Redecorating Bedroom Update

My "new" bedroom (the former guest room) did not stay static for long. I first added a second set of pillows to the bed, dressed in a cream and black diamond-vine print. Then I added the posts to the bed (they had been stashed in a closet). I liked how that turned out. I next added two of my experimental photograph prints done in grey-scale and framed them in a couple of frames and mats I had stashed in a closet. I love how they look, but they don't show up very well in photos and, indeed, look rather lost above the bookcase. They seem to anchor that space in person much better than in the photographs I took, hmmm...

Then I decided that the white and black striped curtains were too summery for this weather, and replaced them with a pair and a half of Waverly toile curtains I purchased a couple of years ago - and never got around to putting up in my former bedroom because I never got around to repainting it, etc. etc. Then I switched out the black/white checked top sheet with a top sheet that matches the print on the pillows against the headboard, keeping the black and white check on the fitted sheet and second set of pillow cases. It was bothering me that the space above the headboard was BARE. When this room was the guest room, I had a very nice framed print of magnolias in primarily jewel-toned colors above the head board, and it suited the colors in the "bed in a bag" I used in that room perfectly. I am still trying to decide what to do with that space (plates? a new print or prints? some other decoration flanked by sconces?), but in the meantime, I dug out a VERY old print I originally purchased back in 1978. It still has its original mat that has been repainted several times over the years - I used the most recent incarnation (done in bronze and gold paint sponged over the prior wine-red color, which had been painted over a prior mix of green and blue, which had been painted over the original mat of reddish-orange). I like how it looks in the room, but in the photo, it seems to lose something in translation. Because the window on the right is much narrower than the window on the left, only one panel of the toile curtains covers it adequately, so I temporarily threw the second curtain panel over the wing chair in the corner. Not sure that chair will stay. At present, I think I will move it into the new guest room; it coordinates with that color scheme. I am thinking about moving a very old wing chair from my former bedroom into my new bedroom and buy a slipcover for it, since it's color does NOT remotely match anything in the new room! Or perhaps get a new chair and leave the old wing chair in what will become the den/library. I love that old chair, it's very comfortable! I bought it new in 1986 when I moved into my first house. It is a bit wider than the current wing chair in my new bedroom, so I'd need to do a bit of tweaking with furniture arrangement. I could be equally comfortable in that lovely old chair in the new den/library. So, things are up in the air with respect to the chair at present... Things are still in transition. I haven't yet ordered throw rugs, and I'm still hemming and hawing about whether to order a pair of buffet lamps for the dresser (not show in photos) that I found on line that I absolutely fell in love with. Also, I'm not certain the old still-life print I have above the bed is the right "fit" - I may move it to above the bookcase and try some other arrangement above the headboard, or stash it somewhere else in the house. It IS one of my favorite prints, I hate the thought of putting it back in the closet. I keep thinking I should do something with toile pattern plates - but not sure that's really "me." On a lark I also printed out and framed one of the recent squirrel photos I took during the last major storm (we've had so many I forget which one, I think it was the one just before Christmas holiday), and I love how it looks - but it doesn't exactly fit in with a "toile bedroom" motif, LOL! On the other hand, I am SO bored with the cheap botanical prints that have been hanging in the small upstairs hallway for nearly 20 years, I took them down and tonight I put the sole squirrel print up in the vacated space. It looks lonely all by itself and I am thinking I will add one, two and possibly three additional squirrel prints, so I will have my little furry friends to greet me every morning on the way to the bathroom. I did order an 18" bedskirt in black - I cannot abide that 4" gap between the standard 14" bedskirt and the floor! More purchases may follow, although I AM trying to be economical. Tonight I actually pulled out craft paints to repaint my old bedroom lamp. And although its current shade is cheap and tacky looking, it is still in perfect shape, and the aged color will go very well with the ivory colored background in the toile curtains in the "new" bedroom. Decisions, decisions...

Brrrrrrr!

Windchills have dropped to between 30 and 40 below zero F - no way I'm going to work tomorrow or Friday - can't make the walk to the bus stop without risking frostbite and I'm too cheap to pay the $60 round trip it would take for a taxi (including tip) to go to and from the office. Arrrggggh! I hate using "paid time off" days for something like this. On the plus side, I will be able to continue the total tear-down and revamp of the upstairs bedrooms. The weather is supposed to turn on Saturday and I'll be headed to the office to make up for lost time. In the meantime, I hope to make further progress on switching out the upstairs rooms here. Tomorrow I tackle the bookcases, eek! The past several days I've been experimenting with printing out photos since dondelion and my return from Las Vegas. I've also been experimenting with "effects" and printing photos in "grey scale" (something offered in my Microsoft images program) and "black and white" (something offered in my Ritz Pics program). Now if I could only figure out how to get my specially doctored-up Microsoft images to print centered in 5x7 or 8x10 size on my photo paper, I would be a very happy camper. But I haven't been able to figure that out, drat! Ritz Pics does print out beautifully centered photos with a nice border all the way around, but the photo quality cannot be adjusted and is not as crisp and clear as what I can generate in the Microsoft images program. So, I've been tinkering, and tinkering, and tinkering...so much so, I've been neglecting just about everything else! On the other hand, I have managed to produce some absolutely stunning photo prints. And - I may have found a sort-of solution -- tonight I discovered that I can import images from "My Photos" into the Ritz Pics program! It is in "My Photos" that I can do the digital magic to create special effects on an image, so I will do some further experimenting...

Egypt hands over stolen goddess to Iraq

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 04:57:56 GMT Egypt hands over an ancient Iraqi statue made of bronze, which was stolen from Iraq, to the country's Charge d'Affaires in Cairo. Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), Zahi Hawass, while returning the statue of an ancient goddess at a ceremony on Sunday to Abdel Hadi Ahmed, said the stolen bronze statue had been stolen from Iraq and was found as an Egyptian man was trying to smuggle it into Egypt. He said the statue was to be smuggled via the port of Nuweiba, in the Sinai Peninsula. According to SCA, the artifact, depicting a standing woman, was verified by an archaeological committee as an authentic Mesopotamian antique. Since the US war on Iraq in 2003, numerous Iraqi antiquities have been stolen out of Iraq, a country with rich cultural heritages. FTP/MMA

More on Scientific Basis for Sex-Based Differences in Chess Performance

Physorg.com weighs in on recent study about the differential in chess performance between males and females and what accounts for it: Why Men Rank Higher than Women at Chess (It's Not Biological) January 12th, 2009 by Lisa Zyga in General Science / Other (PhysOrg.com) -- In the recorded history of chess, world champions have always been male, not female. Further, there is currently only one woman in the top 100 chess players in the world. Because chess is often considered to be the ultimate intellectual activity, male dominance at chess is often cited as an example of innate male intellectual superiority. But rather than resort to biological or cultural explanations, a recent study proposes a different explanation. A team of researchers from the UK has shown that the under-representation of women at the top end in chess is almost exactly what would be expected, given the much greater number of men that participate in the game at all. Researchers Merim Bilalic, et al., have published their research on this statistical sampling explanation in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The authors analyzed the population of about 120,000 German players as recorded by the German chess federation in April 2007. Based on more than 3,000 tournaments per year, the German chess federation measures the skill level of all competitive and most hobby players in the country (the rating correlates highly with the widely known Elo rating). The sample population included 113,386 men and 7,013 women (a ratio of 16:1). First, the researchers estimated the expected performance of the top 100 male and top 100 female players. Then, they compared the expected differences in points between these high-ranking male and female players with the actual point differences. Theoretically, the size difference between the male and female groups should correspond to the point differences between the top performers in the two groups. The results showed that the top three women had more points than expected, the next 70 or so pairs showed a small advantage for the men, and the last 20 pairs showed a small advantage for the women. Overall, men performed slightly better than expected, with an average advantage of 353 points, whereas the expected advantage was 341 points. Nevertheless, about 96% of the actual difference between genders could be explained by the statistical fact that the extreme values from a large sample are likely to be larger than those from a small one. In the study, the scientists also discussed the question of why so few women participate in chess at all. While it's possible that there exists a self-selection process based on innate biological differences that leads women to drop out of chess early on, this argument rests on a controversial assumption, the researchers say. That is, it requires that there is an innate difference between genders in the intellectual abilities associated with chess - an assumption that has little empirical evidence to support it. Whether or not statistical sampling covers all the bases of explaining male superiority in chess, the researchers hope that the explanation will be considered by both experts and laypeople. In previous discussions of gender difference, there is often no mention of participation rates, although a wide range of other reasons receive attention (e.g. different interests and gatekeeper effects, etc.). In addition, the researchers question whether a statistical sampling explanation might explain the predominance of men at the top of science and engineering fields - although performance in these activities is much more difficult to measure than in objectively ranked chess populations. More information: Bilalic, Merim; Smallbone, Kieran; McLeod, Peter; and Gobet, Fernand. "Why are (the best) women so good at chess? Participation rates and gender differences in intellectual domains." Proceedings of the Royal Society B. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2008.1576. © 2009 PhysOrg.com

