Twisted Tuesday - News

Interesting links containing recent chess news!

Chess match from outer space - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43079794/ns/technology_and_science-space/
("Chess is a great game that challenges the mind and helps young people develop critical thinking skills that will serve them well in math, science and all aspects of their future careers" - Greg Chamitoff, NASA astronaut), http://www.voanews.com/english/news/science-technology/Earth-vs-Space-Chess-A-Chance-to-Checkmate-the-Cosmos-122837669.html

Here's a community idea, UK volunteers create a giant chess board for kids - http://www.bromsgroveadvertiser.co.uk/news/9047943.Volunteers_help_create_giant_chess_for_youngsters/
Solitaire Chess app available - http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/05/19/prweb8444522.DTL

Kubb ("Viking Chess") lawn game combines chess and horseshoes - http://www.waaytv.com/news/content/burgerbytes/story/Burger-Bytes-The-Kubb-Kraze/85NucwQF6UiOFrHnki5brA.cspx

Chess robots - http://www.pcworld.com/article/228453/robot_plays_chess_attempts_to_assert_dominance_over_humans.html, http://articles.boston.com/2011-05-30/ae/29600135_1_kempelen-chess-openings-2d4

"I keep making good moves, until my opponents collapse." (S. Reshevsky) - http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/life/stories/2011/05/28/tiny-american-was-titan-of-tenacity.html?sid=101

Chess in curriculum - http://www.wltx.com/news/article/138076/2/Math-Science-English-and-Chess

Bobby Fischer Against The World movie project - http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/scene/article/865665--finding-empathy-in-bobby-fischer-s-mystery, http://www.monstersandcritics.com/smallscreen/news/article_1640322.php/Bobby-Fischer-Against-the-World-kicks-off-HBO-Documentary-Films-June-6, http://www.torontosun.com/2011/05/26/bobby-fischer-doc-captures-audience

Robert Hamilton teaches chess in Fredericton - http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/cityregion/article/1408795

Lennox Lewis talks about chess - http://www.theprovince.com/sports/amateur/university/Kids+always+have+Lewis+their+corner/4840005/story.html, http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Lennox+Lewis+urges+kids+take+chess/4842644/story.html

Also check out some Chess in the Library news at the bottom of this blog page.

Select Pieces of Recent News

I've got an awful headache, so bear with me...this is to make up for last Thursday.

A Harvard economist played chess - http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Top-economist-warns-of-dangers-in-US-debt-fight-1381881.php

Deaf athlete relates NBA to chess - “And so you learn to be a visual player. And you're out there, you're playing chess. You have to rely on strategy and intelligence and not just brute force and athleticism all the time." - Lance Allred - http://www.3news.co.nz/Nuggets-look-to-new-gold-to-reverse-their-fortunes/tabid/415/articleID/211185/Default.aspx

New 'Gangsta' and 'Shorty' chess pieces? - http://www.thenewsgrind.com/news/world-news/chess-chiefs-hit-back-at-scrabble-with-introduction-of-two-extra-pieces/

Hip-Hop Chess Federation unites chess and rap - http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Rappers-Play-Chess-to-Help-Kids-121711299.html

"Queen to Play" chess movie - http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/movies/2014974549_mr06queen.html?prmid=head_main

To make elementary school chess compulsory or not? - http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/katharinebirbalsingh/100087302/compulsory-chess-lessons-in-every-school-now-thats-radical/

3D Standing Chess - http://www2.tbo.com/news/community-news/2011/may/11/BRNEWSO37-live-chess-teaches-math-problem-solving--ar-206028/

Artificial Intelligence (chess and computers) - http://www.i-programmer.info/programming/artificial-intelligence/2437-the-paradox-of-artificial-intelligence.html

The Importance of Defense (Susan Polgar) - http://lubbockonline.com/columnists/2011-05-16/importance-defense-chess

Quiet Moves in Endgames (Ronan Bennett, Daniel King) - http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/may/10/chess-ronan-bennett-daniel-king

Alex Beach, 12, chess master & genius despite autism and partial blindness - http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/05/13/blind-autistic-12-year-old-headed-college/

Book claims that genetics determine success more than "tiger parenting" - http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/the-author-of-a-new-book-says-genetics-rather-than-chess-lessons-have-a-bigger-effect-on-success/story-e6frg8nf-1226056760390

Chess according to Sheldon on "The Big Bang Theory" - http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/06/not-quite-a-checkmate-on-the-big-bang-theory/

(NOTE: These are just some of the many articles online. You may wish to use them to get ideas & research further :) I try to include a broad selection of news for this purpose, rather than specific articles about tournaments alone.)

The Life of a Chess Star

I was reading Susan Polgar's blog, and came across a nice interview today.

