Chess Legend to Play Rising Chess Star

What a great idea - kudos to the promoter who came up with this idea. It's a perfect way to promote chess in the Philippines and, indeed, garner international interest, since folks are interested in GM Wesley So's progress in the chess world. Story from Sports. Inquirer.Net Chess Legend vs Chess Wonder Boy P1 million showdown slated By Marlon Bernardino Cebu Daily News First Posted 09:43:00 08/09/2008 IT'S all system's go for the richest sports event in the country when the undisputed Chess Legend takes on the Chess Boy Wonder in a P1 Million showdown to be held in Quezon City, Davao, Iloilo and Cebu. Eugene Torre, Asia's first grandmaster, and Wesley So, presently the world's youngest grandmaster at 14, will face each other in a one-on-one duel consisting of ten games. Two games each will be played in Quezon City, Davao, Iloilo and Cebu and if the match remains unresolved, another two games will be played in Quezon City. A knockout game will ensue if the duel is tied at 5-5. This was announced yesterday by the event's project director lawyer Samuel Estimo after Quezon City representative Matias Defensor agreed to bankroll the match in a meeting last Monday. “Magandang proyekto ito kaya nagpapasalamat tayo kay Cong. (Mat) Defensor na sumuporta sa event na ito,” said Estimo, a former secretary-general of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP). NCFP region 11 coordinator James Infiesto is pleased when he learned that Davao City is one of the four venues of the event dubbed as “Dream Match.” “We are privileged and honored that our city is one of the four venues in the Torre and So one-on-one duel,” said Infiesto. “Maganda ito, legend versus future of Philippine chess.” “Tiyak aabangan ito hindi lamang sa Pilipinas kundi pati sa buong mundo,” said Reginald Tee, consultant and spokesman of Wesley So who is currently playing in Turkey for the World Junior Chess Championship. The match will be held at a date to be agreed upon by the two GMs preferably after So and Torre have fulfilled all their international tournaments. “Baka February 2009 after sa event ni Wesley (So) sa Corus,” said Tee. Torre will leave on August 8 for the United States where he will also visit his daughter, Nicolle, who is now based in Alaska. According to Estimo, the two chess luminaries had drawn their three previous games with Torre nearly winning their last encounter. The first to score 5 1/2 (5.5) points will win the match and the P600,000 winner's prize while the loser will earn P400,000. Another P100,000.00 will go to the winner of each leg while the loser will take home P50,000. It shall be recalled that Torre and arch rival GM Rogelio “Joey” Antonio Jr., settled for a 3-3 draw in their recent “Quezon City Chess Road Show” one-on-one. Copyright 2008 Cebu Daily News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. According to my calculations, 1 million P equals $22,540.30 USD (1.00 PHP = 0.0225403 USD)

Harika Dronavalli Leads World Juniors Girls

Article from Press Trust of India: Harika beats Nakhbayeva, takes sole lead in World Jr Chess From Our Chess Correspondent Gaziantep (Turkey), Aug 9 (PTI) Top seeded International Master India's Dronavalli Harika today scored a clinical victory over Guliskhan Nakhbayeva of Kazakhstan to emerge as the sole leader after the 7th round of ongoing World Junior Girls' Chess Championship here. Playing the white side of a Nimzo Indian defense, Harika attained a slight advantage out of the opening and nurtured her position well enough to knock down one black pawn before tightening the noose. Guliskhan did not have answers of the precise technical display and called it a day when she was about to lose the second pawn too. The victory helped Harika take her tally to 6 points out of a possible 7 and she now enjoys a half point lead over nearest rivals Adriana Nikolova of Bulgaria and Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine. Amongst the other Indian girls in the fray, only Soumya Swaminathan scored a victory and inched herself up to 5 points at the expense of compatriot Kruttika Nadig. Soumya won with black pieces. Also reaching 5 points with her cool display was R Preethi, who held erstwhile sole leader Tatev Abrahamyan to a draw in a rook and pawns endgame. Top chess femme standings after 7 rounds. USA's Tatev Abrahamyan is in 4th place with 5.0, leading a pack of several chess femmes also with 5.0.

Art and Chess

A fine article in The Telegraph.co.uk about artists who happen to be chessplayers (or is that vice versa?) (Cruella DeVille as the black queen by Maurizio Cattelan) From Duchamp to Damien Hirst, chess has long inspired the big names of the art world. Alastair Sooke reports Last Updated: 12:01am BST 09/08/2008 In 1927, Marcel Duchamp, the French-born trail-blazer of conceptual art, married a young heiress called Lydie Sarazin-Lavassor. The honeymoon did not go well. "Duchamp spent most of the week studying chess problems," recalled the artist's close friend Man Ray, "and his bride, in desperate retaliation, got up one night when he was asleep and glued the chess pieces to the board." Bad move. They were divorced three months later. Full article.

Correspondence Chess

In the old days, it was done with postcards. Now, it's played on the internet. I didn't realize it, but I've been playing correspondence chess for years! It's any game at a website server where you make a move, the other player is notified via email and has a certain time limit to make a responsive move, etc. etc. I have played at Its Your Turn and Red Hot Pawn. Unfortunately, this format practically invites unethical players to cheat by utilizing a chess program to "suggest" moves. Of course, no one has to cheat against me, I'm so bad a player you can win even if I were using a computer! Been playing for years and I still hang pieces, don't understand the concept of controlling the center, and manage to lose winning positions (but I don't know they're winning positions). LOL! I saw this announcement at Susan Polgar's chess blog: The International Correspondence Chess Federation is considering holding a World Championship for young women, and is asking anyone who is possibly interested to contact us so we can determine if there will be enough participants to schedule the event. The event will be played on the ICCF webserver (www.iccf-webchess.com). Moves are made on a chessboard via drag and drop, an easy way to play, with the server sending the move to the opponent, and keeping track of moves, time used, and even sending reminders. Any young woman who will have her 20th birthday after March 1, 2009 will be eligible to play, and is requested to send a note expressing your interest to schakels@comcast.net. Any questions will certainly be welcome. Details will be determined later, but there are no ICCF dues, and the entry fee for the recent Junior World Championship was 20 CHF, about $20. Time controls are typically 50 days for 10 moves. Finally, I want to express heartfelt thanks to Susan Polgar for volunteering to post this note on her websites and blogs. Corky Schakel, ICCF-US Secretary

A Fairy Tale Castle

I saw this at Yahoo Travel - hard to believe it's actually real! It's the perfect castle for Cinderella, or Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, or JanXena. It's the Lichtenstein Castle near Stuttgart, Germany. (Photo credit: Greg Gawlowski - Lonely Planet Images)

Section 8 Housing Experiment a Failure in Antioch, CA

An article in The New York Times about Section 8 (subsidized) Housing shows that you can take people out of the ghetto, but you can't take the ghetto out of people. Sociologists have long claimed that leaving behind high-crime, low-employment neighborhoods for the middle-class suburbs buoys the fortunes of impoverished tenants. An article in the July/August edition of The Atlantic Monthly, however, cited findings by researchers at the University of Memphis that crime in Memphis appeared to migrate with voucher recipients. More broadly, a 2006 Georgia Institute of Technology study found that every time a neighborhood experienced three foreclosures per 100 owner-occupied properties in a year, violent crime increased by approximately 7 percent. As Antioch’s population grew to 101,000 in 2005, from 73,386 in 1995, the city built about 4,000 housing units in the early years of this decade. Now it has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the state, with about 23 of every 1,000 homeowners losing their homes as of June, according to DataQuick, a real estate information clearinghouse. While total crime in Antioch declined by 15 percent in the first three months of this year, compared to the same period in 2007, violent crime increased by about 16 percent, according to city statistics. Robberies and assaults accounted for most of that rise. In an incident report filed with the Antioch Police Department, Natalie and Darin Rouse complained of constant problems with gang members’ blaring car stereos and under-age drinking on the street. In a written account, they blamed “gross community overdevelopment, affirmative action loopholes and incompetent state government management of federal affordable housing programs” for the problems. Full article.

Russian Terrorism Comes Out in the Open

Russia's unprovked attacks on civilians in Georgia shows just what kind of barbarians they are. Under the excuse of "protecting" Russian citizens - all of whom became so by fiat when Russia decided to side with a separatist movement in South Ossetia in Georgia - Russia sent tanks and troops into Georgia and has bombed both civilian and military targets far away from the alleged site of conflict in South Ossetia. And - get this - they're saying it's all the fault of the USA. Talk about bullshit! But you see what has happened - Bush has so weakened our military strength by bogging us down in "wars" in Iraq and Afghanistan (we should have been out of both places years ago) that we cannot adequately mount a military response to the Russian terrorists. Putin and his puppets are thumbing their noses at us and killing Georgian civilians with impunity. And we can't do a damn thing about it. Welcome to the new world order.

Friday Night Miscellany

The weather has turned clement at last! The air has dried out from 70 dew point (may as well wear a loin cloth and live in the jungle with that kind of dew point) earlier in the week and I've been able to live for the past two days without central air conditioning! What's more, we may get some scattered showers tomorrow. We need rain - desperately! NBC has the Olympics Opening Ceremony on tonight for FOUR HOURS. That was YESTERDAY'S NEWS. Oh please. Trying to jerk viewers into thinking this is "live." What a joke - and even funnier (and sad) is that people will fall for it! I am, instead, watching the 2004 "Hellboy." Well, it was that or "Washington Week." What would you watch? Actually, it's pretty engaging :) To tickle your ironic bone, your funny bone, your sore toe bone, your sniffly nose bone, your bad hair day bone, and whatever other bone you can think of, including empty pocketbook bone:

• Evidence is piling up that a new mini-Ice Age could descend suddenly and take hold within 365 little old days, with catastrophic consequences. One of the ironies of global warming!
• Only girls being born in Arctic - I've written about this elsewhere - this is scary as hell.
• Victim of Indian temple stampede rises from the dead
• Tee hee hee - The Sun never fails to amuse. Our old International Chessoid was modeled after it. Check out the "leprechaun alien."