Evidence for Ritual Sacrifice at Armenian Cave Site

From Sciencenews.org Armenian cave yields ancient human brain Excavations have produced roughly 6,000-year-old relics of a poorly known culture existing near the dawn of civilization By Bruce Bower Web edition : 12:59 pm PHILADELPHIA — In a cave overlooking southeastern Armenia’s Arpa River, just across the border from Iran, scientists have uncovered what may be the oldest preserved human brain from an ancient society. The cave also offers surprising new insights into the origins of modern civilizations, such as evidence of a winemaking enterprise and an array of culturally diverse pottery. Excavations in and just outside of Areni-1 cave during 2007 and 2008 yielded an extensive array of Copper Age artifacts dating to between 6,200 and 5,900 years ago, reported Gregory Areshian of the University of California, Los Angeles, January 11 at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America. In eastern Europe and the Near East, an area that encompasses much of southwest Asia, the Copper Age ran from approximately 6,500 to 5,500 years ago. The finds show that major cultural developments occurred during the Copper Age in areas outside southern Iraq, which is traditionally regarded as the cradle of civilization, Areshian noted. The new cave discoveries move cultural activity in what’s now Armenia back by about 800 years. “This is exciting work,” comments Rana Özbal of Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey. A basin two meters long installed inside the Armenian cave and surrounded by large jars and the scattered remains of grape husks and seeds apparently belonged to a large-scale winemaking operation. Researchers also found a trio of Copper Age human skulls, each buried in a separate niche inside the three-chambered, 600-square–meter cave. The skulls belonged to 12- to 14-year-old girls, according to anatomical analyses conducted independently by three biological anthropologists. Fractures identified on two skulls indicate that the girls were killed by blows from a club of some sort, probably in a ritual ceremony, Areshian suggested. Remarkably, one skull contained a shriveled but well-preserved brain. “This is the oldest known human brain from the Old World,” Areshian said. The Old World comprises Europe, Asia, Africa and surrounding islands. Scientists now studying the brain have noted preserved blood vessels on its surface. Surviving red blood cells have been extracted from those hardy vessels for analysis. It’s unclear who frequented Areshi-1, where these people lived or how big their settlements were. No trace of household activities has been found in or outside the cave. Whoever they were, these people participated in trade networks that ran throughout the Near East, Areshian proposes. Copper Age pottery at the site falls into four groups, only one of which represents a local product. A group of painted ceramic items came from west-central Iran. Some pots display a style typical of the Maikop culture from southern Russia and southeastern Europe. Still other pieces were characteristic of the Kura-Arax culture that flourished just west of Maikop territory in Russia. Radiocarbon dating of pottery and other Copper Age finds pushes back the origins of the Maikop and Kura-Arax cultures by nearly 1,000 years, Areshian says. Additional discoveries at Areni-1 include metal knives, seeds from more than 30 types of fruit, remains of dozens of cereal species, rope, cloth, straw, grass, reeds and dried grapes and prunes. A hard, carbonate crust covering the Copper Age soil layers, along with extreme dryness and stable temperatures inside the cave, contributed to preservation of artifacts and, in particular, the young girl’s brain. Medieval ovens from the 12th to 14th centuries have also been excavated at the cave’s entrance, underneath a rock shelter. Areshian expects much more material to emerge from further excavations at Areni-1 and from explorations of the many other caves bordering the Arpa River. “One of these caves is much larger than Areni-1, covering about an acre inside,” he said.

The Mayans Suffered for Their Beauty

Whoever said "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" sure had that right! Reading about these "beauty" treatments made me feel queasy. Come to think of it, watching "The Swan" and "Extreme Makeover" made me queasy, too. From The Times Online January 13, 2009 Norman Hammond, Archaeology Correspondent We may think we make sufficient sacrifices for our idea of beauty, what with false eyelashes, body perforations supporting various bits of metalwork from earrings to tongue studs, toupees and hair extensions, Spanx and padded bras. The Ancient Maya went much farther, however, reshaping their children’s skulls and inlaying their own teeth with jade. “The Maya went to extreme lengths to transform their bodies,” Professor Mary Miller reports in the new year issue of Archaeology, the US journal. “They invested vast wealth and endured unspeakable pain to make themselves beautiful.” As an example, Professor Miller cites K’inich Janaab’ Pakal, who ruled the western Maya city of Palenque from AD615 to 683, and after his death at the age of 80 was interred in a great carved sarcophagus below the Temple of the Inscriptions. His skeleton shows that soon after his birth, his head was strapped between two cradle-boards to compress it from back to front, not unlike the crystal-skulled aliens in the recent Indiana Jones film. This left an indentation above his browline, which was emphasised by an artificial nasal bridge, probably of clay or plaster, built up on to his forehead. Although this does not survive in the burial, a stucco portrait head found below the sarcophagus shows it clearly. The head also shows that Pakal’s hair was cut in a series of bluntly trimmed tresses, with longer strands on top flopping forward, which Professor Miller interprets as imitating the leaves and corn silk on a maize plant: at the site of Cacaxtla, Maya-style murals show maize cobs on the plant as human heads. Pakal was shown as ever-youthful, like the maize that springs up anew each year. Pakal’s front teeth were filed into an inverted T-shape, marking him as also being the Sun God, something shown on his jade burial mask as well. For many Maya, notably those of the elite, dental decoration was seen as highly desirable. Teeth, especially the upper incisors and canines were filed and notched in a variety of designs, giving in some cases a distinctly crooked smile. Most striking, however, were the dental inlays: a shallow hole was drilled into the front face of the tooth enamel (using a reed or bone hollow drill and an abrasive such as sand or jade dust), sometimes reaching the dentine within. Small discs of jade, obsidian or haematite were then cemented into the holes: the plant adhesive was so powerful that many burials found by archaeologists today still have the inlays firmly in place. Up to three discs were inserted into a single tooth, and jade and the other materials were combined to give a flash of apple-green, dull red and shiny black across the mouth; inlays and filing were also combined. Dental decoration was probably applied as a rite of passage to adulthood, according to Professor Stephen Houston, of Brown University, Rhode Island. The Maya also painted their bodies, in life and in death. Narrative scenes on polychrome vases show pigments applied to face, chest and buttocks. In death, Pakal’s corpse was treated with alternating layers of red and black pigments, Professor Miller reports. Red to the Maya was the colour of the sunrise, black of the sunset, alternating with each other in the diurnal cycle. Some facial designs are in the form of long strings of dots, especially around the mouth, and when this is shown in sculpture or vase-painting it may be intended to show tattooing rather than just make-up. “Beauty was a way to display social, if not moral, value among the ancient Maya,” Professor Miller concludes. “The wealth they invested and pain they endured to create bodies that reflected their social beliefs make our modern-day obsession with beauty seem less excessive.” Archaeology Vol 62 No. 1: 36-42

