Hales Corners Chess Challenge XVIII

Hola darlings!  [Sure hope what follows makes sense -- no guarantee because my proof-reading abilities, always "iffy" at best, sure aren't working tonight.]

I came, I saw, I - well, I got a draw!  LOL!  And it was a good draw too, I think, in R3.  I had the white pieces against a 1300 player (I'm at 603).  More about that later.

I took TWO photographs during the entire tournament -- of the outside of the building! 



Main entrance of tournament site:  Holiday In Express Airport, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Welcome, all Ye, who come willingly into the Maw of the Chess Goddess.  Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha...
[imagine suitable sound effects here, munching and spitting out of bones, for instance].

Below is photo #2 -- my entire cache of photos taken the entire day.  Am I getting senile, do you think???

A view to the southeast from main entrance.  The original forecast today had been to wake up to intermittent showers and possible thunderstorms in the afternoon.  The showers were nowhere in evidence when I awoke a 6 a.m. Got ready and
had a cab to the hotel, arrived about 9:15 or 9:20 a.m.  Checked in with Tom and Robin and then ran outside with
my camera to take these photos, intent on doing an entire day of blog-worthy photos.  The Goddess had other plans for
me today, though.  The weather I travelled through was warm, slightly muggy, and beautiful.  There was some thunder
and rain -- was that during Round 3?  Maybe, because that is the round I scored my draw in.  A sign from Caissa?

The photos above were meant to be the start of a photographic essay on the odessey of my trials and tribulations during Challenge XVIII.  Geez Louise!  Didn't even think to pull out the camera in the skittles room.  I'm usually the photo-taking queen - snapping photos of everything in sight, including coffee carafes and errant score sheets and signs on restrooms and the errant butt-crack or two.  But - not a PHOTO showed up on my antique Nikon this evening.

I'm too tired to check tonight, but I do believe there are a few photos of Ellen Wanek, Janet Ulrich and I on my camera, taken by a passer-by parent or player we asked to "shoot us, please" in the lobby of the hotel prior to the start of R1.  Assuming those photographs do, in fact, exist and I didn't imagine the whole thing (reference my imaginary moves in R3, below), AND I don't look like the Bride of Freddy Krueger in them, I'll publish them tomorrow. 

I stayed for R4.  I already had a bad head-ache but I so wanted to see how it would turn out for everyone, and to see if I could press for a win (gasp!), a draw, or a game I would feel good about my effort despite a loss. Mistake.  I should have just hung out in the skittles room during R4 and not played.  But I didn't.  I had the black pieces in R4 and for some reason, probably because I am just so perverse sometimes, I often manage to play better with the black pieces than with white.  Maybe it's just because I try harder when I have the black pieces.  So I thought I might have another "competitive" game, competitive by my lights, and entered the round with pounding temples and high hopes.

I am rather proud of how I played those first three rounds earlier today.  No excuses, though, for crashing and burning in less than 10 moves in R4.  How embarassing!  As per usual, I did not see the checkmate coming AT ALL.  Arrrggghhhh!

The best news on a personal level is that I never felt close to tears the entire time I was at Challenge XVIII, and I'm happy about that.  I thought it might - could - happen.  Brace yourselves-- and for those of you too young to appreciate true romanticism, or those of you who gag at the slightest hint of l'amour -- DO NOT READ WHAT FOLLOWS!

Last night I watched "Return to Me," on regular old t.v. (no cable or U-Verse in this house).  I watched it 'cuz I had paid to watch it online some years before, in happier days when Mr. Don was still with us, and I was so touched by it.  It is a wonderful romantic movie made in 2000, starring Minnie Driver and David Duchovny ("X-Files"), with a great supporting role of "Grandpa" played by Carroll O'Connor -- and I cried and cried and cried!  Sobbed my butt off (I wish it had actually shed some pounds but, alas, it did not, according to the scale this morning).  Oh yes, I know, how absolutely STOOPID of me to watch Such. A. Film. On. The. Eve. Of. The. Anniversary. Of. Mr. Don's. Death.  Duh, Jan! 

Okay - here's the transcendent part of this uber-emotional experience last night -- I had my patio door open to the temperate evening to let in fresh air while I was working at my dinette table (am I the only person on the planet who still calls that dining space between kitchen and family room a "dinette") and the t.v. playing in the family room, with one eye on the laptop screen and one eye on the t.v. (I have developed ambidexterous eyes over the years...).  Then I started crying as the movie progressed, and then sobbing (loudly) during the happy and sad parts of the movie, and then the squirrels who are nesting in my back yard garden (many trees) started chiming in, too, with their cries, at about 10:30 p.m.

OH MY!  Not kidding -- Quite a sob-fest.  I didn't make a recording, though, to prove it to you, LOL!  (I have no idea how to do that on my now 'ancient' Nikon Coolpix 5600 that has about 3 split seconds worth of recoding time, anyway).  I'm laughing about it now, recounting it in this blog entry, and last night, I was laughing and crying about it at the same time. Those female squirrels who were "singing the blues" with me last night, some of them I've practically fed by hand with nuts since I was first able to entice them to come up to the patio door for a food offering (peanuts and in-shell hazelnuts).

Laugh or Cry!  I didn't shed a tear today.  I talked about Don with Ellen, and with Janet Ulrich, mom to the fabulous chessplayers Anne, Rachel and Susanna, and I was okay - not close to shedding a tear.  I'm so happy to have finally met Janet Ulrich in person -- we had some long chats in the skittles room between rounds.  Jim Ulrich, the head of the family, also played in Challenge XVIII. 