Was that a cue, perchance? Meet our Mr. June, 2000 pin-up from the cheesy chess tabloid formerly known as The International Chessoid a/k/a TIC. He's none other than GM Ivan Vassalhunk, known to be a bit high strung but with an ELO of 3452 and that bod, I doubt you'll hear many complaints from the chess femmes...

'night...

2008 World Juniors Chess Championship (Girls)

Rank after round 7 Rank SNo. Name Rtg FED Pts Fide Rtg+/- Ra Rp 1 1 IM HARIKA Dronavalli 2461 IND 6 24½ 7 2256 2565 2 2 WGM MUZYCHUK Mariya 2413 UKR 5½ 24 8 2276 2506 3 23 WFM NIKOLOVA Adriana 2242 BUL 5½ 20½ 26 2198 2428 4 13 WFM ABRAHAMYAN Tatev 2277 USA 5 24 21 2268 2426 5 18 WIM MIKADZE Miranda 2258 GEO 5 21½ 14 2191 2349 6 31 WFM OZTURK Kubra 2188 TUR 5 21 24 2262 2297 33 WFM NAKHBAYEVA Guliskhan 2170 KAZ 5 21 25 2250 2287 8 6 WIM MAJDAN Joanna 2323 POL 5 20 6 2204 2362 9 32 PREETHI Rajkumar 2183 IND 5 19½ 21 2229 2268 10 12 WGM MAMEDJAROVA Turkan 2284 AZE 5 18½ 3 2131 2259 11 10 WIM SOUMYA Swaminathan 2293 IND 5 18 2 2142 2300 Those are the top players with 5 to 6 points, battling for the top 3 spots. Dronavalli has the sole lead now after winning her Round 7 game and she's going to be very difficult to knock out of the top spot, having garnered tons of international experience against tough fields during the past year, and playing particularly fine chess since January of this year in major events. How is Narmin Kazimova doing? Right now she's in 25th place with 4 points, a more than respectable showing after 6 rounds against the toughest competition she's likely to face anywhere in the world. Narmin came to my attention by way of her perfomance in the European Women's Individual Championships earlier this year. India's Mary Ann Gomes, Padmini Rout and Nadig Kruttika are in 19th, 20th places, respectively, also with 4 points. There are 9 players from Turkey, which isn't surprising to me since the event is being hosted in Turkey; on the other hand, I saw only one US player, Tatev Abrahamyan (go, Tatev!) India has 6 players and they're all in the top 21 (2 in the top 10)! Play is half over; tomorrow is a free day and then the second half begins on August 10th. There are a total of 13 rounds, and from the looks of things it will be a tight race all the way to the end. In the juniors (guys) section, Hou Yifan is hanging tough in 5th place with 5.5 after Round 7.

Who's Doped and Who's Not?

When watching the Olympics for the next two weeks, remember this quote: In an interview with Craig Lord, John Leonard, President of the World Swimming Coaches Association, said: 'We know that any performance that comes from outside the world top ten in the year [before the Games] to the podium is an anomalous performance and literally everyone of those performances over the last four years has later been proven to be doped. So if we get performances that are coming from outside the world top ten in the 2008 Olympic Games, no matter what nation they are from, we have to look long and hard that performances.'

What that means, in simple English, is that if a bunch of Chinese unknowns suddenly start winning medals in the swimming competitions, they were probably doped and stopped taking the stuff 2 weeks ago so it wouldn't show in urine tests. There are reasons why Chinese swimmers, particularly the females, look just like the East German women's swim team did in the 1980's, and it's not because they train 24-7! The NOVA special on the devastating results of doping those East German athletes in the 1980's should be enough to make anyone pee their pants. One woman was so altered by the constant overdoses of steroids and testosterone that she had a sex change operation and became a "he."

Here's the full story about the Chinese and doping: Spectre Of Doping Haunts China On Eve Of Games, Jul 21, 2008, by Craig Lord, SwinNews.com.

Of course, doping is not limited to the Chinese, but it is interesting that as of the date of this story, no members of the Chinese swim team had yet been named! Were they waiting to see who would pass their internal urine tests prior to naming the team???

Chariot and Horse Burial Uncovered in Bulgaria

I am fascinated by this kind of burial - it is so evocative of the ancient chess piece the ruhkh (warrior and chariot) and the "King's Champion" - Ruhkh - utilized by the Shahs of ancient Persia. Until the game of chess was modernized, probably in Spain at the end of the 14th century (The Chief, Ricardo Calvo, wrote extensively on this) the "rook" (a/k/a ruhkh) was the most powerful piece on the board, capable of broad sweeping moves. Bulgarian archaeologists discover ancient chariot By VESELIN TOSHKOV, Associated Press Writer Thu Aug 7, 12:24 PM ET SOFIA, Bulgaria - Archaeologists have unearthed a 1,900-year-old well-preserved chariot at an ancient Thracian tomb in southeastern Bulgaria, the head of the excavation said Thursday. Daniela Agre said her team found the four-wheel chariot during excavations near the village of Borisovo, around 180 miles east of the capital, Sofia. "This is the first time that we have found a completely preserved chariot in Bulgaria," said Agre, a senior archaeologist at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. She said previous excavations had only unearthed single parts of chariots — often because ancients sites had been looted. At the funerary mound, the team also discovered table pottery, glass vessels and other gifts for the funeral of a wealthy Thracian aristocrat. In a separate pit, they unearthed skeletons of two riding horses apparently sacrificed during the funeral of the nobleman, along with well preserved bronze and leather objects, some believed to horse harnesses. The Culture Ministry confirmed the find and announced $3,900 in financial assistance for Agre's excavation. Agre said an additional amount of $7,800 will be allocated by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences for an initial restoration and conservation of the chariot and the other Thracian finds. The Thracians were an ancient people that inhabited the lands of present day Bulgaria and parts of modern Greece, Turkey, Macedonia and Romania between 4,000 B.C. and the 6th century, when they were assimilated by the invading Slavs. Some 10,000 Thracian mounds — some of them covering monumental stone tombs — are scattered across Bulgaria.

Chess News Update

Chess Femme News has been updated, and my August column at Chessville is now up and running. Enjoy!

The Search for a German Stonehenge Begins

German scientists dig for their own Stonehenge Wed Aug 6, 2008 10:23am EDT (From Reuters) BERLIN (Reuters Life!) - Archaeologists have discovered traces of a Bronze Age place of worship in Germany in what they say might be the country's answer to Stonehenge. Scientists from a university in Halle are excavating a roughly 4,000 year-old circular site in eastern Germany which contains graves that bear a strong resemblance to Stonehenge, a prehistoric stone circle of towering megaliths in southern Britain. "It is the first finding of this kind on the European mainland which we have been able to fully excavate and which shows a structure we have until now only seen in Britain," Andre Spatzier, head of the excavation team, told Reuters TV. He thinks rituals and ceremonies took place at the site, possibly even sacrifices. "The way it is built, with many concentrated rings of graves, walls, palisades and pillars are very similar to the British monument at Stonehenge," added Spatzier. The site, near the town of Poemmelte, was discovered through aerial photos which showed the formation of the graves in a ring with a diameter of about 80 meters (yards). One difference to Stonehenge, however, is that the remains are made out of wood rather than stone. So far the scientists have found few items such as bones or pieces of glass, but they expect to find more as the dig continues. The final results are expected to take up to three years. Stonehenge goes back to 3,100 BC when native Neolithic people started its construction. There is no consensus among scholars on whether it was a temple, burial ground or an astronomical site. (Reporting by Reuters Television, Writing by Madeline Chambers, editing by Paul Casciato)

Mysterious Object Crashes Near Needles, CA

This is "old" news, from May, 2008. Here's the You Tube link (video) to the news broadcast out of Las Vegas, Nevada. Normally, darlings, I don't pay any attention to this sort of thing, but I have to admit I found this rather intriguing and a very well done news report! I don't think it's an "alien spacecraft" - more likely a test on a top secret aircraft being developed for/by the US government that went awry. That would be a fascinating story, though, all by itself.

Knights Templar Launch Legal Battle Against Pope

From The Telegraph.co.uk If even a tenth of what is said in some of the myths of the Templars is true, they sure were an interesting group - supposedly the progenitors of the Masons (Scottish rite), the first pirates flying under the "Jolly Roger" flag, the engineers of the mysterious "money pit," the architects of the mysterious Roslyn Chapel. The heirs of the Knights Templar have launched a legal battle in Spain to force the Pope to restore the reputation of the disgraced order which was accused of heresy and dissolved seven centuries ago. By Fiona Govan, Madrid Correspondent Last Updated: 1:07PM BST 04 Aug 2008 The Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ, whose members claim to be descended from the legendary crusaders, have filed a lawsuit against Benedict XVI calling for him to recognise the seizure of assets worth 100 billion euros (£79 billion). They claim that when the order was dissolved by his predecessor Pope Clement V in 1307, more than 9,000 properties as well as countless pastures, mills and other commercial ventures belonging to the knights were appropriated by the church. But their motive is not to reclaim damages [yeah, right] only to restore the "good name" of the Knights Templar. "We are not trying to cause the economic collapse of the Roman Catholic Church, but to illustrate to the court the magnitude of the plot against our Order," said a statement issued by the self-proclaimed modern day knights. The Templars was a powerful secretive group of warrior monks founded by French knight Hugues de Payens after the First Crusade of 1099 to protect pilgrims en route to Jerusalem. They amassed enormous wealth and helped to finance wars waged by European monarchs, but spectacularly fell from grace after the Muslims reconquered the Holy Land in 1244 and rumours surfaced of their heretic practices. The Knights were accused of denying Jesus, worshipping icons of the devil in secret initiation ceremonies, and practising sodomy. Many Templars confessed to their crimes under torture and some, including the Grand Master Jacques de Molay, were burned at the stake. The legal move by the Spanish group comes follows the unprecedented step by the Vatican towards the rehabilitation of the group when last October it released copies of parchments recording the trials of the Knights between 1307 and 1312. The papers lay hidden for more than three centuries having been "misfiled" within papal archives until they were discovered by an academic in 2001. The Chinon parchment revealed that, contrary to historic belief, Clement V had declared the Templars were not heretics but disbanded the order anyway to maintain peace with their accuser, King Philip IV of France. Over the centuries, various groups have claimed to be descended from the Templars and legend abounds over hidden treasures, secret rituals, and their rumoured guardianship of the Holy Grail. Most recently the knights have fascinated the modern generation after being featured in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code.

