Eric Moskow Takes Up the Challenge!

A few weeks ago, I read a post at Mig’s blog by Dr. Eric Moskow, where he was writing about his efforts to gain a patron’s spot in the recently-concluded U.S. Chess Championship ("Men’s"): "actually the truth is, I offered 10k now, 10k gurnatee (sic) next year, best efforts to secure a great site and large long term committment (sic) moving forward. In the event susan wins and works with me, I am committed to make that stick and play in person next year. I vow to have 1-2 im norms (earned) by then. …" Posted by: eric moskow at May 15, 2007 21:46 At Susan Polgar’s blog a few days ago she reported that Dr. Moskow reiterated to her and Paul Truong his desire to take a year off, basically, from his other activities, and just concentrate on achieving an IM title. SP has offered to assist Dr. Moskow in his training during the next year. I believe that Dr. Moskow has the will to succeed and the "fire" inside to do the grind necessary to achieve that next level in his chess playing. But it will take much hard work and total dedication. He is a husband, a father of four, a medical doctor, a businessman, a religious man devoted to his community and to the doing of good for others. He is a busy man! He will have to make many sacrifices during the next year to devote himself entirely to his intent and training. I don’t think his "age" has anything to do with achieving his goal – it’s all these other obligations (such as raising a family, making a living, etc.) that, typically, children don’t have to deal with, that may do him in, so to speak. When one is an adult and has so many responsibilities and obligations, it takes a lot of "selfishness" to concentrate on just doing those things (lots of purposeful studying and training and practice) that are necessary in order to take one's chess playing to the next level. Dr. Moskow does not strike me as a selfish person - obviously he is not, so this task he has set for himself may be more difficult that he can begin to imagine. It is much easier for children, who do not have the cares and responsibilities of adults, to achieve sometimes mind-boggling success in chess, because they have the luxury of being selfish and totally self-focused upon achieving their goals. Can Dr. Moskow focus on chess to the exclusion of these other areas of his life? Now that the "experiment" and stated goal has been publicized at Susan Polgar’s popular blog, people from all over the world will be following Dr. Moskow’s progress. Wow – talk about living life in a fishbowl for the next 12 months! See my prior post about David Shenk’s intriguing research, which I think is related to Dr. Moskow’s quest. Perhaps Dr. Moskow was intrigued by Shenk’s research as well, and perhaps he was inspired by the recently published book by former chess star IM Josh Waitzkin "The Art of Learning" which, based upon reviews I’ve read, is a very interesting book. Good luck, Dr. Moskow.

Wisconsin Scholastic Chess

I normally don't follow scholastic chess although now that we're doing a weekly Random Round-up at Goddesschess, I do highlight female players from time to time. Today this article in my local newspaper caught my eye. I didn't follow the national scholastic event in question and I have no idea who won it, etc., so I found this article interesting. A local unrated scholastic team did quite well - one of the team finished individually in second place overall. My goddess! The photo shows 8 year old Jessica Whittow, a member of the Chess Club at Mill Valley Elementary School. Is she the face of our chess future?

The article does show the tremendous growth in scholastic chess over the last decade or so and I found the comparison (near the end of the article) to "where soccer was" 20 years ago an arresting analogy. The questions remain: if scholastic chess does become as popular as grade school and high school soccer, does it necessarily translate into more chess professionals in the United States and an upgrading in both home-grown talent AND prize funds? AND more female players who opt to stay in the game and participate at the professional level?

Success makes them chess mates
By ERIN RICHARDSerichards@journalsentinel.com
Posted: May 27, 2007

After starting a chess club at Mill Valley Elementary School in the Muskego-Norway School District this school year, parent Gregory Reese knew the players were catching on quickly.

Few students besides Reese's son, Greg, had played before, yet they started regularly bringing home trophies from local competitions.

But even Reese was surprised at how well the children finished the competition year. About two weeks ago, one of his squads of second- and third-graders won the national title in the kindergarten through third grade unrated division at the United States Chess Federation National Bert Lerner Elementary (K-6) Championship in Nashville, Tenn.

Thirty-one students from New Berlin and Muskego went to the competition, which hosted 51 students from Wisconsin, as well as more than 2,000 other young players.

Growth game

The success of the new chess club in Muskego underscores the growing popularity of the game locally as well as across the country.

Bob Patterson-Sumwalt, president and founder of the Wisconsin Scholastic Chess Federation, said that to better reflect membership, the organization changed its name last July. It used to be the Milwaukee-Area Scholastic Chess Federation.

"The numbers are going up each year exponentially," Patterson-Sumwalt said. "This past year we had 23 tournaments in the area, plus one in Sheboygan and Waukesha. This year we will have them from Green Bay to Kenosha."

Jerry Nash, the director of the United States Chess Federation, said the organization has grown from 10,000 members in 1990 to 45,000 registered players currently, which he attributes to increased support from teachers and administrators.

"They've come to understand the value of this to students," Nash said. "In what other game can you have a first-grader sit across from a 12th-grader and stand a realistic chance of winning?

"In terms of self-esteem, when you have children that come from Wisconsin or inner-city Chicago, or a Hispanic community in Brownsville, Texas, and they can do that, it's transforming in terms of self-perception," added Nash.

Centuries old, chess is a war game involving strategy and the ability to persevere with ever-diminishing resources. Reese, who helped with a chess club in New Berlin before moving his son to Mill Valley, said he likes to bring players up as a group instead of individuals.

The objective is to get better, he said, not just to beat other players.
Reese called the Mill Valley Chess Team, which has about 75 players, the best group he has coached. They've won 60 team and individual trophies this year, he added.

"I usually take the beginners or quitters and make them good, but I didn't have any quitters here," Reese said.

Chess talk

On a recent Friday morning before school at Mill Valley, about 15 children with matching chess team shirts were scattered around a classroom, playing each other on boards spread out across desktops.

Third-graders Evan Seghers, Chris Tillson and Reid Seghers along with second-grader Jorin McGuire won the national K-3 unrated team title, and individually they placed 2nd, 8th, 18th and 23rd, respectively. In the classroom, they stopped playing and shouted out thoughts on the game:
"I open with a king's pawn or a queen's pawn move," said McGuire.

"I like taking the opponent's queen," said Reid Seghers.

"Next time I'm gonna get first, not second," said Evan Seghers, referring to his individual placing.

As for next year's elementary chess championships in Pittsburgh, Reese said he plans to take more kids. He'll spend the year improving the current players' strategies and recruiting more students, especially girls, who are traditionally under-represented in chess clubs. "This is where soccer was 20 years ago," observed Patterson-Sumwalt. "People are just starting to figure out what chess does for kids."

1st World Women's Team Chess Championship-5

Here are the results from Round 7: GEO (2.5) v. VIE (1.5) Chiburdanidze, Maya 1-0 Le Kieu Thien Kim Javakhishvili, Lela ½-½ Le Thanh Tu Khurtsidze, Nino ½-½ Hoang Thi Bao Tram Gvetadze, Sofio ½-½ Nguyen Thi Thanh An UKR (2.5) v. POL (1.5) Lahno, Kateryna 0-1 Socko, Monika Ushenina, Anna 1-0 Rajlich, Iweta Gaponenko, Inna 1-0 Szczepkowska, Karina Vasilevich, Tatiana ½-½ Przezdziecka, Marta ARM (1.5) v. RUS (2.5) Danielian, Elina ½-½ Kosintseva, Tatiana Mkrtchian, Lilit ½-½ Kosintseva, Nadezhda Andriasian, Siranush 0-1 Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina Aghabekian, Liana ½-½ Tairova, Elena CZE (0.5) v. CHN (3.5) Jackova, Jana 0-1 Zhao Xue Sikorova, Olga 0-1 Hou Yifan Blazkova, Petra 0-1 Ruan Lufei Nemcova, Katerina ½-½ Shen Yang BOT (0.0) v. GER (4.0) Sabure Tuduetso 0-1 Kachini-Gersinska, Ketino Lopang Tshepiso 0-1 Nill, Jessica Modongo Boikhutso 0-1 Ohme, Melanie Sabure, Ontiretse 0-1 Schoene, Maria Randi

1st World Women's Team Chess Championship-4

Hola! I apologize - I thought I had reported on the Round 5 results but I see I did not. Play resumed again today, after a day of rest (well deserved) for the players. I'll report on Round 6 results separately. Here are the Round 5 results: Here are the Round 5 results: POL (2.0) v. VIE (2.0) Socko, Monika 0-1 Le Kieu Thien Kim Rajlich, Iweta 0-1 Le Thanh Tu Zawadzka, Jolanta 1-0 Nguyen Thi Thanh An Przezdziecka, Marta 1-0 Pham Le Thao Nguyen GEO (1.0) v. RUS (3.0) Chiburdanidze, Maya ½-½ Kosintseva, Tatiana Javakhishvili, Lela ½-½ Kosintseva, Nadezhda Khurtsidze, Nino 0-1 Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina Khukhashvili, Sopiko 0-1 Tairova, Elena UKR (0.5) v. CHN (3.5) Lahno, Kateryna 0-1 Zhao Xue Ushenina, Anna 0-1 Hou Yifan Gaponenko, Inna ½-½ Ruan Lufei Vozovic, Oksana 0-1 Shen Yang ARM (1.5) v. GER (2.5) Danielian, Elina ½-½ Paehtz, Elisabeth Mkrtchian, Lilit ½-½ Kachiani-Gersinska, Ketino Aghinian, Nelly ½-½ Nill, Jessica Andriasian, Siranush 0-1 Ohme, Melanie CZE (4.0) v. BOT (0.0) Jackova, Jana 1-0 Sabure Tuduetso Sikorova, Olga 1-0 Lopang Tshepiso Blazkova, Petra 1-0 Modongo Boikhutso Nemcova, Katerina 1-0 Sabure, Ontiretse

2007 U.S. Chess Championship Brilliancy Prizes

Mig has reported on the winners of the fan-sponsored brilliancy prizes at his website. Third prize of $200 went to GM Gregory Kaidanov; second prize of $500 went to GM Alexander Shabalov (also the clear winner of the 2007 U.S. Chess Championship ("Men’s"); and the big first prize of $1,165 went to GM Julio Becerra. I confess, prior to this championship I hadn’t heard of Becerra but I’ll be paying attention from now on! You can read about the reasons determining the awards at Mig’s site. For those of you who weren’t following the story, Mig originally put up a challenge at his website – he staked up to $500 out of his own pocket and challenged chess fans to match the amount. Many fans rallied and contributed. A total of $1,855 was collected, including Mig’s $500. Mig said this in his May 26, 2007 post: Thanks to everyone who donated and participated. It went far beyond my expectations and might even make inroads into new sponsorship models (actually old ones, just online now) for chess in places like the US where it's not really considered a sport. Museums, concerts, and other cultural events across the US are supported by enthusiasts. Why not chess? In the old days there would be subscriptions taken up for everything from tournaments to medical bills for Grandmasters. More on this topic later. I am interested to see what "more on this topic later" means.