About that draw in R3. OF COURSE I did a "Jan" and somehow managed to add one extra set of moves into the game, geez!  I messed up the moves early -- on move 7.  But fortunately Ellen and I were looking over my score sheet after the game with the intent of playing through the game to see where I might have done better, and we got to the strange moves early.  I checked with Paul Kaye, the young man I had the W pieces against in R3, and we went through our score sheets.  They agreed on the first 6 moves, disagreed on the 7th and 8th sets of moves.  I had one more line of moves (29 versus Mr. Kaye's 28 in all) on my score sheet!  After lines7-8 on my score sheet, and line 7 on Paul's sheet, we agreed on the rest of the moves. 

After puzzling it over in the skittles room with Paul and Ellen, and as well as my fried and aching brain can figure out this evening, it looks like I wrote down a phantom move for my 7th move with white, wrote down my actual move with white under Paul's (black) move on line 7, wrote down another bogus move for me (white) on line 8, and recorded the correct move for Paul (Knight to d7) under black on line 8. 

On my score sheet, from move 9 down, our notations match. This was line 8 on Paul's scoresheet.  I'll scan it here tomorrow showing my notations and scribbles after consulting with Paul.  See what you think.

HOW ON EARTH DOES THIS HAPPEN?  No, I did NOT have my camera out or have to go to the bathroom (I am careful to always visit the Ladies' Room a few minutes before I seat myself for the ensuing round) and thus got distracted...

Of the three games I felt I played with my best effort, I was happy with them (in terms of  thinking about my moves, not worrying about time on the clock but trying to think things through before making a move that looked good on the surface but was a death in a move or two, trying to plot out alternative strategies and "what-ifs," trying to make my pieces dance, and trying to make sure all my pieces were protected -- I have about a thousand years worth of work still to do on THAT).  Game 4 - no tears shed.  I disregarded my own intuition regarding my physical limitations to play, and I paid the price for it.  Lesson learned.  Over, and over, and over again...  Hmmm.  Well, I'm nothing if not persistent...

More tomorrow, or possily later this evening, because at last the pounding in my head and the pains in my temples and between my eyes is starting to decrease.  Unfortunately, the only pain reliever that I can take while on Warfarin (Coumadin) -- blood thinner -- is Tylenol, and the only Tylenol I had in the house tonight was two sample capsules received in the mail, in April 1991.  Holy Hathor!  Talk about frugal, geez! 

Controversial Evidence that People Were in the Americas 30,000 Years Ago

Ho ho ho and a gourd of rum, and some chickens, and who knows how long it took, but they got here, they got here.  This is a subject I find absolutely fascinating.  Enjoy!  Oh - ignore the classic come-on about sex -- I saw a faint depiction of what could possibly be a depiction of some sexual activity, but it's so faint one would need special equipment to make it out.  Besides, we know that humankind engaged in sexual activity else we wouldn't be here :)

Prehistoric Brazil artifacts star in exhibit, spark debate
By Yana MarullOctober 9, 2013 4:24 AM

Brasília (AFP) - It's no secret humans have been having sex for millennia -- but recently discovered cave art suggests they were doing it in the Americas much earlier than many archeologists believed.

A new exhibit in Brazil showcases artifacts dating as far back as 30,000 years ago -- throwing a wrench in the commonly held theory humans first crossed to the Americas from Asia a mere 12,000 years ago. The 100 items on display in Brasilia, including cave paintings and ceramic art, depict animals, ceremonies, hunting expeditions -- and even scenes from the sex lives of this ancient group of early Americans.

The artifacts come from the Serra da Capivara national park in Brazil's northeastern Piaui state, on the border of the Amazon and Atlantic Forests, which attracted the hunter-gatherer civilization that left behind this hoard of local art. Since the 1970s, Franco-Brazilian archaeologist Niede Guidon has headed a mission to carry out large-scale excavation of Piaui's interior. "It's difficult to think there exists a site anywhere with a higher concentration of cave art," the 80-year-old Guidon told AFP.

Many paths led to Americas

Other traces of the civilization include charcoal remains of structured fires, explained Guidon, who hails from Sao Paulo.

"To date, these are the oldest traces" of human existence in the Americas, she emphasized.
The widely held theory has suggested human beings only reached the Americas some 12,000 years ago from Asia, crossing the Bering Strait to reach Alaska.

Some archeologists contend flaked pebbles at the Brazilian sites are not evidence of a crude, human-made fire hearth made some 40 millennia ago, but are rather geofacts -- a natural stone formation, not a man-made one.

But Guidon said she believes the Serra dwellers may have come originally from Africa, and she said the cave art provides compelling evidence of early human activity.

The paintings are estimated to date back some 29,000 years, she said, noting: "When it began in Europe and Africa, it did here too."

Other sites, including Valsequillo in Mexico and Monte Verde in Chile, also indicate the presence of communities tens of thousands of years ago. These sites have led archeologists to speculate that peoples traveled various routes to reach the Americas and at different stages, archeologist Gisele Daltrini Felice told AFP.

In search of tourists

UNESCO conferred World Heritage status on the Serra da Capivara in 1991, but tourists remain thin on the ground, which frustrates Guidon.

"After putting in a great amount of effort (to promote the site) we are up to 20,000 visitors a year," the archeologist said.

But "World Heritage sites get millions, and we are prepared to receive millions," she added.
The interior of the Piaui region is marked by widespread poverty, which has much to gain from tourism, Guidon stressed.

But resources are lacking to promote the attractions in a remote corner of the giant nation, she said. The nearest city is the modest town of Sao Raimundo Nonato, which has spent years trying to have an airport built.

The EU is promoting both the new exhibit as well as a swath of conferences on the area under the auspices of UNESCO, Brazil's Institute of Parks and the country's Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage.

"The idea is to promote cultural, historic and nature-based tourism in order to aid the development of areas adjoining Brazil's major parks -- and especially the Serra da Capivara, which has the most modern infrastructure," with 172 sites to visit, said Jerome Poussielgue, European Union cooperation and development officer for Brazil.

And the foundation behind research into the park is backing development projects -- including a ceramics factory that reproduces images of the cave art, a program aimed at giving local women work experience.

"We would like to help in the development of a region where women suffer hugely from violence," says Guidon.