4000 Year Old Canaanite Warrior Found

This is a rather sad discovery because the archaeologists are saying this "warrior" was between 15 and 20 years old when he was buried. Hardly even time to have a life. Lebanon Daily Star By Mohammed Zaatari Daily Star staff Tuesday, August 05, 2008 SIDON: The British Museum's excavation team in Sidon have recently unearthed a new grave containing human skeletal remains belonging to a Canaanite warrior, archeology expert and field supervisor Claude Doumet Serhal told The Daily Star on Monday. According to Serhal, the delegation made the discovery at the "Freres" excavation site near Sidon's crusader castle. "This is the 77th grave that we have discovered at this site since our digging activities has started ten years ago with Lebanese-British financing," she said. According to Serhal, the remains go back to 2000 B.C., with a British archeologist saying the warrior had been buried at the age of 15 to 20 along with a spear and two stamps. "We have discovered earlier this year a jar also belonging to the Canaanite period i.e. to 2,000 years B.C. where a skeleton for a newborn baby had been found," she added. The archeologist said that Freres "is the first excavation site in old Sidon that is located on a land owned by the General Directorate of Antiquities." "We can say that through the discoveries we have been making at this site, we will be able to draw a graph showing the history of this ancient Mediterranean merchant city since 3000 BC," she added. Serhal said the British delegation would continue its work until the first of September "when we will announce the discoveries we have made." "Among the institutions that have taken in charge the financing of our project, are the British Old House Institution, the Issam Fares Foundation, the National Cement Company, the Hariri Foundation and Sidon's school network in addition to Byblos Bank," she said. Serhal had described Sidon as one of the most important metropolises of the Near East from the earliest of times. "It is mentioned 38 times in the Old Testament and appears in Genesis as the oldest Canaanite city, 'the firstborn of Canaan,'" she said. During those 10 years ago of excavation the discoveries were continuous: tombs and burial jars for children and adults, jugs, pieces of pottery with Phoenician inscription, bronze weapons for warriors in addition to jewelry. "Last year, for example, we found tons of wheat going back to 3000 BC," Serhal added. The British Museum launched earlier this year an archaeological documentary entitled "Sidon 5,000 years" with the aim of gaining a better understanding of the ancient history of the southern port city.

2008 World Junior Chess Championship (Girls)

Standings after Round 4: Rank SNo. Name Rtg FED Pts Fide 1 13 WFM ABRAHAMYAN Tatev 2277 USA 4 10 2 1 IM HARIKA Dronavalli 2461 IND 3½ 9½ 2 WGM MUZYCHUK Mariya 2413 UKR 3½ 9½ 4 17 WIM DAULETOVA Gulmira 2267 KAZ 3½ 9 5 7 WIM GOMES Mary Ann 2316 IND 3½ 8½ 6 18 WIM MIKADZE Miranda 2258 GEO 3 8½ 29 ISGANDAROVA Khayala 2207 AZE 3 8½ 31 WFM OZTURK Kubra 2188 TUR 3 8½ 9 19 WIM PADMINI Rout 2257 IND 3 8 24 MUMINOVA Nafisa 2242 UZB 3 8 11 22 WIM IVAKHINOVA Inna 2248 RUS 3 7½ 12 9 WFM HOOLT Sarah 2298 GER 3 7 23 WFM NIKOLOVA Adriana 2242 BUL 3 7 33 WFM NAKHBAYEVA Guliskhan 2170 KAZ 3 7 15 6 WIM MAJDAN Joanna 2323 POL 2½ 8 30 WFM LEKS Hanna 2198 POL 2½ 8 17 25 WIM NADIG Kruttika 2241 IND 2½ 7½ 26 WIM YILDIZ Betül Cemre 2236 TUR 2½ 7½ 27 WFM PERTLOVA Sona 2217 CZE 2½ 7½ 20 4 WGM NEMCOVA Katerina 2372 CZE 2½ 6½ 12 WGM MAMEDJAROVA Turkan 2284 AZE 2½ 6½ 15 WIM TSATSALASHVILI Keti 2271 GEO 2½ 6½ 16 WIM POURKASHIYAN Atousa 2269 IRI 2½ 6½ 21 WFM BOROSOVA Zuzana 2254 SVK 2½ 6½ 32 PREETHI Rajkumar 2183 IND 2½ 6½ 26 11 WIM DAULYTE Deimante 2288 LTU 2½ 6 27 47 KALASHYAN Varduhi 2049 ARM 2½ 5½ 28 48 GUO Qi 2048 CHN 2½ 5 29 38 KAZIMOVA Narmin 2148 AZE 2½ 4½ 30 8 WFM SEVERIUKHINA Zoja 2300 RUS 2 6½ 31 10 WIM SOUMYA Swaminathan 2293 IND 2 6 28 WFM GASIK Anna 2211 POL 2 6 33 5 WGM FOISOR Sabina-Francesca 2337 ROU 2 5½ 34 34 WFM SGIRCEA Silvia-Raluca 2167 ROU 2 5 60 ALAVI Hour Homa 1723 IRI 2 5 36 45 IKONOMOPOULOU Maria 2074 GRE 2 4½ 37 40 WFM TJOLSEN Katrine 2121 NOR 2 4 41 WFM ERIC Jovena 2111 SRB 2 4 46 MIDDELVELD Martine 2073 NED 2 4 49 WFM CHIERICI Marianna 2037 ITA 2 4 51 ALBANO Jeremias Bianca 1990 POR 2 4 52 HEGARTY Sarah 1966 ENG 2 4 43 42 WFM BERKE Ana 2100 CRO 2 3½ 44 43 WFM SHAMIMA Akter 2099 BAN 2 3 45 14 WFM PAIKIDZE Nazi 2277 GEO 1½ 5 37 WFM KLIMETS Elena 2150 BLR 1½ 5 47 3 WFM BODNARUK Anastasia 2394 RUS 1½ 4 48 35 WFM DAVLETBAYEVA Madina 2155 KAZ 1½ 2½ 49 44 WFM EFROIMSKI Marsel 2091 ISR 1½ 2 63 KAYA Sena Nur 1529 TUR 1½ 2 51 20 WGM CORKE Anya 2255 HKG 1 4 52 36 WFM TOTH Sarolta 2151 HUN 1 3 39 WIM HAMRAKULOVA Yulduz 2145 UZB 1 3 50 WFM BAYRAK Asli 2013 TUR 1 3 53 WFM WIID Daleen 1931 RSA 1 3 61 ANTON Sarah 1681 AUS 1 3 57 54 ACAR Gizem 1931 TUR 1 2½ 56 MISOVIC Sanja 1914 MNE 1 2½ 59 55 BUKOVEC Tina 1929 SLO 1 2 57 BOYARCHENKO Marie 1895 LUX 1 2 58 ANTONOVA Nadezhda 1883 TJK 1 2 62 KARAYAYLALI Pinar 1597 TUR 1 2 63 65 DAI Irmak 0 TUR 1 1 67 OZMUT Perinisa 0 TUR 1 1 65 59 GARCIA Liria Caetano 1792 BRA ½ 1½ 66 64 BOSNJAK Antonija 0 BIH 0 0 66 KAYA Saadet 0 TUR 0 0 68 SALATIC Milica 0 BIH 0 0

Aussie School Girl Wins Coveted Weiqi Spot

Fascinating. This young lady has her head together - and the potential to earn "millions of dollars" playing Go! Reported in The Australian D. D. McNicoll August 05, 2008 Schoolgirl passes go JOANNE Missingham, a 14-year-old schoolgirl from Brisbane, has become the first Aussie to join the ranks of professional go players in China. Go, or weiqi as it is known in China, is an ancient strategy game with similarities to chess. In Hangzhou last month, Joanne faced fierce competition as players from across China battled for one of only two playing positions offered by the Chinese Weiqi Association each year. The top professional go players can earn millions of dollars each year. Australian Go Association president John Hardy says Joanne's achievement is extraordinary. "Remember in 2006 how underdog Marcos Baghdatis from Cyprus fought his way to the final of the Australian Open (tennis)? Joanne's achievement must seem like that to the Chinese," Hardy says. Joanne will also represent Australia in the World Mind Sports Games, which will be held in Beijing after the Olympics. strewth@theaustralian.com.au

Supporting Local Chess: Announcements

Atascocita, Texas From Our Tribune.com August 4, 2008 Atascocita Library 19520 Pinehurst Trail Drive, is open Sunday 1-5 p.m., Monday and Thursday 10 a.m.-9 p.m., Tuesday 1-9 p.m., Wednesday 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Friday 1-6 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. For more information, call 281-812-2162. August programs: Aug. 7 at 1 p.m. Third annual Tween and Teen Chess Tournament. Sign up for an exciting afternoon of chess. Check out our amazing trophies in the display case. Registration is required since space is limited. ***************************************************************************************** Washington, D.C. From an article in the Mercury News.com (San Jose, CA) Check out the competitive chess players who congregate at Dupont Circle [Washington, D.C.] More on the chessplayers at Dupont Circle: Checkmate: Dupont Circle Chess for Newbies TOM MURPHY BALKS at my use of the word "intimidating" to describe the chess players at Dupont Circle. Then again, I have to remember to take what he says with a grain of salt. One of the most skillful players at Dupont, Murphy claims to know only "a little something" about chess. Having just sat through a chess lesson with him, I beg to differ. To a beginner like me, Murphy's mastery of the board game — featured prominently in The Washington Post Magazine's "The Days and Knights of Tom Murphy" last fall — is nothing short of mind-boggling, and the chess tables at Dupont Circle are downright scary. Walk through the northeast quadrant of the park and, unless you're a competitive chess player yourself, you're bound to agree. Luckily, according to Murphy, there's hope for even the most clueless chess newbie — as long as you follow a few basic rules. Rest of article. ************************************************************************************************** Announcement from Emporia Gazette! I have no idea where Emporia is - there is not an ounce of identifying markers in the page from which these announcements are taken. I believe they both refer to the same chess club: Saturday (August 9, 2008) The Emporia Chess Society meets from 1:30 to 4 p.m. every Saturday at Pyramid Pizza. All ages and skill levels are welcome, including children. There is no charge. Aug. 11 The Emporia Chess Society meets from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the Granada Coffee Company. All ages and skill levels are welcome, including children. There is no charge.