I have been searching for connections between the God Mithras and Chess. Any help will be Gladly welcomed. Here is a post from the Delphi. Persian Temple of Mithras Found in Germany Author: The Tehran Times Source: The Tehran Times Title: PERSIAN TEMPLE OF MITHRAS FOUND IN GERMANYArcheologists in southwest Germany have uncovered a 1,800-year-old temple built to the Persian god Mithras while they were working on a Roman dig, authorities in the town of Gueglingen said Friday.Well preserved parts of an altar, jewelry and pieces of a fresco have been discovered, said Andrea Neth, director at the site, which will be opened to the public on Sunday, AFP reported.Additonal Article Link: [Click HERE] Options: [Read Full Story]

Playing Games Together

I read an article today about families playing board games and card games together, and how beneficial this type of activity is to family dynamics. This article produced an avalanche of reminiscence!

(Photo: Michelle, Georgia, Don and I were playing cribbage in the kitchen at my house, 2005, Don took the photo - that white box near the lower left corner is what's left of a box of fudge, Don ate most of it :))

I have very fond memories of playing games as a family and with family members as I was growing up. As young children, we would sit around the kitchen or dining room table watching my parents and assorted aunts and uncles play poker - wild games like Baseball (3's and 9's are wild and 4 gets you an extra card); and there was almost always at least one wild-card even in "Five Card Stud." It was rare a "straight" game (with no wild cards) was called. They played for small change, and we learned the game by watching and after the end of the hand, asking questions.

We learned very quickly not to say a word or even make faces at each other while an actual hand was being played; we would generally position ourselves so that we could see one or even two players' hands! I remember some very early games, I was perhaps four, and I would fall asleep on dad's lap while they played, the hum of conversation, the slapping sounds of the cards, the laughter, the slide of coins across the table into the pot, the absolute feeling of contentment and belonging, closeness, love. Soon, my siblings and I were playing with the grown-ups and having a ball. The stakes were always small; we'd play for pennies and nickels, and winning a 50 cents pot was a big deal! There was a special really good feeling associated with those times; I never thought much about it as a child, it was just taken for granted; but looking back, part of it must be the feeling of being included in the group of adults (and therefore being special, admitted to the "high ranks" of the adults), of not being ignored, of being nurtured and appreciated. There was always lots of joshing talk and laughter, but sometimes serious conversations about politics and their "work" and such, and we soaked it all in and felt very "grown up" for being part of it all.

We also played Monopoly (lots of Monopoly) and Life, and we would play "team" Battleship. Invariably, at any family gathering, a large group would gather around a table or two and play card games and board games. The favorite game of my mother's family was penny-ante poker and my aunties would call some crazy games, with 3 and sometimes 4 wild cards! The uncles would follow along, with much laughter. The favorite game of my father's family was cribbage. My paternal grandfather taught me to play cribbage when I was 11 (he taught me about baseball then, too) and whenever that side of the family gathered together we'd have tables to play cribbage, sometimes team cribbage, while other family members would play Monopoly and poker.

At big family reunions where relatives from all over would join together at a county park, I'd move from table to table, playing crazy poker games, Monopoly and Clue, and cribbage, lots of cribbage. We also played Bocci ball - I'm pretty good because we also all learned to bowl when we were kids, that was a big deal in my hometown. You never lose the "eye," it seems...

The older I got, the more I appreciated the ritual. I would catch myself just watching the family talking, laughing, enjoying the time and the moment, and memorizing it, like a snapshot.

One of my best friends in the "old neighborhood" was Donna, and her mother and grandmother (and even, on occasion, her father) loved playing Canasta. They taught me how to play the game so I could join in because I spent a lot of time over at their house; often there would be Donna, her mom, her dad's mom and me playing Canasta around their kitchen table. I don't remember how to play Canasta anymore and I haven't seen Donna since she married and moved away in the early 1970's, but I do remember many afternoons playing cards with the Berne family. It was Grandma Berne who taught me how to play Gin. I was 13 and she and I sat at the Berne kitchen table smoking cigarettes (she smoked Camels and I smoked Salem Lights) as she taught me the game and tried to helped me with my atrocious "French" accent (it was my 'foreign language' in junior high and high school). I don't remember much French and I never did learn how to properly "roll" my ‘r’s’, but I still remember how to play Gin and I remember Grandma Berne, with her thick glasses that she only put on when she absolutely had to, her real French-Canadian accent, her furs, her expensive perfumed scent, her high-heeled pumps and black leather handbags that always seemed to hold the most wonderful things, and her perfectly groomed dark auburn coif, very 1940's and quite elegant. And bright red lipstick.

Now we're all grown up; I'm a "great aunt" (eek!), my sisters are grandmothers, my mother who loved playing 500 rummy with us at night around the kitchen table while dad was at his second-shift job is a great-grandmother. My youngest niece is seven; my oldest nieces and nephews are married and have children of their own! The family is even bigger now than it was when I was a child. We are more scattered now, too, and it seems harder these days to have those big family get-togethers than when I was a kid. But we still do have get-togethers, it's just not all of us at one time and place. We’ll be having a get-together tomorrow, to celebrate my mom's 80th birthday party and (weather permitting), having a cook-out. I’m sure that after we eat, someone will break out a deck of cards and we'll gather around and play some of those crazy poker games my mom still loves. My mom grew up in a family of seven sisters; four of them have passed away, the torch from that generation has been and is being passed to my generation. This makes me sad - and scared.

Because there are so many of us, the family gathering tomorrow is an "everyone bring a dish" event. I am the designated "bringer of the jello." I am grateful for the fact that the sister who suggested I do the jello doesn't remember the debacle from a few years ago when - for some mysterious reason - my jello failed to "set"...

Chess Champion at 10 Might Not Make It To 11...

I detest children who are obnoxious like this. Mama needs to teach this boy a little humility, or at least some decent manners! Or, someday soon, he may find himself on the wrong end of a punch in the nose. St. Petersburg Times Neighborhood news Chess champion at 10 By Helen Anne TravisPublished May 25, 2007 The champion arrives 30 minutes late. He's sweaty and out of breath from a school skate party. Two dozen elementary school students look up from their chess boards. Logan McElvenny doesn't apologize for his late arrival to the weekly chess tournament at Center Place in Brandon. He's 10 years old. He placed first in the state in the K-5 under 750 rating division at the 2007 Florida Scholastic Chess Championship in Miami in March. He likes the games where he wins trophies. Doing well on this night would only merit him a ribbon. Shreya Chidarala, an 11-year-old who beat Logan once, plays him first. Logan uses his signature Ruy Lopez opening. While he waits for Shreya to make her move, Logan talks to the other kids who have gathered around to watch him play. He hums to himself. He loses track of when it's his turn. He barely glances at the board before moving his piece. He wins twice. He reminds Shreya that he's been featured in the newspaper more times than she has. Around them chess pieces clack on the boards and an occasional shriek of "check" rings out. These children are fearless about striking conversations with adults. They're smart, inquisitive, white, Asian, Indian, blond, dark-eyed. Logan is the only redhead in the room, except for his sister Annie, 6. She waits with their mother and the other chess moms. She doesn't play chess, but wants to "horseback ride" instead. She's his biggest fan and, as long as she stays out of his bedroom, she doesn't annoy him. When he's nice, she helps him arrange his 11 chess trophies. When he's mean, she cries in her bedroom. She and their mom painted their toenails by the hotel pool while they waited for him to finish his games in Miami. A fast learner Logan, of Valrico, learned to play chess two years ago. His father, John, had saved the chess board that he learned to play on as a child. He taught Logan to play on this board, just like his father had taught him more than three decades ago. Logan was bad at checkers and wary when he saw that chess used a similar game board. He thought a checkmate was something you could draw. In two weeks, Logan was able to beat his father. Now he sneaks out of bed at night to play chess by himself and work on his strategy. "I can't shut it off, " he says. Logan's mom, Kathy, doesn't know what to say when she catches her son playing chess by himself hours after his bedtime. A part of her wants to tell him to go back to sleep. But she usually gives him two minutes to wrap it up. He might be in the middle of learning a strategy or teaching himself a move. If it was anything else - video games or playing with Legos - she wouldn't give him the extra time. But it's chess, a hobby Kathy sees as enriching. It's something she knows he can take with him as he grows older. He can play it in college, he can play it in the nursing home. Teaching mom Kathy always assumed she wasn't smart enough to learn how to play chess, but Logan taught her the ropes. He goes easy on her, tells her to take back a move if it will let him win too easily. Sometimes he avoids check mating her. He doesn't have any lucky chess rituals, but he says that if he drinks orange soda before a chess game he will be too high-strung to win. At the skate party before the community tournament, Logan indulged in some soda. His last game with Shreya ends in a stalemate. "I tied him, " Shreya calls out to the room. She smiles and claps her hand. Parents appear in the doorway. It's almost time to go. In June, he's moving to South Carolina, Logan tells the children around him. He'll be the state champion there, too, he says. Helen Anne Travis can be reached at 661-2439 or mailto:htravis@sptimes.com.%3C/p%3E [Last modified May 24, 2007, 07:41:18] *************************************************************************** An obnoxious teenaged chess prodigy was featured on the television medical series "House" recently - too bad House saved the punk. Maybe this kid, at 10, still has a chance to be turned into a decent human being. TV Review "House: The Jerk" (no, not House, who is a jerk, the punk chessplaying kid): It's quite the shock to realize that the jerk of this episode's title is not House, at least not exclusively or even primarily. Nick Lane as rage-prone teenager Nate is possibly too effective as the mini-jerk. From the unmodulated bullhorn voice to the constant, not-particularly-funny smart remarks, the fictional kid is not someone I'd want to spend even an hour with. Not even an hour between 9 and 10 p.m. on a Tuesday evening. I realize this confession reveals my own jerkdom, but it was the first ever House episode where I was rooting for the patient to die. I'm not completely heartless – I would have settled for a prolonged coma. Even a persistent vegetative state. ...

I Couldn't Make This Up...