GM Jesse Kraai - Writer

Hola darlings!  Well, I practically fell off this chair (no, it does not resemble a bar stool) earlier this evening when I was scrolling through about 100 emails (when did I get so popular?) and I saw one from Jesse Kraai.

I went - WHAT?  Maybe my eyes bugged out a little, too, you know, like the cartoons -- BOIIINNNGG!

Then I thought, nah, that can't possibly be an email from GM Jesse Kraai.  Why on earth would he be writing to me?  But, turns out, I was dead wrong about that.  HOLY HATHOR!

Well, maybe he's written to half the female chess bloggers on the face of the earth, but that's okay.  What he asked was if I'd be interested in reviewing his new novel - about a young chess femme who learns the game under the tutelage of a Russian chessmaster.  It was a story he had to write. 

I mean, come on, how could I possibly resist?  Of course I said yes, send me the book at once, you understand - at once!  Nah, I wasn't quite that demanding.  I do have good manners on occasion and Grandma Newton would be proud of me, I brought them out tonight. 

So, I'm excited about this new project I've accepted.  It has been many moons since I've done a chess book review and this is the time of year in southeastern Wisconsin where settling in with a good book before the fireplace would be a perfect way to spend a few chilly afternoons on a weekend.

I quickly visited the link to the website Jesse sent me, and read this little tease of a post (really Jesse? One teensy-weensy post?  Give us something more please!) -- excerpted here:

The chess pieces knew how they moved. They knew what they wanted too.

and thought - OHMYGODDESS!  How on earth could he possibly know that THAT is exactly how I feel about chess and how it SHOULD work for a player who has IT, and how much I want to have IT and see those pieces dancing around the chessboard like the ibau that the ancient Egyptians called their boardgame pieces -- a pun on their words for dancers (ibau) and ivory (ebou, ebu, abu) .

Brooklyn Museum:  A partial gameboard of 30 squares (a/k/a Senet) and two different types of ibau, these made
of Egyptian faience, not ivory (ebou), as the earliest gaming pieces were carved from c. 5000 years ago. Taken in
May, 2009 during our second trip to New York. 

Of course chess pieces have a mind of their own!  Just ask me when a rook (most recent game against William, a pick-up game at chess.com) or a bishop (a game a week or so ago with my chess buddy Shira Evans Sanford) just seem so damn determined to HANG THEMSELVES.  They just dance right over to the absolutely worst square on the board they could possibly pick, and laugh about it, rubbing their teeny little hands together in glee thinking how brilliantly they are performing.  No vision of the Big Bad Wolf with super-long blood-coated teeth just waiting to chomp them down ever enters into their vision, nope. 

Of course, those players who have IT, their pieces never have the thought of hanging themselves; they move about the board on angels' wings, like feathers, touching here, a toe there, a turn, a lunge, a pirouette and poof, there goes your Rook, white pieces, ha!  And it's checkmate in three and YOU don't see it coming for a change.  Ah yes, the stuff I dream about at night.  Do you know how damn frustrating it is, playing such chess in your dreams, only to turn into the Ash Girl, or in my case, old enough to be an Ash Grandma, in the morning?  I have not been able to shut down the chess dreams. May as well deliberately try and stop my own heart beating.  Ach!  I can truly say with what wisdom I have  garnered over 62 years that I sympathize with those chessplayers who have gone off the deep end when, like The Red Shoes, the ibau never stop dancing...

Jesse, are you going to turn this into a series, like a chessly Hermione Granger?  We need a better role model than Beth Harmon, Walter Bevis' creation -- and I only re-read his book five times, couldn't get enough of Beth and that fantastic, wonderful, glorious chess she played. Can't wait to meet Lisa! 

Listen to me - the book hasn't even been put into the mail yet.  Maybe Jesse will change his mind and decide he doesn't want me reviewing his book after all...

Okay, peoples, forget you read this blog post!

Crazy...

Hola darlings!

This Saturday is Hales Corners Chess Challenge XVIII in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  The Hales Corners Chess Challenges are put together and sponsored by my adopted chess club, Southwest Chess Club (formerly known as Southwest Chess Club of Hales Corners) and are held in April and October each year. 

As you may know, Goddesschess has provided sponsorship to the Hales Corners Challenges since Challenge XVIII.  Now, it's Challenge XVIII.  How quickly the time has passed.

Our last time spent together (we were separated by a thousand miles and world apart...) was for a glorious week in Madrid in January 2012.  Then, we both fell ill, diagnosed with the same heart ailment (atrial fibrilation, me with some extra complications) within a few days of each other.  Don received first class treatment in Montreal and had been on the road to recovery by the beginning of August, 2012, but he passed away unexpectedly on October 12, 2012.
 

The photo above is one that was taken of Don at his home in Montreal a few months before we left for Spain in January, 2012.  He called himself  "Pallid'un," a spoof after the old television series that most of you are too young to remember, "Have Gun, Will Travel," and the "hero" of the series was "Will Palladin."  LOL!  He was a handsome/homely man, Just like Don.  In the photo, Don is holding an Avon "White Queen" he'd picked up at a rummage sale.  He brought that Queen to me here in Milwaukee in December, 2011.  We celebrated a late Christmas and New Year's together before departing to Madrid the first week of January, 2012.  That was our last person-to-person time together. 

How does one recover from the unexpected loss of a loved one?  I don't know that one can, really.  I had registered to play in Hales Corners Chess Challenge XVI.  GM Josh Friedel was playing in that event, and I so wanted to meet him, one of our few American-made GMs, but it was held on October 20, 2012 and I was, to put it simply, not up to the challenge.  No pun intended.

My adopted chess club was so great!  I received a personal note and autograph from GM Friedel on the back of a Challenge XVI flyer, and the chess femmes had group photos taken just for moi.  I was so touched, moved to tears.  Below is a photo of the FOUR chess femmes who played in the Open in Challenge XVI:

They're so beautiful!  And below is a photo of the NINE chess femmes who played in the Reserve section in Challenge XVII:

Equally beautiful! 

