FIDE President, is only a titular figurehead. The real power behind FIDE, and therefore, International Chess, is Vladimir Putin, leader of the Russian ship of state. No decision by anyone in Russia is made without the approval of Vlad the Impaler. This is made clear in the excellent book, Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth by Rachel Maddow.
As former MSNBC host Chris Matthews
so eloquently put it, “Russia is a filling station with nukes.” Putin cannot stand being only a small “regional power,” as former POTUS Barack Obama
so eloquently stated. Vlad longs to become the Impaler by resurrecting the old Soviet Union.
Vladimir Putin has wreaked havoc in the USA by illegally assisting the whacko, Donald John Trump, in subverting the election process in order to become POTUS. Putin has had a hand in Brexit. Vlad has impaled the rest of the world by fomenting dissension all over the globe. Where ever Putin puts his hands there is death.
It is time for the USCF to part ways with the Putin led FIDE. I call on the movers and shakers at USCF to immediately withdraw from FIDE. The United states of America, and the rest of the world, will be better for it. This is something those in power at USCF should have done a long time ago, but, frankly, there has been no one in a leadership position with the cojones to pull US out of Putin’s FIDE. It is long past time for those in charge of the USCF to “grow a pair.”
What follows is taken from Grandmaster Kevin Spraggett’s excellent website:
Vladimir Kramnik, former World Champion, has saved the reputation of the chess community proving that not all elite chess players are motherless whores only interested in easy money and online celebrity status.
Kramnik was supposed to be part of the Chess24 commentary team catering to the online chess community’s interest in the Candidates Tournament that started today.
Demonstrating utter lack of solidarity with the world community’s struggle against the lethal coronavirus that has already taken thousands of lives, Dvorkovich and some 2000 other brave (?) souls showed up for the opening ceremony last night! None of the participants appeared, apparently afraid of catching the damn virus!
Below is former World Champion Garry Kasparov’s take on things…
It is a problem most Chess players have faced, the early attack of the g-pawn. Although frowned on by theory one can see this type of move played in the lower sections of tournaments. It is rare to see it played in the higher levels of Chess. This is not the kind of thing most players spend time studying so it was shocking to see a Grandmaster with an opportunity to ‘punish’ his impudent opponent, as was the case in the final round of the recently concluded Portuguese Team Championship.
GM Kevin Spraggett (2523)
vs GM David Larino Nieto (2438)
GM David Larino Nieto (ESP) receiving the first prize and the organizer Mr Tarik Ourouadi | Photo: cosmopolitana.blog
1 c4 e6 2 Nf3 g5?!?
3 d4 (Komodo and Stockfish at the CBDB prefer this move, but 3 h3 is given by SF at ChessBomb. GM Nieto faced 3 h3 earlier this year:
Romain Edouard (2613) vs David Larino Nieto (2464)
3…h6 (In for a penny, in for a pound. Black should “bring it on” with 3…g4 if he is going to move his g-pawn this early in the game. SF and Houdini concur)
4 Nc3 (Since black did not move his advanced g-pawn forward again, I wonder if the white general should play 4 g4!?) 4…Bg75 h3 (This is a TN. Komodo would play 5 g4, which would be a Theoretical Novelty. Stockfish would play 5 e4, which was played in a rapid game between Bu and Lu:
5…d6 (Both the Fish and Dragon would play a TN here with 5…Ne7) 6 g4 (Komodo plays 6 e3) 6…Nc6 (The Dragon plays 6…f5!?, which has yet to be played in practice) 7 e3 (The CBDB shows Houdini playing 7 h4, followed by black playing 7…h5!?) 7…e5 (Komodo plays 7…Bd7)
Here is the full game, which was quite interesting. The game remained about even until the Senior player let go of the rope with one hand on move 39, then let go with the other when playing 48 Qd2. These things happen frequently to players with a touch of grey.
Michael Mulford mentioned he is now Treasurer for Castle Chess Camp (https://www.castlechess.org/) which prompted a check of the website.
Welcome!
Hosted on the campus of Emory University in Atlanta, GA. The 2018 camp will run from June 17-22nd (Sunday through Friday).
CAMP REGISTRATION FOR 2018: An additional group has been added, and we now have a couple of spots available! Please email info@castlechess.org , or call 770-594-9562 in order to claim one of the last spots.
Castle Chess also hosts the Castle Grand Prix tournament immediately following the camp. The tournament is for campers, camp staff, and non-campers and features $13,500 in prize money guaranteed.
The 2018 Castle Grand Prix Tournament will be June 22-24 or June 23-24 (Friday through Sunday or Saturday and Sunday) GO TO TOURNAMENT REGISTRATION
Now in its 18th year, this camp brings together top coaches and top students for a week of intensive training- and fun!