Throughout the ages, there have been reports about people being killed because of the results of a chess game. I have to admit, though, that I couldn't have dreamed up this story if I tried: Ohio Inmate Executed for Killing Cellmate After They Fought Over Chessgame (Court TV News, May 24, 2007) LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) — An execution was delayed more than an hour Thursday while prison medical staff struggled to find suitable veins in the condemned man's arms — the second time that has happened in Ohio in little more than a year. The execution team stuck Christopher Newton at least 10 times with needles to get in place the shunts used to administer the lethal chemicals. Newton, who had insisted on the death penalty as punishment for killing a cellmate, continued to talk, smile and laugh with the prison staff, and at one point was even given a bathroom break. When he eventually was moved from his holding cell and strapped to a table in the death chamber, he made this short statement: "Yes, boy, I could sure go for some beef stew and a chicken bone. That's it." Newton, 37, was pronounced dead at 11:53 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility; his execution had been set to begin at 10. He weighed 265 at his physical on Wednesday. The head of the Public Defender's death penalty division, Joe Wilhelm, said Newton told him it was hard for blood to be taken from his veins because of his weight. The public defender's office said the decision was made not to intervene when the execution was delayed. "You have to remember that Newton wanted to die. Our job isn't to oppose the death penalty, it's to represent our clients," said Greg Meyer, chief counsel for the Ohio Public Defender's Office. In May 2006, the execution of another Ohio inmate, Joseph Lewis Clark, also was delayed more than an hour because the team could not find a suitable vein; a prison official said at the time that Clark's history of drug use may have been a factor. That case has been cited by death penalty opponents as an example of problems with lethal injection. Executions typically last about 20 minutes. A group of Ohio inmates is suing over the state's injection method, saying it is unconstitutionally cruel, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio called on the state to stop executions because of Thursday's problems. The delay will be discussed as part of that suit and helps show the state is unable to complete executions smoothly, Meyer said. "There will be a day in trial that they will have to answer up as to what caused this two-hour delay," Meyer said. "That's a lot of time messing around trying to get a needle in a vein." Gov. Ted Strickland closely monitored Newton's execution, his office said. The governor had delayed Newton's execution for a few months to research the case just after he took office in January. "There was not a cause to intervene," Strickland spokesman Keith Dailey said. "Out of an abundance of caution, every precaution was taken before the procedure began to ensure that there would be no problems when the procedure began." Newton beat and choked cellmate Jason Brewer, 27, to death in 2001 after they argued over a chess game. In a statement read by public defender Robert Lowe after the execution, Newton apologized to his victim's family. "If I could take it back, I would," the statement said. "To my family, I love you and I'm sorry." Although his attorneys argued Newton should be spared the death penalty because of mental disorders, a court last fall found him competent to forgo his appeals. The prosecution had argued that he had feigned mental illness. Court documents say Newton, who spent much of his adult life in prison, knew Brewer's killing was a capital crime, and refused to cooperate with investigators unless they sought the death penalty. In an interview with reporters last month, Newton said he killed Brewer because he repeatedly gave up while they were playing chess. "Every time I put him in check, he'd give up and want to start a new game," Newton said. "And I tried to tell him you never give up ... I just got tired of it." Newton also claimed that he had intentionally gotten himself put back in prison by leaving behind a handprint during a 1999 break-in at his father's house.

A Woman Who Made A Difference

As so often happens when I'm conducting online research, I came across this article about a chess femme of whom I've never heard while doing research on a totally different subject! I don't know how many people read it when it was first published, or how many people will read it here; I'm trying to find out more about the lady. Her story, I think, speaks volumes about the kind of lady she is. The article was originally published in 2005 at the "signonsandiego.com" website: Player was a trailblazer in women's chess By Michelle DeCrescenzoUNION-TRIBUNE COMMUNITY NEWS WRITER August 19, 2005 SOLANA BEACH – Alina Markowski delved into chess in the 1950s, at a time when women in the sport were uncommon. She heard remarks such as "You're a good player, for a girl." On occasion, she said, "You could see, if a player lost to me, how disgusted he was that he had lost to a woman."This stoked a fire within her to promote women in chess through writing articles, organizing women's teams and tournaments and volunteering time to help a number of chess organizations as secretary, treasurer and more. The 95-year-old Solana Beach resident's chess stories include the shortest win on record, a tale she volunteers with a chuckle. She said her competitor refused to play against a woman during a tournament in Milwaukee in 1973. He was faced with disqualification if he failed to make at least one move. After he sat down to make his move and then left, Markowski earned the win and boosted her ratings. All that changed, she said, when she moved to Escondido in 1975 and joined the North County Chess Club, where she was warmly received by members. "Usually when people get to be 65, they stop studying chess," said Michael Nagaran, the club's president. "She never stopped. She tried to learn as much as she could." Nagaran estimates he has played up to 100 games with Markowski. "She would always say something positive whether she won the game or lost the game," he said. "And she was always ready for another game." Markowski said that when she's playing, the game takes precedence over friendships. "You play for blood," she said. "But when the game is over with, you can congratulate your opponent." Markowski has played an integral role in bringing players – especially female players – together for tournaments. "As a chess player, I'm average, but my strong point was organizing," Markowski said. "I was most happy when I was organizing the women's teams." She recruited local female players to organize the first regional chess tournament for women. She was an active board member and lifetime member of the Southern California Chess Federation, and wrote articles on women and chess for the organization's publication, Rank & File. As well as belonging to the North County Chess Club, Markowski has been a member of the San Diego Chess Club. She has reached chess players through the mail as well. She has been active in correspondence chess, in which moves are sent by mail between two players. Markowski served as captain of a women's team for an international correspondence chess tournament. She chose the best five players from the United States to compete in a game that lasted several years. Markowski was introduced to postal chess by her husband, who died from cancer in 1971. During the end of his life, he was an active postal chess player, since he was no longer able to attend tournaments. After 30 years of involvement in the local chess community, Markowski played her last tournament game in June, and the North County Chess Club held a retirement party for her. Nagaran called her the "driving force" behind organizing the tournaments and said she will be greatly missed. When she reflects upon her years of dedication to chess, she said, "I look back with pleasure on them." I put a piece together on Ms. Markowski at Goddesschess.

1st World Women's Team Chess Championship-3

Here are the Round 3 and Round 4 results: Round 3 results: Poland (0) v. China (4) Socko, Monika 0-1 Zhao Xue Rajlich, Iweta 0-1 Hou Yifan Zawadzka, Jolanta 0-1 Ruan Lufei Przezdziecka, Marta 0-1 Shen Yang Russia (3.5) v. Vietnam (0.5) Kosintseva, Tatiana 1-0 Le Kieu Thien Kim Kosintseva, Nadezhda ½-½ Le Thanh Tu Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina 1-0 Hoang Thi Bao Tram Tairova, Elena 1-0 Nguyen, Thi Thanh An Georgia (2) v. Germany (2) Chiburdanidze, Maya 0-1 Paehtz, Elisabeth Javakhishvili, Lela ½-½ Kachiani-Gersinska, Ketino Khurtsidze, Nino 1-0 Ohme, Melanie Khukhashvili, Sopiko ½-½ Schoene, Maria Randi Ukraine (4.0) v. Botswana (0.0) Ushenina, Anna 1-0 Sabure Tuduetso Gaponenko, Inna 1-0 Lopang, Tshepiso Vasilevich, Tatiana 1-0 Sabure Ontiretse Vozovic, Oksana 1-0 Pilane Masego Sylvia Armenia (4.0) v. Czech Republic (0.0) Danielian, Elina 1-0 Jackova, Jana Mkrtchian, Lilit 1-0 Sikorova, Olga Aghinian, Nelly 1-0 Blazkova, Petra Aghabekian, Liana 1-0 Nemcova, Katerina Round 4 results: VIE (3.0) v. CZE (1.0) Le Kieu Thien Kim ½-½ Jackova, Jana Le Thanh Tu 1-0 Sikorova, Olga Hoang Thi Bao Tram ½-½ Blazkova, Petra Pham Le Thao Nguyen 1-0 Nemcova, Katerina BOT (0.0) v. ARM (4.0) Sabure Tuduetso 0-1 Danielian, Elina Lopang Tshepiso 0-1 Aghinian, Nelly Modongo Boikhutso 0-1 Andriasian, Siranush Sabure, Ontiretse 0-1 Aghabekian, Liana GER (2.0) v. UKR (2.0) Paehtz, Elisabeth ½-½ Lahno, Kateryna Kachiani-Gersinska, Ketino ½-½ Ushenina, Anna Nill, Jessica ½-½ Gaponenko, Inna Schoene, Maria Randi ½-½ Vasilevich, Tatiana CHN (2.0) v. GEO (2.0) Zhao Xue ½-½ Chiburdanidze, Maya Hou Yifan 0-1 Javakhishvili, Lela Ruan Lufei ½-½ Khurtsidze, Nino Shen Yang 1-0 Gvetadze, Sofio RUS (2.5) v. POL (1.5) Kosintseva, Tatiana ½-½ Socko, Monika Kosintseva, Nadezhda ½-½ Rajlich, Iweta Korbut, Ekaterina ½-½ Zawadzka, Jolanta Tairova, Elena 1-0 Szczepkowska, Karina

2007 U.S. Championship-8

Hola darlings! Well, it's over for 2007. GM Alexander Shabalov won the U.S. Championship ("Men's") with 7.0/9 by winning the last game (Round 9), 1/2 point clear of defending Champion Alexander Onischuk. The chess femmes didn't fare so well. Contrary to my expectations, IM Irinia Krush did not make 4.5 and thus, did not earn a spot in the Women's World Chess Championship zonal event for which the U.S. has three spots. Therefore, all three spots will now be determined in the upcoming 2007 Frank K. Berry U.S. Women's Chess Championship. Well well well! Does that mean that Krush will now play in the July Women's Championship? Stay tuned. Perhaps there is some other way for her to qualify for the zonal? I don't understand all this chessly stuff, that's for sure! My suspicion is that the powers that be keep this all deliberately obscure on purpose :) Here are the final standings for the chess femmes: (24) IM Irina Krush (2488), 4.0; (32) WFM Iryna Zenyuk (2229), 2.5; and (36) WFM Chouchanik Airapetian (2188), 1.5. And now, the Brilliancy Prize Fund that Mig raised over at Chess Ninja/Daily Dirt, over $1800, will be distributed in a manner I find somewhat strange (why aren't they equal?) - but hey, I only contributed $25, to winners to be determined by a combination of recommendations from the regulars who post there and two IMs who volunteered to help him out on the matter. The top brilliancy prize will be at least $1000.

