Video: Aussie Junior Championships 2014

Very nice video of the recently completed Australian Junior Chess Championships produced by the people at Sydney Academy of Chess.

 

 And by the way, congrats to FM Anton Smirnov for winning the event and also for coming very close to taking out the tournament before that - the national champs.

Yoko Ono's Chess

I was just in Sydney for 3 weeks over the Christmas and New Year period, but I completely missed popping into the MCA to see this - Yoko Ono's "War Is Over" exhibition. It looks to have some kind of chess display. For chessers in Sydney, that might be worth seeing.

IM John-Paul Wallace in Dramatic Rescue

That is one lucky escape by Aussie IM John-Paul Wallace. I suppose this is not how most of us wanted to find out where he's been or how he has been doing, but the main thing is that it ended in a positive news. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to the Wallaces!



If the video above doesn't play, then click here to view it.

Carlsen Kicks Off Spain Match

I suppose that is one of the perks of winning the World Chess Championships: you get to kick off a top flight league match in the Spanish football league.

 

In Love with Armenia

Arianne Caoili has apparently been settling well into Armenian life that she now has her own regular column in some local media. She writes about a variety of subjects - foreign policy, taxi drivers, the local delicacies and Armenians generally.

In an earlier column, she observed:

To counter the political, religious, economic and explicitly sinister designs from various powers throughout the ages, Armenians have learned several survival tactics to combat them: avoiding marriage into foreign communities [my emphasis], using the church as an instrument of leadership to form unity, excelling in trade, flourishing in the arts, achieving powerful political positions in various parts of Eastern Europe, and the downright dirty skill of fighting to survive.

Well, then, some of you blokes might think that there's still a chance.

UPDATED: The Mysterious British Chess Champion

There I was flipping through the channels to see what the mainstream press might have been saying about the recent World Chess Championships when I suddenly saw something from the BBC featuring someone who looks like Harry Potter, and who is apparently a "British Chess Champion", passing on his observations about the result. Joseff Thomas is the name.

Now I realise that I've been outside of chess for a couple of years, but the big news I still follow. I have never heard of Joseff Thomas. So who the fuck is this guy?

UPDATED (Nov 25, 2013): It turns out that Joseff Thomas is, indeed, a "British Champion". He was =1st in the U16 section in 2006 and =1st in the U15 the year prior.  Here is the full list of British chess champs since 1904. Hat tip to Kerry Stead.

Vishy Blunders

Days like today. A game like that. If you understand even the basics of chess, count yourself lucky.

What a game. What a game.

Norway: Yes!

The Prime Minister of Norway on tonight's game no. 5 in the World Chess Championships.

Yes! #verdensbestecarlsen
— Erna Solberg (@erna_solberg) November 15, 2013

That says it all. For the Indians, it was a sad day. Vishy lost and that man Sachin played his last test match.

Wesley So Upsets Athletic Atheletes

What an amusing tidbit. Wesley So's university decides to put his face, along with that of Mara Kamphorst, on a roadside billboard and the mob in the school's athletics department get all twitchy.

Herman Miller and the World Chess Championships

The guys at Chessvibes spotted what they called a "bra-like" logo and didn't know what it was until, apparently, a reader pointed out that it was the logo of furniture designer and maker Herman Miller. It seems that the table and chairs currently used in the ongoing World Championships match are actually provided by that company.

This is probably my only tiny contribution to all the commentary on the match, but Herman Miller actually has a long history with the World Chess Championships. The link between the company and chess goes back to that famous 1972 match Fischer v Spassky. Fischer apparently demanded that he sit on the Herman Miller designed "Eames" executive chair because it helped his concentration. When Spassky saw the chair, he also insisted on one for himself!