See for yourself:

http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2010/11/just-checking-with-new-in-chess.html

Other selections from recent news:

Chess is fun in Fredericton! (interesting how this blog contains the same name 'Checkmate!') http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/balance/article/1303762

Chess in Africa! http://allafrica.com/stories/201011150182.html, http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6774

Solitaire chess! http://www.walyou.com/blog/2010/11/16/solitaire-chess-lets-you-play-against-yourself/

Chess in York Region! http://penrith-press.whereilive.com.au/news/story/york-public-school-students-the-best-at-chess/

Endgame TV Show! http://www.vancouversun.com/chess+master+evokes+spirit+Howard+Hughes/3822684/story.html

Maurice Ashley, 'Chess is intellectual karate!' http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6810

Nice puzzle! http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/nov/16/ronan-bennett-daniel-king-chess

Chess and Art

Sofia Polgar is a great chess player and artist!

Visit her website: http://www.sofiapolgar.com/

This one's my favourite:


More Chess Stuff (in Recent News)

Jason Cao: http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/saanichnews/news/106869408.html, http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/saanichnews/news/Saanich_golden_boy_comes_home_as_world_chess_champ.html

Scarborough Chess Club:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/nov/09/ronan-bennett-daniel-king-chess

Chess Boxing: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6203243,00.html, http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ac-7094360

Hitler played chess? http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/guywalters/100062776/hitler-and-zippy/

Survivor for chess fanatics: http://www.tvfanatic.com/2010/11/survivor-review-company-will-be-arriving/

Scotland Elementary School introduces chess for kindergarten students: http://ridgefield.patch.com/articles/scotland-school-to-offer-chess-classes-to-kindergartners

"The game of football is just a more physical version of a chess match (unless you're an extremely intense chess master)." http://bleacherreport.com/articles/511843-michigan-state-vs-purdue-chess-match-or-football-game

Guardian Chess Book of the Year

(The Attacking Manual, Volume 2, by Jacob Aagaard): http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/nov/09/ronan-bennett-daniel-king-chess

Racing Strategy

How is car racing like chess?

Check out this interesting article about racing strategies:

http://www.sbnation.com/nascar/2010/10/29/1782589/high-speed-chess-drivers-discuss-their-talladega-strategies

Canada gets GOLD!!!

JASON CAO WINS ON TIEBREAK

Claiming the U10 gold medal and the FM title!

U10 Open

1. Jason Cao (CAN) 9.0/11.0 tiebreak 56.5

2. Jeffrey Xiong (USA, 1824) 9.0/11.0 tiebreak 54.5

3. Abhimanyu Puranik (IND, 1790) 8.5/11.0 tiebreak 55.0

Jason is only nine years old, from Saanich District in Victoria, B.C. He has been playing chess for two years, with no formal coaching. His goal is to be world champion!

http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/victorianews/news/105056009.html

Other Notable Finishes, result above 50%

Jackie Peng (U12 girls) 7.0/11.0 = 12th place

Andrea Botez (U08 girls) 6.5/11.0 = 25th place

Joshua Doknjas (U08 open) 6.5/11.0 = 32nd place

Joseph Bellissimo (U10 open) 6.0/11.0 = 51st place

Veronicka (Nicka) Kalaydina (U14 girls) 6.0/11.0 = 31st place

Janet Peng (U10 girls) 6.0/11.0 = 45th place

Roman Sapozhnikov (U16 open) 6.0/11.0 = 48th place

Terry Song (U12 open) 6.0/11.0 = 60th place

Kelly Wang (U10 girls) 6.0/11.0 = 35th place

Jerry Xiong (U16 open) 6.0/11.0 = 55th place

Congratulations to ALL members of the Canadian Team. It was a wonderful tournament to follow, and you should all be very proud. While it's great to celebrate accomplishments, you don't have to win all the time to enjoy the experience! I hope to see juniors continue to play chess in the future!

Results, Photos, and More

http://wycc2010.blogspot.com/

http://www.chess-results.com/tnr39336.aspx?art=25&fedb=CAN&lan=1&flag=30&m=-1&wi=1000

World Youth!

The classic joke...

"What's black and white and red all over?"

No, it's not a newspaper or a skunk in a blender (http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/168440 ...that's just weird)...

It's chess + our Canadian team!!!

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

Follow the World Youth Chess Championships: http://wycc2010.chessdom.com/

Interesting historical lists: http://wycc2010.chessdom.com/history-of-the-world-youth-championships/

Canadian results: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr39336.aspx?art=25&fedb=CAN&lan=1&flag=30&m=-1&wi=1000

Canadian blog: http://wycc2010.blogspot.com/

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

More blog content coming soon (midterm, then a bit of a break)...

Chess and Football

"NFL Chess Collector's Edition" http://www.boardwalkgamesinc.com/sports.htm

RECENT ARTICLE!!!

ALABAMA FOOTBALL IS LIKE CHESS...

"Alabama Football is like chess - there is no move made that is not well planned and practiced."

See the full article:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/473976-alabama-football-is-like-chess

In recent news...

Queen Elizabeth II shows a chess set given by Nelson Mandela.
http://gambit.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/the-royal-game/

Guess who was on his school chess team? He seems to show up everywhere nowadays.
http://zacquisha.com/justin-bieber-the-chess-master-miley-cyrus-message-for-daddy/2358/

Library Update

Chess in the Library News
- new photos can be viewed at http://www.chessinthelibrary.com/
- Gerrard/Ashdale Library (1432 Gerrard St. E) will host the CITL program on Saturdays starting April 24 (2 - 4 pm)

Support Canadian Chess!