Dragon Monument Found in Azerbaijan?

Ancient stone monument found in Lenkoran, Azerbaijan BAKU. JULY 28. KAZINFORM. A stone monument with an image of an unusual animal, similar to a dragon on it, was found in Kozalar village, of Lenkoran, Azerbaijan. The animal has a crown on his head, with fire coming out of its mouth. According to archaeologist Janvashir Hasanzade the age of the stone with the image of a dragon is at least 2000 years. He said the discovery is an anthem of the Girkan state on the Ptolemy's map. The ruins of ancient buildings were found in this territory. They locate at an area of 2 hectares. An underground tunnel of 3 meters in height and 1 meter in width was discovered during the digs in 1988. [! 1988? Nothing like these archaeologists being current in their field publications. Geez!] Due to the tense situation in the country, no studies were held there. [In 1988? or now?] The underground tunnel is in four directions. The west part of the tunnel extends to 6 kilometers to the ruins of Bellebur tower, Kazinform cites TodayAZ.

Official Chinese News Agency Reports 16 Police Killed

Can this be confirmed by independent sources? If not, I don't believe it. Report: 16 police killed in China border attack By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: August 4, 2008 Filed at 12:13 a.m. ET BEIJING (AP) -- China's official Xinhua News Agency says an attack on a border patrol station on the country's frontier with Central Asia has killed 16 police officers. The report says the assailants used a dump truck to ram their way into the paramilitary police station in Kashi and then tossed two hand grenades. Besides the dead, Xinhua says 16 officers were injured. Xinhua, citing police, said two attackers were arrested. It did not identify them. The area is home to a Muslim Turkic people, the Uighurs (WEE'-gurs). The Uighurs have waged a simmering rebellion against Chinese rule. The attack comes four days before the opening of the Olympics in Beijing. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. BEIJING (AP) -- China's official Xinhua News Agency says an unknown group of people has attacked a border patrol station on the country's frontier with Central Asia, leaving dozens of police officers injured. The report says the assailants drove two vehicles inside the paramilitary police station in the Kashi region Monday and then threw two grenades. The brief Xinhua dispatch described the attackers as ''rioters.'' The area is home to a Muslim Turkic people, the Uighurs (WEE'-gurs). The Uighurs have waged a simmering rebellion against Chinese rule, with some drawn to the militant Islam that has buffeted Central Asia.

Chess News

Hola! I've been working like a maniac for the past two days on the August, 2008 Chessville column, that I submitted just a few minutes ago to my editor for review. It should be up and running soon. Keep your eyes out. Meanwhile, dondelion has updated Random Round-up at Goddesschess, and has a report on the award of the Goddesschess Promoted Pawn Prize at the 2008 Canadian Open. Vacation is over - back to work.

Friday Night Miscellany

It's Friday night and everything's all right - well, it would be, if the dew point would just drop about 20 points -- relief is supposedly on the way, just hovering to the west of Madison right now... So much is strange and unusual in the news this week, it's hard to pick and choose, but I thought I'd start out with some 'ONE STEP BEYOND' stuff. For anyone old enough to remember that outstanding show, I understand it's still in syndication - somewhere - but I don't have cable or satellite t.v. so I'll never see it again, unless it's one U-Tube somewhere. Well, alas, and moving on: Something of a minor sensation was made a week or so ago when Dr. Edgar Mitchell, the astronaut, was on a late-night radio show and talked about close encounters of the alien kind and, as I gather (not having heard the broadcast or read a transcript), about U.S. government cover-ups of the TRUTH, which is indeed OUT THERE, just waiting for Mulder and Scully to show up. Here's some brief info about what Mitchell said (and has said for the past 10 years):

• Frenzied press coverage after latest interview
• For those who want to hear it for themselves, check out this UFO Blogger post, which has the relevant excerpt, as well as NASA's response ("Dr Mitchell is a great American, but we do not share his opinion on this issue.").
• What Mitchell said 10 years ago
• A video interview from this year's X-Conference in which he says much the same again

So, today I see this report by "another NASA veteran" who confirms Dr. Mitchell's accounts in all aspects and will tell all - but only for a large pay-off. He probably wants Euros, too...

Not to be outdone, no less than The New York Times published it's own article about UFOs - but they covered their butts by placing it in the Op Ed pages. Chickens!

The Axum Obelisk is being resurrected in the town of Axum, Ethiopia, near Addis Ababa. Take a look at a map, you'll see that Ethiopia has Sudan on it's west border, and Somalia on its east. Yeah, a real comfy, peaceful spot, just full of liberty and justice for all - and religious tolerance, too. Wonder how long the 1,700 year old Obelisk will last once it's standing in place? Any one want to place a bet? I wonder if Vegas is giving odds??? Perhaps someone will hold the Obelisk hostage in hopes of a big pay-off, threatening to blow it up if the cash doesn't come. Hmmmm, I smell a movie in the works...

J.K. Rowling ia making a bid for the title greediest author of all time. Still four months to release date and already the cheapo paperback edition of "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" is a best seller on Amazon.com.

But wait - according to the Daily Grail.com there's also 100,000 copies of a super-duper "Collectors' Edition" selling for only $100 USD, available for only a few fervent fans. Hmmmm, let's see, if all 100,000 "Collectors' Edition" sell (I believe we can expect they will), that's a gross of Ten Million Dollars. The blurb about the book at Amazon says: Net proceeds from this Collector's Edition and the Standard Edition support of the Children's High Level Group, a charity co-founded in 2005 by J K Rowling and Emma Nicholson MEP to make life better for vulnerable children. (The Children's High Level Group is a charity registered in England and Wales under registered charity number 1112575.)

"Net proceeds", heh? Well, we all know how that works in the movie industry. Does it work the same in the book printing industry? Also note, it does NOT say that "ALL net proceeds" from the sale of the Collector's and Standard editions go to support the charity. Just an oversight? Are we supposed to assume that ALL net proceeds will go to the charity and Ms. Rowling gets not a single dime? Yeah, and the Moon is made of green cheese.

I discovered early this week, much to my horror, that I have MICE. Yes yes, I have mice outside, they don't bother me and I don't bother them. But one or more unknown entities of mouse origin invaded the Inner Sanctum, the Sanctum Sactorum, the Abode of this Goddess. As Bugs Bunny once said, "you know, of course, that this means war..."

I got moth balls, and bombed the exterior of the house. Tomorrow I'll get outside and search the perimeter for wee openings the size of a dime or larger and plug them up and do further mothball bombing. Meantime, I did research on the internet and discovered that essential oil of Peppermint is a known mouse deterrent. Great, I thought. I ran to the supermarket after work on Monday and purchased 100% Pure Peppermint Extract - and two "camoflauged" mouse traps made of plastic. Guaranteed to hide the body of the deceased from one's squeamish view after the trap has sprung.

Well, okay. The camoflauged mouse traps don't work - I tossed them in the garbage and they'll probably take off one or more fingers of some unsuspecting garbageman somewhere down the line. I also discovered, upon further research, that 100% Pure Peppermint Extract is NOT the same as essential oil of Peppermint. Nooooooo - 100% Pure Peppermint Extract is guaranteed, according to my research, to attract ANTS. After my bout with the Invasion of Body Snatcher Ants a few years ago and a costly extermination process, you can imagine my horror - and I'm still hunting down cotton balls saturated with 100% Pure Peppermint Extract. How many cotton balls can one woman possibly hide in a 1,650 square foot house, I ask you?

The mice, meanwhile, were laughing at me. The first night I put out the camoflauged mouse traps, they ate all the peanut butter off the triggering mechanism and the traps did not spring. Next night, same thing. So, last night, I went back to the supermarket and got the cheap old-fashioned kind of mouse-trap that takes muscles to set - the Victor Mouse Trap! I just love that name, implying as it does, "victory" of mere humans over the Mighty Mouse.

I eagerly set a trap last night and after three false tries, I finally got it set without snapping off my fingers or my nose. Put it down in the suspect spot near the fireplace in the living room where they must be coming in through some miniscule hole along the gas pipe from the basement (they have left distinctive "clues") - anyway, I was all set. I didn't get much sleep though, anticipating that distinctive "snap" sound when the trap goes off.

Only it didn't happen. This morning when I checked, all the peanut butter was gone - and the trap had not sprung!

Ohmygoddess, I thought, a ghost mouse! I staggered to the office bleary-eyed and groggy all day, from lack of sleep, cursing the little bugger or, more likely, buggers under my breath. They were mocking me, I could feel their teeny beady eyes boring into the back of my neck, and they were snickering, their whiskers twitching this way and that...they were probably hiding under my bed and coming out at 2:45 a.m. to giggle in the corner, waking me up just enough to wonder what the hell was that strange noise in the corner...

So, tonight, when I got home, I got really serious about mouse extermination. I checked the Victor trap - this time the peanut butter was still intact, but I saw I had far too much of it on the trigger. I pulled the trap, sprung it with a butter knife (let me tell you, it works, whoa!) and made sure this time I put only a smidgeon of peanut butter on the trigger and mushed it in well so any offending mouse would have to really dig down to get at the goodies. That was about 6:30 p.m.

Shortly after 8 this evening, I heard the distinctive sound of the trap going off. OHMYGODDESS, I got one, I thought. I ran out from my upstairs bedroom (where the computer hutch is currently residing), turned on the big overhead light on the ceiling overlooking the staircase, and sure enough, there was a mouse, still alive but caught by the neck, tugging in vain to try and get out. It was all over in a few seconds. The struggle ended.

