2010 Women's World Chess Championship

First round pairings - play begins December 4.  Per draw, all uneven matches (odd numbered games?) the players with better rating will have white pieces:

		World Women's Chess Championship Hatay 2010
		Pairings of First Round
	Table	Pr. N.	Name	Fed.	Title	Rating	Pr. N.	Name	Fed.	Title	Rating
	1	1	Kosteniuk, Alexandra	RUS	g	2507	64	Mezioud, Amina	ALG	wm	2029
	2	2	Koneru, Humpy	IND	g	2600	63	Greeff, Melissa	RSA	wg	2082
	3	3	Hou, Yifan	CHN	g	2591	62	Heredia Serrano, Carla	ECU	wm	2087
	4	4	Kosintseva, Tatiana	RUS	g	2581	61	Mona, Khaled	EGY	wg	2093
	5	5	Dzagnidze, Nana	GEO	g	2551	60	Kagramanov, Dina	CAN	wm	2101
	6	6	Stefanova, Antoaneta	BUL	g	2548	59	Aliaga Fernandez, Ingrid Y	PER	wf	2154
	7	7	Muzychuk, Anna	SLO	m	2530	58	Zuriel, Marisa	ARG	wm	2208
	8	8	Cramling, Pia	SWE	g	2526	57	Yildiz, Betul Cemre	TUR	wm	2225
	9	9	Harika, Dronavalli	IND	m	2525	56	Nadig, Kruttika	IND	wg	2230
	10	10	Ju, Wenjun	CHN	wg	2524	55	Caoili, Arianne	AUS	wm	2242
	11	11	Lahno, Kateryna	UKR	g	2522	54	Ozturk, Kubra	TUR	wm	2264
	12	12	Cmilyte, Viktorija	LTU	g	2514	53	Demina, Julia	RUS	wg	2323
	13	13	Chiburdanidze, Maia	GEO	g	2502	52	Meenakshi Subbaraman	IND	wg	2328
	14	14	Socko, Monika	POL	g	2495	51	Soumya, Swaminathan	IND	wg	2332
	15	15	Sebag, Marie	FRA	g	2494	50	Vasilevich, Irina	RUS	m	2333
	16	16	Ruan, Lufei	CHN	wg	2480	49	Baginskaite, Camilla	USA	wg	2336
	17	17	Mkrtchian, Lilit	ARM	m	2479	48	Zhang, Xiaowen	CHN	wg	2339
	18	18	Zatonskih, Anna	USA	m	2478	47	Lomineishvili, Maia	GEO	m	2347
	19	19	Zhu, Chen	QAT	g	2477	46	Muminova, Nafisa	UZB	wm	2360
	20	20	Zhao, Xue	CHN	g	2474	45	Fierro Baquero, Martha L.	ECU	m	2363
	21	21	Paehtz, Elisabeth	GER	m	2474	44	Zawadzka, Jolanta	POL	wg	2368
	22	22	Hoang Thanh Trang	HUN	g	2473	43	Ding, Yixin	CHN	wg	2370
	23	23	Pogonina, Natalija	RUS	wg	2472	42	Kovanova, Baira	RUS	wg	2380
	24	24	Danielian, Elina	ARM	g	2466	41	Shadrina, Tatiana	RUS	wg	2384
	25	25	Muzychuk, Mariya	UKR	m	2462	40	Cori T., Deysi	PER	wg	2384
	26	26	Shen, Yang	CHN	wg	2461	39	Ovod, Evgenija	RUS	m	2387
	27	27	Ushenina, Anna	UKR	m	2460	38	Huang, Qian	CHN	wg	2402
	28	28	Skripchenko, Almira	FRA	m	2460	37	Foisor, Cristina-Adela	ROU	m	2403
	29	29	Dembo, Yelena	GRE	m	2454	36	Munguntuul, Batkhuyag	MGL	m	2409
	30	30	Zhukova, Natalia	UKR	g	2447	35	Romanko, Marina	RUS	m	2414
	31	31	Rajlich, Iweta	POL	m	2446	34	Houska, Jovanka	ENG	m	2421
	32	32	Turova, Irina	RUS	m	2439	33	Khukhashvili, Sopiko	GEO	m	2430

Aquaprofit - Polgar Chess Day 2010

This past Saturday (November 27, 2010), the three lovely and world-famous Polgar sisters, Susan, Sophia and Judit, reunited in their home town, Budapest, Hungary, for a full day of chess and chess-related activities under the auspices and sponsorship of Aquaprofit.  Susan Polgar has a summary of the event at her blog, including a video of a game between she and Judit! 

There was another game the two sisters played in separate rooms with live audiences and as they made their moves on a board, they explained their thought processes behind each move.  The moves were relayed to the other player who then did the same in the other room.  How fascinating - I would have loved to be in either audience to get such insight into the workings of a mind of a great grandmaster! 

I grabbed this photo from Susan Polgar's blog.  It is Susan Polgar and Judit Polgar, obviously having a great time and looking gorgeous.  Their affection for each other is clear.  An altogether lovely photo.

Dholavira, Indus Valley Civilization

A sort of touristy overview from dnaindia.com:

Dholavira was the lake city of the great Indus Valley civilization
Published: Wednesday, Dec 1, 2010, 14:07 IST
By Hemang Desai | Place: Ahmedabad | Agency: DNA

The Indus Valley civilization existed in India five thousand years ago. This great urban civilization, contemporaneous with those of Egypt and Mesopotamia, covered an expanse that stretched from Baluchistan in the west to the Upper Ganga-Yamuna Doab in the east. Harrapa, Mohen-jo-Daro, Channu Daro, Rakhigarhi, Lothal and Dholavira are among the famous towns of the Indus Valley civilisation that were dug out by archaeologists.

Dholavira, located near Khadir Bet in the Great Rann of Kachchh of Gujarat is an incredible example of this Indus Valley civilization town.

