and rocked the pooh-bahs of US Chess. Sources report those involved with US Kiddie Chess “have their underwear in a knot and panties in a wad,” after learning the World Chess Champ (Some have begun referring to Magnus as the “World Chess Chump”) Magnus Carlsen, decided to head on over to…
It has also been reported some pooh-bahs have been staggering around the office…
…wringing their hands while uttering, “Woe is me” and “Woe is USChess.” Everyone has completely forgotten about the deadly virus unleashed by the Chinese (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7922379/Chinas-lab-studying-SARS-Ebola-Wuhan-outbreaks-center.html) because to them the use of the word “bet” or “wager” used in conjunction with the word “Chess” is anathema. One executive was seen crying like a baby as she stumbled around HQ wailing…
One Chess schoolmarm was heard lamenting the fact that, “Magnus used to be such a fine, clean-cut type fellow. Then he grew that scraggly beard and fell in with the wrong crowd.”
Another flatly said, “Putin is behind this because the nefarious Russians are known to foment dissension and are behind EVERYTHING!”
Heads nodded in total agreement.
The largest pooh-bah of all, The Big Guy, aka the “Fat Man,”
could be heard, even outside the building, (with some swearing the Fat Man was shedding tears) exclaiming:
It was more than a little obvious the US Chess brain trust was coming unglued when one asked, “What’s next? The Armchair Warrior writing a column for Chess Lifeless?”
There was total agreement when one said, “This is a real low blow from Magnus.”
During the second or third grade my father took me to see the neighborhood barber, who, like most of the men in the neighborhood, had fought in the “Big One,” World War II. Mr. Cole had a barbershop in his back yard and supplemented his income by cutting hair at night and on Saturday. For some reason my father decided what I needed was a “flat-top.” Upon returning home my mother took one look at me and screamed, “I’m gonna KILL HIM!” My father was not the only one frightened…Since I played all sports not having hair was a real good thing, so it stayed that way until the summer before my senior year, when I let it grow, and grow…and grow some more…The picture in the high school yearbook was of me and my buzz-cut. This would have been the summer of 1967, as I graduated in spring of 1968. The thick, wavy hair looked longer than it was in reality. Still, there were those “straight” people who did not like it. The school principal informed me that I would have to obtain a haircut immediately or would not be allowed to continue playing on the Baseball team. It is still somewhat unclear what exactly happened next, but the recollection is of Coach Jackson “having a talk” with the principal. The net result was I no longer had to get my hair cut, and could still play Baseball…After graduating high school I took a year off before attending college on a scholarship from the Boys Club, where I worked part-time while attending college. Many years later my nephew saw pictures of me during those years with the beard and long hair and said, “Uncle Mike, you looked like Jesus!” I only wish I had some of that hair now…
‘It’s a racial issue’: Mom slams ‘sexist’ school policy prohibiting boys from having long hair
Elizabeth Di Filippo Yahoo Canada Style•January 28, 2020
A U.K. mom is speaking out against school policies which she says restrict boys from having long hair.
amass more than 274,000 followers on Instagram by sharing photos of eight-year-old and his long, naturally textured hair.
According to Miller, the decision to allow Farouk to grow out his hair was “cultural.” He was initially encouraged by his father’s Ghanian family to not cut his hair until he was three. As Farouk’s hair grew, the child model developed an emotional attachment to his “unique and beautiful” hair which Miller affectionately calls his “mane.”
While researching secondary schools for her son, Miller said she was surprised to learn that several maintained strict policies prohibiting boys from having long hair. The family’s top choice, Fulham Boys School in West London, currently has regulations regarding hair length which Miller believes are “out of date” and discriminatory against children of colour.
“Hairstyles should be tidy and of a conventional nature, no extreme haircuts including sculpting, shaving, dreadlocks or braiding are allowed. The maximum hair length is above the collar and the minimum hair length is a number 2 cut,” the Church of England secondary school’s policy states. “Hair must be one natural colour. Parents are strongly advised to seek advice on the acceptability of hairstyles that may be considered ‘different’ before allowing their son to adopt such a style. School reserves the right to insist on re-styling if it considers the style inappropriate.”