Dragon Capital - Trying a Queen's Gambit?

This is an interesting story – Dragon Capital, an English asset management firm that specializes in Vietnamese investments, is trying to get expatriot chess players GM Hoang Thanh Trang (HUN 2472) and GM Cao Sang (HUN 2548) to return home to Vietnam to play for that nation: (28-04-2007) Dragon Capital likes chess The Viet Nam Chess Federation (VCF) has sewn up an annual sponsorship deal with financial investment firm Dragon Capital to the tune of US$40,000, which will run from 2007-2009. The funds will be used by the VCF to organise and fund chess tournaments. The deal will allow the company to serve as the premier sponsor of the World Youth Chess Championships, to be held in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province from September 8-20, 2008. Dragon Capital and VCF also called on International Grand master Hoang Thanh Trang, who now represents Hungary and finished fourth at the recently concluded European Championships, to come back to the Vietnamese national team. The company has offered the player a sponsorship deal worth $50,000-$100,000 a year. According to a subsequent news story, Dragon Capital has paid $50,000 (USD) to the VCF. The VCF then turned the money over to FIDE as part of its bid, evidently, to host the 2008 World Youth Chess Championships, and the VCF is now out of funds: Great Master doesn’t want to play for Vietnam chess yet 13:17' 22/05/2007 (GMT+7) VietNamNet Bridge – In its sponsor plan for Vietnam chess, one of the top priorities of Dragon Capital is bringing back home two great masters Hoang Thanh Trang and Cao Sang, who are playing for Hungary. The two above chess players are invested by the company of Hoang Minh Chuong, Thanh Trang’s father. The representative of Dragon Capital has met with Thanh Trang’s family members in Da Lat and Cao Sang’s family as well. However, the two families’ initial feedback is that they don’t want to play for the Vietnamese national team because the investment for sports talents in Vietnam is nearly zero now. According to Secretary General of the Vietnam Sport Federation Dang Tat Thang, if investment is less than US$50,000 a year, it is utopian to bring Thanh Trang back to the national team because Trang needs better conditions to develop her talents. However, even when the federation receives $50,000 in the first year of sponsor from Dragon Capital, the money has been transferred to the International Chess confederation (FIDE) to register as the host of the World Young Chess Tournament 2008. With this tournament, the federation is clean out of money to spend for other tasks like bonuses for national tournaments, training, and to send players to international contests. Once again investment in sport talent of Vietnam is in a vicious circle. (Source: Tuoi tre) "Once again investment in sport talent of Vietnam is in a vicious circle." One can substitute the name of many countries for "Vietnam" and it will be the same sad, frustrating story.

U.S. Chess Scholarships to Foreign Students

The University of Texas/Dallas announced a partnership with the European Chess Union to award two scholarships to the winners of the boys’ and girls’ European Youth Chess Championships to be held in Croatia September 13 – 24, 2007. I’m not sure I approve. At a time when the skyrocketing cost of a college education in the U.S. is putting it out of reach of more and more families, why are we giving precious scholarship dollars to non-citizens??? Don’t we have enough young promising chessplayers in the United States to fill the bill? Somehow, saying this will increase "diversity" doesn’t seem very convincing in the face of genuine financial hardship by so many of our own young people! Arrrggggghhhhh.

1st World Women's Team Chess Championship-2

The 1st Women’s Team Chess Championships started on May 19 and two rounds of action have been completed. There have been some surprises, including four wins by the Chinese team over the Russians (whose team includes the two strong Kosintseva sisters, Tatiana and Nadezhda, who finished first and third at the recent European Individual Women’s Chess Championships). The 12-year old up-and-coming star Hou Yifan is on the Chinese team. It really is too bad the Americans are playing, it would have been great experience to play against such strong opponents. Instead, we have a team from Botswana, that all the other teams will beat-up on but the team members will probably have a great time. How can Botswana afford to send a team to this championship, when the Americans couldn’t even keep their team together (or afford to send the team if it had stayed together)? Pathetic, just pathetic. Official website: http://www.chesswomen.com/en/ Round 1 results: CHN (3½) vs VIE (½) Zhao Xue 1-0 Le Kieu Thien Kim Hou Yifan 1-0 Le Thanh Tu Ruan Lufei 1-0 Hoang Thi Bao Tram Shen Yang ½-½ Nguyen Thi Thanh An POL (4) vs BOT (0) Socko, Monika 1-0 Sabure, Tuduetso Zawadzka, Jolanta 1-0 Lopang, Tshepiso Szczepkowska, Karina 1-0 Sabure, Ontiretse Przezdziecka, Marta 1-0 Pilane, Masego, Sylvia RUS (3) vs GER (1) Kosintseva, Tatiana ½-½ Paehtz, Elisabeth Kosintseva, Nadezhda ½-½ Kachiani-Gersinska, Ketino Korbut, Ekaterina 1-0 Nill, Jessica Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina 1-0 Schoene, Maria Randi GEO (2½) vs CZE (1½) Chiburdanidze, Maya 1-0 Jackova, Jana Javakhishvili, Lela 1-0 Sikorova, Olga Khukhashvili, Sopiko ½-½ Blazkova, Petra Gvetadze, Sofio 0-1 Nemcova, Katerina UKR (3) vs ARM (1) Lahno, Kateryna ½-½ Danielian, Elina Ushenina, Anna 1-0 Mkrtchian, Lilit Gaponenko, Anna 1-0 Aghinian, Nelly Vasilevich, Tatiana ½-½ Andriasian, Siranush Round 2 results: VIE (2.5) v. ARM (1.5) Le Kieu Thien Kim 0-1 Danielian, Elina Le Thanh Tu ½-½ Mkrtchian, Lilit Hong Thi Bao Tram 1-0 Andriasian, Siranush Pham Le Thao Nguyen 1-0 Aghabekian, Liana CZE (1.0) v. UKR (3.0) Jackova, Jana ½-½ Lahno, Kateryna Sikorova, Olga 0-1 Ushenina, Anna Blazkova, Petra 0-1 Vasilevich, Tatiana Nemcova, Katerina ½-½ Vozovic, Oksana BOT (0) v. GEO (4.0) Sabure, Tuduetso 0-1 Javakhishvili, Lela Lopang, Tshepiso 0-1 Khurtsidze, Nino Sabure, Ontiretse 0-1 Khukhashvili, Sopiko Pilane Masego, Sylvia 0-1 Gvetadze, Sofio GER (1.0) v. POL (3.0) Paehtz, Elisabeth ½-½ Socko, Monika Kachiani-Gersinska, Ketino ½-½ Rajlich, Iweta Nill, Jessica 0-1 Zawadzka, Jolanta Ohme, Melanie 0-1 Szczepkowska, Karina CHN (4.0) v. RUS (0) Zhao Xue 1-0 Kosintseva, Tatiana Hou Yifan 1-0 Kosintseva, Nadezhda Ruan Lufei 1-0 Korbut, Ekaterina Huang, Qian 1-0 Tairova, Elena