The area of the civilization was larger than that of today's Western Europe. Dholavira perched at one end of it on a small island, possibly surrounded then by the sea. Surrounded by a unique geographical location, Dholavira was literally a paradise in the desert.

Archaeologists believe that the five-thousand-year-old town must have been a lovely city of lakes during its heydays. In fact, the residents of Dholavira who had settled in the town between two water streams, Mansar and Manhar, collected their waters in the monsoon and used that water during the rest of the year. They used clever water storing and collecting techniques.

The New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Technology believes that the ancient Dholavira has a lot to teach the modern water -starved world about water collection, usage and storage.

After Egypt and Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley civilization is one among the four oldest civilisations of mankind. This civilization is shrouded in mystery as very little is known about its social and cultural aspects even today. But the town remains and the qualities of objects found on its sites testify that this must have been a high civilization.

The first town of the Indus Valley to be discovered by archaeologists was Harrapa in 1921, followed by Mohenjo Daro in 1922.

Each town of this civilization, at times two thousand kilometres away from the other, had a similar plan: there was a palace in each town; the town area was divided on a grid pattern and wide streets that ran north to south and east to west.

The curator of the Pennsylvania University Museum, Gregory Posehal, says, "Dholavira is a planned city. Exactly like the planned modern cities, Dholavira was made based on a design. Mohenjo Daro too was built like this."

Like other towns of the Indus Valley civilization, Dholavira too is a parallelogram. The wall of the "citadel" is eighteen metres thick.

Buildings in Dholavira were made ofsun-dried mud bricks and stone and some of them stand in good condition even today.

The refinement of buildings and materials used reveals a high knowledge of civil engineering that must have been prevalent among the Dholavirans. Ornaments made in lapis lazuli, agate, carnelian, shells, silver and gold, as well as utensils and toys made from clay, also reveal a high artistic and technological sense.

The water wells and street remains of the town speak of the technological sophistication of the Indus Valley people. Unfortunately, the script of the Indus Valley civilisation remains yet to be deciphered. But this civilisation continues to fascinate and intrigue even after five thousand years of its existence.

A Local Hero Needs Your Help

A friend at work's husband needs your assistance in order to qualify for a $25,000 grant from the Pepsi Refresh Project.  This is funded by PepsiCo.  Each month, up to $1.3 million will be awarded as follows: 2 Grants at the $250,000 level; 10 Grants at the $50,000 level; 10 Grants at the $25,000 level; and 10 Grants at the $5,000 level.


I do not know her husband, but I can tell you that my friend, Dina, is a lovely lady who is involved in helping our local community through her work with a shelter for abused women and children, along with fund-raising for various Milwaukee area charities.  She is A-1, a hard-working, generous and kind person.

Here is the story from her email: 

My husband, Jack, mentors young males in the community who have no positive male role models in their lives. He began mentoring over 15 years ago while working in social services. He realized that we were losing more and more young males to gangs, drugs and the criminal justice system and he wanted to do what he could to reverse that trend. He has provided positive "man training" to young males helping them and their families through the transition from childhood to adulthood. He has helped countless number of young males turn their lives around through positive interaction, high expectations and a refusal to accept excuses. He's helped 13 young men graduate from college and 45 graduate from vocational school with career-ready trade skills...all out of his own pocket.



I submitted his project history as an idea to the Pepsi Refresh Project and it was accepted.


Now we need YOU! Please go to the website above and vote for our project. Voting runs from December 1- 31 with the winners being announced on January 1st. It doesn't cost you a thing, you can vote EVERYDAY and we hope that you will. (We have to end the month in the top 10 to receive the grant.)


Thank you!

Dina and Jack Bass
We need projects like this - the need is so great.  All our Goddesschess fans, I ask you to please take a moment, check it out and vote for Jack's project -  Man Business, Inc. - if you think it is cool.  Vote here for Man Business, Inc. 
 
I did myself and it's true, there are no catches to this. You do have to register an email and a name and date of  birth and also fill in one of those "write this word in the box" things to prove you are a real person :)  You do not have to sign up to receive any email promotions or other email notifications.  You do not and are not asked to contribute money to anything.  Just vote and that's it.  Once you're registered, you can vote for Man Business, Inc. once a day until the voting deadline, midnight on December 31, 2010. 
 
Please keep your fingers and toes crossed that Man Business, Inc. wins a $25,000 grant!!!  Man Business, Inc. is currently ranked 246th and needs to get into the top 100 to be carried over to the next month's list, when voting starts all over again.  To receive the $25,000 grant, Man Business, Inc. needs to finish in the top 10 for the month of December, 2010.
 
Please vote, and thanks!

Some Lovely Chess Sets

As the "go to" person on our email accounts, I gets tons of solicitations from all over the place and I ignore most of them.

But I have to say that this person/company's chess sets are very nice. Unfortunately, this is the only link that came in the email, and it does not lead to a website, only to a photo gallery of some of the items he or his company manufactures or offers for sale.  Most of the photographs that were sent to me were not included at this "address" -- http://cid-506405e1a1f615de.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Manoj%20Colection/DSCN2948.jpg  I am publishing a few here.

 
I am particularly fond of the sets where the rook is an elephant's head.  This could represent the howda on the back of an elephant, which was used as a rook in many many Indian sets meant for export to the West over the past couple of hundred years and counting, or perhaps it harks back to the time when the elephant actually was in the rook's position on the board in India, and later switched places with the rook, so that people began to associate the position of the elephant with our western bishop.  I don't know when the switch took place or why it happened, but I do recall reading about it in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Chess of which respected chess historian and writer Ken Whyld was a co-editor, so I figure the information is correct :)  Goddess rest Ken's soul.