Did I mention I was eating supper at the time - a hamburger, loaded with ketchup and pickles and mayo. I kept eating. Am I a cold hearted beyatch or what? To make a long story short, I went downstairs, donned rubber safety apparel and disposed of the mousey corpus on the compost pile below the retaining wall out back, expecting that either the racoons will get it or the ants and beetles will. I then washed off the trap (there was some blood on it) and wrapped it in paper toweling to absorb the moisture. I baited a second Victor trap (they come two to a pack) and after springing it a couple of times, I successfully got it over to the spot near the fireplace where I'd caught the first mouse.

I was upstairs still working on my hamburger, not 10 minutes later, when I again heard that distinctive "snap" sound and, sure enough, when I ran out to the balcony overlooking the living room and fireplace and turned on the big light, there was another little sucker caught in the trap, also struggling to get out, also deceasing in my sight in a few seconds. I finished my hamburger and disposed of this body in the same place as the first.

Number 1 corpus was larger, number 2 corpus was smaller, so I figured "daddy" and "mommy" - which means, quel horreurs - babies! Definitely field mice, not voles, not rats (thank Goddess!) I pulled out the first trap from it's paper towel wrapping, still damp, and baited it again. It also went off 2 times while trying to set it, but on the third try I got it down on the floor near the fireplace. So far, nothing. I'm hoping there are no babies and no further mice invade my Inner Sanctum.

Does this make me a murderer? What's more, does this make me an inhuman monster murderer who continued chomping on a hamburger while mayhem and death occured practically under her very nose? Oy! Well, I was hungry.

The lesson to be learned from this - don't fall for the "humane" traps that are intended to shield one's delicate sensibilities from the death of a mouse. THEY ARE FRICKING INVADERS AND DESERVE TO DIE. DIE MOUSE, DIE! Ahem... Buy the Victor traps that are two for $0.99 and just be careful for your fingers (and don't get your nose too close, either). Don't make my rookie mistake and put too much peanut butter on the trigger. If you're not squeamish (evidently I'm not, at least when it comes to dead invader mice) you can wash the traps after removing the mouse corpus and use it again and again. Just make sure you dry it thoroughly so rust doesn't start in the mechanisms. Ninety-nine cents was never better spent.

'night, darlings.

'Viking' Chess? Nah - But Fun!

Players from five states gather in Eau Claire for 'Viking chess' By Janie Boschma Leader-Telegram staff July 31, 2008 For some folks, there's nothing better to do on a hot Saturday afternoon than to play a few rounds of Viking chess. Seventy kubb players from five states - Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa and Colorado - will face off this weekend in the largest kubb tournament ever held in the United States, and charities will benefit. Nicknamed "Viking chess" for its Swedish origins, kubb (pronounced koob) is a popular lawn game in Nordic countries. "Supposedly the Vikings played it thousands of years ago," said Eric Anderson, who organized the Midwest Kubb Championship, the second in Eau Claire. Registration for the 32-team tournament begins at 8:15 a.m. Saturday, followed by an overview of kubb rules at 9:15. The tournament kicks off at 9:30 and will continue through the afternoon. Spectators are encouraged to attend. Aaron Ellringer of Eau Claire will be part of the tournament with his two-man team, A to Z. "There's a really friendly part of it. It is competitive to a certain degree, but I just know it's going to be fun," he said. "There's just something silly about throwing sticks around." Essentially, two teams stand on opposing sides of the field by a row of five wooden blocks (or kubbs) and throw wooden batons to knock each other's kubbs down. "To win the game, you have to eliminate all of the kubbs on the opposing team's side," Anderson said. "If you knock the king over at the end of the game, you win." The king, the largest block that sits in the middle of the field, is the 8-ball of kubb. Ellringer said personal preference usually determines how many people play (at least two per team in the tournament) and the size of the playing field. World championship competition rules in Sweden call for an 8-by-5 meter field. The game has been described as a combination of bowling and horseshoes. "Once people start playing, I'll be honest, it's addicting," Anderson said. He said the tournament combines two of his passions: kubb and helping the people of embattled Darfur, Sudan. Through sponsorship and his own personal contribution, Anderson said 100 percent of the event's proceeds will supply survival kits for Darfur refugees (through the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees) and support Girls on the Run of Eau Claire County, the local chapter of a nonprofit organization that encourages preteen girls to develop self-respect and healthy lifestyles through running. Anderson first began playing kubb while living in Sweden with his family in 2005 and 2006. When he moved back to the United States almost two years ago, he wanted to introduce that aspect of Scandinavian culture to Eau Claire. It began with the formation of Beserkers, a kubb club he said now meets about once a week to play - sometimes at Peace Park across First Avenue from Just Local Food Co-op or at other parks around town. Anderson said Beserkers is the first and only kubb club in Wisconsin. He said he hopes to expand from the dozen players in the club to a kubb league soon. Anderson already has plans for a national kubb championship game in Eau Claire for 2010. "I think it's a really good thing for Eau Claire," said Ellringer, a Beserkers member. "We've been quietly talking about making Eau Claire Kubb City USA. It seems like lots and lots of people are paying attention to it."

Ancient Rock Art in Durham County, England

From BBC News online:

Ancient rock carvings discovered
More than 100 new examples of prehistoric art have been discovered carved into boulders and open bedrock throughout Northumberland and Durham.

The 5,000-year-old Neolithic carvings of circles, rings and hollowed cups, were uncovered by volunteers.

One of the most interesting discoveries was an elaborately carved panel on Barningham Moor, near Barnard Castle in County Durham. English Heritage now wants to extend the project to Cumbria.

Abstract art
Kate Wilson, inspector of ancient monuments at English Heritage, said: "We know virtually nothing about this art. That's the exciting part of this discovery.

"What we need to do now is to discover how this art relates to other prehistoric features in the landscape.

"We are talking about very simple and abstract art, using circles, lines and triangles. Mostly the designs are pecked into stone in the shape of simple cups and rings."

Archaeologists have discovered thousands of examples of prehistoric rock carvings in the area in recent years.

Many feature on a website backed by Newcastle University, which includes about 6,000 images.

Ms Wilson added: "We are sure there remains a lot that is still undiscovered in Cumbria."

World's Oldest Joke?

Well, I'm sure this isn't the oldest joke in the world - just the oldest recorded instance of a joke. Jokes have most likely been around since humankind first appeared! An interesting report, nonetheless, and I thought the jokes are rather funny! From ABCNews.com/Science and Technology World's Oldest Joke Traced Back to 1900 BC July 31, 2008 LONDON (Reuters) - The world's oldest recorded joke has been traced back to 1900 BC and suggests toilet humor was as popular with the ancients as it is today. It is a saying of the Sumerians, who lived in what is now southern Iraq and goes: "Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap." It heads the world's oldest top 10 joke list published by the University of Wolverhampton Thursday. A 1600 BC gag about a pharaoh, said to be King Snofru, comes second -- "How do you entertain a bored pharaoh? You sail a boatload of young women dressed only in fishing nets down the Nile and urge the pharaoh to go catch a fish." The oldest British joke dates back to the 10th Century and reveals the bawdy face of the Anglo-Saxons -- "What hangs at a man's thigh and wants to poke the hole that it's often poked before? Answer: A key." "Jokes have varied over the years, with some taking the question and answer format while others are witty proverbs or riddles," said the report's writer Dr Paul McDonald, senior lecturer at the university. "What they all share however, is a willingness to deal with taboos and a degree of rebellion. Modern puns, Essex girl jokes and toilet humor can all be traced back to the very earliest jokes identified in this research." The study was commissioned by television channel Dave. The top 10 oldest jokes can be viewed at www.dave-tv.co.uk. (Reporting by John Joseph; Editing by Steve Addison) Copyright 2008 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Saudis Ban Pet Dogs and Cats

Isis sent me this article. Unbelievable! Unbelievable. Next up on the agenda: banning women. Yep, I expect the Saudi government to start culling females soon. Saudi Arabia bans sale of dogs, cats in capital By DONNA ABU-NASR, Associated Press Writer Thu Jul 31, 2:26 PM ET RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Every single man knows: Walking a dog in the park is a sure babe magnet. Saudi Arabia's Islamic religious police, in their zeal to keep the sexes apart, want to make sure the technique doesn't catch on here. The solution: Ban selling dogs and cats as pets, as well as walking them in public. The prohibition went into effect Wednesday in the capital, Riyadh, and authorities in the city say they will strictly enforce it — unlike previous bans in the cities of Mecca and Jiddah, which have been ignored and failed to stop pet sales. Violators found outside with their pets will have their beloved poodles and other furry companions confiscated by agents of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the official name of the religious police, tasked with enforcing Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic code. The commission's general manager, Othman al-Othman, said the ban was ordered because of what he called "the rising of phenomenon of men using cats and dogs to make passes at women and pester families" as well as "violating proper behavior in public squares and malls." "If a man is caught with a pet, the pet will be immediately confiscated and the man will be forced to sign a document pledging not to repeat the act," al-Othman told the Al-Hayat newspaper. "If he does, he will be referred to authorities." The ban does not address women. The Saudi-owned Al-Hayat announced the ban in its Wednesday edition, saying it was ordered by the acting governor of Riyadh province, Prince Sattam, based on an edit from the Council of Senior Islamic Scholars and several religious police reports of pet owners harassing women and families. Commission authorities often do not formally announce to the public new rules that they intend to implement. Officials from the commission and Riyadh city government could not be reached for comment Thursday, which is a weekend day in Saudi Arabia. The English-language Arab News reported on the ban Thursday. So far, the prohibition did not appear to have any effect in Riyadh. It's extremely rare, anyway, to see anyone in the capital walking a dog — much less carrying a cat in public — despite the authorities' claims of flirtatious young men luring girls with their pets in malls. Salesmen at a couple of Riyadh pet stores said Thursday they did not receive any orders from the commission banning the sale of pets. Cats and dogs were still on display. "I didn't hear of the ban," said Yasser al-Abdullah, a 28-year-old Saudi nurse, who was at one pet store with his 3-month-old collie, Joe. Al-Abdullah, who also owns an 8-month-old Labrador, said a couple of Western friends had been told to get off the streets by the religious police for walking their dogs. "I won't allow the commission to take my dogs from me," he said. The religious police prowl streets and malls throughout the kingdom, ensuring unmarried men and women do not mix, confronting women they feel are not properly covered or urging men to go to prayers. They also often make attempts to plug the few holes in the strict gender segregation that innovations bring. In 2004, for example, they tried to ban cameras on cell phones, fearing that men and women would exchange pictures of each other — though the prohibition was quickly revoked. There was no word whether commission authorities intend to expand the dog and cat ban beyond the capital. The prohibition may be more of an attempt to curb the owning of pets, which conservative Saudis view as a sign of corrupting Western influence, like the fast food, shorts, jeans and pop music that have become more common in the kingdom. Although it has never been common to own pets in the Arab world, it's becoming increasingly fashionable among the upper class in Saudi Arabia and other countries such as Egypt. In Islamic tradition, dogs are shunned as unclean and dangerous, though they are kept for hunting and guarding. In large cities around the Middle East, stray dogs are considered pests. [This may be because the most ancient association of dogs is with Goddesses - death goddesses and huntress goddesses. Islamic scholars ignore their religion's own expropriation and incorporation of ancient Saudi goddess symbols and rituals and seek, instead, to stamp out all religious association of god with the Divine Feminine. Foolish men. They can never stamp out the Goddess. In many of the earliest board games we know about, the gaming pieces were called "dogs." In many areas throughout the world where chess was/is played by "natives," dogs replaced some of the playing pieces in hand-carved chess sets.] The ban on cats is more puzzling, since there's no similar disdain for them in Islamic tradition. One of the Prophet Muhammad's closest companions was given the name Abu Huraira, Arabic for "the father of the kitten," because he always carried a kitten with him and a number of traditional stories of the prophet show Muhammad encouraging people to treat cats well. [Guess Muhammad had a soft spot for the ancient goddess Sekhmet, depicted as a lioness; or perhaps the goddess Bast, depicted as a sleek cat with long curving tail].