A Typical Inquiry to Goddesschess - Akasa Ashtapada

From time to time we get email at Goddesschess and they are invariably interesting. Sometimes they're "fan" mail; sometimes we get inquiries on a chess-related topic. Here is one we received a few days ago: Interesting comment appears in 5th century BC, Digha nikaya where, Buddha admonishes monks: "Monks, Where as some ascetics addicted to such idle persuits such as eight row or ten row chess, chess in the air (mental chess), hopscotch, spillikins, dicing, ball games, guessing letters, hand pictures, guessing thoughts, mimicking deformities, playing with toy ploughs the ascetic Gotama refrains from such idle pursuits". Digha Nikaya, Maurice Walsh, translation, page 70 4th century Sri Lankan commentators says the game was known as "Ashtapada" and "Dasapada" (8 and 10 rows). Any info about the Akasa Ashtapada (Akasa means sky or air), is appreciated. Thanks I responded that I had not heard of the (Indian concept of) Akasa Ashtapada but if the Walsh translation was correct, then chess was being played 900 years before it was supposed to have been invented. I said I would do some research in my books and get back to him (or her). I forwarded the email to Don and Isis and they sent separate responses to the correspondent. I then received another email from the correspondent: What can be established with the available information is that some board game was played in the air. (similar to blindfold chess conceptually). Please find the exact Pali paragraph and Walsh translation below. “‘Yathā vā paneke bhonto: (Omitted - because the alphabetical transliterations could not be reproduced by my balky "Word" program. If you are interested, you can find the Pali language transliteration at the link given below). Reference: http://www.tipitaka.org/roman/s0101m/s0101m-frm.html (paragraph 14) Atthapadam (Attha = eight; Padam = rows, Dasapadam = (Dasa = ten Padam = rows) Akasam = sky or air Pariharapadam = doing Akasam Pariharapadam = doing in the sky or air (Doing what? Since atthapadam and dasapadam was discussed...from context doing atthapadam and dasapadam in the air). Walsh translation: "Monks, Where as some ascetics addicted to such idle pursuits such as eight row or ten row chess, chess in the air (mental chess), hopscotch, spillikins, dicing, ball games, guessing letters, hand pictures, guessing thoughts, mimicking deformities, playing with toy ploughs the ascetic Gotama refrains from such idle persuits". Digha Nikaya, Maurice Walsh, translation, page 70 Atthapada appears in another place in Vinayapitaka. http://history.chess.free.fr/ashtapada.htm Buddhist dictionary by Pali text society gives "chess = atthapadakila; caturangakila. (How they figured Atthpadakila = chaturangakila? I dont know what kila means either). I was unable to find any rules on Atthapada. I was told by someone that he remembers that sinhala atthakata has a description on Atthapada. Unfortunately sinhala atthakata have not been translated to English (probably never will be). Sinhala = language of ancient Sri lanka; Atthakatha = commentary to Buddha's discourses. Pali atthakatha or Pali commentaries has being translated by PTS and I do not know what they say. (Pali atthakatha was compiled in 4th century AD by Buddhagosha). Sinhala atthakata is much older. But then there are Tikas (commentaries to atthkata) - compiled by Anuruddha in 6th century (Not been translated to English). Then there is Anutika - commentaries to Tika. If you find any more information please share with me. Thanks The question is interesting (1) because of the allusion to playing some kind of board game "in the air" (i.e., "blindfold") and (2) because of the dates involved. Popular theory dates the invention of chess to around the 5th century CE. But, if chess was being played during the time of Buddha (5th century BCE), that is about 900 years earlier than when the game is popularly assumed to have been invented! I did some research (online and in my small chess library) and, to make a long story short, provided the following reply: I do not know if this information will be of any assistance to you. I cannot read or speak Sansrkit or Pali, so I must rely solely on translations provided by others. I checked in H.J.R. Murray's "A History of Chess" to see if he had written anything about the "blindfold chess" (akasam ashtapada). Murray writes on page on pages 34-35: "(Page 34) Of more importance is a passage in the Pali (23) Brahma-jala Sutta, or Dialogues of the Buddha,(24) according to Rhys Davids one of the earliest of Buddhist documents, purporting to record the actual words of Gotama himself, and dating back to the 5th cn. B.C. The Buddha is contrasting the conversation and thoughts of the unconverted man with those of the disciple: " 'It (sec. 7, p. 3) is in respect only of trifling things, of matters of little value, of mere morality, that an unconverted man when praising the Tathagata, would speak. And what are such trifling minor details of mere morality that he would praise?' " "He then proceeds to enumerate all the many trifles which occupy the thoughts of the unconverted man, and finally comes to games, and gives us a most interesting and valuable list of games - quite the oldest known - which from its interest I quote entire: " 'Or (sect. 14, p. 9) he might say, 'Whereas some recluses and Brahmans while living on food provided by the faithful continue addicted to games and recreations; i.e., to say - 1. Games on boards with boards with 8 or 10 rows of squares. 2. The same games played by imagining such boards in the air (Pali, akasam). 3. Keeping going over diagrams drawn on the ground, so that one steps only where one ought to go. [my note - hopscotch] 4. Either removing the pieces or men from a heap with one's nail, or putting them in a heap, in each case without shaking it. He who shakes the heap loses. [my note - spillikins or 'pick-up sticks' as we called the game when I was a child] 5. Throwing dice (Pali, khalika). 6. Hitting a short stick with a long one. 7. Dipping the hand with the fingers outstretched out in lac, or red dye, or flour water, and striking the wet hand on the ground, or on a wall, calling out 'What shall it be?' and showing the form required - elephants, horses, &c. 8. Games with balls (Pali, akkham). 9. Blowing through toy pipes made of leaves. 10. Ploughing with toy ploughs. 11. Turning somersaults. 12. Playing with toy windmills made of palm leaves. 13. Playing with toy measures made of palm leaves. 14, 15. Playing with toy carts, or toy bows. 16. Guessing at letters traced in the air, or on a playfellow's back. 17. Guessing the playfellow's thoughts. 18. Mimicking of deformities. " 'Gotama the recluse holds aloof from such games and recreations.' " "This passage is quoted at length in many other early Buddhist works, e.g. in Vinaya, ii. 10, and iii.180. The translation naturally depends considerably on the early native commentaries, and it must be remembered that the earliest commentators are considerably later than the original; indeed they only appeared when changes in the spoken language made the written work archaic and unintelligible to the ordinary reader. The commentator was often in a worse position than the modern scholar for interpreting the text, (page 35) and we often find his explanation absurd or impossible. We are accordingly compelled to accept the above translation with some reserve.(25)" "We are only concerned now with the first two of the games named. These are the ashtapada - here in its Pali form atthapada - and the dasapada. One of the two commentators used by Rhys Davids, the Sinhalese Sanna, who belongs to the 10th c. A.D. or even later, says that each of these games was played with dice and pieces (poru, from purisa = men) such as Kings and so on.(26) His evidence is far too late to be of any value as to the nature of the games in question, but is important as showing that these boards were still used for dice games in his day in Ceylon. Yet, if the second sentence is accurately translated, the games must have been of a character which permitted 'blindfold' play without the use of material boards." There is more in Murray that discusses the nature of the game of ashtapada (he concludes it was a race game played on an 8x8 board, similar to chapur or pachisi, played with dice. I can make a scan of the pages and email them to you if you like.) I did not transcribe the footnotes ( ) referenced above, if you would like them, let me know. Based upon the translation you provided (Walsh), and the Rhys Davids translation Murray provided in "A History of Chess", the reference to the game described in number 2 can be confirmed as a "blindfold" game. It is evident to me, based upon what Murray wrote, that he found himself with a dilemma; on the one hand, there was clear evidence from the Rhys Davids' translation of the Brahma-jala Sutta that players were playing some kind of "blindfold" game (imagining the board in the air), and yet his position had to be that this could not be chess, since chess - according to Murray's theory - was not invented at the time to which the commentaries are referring - 500 B.C. Murray therefore fell back to the weak position that the later commentators and translators made errors in translation. Rhys Davids did not translate the 'games on boards played in the air' as "chess." But, I find it hard to believe that the players of that time were playing "blindfold" chapur or pachisi! Playing a game with imaginery dice??? No, it must have been chess or a chess-like game that they were playing, a game that did not rely upon dice to determine the moves of the pieces, just like players today play blindfold chess in demonstrations and, of course, the famous Melody Amber tournament held every year. Those are my thoughts. I hope this was helpful to you. JanXena Indeed, just how would players go about playing a game such as Chapur or Pachisi with imaginary dice? I don't see how it would be possible, as each player would naturally call a dice throw most favorable to his own move (for instance, 6 +1 or other combinations of 7, or two, three, etc. - whatever would be needed to out-race the other player's pieces, land on a favorable square or land on the same square and send the other player's piece back to "home"). On the other hand, chess, or a chess-like game, where the moves of the pieces are well-established and known by both the players and the audience and do not depend upon the chance element of the toss of dice, would be in keeping with "blindfold" play. It would be skill (and memory) only that would determine the course of play, not the intentional manipulation of a pair of imaginary dice to drive the pieces hither and yon. Murray never adequately addressed this in his learned tome. Perhaps he thought it would all just "go away" when he tried to sweep it under the rug by suggesting "bad translation" was at fault for implying that the blindfold game referred to was chess! But does anyone play "blindfold" Pachisi today? Did anyone do so during Murray's time, or prior thereto? If there was any evidence of such a practice, don't you think the meticulous Murray would have hunted it down and recorded it? Of course he would have done so. The fact that there is no written evidence of such feats recorded in his book is highly suggestive of the fact that there is NO such evidence. However, we DO have numerous examples attested to, at least in more "historical" times according to "The Oxford Companion to Chess" by Hooper and Whyld, of blindfold chess being played; and they state (p. 45): "Nearly as old as the game itself, blindfold play originally called for the player's eyes to be covered but allowed the pieces to be touched. ... All the great masters of SHATRANJ were able to play at least one game blindfold. ..." "Shatranj" is the Arabic name for "Chatrang," which was the Pahlavi (Middle Persian) name for chess, attested to in Persian literature from the mid-500's CE or so. Of course, there are those of us who believe the game of chess is much older than that. The quote from the Brahma-jala Sutta certainly seems to confirm that!

Another post from Delphi forum... 163.1 II. A GAME OF CHESS 77 The title has many associations. It recollects the chess game in Thomas Middleton's Women Beware Women, in which a widow is distracted by the playing of a game of chess from the duke's seduction of her daughter-in-law Bianca in the next room (on a stage balcony visible to the audience) (almost described as a rape, and in double entendre imaged as a chess game. The dramatist contrived that the accomplice should checkmate the mother at the moment when the daughter-in-law surrendered to the seducer). (The play satirized a marriage based on political expediency) The chess game often represents man's mortality -- for example, Igmar Bergman's film, The Seventh Seal, shows life as a chess game with Death. In the Grail legend, the knight sometimes visits a chessboard castle, where he meets a water-maiden. At the end of Shakespeare's The Tempest the two ancient rival kingdoms of Milan and Naples are united in the promised marriage of Prince Ferdinand and Prospero's daughter, Miranda, who are discovered together playing a game of chess -- signifying the rational basis of their love, their pre-marital chastity, and their marriage as the reduction of a real war to a mere game between lovers. In chess, two kings strive for supremacy by manipulating and sacrificing their Queens, Knights, Bishops, Castles, and Pawns (soldiers), although in fact the two Kings are the weakest pieces on the board. http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~mallinic/314/fall00/eliot_notes.html The movie "Seventh Seal" is an excellent movie. I really enjoyed this film. It is available at Netfix movie rentals.

We Don't Get No Respect

A comment made this morning over at Susan Polgar's blog caught my attention - Chessbase doesn't have any coverage on the U.S. Chess Championship. I checked it out this morning (8:54 a.m. CST) and - sure enough - nary a word. I then checked Chessdom, another website that is (I believe) run by Europeans and - no mention of the U.S. Chess Championship there, either. That's rather insulting. It's like the people who are running these "chess news websites" are saying to American chessplayers - you don't count, you're peanuts, you're pathetic and not worth the megapixels to report on you. But if they're "chess news websites," shouldn't they report on all the important chess news? Maybe they think we Americans are pathetic players not worthy of their exalted attention, but there are people out there who want to know whats going on in the U.S. Championship and they're not getting very current news from either the MonRoi website (the "official" website) or the USCF website. I'm reading Michael Aigner's blog (he's playing in the U.S. Championship) and Dylan McClain's New York Times blog. Susan Polgar is also reporting results and round match-ups seemingly before they're posted at the MonRoi site, lol! Good for her. Crowthers' The Week in Chess is reporting U.S. Championship results and updating on a daily basis. Thank goodness for the Brits! I report on all news that I can find on women chessplayers and women's chess and I don't care where the tournaments were held, what websites I find the information at or what newspaper the articles were published in. To the guys who are running Chessbase and Chessdom - isn't it about time you started treating American chessplayers and events with the same respect that I, a news operation run by me, me and only me, afford to all women players, whatever their country of origin? Geez!