UPS Redeems Itself - Sort of

No way in hell would I have ordered the new lap top shipped to my home if the Best Buy website had BOTHERED to inform me that a personal signature would be required!  I would have had it shipped to the office.  As it was, I expected delivery on Friday and so dutifully stayed home ALL FRIGGING DAY instead of tending to errands.  No delivery.

I go to work Monday.  I expected to come home to a box.  No delivery.

I go to work Tuesday.  I come home not to a box, but to a UPS tag saying delivery was attempted but could not be completed because a personal signature is needed!  That two more attempts would be made before the parcel went back to the UPS some place or other and where it would be held for 5 days before going back to the sender.  The tag said that delivery would be attempted Wednesday (today) between 2 and 5 p.m.

In teeny tiny print on this tag also the url for UPS and a toll-free telephone number - but only call before 7 p.m. if you are calling to make other arrangements for delivery.  Say fricking what?  It was after 7 p.m. when I looked at the back of the damn tag to see what was there!  What about people out on the west coast?  Do they get a different tag that says don't bother to call afer 9 p.m. Pacifi time?

So, I log in to the url.  Try and figure out the UPS website.  Ruts of ruck.  I'm no dummy, but it toom me nearly an hour to finally get to a point where I saw the actual "other delivery" options which were (1) have delivered to another location - FOR A FEE (2) Send back (free) (3) Pick up (free) and (4) kill the UPS person and spend the rest of your life in jail.  Okay, I made up option (4).

Of course, there was no information available that I could see about how much it would cost to have the parcel delivered to another place where someone could sign for it.  And I decided that wasn't a very good option for me, because I didn't know how heavy the damn thing would be.  What if I was stuck trying to lug home on the bus plus the three-quarters of a mile uphill walk something that weighed 30 pounds packed?  EEK!

So I decided I would have to take off work this afternoon so I would by 2 p.m. - if not before.  As it happened, I arrived on my doorstep at 1:45 p.m. to my new all-in-one wireless printer/fax/scanner sitting on the front stoop and another UPS tag stuck on my storm door.  Delivery attempt #2 made - signature needed.  Attempt #3 will be made tomorrow before 10:30 a.m.

So when did the UPS man  attempt delivery?  Sure as hell NOT between 2 and 5 p.m. as indicated on the tag.

As I can already feel my blood pressure rising once again, I will shorten this up and pour myself another glass of wine...

So, I dial the toll-free number to UPS.  Of course I get a recording.  I was already irked - hot hot hot under the collar as my dad used to say - and so it pissed me off even more when after the standard greeting in English I get that "se hable espanole" message.  My family has lived here for over 200 years and we don't speak Spanish or any of the pidgeon forms of Spanish I hear used on the bus every single day.  I'm an American, I speak English and use proper diction.  When did Spanish become the co-official language of the United States of America?  How did the Republicans manage to let that one get by?  I suppose they were too busy trying to reduce taxex for millionaires and billionaires while trying to abolish Social Security for working class people (like yours truly), get rid of Medicare, and start World War III. 

So I was doubly p.o.'d.  Listening to the mechanical voice that answered my call, nowhere did I hear an option to "speak to live person."  The mechanical voice asked me for the number on my UPS tag, which I spoke into the phone.  The mechanical voice then gave me a history of the attempted deliveries of the parcel that needed a signature.  Gee thanks for information I already knew, duh!  I refused to go through a myriad of options that were purposely designed to NOT address my real problem.  I just kept repeating over and over again "I want to speak to a person," "I want to speak to a person," I want to speak to a person," in progressively louder and more aggressive tones - and eventually, I think it was after #12 "I want to speak to a person," it worked.  The mechanical voice said I will connect you to the next available service representative.  HONEST TO GODDESS.  No wonder the United States is quickly becoming a third-rate third-world power.

The poor lady who answered my call received the full force of my considerable wrath, and perhaps she received second degree burns too, I was that hot.  I think she was American, at least - she had a southern accent.  She maintained her cool admirably and remembered all of her training about being very apologetic.  Thank Goddess for small favors, at least I was not subjected to a person in Bangladesh whose English - or Spanish - I would not have been able to understand.  The upshot was that my new laptop was delivered at 2:35 p.m.

There was one glitch - I was supposed to receive a telephone call from the local service representative to give me an approximate time when delivery would be made today.  While I was checking my email I heard the unmistakable sound of a UPS truck's grinding gears and I got up to look out the front window. Sure enough, there he was, the UPS man's truck blocking my driveway and he walking toward the house. He was gone in 30 seconds.  Most of my signature was not recorded on the defective pad he had.

As I was walking toward the kitchen with the box containing my new laptop, the telephone rang.  It was UPS calling to tell me that delivery would be attempted later this afternoon but they could not give me an exact time.  Gee, thanks.

Now I am going to deal with Best Buy and its failure to mention the important fact that a signature would be required upon delivery...

Was Arsinoe II Joint Pharaoh with Her Husband?

Notice the detailing of the crown and how carefully it incorporated all of the ancient symbols of Upper and Lower Egypt from the time the kingdoms were first united c. 3400 BCE:  The cobra and the vulture; the White Crown and the Red Crown; and the ancient symbol of Hathor and later, Isis, the Sun embraces by the Moon horns:

From ScienceDaily.com
Crown Suggests Queen Arsinoë II Ruled Ancient Egypt as Female Pharaoh

Queen Arsinoe II, Temple at
Philae, Aswan. Credit: Marisa Nilsson.

ScienceDaily (Nov. 28, 2010) — A unique queen's crown with ancient symbols combined with a new method of studying status in Egyptian reliefs forms the basis for a re-interpretation of historical developments in Egypt in the period following the death of Alexander the Great. A thesis from the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) argues that Queen Arsinoë II ruled ancient Egypt as a female pharaoh, predating Cleopatra by 200 years.

Researchers are largely agreed on Queen Arsinoë II's importance from the day that she was deified. She was put on a level with the ancient goddesses Isis and Hathor, and was still respected and honoured 200 years after her death when her better-known descendant Cleopatra wore the same crown. But the reasons behind Arsinoë's huge influence have been interpreted in many different ways.