Article on Rusudan Goletiani

A great article on one of the Bronze Medal winners for the U.S. Women's Chess Olympiad Team (Dresden 2008). Yaaahhhhh! (Photo: Goletiani at the 2008 Scandanavian Womens Open). From LoHud.com (Lower Hudson Valley, New York) Master resumes classes in Westchester By Stacy A. Anderson • The Journal News • January 11, 2009 HARTSDALE - Rusudan "Rusa" Goletiani, 28, has defeated some of the best chess players in the world. Just back from her most recent accomplishment - taking a silver individual medal and sharing the bronze with the U.S. Women's Chess Team at the World Chess Olympics in Germany, she resumes teaching the game to students from age 5 to senior citizens at the Westchester Chess Academy today. Goletiani said competing as a team member was more challenging than playing for herself, since she didn't want to let others down. "It puts more pressure on you because you are not only playing for yourself, but playing for the team," she said. "But Russia and China are very strong, so it was a big accomplishment for us." The Hartsdale resident, co-director of the Westchester academy, grew up in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, where her father taught her chess when she was 6 (the Georgia team took the gold medal in Germany). By age 9, Goletiani had won the Soviet Junior Championship for girls and was the Soviet representative in the 1990 World Youth Chess Tournament for Peace in Wisconsin. As a teen, she won two Russian championships and three world junior championships. For the love of chess and to seek a better life, she moved to the United States in 2000 when she was 19. She lived in Brooklyn and began learning English before working as an instructor at a chess camp in Pennsylvania. Goletiani then moved to Yonkers and began giving private lessons while working as a baby sitter and housekeeper for a Scarsdale family. A chance meeting with the children's chess teacher landed her a job as an instructor in public school programs through the National Scholastic Chess Foundation. "He said, 'What are you doing here,' " Goletiani said with a laugh, as she recalled defeating the teacher in two games. She continued teaching at local schools while competing professionally. She won the North and South American Continental Chess Championship in Venezuela in 2003. The same year, she married Mancho Surguladze and moved to Hartsdale. In 2005, Goletiani won the U.S. Women's Championship in San Diego. She placed second the following year. After three years of teaching through the foundation, Goletiani and a colleague, Mike Amori, started the Westchester Chess Academy in Rye. The school teaches about 50 students each semester from Westchester, Connecticut and the Bronx. "We share the same philosophies," said Amori, who has taught chess for 12 years. "It's hard work, and you have to train and get past what's available at the surface. You have to make a commitment and push it." "In chess," Goletiani added, "You need to be pushed to the next level. We both love chess a lot, and we both love working with kids. "As long as they are interested, the age doesn't matter," she said. Goletiani took a break from competition to have her daughter, Sophie, in 2007. She returned to open tournament competing last year and placed third in the country, qualifying to compete in the World Chess Olympics a second time. Goletiani said winning two medals in Germany was a worthwhile achievement. She played 11 rounds, about five hours each, during the world games. "At the end, when you win, you feel content because the hard work has paid off," she said. Her students, including Scarsdale resident Fred Wang, also appreciate her talent and hard work. He played chess as child and took it up again after a 40-year hiatus. Wang, who has taken lessons with Goletiani for two years, referred to her as a hidden treasure. "She brings tremendous vibrancy and calculating abilities," he said. "She makes the game exciting."

Good Chess News from India

I wish wish wish a national newspaper of the same status in the US as The Hindu is in India would cover chess here as The Hindu does there. Does McClain's blog at The New York Times come close? - Nah. Hetul Shah stuns Ibrayev Rakesh Rao Monday, January 12, 2009 NEW DELHI: Globally, there could not have been a better advertisement for the growing chess talent in the country than the one provided by the nine-year-old Hetul Shah. He became the “youngest” in the world to beat a Grandmaster when he maintained an accurate continuation against Kazakh Nurlan Ibrayev and prevailed in 44 moves to pull off the opening round stunner in the seventh Parsvnath International Open chess tournament here on Sunday. Further, if any evidence was needed of the depth of country’s chess strength, then Kozhikode’s 45-year-old O. T. Anil Kumar produced one by bringing down top seeded Ukranian Alexander Areshchenko in the second round to complete the biggest upset of the 10-round competition. Hetul was the star of the day until Anil hogged the spotlight. In the Ruy Lopez game, Hetul benefitted from a generous pawn sacrifice by Ibrayev, rated nearly 600 points above. [Over confident?] The GM then went on to sacrifice one more pawn but Hetul held on to the advantage and forced his unsuspecting rival to give up his queen in search of victory. Hetul, rated 1817, then pushed his central pawn menacingly and compelled Ibrayev to give up. Hetul’s distinction The All India Chess Federation treasurer and organiser Bharat Singh Chauhan said he had confirmation from the World Chess Federation (FIDE) that Hetul was indeed the youngest ever to beat a GM. Hetul broke the Indian record of his ‘hero’ Parimarjan Negi. [Negi is a rising Indian star]. The Delhi-boy set the record when he scored over Switzerland’s Ivan Nemet in the Biel Masters in 2004 at the age of 11 years five months. Negi improved upon the record set in 1995 by Surya Shekhar Ganguly in the Goodricke Open at the age of 11 years 11 months. The results (Indians unless stated): Second round: Alexander Areshchenko (Ukr, 1) lost to O. T. Anil Kumar (2); Pradip Ghosh (1) lost to Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukr, 2); Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2) bt Vinoth Kumar (1); Manish Mehra (1) lost to Parimarjan Negi (2); Yuri Solodovnichenko (Ukr, 2) bt Vaibhav Suri (1); Rajkumar Apollosana (1.5) drew with Evgeny Gleizerov (Rus, 1.5); Abhijit Kunte (2) bt Tejas Ravichandran (1); K.V. Shantaram (1) lost to Anuar Ismagambetov (Kaz, 2); Saidali Iuldachev (Uzb, 2) bt Jitendra Kumar Choudhary (1); Javed Mohammad (Ban, 1) lost to Shukrat Safin (Uzb, 2); Mikhail Ulibin (Rus, 2) bt Shiven Khosla (1); Kiran Manisha Mohanty (1) lost to Petr Kostenko (Kaz, 2); S. Vinay Bhat (1) lost to G. V. Sai Krishna (2); Rupankar Nath (1) lost to Dibyendu Barua (2); Neelotpal Das (2) bt Shardul Gagare (1); Amrutha Mokal (1) lost to P. Magesh Chandran (2); R.R. Laxman (2) bt Maxim Ivanilov (Kaz, 1); Vinod Bhagwat (1) lost to M.R. Lalith Babu (2); M.R. Venkatesh (1.5) drew with Dushyant Das (1.5); M.G. Gahan (1.5) drew with P. Konguvel (1.5). Important first round results: Dasharathi Sahoo lost to Areshchenko; Saripalli Niraj lost to Ganguly; Negi bt Vasantad Wettasinha (Sri); Gleizerov bt M. Natarajan; Anuar Ismagambetov bt S. Anjana Krishna; R. Sriram lost to Ulibin; Kostenko bt Aman Chahal; Johnharry Pereia (Sin) lost to Bhat; Magesh bt Ramesh Adhikari; Bheem Dutt Pandey lost to R.R. Laxman; Nandan Kumar lost to Venkatesh; Konguvel bt Kapil Gupta.