The Strongest Women's Tournament

Frank "Boy" Pestano's column: Friday, August 01, 2008 Pestaño: The strongest women’s tournament By Frank “Boy” Pestaño Chessmoso I SELDOM feature women’s tournaments—not because I am biased—but simply because there are only a few of them. However, if it is billed as the strongest women’s tournament ever, I guess every chess player has a right to know what is it all about. The North Urals Cup is in its third edition and is ongoing in Krasnoturinsk, Russia from July 26 to Aug. 3. Here are the players and their background. I am enumerating their accomplishments as very few chess players know about women chess and it is about time to show them our respect. Koneru Humpy (India) is an International grandmaster with a rating of 2622. She is a semifinalist of the World Cup (2002), semifinalist of the World Women Championship (2004), winner of the super tournament “North Urals Cup” (2005), and first placer in the individual and the team categories (Asian Games 2006). Stefanova Antoaneta (Bulgaria) is an international grandmaster with a rating of 2550. She is the European Champion (2002), Women World Champion (2004), and two-time champion of Russia (team “AVS”) (2005, 2006). She also won 3rd place in the Russian Championship (team “AVS”) (2007), winner of the male GM tournament in Salona (2007) and finished the Gibraltar Masters 2008 with an ELO performance of 2690. Cramling Pia (Sweden) is an international grandmaster with a rating of 2544 and is a WGM since 1982 and International Grandmaster since 1992. She is the women’s European champion (2003), vice-champion of Sweden among men (1987, 2000), winner of the European Club Cup with the team of Monaco (2007). She also won second place in the Ataturk Masters Ustanbul (2008). Sebag Marie (France) is an international grandmaster with a rating of 2529 and a winner of the European Youth Championship (1999, 2000, 2002), two-time champion of France (2000, 2002), and a quarterfinalist of the World Women Championship (2006). [Sebag won her third and final GM norm by virtue of her performance at the 2008 European Individual Chess Championships]. Muzychuk Anna (Slovenia) is another international grandmaster with a rating of 2504. She is the champion of Ukraine among women (2003), Russian, Slovenian, German Club Cup champion, European Club Cup vice-champion with “AVS” (2007), and the winner of the international women tournaments “Moscow Open” and “1st Ladies Open” (2008). Xu Yuhua (China) is an international grandmaster with a rating of 2483 and winner of the zonal tournament (1993, 2001), World Cup (2000, 2002). She is also a member of the World Olympiad Team Champion (2000, 2002, 2004), and is the Women World Champion (2006). Ushenina Anna (Ukraine) is an International grandmaster since 2007 with a rating of 2476. She is the champion of Ukraine among women (2005), member of the Olympiad champion team (2006), member of the third-place finisher in the World Women Team Championship (2007). Pogonina Natalya (Russia) is an international grandmaster with a rating of 2469. She is the European champion among in the 16-Under and 18-Under women (2000, 2003), the European rapid chess 18-Under champion (2003), third placer in the super tournament “North Urals Cup” (2007), vice-champion of European Club Cup with “AVS” (2007), first placer in the Russian team and the second placer in the World Students’ Championship (2008). Here are the standings after the 3rd round: Stefanova 2.5,Ushenina, Sebag, Yuhua 2.0, Pogonina, Muzychuk, Koneru 1.0, Cramling 0.5. Obviously it has been a disappointment for the top seed Koneru who started with two losses against Stefanova and Sebag and Cramling, who is the most experienced, who only has a single draw.

More on the Phaistos Disc

The New York Times picked up the story about the Phaistos Disc possibly being a hoax. (Photo from NYT article by Judith Lange

July 30, 2008, 11:30 am
A Fake Ancient Disc?
By John Tierney

Now that we’ve disposed of the bogus “pre-Columbian” crystal skulls, we can consider a potential new hoax: the Phaistos Disc, whose purportedly ancient text has long resisted scientists’ efforts to decipher it. My colleague Bina Venkataraman explains the newest twist on its inscrutability: The hundred-year-old mystery of a famous ancient artifact, according to one art history scholar, might be summed up with a single word: hubris.

In the current issue of Minerva, an art and archaeology journal, Jerome M. Eisenberg calls the famous Phaistos Disc, thought to be a story or sacred text of unknown but ancient origin, a fraud. The flat, circular clay disc is about six inches in diameter, and its purpose and stamped pictographic script have been the subject of scholarly debate over the last century.

Until now, most scholars believed that Luigi Pernier, an Italian archaeologist, excavated the Phaistos Disc in Crete in 1908. Dr. Eisenberg asserts that Mr. Pernier created the disc himself, because he was jealous of the accomplishments of archaeologists like Federico Halbherr, who discovered the “earliest legal code found in Europe” in Crete in 1884, and Arthur Evans, who excavated the palace at Knossos, also in Crete.

In the article, Dr. Eisenberg builds a case to prove the disc is forged using painstaking detail about its symbols, discovery site and composition. He says that its “cleanly cut” edges and uniformity do not match up with the period’s clay tablets, which were baked only by accident in the fires that destroyed ancient palaces. That the script remains impossible to translate, he added, bolsters the view that Mr. Pernier created it to outshine his contemporaries. At a conference this fall in London, Dr. Eisenberg and scholars who defend the disc as authentic will discuss the artifact’s origins face to face.

Dr. Eisenberg’s argument sounds strong to me, and I’m curious to hear Lab readers’ thoughts on what this little episode says about competition in archaeology. But I’m also happy to hear from anyone who wants to defend Mr. Pernier, and anyone who cares to take a stab at deciphering the symbols and finding a message — maybe something like, “I can’t believe anyone would fall for this scam.” Or just a simple excuse from Mr. Pernier: “Hey, you know what they say: publish or perish.”
*********************************************************************************** There were comments - and a rebuttal:

16. July 31st,2008 7:17 am
Dr Jerome M. Eisenberg has written this article without knowing the work of the French scholar Jean Faucounau. This scholar, author of c. 30 papers and books on the Phaistos Disk’s problem has found the answer to ALL the enigmas which have led Dr Eisenberg to his theory. The conclusion is that the Disk is NOT a forgery — it is NOT “undecipherable” — it is NOT Minoan — its hieroglyphs are NOT borrowed from diverses Civilizations, as written by Dr Eisenberg — etc.The true culprits of this mess are the Redactors-in-Chief of the A.J.A. who have refused to print the reply by J. Faucounau to a biased and erroneous paper published in 2000 in this journal, under the signature of the scholar considered as “THE” best specialist in the field.
Jean-Henriet F.
— Posted by Jean-Henriet Faucounau

Discovering How Greeks Computed in 100 B.C.

From The New York Times By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD Published: July 31, 2008 After a closer examination of a surviving marvel of ancient Greek technology known as the Antikythera Mechanism, scientists have found that the device not only predicted solar eclipses but also organized the calendar in the four-year cycles of the Olympiad, forerunner of the modern Olympic Games. The new findings, reported Wednesday in the journal Nature, also suggested that the mechanism’s concept originated in the colonies of Corinth, possibly Syracuse, on Sicily. The scientists said this implied a likely connection with Archimedes. Archimedes, who lived in Syracuse and died in 212 B.C., invented a planetarium calculating motions of the Moon and the known planets and wrote a lost manuscript on astronomical mechanisms. Some evidence had previously linked the complex device of gears and dials to the island of Rhodes and the astronomer Hipparchos, who had made a study of irregularities in the Moon’s orbital course. The Antikythera Mechanism, sometimes called the first analog computer, was recovered more than a century ago in the wreckage of a ship that sank off the tiny island of Antikythera, north of Crete. Earlier research showed that the device was probably built between 140 and 100 B.C. Only now, applying high-resolution imaging systems and three-dimensional X-ray tomography, have experts been able to decipher inscriptions and reconstruct functions of the bronze gears on the mechanism. The latest research has revealed details of dials on the instrument’s back side, including the names of all 12 months of an ancient calendar. In the journal report, the team led by the mathematician and filmmaker Tony Freeth of the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project, in Cardiff, Wales, said the month names “are unexpectedly of Corinthian origin,” which suggested “a heritage going back to Archimedes.” No month names on what is called the Metonic calendar were previously known, the researchers noted. Such a calendar, as well as other knowledge displayed on the mechanism, illustrated the influence of Babylonian astronomy on the Greeks. The calendar was used by Babylonians from at least the early fifth century B.C. Dr. Freeth, who is also associated with Images First Ltd., in London, explained in an e-mail message that the Metonic calendar was designed to reconcile the lengths of the lunar month with the solar year. Twelve lunar months are about 11 days short of a year, but 235 lunar months fit well into 19 years. “From this it is possible to construct an artificial mathematical calendar that keeps in synchronization with both the sun and the moon,” Dr. Freeth said. The mechanism’s connection with the Corinthians was unexpected, the researchers said, because other cargo in the shipwreck appeared to be from the eastern Mediterranean, places like Kos, Rhodes and Pergamon. The months inscribed on the instrument, they wrote, are “practically a complete match” with those on calendars from Illyria and Epirus in northwestern Greece and with the island of Corfu. Seven months suggest a possible link with Syracuse. Inscriptions also showed that one of the instrument’s dials was used to record the timing of the pan-Hellenic games, a four-year cycle that was “a common framework for chronology” by the Greeks, the researchers said. “The mechanism still contains many mysteries,” Dr. Freeth said. Among the larger questions, scientists and historians said the place of the mechanism in the development of Greek technology remained poorly understood. Several references to similar instruments appear in classical literature, including Cicero’s description of one made by Archimedes. But this one, hauled out of the sea in 1901, is the sole surviving example.