2007 U.S. Women's Chess Championship - 2

Details for the 2007 Frank Berry U.S. Women's Chess Championship have been announced (finally) at the USCF website. It will be held in Stillwater, Oklahoma July 16-20, 2007. Total prizes are $25,000. The top ten rated women from the May list will be invited for a round robin. Here is the schedule: Rounds 1+2- Monday at Noon and 6 PM Rounds 3+4-Tuesday the 17th at 11 AM and 5 PM Rounds 5+6- Wednesday the 18th 11 AM and 5 PM Rounds 7+8- Thursday the 19th-11 AM and 5 PM Round 9- Friday the 20th at 11 AM Here are the prizes: 1st $7000; 2nd $5000; 3rd $3000; 4th $2500; 5th $2000; 6th $1500; 7th $1000; 8th $1000; 9th $1000; 10th $1000. There are three women's zonal qualifying spots for US players this year. If the top woman in the regular US Championship makes at least an even score (4.5), she will obtain one spot and the other two spots will be determined in the Women's Championship. If all women in the US Championship make minus scores, all three zonal spots will be determined in the Women's Championship. Here are the top 15 women on the April, 2007 list. At this point I don't know how much the May list will change: 1 Polgar, Susan Zsuzsa NY USA 2597 2 Zatonskih, Anna NY USA 2491 3 Krush, Irina NY USA 2480 4 Goletiani, Rusudan NY USA 2392 5 Baginskaite, Camilla CA USA 2361 6 Rohonyan, Katerine MD USA 2346 7 Abrahamyan, Tatev CA USA 2289 8 Tuvshintugs, Batchimeg CA USA 2259 9 Ross, Laura R NY USA 2251 10 Battsetseg, Tsagaan MD USA 2234 11 Marinello, Beatriz NY USA 2211 12 Zenyuk, Iryna NY USA 2199 13 Airapetian, Chouchanik WA USA 2188 14 Epstein, Esther MA USA 2180 15 Melekhina, Alisa PA USA 2149 We know that Susan Polgar won't be playing. Will Zatonskih play? And what about Goletiani? Will Krush, Zenyuk and Airapetian get a second kick at the cat and be allowed to play in the women's event, after having competed in the - well, they're not calling it the "men's" event but essentially that's what it is, otherwise the women would NOT be having a separate event! At stake are those three places in the zonal for the Women's World Chess Championship. Now I understand what Zatonskih was talking about in the letter Susan Polgar posted at her website. What is fair under the circumstances? My first inclination is that it's not fair these three women would have a chance to play in the women's championship. On the other hand, if the women did not know beforehand about the three qualification spots prior to accepting the invitation to the "men's" championship, it's also not fair that they might be foreclosed altogether from earning those spots in the zonal if they cannot compete in the women's championship. Hmmmm, what to do, what to do. Once again it has come down to a case of "who knew what and when." It seems that USCF decided to allow the three women the opportunity to play in the women's championship, if they accept their invitations. The USCF put itself in a very hard spot - given the circumstances, there are going to be some very unhappy female chessplayers. Nothing like adding a layer of drama to the championships. I've been following the women's performances closely because I'm interested in women's chess; now it will be even more interesting to see how the women do in the "men's" event, knowing that one zonal spot is at stake. And, instead of 10 women competing for 3 zonal spots, there will be 10 women competing for 2 zonal spots; their odds decreased by the decisions made by USCF from a 1 in 3 shot to a 1 in 5 shot. Yeah, I guess I'd be just a little upset about that.

Chess Humor (Huh?)

Hola darlings! Spring is in the air and I’m feeling romantic and sentimental, so I thought I’d do a little reminiscing about my days as the Chief, Cook and Botttle-washer at the old International Chessoid. The Chessoid (we affectionately called it TIC, a gentle rib at The Week in Chess – TWIC, but I don’t know if anyone ever "got" it) was online between 2001 and 2004. TIC made fun of everything that was chessly, including the players, the events, and most of all, ourselves. TIC’s staff was the stuff that tabloids are made of – those really cheesy ones (the tabloids, not the staff members) – and, of course, soap operas. I started TIC when Ricardo Calvo was still alive and he contributed behind-the-scenes commentary and ideas – but he never wanted to take any credit for it. Gee, I wonder why… In the earliest "Meet the Staff" pages, The Chief’s (our nickname for Ricardo) photo was prominently featured as "Dr. Shah T. Ranj," but I later swapped out his photograph for an anonymous actor from the 1940’s. It wasn’t that Ricardo objected, and his reputation as a chess scholar was sufficiently strong that he could have taken any ribbing he might have received for being affiliated with our "wild and crazy" group, but in a conservative moment (one of my few) I opted for "prudence." If anyone out there remembers those early editions (and the later editions were probably worse), perhaps you’ll understand why :) Of course, as all respectable chess tabloids do, we had running intrigues among the ever-evolving staff members – a takeover by an evil Russian ex-GM, and then a takeover by a rich American countess (she married into the title) who looked suspiciously like the actress Jennifer Jones, but she got killed by a crazy religious fundamentalist who was a member of the "Chess University" panel of chess experts. Features at TIC evolved over time but in time readers could count on a column/interview with Judit Polgar, the "Chess Pin-up of the Month" and, as a running gag, the same photo kept showing up in nearly each month’s edition – "The Alien and (fill in the blank) – shaking hands. LOL! It was also at TIC that those Fabulous Las Vegas Showgirls were first introduced to the world as chess commentators and board games scholars, relentless in their never-ending quest for the truth about the origins of – well, read them for yourselves. There are plans afoot to resurrect at least parts of the old International Chessoid. Until (and if) that happens, we do have a "Humor" section at Goddesschess – and here’s a little something I whipped up for a few chuckles (I hope). Enjoy! The Top Ten Ways How Not To Improve My Chess:

10. Staying up all night playing against the Bobby Fischer personality on Chessmaster 4000.

9. Thinking I’m pretty darn good if I get to move 22 playing against Bobby Fischer (see #10) before he checkmates me.

8. Getting into flame wars on chess message boards.

7. Inviting people I get into flame wars with to play chess with me online. 6. Not learning the correct move for the bishop until I was 21. 5. Reading trashy romance novels instead of studying Botvinnik’s 100 greatest games. 4. Allowing my 8 and 7 year old nephews to "win" because I feel sorry for them. 3. Never studying openings, middle games or end games. And I’m proud of it. 2. Thinking I can get by on my looks. 1. Knowing I made much more money as a lawyer.

Goddess Reading List

Goddess Reading List: "The White Goddess" - Robert Graves - "Amazon" - Barbara G. Walker "The Chalice and the Blade" - Riane Eisler "Old Europe" - Marija Gimbutas "In Seach of God the Mother" - Lynn Rollers "The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory" - Cynthis Ellers "Sexual Peace" - Michael Sky If you happen to know of more books on this subject will you please add them to the list.

Chess in Any Language

Here are some fasinating posts that were posted at the Delphi forum "Chess the Goddess and Everything". I am sure you will enjoy reading them. Isis This is Sunwolf: 169.1 Hi All: I went an took these simple chess words and translated them, to let them speak for themselves: chess, king, queen, pawn, rook, knight, castle, bishop, chessboard French: échecs, roi, reine, pion, tour, chevalier, château fort, évêque, échiquier Portuguese: xadrez, monarca, rainha, penhor, [rook], fidalgo, castelo, bispo, [chessboard] Danish: skak, konge, dronning, [pawn], [rook], [knight], slot, biskop, skakbræt Spanish: ajedrez, rey, reina, peón, grajo, caballero, castillo, obispo, tablero Welsh: gwyddbwyll, brenin, banon, gwystla, brân, farchog, castella, esgob, dawlbwrdd I find it fascinating that each laguage has a unique word for "Chess" and also the Welsh word "gwyddbwyll" is important because I think there is a myth associated with it. Anyone familar with it? Response: Hi Isis:I found that reference to "Gwyddbwyll", the Welsh word for "Chess" in the Goddess Weave. It was from a post by Philip Mistlberger on our old Art Bell home: " Philip Mistlberger - 05:13am Feb 8, 1999 MST (#194 of 673) Mark, what does your number magic say about the following, Peredur, Perceval, Grail, GWYDDBWYLL (correct spelling), black maiden, Empress. In terms of the Mabinogion connection, which pretty much confirms the chess-Goddess tradition link, the above terms are obviously important. I've long been interested in Perceval in the context of the Grail search, and feel he is a key to many things. The symbolism re the relationship between the Empress-Goddess, black maiden, chess, and Peredur is striking and relatively straightforward. A key to Celtic history is Druidry. I'm going to look that way. Jan, it'll be interesting to see if this Celtic link can in turn be bridged to the Chinese links you've uncovered. One other thing: The Druids are linked to Stonehenge, which has direct mathematical commonalities with the Great Pyramid. More later when I have time. Getting interesting." "Mark Borcherding - 09:37am Feb 8, 1999 MST (#195 of 673)dare to dream upon your own star Ref 194 Philip here is what I came up with: 9 numerology 26 numerology Reduction Peredur 42 67 6 Perceval 37 82 1 Grail 29 47 2 GWYDDBWYLL 47 137 2 black maiden 39 75 3 Empress 32 95 5 Black Madonna 37 91 1 Celtic 25 52 7 Holy Grail 53 107 8 Notice "Holy Grail" creates Jan's number "8" the chess board 8x8 squares. Grail also refers to bloodline and perhaps refers to DNA that has 8x8=64 codons. Perceval = 37 = Black Madonna , most of the paintings in the Templar churches have a "Black Madonna". Notice "Celtic" reflects itself with 25 mirror of 52. Empress = 32 = 32 white squares or 32 black squares. 1/2 of the DNA Codon. Perhaps each person carries both Male and Female DNA and can activate it in unity :) Thus ALL of us are the Holy Grail. Philip Mistlberger - 12:15pm Feb 8, 1999 MST (#196 of 673) Thanks Mark, maybe we should rent a mainframe before 2000 to get this solved... The plot thickens... In Egyptian mythology, the floor of the Great Hall of Judgment is a pattern of BLACK AND WHITE SQUARES. In order for the soul to progress on its journey into the afterlife, there must be an equal number of either coloured squares. More of black, or more of white, symbolizes that there is an imbalance in the soul that has to be corrected. Concerning the "Gwyddbwyll" game. In the Mabinogion the word is translated by Guest as "chess". Other sources say it is a board game that derives from an older Irish board game that is almost identical to chess but slightly different. John and Caitlan Matthews, well known Celtic scholars, describe it as synonomous with chess. In some versions the squares are not black and white, but red and white. Red and white is a pairing that shows up throughout the Hermetic and alchemical texts. The Menkaure pyramid of Giza (linked with Horus by some) was originally red and white. Queen Elizabeth I's astrologer, John Dee, found red and white alchemical powders in the Abbey Grounds of the Isle of Avalon. The Sanskrit nectar "Amrita" is a red/white elixer that streams out from the "moon" center in the head. And so the pieces seem to be coming together (pun intended). The original game appears to have been an alchemical code or cipher of some sort, containing keys for initiation and consciousness growth. Very similar to Tarot, with the modern version being a poor, trivial derivative. I suspect that the origins are Nile valley and/or Mesopotamian (as with most eveything, and before that probably something antidiluvian, like Atlantis). With the decline of those cultures it probably spread East through Persia, the Indus valley and India, Silk Road, and China. It also went northwest through Asia Minor and Europe, carried by Celtic tribes and hidden in the legends (such as the Mabinogion). Those are very preliminary speculations, of course. There is so much more here, such as the mathematics of Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid, the geometry of the Shiva temples, and the historical interfacing of the Goddess traditions and Druidism. There is also a stack of info around Sacred Geometry vis a vis the Avalon myths, Freemasonry, and their Egyptian roots. Bridge anyone? :-)" " Philip Mistlberger - 10:57pm Mar 4, 1999 MST (#296 of 321) Jan, in the info that I posted last month about the Celtic chess connection through the Mabinogion (Welsh bardic tales), they mentioned that the Celtic board game "Gwyddbwyll" was derived from an older Irish game that was very similar to chess but slightly different. As the Mabinogion dated from about 1100 CE, "older" would seem to fit with the "pre-500 CE" era you mention. In the Mabinogion the connection between chess and the Goddess is spelled out in a strikingly explicit manner. It is referred to as the "game of the Empress and the black maiden".