Susan Polgar's Texas Column

Here is SP's weekly column (minus the puzzle) from the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal Online. I thought it was especially fine this week. Polgar: Best chess game of 2008; several tournaments planned in Lubbock Lubbock Avalanche-Journal Sunday, January 11, 2009 Story last updated at 1/11/2009 - 5:53 am Upcoming chess tournaments in Lubbock The question of the week is which was the most brilliant chess game in 2008? That is a good question. There were many spectacular games played last year. Therefore, it is hard to select just one. However, the following game is one that stood out in my mind. Perhaps it is because it took place not long ago at the Dresden Chess Olympiad. This magnificent win by Grandmaster Akopian helped Armenia capture back-to-back gold medals in the 2006 and 2008 Olympiads. Grandmaster Vladimir Akopian (Armenia) - Grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) Dresden Chess Olympiad (8), Nov. 21, 2008 1. e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e6 7.Be2 Qc7 8.a4 b6 9.f4 Bb7 10.Bf3 Nbd7 11.Qe2 g6 12.0-0 e5 13.Rad1! Amazingly White can ignore the threat against the attacked knight. 13...Be7 If black accepts the sacrifice by 13...exd4, White gets an excellent position after 14.Bxd4 Bg7 15.e5. 14.fxe5 Nxe5 Perhaps 14...dxe5 would have been better. 15.Bh6 A good move to prevent Black from castling kingside. 15...Bf8 16.Bxf8 Kxf8 17.Qe3 h6? This is a mistake. Better would have been 17...Kg7, and if 18.Qg5 Qc5 19.Kh1 Nxf3 20.Qf4 Qe5. 18.Bh5! Qe7 Of course 18...Nxh5? would not work, because of the fork with 19.Ne6+, thanks to the pin on the f-file. 19.Bxg6! A nice combination! 19...Nxg6 If 19...fxg6, 20.Rxf6+! Qxf6 21.Rf1 Qxf1+ 22.Kxf1 with a clearly better endgame for White. 20.Nf5 Qe5 21.Qxb6 White gets a number of pawns for the sacrificed bishop, plus the black king is in danger. 21...Bxe4 22.Qxd6+ Qxd6 23.Nxd6 Bxc2 24.Rxf6! This is another elegant move, sacrificing the rook on d1 to end the game in a few more moves. 24...Ra7 If 24...Bxd1 25.Rxf7+ Kg8 and after the quiet 26.Nd5, Black is helpless against the checkmate threat with Nd5-f6. 25.Rd2 Kg7 26.Rf3 1-0 Black resigned as the material loss is unavoidable. For example, if 26...Bb3 27.Nf5+ Kh7 (or 27...Kg8) 28.Ne4, while after 27...Kf6 28.Nd4+ wins. Please keep questions and comments coming by e-mailing me at Susan.Polgar@ttu.edu. See also www.SPICE .ttu.edu and www.SusanPolgar.blogspot.com for more information. The Susan Polgar Foundation (a non-profit 501(c)(3) foundation) would like to continue to develop structured, chess for success after-school programs in every elementary school in Lubbock, but we need your help. Please consider working with us by helping sponsor after-school programs in local grade schools. Chess combines so many important qualities in life, such as concentration, focusing and planning ahead, social communication, precision, research, psychology, time management, responsibility, and discipline. These qualities must be developed, and they can be practiced through quality chess instruction. Such practice is crucial for young people in our community right now. We provide supplies, organize chess programs, and support teachers and students. Donations are tax deductible and can be forwarded to the Susan Polgar Foundation 6923 Indiana Ave. (No. 154) Lubbock, TX, 79413. Upcoming chess events in Lubbock • Knight Raiders' Open Scholastic Chess Championship, Feb. 7. A 5 Round Swiss System Tournament (Game/30) Event site: Texas Tech Student Union Building, Lubbock. Four rated sections: Primary (K-2), Elementary (K-5), Middle/High School (K-12) + parents / coaches. There is a total of 30 minutes maximum per player per game. • "Get Smart! Play Chess!" Spring Scholastic Chess Championship, March 7. A four-round Swiss System Tournament (Game/30) Event site: Science Spectrum 2579 S. Loop 289, Lubbock, TX Five rated sections: Primary (K-2), elementary (K-5), middle school (K-8), high school (K-12) and quads for adults. There is a total of 30 minutes maximum per player per game. There are two unrated sections where USCF memberships are not required: K-5 and 6-12 plus parents/coaches. For more information on these events, call (806) 742-7742; e-mail spice@ttu.edu or visit www.SPICE.ttu.edu or www.ChessDailyNews.com. SUSAN POLGAR is a professional chess player, champion and founder of the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence at Texas Tech, susan.polgar@ttu.edu.

Bare Bones Bedroom!

I have the essentials in place in my new bedroom (formerly the guest room). The curtains have been ironed and hung (I found my iron!!!), the dust ruffle was ironed and put in place, the mattress rotated and freshly-laundered mattress pad put on, and the bed made up with new sheets, new pillowcases and new comforter. Old artwork has come off the walls, leaving spots where I need to scrub and nail holes to patch! My clock radio has been installed on the bookcase (what is a bedroom without a bookcase and a clock radio?) The bed is now acceptably comfy, although the room is bare bones. The red floral print draped over the wing chair is one of the valances for the windows, but since the windows in my new room are smaller than the windows the valances were meant for, I do not think I will install them - also, the curtains I put up already have their own attached valances. I may experiment and use them for a mini canopy on the wall over the bedstead... By the way, that IS a copy of Katherine Neville's "The Fire" on top of the bookshelf next to the lamp. I need a slipcover for my wing chair, which has pink, maroon and dark blue stripes (goes with the decor of the former guest room) - or a new chair, which is easier said than done! It's not so easy finding a comfortable chair small enough to fit in the space I have. My old lamp on the dresser (not in the photos) is pink and white. I need to repaint the base (what color?) and get an updated shade (what style, size and color?) - the shade that I have at present has definitely seen better days! I bought it at Woolworth's so long ago I can't even remember how old it is anymore - Woolworth's has been gone from Milwaukee for at least 10 years! I have no artwork to coordinate with the new color scheme, and no area rugs to go down over the carpet. I don't really need area rugs, although I like the look and extra plushness and warmth of a rug on top of a rug in the winter (they are taken up during the summer months when all curtains and accessories in the house are swapped out for more "summery" fare) and they also help protect my nearly 20 year old(!) carpeting from wear and tear. I feel another shopping trip coming on...Jan single-handedly trying to keep the economy going through deficit spending!

Article on Alexandra Kosteniuk

Story from the Miami Herald Online (Image - from my archive - Kosteniuk at the 2007 European Team Championships) World chess queen plots her next move The women's world chess champion is a 24-year-old Russian aspiring model who lives with her husband and baby in Key Biscayne. BY EVAN S. BENN January 11, 2009 The best women's chess player in the world flipped a dirty diaper into the trash as she pondered her next move after a dominating year. "I want to open a chess academy online, keep training, doing the podcast," South Floridian Alexandra Kosteniuk said during a recent stroll with her baby, Francesca. "But right now, my priority is being a mommy." Kosteniuk, 24, won the Women's World Championship in her homeland of Russia in September. After several months of traveling the globe, Kosteniuk, her husband, Diego Garces, and their 20-month-old daughter are settled back at their home in Key Biscayne. An aspiring model who uses her good looks to promote chess, Kosteniuk has been compared to Russian tennis knockout (and Miami Beach resident) Anna Kournikova. (Kosteniuk debunks the comparison by noting that she has won individual tournaments, a feat the other Russian cannot claim.) But, like Kournikova, Kosteniuk has managed to broaden her sport's appeal by selling her combination of talent and beauty. About 3,000 people subscribe to her podcast at chessiscool.com, and about 10,000 others log on each month to her website, where they can see photos of Kosteniuk in bikinis and buy her instructional DVDs. "It's the most popular chess site out there," said her husband, 49, who is also her webmaster and publicist. They met at a chess demonstration that Kosteniuk hosted in Switzerland, Garces' home country. He is an attentive handler, lugging oversize chess pieces to photo shoots and making sure that certain shots are off-limits -- nothing promiscuous and no photos of the hubby, please. The pair decided to make South Florida their home because Kosteniuk prefers the weather to Moscow's, and Garces' parents live here. An added perk: They are close to the World Chess Hall of Fame, situated just off the turnpike in West Kendall, where there is an Alexandra the Great exhibit highlighting Kosteniuk's successes. The museum is not the only one trumpeting her talents. The chess news site ChessBase.com hails her "very analytical, incisive mind and an extremely determined spirit." She learned to play from her father when she was 5 years old. The young prodigy advanced so quickly that she was soon playing games blindfolded and dominating European tournaments. She made it to the finals of the World Championship in 2001 when she was 17 but lost. She continued her climb to the top, becoming the 10th woman to earn the rank of international grandmaster. Jerry Hanken, president of Chess Journalists of America, says he hopes she will inspire more women and young people to play. But after giving birth prematurely to Francesca in April 2007, Kosteniuk took time away from the game. She trained with fellow grandmasters and got into a daily running regimen that led her to enter several South Florida 5K races. She returned to Russia this past fall to win the World Championship -- good for a $60,000 prize and a jewel-encrusted tiara. (It's about as big a payday as professional chess players see; Kosteniuk's income comes in small doses from regional exhibitions and by selling merchandise from her website.) The title hasn't brought Kosteniuk worldwide fame. She gets noticed sometimes in Moscow, but "in Miami, I'm just like anyone else." And that, she said, is fine with her. "The modeling is just a hobby. What I really want is for people to enjoy chess the way I do." When the time is right, the champion said, she "of course" will teach her daughter to play. In the meantime, she plans to keep playing, keep studying and keep up with diaper duty. "Being a mommy is much harder than chess," she said. "But playing chess has taught me how to predict and analyze the next move. I'd say that's pretty useful in chess and in life." Miami Herald intern Carolina Navarro contributed to this report.