Goddess Okota

From The Daily News (sunnewsonline.com) Okota Fiesta : Celebrating the goddess of love and unity By FEMI SALAWU Wednesday, July 30, 2008 After several years of isolation from their cultural heritage, the people of Arigidi-Akoko in Ondo State recently celebrated the maiden edition of Okota Festival between July 21 and 22. The festival which was inspired by the highly benevolent Okota river goddess who generations of Arigidi-Akoko has come to regard as the harbinger of goodwill as well as a major source of refuge during the pre-colonial wars that almost truncated the existence of the town. Okota goddess is a highly revered deity among the people of Arigidi-Akoko and has been credited with potent supernatural powers. Oral tradition has it that, while barren women were being provided with fruits of the womb, afflicted persons had received healing after tasting the water from the Okota river. Apparently, in a drive to reunite with its ancestors and showcase the cultural heritage of the town, the Otunba Gani Adams-led Olokun Foundation organised the two-day fiesta tagged Okota Festival 2008 under the theme: Promoting one of African Deities for Positive Social Change and Development. As a major addition to the main event, the festival featured a beauty pageant on the opening day. The keenly contested event which paraded about 14 participants had Opemuti Oluwabamike, an 18 year-old undergraduate of the University of Ado-Ekiti emerging as the first Miss Okota. The beauty queen walked home with the grand prize of a Mercedes Benz 190 car and is expected to be the face of the Okota Festival for a year. Expressing her gratitude in an emotionally filled voice, Opemuti said, “I want people to know more about the history of Okota river and its contribution to the development of the town.” A situation similar to the Osun-Osogbo Festival was reenacted during the grand finale. As early as 7am, a large crowd comprising villagers and tourists had gathered at the palace of Zaki of Arigidi-Akoko. The palace and its adjourning streets was a beehive of activities ranging from trading to cultural displays. The king, Regent Adebimpe Olanipekun Fagbola offered prayers on behalf of the people to the gods for protection, long life and fruitful farming. Arigidi-Akoko has since been ruled by a regent following the death of Oba Aunmo Olanipekun early last year. Regent Adebimpe Olanipekun Fagbola, daughter of the late king has been holding forth since March last year pending the selection of a substantial royal father which is said to be in progress.Led by the elders of the town and notable sons including Otunba Gani Adams, National Co-ordinator, Odua Peoples Congress (OPC), the crowd filed in a procession to the riverside where sacrifices including a live cow were offered to appease the Okota River goddess. The crowd, which almost became uncontrollable but for the security mounted by OPC members could not be tamed for long. Immediately after the sacrifices, a mad rush to the river ensured as many scooped water from the river and offered prayers not minding the pollution arising from the huge human traffic. For Iya Osun Adewunmi, an Osun-Osogbo priestess who claimed to have been born beside the Okota River, “Whatever problem you bring to the river goddess will be answered. The river goddess welcomes all and sundry but does not condone thieves and liars.” She added: “Our nation is yet to realize the huge impact which occasion like this have on national development. Nigeria was founded with cultural institutions and because of western religion, we have neglected our foundations. This is why we are experiencing what we are seeing today.” While tracing the Okota River to the history of the town, Otunba Gani Adams, one of the illustrious sons of the town noted that at inception, people of the town had maintained a pact to set aside a day annually to celebrate the deity but due to Western civilization, the tradition had long been forgotten. The activity was followed by a special ceremony held at the palace which attracted dignitaries including Hon. Felix Ogunmilade Abboy, executive chairman, Akoko North/West, Oke-Agbe, Mr Segun Ajiboye, chief press secretary to the governor of Ondo State and several traditional rulers. Other attraction at the event include cultural displays and performances including Ewi rendition by veteran Yoruba actor Sulaiman Ayilara a.k.a Ajobiewe. Ajobiewe's performance, which was accompanied by dance interpretation by his troupe, was followed by different cultural displays by groups from neighbouring towns. The curtain fell on the Okota Festival 2008 celebration with a performance by popular fuji musician, Saheed Osupa who thrilled the audience with several indigenous lyrics. While commending Gani Adams for his great vision towards bringing the attention of the world to the town, the Regent called on indigenes of Arigidi-Akoko within Nigeria and in the Diaspora to join in the efforts to revive traditional institutions in the town as well as showcase its tourism potentialities to the world. Ambassador Segun Olusola, who graced the event commended Gani Adams for promoting Yoruba culture. The elder culture activist also expressed his joy at the efforts of cultural orientation by the Regent of the town who had spent a part of her life to build a professional career as Mortgage Broker with JP Morgan in America. The elder statesman also called on government to throw its weight behind the Okota Festival.

Deysi Cori Wins World School Chess Championship

30 July, 2008 [ 10:45 ] Peru's Deysi Cori wins World School Chess Championship in Singapore Young Peruvian chess player, Deysi Cori, won today the World School Chess Championship in the Under-15 category in Singapore, after defeating Vietnamese Thi Mai Hung Nguyen. 15-year-old Deysi Cori achieved 7.5 points during the eighth round of the tournament, which was unattained by her nearest competitors. The young female chess champion is followed by Indonesian Dewii Aa Citra, with 5 points; and Mongolian Anu Bayar, also with 5 points when there is only one more round to play. As if that were not enough, her brother Jorge Cori is only half a point away from winning the world championship in the Under-13 category. Jorge played today with Indian Pranav Zantye and achieved 7 points, while Iranian second seed, Idania Pouya, has 6 points.Peruvian Jorge Cori will face Indonesian Masruri Rahman for the world championship tomorrow. News source: ANDINA

Giant Chessboard Attracts Audiences

In a sea of non-stop bad news in the press, this is good news. I believe this report is out of Savannah, Georgia (www.connectsavannah.com) JULY 29, 2008 The Miller Gambit BY ROBIN WRIGHT GUNN LAST TUESDAY evening in Forsyth Park, Autumn Hennessy sat in silence on a shaded park bench south of the big fountain. With her mother nearby, Autumn sat alone among 40 or so people observing the first night of play on a giant chess board painted in muted green and beige on the park’s concrete walkway. At the age of “almost 5,” Autumn was far younger than most others watching the inaugural series of chess matches. Out for her regular early evening stroll with her mother Suz and infant sister Esmee, Autumn observed the goings-on like an old pro. “I like the green and white, and the chess pieces,” she said. “The black team got four pieces, and the white. They’ve got the same amount.” As of last week, giant outdoor chess is new to Savannah, but not to Autumn. “You saw them in Portugal, remember Autumn?” prompted her mother, recalling a vacation last year, prior to the family’s move to Savannah from their home in England. “I don’t remember that.” She paused. “Okay, I do,” she said, then lost interest in the game to pat the head of Lexi the dog, out on a walk with her owner, publisher Frederic Beil. Like the Hennessy’s and Beil, Inoussa Kouama stumbled by chance onto the newly painted board game. A native of Burkina Faso, Kouama was on his way to catch a bus back to his southside home, after meeting with local community leaders in hopes of launching a Pan-African Festival in Savannah later this year. “I think it’s cool, seeing people play games instead of doing something else,” he said. “I watched my dad play since I was a kid. My dad is a politician. Politicians like to play chess.” Perhaps that’s why Chatham County Commission Chairman Pete Liakakis was among the spectators on Tuesday. Other movers and shakers on hand included SEDA Director Rick Winger, Assistant City Manager Chris Morrill, and public relations superstars Marjorie Young and Jennifer Abshire. The chess board has been in the works for several months, starting as an idea in the head of Chris Miller, the guy with the pony tail and the paradoxical “gee whiz/can-do” attitude. To garner enthusiasm for the chess board, Miller used the same “do it yourself and work with the system” approach that pulled together local support for his past projects — The Creative Coast Initiative (now The Creative Coast Alliance) and lectures by urban visionaries Richard Florida, James Kunstler, and Charles Landry. After securing permission from the city’s Park and Tree Department, Miller took a live oak tree leaf to a paint store to create a matching green concrete stain for the dark colored chess board squares. “The beige is the trim color from buildings at Park and Tree,” said Miller. “Department director Dave White was very enthusiastic about the idea, and helpful in shepherding it through” the approval process. For several weekends last month, Miller painted the board onto the concrete himself, with help from a few Forsyth Park regulars he met along the way. Preliminary help also came in the form of another Miller—Willie Miller, a downtown fixture and whiz at chess, who helped test out the two-to-three feet tall pieces on Gaston Street earlier this summer. Miller played two matches Tuesday, winning the first and losing the second. “You know they do this in Europe all the time,” he said. “I like the whole ordeal, it’s comfortable, relaxing, it’s a peaceful, thinking game.” After watching several matches, Chris Miller stepped up to the board, taking on opponent K.C. Drummer, familiar to many downtowners for making flowers out of palmetto fronds. “You have a lot of spectators coming by which I’ve never seen before,” said Drummer. “It’s very promotable.” “It’s not going to change the world, eliminate poverty, or improve the schools. But all it takes is one kid to see something new that he hasn’t seen before and have it change his life in some small measure,” said Miller. “Chess teaches kids strategy, delayed gratification, how to lose gracefully. It’s a metaphor for success in life. Of all the things I’ve done, this is the one I’m the most proud of.” Hours for the Forsyth Park chess games are Saturdays and Sundays, noon-5 p.m.