Maria Nilsson has studied her historical importance by interpreting her personal crown and its ancient symbols. The crown, which has never been found but is depicted on statues and Egyptian reliefs, was created with the help of the powerful Egyptian priesthood to symbolise the qualities of the queen. The thesis questions the traditional royal line which excludes female regents, and defies some researchers' attempts to minimise Arsinoë's importance while she was still alive.

"My conclusion instead is that Arsinoë was a female pharaoh and high priestess who was equal to and ruled jointly with her brother and husband, and that she was deified during her actual lifetime," says Nilsson. "It was this combination of religion and politics that was behind her long-lived influence."

But it was not only Cleopatra who wanted to re-use Arsinoë's important and symbolic crown. Male descendants -- all named Ptolemy -- used her crown as a template when creating a new crown which they gave to the goddess Hathor to honour the domestic priesthood and so win its support when Egypt was gripped by civil war.

The thesis is clearly structured around the crown and includes its wider context in the reliefs. Nilsson paints an all-round picture of the queen, how she dressed, the gods she was depicted with, the titles she was given, and so on.

The source material comes from Egypt and can be used as a basis for understanding the country's political and religious development. At the same time, Nilsson paves the way for future studies of Egyptian crowns as symbols of power and status, and of the development of art in a more general sense.

"The creation of Queen Arsinoë's crown was just the beginning," she says.

1200 Year Old Statue of Shakti Discovered in Kurukhsetra, India

From The Times of India:
1200-yr-old sculpture found
24 Nov, 2010 0652hrs IST TNN[ Deepender Deswal ]

ROHTAK: A rare 1200-year-old sandstone sculpture of a Hindu goddess has been discovered from an archeological site near Kaleshwar temple in Kurukhsetra. According to historians, the sculpture signifies the prevalence of worship of female gods during the Pratihar and pre-Pratihar era.

The 30 kg sandstone sculpture of goddess Shakti could be from the Shakti peetha of Savitri or the Bhadrakali of Thanesar in Kurukshetra.

Thanesar is known for Shaktism, a term which is based on worship of the divine in the form of the supreme mother of the universe.

Rajesh Purohit, deputy director and curator of the Shrikrishna Museum spotted the sculpture near the banks of Saraswati pond in Kaleshwar temple in Thanesar recently. Purohit who is also an archaeologist, said: This kind of an image has never been noticed here before in the history. This is one of the finest early-Pratihar era images found in Haryana.

Purohit said that the sculpture was excavated from Harsha-ka-tila an archeological site of historical significance. Thanesar region was the capital of king Harshavardhan in the pre-Pratihar times.

The sculpture, which is worth million of rupees, is preserved in the Shrikrishna museum. Historians and scholars from across the country are coming to the stadium to study the art work.

Firstly, it indicates that artistry was at a developed stage in that ear, more importantly, it throws light at feminine dominance in those times. This region, comprising entire Haryana and parts of Punjab, was the centre of culture and learning. People were known for their high living standards and a taste for art and culture, commented Rajesh Dalal, a scholar of ancient history in the Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak.

WGM Kiran Monisha Mohanty Wins 18th Ekalabya Award

From Orissadiary.com
Orissa-based Woman Grand Master Monisha bags Ekalabya award
Monday, November 29, 2010

Bhubaneswar: Woman Grand Master (WGM) Kiran Manisha Mohanty has bagged the prestigious 18th Ekalabya Award for 2010.

The Ekalabya Award Committee comprising jury members drawn from different walks of life were unanimous in deciding Kiran Manisha among the 14 short-listed candidates for the award at a meeting here on Saturday.

The annual Ekalabya Award was instituted by the Indian Metals Public Charitable Trust (IMPaCT), the charitable wing of the IMFA Group in 1993.

The award is given in recognition of outstanding performance in sports. The prize money has been enhanced from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh from this year.
Besides the Ekalabya award, two runners-up awards will also be given carrying an enhanced cash prize of Rs 25,000 each.

Kiran Monisha has a brilliant international and national track record for the past two years, winning gold in the Commonwealth Chess Championship in Nagpur in 2008.
She also won gold in the Parachute Advanced International Close Chess Championship in Bangladesh in 2010, which also gave her the third WGM Norm.
In the national arena, she won the first position in the 30th National Women Chess Championship in Delhi in 2010.

The two other sportspersons to receive runners-up prizes are chess player Debasish Das and woman rower Pratima Puhan.

IMPaCT trustee and MP Baijayant Panda said that IMPaCT has been in continuous pursuit to recognize and foster excellence in sports and literature besides contributing to the general welfare of the society at large.

WGm Soumya Swaminathan's Time to Shine

From The Times of India:
Chance for junior champ Soumya to shine
Amit Karmarkar, TNN, Nov 30, 2010, 01.52am IST

PUNE: When Soumya Swaminathan won the World junior girls chess title last year in Argentina in a somewhat depleted field, she got two well-earned gifts apart from three trophies.

The first one was a berth in Corus 'C' tournament at Wijk aan Zee (The Netherlands) in January this year. She didn't make the most of it and tallied just three points in 13 rounds to finish last.

The second one will unfold in Antakya ( Turkey) from December 4 when she takes on world No. 16 Polish GM Monika Socko in the first round of the Women's World chess championship (knockout format).

"The World junior title was fantastic for me," said the 21-year-old International Master (IM) norm holder and the winner of this year's Sahara Young Female Achiever of the Year award. "It gave me recognition and confidence. I have become more serious about the game. Corus influenced me a lot. Just looking at the top players' preparation and psychology was a great experience.

"I had had some bad results. But I was not sure of my calculations on the board then. But now I have realised the importance of calmness," she said. "I played National 'B' because I was getting bored at home."