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Darlings, I love Alexandra Kosteniuk. Years ago when I had the Chess Goddesses website online, I did an interview with her before she became the international chess star she is today. But to say that her website with 10,000 visitors a month is the most popular chess website on the internet? Even I, naive as I am, know better than that. Hell, this blog gets about 10,000 visitors a month! I'm sure sites such as The Week in Chess, Chessbase, Mig's Daily Dirt, Chessville and Susan Polgar's blog get a lot more than 10,000 visitors a month. Did he perhaps mean 10,000 visitors a day and the reporter mis-interpreted? All power and glory to Alexandra Kosteniuk. I'd love to see her successfully defend her world title next cycle (if there is one) and I'd love to see her mix it up in more events against guys rated 200 points above her - that's where she will get the experience she needs to truly become a top performer. I'd also love to see her switch her federation to the USA and start playing under the US flag. Is it patriotism and loyalty to her home country that keeps her from doing so, despite what I can't help but see would be more lucrative opportunities playing for the US as a young, beautiful and highly-rated female chessplayer?

Worshipping Women: Onassis Center

Love the title of this article! I'm sure I've blogged about this exhibit at the Onassis Center before; this provides fresh insight. Onassis Center Lets Teen Brides Bathe, Satyrs Romp in N.Y. Show Review by Cynthia Cotts Last Updated: January 6, 2009 00:01 EST Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- On a broken piece of pottery, two young girls dance around the altar of Artemis, holding hands and praying that she will ensure their fertility. The painted fragment, found in a well in Athens, is a glimpse of the world inhabited by the women of ancient Greece who, denied a role in political activities, flocked to religious rituals and elaborate ceremonies surrounding marriage and death. It’s part of “Worshiping Women: Ritual and Reality in Classical Athens,” a crisply conceived exhibition at the Onassis Cultural Center in midtown Manhattan that pulls together riches from the Vatican and the Louvre, as well as rarely shown pieces from regional museums in Greece. The stars of the show are the Greek goddesses -- the wise warrior Athena, the huntress Artemis and sex-symbol Aphrodite -- but they share the stage with mortal women who left stone carvings and bronze figurines in the deities’ sanctuaries and poured them daily libations. The show is organized into mini-shrines, matched with photos of the sanctuary grounds as they are preserved today. Its centerpiece is a strapping statue of Artemis, who inspired her prepubescent followers to be athletes and demanded that they be virgins. The statue is on loan from the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, which contributed many of the 155 pieces in the show. Married at 15 Ancient Greece, the birthplace of democracy, was also known as a phallocracy, in which men dominated women. While young men were educated and given a vote, their sisters were traded for marriage at age 15 or earlier. The show aims to refute the stereotype that the women of yore ended up stuck at home, living lives of quiet desperation. The exhibition focuses on work from the 5th century B.C., a time when Greece produced political discourse, oral poetry and art -- but no written chronicles. The art from that period is exquisitely wrought, but shrouded in mystery. Each piece leaves the viewer to imagine: Who created it, in what workshop and to what end? Many of the works here tell a layered story: A volute-krater -- a vessel used to mix water and wine -- is illustrated with two ceremonies: a formal one with a woman preparing to make an offering to the gods; the other, a frolic of maenads and satyrs. Though the rituals often involved animal sacrifice, such violent scenes are rarely seen in Greek art, said Alan Shapiro, a classics professor at Johns Hopkins University, who co-curated the show with Nikolaos Kaltsas, director of Greece’s National Archaeological Museum. Nor do we see wedding nights, though the vases depict the moments leading up to that conventional plot point. Teenage girls were often married to undesirable men twice their age. But as the vase paintings show, when a girl was being handed off to a stranger, her family tried to distract her with sacred water baths and paintings that depicted Eros as a nubile young man. Sexy Pluto Loss of virginity wasn’t always traumatic. On a marble tablet, the goddess Persephone is shown twice: first, attending to her mother, Demeter; and then partying with Pluto, who carted her off to hell. With Demeter, the young deity looks shy and aggrieved; but next to sexy Pluto, she smirks knowingly, eyeing a spread of sweetmeats and cakes. Because the craftsmen left behind no documents, it is difficult to know whether the scenes they painted were the product of observed reality, or visually and emotionally heightened fantasy. The loutrophoros, a vessel used to carry sacred water, also appeared in death rituals. One such vase in the exhibit shows a woman caressing the head of a dead young man; around the curve, a team of men lowering his coffin into the grave. Greek women were skilled at lamenting and beating their breasts. But Shapiro points out a plus-side to funerals: They were a respectable place to chat up members of the opposite sex. “Worshiping Women” runs through May 9 at the Onassis Cultural Center, 645 Fifth Ave. Admission is free. Information: +1-212-486-4448; http://www.onassisusa.org/. (Cynthia Cotts is a reporter for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.) Image: Athena, from Tillya Tepe, 1st century CE. Notice the fringe of serpents that serve as the Goddess' "apron." The archaic symbolism still survived into the first century CE. This particular image reminds me of some ancient Egyptian images I have scene of the pre-dynastic Goddess Neith.

Help! In Over My Head!

