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January 31, 2006
"The Imagery of Chess Revisited"
For all chess junkies and artists out there: the Noguchi Museum in Long Island, New York, currently has a chess exhibition on view now until April 16, 2005.
This according to their website: The Noguchi Museum recreates and expands the groundbreaking 1944 exhibition organized by Marcel Duchamp and Max Ernst at the Julien Levy Gallery. In addition to Isamu Noguchi, the exhibition features original designs by artists such as Man Ray, Arshile Gorky and Yves Tanguy.
For more information click here.
Posted by rene on 9:37 AM | Comments (0)
January 16, 2006
The Queen of Kings?
"You're always talking about how great men are in the chess arena, but you never mention anything about women," said my female friend on a recent conversation. Then I thought - she's absolutely right. I felt I had to write something up about female achievements or a least a commentary on famous female chess players - quick! Then I get a comment from "GRC" posting a link to a NYTimes.com article titled "From Barbie to Mortal Kombat" following suit. Here's a short excerpt:
Why does a "Chess for Girls" movement seem absurd, while a movement to bring computer games to girls has evoked such strong allegiances? The difference may stem from the fact that while chess has been around long enough for most parents to be comfortable with it...In addition, whereas it would be difficult to argue that chess--as it is played today--reproduces and reflects inherently sexist images of women (except through exclusion), there are abundant reasons to judge the video games of today as reaffirming sexist ideologies and circulating misogynistic images.
Anyway, the photo you see here was taken recently from a storefront in the Russian community of Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, NY. I couldn't stop laughing over this over-sized-and-matured barbie ragdoll who appears to be yelling "niet!" - Russian for "no."
Posted by rene on 2:35 PM | Comments (0)
January 12, 2006
How a chess player made it to the medic
Or: how a chess player's symptom almost made it on the medical books....
My good friend Glenn experienced a chest pain recently while playing against me. Let's not call it chest pain, but chess pain.
Chess pain can be a result of inadequate exercise of the arm (to punch the clock) and it's is called angina. The condition is a risk factor for a heart attack; however, the condition can be successfully treated by reducing the amount of stupid errors, spending more time on opening theory homework and to avoid playing against me.
Coronary artery bypass surgery is an effective treatment for angina, and narrowing and prying of the files with the g-pawn on a well-timed battery ram is a good solution to your woes on the board. A backward- or double-pawn on the side of the castled king could prove to be a terminal disease if you don't take the necessary steps to avoid any type of discomfort in the endgame.
One of the symptoms my opponent experienced while under the influence of high tension on the king side pressure is blurred vision — changes in the retina — resulting in the inability to see more than two moves ahead. Of course an adverse effect to this dreadful experience is high blood pressure (also known as hypermodern hypertension). High blood pressure does not mean excessive emotional stress; however, stress can temporarily increase the blood pressure, thus giving you a "second breath" to saving the game to a dead draw.
It did not take long for my lethal injection to work on Glenn, because the attack came with a high dose of Sodium Checkliminate. "The king is dead," I proclaim "feel better?" "OK, OK. Let's start over," said Glenn.
If only diseases could be treated this way.
Posted by rene on 4:41 PM | Comments (1)
January 11, 2006
Battle of the SeXXes: Famous Women Chess Players
When we think of famous women chess players we immediately think of trailblazers Vera Menchik of Russia or Judit Polgar of Hungary. Considering that chess is a male-dominated game, every generation produces a chess talent with XX-chromosomes. It's an interesting quandary. So without further ado I give you famous women chess players from around the globe (birth year in parenthesis):
Akhmilovskaya, Elena - Russia (1957)
Alexandria, Nana - Georgia (1949)
Bikova, Elizaveta - Russia (1913)
Chiburdanidze, Maia - Georgia (1961)
Galliamova, Alisa - Russia (1972)
Gaprindashvili, Nona - Georgia (1941)
Graf-Stevenson, Sonja - Germany/USA (1914)
Ioseliani, Nana - Georgia (1962)
Kosteniuk, Alexandra - Russia (1984)
Kushnir, Alla Russia - (1941)
Levitina, Irina - Russia (1954)
Menchik, Vera - Russia (1906)
Polgar, Judit - Hungary (1976)
Qin Kanying - China (1974)
Rubtsova, Olga - Russia (1909)
Rudenko, Liudmila - Russia (1904)
Xie Jun - China (1970)
Zhu Chen - China (1976)
Zvorikina, Kira - Russia (1919)
QUESTIONS to think about:
+ Why have women players not been able to achieve the same results as men?
+ Should there be separate competitions for women?
If you're a woman and reading this blog, please provide your thoughts or questions to this conundrum. If you're a man and reading this blog, please provide your own thoughts or questions to this conundrum.
Posted by rene on 10:26 AM | Comments (3)
January 9, 2006
From post-mortem to post-modern
India's Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand, currently number three in the world's chess rankings, once remarked that if "you're not a grandmaster at 14, you can forget about it." And this is quite true with the recent number of pre-pubescents skyrocketing from all parts of the world - from Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Sergei Karjakin of the Ukraine.
Well, we now have a new kid on the block and his name is Parimarjan Negi of India - the world's youngest grandmaster at 12 years, 10 months and 29 days! Negi is a chess prodigy and recently received his first grandmaster norm in the famous Hastings Tournament in England with a performance of 2568.
FAMOUS POST-MORTEMS OF YESTERYEAR:
Paul Morphy, 1837-1884, beat Johann Löwenthal 3-0 at age 12.
José Raúl Capablanca, 1888-1942, learned chess at the age of four, beat his country's chess champion in a match when he was 13, and eventually became world champion.
Samuel Reshevsky, learned the rules at the age of 4, and gave simultaneous exhibitions at the age of six.
Arturo Pomar played in the Spanish Championship at age 10 and became a master at age 13. He drew Alekhine in Gijon in 1944 at the age of 13.
Boris Spassky became an International Grandmaster at 18 and went on to become world champion.
Bobby Fischer became US Champion at the age of 14 and a world championship candidate at 15. He went on to become world champion.
Henrique Mecking of Brazil learned the game at 6, gave some simultaneous displays at 9, won the Brazilian championship at 13, and South American Zonal at 14, and became an IM at 15. He won two Interzonal Tournaments in a row, at 21 and 24.
Anatoly Karpov became a grandmaster at 18 and went on to become world champion.
Garry Kasparov became a grandmaster at 17 and went on to become the youngest ever world champion (at 22).
Nigel Short finished joint first in the British Championship at the age of 14.
Viswanathan Anand became India's first International Grandmaster at 18 and went on to become the FIDE knockout world champion.
Michael Adams became an International Master at 15 and a grandmaster at 17.
AND THE POST-MODERNS OF LATTER DAYS:
Pentala Harikrishna became India's youngest grandmaster at 15.
Gata Kamsky had an Elo rating of 2650 at the age of 16, who is recently back in the game.
Luke McShane won the World Under-10 Championship at the age of eight.
Ukraine's Ruslan Ponomariov became the youngest ever FIDE knockout world champion at the age of 18.
Alejandro Ramirez became a grandmaster at 15, a month earlier than Fischer. He is the first grandmaster ever in Central America.
Magnus Carlsen became the second-youngest grandmaster in history at 13, and broke Fischer's record by becoming a world championship candidate at 15 years and one month.
Source: Chessbase.com
Posted by rene on 9:59 AM | Comments (0)