The second year law student seems to be good at multi-tasking. She had one eye on her ailing grandmother's room, trying to absorb the doctor's instructions. At the same time, she was trying to make the mediaperson comfortable.

"For a change, she didn't say she would be taking one match at a time."I have seen the entire draw. If I win the first round, I play the winner of Zhu Chen (former World champion) and Nafisa Muminova. "My first match would quite likely go to tie-break (rapid, blitz etc)," she said without fear of being politically incorrect.

"I would be quite happy with a draw. She's (Monika Socko) a GM. You feel more motivated against a better player. I get quite tense when I don't know an opponent. Of course I have prepared for all my opponents."

Koneru Humpy Gets Kudos for Her Play in Czech Coal Chess Match

From The Times of India:
Humpy hand in Snowdrops victory
Hari Hara Nandanan, TNN, Nov 30, 2010, 01.56am IST

GM Koneru Humpy, 2009
file photo

CHENNAI: The Czech Coal Chess Match held last week was appropriately named Snowdrops (ladies) vs Oldhands. The chess legends of the 20th century vs the rising generation of female players.

You may call it a rematch because the same event was held last year too in Czech Republic around the same time when the snow was falling. India's Koneru Humpy, the strongest lady in the chess world after Judit Polgar, led the Snowdrops to a creditable 18-14 victory over the veterans.

Humpy was the top scorer with six points from the eight games she played (two each with reversed colours against the four opponents) but effectively it was a match of eight rounds in all- play-all system, each round consisting of four games.

Snowhands had a terrific start winning the first round by 3-1, but the veterans drew level with a same score in the next round. The ladies virtually had the match sealed in the next two rounds with resounding wins (3.5-0.5 and 2.5-1.5) taking a four-point lead.

Oldhands consisted of Lajos Portisch, one of the world's best chess players during the 1960s and 1970s, Vlastimil Hort, one of the best Czech players of all time, Dragoljub Velimirovic, champion of Yugoslavia in 1970, 1975 and 1997, known for his combinations and Wolfgang Uhlmann, the best player of former East Germany. Humpy, Lithuanian Grandmaster Viktoria Cmilyte, Philippines-born Australian chess player Arianne Caoli and the Czech Tereza Olsarova formed the Snowdrops quartet.

Humpy's only loss was to Vlastmil Hort in the penultimate round when she played attacking chess and went for a win. The Indian, who will be playing in the Women's World Championship at Hatay ( Turkey) in the first week of December, had satisfying wins over Portisch and Uhlmann in the first half of the tournament.

"Old masters play more practical chess rather than following move-to-move analysis. They try to create problems to the opponent over the board sometimes even by giving away material. I observed that if they get inferior positions they show a lot of determination to find counter-play," noted Humpy about her rivals after the match.

Humpy had good support from Viktoria Cmilyte, who scored 5.5 points. Hort was the top scorer for Oldhands with five points.

Patrick Wolff to Form Own Hedge Fund

Former U.S. Chess Champion GM Patrick Wolff is quitting his current fund manager position at Clarium to form his own hedge fund:

From Businessinsider.com

Clarium's Amazing Chess Player Is Leaving Peter Thiel To Start A New Hedge Fund
Courtney Comstock | Nov. 29, 2010, 3:58 PM

Clarium's Patrick Wolff is spinning out of the fund to form his own hedge fund, Grand Master Capital.

The fact that Wolff, a former general manager at the firm, is leaving underscores another bad year for Clarium, a fund which sprung out of the gate with amazing (+57.4%) returns but then began performing terribly.

This year alone Thiel has seen investors leave and his returns head into the double-digit negatives.

We've heard from an investor that most of the money in Clarium right now is Thiel's, so the fund shouldn't be damaged by the loss of a star manager like other hedge funds have been when star portfolio managers leave.

And the move must be amicable, because Clarium's founding manager, Peter Thiel, will seed the fund with $50 million.

Wolff's personal returns are a mystery at this point, but if his ability to play chess says anything about his investing skills (and he's expecting it to - his new fund, Grand Master Capital, is named for Wolff's title as a chess champion and international grand master), get ready to be amazed.

Wolff's ELO, his "batting average," is 2564, which is top-level. There's technically no "best" ELO rating, but if you're in the 2700s, you're among the best in the world.

Wolff is currently ranked number 393 in the world.

So in terms of vanity hedge funds names(which are usually names or initials or properties managers own), Wolff's is pretty awesome.

How About a Friday Night Miscellany - TODAY!

Just because I'm in the mood, and I haven't been in a long time :)

First up, a new article on the Antikythera mechanism. I've posted about the mechanism here many times before.  To find those posts (I'm lazy tonight and not going to provide them for you) scroll down on the left hand column of the blog until you find the little search box and then type in "Antikythera" and voila!  Pop back up to the top of your screen and you will see a list of all posts from Chess, Goddess and Everything that mentions the Antikythera mechanism.

Anyway, darlings, here is a link to the latest, and it sure is interesting. Well, I always figured it wasn't based on what the Greeks knew, it was far too sophisticated for them.  It was the Babylonians who had it all figured out!  Yeah, turns out it was Babylonian astronomical knowledge that was incorporated into the mechanism - and for all we know, it wasn't a Greek "mechanic" who built it, either.  It could have been an immigrant who took a Greek name.Or a Babylonian who built the thing and shipped it to the person who ordered it in Greece.  How do we really know?  We don't.  So let's toss those pre-conceived notions into the Ionian Sea once and for all, shall we?  Yes, let's. 

Ancient astronomy: Mechanical inspiration
The ancient Greeks' vision of a geometrical Universe seemed to come out of nowhere. Could their ideas have come from the internal gearing of an ancient mechanism?
Jo Marchant
Published online 24 November 2010 | Nature 468, 496-498 (2010) | doi:10.1038/468496a

From the same website, but the way scary part of it - geez! - check this out.  The Fountain of Youth stuff is closer than we think, and when I think about what it could mean to mankind, it gives me the heeby-jeebies.  That it might be based upon flawed science - even scarrier, but who gives a hoot about that, heh, when eternal life is at issue...