Oy yi yi. I should have known. I've lived in this house almost 20 years and NOW I'm undertaking a major rearranging project - and my house is a mess! It all started when my desk top mysteriously decided to quit the wireless network that had been working like a charm since I pulled hair out of my head last September setting it up. What's more, it decided to do this on December 23rd, when I was waiting for dondelion to arrive from Montreal and the weather was causing everyone fits, and we were due the next day to depart for Las Vegas, and I was in serious danger of having a heart attack and/or a stroke. To make a long, complicated story short, I was not able to get the desk top back on the wireless network but somehow my laptop became the main connector - or, what the hell, I don't know what I'm talking about! LOL! Anyway, I did get the desktop jerry-rigged to restore it's internet connection - by wheeling the mobile hutch it rests on back into my bedroom - which was the main reason I'd wanted to go wireless to begin with - to get that darn set-up out of my room! Okay, so the desktop is still jerry-rigged with a wired connection to the wireless router and I've got cords running all over the place, and I can't see the t.v. from where I've got the computer hutch set up - oy! So I decide I'm going to move my bedroom. I hemmed and hawed about that since December 26th, and yesterday I arrived at a plan. The present guest room will be turned into my bedroom. The middle bedroom (which is also the smallest), where the desktop used to sit before entering menopause and getting all bitchy on me, will become the guest bedroom. And my present bedroom, complete with pink walls (hey, 20 years ago I liked pink), will become the new den/library/computer room. It's the biggest bedroom and has a walk-in closet, so I'm not going to move my clothes out, just my bed. Okay - so with a plan in hand, I pondered how to get the beds moved. Then I decided I wouldn't move the present bed out of the guest room that is being turned into my bedroom, I will just swap out the box springs and mattresses. Only, I can't handle the box spring by myself, they are too heavy. So, I tugged and pulled and lugged and huffed and puffed, and knocked pictures off the wall and knocked a few holes in the drywall in the hallway, but in the end I managed to get the current mattress out of the guest room into the spare bedroom that will soon become the guest room, and my current mattress on to the bed in the guest room that will soon become my room. Now I'm stuck with a bed frame, headboard and box spring in my "former" bedroom, what used to be the guest bed mattress lounging against a wall in the spare soon-to-be guest room, and my nice cushy mattress is now resting on top of a box spring in the former guest room that wasn't designed to hold the nice cushy mattress. And so it will be until dondelion arrives in May and can help me with the box spring dilemma! So now I'm in the middle of trying to fix up my new room (the former guest room). It doesn't need to be painted (thank Goddess!) but now I can't decide whether I should use the red floral comforter with the red and white plaid flip side (very lumber-jacky and "warm, cozy feeling") or the black and white paisley print comforter, and whether I should use the black and white striped curtains or the black and ecru toile curtains and use the matching sheet set, and whether to use the black and ecru striped bed skirt or my old while petit-point bed skirt, and whether valances should go up, and all of the old pictures in that room have to come down because they were color-coordinated with the color scheme of the guest room, which I am NOT using in my bedroom. Oh, and I was going to use the black and white checked sheet set but the white doesn't match the ecru, so now I'm wondering what to do with the black and white checked sheet set. All of this is the fault of my scheme to decorate my bedroom conceived more than 2 years ago when I was paging through some old decorating magazines and saw this fabulous toile bedroom with red walls, and I went nuts buying black, white and red toile and assorted accessories all for a room that was never repainted to host such new colors. So, I was stuck with my pink and grey scheme (that I was tired of). Now in the guest room (now my room), which is painted a nice neutral antique white with gold stenciled stars here and there, the new stuff that has bided its time in my closet for over 2 years will actually "go." Only I can't make up my mind what to use. That's what I get for buying too much stuff. I could have taken a trip to Egypt for what I spent on this stuff, geez! I should have stuck with ONE comforter set, and ONE set of curtains. And ONE bedskirt. Oy yi yi. So you see my problems - no, I'm not mental, it's purely a decorator's dilemma, darlings! And - get this - the stuff has to be IRONED. I know I've got an iron around here somewhere, because I found an ironing board in the same closet where I stash the vacuum that I hardly ever use (only when company is coming). Add to this the fact that I lost an entire day yesterday first shopping with my sister Debs - and boy, did I haul in some great bargains - and then shoveling out from the snow we got Friday. More snow is expected tonight and tomorrow, and then we're in for the DEEP FREEZE, and I'm scared to death about walking to and from the bus stop. The local forecasters are saying it will be as bad as 1994, when I missed several days of work because wind chills were down to 60 below zero and I didn't think I could make it to the nearest bus stop (about half a mile away in open country) without getting frostbite - which I've had and believe me, it really sucks big time! Schools were closed then, people had water pipes bursting in their homes, car batteries froze solid, the buses were packed because people couldn't get their cars started and people actually STOLE batteries out of other people's cars - it was an awful, scary time. And we're in for it again. Goddess, I HATE this frigging climate. And so, in panic-mode (everyone is in panic mode, it seems) amongst other stops, Debs took me to the supermarket where I stocked up on my favorite cheap boxed wine, bread, milk, bird seed, critter food and dog food (for the crows) - enough to last a good week. I didn't need to actually buy food, but I did buy four boxes of Kraft's Macaroni and Cheese (although that's not really food), thanks to the generous Christmas gift I received from Isis and Michelle - a freezer full of Omaha Steaks' best offerings! I have enough food in that freezer to last two months, maybe more. $68 later, Debs is shaking her head over why I spent $10 on myself (not including the wine) and $20 on all the food for the animals. We also stopped at the Walgreens and Debs showed me these hand and foot-warmer thingies that one puts inside of one's gloves or mittens and inside of one's shoes or boots. Oh my! I'd only recently become aware of these miracles of modern technology, but evidently they've existed for years. I just hope my shoes don't start on fire tomorrow when I test drive them for the first time - before the DEEP FREEZE arrives early Tuesday morning. I am hopeful that I can figure out how they operate - I understand one merely has to open the package in a certain way, but I'm somewhat skeptical about that... Well, I should be able to figure it out, I do have a college education! Another issue I've been wrestling with the past three days is how to get my photos to print out looking less BLUE. Arggggh. It's driving me NUTS! I've wasted untold amounts of prime photo paper and have experimented with settings, etc. etc. - and each photo I print comes out the same - looking decided blue-ish. But the reds looks fine - so I figure it must be an issue with green and/or yellow, but I don't know how to solve the problem! So, amongst moving mattresses and whatnot from room to room, decorating issues, shoveling issues, BLUE photo issues, shopping for bargains - you should see this sexy black blouse I bought for our New York trip - oh, Mr. Don is going to have his eyes popping out of his head when he sees me in THAT number with my boobs popping out above a layer of small, demure ruffles - house cleaning, trying to keep up with my weight-loss dancing regime (I only did my Lady Marmalade routine twice last night) -- well, darlings, NOW you know how come I haven't been blogging. I will try to do better today... Oh - and dondelion and I are going to Las Vegas for my birthday in August - spent lots of time tracking down hotel rates and flight schedules - what a hassle, but in the end, I prevailed (I always do :)) It will be the 10 year anniversary of my first "modern" visit to Las Vegas, when I met Isis and Michelle face to face for the first time and also covered the FIDE World Chess Championship at Caesar's Palace in August, 1999 for the then fledgling Goddesschess website. Wow - talk about a blast from the past! Check out: TOURNAMENT CHESS The Anatomy of a Coronation JanXena's Posts Regarding the 1999 World Chess Championship (July-August, 1999 - by Jan Newton) What follows are the postings I did live from Las Vegas on Isis' laptop computer, as well as posts about the final games that took place after I had to return home. These are, of course, my personal observations, brash, unabashed and unabridged - and you will see that, as always, JanXena pulls no punches! As a counterpoint to my admittedly neophyte and quite personal observations, the following are five articles written about the 1999 World Chess Championship written by the professionals: reporters, an arbiter, and players, that I found while perusing the archives of Chess Cafe. They are informative and fascinating because of the different perspectives they bring regarding what actually took place in Las Vegas, and what it all might mean to chess history and to the future of The Game itself: Vegas Views from Chess Cafe's "Skittles Room" Archive - by Hanon W. Russell High Anxiety from Chess Cafe's "Dutch Treat" Archives, August, 1999 - by Hans Ree Las Vegas: Surprise, surprise!! from Chess Cafe's "An Arbiter's Notebook" Archives, September, 1999 - by Geurt Gijssen Is Khalifman the Real World Champion? from Chess Cafe's "The Kibitzer" Archives, September, 1999 - by Tim Harding Odd One Out from Chess Cafe's "The Miles Report" Archives, September, 1999 - by Tony Miles Conclusion October, 1999 Jan Newton I'm an unabashed egotist. I find it fascinating going back and reading those old posts about my "I'M HERE AND LOVING IT EVERY SECOND OF IT" first and only trip to a World Chess Championship. I hope all the links still work - this stuff IS nearly 10 years old! Enjoy!

Optical Illusions: Photos from The Venetian, Las Vegas

I'm always a sucker for a good optical illusion. Here are a couple of particularly fine shots of such illusions taken by dondelion - found within the flooring of the main public entry hall at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. Thank Goddess for The Venetian. This is perhaps the ONLY hotel in Las Vegas where one does NOT have to walk through the casino in order to check into the hotel! It's a gorgeous spot, one of my favorite places in Las Vegas. The ambiance is incredible - they seem to have the colors and the lighting JUST right. I also love the shops and the faux "canal" complete with gondolas, although when dondelion and I were trying to find the faux "St. Martin's Square" (the restaurant where we had a 10:30 PM reservation was on the Square), the pathways on the shopping floor turned into a veritable labyrinth! The particular path we needed to take was down a certain lane that - from the general perspective on the main path - looked like a dead-end with an ice cream shop dead center. I really wanted to visit the ice-cream shop but I kept that wish to myself. Half an hour later, after wandering around (I was enjoying looking in the shop windows) I was miffed when dondelion stopped and asked for directions (can you imagine - a man who actually stops and asks for directions! - that's why I love him so much!) and led me down the very same path that we both had previously judged to be a dead end - ending in the ice cream shop! Oh well. We strolled past the shop with my salivating tongue hanging out and suddenly appeared what seemed to be the equivalent of a yellow brick road! Before we knew it, there was the Mikomoto shop that I remembered SO well from dondelion's and my last visit (in November, 2003, when we got officially engaged) with the $50,000 strands of pearls in the windows! We had arrived in the faux St. Martin's Square! It was filled with people. A group was playing venue-appropriate music, far too loudly in the echoing confines of the Square, and there was no place to stop for a minute (or even 10 seconds) to catch one's breath and simply and enjoy the views and the people all around. But we did find a spot or two anyway. I am not a fan of the rudeness of elbow use in general, but in Las Vegas, sometimes, one has to use elbows in order to MOVE! Anyway, back to the optical illusions. The first shot is at the main entry into the hotel lobby where guests check-in. It is a bit dark - I'm too tired tonight to do photo-stuff to try and lighten it a bit - anyway, the spectacular astrolabe is not the primary subject of the photo, it's the floor! Take a look at it. dondelion's photo captured a lady walking gingerly across what appear to be raised planks! The second photo was taken at the end of a long promenade from the check-in area toward the casino. On one side are exclusive shoppes, on the other side are windows looking out onto the grounds of the hotel and the busy sight of limos, cars and taxis pulling in and out. Where the casino begins, the marble flooring ends and plush carpeting takes over. Shades of Escher! You also get a very good view of the lushly painted vaulted ceiling over the promenade.