Although Farouk
won’t attend secondary school for another two years, Miller said her son has become “terrified” at the thought of cutting his hair in order to be admitted to the school.
“It’s a racial issue,” Miller told Good Morning America (GMA). “We all know what kind of boys would have dreadlocks and braids. Generally, it’s black boys or mixed boys. We’re not talking about Caucasian children here… it’s very unlikely.”
While researching this article I found a plethora of other articles concerning the “problem” of a male child with long hair. Why is it that so-called “conventional” type people care so much about how a child, any child, boy or girl of any color, styles their hair? Why is it that so-called “establishment” type people demand conformity?
Bullying Story Spurs Apology From Romney
By ASHLEY PARKER and JODI KANTOR
May 10, 2012
The day after President Obama endorsed gay marriage, Mitt Romney
found himself responding to allegations that as a teenager he harassed a prep school classmate who later came out as gay.
The account put Mr. Romney, who has struggled on the campaign trail to cast off his rivals’ image of him as privileged and insensitive, on the defensive about events nearly 50 years ago.
The episode, reported by The Washington Post, occurred at Cranbrook, a private school that Mr. Romney, the son of an automobile executive-turned-governor, attended in Michigan. Mr. Romney returned from spring break in his senior year to find that John Lauber, a quiet, offbeat type, had bleached his hair blond.
Mr. Romney, brandishing a pair of scissors, led other boys on a hunt for Mr. Lauber, teasing him and holding him down while Mr. Romney snipped off his long locks.
Since the election was close this story could possibly have contributed to Mitt not becoming POTUS. Unfortunately, being a bully did not stop Donald John Trump from becoming POTUS to the detriment of all of US.
One of the great things about working at the Atlanta Chess & Game Center ‘back in the day’ was that one encountered all kinds of people form all over the world. When I think of the people who came to the House of Pain I think of the vibrantly colorful characters and all the different styles of EVERYTHING, but with one thing in common. CHESS!
Anyone worth his salt teaching Chess will eventually get around to imparting the knowledge that a Chess player should examine all checks during analysis of any position. All good players do this without thinking about it, but new players need to have it reinforced that they should not only examine all possible checks to the opponent’s king but also to their own king. After this a good teacher will tell his student to examine all possible “checks”, or threats, to the Queen. For young players new to the game there is so much to consider that occasionally a student will overlook a check to the king or threat to the queen. When a world class player overlooks or does not take into consideration a possible check to the king it will be said that the player under discussion is “getting old” or “losing his powers,” or some such…
In the sixth round of the 2020 Gibraltar Masters the young, born in 2005, making him a Zero, and up and coming GM Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa,
from India, faced GM Veselin Topalov,
who some consider a former World Chess Champion. I am not one of them because Topalov won the FIDE World Championship, which was a match between second rate players. This is what is written about Topalov at Wikipedia:
“Topalov became FIDE World Chess Champion by winning the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005. He lost his title in the World Chess Championship 2006 against Vladimir Kramnik.
Wiki does not even mention the name of the player Topalov bested to become FIDE WC, and, frankly, I have long since forgotten the name of the loser of the FIDE match. I can tell you the name of the opponents who played in each of the real world championship matches. I seem to recall Jan Timman losing one so-called “world championship” match, (I believe his opponent was Anatoly Karpov) but if my life depended on it I could not give you the name of Topalov’s opponent in the second rate FIDE WC match. Topalov was born in 1975, making him a member of Generation X.