I did not play in Challenge XVII in April, 2013, but I promised that I would play in Challenge XVIII.

WHAT WAS I THINKING????

I started "training" -- my version of it anyway, LOL!  That meant playing game after game after game at chess.com, with my chess buddies and a few against strangers (one of whom was an obvious cheat) from April through this evening and still going on, and losing game after game after game.  My chess buddy Shira Sanford, formerly Shira Evans, who played with me in one of the Hales Corners Challenges (Holy Hathor, that was back in October, 2010) and who, at her peak, had a rating over 1700, told me I was improving. 

I sure the heck hope I look better now than I did in that photo above, and that was before I was diagnosed with my heart conditions, yikes!

So did another chess buddy, Ellen Wanek, who teaches chess in school programs and is a mover-and-shaker behind Chess in the Park in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.  My recollection is that I met Ellen online after I emailed her about an online article I'd about her participation in the Sheboygan program, and then she came to play in one of the Challenges, and has come to every single one since then!  Ellen told me that I've improved too.  Here we are, yucking it up with some of the other chess femmes at Challenge -- I forget -- it was October, 2011.  Ellen and I are on the left side of the table:

Love Shira and love Ellen.  I think I have seen some miniscule improvement in my play, but I'm a million miles away from prime time. 

I hemmed and hawed the past few months about actually playing in Challenge XVIII.  YES, I started out with the intent to play when I was feeling particularly healthy in April, but as time went on and some health set-backs, I just didn't think it would happen. Challenge XVIII coincides with the first anniversary of Mr. Don's death, and as the time got closer and closer, I've been getting rather emotional. Not that those emotions have ever been far from the surface.  Far from it!

I was afraid. Oh, not of playing crappy chess, cuz I generally do that with no outside interference.  No, I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to deal with the stress.  My physical stamina has been an issue for some years even before all this heart stuff started, and let me tell you, darlings, when you have a heart that will NOT behave despite procedures and strong meds, that saps the strength out of you and makes you feel cold all the damn time well, that's just the pits, and that's the truth.  What if I collapsed or, even worse, broke down in tears in front of everyone?

I had actually informed Tom F. that I was not going to play, and began to make arrangements with him to pick up the Goddesschess gift bags that, for the last few Challenges, have been given to the top finishing female in each of the Open and Reserve sections.  But I decided last Saturday after a sort of epiphany during a semi-nap on the sofa while that thunderstorm (I'm sure a lot of you heard it) rolled through our environs between about 2 and 3 p.m., that I needed to play and I must play and I would play.  STOP THE THUNDER AND LIGHTNING ALREADY, I GET IT, I GET IT.  Message from the Chess Goddess received, loud and clear.  Geez. 

So, I'm playing this Saturday.  Guess what - it's supposed to be rainy that day.  Oh oh - that means SHE is going to be hanging around making sure I give my best effort.  How many of you can say you're going to be playing chess with the threat of a Goddess wrought typhoon hanging over your head if you don't give it your all? 

Be there or be round.  As a special one-off prize for this event only, I'm giving a $100 gift card to the top male finisher in the Open and a $50 gift card to the top male finisher in the Reserve, after tie-breaks and all that stuff that I will never understand if I live to be 100. 

Hales Corners Chess Challenge XVIII

Hola darlings!

Don't delay, please register to play today!  Please come out -- especially chess femmes -- and support this great local event in southeastern Wisconsin sponsored by the Southwest Chess Club.  Can we break a chess femme participating players record this year - please please please!

Veterans of the Hales Corners Chess Challenges know that each event is worth 10 USCF Grand Prix and (I believe) 10 USCF Junior Grand Prix points!  I copied the info below directly from an email the other day from my adopted chess club, Southwest Chess Club:

The event will be held at the Holiday Inn Express Airport Hotel (near Milwaukee airport: 1400 W. Zellman Court-Milwaukee-414-563-4000). Note - this is a new location-- just across the street from our last two events, HCC XVII and MSC-II! Mention Southwest Chess Club for $89 room rate. We hope you will attend this major regional event, which is a part of the USCF Grand Prix (with 10 Grand Prix points) and also a JGP (Junior Grand Prix) Event. You can print the attached flyer, or use the text-formatted version at the bottom of this email, or print the online version .

Watch for pre-registration news on our blog, and also round-by-round pairings and news while the tournament is in progress.

Some event highlights:

Several regional Masters and Experts are expected to participate. So far, FM Alex Betaneli and NMs Bill Williams and Ben Smail have registered! (Currently, we have 25 pre-registered players, but expect 70-80 total).

Goddesschess Prizes for Females in Addition to Above Prizes, Open: $40 per win/$20 per draw; Reserve: $20 per win/$10 per draw. Highest-scoring female in each section wins free entry into Hales Corners Challenge XIX, April 12, 2014.

Goddesschess is also offering a Best Game prize ($50!), open to any player in either section.

Life Master Sheldon Gelbart will be on hand throughout the tournament analyzing games for tournament participants.

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

 

Hales Corners Challenge XVIII

Sponsored by The Southwest Chess Club

http://www.southwestchessclub.com

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Two Sections – Open & Reserve (Under 1600)

FORMAT: Four Round Swiss System - Four Games in One Day

USCF Rated

TIME CONTROL: Game in 60 Minutes; 6 second delay

ENTRY FEE: $40 – Open; $30 – Reserve

(both sections $5 more after October 10, 2013)

Comp Entry Fee for USCF 2200+: Entry fee subtracted from any prizes won

SITE REGISTRATION: 8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.