Telomerase reverses ageing process
Dramatic rejuvenation of prematurely aged mice hints at potential therapy.
Ewen Callaway
Published online 28 November 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.635

Whoa!  For those of you who think that Global Warming (and it's effects, which hardly anyone ever seems to talk about except the real scientist people and now, the people who are actually being affected by it) is a bunch of hooey, this is "The Day Before Tomorrow" for Norfolk, Virginia.  And please don't tell me it's just due to Sun spots and the Moon being in a certain position, har!  In a way, this is even scarier than the "Fountain of Youth" thing I posted about above, because this is here and now. It's not going to go away, folks. It will just get worse and worse and worse. And what will we do about it? What will happen to those people in this area of Norfolk, Virginia, who own homes there? What will happen to all the people who live in areas at sea level? What will happen to my home town, Milwaukee, as sea levels rise and the Great Lakes rise too with influx from the Atlantic Ocean, and get more saline? Ohmygoddess, goodbye drinking water for a third of the USA - and Canada too. But this article is just about the here and now - for now...

From The New York Times, Environment
Front-Line City in Virginia Tackles Rise in Sea
By LESLIE KAUFMAN
Published: November 25, 2010

For those of us who like to lighten the load, so to speak, by partaking in spirits (not religious spirits) and forgetting all of our cares if even for just a little while, hail to the world's most expensive bottle of Tequila:

World’s most expensive bottle of tequila unveiled
Christopher Hooton - 24th November, 2010
Hacienda La Capilla has produced a bottle of tequila that it is expected to fetch £2.2 million at auction, making it the most expensive drink of its kind in the world.

Paradoxes - and are they, or aren't they?  Damned if I know, and I don't give a hoot.  Let the Republicans try and figure it all out, they claim they can, after all.  They're the remedy to what ails America, right?  Right?

Paradoxical Truth
November 28, 2010, 5:30 pm
By GRAHAM PRIEST
Professor Greene is lecturing. Down the hall, her arch-rival, Professor Browne, is also lecturing. Professor Greene is holding forth at length about how absurd Professor Browne’s ideas are. She believes Professor Browne to be lecturing in Room 33. So to emphasize her point, she writes on the blackboard the single sentence:

Everything written on the board in Room 33 is false.


But Professor Greene has made a mistake. She, herself, is in Room 33. So is what she has written on the board true or false? If it’s true, then since it itself is written on the board, it’s false. If it’s false, then since it is the only thing written on the board, it’s true. Either way, it’s both true and false. ...

More Vermont Families Seeking Food Assistance
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 28, 2010
Filed at 6:51 p.m. EST

ENOSBURG FALLS, Vt. (AP) — The extended downturn in the economy is forcing more Vermont families to seek food assistance.

A new federal report says the share of households in Vermont that at times didn't have enough nutritious food rose from 12.1 percent to 13.6 percent between 2008 and 2009.

The Enosburg Food Shelf is feeding more families than it had expected. Three years after opening it now serves an average of 160 families each month. It had predicted it would be serving about 60 families.

******* Heeelllloooooooo! The worst part of the downturn was NOT between 2008 and 2009, it is right now, when all the people who were laid off during 2009 (after the so-called Great Recession was already supposedly OVER)  are suffering because their jobs are gone forever and EVERTHING they were told was true : WORK HARD, GO TO SCHOOL, GET A DEGREE, WORK HARD, SAVE MONEY, BUY A HOME turned out to be LIES. Fricking duh!  Of course there is an increase in need for food from people who have had their livelihoods wiped out by multinational corporations whose profits are not taxed in the USA.  That it is happening in the state where people have historically prided themselves on being self-reliant is - well - see the article above about paradoxical truths.

The Sailing Ship in Ancient Egypt



This ship is typical of the vessels used during the reign of Pharaoh Sahure
over 4500 years ago. 5th Dynasty 2458-2446 BCE

 I will print this article out and study it, because it contains information about "peg" and "rope" built ships constructed by the ancient Egyptians - see my posts from a day or two ago about the shipwrecks discovered in Stockholm and China for relevancy.  I'm not a sea-farer - never been on a sail boat in my entire life unless catamarans in Hawaii and the Bahamas count, and never intend to go on one, at least, not in untrustworthy Lake Michigan!  But I find the subject fascinating.  How brave were those original sea-farers, to go forth like they did?  Morris West's best-selling novel of years ago, The Navigator, tells a fine tale of ancient navigators through the eyes of a modern-day navigator attempting to find a mysterious island known only in legend.  Yet today, too, we have tales of sea-farers who have survived the mighty ocean against all odds.  Just a few days ago three teenagers were rescued from a small craft whose engine had conked out and drifted far far out to sea and way off well-traveled ship routes, were quite miraculously rescued after more than 50 days adrift, when all seemed lost.

What I don't get is why Mr. Hornell, evidently writing in 1939 (judging by the photographs used and the citations noted), used language that one imagines a scholar would have used whilst holding his nose and writing in a resulting snooty tone in 1839, or perhaps 1739.  Geez.  Can't these scientific dudes write their stuff in plain English so that it is understandable???

Not replicating the article here.  It was published originally in Antiquity, and now available in pdf format.

Was the Bent Pyramid Made from Fabricated Concrete Blocks?

I have read a few earlier articles about the pyramids being constructed out of "concrete" but until this article, I hadn't read it in language that I actually understood.  It is certainly an intriguing theory.  The ancient Egyptians were not stupid people.  If they developed a method to fabricate the enormous blocks of  "stone" used to build the bent Pyramid and the later pyramids at Giza, they would have used it, rather than quarrying and dragging solid stone blocks weighing several tons each on sledges x-number of miles after somehow managing to get the giant stone blocks to the Nile and floating them downstream (or upstream) to the building sites. 