The camp requires a minimum USCF rating of 1200. Average rating for the past three years has been around 1700.
In slap to Trump, Neil Gorsuch tips Supreme Court vote against vague part of immigration law
AP
Apr 18, 2018
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court said Tuesday that part of a federal law that makes it easier to deport immigrants who have been convicted of crimes is too vague to be enforced.
The court’s 5-4 decision — an unusual alignment in which new Justice Neil Gorsuch
This caused me to think of something someone dear to me was fond of saying upon being surprised, “Well, blow my hole open!”
From the book, It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America,
by David Cay Johnston:
“Trump’s nomination alarmed unions. Jody Calemine, a Communications Workers of America lawyer tool Gorsuch’s Senate confirmation hearing that Gorsuch “is a threat to working people’s health and safety.” Calamine cited Gorsuch’s dissent in a 2016 case to make his point. “That dissent reveals an anti-worker bias and features a judicial activism that will ultimately put workers’ lives at risk.”
Those are unusually strong words about a Supreme Court nominee, but a review of the case shows Gorsuch has little regard for human life, at least when it comes to employers’ power over their workers. He considers a rigid interpretation of the law more important.
The case was about a law Congress passed giving workers the right to refuse dangerous tasks.
Truck driver Alphonse Maddin was nearly out of fuel one January night in 2009. Temperatures had plunged to 14 degrees below zero. Maddin pulled over on an Illinois roadway to figure out where to get fuel. Ten minutes later he tried to drive off, but the rig wouldn’t budge. The trailer’s brakes had frozen. A dispatcher told Maddin to sit tight until a repair truck arrived. Maddin fell asleep in the unheated truck for two hours, awakened by a cousin’s cell phone call. Maddin’s torso was numb, his speech slurred, cousin Georgory Nelson testified, describing classic signs of hypothermia. Maddin radioed his dispatcher, who told him “Hang in there” until help arrived.
A half hour later, certain he was on the verge of freezing to death, Maddin disconnected the trailer and drove to warmth.
TransAm Trucking fired him for not following orders.
Maddin filed a complaint with the Labor Department. An administrative law judge and a review board both found the firing violated federal law protecting workers who refuse unsafe work orders. TransAm, ordered to reinstate Maddin with back pay, took the case to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. It argued that the law protected only workers who refused to operate unsafe equipment, while Maddin drove the truck after being instructed to “stay put.”
Two of the three judges hearing the case concluded that the Labor Department had reasonably interpreted the word “operate,” and upheld the reinstatement with back pay.
The third judge, Neil Gorsuch, didn’t see it that way.
The law “only forbids employers from firing employees who ‘refuse to operate a vehicle’ out of safety concerns,” he wrote in dissent, adding that “nothing like that happened here. The trucker in this case wasn’t fired for refusing to operate his vehicle. Indeed, his employer gave him the very option the statute says it must.: once he voiced safety concerns, TransAm expressly…permitted him to sit and remain where he was and wait for help. The trucker was fired only after he declined the statutorily protected option (refuse to operate) and chose instead to operate his vehicle in a manner he thought wise but his employer did not. And there’s simply no law anyone has pointed us to giving employees the right to operate their vehicles in ways their employers forbid…The law before us protects only employees who refuse to operate vehicles, period (Italics).”
Gorsuch said Maddin had two choices if he wanted to keep his job. He could drag the truck with the frozen brakes locking its wheels, which Gorsuch said would be illegal. Or, Gorscuh wrote, “he could sit and wait for help to arrive for help to arrive (a legal if unpleasant option.)
“Unpleasant” is an interesting word for choosing to die, as Maddin was certain he would have within minutes had he decided to “sit and wait for help to arrive.”
At Gorscuch’s confirmation hearing, Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said that 14 degrees below zero was very “cold, but not as cold as your dissent, Judge Gorsuch.”
People who voted for Trump believing he was their economic savior and political champion could hardly have expected that his first Supreme Court nominee would have a man choose between his life and his job.”
It was not surprising Trump would chose such a person for the Supreme Court.
From the book: “Trump used illegal immigrants with sledgehammers(but no hard hats or other safety gear) to demolish a twelve-story Manhattan department store so he could build Trump Tower. A federal judge, after a trial, held that Trump engaged in a conspiracy to cheat those men out of their full $4 an hour pay.”
Every day the Trumpster, and the cretins with whom he surrounds himself, do things that ASTOUND! I would have wagered my net worth, if not my life, that Gorsuch would have voted with the other four judges who wound up in the minority. Wonders never cease…
Armchair Warrior 