ROUNDS: 10 am -- 1 pm -- 3:30 pm -- 6 pm

Pairings by WinTD---No Computer Entries---No Smoking

PRIZES

OPEN RESERVE

1st— $325 1st —$100

2nd— $175 2nd —$75

A— $100 D —$50

B & Below —$75 E & Below —$40

Goddesschess Prizes for Females in Addition to Above Prizes

Open: $40 per win/$20 per draw; Reserve: $20 per win/$10 per draw

Tournament Director: Tom Fogec

Assistant Tournament Directors: Robin Grochowski & Allen Becker

SITE: Holiday Inn Express Airport Hotel—, 1400 W. Zellman Ct., Milwaukee, WI 414-563-4000.

(mention Southwest Chess Club for $89 room rate)

ENTRIES TO: Allen Becker--2130 N. 85th Street, Wauwatosa, WI 53226

allenbecker@wi.rr.com

QUESTIONS TO: Tom Fogec--414-405-4207 (cell)

USCF I.D. Required -- Bring your own clocks – Sets and Boards Provided

Half point bye available in Round 1, 2 or 3 if requested prior to round 1; not available in Round 4.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Checks payable to Southwest Chess Club

(Please indicate section desired) __Open Section __Reserve Section

Name: __________________________________________________

USCF ID#: ________________ Rating: _________ Expire Date: ___________

Address: ______________________________________

City: _____________________ State: _______ Zip: _________

Phone: __________________ e-mail Address: _______________________

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

I love how Allen Becker put the Goddesschess part in pretty pink :)  LOL!  And, to spread a little love around, I've put up $50 for a best game prize for which players of both genders can submit their games.

Just in case the links above don't work, here's the registration form that you can print off.  You can also register on site on the day of Challenge XVIII between 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. 

Goddesschess has provided special prizes to the Hales Corners Chess Challenges since Challenge XVIII.  My my, how time flies!  I personally have played in a few and while absolutely daunting and exhausting, darlings, whew! -- these events were so much fun for me, too.  And I've met so many wonderful people along the way. 

You can check out the latest news on Challenge XVIII at the Southwest Chess Club's blog. 

2013 FIDE Women's Grand Prix: Tashkent

GM Koneru Humpy (IND 2607) took clear first place with 8.0/11 -- and I'm very happy for her (I've been following her career since 2001, seems forever!)  Her compatriot, GM Harika Dronavalli (IND 2475) finished in 4th place with 7.5/11.  IM Bela Khotenashvili continues to impress, and I've been a fan of GM Kateryna Lahno (now they're spelling it Lagno) for a long time.  Here are the final standings:

FIDE WGP Tashkent Tashkent UZB (UZB), 18-30 ix 2013															cat. X (2479)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2
1.	Koneru, Humpy	g	IND	2607	*	0	½	½	1	1	1	½	1	½	1	1	8	2641
2.	Khotenashvili, Bela	m	GEO	2514	1	*	½	0	1	0	0	1	½	1	1	1	7	2577
3.	Lagno, Kateryna	g	UKR	2532	½	½	*	½	0	½	1	½	1	1	½	1	7	2575
4.	Harika, Dronavalli	g	IND	2475	½	1	½	*	0	½	0	1	1	½	1	½	6½	2543
5.	Zhao, Xue	g	CHN	2579	0	0	1	1	*	0	1	1	0	1	1	½	6½	2534
6.	Ju, Wenjun	wg	CHN	2535	0	1	½	½	1	*	½	½	½	1	0	½	6	2509
7.	Kosteniuk, Alexandra	g	RUS	2495	0	1	0	1	0	½	*	0	½	½	1	1	5½	2477
8.	Girya, Olga	wg	RUS	2439	½	0	½	0	0	½	1	*	½	½	1	1	5½	2482
9.	Danielian, Elina	g	ARM	2470	0	½	0	0	1	½	½	½	*	½	½	1	5	2443
10.	Stefanova, Antoaneta	g	BUL	2496	½	0	0	½	0	0	½	½	½	*	1	1	4½	2411
11.	Muminova, Nafisa	wg	UZB	2293	0	0	½	0	0	1	0	0	½	0	*	1	3	2320
12.	Nakhbayeva, Guliskhan	wg	KAZ	2307	0	0	0	½	½	½	0	0	0	0	0	*	1½	2185

I got the information, above, from The Week in Chess. For round by round action, results, interviews, and lots of photographs, please visit the official website.

The 12th women's world chess champion, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, finished at 50%. Here she is looking splendiferous at the closing ceremonies:

 

GM Kosteniuk is now playing in the 63rd Russian Women's Championship in Nizhny Novgorod (Russia) (October 5 - 14, 2013), with little time to travel from place to place and rest up in between events.

I really like the photo below -- two players, including the winner GM Koneru Humpy, showed up in jeans -- she looks good in jeans.  The chess femmes, as always, range from very attractive to stunningly beautiful.  Check out GM Kateryna Lahno's red heels!  GM Antoaneta Stefanova showed a lot of leg in a dress vaguely resembling a Greek toga.  (Stefanova is scheduled to play in the 3rd Indonesia Open Chess Championship October 9 - 18, 2013 in Jakarta). I was most impressed, though, by GM Elina Danielian in her perfectly fitted and styled "little black dress."  She is looking trimmer and toned and fabulous.

So, what's next on the Women's Grand Prix agenda?

2013 play is finished.  There are three scheduled events in 2014, and in Grand Prix tournaments 3 and 4, GM Koneru Humpy and GM Hou Yifan will once again compete against each other.  Check out the events table below:

Women's Grand Prix Series 2013-2014

Monday, 01 July 2013

Each invitee selects 4 events, and her best three scores are totaled to determine the final rankings for the cycle.  The next event is Khanty Masiysk (I never spell it correctly, I think of it as Kamsky Mansky). 