Carmen Report: Photos from Egypt

Our friend from Madrid, Carmen Romero, widow of IM Ricardo Calvo (a chess historian and the mentor of our tiny "Tribe") spent the Christmas holiday on tour in Egypt this holiday season. Carmen is a noted chess historian in her own right and has presented many papers to gatherings of chess historians and chess collectors at symposia around the world. Carmen has offered her work for first internet publication at Goddesschess, for which we are very grateful. It is impossible to describe the depth of our affection and regard for our dear "W.I." and her unfailing support of the vision and mission of Goddesschess. Carmen read my post of yesterday about the discovery of the tomb of Queen Sesheshet, and emailed me the following information, along with two photographs taken at the Valley of the Kings during her recent holiday there over the Christmas vacation. Here is part of her email: Dear Patton [that is a nickname The Chief gave me], I have seen in the blog your post about Queen Shesheti in Saqqara. They are making continuous excavations in the "Kings's Valley", like in the "Queens's Valley", and in Saqqara. In the Spanish newspaper "EL PAIS" was an article about the few historical evidences on Sesheshet: she is mentioned as "Mother of the King" in the tomb of the Visir Mehu (I have seen) and, mainly in passing, as the mother of Teti, also in a passage about baldness in the medical papyrus [of] Ebers (very curious). Teti, according to [historian] Manetón, was murdered by eunuchs [of one or more of his wives], and the son of one of his wives became Pepi I. Best regardsWI Thank you, W.I.! I am not the best historian on ancient Egypt, and I may be wrong about this, but I believe that Pharaoh Pepi I ruled for about 40 years and was considered one of the greatest of all the Pharaohs. He was one of the last Pharaohs of the Old Kingdom. Here are the photos that W.I. sent - excavation in the Valley of the Kings: Egypt will continue to reveal her ancient mysteries to us long after I am gone - perhaps for the next 4,000 years! May we ALL learn to appreciate her precious gifts from the past.

Queen Seshestet's Tomb Found

I'm not sure if I published something on this story earlier - here is a news story from Yahoo/News today. Note the difference in how the Queen's name is spelled in the photo credit and in the article itself: Shesheti versus Seshestet. Photo credit: Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass (L) excavates a newly discovered grave containing the remains of Queen Shesheti in Saqqara, in this handout photo taken January 6, 2009.(Handout/Reuters) Mummy thought to be Queen Seshestet found in Egypt Thu Jan 8, 7:21 am ET CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian archaeologists have found the remains of a mummy thought to be that of Queen Seshestet, the mother of a pharaoh who ruled Egypt in the 24th century BC, the government said on Thursday. After five hours spent lifting the lid of a sarcophagus in a pyramid discovered south of Cairo last year, they found a skull, legs, pelvis, other body parts wrapped in linen, and ancient pottery, the government's antiquities department said. They also found gold wrappings which would have been put on the fingers of the mummified person. Grave robbers ransacked the burial chamber in ancient times and stole the other objects. "Although they did not find the name of the queen buried in the pyramid, all the signs indicate that she is Seshestet, the mother of King Teti, the first king of the Sixth Dynasty," chief archaeologist Zahi Hawass said in a statement. Teti ruled Egypt for at least 10 years around the year 2300 BC and is buried nearby. While archaeologists have found many royal mummies from ancient Egypt, most of them are from the New Kingdom, which began 500 years after Teti's time. (Writing by Jonathan Wright; Editing by Sophie Hardach)

Awwww...

He's so cute! Someone feeding a squirrel in a Nicaraguan nature preserve, I just found this photograph at Yahoo/news while I was reading a different story. Photo credit: Nueva Guinea Town, some 300 km (186 miles) south of Managua, December 29, 2008. REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas (NICARAGUA)

Jessie Gilbert

Does anyone remember Jessie Gilbert? Who cries for Jessie Gilbert? Jessie Gilbert died on July 26, 2006. Jessie fell from a window up some 8 stories one night at age 19, while attending a chess tournament in the Czech Republic. At the time of her death, Jessie was due to give testimony against her father on criminal charges of sexual abuse of Jessie and other minor females. After Jessie's death, Mr. Gilbert was found the equivalent of "not guilty." "I loved my daughter", said Mr. Gilbert. Yeah, it seems he loved her to death. Jessie's mother says her daughter killed herself. After the inquest into Jessie's death, Mr. Gilbert sued his former wife for custody of their two minor daughters (Jessie's sisters), then aged 15 and 9. The former Mrs. Gilbert was said to have threatened the life of Mr. Gilbert at the time, but no charges were ever filed against her. Eventually, the story dropped from the public eye. There was substantial evidence of a long history of self-abuse (such as self-slashing) by Jessie Gilbert and earlier suicide attempts. According to news reports at the time, Jessie was on antidepressants at the time of her death. From what I've read, these are classic symptoms of a young child who has suffered sexual abuse. I wonder if Mr. Gilbert had private visitation rights with his two minor daughters after his divorce from their mother. On this day in history: 1999 – Eleven-year-old Jessie Gilbert from Croydon became the World Women’s Amateur Chess Champion. Background coverage at Chessbase.

A Grandmaster Who Gives Back

A great story that deserves more publicity. Thank you, GM Murray Chandler. From www.scene.co.nz The $100,000 thank-you Russell Blackstock January 8, 2009 Queenstown Chess Classic organiser Murray Chandler is personally underwriting the international tournament with a six-figure sum. The New Zealand grandmaster – who owns property in the resort – also put his hand in his pocket to the tune of $30,000 for the inaugural contest three years ago. This time the prize pot for the 10-day competition – which starts at the Millennium Hotel next Thursday – is a whopping $50,000. “I’m underwriting the tournament again for about $100,000 as a thank you to the NZ chess community, who were fantastic to me when I started out as a professional player in 1975 when I was aged 15,” says Chandler. “I’ve had a wonderful time playing throughout the world and will never forget the tremendous support I received as a youngster.” About 115 competitors have registered for this year’s event, including strong representation from Europe. An additional $6500 is also on offer in the NZ Rapidplay and Lightning Championships – and for under-18s, a Queenstown Junior Classic is being introduced over four mornings.

More Photos from Christmas, 2008

A couple of dondelion's photos from The Venetian. This is "St. Martin's Square" inside the Venetian Hotel. This shot was taken on Christmas night, after we'd seen "Phantom of the Opera." We had 10:30 PM dinner reservations at a restaurant on the "Square" and were reconnoitering the territory and taking in some of the local entertainment prior to supper. There was a musical group playing (off camera). The "Square" was packed with people (I've never seen it otherwise during my prior visits) and dondelion chose this shot toward a corner of the "Square" to show the skyline and realistic "architecture"The sky was tending toward "sunset" at the time (it changes on a regular schedule from sunrise to sunset). Another shot of "St. Martin's Square," this one toward the opposite end of the "Square." The sky is deepening in color toward evening and the "Square" is packed with revelers! Our restaurant is on the right (outdoor seating), marked with the small oval yellow sign on the wrought-iron fencing. The lights and fencing on the right mark off one of Wolfgang Puck's restaurants.

Think Burning "Witches" Is a Thing of the Past?

Think again. Ohmygoddess! What a horrible, monstrous story. Report from ABC News.com Woman burnt at stake in PNG: reports Posted 8 minutes ago Updated 9 minutes ago A young Papua New Guinea woman was lashed naked to a pole and burnt to death in what authorities fear may be another sorcery killing in the jungle interior of the country, local media reported. Black magic is still practiced in the highlands of Papua New Guinea and women are often killed for having extra marital affairs, being accused of sorcery, or blamed for spreading HIV/AIDS. Witnesses told The Post Courier newspaper that the woman, aged between 16 and 20, was stripped, blindfolded, gagged and tied to a pole on Tuesday. "The girl was stripped naked and could not shout for assistance or resist as she was tightly strapped and her mouth gagged," witness Jessie James told the newspaper. Truck tyres and firewood were then placed around her, petrol poured over the tyres and wood and set alight, Mr James said. "I don't know the right words to describe it but it's barbaric. Can you find the best words to describe such acts that are rampant here?" highlands police chief Simon Kauba said. The Post Courier newspaper editorial condemned the killing, saying PNG's hysteria over sorcery was creating a climate similar to the 17th century witch trials in America. "If it is alleged she was a sorcerer, this is yet one more example of hysteria and superstition running rampant in parts of our country," the editorial said. "Sorcery is a most difficult crime to prove. "In the witchery trials of America, hundreds of years ago, hysteria took charge and terrible injustices were done. "People were burned at the stake. We are doing the same thing now. "How many of our young are afraid to go home because of these sorcery beliefs and vengeance practices? "Those who say she got primitive justice should pause to think, it could be you next on that truckload of burning tyres." - Reuters