22…Qd8? (Over at the Bomb this move is shown as a BRIGHT RED move, which is as bad as it gets, color wise. It is difficult to fathom a former world number one making a move this bad, no matter how old. Certainly, most, if not all, players would have analyzed the possible check on f6 before retreating the queen. Keep in mind that, “In 1984, when he was 63 and most of his contemporaries, like Mikhail Botvinnik and David Bronstein,
had long ceased to be important players on the world stage, Mr. Smyslov
made it to the final candidates match to determine a challenger for Anatoly Karpov,
who was world champion at the time. He lost that match to Garry Kasparov,
then a prodigy in his early 20s; before the final, however, he dispatched two opponents who were both 30 years his junior.” https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/crosswords/chess/28smyslov.html ) 23. Nf6+ gxf6 24. Rad1 Nxe5 25. Rxd8 Rfxd8 26. Qxf6 Ng6 27. h4 h5 28. Rf1 f4 29. g4 Rd3 30. gxh5 Rg3+ 31. Kf2 Nxh4 32. Qxh4 Rxc4 33. Re1 1-0
25. Rd1 (This is known as “Letting go of the rope.” This is a terrible move under any circumstances. Before making a move most players would ask themselves the question, “How will my opponent reply?” Seeing the queen can be attacked by the knight would be the first thing any player would spot. Every player simply MUST be able to see the knight moving to b6 will not only attack the queen but also fork the bishop. 25 Qa5, attacking the undefended rook looks good, as does the simple 25 Bg2. With the move played in the game the player of the white pieces fell into the abyss)) 25…Nb6 26. Qa5 Rxd5 27. Rxd5 Qb1+ 28. Kg2 Nxd5 29. Qxd5 Be6 30. Qd8 Qxb3 31. Bd4 Bd5+ 32. Kh3 Qf3 33. Bc5 Be6+ 0-1
The hypothetical clock measures our nearness to Armageddon.
Humanity’s headlong dash toward our own destruction is marked in minutes and seconds in the ticking of the hypothetical Doomsday Clock. How close we are to destroying ourselves registers in the nearness of the clock’s hands to midnight — the hour of absolute extinction.
In 2019, the clock’s “timekeepers” with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) fixed the hands at 2 minutes to midnight; that time, set in 2018, is the closest the clock’s hands have come to doomsday since 1953, when the U.S. and the Soviet Union detonated the first hydrogen bombs.
And now the fictional clock ticks forward; its hands rest at 100 seconds to midnight, BAS President and CEO Rachel Bronson announced today (Jan. 23) in Washington, D.C. This new time indicates that humanity has entered “into a realm of a two-minute warning,” in which every precious second will count if we want to forestall global catastrophe, Bronson said.
“Danger is high, and the margin for error is low,” she said.
vs IM Pedro Antonio Gines Esteo (2482) ( Unfortunately no picture could be found of the teenager)
Gibraltar Masters 2020 round 03
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Ng3 Bg6 6. h4 (6 Nf3) 6…h6 7. Nf3 Nd7 8. Bd3 Bxd3 9. Qxd3 e6 (Komodo plays 9…Qc7) 10. Bd2 (Although the most often played move by far, Stockfish and LcO play 10 Bf4. Komodo castles) 10… Ngf611. O-O-O a5 12. Qe2?! (This is a TN. Regular readers will know why I attached the exclam! 12 c4 was played in Lacau Rodean v Ozkan below) 12… Bb4 13. Kb1 O-O 14. c3 (14 Ne4) 14…Be7 15. Nf1 a4 16. g4
16…Qa5 (I cannot wonder why this young fellow refrained from playing the 16…Nxg4 in lieu of the losing move played in the game?) 17. c4 Bb4 18. Bxb4 Qxb4 19. g5 Nh5 ½-½
(What the hell is this? White is WINNING THE GAME!!! 20 gxh6 looks STRONG!)
“STOP AGREED DRAWS. THAT’S MATCH-FIXING AND CHEATING AND NOT OK.” – GM Simen Agdestein, answering the question, “If you could change one thing in the chess world what would it be?” New In Chess magazine, 2019/6.
In the opening round of the ongoing Gibraltar Chess Tournament (https://www.gibchess.com/) Grandmaster Gawain Jones
Gawain Jones (photo Steil-Antoni)
uncorked a TN against his much lower rated opponent, IM Nurgyul Salimova of Bulgaria,
after these common moves had been played:
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. h4 (4 Nf3 is the usual, and best, move, according to Stockfish) h6 5. Bd3 (Stockfish would have played 5. g4, the most often played move) 5…Bxd3
How would you capture the prelate? Ask yourself, “How would Capablanca have captured?” Until GM Jones popped the cork with 6 cxd3 the only move previously played by the best had been 6 Qxd3. Maybe the GM was attempting to do the “dipsy-doodle” against his much lower rated opponent rather than treating his opponent with the respect she deserved. If so, the maneuver backfired.