Old Genetic Link Between Mesopotamia and India

Visit Plosone.org for the much more technical (made my eyes cross) original research article:  mtDNA from the Early Bronze Age to the Roman Period Suggests a Genetic Link between the Indian Subcontinent and Mesopotamian Cradle of Civilization

From Past Horizons

Genetic link shown between Indian subcontinent and Mesopotamia

Article created on Thursday, September 26, 2013

The continuing debate regarding the origins of people inhabiting ancient Mesopotamia during the region’s long history led the authors of a new report published in the Open Access journal PLoS ONE to attempt an isolation and analysis of mtDNA sequences from the area.

Distribution of haplogroup L of Y-Chromosome – Possible time of origin 25,000-30,000 years BP. Image. Wikimedia
This image does not seem to have anything to do with the information discussed in this article -- mtDNA haplotypes corresponding to the M4b1, M49 and/or M61 haplogroups, unless the population that contained the "haplogroup L of Y-Chromosome" also contained the particular mtDNA haplotypes discussed in the article.  But for illustrative purposes
to demonstrate the range and relative degree of appearance of a particular haplogroup geographically, it sure is interesting.

Origins of populations

Ancient DNA methodology was applied to analyse sequences extracted from freshly unearthed remains (teeth) of 4 individuals deeply deposited in the slightly alkaline soil of Tell Ashara (ancient Terqa) and Tell Masaikh (ancient Kar-Assurnasirpal) – Syrian archaeological sites, both in the middle Euphrates valley.

Research was also carried out by another team (Sołtysiak et al 2013) examining fifty-nine dental non-metric traits on a sample of teeth from 350 human skeletons excavated at three sites in the lower middle Euphrates valley. This showed a stable population until after the Mongolian invasion which resulted in a large depopulation of northern Mesopotamia in the 13th century CE. The final major change occurred during the 17th century with Bedouin tribes arriving from the Arabian Peninsula.

Difficult procedure

Although it is not possible with DNA analysis to reconstruct the details of an individual’s life, it can provide insights into his/her ancestry. In ideal conditions, the fossil sequences are isolated from remains unearthed in permafrost or temperate regions and only in rare circumstances from skeletal material found in a subtropical arid climate, as it is suspected that the potential is highly limited in such cases.

Thus, only scarce datasets from the Mesopotamia region are available, but using ancient DNA methodology, the team were able to confirm the possibility of isolating amplifiable sequences from the skeletons under just such challenging conditions. In the case of one of the studied specimens the researchers analysed both mtDNA and nuDNA sequences.

Three others were analysed only to confirm their origin on the basis of HVR-I sequence. Studied remains were excavated at two archaeological sites in the middle Euphrates valley and dated between the Early Bronze Age and the Late Roman period (between 2500 BCE and 500 CE).

Origins in the Indian subcontinent

The studied individuals carried mtDNA haplotypes corresponding to the M4b1, M49 and/or M61 haplogroups, which are believed to have arisen in the area of the Indian subcontinent during the Upper Palaeolithic and are absent in people living today in Syria. However, these same haplogroups are present in people inhabiting today’s Tibet, Himalayas, India and Pakistan.

The suggestion is that these analysed remains from Mesopotamia belonged to people with a genetic affinity to the Indian subcontinent as the distribution of identified ancient haplotypes indicates a solid link with populations from the region of South Asia-Tibet (Trans-Himalaya).

This may represent either that the individuals are descendants of migrants from much earlier times (Palaeolithic), spreading the clades of the macrohaplogroup M throughout Eurasia and founding regional Mesopotamian groups like that of Terqa, or they are from merchants moving along trade routes passing near or through the region.

The obtained data has enriched the modest database of Mesopotamian ancient DNA and suggests a possible genetic link of the region with the Indian subcontinent in the past. There are no traces in the modern Syrian population, which is explainable as the dental study showed, by later depopulation and recolonisation, but opens up the possibilities of further work to examine the routes of both populations and civilisations.

PLoS ONE. Genetic link shown between Indian subcontinent and Mesopotamia. Past Horizons. September 26, 2013, from http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/09/2013/genetic-link-shown-between-indian-subcontinent-and-mesopotamia

Volcano Responsible for "Little Ice Age" May Have Been Identified

This is fascinating!

From Science Now

Source of Mysterious Medieval Eruption Identified

1 October 2013 4:45 pm

 

About 750 years ago, a powerful volcano erupted somewhere on Earth, kicking off a centuries-long cold snap known as the Little Ice Age. Identifying the volcano responsible has been tricky. Now, using geochemical, stratigraphic, and even historical data, a team of scientists has fingered a likely culprit: Indonesia’s Samalas volcano, part of the Rinjani Volcanic Complex on Lombok Island.

The Little Ice Age has been abundantly depicted in contemporary accounts of advancing mountain glaciers that destroyed villages and paintings of ice-skating on frozen Dutch canals or on London’s River Thames, but the date of its actual onset was uncertain. Chilling of the Northern Hemisphere was pronounced: cold summers, incessant rains, floods, and resulting poor harvests, according to medieval records.

That a powerful volcano erupted somewhere in the world, sometime in the Middle Ages, is written in polar ice cores in the form of layers of sulfate deposits and tiny shards of volcanic glass. These cores suggest that the amount of sulfur the mystery volcano sent into the stratosphere put it firmly among the ranks of the strongest climate-perturbing eruptions of the current geological epoch, the Holocene, a period that stretches from 10,000 years ago to the present. A haze of stratospheric sulfur cools climate by reflecting solar energy back into space.

In 2012, a team of scientists led by geochemist Gifford Miller of the University of Colorado, Boulder, strengthened the link between the mystery eruption and the onset of the Little Ice Age by using radiocarbon dating of dead plant material from beneath the ice caps on Baffin Island and Iceland, as well as ice and sediment core data, to determine that the cold summers and ice growth began abruptly between 1275 and 1300 C.E. (and became intensified between 1430 and 1455 C.E.). Such a sudden onset, they noted in Geophysical Research Letters in 2012, pointed to a huge volcanic eruption injecting sulfur into the stratosphere and starting the cooling. Subsequent, unusually large and frequent eruptions of other volcanoes, as well as sea-ice/ocean feedbacks persisting long after the aerosols have been removed from the atmosphere, may have prolonged the cooling through the 1700s. [I wonder how many people died from famine and/or malnutrition either directly or indirectly, e.g., a person weakened by chronic hunger might have a compromised immune system compared to someone well fed.] 