President Jefferson and the Egyptian Princess

This is one of those "Everything" entries :) What do Thomas Jefferson and an Egyptian Princess have in common? You'd be surprised, darlings! Since we've added Random Roundup to the front page at Goddesschess, I visit lots of websites in a kind of "circuit" to regularly review and note any articles that catch my eye, my curiosity or my sense of whimsy, besides doing daily sweeps of chess news, archaeology news and egyptology news. In late March I came across two intriguing articles at - get ready for this, now - The Daily Grail website. LOL! Yes, I know, only certifiables read anything at the Daily Grail, right? Wrong! Evidently DG is right up there as one of the most visited sites on the internet. I guess there are a lot of closet certifiables out there, me included... One article that caught my eye was published on March 28, 2007 at the Physorg.com website. It was news awhile back that Thomas Jefferson had been proven via DNA to have fathered one of the sons of Sally Hemings. The original work was done almost 10 years ago, and focused on the Y chromosome, "a male-specific part of our DNA that passes down from father to son." In the years since, technology has advanced; now why the researchers decided to further pursue study of Jefferson's DNA (the article doesn't say), I'll leave that to you readers to decide: "In a study reported in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. The presidential chromosome turns out to belong to a rare class called ‘K2’, which is found at its highest frequency in the Middle East and Eastern Africa, including Oman, Somalia and Iraq. Its closest match was in a man from Egypt. Could this mean that the President had recent ancestry in the Middle East? A careful survey revealed a few K2 chromosomes in France, Spain and England. Together, the K2s form a diverse group that may, in fact, have been in western Europe for many thousands of years. "Further evidence for Jefferson’s British origins come from the finding that two out of 85 randomly recruited men named Jefferson share exactly the same Y chromosome as the President. Prof Jobling said: ‘The two men have ancestry in Yorkshire and the West Midlands, and knew of no historical connection to the USA. They were amazed and fascinated by the link, which connects them into Thomas Jefferson’s family tree, probably about 11 generations ago.’ "The ultimate origins of K2 chromosomes remain a mystery, however, and need further investigation: while they may have been present in Europe since the Stone Age, another possibility is that K2s came to Europe with the Phoenicians, an ancient maritime trading culture that spread out across the Mediterranean from their home in what is now Lebanon. The US media has taken up a different theory, leading to the New York Times headline, ‘Jefferson – the first Jewish president?’: European K2 chromosomes may originate in Sephardic (Spanish) Jewish populations, who have their ultimate origins in the Middle East. "Prof Jobling said: ‘When we look closely at large collections of British Y chromosomes we find surprises, like this rare K2 lineage, and the African chromosome that we recently found in a Yorkshireman. These exotic chromosomes remind us of the complexity of British history and prehistory.’" Thomas Jefferson Jewish? I suppose that would be important to some people, but not to me. Nah, it was a few lines down at DG when I saw an article - "The Story of Princess Scota" - I just had to check it out. Over the course of a couple of years, at one time or another Don, Isis and I have all done some internet research on the legend of Scota, an Egyptian princess who ended up in Ireland after marrying a foreign prince (I believe one of the sons of Melitius). Some of the legends say that "Scotland" got its name from "the people of Scota" who eventually settled there after crossing over from Ireland, those people being descendants of the tribe founded by Scota and her husband. My interest in Scota is along etymological lines - what does her name mean, and where did it come from? And so, I clicked on the article, thinking perhaps someone had put together a sort of legendary biography of Scota. It turned out to be a book review of "Kingdom of the Ark," in which author Lorraine Evans "reveals archaeological connections between Egypt and Ireland. Evans argues that the connections between the two distant lands were plausible and there is archaeological evidence to support the theory." The review lists some of this evidence:

• Bronze Age skeletal remains were excavated at the Mount of Hostages at Tara in 1955 by archaeologist Dr. Sean O'Riordan of Trinity College, Dublin, wearing a rare necklace of faience beads, made from a paste of minerals and plant extracts that had been fired. (Remains dated to around 1350 BCE). A study in 1956 that compared that necklace with Egyptian faience beads found they were "not only of identical manufacture but also of matching design."
• The famous Tutankhamun was entombed around the same time as the Tara skeleton and the priceless golden collar around his mummy's neck was inlaid with matching conical, blue-green faience beads. An almost identical necklace was found in a Bronze Age burial mound at north Molton, Devon.
• In 1937 in North Ferriby, Yorkshire, the remains of an ancient boat were discovered. While thought to be a Viking longship at first, continued excavation produced additional ships, wrecked in a storm. Further investigation showed that the boats were much older than Viking ships and were of a type found in the Mediterranean. It was concluded that these boats originated from 2000 years before the Viking age and were radiocarbon dated to around 1400 to 1350 BCE.

I find this absolutely fascinating! Could it really be that some ancient Egyptians visited and possibly even settled on the shores of England and Ireland sometime in the 14th century BCE? Shipwreck seems a plausible explanation. We do know, thanks to archaeological evidence that continues to be uncovered every day (together with fresh looks at older evidence accumulated during prior years), that ancient people and cultures had much more extensive trade contacts than most people give them credit for, going back much further than most people can easily imagine. Man was an explorer and trader from his earliest days, it seems. There is also that intriguing hint of Thomas Jefferson's and others' DNA showing that rare K2 chromosome - passed down from father to son, generation after generation. What if, in an indirect way, this DNA (whose closest match was from a man in Egypt) is evidence that supports the legend of Scota, Princess of Egypt, arriving on the shores of Ireland with a large contingent? Food for thought... We at Goddesschess encourage people to think outside the box. This all could possibly be related to chess - just what does Scota's name mean, and where did it come from???

2007 U.S. Women's Chess Championship

Oh for Goddess' sake, what the heck is going on? I'm trying to enjoy a quiet evening at home after having just spent well over an hour watching the endgame of Onischuk v. Browne (USCF Championship) broadcast at MonRoi (run by a woman, heh heh) (I was rooting for GM Browne, but he succumbed in the end - but it was a hell of an endgame!), and here I read at Susan Polgar's blog this message: "Today, I was copied on another email by the reigning US Women's Champion. Here are some parts of this important email: " 'At the moment there is no official information from US Chess Federation, although, according to some other sources, the female US Championship could start as early as mid-July. As far as I understood, this event is going to be held 16-20th of July, which means we would have to play two rounds a day. I believe these dates to be unacceptable from every point of view: firstly it is an important event and WCh. Qualification, and secondly, this tough schedule would make my own participation almost impossible (for reasons you are well aware of). Furthermore, it is made clear, that this schedule was partly created to fit into plans of a certain player and exact days were never discussed with other participants. Another major point I would like to mention is that the idea to give places in World Women Championship from US Men Championship sounds to me both absurd and incorrect; absurd because women have to qualify having played other women; and incorrect, because nothing of the kind was initially mentioned in the contracts. Furthermore, some players would thus get two chances to qualify and others only one. I think it is in everybody’s interests that USCF makes an official statement clarifying all this, so that all the people involved could discuss the situation. I don’t believe that decisions, taken at the last moment, or even, as it happened in 2004 with WCh. Qualifications, after the events, help us to develop chess in USA. " 'Best regards, Anna Zatonskih US Women’s Champion' " I repeat - what the heck is going on? Where are the players reading this stuff - certainly not at the official USCF website! I do what I can to pick up "gossip" and such at Polgar's and Mig's blogs, but I do not have time to surf the internet all day. And in any event, I think some people must be "wired" into the "gossip chain" - or else they're being deliberately contacted/ targeted by receiving copies of emails and other correspondence that is flowing to/from USCF. After all, how could John Donaldson make an announcement that the Women's Championship would be held in July, hosted by the Berry brothers, when there has been NO OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT OF SUCH at the USCF website? How DARE the USCF go ahead and schedule a Women's Chess Championship without giving any consideration to the women - including the current U.S. Women's Champion - involved! And what the heck does this mean: Furthermore, it is made clear, that this schedule was partly created to fit into plans of a certain player. WHAT certain player? What is going on?