This is chess in the real world/TOTALLY THE FUTURE ..800 million certified chess phone download app users right now folks! (heaven forbid…many women) / ALL PROFESSIONAL PEOPLE/PARENTS right now must have world rated mega events that are quickly played/media visible like the world series of poker. All chess games must be played in one half hour flat for local events/ 1 hour flat for world title events with absolutely NO DRAW OFFERS EVER ALLOWED AT NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL WORLD RATED LEVEL PRECISELY AS GRANDMASTER LEVON ARONIAN STATED. “ALL GAMES MUST BE WORLD CHESS FEDERATION RATED”(KASPAROV) OR…. NOT PLAYED AT ALL…AT LEAST 1,000 PLAYERS IN KNOCKOUT MUST PLAY FOR THE WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP every single year..like the Superbowl/tennis/golf/WORLD SERIES .. events all start anew ..RIDICULOUS CANDIDATE TOURNEYS / ridiculous 12 draw joke make- a -deal world title /kiss your cousin slumber fest matches SIMPLY MUST GO. The fabulous new world chess federation president A. DVORKOVIC has already announced THE WORLD CUP knockout entry formula … one player from every chess nation in the world regardless of rating is playing the 185 Fide chess nations !!!!!! million dollar plus event. Absolutely THE SAME MUST BE DONE FOR THE WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP ITSELF..2 GAME THRILLER KNOCKOUT ELIMINATION ROUNDS WITH SPEED PLAYOFF AFTER EVERY TIED ROUND PERIOD…A WINNER AFTER EVERY ROUND.EVERY PLAYER IS ON HIS/HER! OWN. Good luck. EVERY FIDE PLAYER IN THE WORLD PLAYS in a preliminary world title qualifier in 185 nations..k-CHING! k-CHING! THE NIFTY SOUND OF AN ANCIENT CASH REGISTER. Jude Acers/ New Orleans ps( of course…no leaving the board EVER during all world title knockout games in this computer age…thus quick time controls are mandatory/exciting/BADLY NEEDED … with the new just announced MILLION DOLLAR MEGA WORLD CHESS FEDERATION SPONSOR COCA COLA (and many other just announced sponsors also!) .. the only legal protection chess organizers now have from guaranteed COMPUTER BASED CHEATING ARE QUICKLY PLAYED MURDEROUS EXCITING NO EXIT CONTESTS.It is coming friends and neighbors… monster cash/fierce world competition chess for everyone..not slumber fest kiss your cousin drawfest nonsense ..the pathetic media laughingstock media joke we presently have .(Oh yes..women will be all over the place in these coming competitions.) cHESS WILL RETURN TO GENERAL MEDIA….Think it isn’t possible? FIDE IS NOW FORCING IT TO HAPPEN BY SHEER WILL ..IT IS GOOD BUSINESS PERIOD. Everyone must be allowed to play. Best of all..Mr. Carlsen- the here, there and everywhere world chess ambassador will almost certainly win a $5.000,000 WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP WINNER’S PURSE SOMEDAY. Carlsen deserves every cent of such a prize. Thanks Coca Cola!
At a recent CCA tournament, just before round 2 started, a young man was wandering around the area where I was playing, asking if anyone could set his Chronos GX for him.
With a suppressed eye-roll, I told him to hand it over, and set it for him, storing it as time control #1. That’s usually saved for five minute blitz, but that way he wouldn’t have any trouble getting it back once the clock was turned off. Just press the red button. And it gave him an added incentive to get hold of the #!☠️⚡️⛈!! instructions and learn how to set it himself. The GX is actually quite simple once you learn a few basics.
In the meantime, the director told people to start their games, my opponent started my clock, and I lost about a minute off my time. No big deal, but you know what, new resolution for 2020. I’m not helping anyone to set his clock unless it’s a personal friend of mine, and even then I’ll use a friend’s privilege to give him a hard time about it. I know how to set the long and short versions of a Chronos (at least for any chess time control I’d encounter), a DGT 3000, and a Leap KK9908. I know this because I actually read manuals to the point where I don’t need to consult them every time, and I do keep the manuals. It continues to baffle me that so many chess players can’t seem to master the basics for at least the one model that they own.