How Britain Planned to "Resist" A German Occupation

A fascinating story, all the more so because it's true. From The Times January 5, 2009 Secret army of ‘scallywags’ to sabotage German occupation Michael Evans, Defence Editor By day they were ordinary civilians — from dentists and clergymen to gamekeepers and roadmenders – in a Britain gripped by fear of imminent invasion by Hitler’s blitzkreig troops. The only clue to their alter egos might have been the pieces of paper in their pockets – informing any police officer suspicious of their behaviour “to ask no questions of the bearer but phone this number”. But new details have now emerged of the highly secretive role played by a “resistance” army of fit young men and women chosen as would-be saboteurs and spies in the event of a German landing. In the dark days of 1940, the unit grew to about 6,000 members, who knew little of each other and operated in small guerrilla groups. Recruited to disrupt a German occupation force – including roles such as blowing up tanks, lorry parks and communications – the teams prepared by carrying out covert missions, known as “scallywagging”, at night. The Auxiliers, as they were known, formed operational patrols of seven or eight heavily armed men who emerged from hideouts to watch the coastlines of East Anglia for any sign of approaching German commandos. Their role was to engage in irregular warfare, which meant that, as civilians, their capture by the Germans would have led to their instant execution as spies. Not everyone in the military hierarchy approved of the concept, believing that only men in uniform should be recruited to fight the enemy. Official records of the GHQ Auxiliary Units – whose creation was authorised by the inner War Cabinet, chaired by Winston Churchill – have rarely been released by the National Archives. Now John Warwicker, a 78-year-old retired Scotland Yard Special Branch officer, has unlocked some of the secrets and written an account of the resistance organisation-in-waiting, called Churchill’s Underground Army. “There is unnecessary secrecy about these units [but] Britain’s stay-behind army of civilian men and women should not be cast aside or written off as insignificant,” Mr Warwicker said. Even those recruited for bombing missions never knew who was really behind the idea. Mr Warwicker said that they had thought they were working for the War Office, but GHQ Auxiliary Units were financed by MI6, and one element of it, the Special Duties Section, became so experienced in covert operations that after the threat of invasion receded, members of the section were snatched up by the SAS for the rest of the war. Some of the Special Duties Section spies were women. Many of those who were recruited into the Auxiliary Units had been selected from the ranks of the Home Guard – yet as one senior officer recorded at the time: “To compare them with the Home Guard was to compare the Brigade of Guards with the Salvation Army.” “They were a secret guerrilla group – the members were not to know each other. As cover for their activities they were to appear to continue their lives entirely normally,” Mr Warwicker said. The key man in each patrol group had a store of explosives and weaponry hidden away and only he knew where it was. When the idea was first mooted in 1940, recruiters were dispatched around the country to find suitable candidates: men and women who had not been sent to war because they were needed on the land or in other vital jobs. The trawl included clergymen, gamekeepers, poachers, dentists and roadmenders. “A minor police record was not necessarily a disadvantage,” Mr Warwicker said. Each operational patrol was also issued with one gallon of rum. The jar was to be opened only to relieve pain in the event of injury or in the face of imminent capture, in the belief that “a tot or two might help to extend the time an auxilier could be expected to resist interrogation and torture”. In 1944 an ungrateful War Office demanded the return of every jar of rum, unopened and still with an official seal. It failed to notice that many, while still apparently sealed, were filled with green tea – or something similar. ‘I said I would do anything’ Case study Don Handscombe, an early recruit to Churchill’s underground army, recalls the moment when he was arrested by a sharp-eyed police constable who wanted to know why he was scurrying around at night with a revolver in a holster. Now 90 and living in Suffolk, Mr Handscombe told The Times: “I said I was with the Home Guard but he didn’t believe me. He didn’t like the look of me — this was after Dunkirk when we expected to be invaded. I had to spend a few hours in a police cell until our intelligence officer arrived to release me.” After that, Auxiliers were given a note to produce in such circumstances. Mr. Handscombe, who was trained in explosives and marksmanship, had been recruited while he was working as a farm manager: “I was asked what I was prepared to do for my country and I said I would do anything.”

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This is scary stuff. I remember in college back in early 80's in one political science class, we did a series of exercises trying to imagine what it would be like if the - then - seemingly powerful Soviet Union invaded the United States. (Remember the television mini-series "Amerika?" - really scary stuff!) Was it better to be Red than Dead? Or better to be Dead than Red? I opted for better Dead than Red and joined a subversive group to undermine the ruling Communists. Easy to pretend to do so, in a college classroom. If push ever came to shove, what would I really do, more than 30 years later?

Las Vegas Pictures, December 25-26, 2008

dondelion wanted to get a photograph of one of the slots at the Casino in the Wynn and it didn't occur to me until he was literally in the middle of his shot that - I think the casinos don't like this! I'm sure I heard this somewhere or other. Of course, that hasn't stopped me from taking pictures in many of the LV casinos. Realistically, if a competitor wants to find out what is going on in another casino, it only has to send in some people with a notepad and paper, or good memories, and report on what they see. So maybe there is no longer a big taboo about taking photos inside a casino! This is a rather shakey shot of the theater at the Venetian where we saw "The Phantom of the Opera." It was stressed several times that photographs were strictly prohibited, but as it was after the show we figured what the heck - dondelion wanted a photo so I handed him my camera and said go for it, Mr. Don. As he was getting ready to snap a very large female attendant looked up at us from about 10 rows and one section over and started making tracks as she yelled "NO PHOTOGRAPHS ALLOWED." I hinted that Mr. Don might want to HURRY IT UP and even as the flash was dying I grabbed the camera from him, shut it down and shoved it into my purse as we beat a hasty retreat. It brought back to mind memories of running out of the vault at the Prado in Madrid in October, 2002, after I took an illicit photo of a crystal barque on golden wheels that, unfortunately, was done in pre-digital days and came out mostly blurred. I've never published that particular photograph. The guards ran after Mr. Don and I, we just were closer to the vault door and the narrow hallway was crowded, so I was able to worm my way away... I've no doubt they would have confiscated my camera if I'd been caught. It is an absolutely spectacular space and you can see - lit in all its glory, the chandelier that plays such an important role in the play.

I'm trying to remember where this photograph was taken - somewhere on the enormous grounds of Caesar's Palace, I believe, and it had to have been taken on Christmas Eve day, because we spent all Christmas Day at Isis' and Michelle's place and didn't get back to the hotel until after dark. This was taken near a shrine - I think dondelion got a picture of that, I'll look for it. The garden in this area is parterred and lovely, even in winter. There are three fountains, this is a shot of one. Our hotel, the Imperial Palace, can be seen in the distance, next to Harrah's.

More Photos from Christmas, 2008

dondelion, Isis and yours truly, at Isis and Michelle's new house. This photo was taken by Michelle in the living room - the fireplace (not seen) is in the background. Behind the curtains on the right is a sliding door to one of the patios and the pool. The chair that dondelion and Isis are sharing is Michelle's papasan chair. I was sitting on a "hard" chair to avoid pet dander. No - dondelion is not Chinese and no, I do not have lights embedded in my cheekbones. Isis and Michelle's pool. Even in December it's inviting! Isis had new grass laid in, the concrete surfaces around the patio and house were resurfaced, textured and painted, and the block fence was also painted to coordinate with the painted concrete and the newly-painted trim on the house. To the right is the golf course. During the early part of our visit, there was a sun-shower, it was raining on the golf course but on the other side of the fence where we were standing, it was dry! Later a fierce rain storm rolled in and blew branches and debris into the pool and pounded us as we drove back to the hotel. Here is Michelle in one of the 360 degree chairs - it turns in a circle 360 degrees so you can face the wide flat-screen t.v., the patio doors with a view of the pool or the fireplace. Behind is the "formal" front entry to the house. On the wall to the right of the entry is one of Isis' oil paintings (among other things, Isis is a painter). In the breakfast room where we ate brunch, dondelion relaxes next to another of Isis' paintings. No, it's not Twiggy although it does resemble the model during her hey-day in the mid 1960's. The table isn't visible - it's a Saarinen style white pedestal table surrounded by four deeply cushioned button- upholstered 360-degree rotating chairs in ecru.

More Photos from Christmas, 2008

More photos from The Domes at Mitchell Park (December 28, 2008). A view of the mini-lagoon in the Tropical Dome. Makes me want to stay there forever, it's so beautiful... Close-up of a banana tree, with bananas, in the Tropical Dome. A view in the Arid Dome.

Turkish Housewife Opens Her Own Museum

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

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