Volcanologist Franck Lavigne of the Université Paris in and colleagues now think they’ve identified the volcano in question: Indonesia’s Samalas. One line of evidence, they note this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is historical records. According to Babad Lombok, records of the island written on palm leaves in Old Javanese, Samalas erupted catastrophically before the end of the 13th century, devastating surrounding villages—including Lombok’s capital at the time, Pamatan—with ash and fast-moving sweeps of hot rock and gas called pyroclastic flows.
The researchers then began to reconstruct the formation of the large, 800-meter-deep caldera that now sits atop the volcano. They examined 130 outcrops on the flanks of the volcano, exposing sequences of pumice—ash hardened into rock—and other pyroclastic material. The volume of ash deposited, and the estimated height of the eruption plume (43 kilometers above sea level) put the eruption’s magnitude at a minimum of 7 on the volcanic explosivity index (which has a scale of 1 to 8)—making it one of the largest known in the Holocene. The eruption, the authors note, was on the scale of the Tambora eruption of 1815, and more powerful than Krakatoa in 1883.

The team also performed radiocarbon analyses on carbonized tree trunks and branches buried within the pyroclastic deposits to confirm the date of the eruption; it could not, they concluded, have happened before 1257 C.E., and certainly happened in the 13th century.

It’s not a total surprise that an Indonesian volcano might be the source of the eruption, Miller says. “An equatorial eruption is more consistent with the apparent climate impacts.” And, he adds, with sulfate appearing in both polar ice caps—Arctic and Antarctic—there is “a strong consensus” that this also supports an equatorial source.

Another possible candidate—both in terms of timing and geographical location—is Ecuador’s Quilotoa, estimated to have last erupted between 1147 and 1320 C.E. But when Lavigne’s team examined shards of volcanic glass from this volcano, they found that they didn’t match the chemical composition of the glass found in polar ice cores, whereas the Samalas glass is a much closer match. That, they suggest, further strengthens the case that Samalas was responsible for the medieval “year without summer” in 1258 C.E.

Oh My, Oh My...President Obama to the Republican Caucus: Kiss My Grits

I think this song pretty much says it all...

Brooklyn Castle to Air on PBS!!!!!

Hola Darlings!

I received the news tonight from the Wisconsin Scholastic Chess Federation:

Brooklyn Castle will have its national broadcast premiere on October 7, at 10pm on PBS’s award winning POV series. As first time filmmakers,  it is truly an honor to have our film be part of this outstanding documentary series, television's longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films. You can check your local PBS listings here to find out what time the film is airing in your city. And if you’re interested in hosting a premiere party or organizing a free public screening in your community you can download a screening toolkit, a movie poster, flyers and email reminders here – everything you need to keep the conversation about Brooklyn Castle going strong. Please tell your friends, family, and colleagues who have not yet seen the film to mark their calendars and to set their DVR’s for October 7, at 10pm!  More. 

Awesome!  I will be glued to my t.v. to watch this film. 

Want to read about some of the wonderful things this chess program has done for its kids over the years?  Please read "The Kings of New York" - by Michael Weinreb, an absolutely excellent book!  And to read about someone's firsthand (and ongoing) experience as a chess coach for some of the young chessplayers at IS 318, please visit Elizabeth Vicary Spiegel's blog. 

FIDE Women's Grand Prix: Tashkent

Tashkent!  Brings to mind exotic open markets, the scent of spices, mysterious beauties and gorgeous fabrics.  I've never been there, but that is what the name conjures up.

This Women's Grand Prix began on September 17 and runs through October 5, 2013.  This event hosts some of the top female chessplayers in the world.  You can find lots of information and photographs at the official website. 

Here are the current standings:

Rank after round 8
Rank	SNo.		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pts	vict	SB.
1	2	GM	Koneru Humpy	2607	IND	*	0.5	0.5		1		1	0.5	1	1	1		6.5	5	24,25
2	5	GM	Dronavalli Harika	2475	IND	0.5	*	0.5	1	0.5	1		0.5			1	0.5	5.5	3	22,25
3	3	GM	Lagno Kateryna	2532	UKR	0.5	0.5	*		0.5	0.5		1	0.5	1	1		5.5	3	21,25
4	8	IM	Khotenashvili Bela	2514	GEO		0		*	0	1	1		1	0	0.5	1	4.5	4	13,50
5	11	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2535	CHN	0	0.5	0.5	1	*		1	1	0			0.5	4.5	3	17,75
6	10	WGM	Girya Olga	2439	RUS		0	0.5	0		*	0	0.5	1	1		1	4	3	12,00
7	7	GM	Zhao Xue	2579	CHN	0			0	0	1	*		1	1	0	0.5	3.5	3	10,75
8	4	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2496	BUL	0.5	0.5	0		0	Ѕ		*		0.5	0.5	1	3.5	1	12,50
9	6	WGM	Muminova Nafisa	2293	UZB	0		0.5	0	1	0	0		*		0.5	1	3	2	10,25
10	12	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2495	RUS	0		0	1		0	0	0.5		*	0.5	1	3	2	9,25
11	1	GM	Danielian Elina	2470	ARM	0	0	0	0.5			1	0.5	0.5	0.5	*		3	1	10,50
12	9	WGM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	2307	KAZ		0.5		0	0.5	0	0.5	0	0	0		*	1.5	0	6,75

The Indian players are holding tight right now to the top two spots.  With three games to go, will Koneru and Dronavalli be able to hold off the competition?  They each have some tough games still to play. Dronavalli, a veteran at Women's Grand Prix events at her young age, will put up a strong fight to hold her position. It is my impression that she seems to play better when she feels her back is against the wall. Koneru is more of a puzzle.  She sometimes appears prone to nerves.  I'll be following toward the conclusion as time permits.

