Boardgame for Psychopaths

I always thought chessers to be individualists, maybe even selfish, strong-willed definitely. But psychopaths? The Haaretz newspaper calls us exactly that! I say, send in the SAS!

Lessons from America

These days, the number of school children playing chess is in the thousands. In the state of New South Wales, this wonderful achievement is due mainly to the leadership of the NSW Junior Chess League and the many volunteer parents that make up its ranks. Among some important events they run are the Primary Schools, the Metropolitans and the Schools Chess Challenge. Scholastic chess, then, is surely a success. But just out of curiosity, allow me to pose these questions:

1. Is it bringing in lots of new players to chess?
2. Is it developing many new chess talents to enhance the sport?
3. Is it bringing in lots of money to Australian Chess Federation?

Well OK, no agenda here, just an echo of this interesting discussion on Chessville. And I do encourage you to download and read the PDF of the article by Braunlich.

By the way, Chessville is an excellent resource. They have trivia, puzzles, annotated games and even fiction. All for FREE! The link is going to the sidebar now.

Chess Player Survives Katrina

A former member of SWAT and a chess master, Rene Phillips, had just secured 2nd spot in the Louisiana Blitz Championship when Hurricane Katrina struck. Mr Phillips, a resident of New Orleans, lost everything. According to this item in The Chess Drum, he is now stranded in Louisiana.

Zone 3.3 Showdown

As of this writing, the first angry moves in Zone 3.3 will be well on the way. The event is held in the Hotel Sanford in KL, Malaysia.

Looking at the tentative list of players, we can count eleven rated 2500+, seven of whom sport the GM title. Of course, I have no choice but to support the Pinoy masters among whom is none other than RP's latest GM, Paragua. Let's hope that he can silence his critics and bulldoze the opposition without mercy. And speaking of GM titles, IM Gonzales will be gunning for his third and final norm. I hope he gets it!

On the distaff side, Mendoza and Lomibao will face their toughest test against the Mongolians and Vietnamese. Good luck to them.

Box Hill Evicted!

Trevor Stanning, treasurer of the Box Hill CC in the state of Victoria, has just announced that their esteemed club will be without a home as at 1 January, 2006. The local government Council sent the eviction notice to Mr Stanning and co way back in June. Since then the club has been frantically lobbying the local government council to reverse its decision. But apparently to no avail.

This is, of course, a sad moment even for me. Last year I visited and played in the club's Victorian Open championships. Truly it was a great experience. I have not oberved a more efficient and dedicated bunch of chess lovers. And more importantly, the Box Hill guys were very hospitable. It showed that they were quite cultured. I assure you my dear readers, this is a club that is surely one of the best in Australia. As such, they deserve all our efforts and support in ensuring their continued survival.

Let us hope that Mr Stanning can provide us with the necessary contacts in the local Coucil so that we can lobby them and express our unhappiness.

Just Not Cricket

While cricket remains the national obsession, the increasing interest in chess shows no signs of abating. Inspired by Vishy Anand and now by Sahaj Grover , it seems that Delhi youngsters are turning in droves to chess. The Delhi Chess Association claims a 200% rise in registered players.

Read the complete TOI report.

Nuts & Bolts Chess Set

Last month I posted something on DIY Chessboards. But that's only if you have at least above average woodworking skills. God knows I certainly don't! Well, here's something that, I think, most of us can manage. It's chessboards made out of nuts and bolts.

Georgian Troubles

Georgia, Georgia, no peace do I find
Just an old sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my mind

Trouble seems to be brewing over at the Georgian Chess Federation. A local English lingo daily, The Messenger, reports that the current and past GCF presidents are accusing each other of corruption.

The ruction is causing a split among Georgia's elite. In one corner are Nona Gaprindashvili and Zurab Azmaiparashvili. While in the other is Maia Chiburdanidze.

En Garde!

The Belfort saga continues. Courtesy of the ACF, this morning I got hold of Touze's response to FIDE's action against Jean-Paul Touze, organiser of the recent World Youths in Belfort, France. The text, in both English and French, are available here.

The translation is amusing reading - but you get the drift. In his letter, directly addressed to Ilyumzhinov, Touze accuses the FIDE president of ignominy, mystification, inciting to denounce, disinformation and censor and denying Touze the right to defend himself.

And in a separate statement, Monsieur Touze responds directly to complaints about the Belfort event. For example, many parents were apparently unimpressed with the food. To that Touze had this to say:

The quality of meals was very good and those that say they were sick should look to other causes. In France, for those who do not know, food service is surveyed very strictly by the sanitary services (we were controlled two times during the Championship).

Well, tell that to Mrs Oliver, pointperson for the Australian crew. She reported:

The salads were all dripping in mayonnaise or dressing and the only stuff that was fresh was the fruit. Fortunately they had huge quantities of this, so it served as a replacement. The quality of the meat and fish was very bad as well.

This in the centre of gastronomy? Sacre bleu! Note to Monsieur Touze: hire Alain Ducasse.

But what could really have been the root cause? In words perhaps only a Frenchman could produce, it all boiled down to "supplementary accompanying persons". Touze's conclusive remarks are worth quoting if only for their musicality.

All would have gone well if we could, as should always be the case, to look after the officially qualified and not to have to look after the supplementary accompanying persons. We didn’t do this, which was an error which should call into question that FIDE should take as a model the International Federations which are worthy of this name!

We esteem that our organisation can be called into fault in certain sectors which was essentially for two reasons:

• the consequence of the inflation of entries cause by the thoughtless decision of the FIDE to lower the prices at any price,
  
• that beyond the qualified players we also had to administer supplementary accompanying persons.
  

This should nevertheless not hide the sporting success of this Championship. FIDE has good Champions to which we wish brilliant careers and that is really what is essential!

Chess and Islam

It's all a bit confusing in Iraq. And that's, I guess, putting it mildly. When asked by a follower if chess is permissible in Islam, the country's preeminent Shiite cleric, Ali al Sistani, answered: "Chess is abolutely forbidden!"

Yet just a couple of days ago, the Communications and Post Minister had honoured the Iraqi Female Chess Champion!

For more on this issue - you can read a short discussion here or a longer but well considered one here. Basically, the situation does not appear to be clear. Some, like The Bishop of Hip Hop, reckon that chess is definitely allowed provided the following conditions are met:

1- One should not get so absorbed in it that he delays his prayer; chess is well-known to be a stealer of time.

2- There should be no gambling involved.

3- The players should not utter obscenities or vulgarities. If any of these conditions are not met it should be considered as haram