Come on, if you were the person charged by the almighty Pharaoh (probably with death hanging over your head if Pharaoh was not pleased) with building his timeless death-to-life memorial, what would you opt for?  The hard way, or the easy way? Just because we've lost the technological formula to replicate this technique today doesn't mean it didn't happen because, quite clearly - as the evidence is under our noses, it existed and it worked.

Kiwi may have solved mystery of the pyramids
Published: 6:31PM Saturday November 27, 2010 Source: ONE News

A Wellington scientist has come up with an explanation that may help solve the question of how the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids.

It has been widely thought massive blocks of stone cut from quarries were dragged to the building sites.

But Professor Ken MacKenzie from Victoria University had his doubts, so he tested a small sample of a block from the famous Bent Pyramid, built more than 4500 years ago, at his Lower Hutt lab.

He ground it to powder, put in a spectrometer containing a powerful magnet and spun it at a staggering 12,000 revolutions per second.

From that, he was able to get a sub-atomic analysis of the pyramid block. It showed that rather being solid stone, it was a mixture of several materials, a sort of ancient concrete.

"The concrete that would have been used in this instance, if we call it that, this re-constituted stone, would be the earliest form of concrete we know," said MacKenzie.

The mixture, limestone and silica mixed with water and poured into wooden moulds, would have formed symmetrical blocks after setting.

There could be a modern point to all this research into ancient architecture.

Scientists say that if we could replicate those building techniques and materials today, it would be much better for the environment

Making a tonne of modern cement produces almost the same weight in greenhouse gases.

Temple of Ptah Sits in Sewage Caused by Bitching Villagers

This is absolutely disgusting.  A site that should be preserved for all eternity is awash in sewage and no one is doing a thing about it. The ignorance and arrogance of some people who think they are entitled to something just because they were born.  Villagers ripped up sewage pipes to build illegal huts and then dumped their waste around the temple.  And now they are complaining that they don't get anything out of the few tourists who still visit the site.  Hey, Hawass, where are you in this, heh?

Reported at newkerala.com
Ancient Egyptian temple sits submerged in sewage
Cairo, Nov 24 : An ancient Egyptian temple of Ptah, located in the village of Meet Rahina near Memphis, just south of Cairo, now sits in stinking effluent.

The temple, built during the reign of Ramesses II (1279 BC - 1213 BC) and once a major tourist attraction, now serves as a home for stray dogs, reports Almasry Alyoum.

There is now a small lake of wastewater and sewage surrounding the temple.

The local residents said that sanitation authorities never removed the piles of garbage dumped around the temple by villagers.

They also complained that many homes were also flooded with sewage and underground water, which were removed using buckets.

"Villagers destroyed sewage pipes and built homes in their place. They also disposed of their washing water around the temple, creating a small lake in the area," said a local resident Ashraf Beshir.

"The authorities have forbidden us from burying our dead in and around the village on the pretext that the village itself is an archaeological site," complained villager Abu Ahmed.

"Even when tourists came to visit the temple, though, we never benefited," he added.

--ANI

Chess in Translation

For those of you who don't know the Cyrillic alphabet (me) and don't read Russian (me), here is an excellent website that I am adding to our favorite links here:  Chess in Translation.  It provides very good (not Google) translations of Russian chess news into English!  Yippee! 

The site was put together by "MishanP," a long-time poster at Michael Greengard's (Mig) chess blog The Daily Dirt.  I try to visit Mig's blog regularly because the posts are often very entertaining and I like the wide range of insights the posters offer without, for the most part, a lot of flaming each other, very little name calling and little crass allusions or filthy language.  I don't know who MishanP is but thank you very much!

60th Russian Women Superfinal 2010

From The Week in Chess:

The 60th Russian Women's SuperFinal took place in Moscow. There was a three way tie on 7/11. Alisa Galliamova beat Natalija Pogonina in a two game rapid playoff (15 min+10 spm Match with a 6-5min Armageddon finish if score had finished 1-1) to take the title. Tatania Kosintseva missing out of this playoff on Sonnen-Berger tie-break but she took bronze and qualified for next year.

60th ch-RUS w Moscow (RUS), 16-27 xi 2010															cat. IX (2458)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2
1.	Pogonina, Natalija	wg	RUS	2472	*	½	½	1	½	0	½	1	1	1	½	½	7	2558
2.	Galliamova, Alisa	m	RUS	2487	½	*	½	1	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	1	7	2557
3.	Kosintseva, Tatiana	g	RUS	2581	½	½	*	0	1	½	½	½	1	½	1	1	7	2548
4.	Paikidze, Nazi	wg	GEO	2401	0	0	1	*	1	1	½	1	0	1	½	½	6½	2528
5.	Kosteniuk, Alexandra	g	RUS	2507	½	0	0	0	*	1	1	1	½	½	1	0	5½	2453
6.	Gunina, Valentina	wg	RUS	2479	1	1	½	0	0	*	0	0	0	1	½	1	5	2420
7.	Kosintseva, Nadezhda	m	RUS	2576	½	0	½	½	0	1	*	1	1	0	½	0	5	2411
8.	Shadrina, Tatiana	wg	RUS	2384	0	1	½	0	0	1	0	*	0	1	1	½	5	2428
9.	Nebolsina, Vera	wg	RUS	2377	0	0	0	1	½	1	0	1	*	0	½	1	5	2429
10.	Bodnaruk, Anastasia	m	RUS	2407	0	0	½	0	½	0	1	0	1	*	1	1	5	2426
11.	Girya, Olga	wg	RUS	2435	½	1	0	½	0	½	½	0	½	0	*	1	4½	2395
12.	Matveeva, Svetlana	m	RUS	2389	½	0	0	½	1	0	1	½	0	0	0	*	3½	2331

GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, WGM Natalia Pogonina and GM Tatiana Kosintseva will be among the players competing shortly in the 2010 Women's World Chess Championship. 