So, how did the women get to their current standings?  Here are round-by-round results:

Round 1 on 2013/09/18
SNo.		Name	Rtg	Res.		Name	Rtg	SNo.
1	GM	Danielian Elina	2470	½ - ½	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2495	12
2	GM	Koneru Humpy	2607	1 - 0	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2535	11
3	GM	Lagno Kateryna	2532	½ - ½	WGM	Girya Olga	2439	10
4	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2496	1 - 0	WGM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	2307	9
5	GM	Dronavalli Harika	2475	1 - 0	IM	Khotenashvili Bela	2514	8
6	WGM	Muminova Nafisa	2293	0 - 1	GM	Zhao Xue	2579	7
Round 2 on 2013/09/19
SNo.		Name	Rtg	Res.		Name	Rtg	SNo.
12	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2495	0 - 1	GM	Zhao Xue	2579	7
8	IM	Khotenashvili Bela	2514	1 - 0	WGM	Muminova Nafisa	2293	6
9	WGM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	2307	½ - ½	GM	Dronavalli Harika	2475	5
10	WGM	Girya Olga	2439	½ - ½	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2496	4
11	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2535	½ - ½	GM	Lagno Kateryna	2532	3
1	GM	Danielian Elina	2470	0 - 1	GM	Koneru Humpy	2607	2
Round 3 on 2013/09/20
SNo.		Name	Rtg	Res.		Name	Rtg	SNo.
2	GM	Koneru Humpy	2607	1 - 0	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2495	12
3	GM	Lagno Kateryna	2532	1 - 0	GM	Danielian Elina	2470	1
4	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2496	0 - 1	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2535	11
5	GM	Dronavalli Harika	2475	1 - 0	WGM	Girya Olga	2439	10
6	WGM	Muminova Nafisa	2293	1 - 0	WGM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	2307	9
7	GM	Zhao Xue	2579	0 - 1	IM	Khotenashvili Bela	2514	8
Round 4 on 2013/09/21
SNo.		Name	Rtg	Res.		Name	Rtg	SNo.
12	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2495	1 - 0	IM	Khotenashvili Bela	2514	8
9	WGM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	2307	½ - ½	GM	Zhao Xue	2579	7
10	WGM	Girya Olga	2439	1 - 0	WGM	Muminova Nafisa	2293	6
11	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2535	½ - ½	GM	Dronavalli Harika	2475	5
1	GM	Danielian Elina	2470	½ - ½	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2496	4
2	GM	Koneru Humpy	2607	½ - ½	GM	Lagno Kateryna	2532	3
Round 5 on 2013/09/23
SNo.		Name	Rtg	Res.		Name	Rtg	SNo.
3	GM	Lagno Kateryna	2532	1 - 0	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2495	12
4	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2496	½ - ½	GM	Koneru Humpy	2607	2
5	GM	Dronavalli Harika	2475	1 - 0	GM	Danielian Elina	2470	1
6	WGM	Muminova Nafisa	2293	1 - 0	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2535	11
7	GM	Zhao Xue	2579	1 - 0	WGM	Girya Olga	2439	10
8	IM	Khotenashvili Bela	2514	1 - 0	WGM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	2307	9
Round 6 on 2013/09/24
SNo.		Name	Rtg	Res.		Name	Rtg	SNo.
12	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2495	1 - 0	WGM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	2307	9
10	WGM	Girya Olga	2439	0 - 1	IM	Khotenashvili Bela	2514	8
11	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2535	1 - 0	GM	Zhao Xue	2579	7
1	GM	Danielian Elina	2470	½ - ½	WGM	Muminova Nafisa	2293	6
2	GM	Koneru Humpy	2607	½ - ½	GM	Dronavalli Harika	2475	5
3	GM	Lagno Kateryna	2532	1 - 0	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2496	4
Round 7 on 2013/09/25
SNo.		Name	Rtg	Res.		Name	Rtg	SNo.
4	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2496	½ - ½	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2495	12
5	GM	Dronavalli Harika	2475	½ - ½	GM	Lagno Kateryna	2532	3
6	WGM	Muminova Nafisa	2293	0 - 1	GM	Koneru Humpy	2607	2
7	GM	Zhao Xue	2579	0 - 1	GM	Danielian Elina	2470	1
8	IM	Khotenashvili Bela	2514	0 - 1	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2535	11
9	WGM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	2307	0 - 1	WGM	Girya Olga	2439	10
Round 8 on 2013/09/26
SNo.		Name	Rtg	Res.		Name	Rtg	SNo.
12	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2495	0 - 1	WGM	Girya Olga	2439	10
11	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2535	½ - ½	WGM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	2307	9
1	GM	Danielian Elina	2470	½ - ½	IM	Khotenashvili Bela	2514	8
2	GM	Koneru Humpy	2607	1 - 0	GM	Zhao Xue	2579	7
3	GM	Lagno Kateryna	2532	½ - ½	WGM	Muminova Nafisa	2293	6
4	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2496	½ - ½	GM	Dronavalli Harika	2475	5

Tomorrow is a rest day, play resumes on September 28th with these match-ups:

Round 9 on 2013/09/28
SNo.		Name	Rtg	Res.		Name	Rtg	SNo.
5	GM	Dronavalli Harika	2475	-	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2495	12
6	WGM	Muminova Nafisa	2293	-	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2496	4
7	GM	Zhao Xue	2579	-	GM	Lagno Kateryna	2532	3
8	IM	Khotenashvili Bela	2514	-	GM	Koneru Humpy	2607	2
9	WGM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	2307	-	GM	Danielian Elina	2470	1
10	WGM	Girya Olga	2439	-	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2535	11