Nigerian Women Battle for Olympiad Spots

Chess Trial: Adegboyega, Jeje Lead Others to Final StageBy Femi Solaja 07.29.2008 After four days of intense chess display, 12 players have qualified for the final stage of the World Chess Olympiad trial put together by the Nigeria Chess Federation (NCF) which was rounded up at the National Stadium, Lagos Sunday. Adebayo Adegboyega, a veteran of several World Chess Olympiads, showed shades of genus in the middle games as he led 29 others with 5.5 points out of seven games Swiss-round event in the male section out of which six players qualified for the final stage of the trial. The other five qualifiers in the category are: Benjamin Omorere also with 5.5 points, Kolade Onabogun, Ajibola Olanrewaju, Charles Campbell and Bomo Kigigha all who finished with five points respectively. In the crucial final game, veteran Campbell exploited his better prowess in Nimzo Indian Defence (b6) on move four over youthful John Fawole, who failed to keep the tempo in white colour and a dubious h4 move on 48 gave his opponent’s light Bishop a wide control of the board and at the brink of time forfeit cause an exchange of Queens but when the smoke cleared, the young prodigy was a pawn down and surrendered on move 73. In the female action, the trio of Elizabeth Coker, Tolu Jeje and Uwa Obasi led the final qualification with five points each while Modupeola Adesanya, Folusayo Togun and veteran Rachael-Edward Dappa all picked the remaining slots for a chance in the final Olympiad trial which will come up next month from 13th-17th at the SWAN Secretariat at the National Stadium, Lagos. The final trial will be held on a round robin basis and will produce three players from each category while the two from Nigeria Players in Diaspora will make up the remaining two to complete the five players that will represent the country at the World Chess Olympiad in Dresden Germany in November.

Who's That Lady?

Amidst the colorful decoration of the Shriners Temple replete with Art Deco artifacts (such as the gold-leaf brass torchier lamp still with original fixture and shade), gold leaf paint details and soft leather-upholstered chairs (the original tapestry had, alas, long since worn off and could not be affordably replaced), Michelle strikes a Las Vegas Diva pose for photographer dondelion.

Humpy Falls Twice in North Urals Cup

Unprecedented as far as I'm aware - GM Koneru Humpy has lost her first two games in this elite women's event! She lost R1 as white to Stefanova; she lost R2 as black to Sebag. Game 3 started at 3:00 p.m. today. Does this mean that Koneru is overrated as the second highest rated female player in the world? I don't think so. What I do think is that several of the players at this year's North Urals Cup are underrated because they play mainly in women-only events (Marie Sebag may be the exception, as she recently earned her third and final GM norm playing in the Men's section at the Individual European Chess Championships).

A Queen's Desperate Cry for Help

From Haaretz.com Last update - 21:43 27/07/2008 'The land, my lord, will be lost forever' By Ran Shapira "To the king my lord and my sun: These are the words of your servant, Belit-nesheti [literally, "mistress of lions/lionesses"]. I fall at the king's feet seven times over. I must tell the king that this country is witnessing [acts of] hostility and that the land of the king, my lord, will be lost forever." A Canaanite queen from one of the cities in Palestine's lowland sent this desperate request in the 14th century B.C.E. to Pharaoh, king of Egypt. The name of the city ruled by Belit-nesheti is not mentioned in this letter or in others that depict violent acts that aroused in her a justified feeling that she was facing a dire threat. During that period, the city of Gezer, and the Ajalon and Sorek valleys were the scene of events that seriously challenged the rule of Belit-nesheti and other monarchs. In another letter, she conveys the following information: "The Apiru have written to Ajalon and Zorah and the two sons of Milkilu [king of Gezer] have been almost beaten to death. I must inform the king of this act." In yet another letter, she relates that one of the cities in the area under her rule has fallen to the Apiru, and she calls to the king, "I beg the king to save his land from the hands of the Apiru, before it is too late." The Apiru, mentioned in various documents from different parts of the ancient Near East, were a people that had been uprooted from society and which had abandoned its native land. They formed bands that engaged in robbery and in the collection of protection money, and they served as mercenaries whom the rulers of the various Canaanite cities under Egyptian rule at the time recruited as a military force when they wanted to attack their enemies. The Apiru were supported by the powerful rulers of neighboring cities who sought to seize control of her city. Her cries for assistance from Pharaoh, who was during this period the supreme ruler of the region and of a number of Canaanite cities, elicited no response, as indicated by the findings that have recently been discovered in Tel Beit Shemesh, about a half-hour's drive from Jerusalem. Prof. Shlomo Bunimovitz and Dr. Zvi Lederman, both of Tel Aviv University's Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, have been conducting excavations there since 1990. In their scholarly opinion, the city was devastated in a monstrous wave of violence; the remnants extant from that massive act of destruction have been uncovered in the past few weeks. In Tel Beit Shemesh, site of this ancient Canaanite city, archaeologists have discovered entire walls that collapsed in a huge fire, which apparently occurred in the mid-14th century B.C.E. Evidence of the desperate attempt made by Belit-nesheti and her subjects to defend their city is provided by bronze arrowheads discovered among the fallen bricks. They perhaps indicate that the capture of the city was preceded by a battle. Belit-nesheti's letters are part of a collection of letters written in cuneiform in the Akkadian language (the lingua franca of that era) on clay tablets, that was discovered in the late 19th century in Egypt in Tel Amarna, which is located midway between Cairo and Luxor. The letters belong to the royal archives of King Amenhotep IV, the husband of the celebrated Nefertiti. He carried out a religious revolution, transferring the royal capital from No-Amon (present-day Luxor) to Amarna. The king, who changed his name to Akhenaten, deposited in the archives of the new capital some of the royal correspondence dating from the reign of his father, Amenhotep III. After Akhenaten's death, his son, the boy-king Tutenkhamun, abandoned the new religion, which was a form of sun worship, and returned to the old capital. Apparently, the clay tablets that were left at Amarna, which are the remnants of what the Egyptian foreign ministry's archives contained in the 14th century B.C.E., bear the texts of letters that dealt with matters that had already been agreed upon; the Egyptian officials no longer needed them for their contacts with neighboring world powers or with the governors of the Canaanite cities that were under Egyptian control. The archives also contain letters that, like those from Belit-nesheti, were sent by governors of these Canaanite cities to the Egyptian king. The letters are primarily complaints about neighboring rulers and about the precarious security situation in Canaan under Egyptian rule. They also contain numerous reference to the Apiru. Most of the letters are signed by men; thus, Belit-nesheti, the female governor of a city (a very high position), is an exception in this male-dominated environment. Scholars have noted that, except for the letters quoted here, we have no information on Belit-nesheti's family or biography or on the circumstances that led to her playing such a high-profile rule; what is clear that she was extremely unusual for women of her era. Full article.

The Goddesschess Muses

Who are those gorgeous women? Mix beauty with brains and you get us - three of the women behind Goddesschess! That's me on the left (no longer sporting my auburn locks), Isis and Michelle (who is sporting auburn locks this summer). Photo taken by dondelion on 7/25/08.

Barbados Seeks to Develop Women's Chess

From the BarbadosAdvocate.com Chess pushing to revive the number of ladies on the board Web Posted - Sun Jul 27 2008 Vice President of the Barbados Chess Federation (BCF) Rohan Waithe has plans he is eager to set in motion, and one of them is the development of women's chess in Barbados. Speaking to Barbados Advocate Sports, Waithe, who is also the Member Development officer with the association, pointed out, " For the immediate future, we will be looking to revive the Barbados Ladies Chess Association, with the aim of making tangible efforts at increasing the number of females playing.The Inter-school girls has not yet been played this year, but it is vital if we are seriously looking at taking ladies chess to a higher level. We have many bright sparks among the junior girls, and with sustained coaching and high-level competition, this should augur well for the future." He noted, "We have a vibrant inter-school programme with over 300 students from primary and secondary school taking part in this years inter-school tournament, along with 75 players in the under-12 national championships. There are several juniors who came through this programme who have done well regionally like Justin Blackman, Martyn Del Castilho, Shamel Howell and Alex Jackman. However, what we need to do is get the transition from the Junior ranks to senior ranks. In the past, we had several clubs in various communities, so that outside of school, juniors had an opportunity to play chess with seniors. We need to urgently revive those community clubs." "We will soon have a big international junior tournament, the Sagicor Barbados Junior Open Tournament starting August 11. We are also sending Male and Female teams to the World Chess Olympiad in Dresden Germany in November, he added. "Over the next few years, our goal has to be producing another International Master, along with Kevin Denny. This means providing training for our best juniors and seniors. We would need to have an ongoing coaching programme probably sourcing coaching from overseas. To sustain this development we need to look at regional tournaments such as the Pan-American and Central American Tournaments. This is essential as we need to play high level chess constantly," Waithe argued. Waithe acknowledged that hosting tournaments as well as travelling even regionally is costly. "Naturally funding is also a major concern, we are grateful for the assistance of the Barbados Olympic Association (BOA), National Sports Council (NSC), and corporate Barbados." (AP)

North Urals Cup 2008

The event has started - I visited the website a few minutes ago, no standings available yet from Round 1. Here is a link to a press report about the opening ceremony and press conference, etc. by Anna Burtasova, with a smoking photo of Antoaneta Stefanova.

Chess History: Article by Carmen

Carmen Romeo (chief librarian, research assistant and widow of chess historian IM Ricardo Calvo) has an article published at the Spanish language Chessbase: La Valencia literaria del siglo XV, el manuscrito de Schacs d’amor y sus tres autores. The English translation will be published at Goddesschess when we receive it.