship should force women to wear or to take out a hijab.

‘This violates all what sports means. Sport should be free of discrimination by sex, religion and sexual orientation.’

American Grandmaster Susan Polgar, chairman of Fide's Commission for Women's Chess, has said the players need to respect ‘cultural differences’.

She said: ‘When I visited different places with different cultures, I like to show my respect by dressing up in their traditional style of clothing. No one asked me to do it. I just do it out of respect.

‘I personally would have no issues with wearing a head scarf (hijab) as long as it is the same to all players.

‘I cannot speak on behalf of others but from my personal conversations with various players in the past year, they had no real issues with it.’

Fide did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Mail.

Forced to Wear Hijab or Not Play Chess

There I was, quietly enjoying reading the news online this morning and all of a sudden I see this article (below).  What the BLEEP, I said out loud.  Now my day is ruined.

This is absolutely pathetic - and enraging.  And GM Susan Polgar - SHAME ON YOU.  You are endorsing FIDE screwing over female chessplayers just like it screwed you over in 1986.  Because - you know - it's the "culture."  Condoning and actively supporting the coercion of non-Muslim women to wear a symbol of religious repression and misogyny may be part of your "culture," GM Polgar, but it isn't part of mine.

Article at PJ Media

Checkmate? U.S. Women's Chess Champ Says She Won't Don Hijab in Iran

BY CHRISTIAN TOTO SEPTEMBER 30, 2016

Sports competitors are often asked to conform to the rules of the countries they visit.  That might mean eating local cuisine or simply driving on the opposite side of the road.

For one elite chess player, embracing one country's religious customs isn't an option. And she may not be alone.

U.S. women's chess champion Nazi Paikidze-Barnes won't appear at February's world championships to be held in Tehran. Female players will be expected to wear a hijab, which is mandatory by Iranian law.  That isn't acceptable to her:

If the venue of the championship is not changed, I will not be participating. I am deeply upset by this. I feel privileged to have qualified to represent the US at the Women's World Chess Championship and to not be able to due to religious, sexist, and political issues is very disappointing.

Paikidze-Barnes' may have company soon enough. Former Pan American champion Carla Heredia wants the 64 female players slated to participate in the event to protest the mandatory hijab garb as well.

"Sports should be free of this type of discrimination," Heredia explained.

The Islamic Revolution of 1979 led to Iranian women being ordered to wear hijabs in public or face punishment. [Unless you were born, dear reader, AFTER the so-called "Revolution," and so are not aware that Iran once had a modern secular society in which women were equal partners, movers and shakers, women in Iran were never FORCED to wear a head covering.  The "Revolutionary Guard" actively sought a return to the DARK AGES for all females in Iran - you know - RULE BY THE PENIS.  Let's call it what it is - it's religious bigotry of Iranian males being forced upon non-Iranian non-Muslim females.  It is also a violation of everybody's fundamental right to have freedom of conscience and freedom of - and from - religion.  It is disgusting. ]

For Heredia, having the event in Iran means more than wearing hijabs. "The obligation to use hijab is one issue, another one is that women can't share room with a male if she is not married to him," she said.

Susan Polgar, chair of Fide's Commission for Women's Chess, said the hijab ruling shouldn't be an issue. It's a matter of respecting local culture, Polgar says, adding the dress code will apply to all players.

Sporting events are often ways for cultures to find common ground. Even as the Third Reich rose in Germany the world came together in Berlin for the 1936 Olympic Games.

We live in much more fractured times. And examples of sexist treatment in Iran are now commonplace thanks to the web and media outlets.  It will be interesting to see if women's rights groups rally to the chess players' side on the matter. On the surface, it's a glaring example of infringing on a woman's right to free expression. Yet these very same groups aren't always vocal about misogynistic practices in the Islamic world.

Will the chess player's protest become a cause celebre among feminists? Or will they stay mostly silent and let the events play out over the coming weeks?

Either way, their actions may speak volumes.  

Note to author Christian Toto:  Don't confuse lack of knowledge about this OUTRAGE and therefore LACK OF ACTION with lack of caring on the part of women's organizations.  Chess is not a publicized sport in the United States and in general people who follow chess (mostly males) often refer dismissively to "women's chess," - you know, like it's the equivelent of second grade tiddly-winks.  

And, Christian Toto, until you've walked a mile in a professional female chessplayer's shoes, you have NO FRIGGING IDEA what you are talking about.  For too many female chessplayers, this event is the ONLY opportunity they will have of making some decent money, or even just getting out of their home countries for a once-in-a-lifetime trip, even if they get bounced out in the first round.  Principles are much easier to live by when one is well fed and has money in the bank.

"Queen of Katwe" Movie Review in the New York Times

It was only a matter of time before this story was turned into a movie.  Some of you may remember some years back the big splash of publicity of young female chessplayer from Africa received - Phiona Mutesi.  I wrote about her in 2011.

She had her "15 minutes" of fame and was feasted and courted, and then it all faded away.  The movie should, however, renew interest in this young lady and the plight of other young women and girls just like her around the world.

Review: In 'Queen of Katwe,' a Pawn Finds Her Crown Through Chess

•  NYT Critics’ Pick
 
• Directed by Mira Nair
 
• Biography, Drama, Sport
 
• PG
 
• 2h 4m
• 
  

By A. O. SCOTTSEPT. 22, 2016

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“Irresistible” is one of those adjectives that critics should handle with utmost care. No matter how universally charming or winning a movie or a performance might seem to be, there is always a chance that somebody, somewhere, will be able to resist it. For all I know that may be the case with “Queen of Katwe,” but if there is anyone out there capable of remaining unmoved by this true-life triumph-of-the-underdog sports story, I don’t think I want to meet that person. [Click the link to read the rest of the review.]