The above sounds angrier than it is. I’ve seen this topic come up before, and it will doubtless come up again. But, one pro tip. If the reason you don’t know how to set your clock is because you bought it from the tournament’s equipment vendor two minutes ago and haven’t had time to absorb the manual, the vendor will probably set it for you. Then you can read the manual before the next round, and you’ll never have a problem again.
I believe I have solved the confusion about the questionable Paul/Zapata game in round 9. First a correction for GM Zapata: he identified the tournament as the 2020 NC Open when, in fact, it was the 2020 Charlotte Open. The 2020 NC Open will take place in August! Now, on to the problem of the mysterious game score which is denied by GM Zapata. When I began to review the game that ChessBomb posted for Paul/Zapata game (based on the DGT board record), it bore absolutely no resemblance to the game that GM Zapata has submitted to you. It clearly is not a matter of an error in score-keeping or a DGT board mis-recording of the moves. They are completely different games.
I went back and looked at the board next to Paul/Zapata which was Grant Xu/Christopher Yoo. Lo and behold: that game also matched move for move the game that ChessBomb used for Paul/Zapata. It appears that somehow the Xu/Yoo game got pasted on top of the Paul/Zapata game, thus erasing the true game score of Paul/Zapata and moves for the Xu/Yoo game were used as the DGT record for both matches. I am copying Peter Giannatos, Grant Oen, and Anand Dommalapati who were operating the DGT boards. They can follow your link below and see the true game score as submitted by GM Zapata. Maybe they can paste it into the results, or possibly Paul/Zapata will just have to be deleted from the DGT record. I don’t know how these things work. Note to Giannatos, Oen, Dommalapati: I found the DGT board score for Paul/Zapata on Chessstream.
The title of this post was considered, but rejected, for use with the previous post. After posting I sent an email to the subject of the post, GM Alsonso Zapata. His reply shocked me:
From: Alonso Zapata
To: Michael Bacon
Jan 17 at 8:15 PM
Dear Michael Bacon.
Thanks for your kind article! Although my game against Justin Paul is wrong – at the NC Open in Charlotte-. You will find attached (in ChessBase format) the real game I played.
Then another email was received from a regular reader, an older gentleman of distinction, in which he wrote:
“I do not understand your reference to his opponent, 16 year old Justin Paul, as Zero. I am assuming this is derogatory. Is there a reason to disparage him thusly?”
Oh Boy! It was my turn to “assume” and you know what happens when one decides to “ass-u-me.” I assumed everyone would think of Time’s person of the year, Greta Thunberg,
and her replying to an older person with, “OK, Boomer.” My reply explained this and in return came this:
“Thank you for the clarification! Although I was aware of the young lady and her cause, I did not follow any of it in detail, thus missing the reference to those born in this century as “zeros.” I find most news these days not worthy of more than fleeting attention. That is why I thought calling someone a zero was a disparaging remark as I suppose it would have been 20 years ago. I appreciate your time in helping me edge toward the 21st century!!”
We Boomers obviously need all the help we can get…
This morning I opened my email and read this one first:
From: Walter High
To: Michael Bacon
Jan 18 at 9:06 PM.
Michael,
I believe I have discovered where the ChessBomb game record originated. I have just played through the game as it was recorded by the DGT board that was in use. It matches the ChessBomb record of the game. If GM Zapata has a different game score, then somehow either the DGT board recording of the moves is incorrect or his scorekeeping is incorrect.
Not sure what happens with the DGT if they make a mistake and have to take back moves or change the location of pieces during the game.
Walter
I am still attempting to ascertain exactly what happened, and why, and so are other people. If anyone reading this works with ChessBomb, or knows someone, anyone, who is affiliated with ChessBomb, please inform them of this. With the above in mind, here is the actual game played in the final round sent by GM Zapata:
Armchair Warrior 