Chess in the Library update

Posted by Yuanling Yuan:

"For all of you who has been following our progress, we have HUGE news for you! First things first, the Chess in the Library program has suddenly jumped from 3 libraries to 6 confirmed libraries! They are (in order of starting date): Brookbanks, Pleasant View, Maria A. Shchuka, Deer Park, Northern District and Fairview. The program at Deer Park library will be starting on the same date as Maria A. Shchuka library, which is Nov 7th, 2009. Michael's blog has more interesting information regarding the Deer Park library. Check it out! The other two libraries, Northern District and Fairview, will be starting next January. Please visit our website http://www.chessinthelibrary.com/ to see the exact starting dates and addresses for all the new libraries.

Second, I would like to announce that we have received another donation toward our program. My team and I all really appreciate it. This donation isn't a large amount, but it represents support and trust, which are far more important. Seeing more and more people using their actions to show us that they care about the program is one of our biggest motivations in making this program bigger and better. You can read the full report regarding this donation at my blog.

Last but not least, we might add a new feature to our program. For a long time now, my team and I (especially Michael) have been discussing about a new aspect for our program - teaching. Every week when we go to the libraries to organize the program, we see a couple kids making illegal moves and agreeing on checkmates that are clearly not checkmates. We explain to them the rules every time but it then starts to get repetitive. The same issue would come up more than a few times because due to the lack of time, we only briefly explain the concepts and the kids simply cannot remember it. Thus, giving some lectures once every week or two for the first half an hour would be very effective to their chess improvements. We want to help them improve as much as possible. Of course, this isn't something that you can think of one day and start doing the next day. Our biggest challenge is, how are we going to teach the kids? We can't teach using a standard board, we need a demo board at each library.

Adding this new feature to our program not only will increase the amount of our participants, it will also increase the average chess level. As much as my team and I want to teach the kids, we simply cannot do so at the moment due to the lack of demo boards. Let us know what you think of this idea! If you like the idea of this new feature and wants to support it by making a donation (a demo board, money, anything!), please contact me at yuanling_1@yahoo.com. Your donation will be greatly appreciated by the kids (mainly them) and us!!"

A Sad Post

I am not one to get actively involved in politics, but the situation with the Stockhausen family has gone too far. Peter Stockhausen's wife, Karen, and daughter, Silken, will soon be evicted from their home, and may lose all their belongings. They cannot receive social assistance or welfare because they are still legally dependent on Peter. I cannot even imagine what it would be like for them. I know I'm no politician or lawyer, but I just wanted to mention that I care, and I hope things will get better soon. If anyone has any ideas about how we can possibly help this family...maybe a fundraiser or services (an extra room or carpool)...please share.

**note: I am making no personal attacks with this post. I just wish the best for the family.**

Important CFC website news

The CFC website, particularly the rating system, may still be infected by viruses:

Bob Armstrong's post http://www.chesstalk.info/forum/showthread.php?t=2101

I thought these two prior posts needed to be brought to all members' attention, as they are a new warning about entering the ratings part of the CFC website ! EKG apparently did clean the last infection ( or didn't ), but now it has been hacked anew. So I am reposting the two posts:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Egidijus Zeromskis

"Sorry to say, but seems that the site (rating part) was hacked again. Now it has a link to "a0v.org/x.js" "

Posted by Steve Karpik:

"Some browsers like Chrome and Firefox will warn you not to visit the CFC web site. Internet Explorer won't do you that service. For the time being, I would recommend that CFC members don't query the web site for their ratings. After conducting a limited and unscientific survey of the CFC database, it seems that only some portion of the database has been infected but that's scant comfort if the data you're looking up is polluted with links to malware.

It looks right now that a fully patched computer will block the malware that is being distributed through the link to "a0v.org/x.js"; however, it is probably best to be safe rather than sorry. "

CFC website back up!

The website for the Chess Federation of Canada, http://www.chess.ca/, is running once again. It may take some time for the information to be updated, but you can still look up tournaments, ratings, chess equipment, and more.

Great News!

The Chess in the Library website is almost complete:
http://www.chessinthelibrary.com/
(designed by Yutong Luo)

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

What an honour it was to find out that Kevin Spraggett featured me on his post --> http://kevinspraggett.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the recognition!

Blog posted on chesstalk

Hmmm....I wonder how my blog link ended up on chesstalk???? Well, you found me! Hope my posts are sufficient...I've seen some of the other blogs, and mine can't really compare ;) If you haven't voted yet, please help me with the polls on the right hand side -->
+ give me feedback/comments! Thanks so much for visiting. Really appreciate all the support from everyone past, present, and future...keep supporting Canadian chess!

More chesstalk blog links: http://www.chesstalk.info/forum/showthread.php?t=1633&highlight=blog

Oriole Chess Club is back!

With the city strike finally over, Oriole Chess Club has been confirmed to start running again. *Cheers!*

University????

;) I will be at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario ;)