2007 U.S. Championship-7

Hola Darlings! Dylan McClain has a new chess column up at the New York Times in which he talks about sponsors (past and present) for some American tournaments. Most recently, of course, we have Mr. Frank Berry to thank for "bidding" $50,000 to host the U.S. Chess Championship ("Men's" event, although they're not calling it that officially - a separate Women's event is to be held in July); otherwise it's unlikely a championship would have been held this year. Of interest is the mention of Dr. Eric Moskow, who recently posted a message on this blog and also at Susan Polgar's blog - and also communicated with Mig Greengard over at Daily Dirt/Chess Ninja - about his willingness to pay good money to play in the U.S. Championship but - Dr. Moskow says - politics got in the way and he was prevented from participating because of his support for Susan Polgar in the upcoming USCF Executive Board election. Mig blogged: "Eric Moskow, a real chess patron who has done his share of pay-to-play over the years, was trying to get in but to play online because he is traveling. Unfortunately, such games couldn't have been rated by FIDE, ruining norm chances for his opponents according to the USCF. Too bad they couldn't have made it work out as Moskow was offering an amount close to the current first prize!" Dr. Moskow indicated that he was prepared to pay $10,000 to play this year, and another $10,000 for next year's tournament. It is unfortunate that things could not be worked out so that Dr. Moskow could pay to play; I'm sure the players would have appreciated an infusion of more cash into the prize fund and $10,000 toward next year's championship (which we all hope will be held) would have been a nice nest egg too! Oh - I see that Mig has just posted that two players chose to pay to play and were accepted: $3,000 from GM Walter Browne and $5,000 from IM Jay Bonin. Both gentlemen have been participants in the U.S. tournament circuit for many many years and, of course, GM Browne is a former U.S. Chess Champion. It is both generous and gracious for these two gentlemen to pay to play. I hope they will both do very well in the Championship. Interestingly, Mig thinks that the players will be gunning for the top five spots because those positions are qualified to play in the next FIDE World Championship cycle. I think it's more realistic for the players to gun for the other prizes: places 6 through 10 receive free room and board at the Continental Championship. The National Open is offering several prizes (not specified) according to a post by John Donaldson at The Daily Dirt (mentioned in my May 7 post about the U.S. Championship). There are probably only four players in the U.S. right now who would have any chance in advancing in the Championship Cycle: Nakamura, Onishuk, Kamsky, and Susan Polgar. Polgar has basically retired from "serious" chess play, she's got the Polgar Foundation, the Polgar chess school, two sons to raise and now the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence in Lubbock, Texas to run into the foreseeable future, and her other projects, so that leaves the three men to carry the banner for the United States. There was a nice article published today in the Cushing Daily Citizen (Cushing, Oklahoma, population 25 - only kidding!) about the Championship. There is a little confusion about the number of spots that would actually qualify to advance in the World Championship cycle because the Cushing Daily Citizen article mentions only the top two spots So, which is it? Five spots or two spots? Speaking of prize funds, Mig has got up a collection for a brilliancy prize fund, thanks to a base of $500 contributed by Chess Ninja. IMs John Donaldson and John Watson have volunteered to be judges for the awards. As of about 6:30 p.m. today, folks about contributed $481 toward the fund. This doesn't include my $25 donated a few minutes ago, so once that's counted the contributions from fans will be officially over $500. Hooray! Wouldn't it be great if a couple thousand dollars could be collected this way? Just from fans on the internet. The Cushing Daily Citizen article says: "To reward hard fighting, the Stillwater National Bank is awarding a $100 prize for the hardest fought or best played game after each round." I hope the judges for all brilliancy and "fighting" awards spread them around to as many players as possible. Many of the players are going to need help defraying expenses and $100 can help with the hotel bill. In conjunction with the U.S. Championship, the New York Times has started a chess blog - of COURSE it would - we start one little chess blog to try and attract readers to the greatest miscellaneous chess website on the internet - GODDESSCHESS - and all of a sudden their are sixty kajillion chess blogs! Who's going to read here when they can read at the New York Times and feel superior ("I read the New York Times chess blog, dahlings")? I must get a grip on myself, I must... The NYT blog is called "Gambit" - not original, but what the heck. It premiered yesterday; there will be coverage of the U.S. Championship and after that, it will be a general chess blog as well as covering future chess events, developments, etc. etc. Good luck to all the participants of the 2007 U.S. ("Men's") Chess Championship, and particularly to the three chess femmes playing: IM Irina Krush, WFM Chouchanik Airapetian and WFM Irina Zenyuk. I hope they kick serious chess butt! Play for every single woman chess player in the USA, ladies! Go go go!

Elaine Saunders

I found some information online about Elaine Saunders, who was mentioned in the Chess Prodigies post yesterday. Chess historian Edward Winter has five photographs of a young Elaine (scroll down to her entry, they are in alphabetical order, last name first), including a nice photo of Elaine with one of the greatest chess players of all time, Vera Menchik, at his website along with some biographical information and one of her games. He reports that Elaine married David Brine Pritchard on February 29, 1952 (she would have been 26) and that Pritchard was a chess writer. Sadly, Mr. Pritchard passed away in late 2005. Elaine was British Women's Chess Champion four times: 1965, 1956, 1946, 1939. I also discovered further biographical information on Elaine at a rather interesting website that is not very well put together (both the website and the information). It is apparent that the website's owner, A. J. Goldsby, is a fan of women chessplayers. The enterprising AJG writes that he (or she) entered into a correspondence with Elaine and/or members of her family, and was able to obtain information to fill out what he has previously reported at his website. I am a little confused by his reference to "Mrs. Richardson" - I don't know if he means this was Elaine Saunders Pritchard's name at the time he made his entry (as best I can tell, it was sometime after he received a letter on November 14, 2005) or if Mrs. Richardson is a relative of Elaine Saunders Pritchard who gave him the information in the letter. Elaine learned how to play chess from her father when she was 5. By age 8, she was beating good players - of course, there is no mention at all of how many hours of study and effort must have gone into her chess education. In addition to the information that Winters supplied, Goldsby indicates that Elaine was awarded the title of WIM in 1957, and won a silver medal (but he says he doesn't know what board) at the 1976 Chess Olympiad at Haifa; if my calculations are correct, she would have been 50 years old at the time. What an achievement - not because she was 50, although there aren't too many 50 year olds playing boards at Chess Olympiads these days! No, it was an achievement because it seems to be a crown to her long chess career, most of which us internet dependent folks won't ever know about because when people were writing about Elaine, there was no internet and the articles were mostly British newspapers and chess journals; to track down that information takes a lot of hard work and dedication. So, kudos to Winters and kudos to Goldsby for providing us with this glimpse into the chess life of Elaine Saunders. I did a little further research regarding the 1976 Chess Olympiad, since it may not have been available online at the time Goldsby wrote his web entry. The gold/silver/bronze by Women's Teams were won by: Israel, England and Spain. The English Women's Team consisted of: Jana Hartston (2230) on board 1 (she was British Women's Chess Champion LOTS of times), Sheila Jackson (2055) on board 2 (ditto), WIM Elaine Pritchard (2055) on board 3, and Susan Caldwell (2060), who played "reserve" but played eight games. Hartston had a performance percentage of 81.8 (9.0/11); Jackson 66.7 (6.0/9); Pritchard 62.5 (5.0/8); and Caldwell 50% (4.0/8). To put this silver medal into perspective, no British Women's Team has won ANY medal, before or since. So - Elaine Pritchard did win a Team Silver medal at the 1976 Chess Olympiad. This year Ms. Pritchard will be 81.

Chess Prodigies

Here's an article from a Guyana newspaper about chess prodigies: Chess Fascinating chess prodigies With Errol Tiwari Sunday, May 13th 2007 We are fascinated by chess prodigies, and marvel at their intellectual capabilities. Quickly, we realize, they think differently from others. They rattle us with their tactics and their strategies, in games that can result in gigantic conceptions. They have this ability to synthesize and come up with an unexpected, unflawed sequence that separates them from others. Even though they are children, they can be beaten only by persons who are great chess players themselves. Prodigies can see certain inherent positions in a situation that less gifted intellects cannot begin to envisage. All of a sudden comes the unexpected thrust, the flash of vision, and it is a moment of intellectual and aesthetic beauty. A chess prodigy or a chess genius is allied to a genius in any art form. He aims for beauty; he takes a situation that is composed of materials available to everybody and by sheer imagination creates something unique and perfect, something that nobody could duplicate. Psychologists have been unable to explain such strokes of genius, but there it is-that combination of logic plus technique, plus intuition leading to a "coup de theatre" that stands in unflawed perfection. Experts say the four greatest prodigies in chess history have been Paul Morphy, Jose Raul Capablanca, Samuel Reshevsky and Bobby Fischer. But many others are in, or almost in that class. Henry Mecking for example, was champion of Brazil at 13, and at 14, he was the best player in South America. Morphy learnt chess at eight. At five, Capablanca was already a strong player. He defeated the Cuban chess champion at 12. Reshevsky began playing at four by watching his father play. At eight, he was already at Master strength. Fischer's sister taught him the moves of chess when he was six years old. Their mother bought a chess set and they puzzled out from the directions where to put what where. In his time Fischer became the youngest grandmaster ever at 15 years, six months and one day old. But over the years, because of new technology, with computers making it possible to learn and train faster, and being able to play strong foreign players over the internet, the records for youngest grandmasters have been shattered. Judit Polgar, among others, broke Fischer's record by becoming a grandmaster at 15 years, four months and 28 days old. Bu Xiangzhi from China became a grandmaster at 13 years, ten months. and Parimarjan Negi from India at 13 years, four months. The record is now held by Sergey Karjakin (Ukraine) at 12 years, seven months. Born in 1926, Elaine Saunders was a celebrated prodigy in the 1930s, and her exploits were well documented in British chess periodicals of the time. World champion Dr Alexander Alekhine played her in a simultaneous exhibition when she was 12, among 30 of Kent's strongest players. He called her a genius. After four and a half hours he had won all but three of the games. Saunders, at the time British girl champion, held to the very end, succumbing in a Rook and Pawn endgame in the very last game to finish. An onlooker in the crowd screamed: "Give the child a draw". But Alekhine said he knew what he was doing and continued playing for the win. All important players have an aptitude that shows up early. If a player these days has not made a reputation by the time he is 20, he will never do so; for chess is a young man's game, and the peak years are from 25 to 35. At home, in an effort to pursue local talent, the Guyana Chess Association in collaboration with the YMCA would be hosting a three-week chess camp for children and teenagers in July-August. The idea is to involve as many schools as possible in the Georgetown area. The association is hoping to attract about 60 participants from about one dozen schools. Each school's representatives would be requested to carry the game back to their respective schools so it could be popularized. At the same time, tutors would be on the alert for special talent. Thereafter, similar experiments would be carried out for schools in the rural areas. Rudolph Speilmann was one of the strongest players in the world in the 1920s and 1930s. This game is taken from a simultaneous exhibition that he gave. The British 12-year-old chess genius Elaine Saunders takes him apart in a Sicilian Defence. Rudolf Spielmann - Elaine Saunders Sicilian Defence 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 d6 5 c4 Nf6 6 Nc3 g6 7 Be2 Bg7 8 Be3 O-O 9 Nxc6 bxc6 10 h4 Qa5 11 Qd2 Ng4 12 h5 Nxe3 13 Qxe3 Qb4 14 Qd2 Be6 15 hxg6 fxg6 16 a3 Qc5 17 O-O-O Rxf2 18 b4 Qe5 19 White resigns. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Talk about synchronicity - just a few days ago I checked out The Parrot's column at Chessville and he wrote about Elaine Saunders too. That was the first time I've heard of her! I don't know how much information about Saunders is online, I'll check it out. She's certainly worth an article at Goddesschess.