Here is GM Alexandra Kosteniuk's blog on the final action. 

Prehistoric Star Map in Wales

From stonepages.com

26 November 2010
A prehistoric star map carved on a Welsh capstone?


Cap stone at Trefael. From The Megalithic Portal.

 A recent excavation programme at a standing stone known as Trefael, near Newport (south-west Wales) has revealed that what originally was a portal dolmen in later times was transformed in a standing stone, probably used as a ritual marker to guide communities through a scared landscape.

This solitary stone has over 75 cupmarks gouged onto its upper surface. Following the complete exposure of the capstone through excavation, it is now considered by several astronomers that the distribution of the cupmarks may represent a section of the night sky that includes the star constellations of Cassiopeia, Orion, Sirius and of course the North Star.

Until recently, little was known about this stone. About 40 years ago archaeologists had speculated that it may have once formed a capstone which would have covered a small burial chamber. In order to prove or disprove this, a geophysical survey was undertaken, the results of which revealed the remains of a kidney-shaped anomaly, possibly the remnants of the cairn that would have once surrounded the chamber, with an entrance to the east.

Following this exciting discovery, a targeted excavation confirmed the site to be a portal dolmen, revealing also a significant cairn deposit within the eastern and northern sections of the trench. Uniquely, a clear vertical cut was found in section, running parallel with the dip of the former capstone suggesting that the cairn had been excavated into and the capstone set and packed within the existing cairn, probably used as a standing stone during the Early Bronze Age (c. 2000-1700 cal. BCE) when Western Britain was introduced to a new set of burial-ritual monuments.

Finds were not unexpectedly meagre and included medieval and post-medieval pottery sherds and two Mesolithic shale beads; identical to those found at the nearby Mesolithic coastal settlement of Nab Head.
Further investigations planned for Summer 2011 will include palaeo-environmental sampling in order to assess the later prehistoric landscape setting, a contour survey of the monument and further excavation to the rear of the stone.

Edited from George Nash PR

*****************************************************

More on Trefael, Wales:

Portal dolmen may lie hidden in South West Wales
October, 02 2010

More photos and locational map

Two Shipwrecks Uncovered Half a World Apart

A fascinating find in Stockholm. Story from The Local (Sweden's news in English):

Mystery shipwreck found in central Stockholm
Published: 25 Nov 10 16:33 CET

The remains of a ship dating from the 1600s have been discovered outside the Grand Hotel in central Stockholm.

The vessel was built with an almost completely unknown technology, delighting archaeologists. The planks of the ship are not nailed down, but sewn together with rope.

The discovery was made by labourers close to the royal palace and in front of Stockholm's Grand Hotel during renovation works to a quay.

"The discovery of the wreck is extremely interesting given the place where it was made. There was a naval shipyard on this spot until the start of the 17th century," Maritime Museum director Hans-Lennarth Ohlsson said in a statement.

A couple of weeks ago, an excavator found something unusual in his bucket. Marine archaeologist Jim Hansson at the Maritime Museum was called to Strömkajen below the Grand Hotel, where he quickly realised the value of the sensational find.

"We were super-excited. It may sound a little strange when one finds little excavated pieces of parts of a ship, but I have never seen anything like it," he said.

With the exception of another ship found in 1896, all other shipwrecks uncovered in and around the Stockholm harbour have featured planks that were nailed together.

"We really know nothing about this technique other than that it was used in the east," added Hansson.

Hansson guesses that the ship is from east of the Baltics, possibly from Russia. The ship's position, well into the quay, reveals that it is from the 1600s or earlier. The wreck was not necessarily linked to the yard, however, and archaeologists have been unable to say how long before 1700 it might have sunk.

Marine archaeologists will send samples to Denmark's Copenhagen National Museum for analysis to be dated as precisely as possible, with results expected by January 2011. In addition, they will monitor the rest of the excavation.

"It is pretty damn nervewracking. It is rare that an archaeologist gets to take a part in something like this. One gets to leave the kids at home and stand in a pit of mud at Christmas," Hansson joked.

In 1961, the Vasa, a Swedish warship, was salvaged from just outside Stockholm harbour. The ship, which foundered on her maiden voyage in 1628, was largely intact and has since become one of Sweden's most popular tourist attractions.

TT/AFP/The Local

It's fascinating that this technique of tying the timbers together survived into the 1600s!  Wow, I thought that would have fallen out of favor with the invention of pegs and, later, metal nails.

And this story from China, in The People's Daily Online:

Archeologists unearth ancient sunken ship in E China's Shandong
18:56, November 23, 2010

Archeologists inspect a newly excavated sunken ship of ancient China's Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368) in Heze of east China's Shandong Province, Nov. 23, 2010. Archeologists in Shandong on Tuesday announced that they have discovered an ancient sunken ship of the Yuan Dynasty at a building site in Heze. The wooden ship, with 21 meters in length, 5 meters in width and 1.8 meters in height, contains 10 cabins. Some 110 precious antiques and porcelains have also been discovered in and around the ship. (Xinhua/Fan Changguo)

South Korean Teams Win Two Golds in Weiqi (Go) at the Asian Games

Good for them!

From The Korean Herald
S.Korea wins two golds in team weiqi
2010-11-26 19:56

South Korea's male and female teams won weiqi gold medals on Friday, sweeping the three weiqi gold medals on offer at the Guangzhou Asian Games.

South Korea's five-man team made up of Choi Chul-hwan, Kang Dong-yoon, Lee Chang-ho, Lee Sae-dol and Park Jeong-hwan routed the Chinese team 4-1 in the finals held at Guangzhou Chess Institute in downtown Guangzhou.
(Yonhap News)