Fishing Contest Hooked, Lined, and Sinkered by Cheating!

Fishing Contest Rocked by Cheating Charges After Weights Found in Winning Catches

Two competitors stuffed walleye with lead balls in a scheme that was caught after the tournament director and attendees grew suspicious.

By Vimal Patel
Oct. 2, 2022

Jason Fischer became suspicious when the five fish he estimated to be about four pounds each — or 20 pounds total — weighed in at nearly 34 pounds. Attendees at a fishing tournament in Cleveland on Friday also had doubts. “No way,” one man said.

Mr. Fischer, the director of the tournament, known as the Lake Erie Walleye Trail, inspected one of the walleye and felt a hard object in its stomach that seemed unnatural. “It’s not like they’re eating rocks,” he said.

He grabbed a knife and sliced open the fish as Jacob Runyan, one member of the two-person team that presented it for weighing, looked on. The next moments rocked the competitive fishing world.

“We got weights in fish!” Mr. Fischer shouted, holding up an egg-sized lead ball he plucked from the fish in a dramatic moment captured on videos posted online.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/02/us/fishing-tournament-cheating-scandal-lake-erie.html

Caught hook, line and sinker! Moment LEAD WEIGHTS are found in professional fishing duo’s catch and they are stripped of tournament title and $5,000 prize – as furious crowd berates them

Chase Cominsky and Jake Runyon were stripped of their winning title after a tournament official discovered lead weights inside the fish they caught
The anglers had been competing in the Lake Erie Walleye Trail Championship
Suspicions were raised at the weigh-in when their fish weighed almost double their closest competitor
In the world of competitive fishing, by adding the weights to the fish, Cominsky and Runyon’s total poundage increased and put them on top of the leaderboard
When the weights were discovered, the duo was disqualified from the event
The waiting crowd were furious once the officials announced they had cheated
Prior to the scandal, Cominsky and Runyon were leading the season standings for the professional fishing team of the year
Cominsky and Runyon have been embroiled in controversy in the past
At last year’s Fall Brawl fishing tournament, the duo was disqualified following their win after one of them failed a polygraph test

By James Gordon For Dailymail.com

Published: 21:22 EDT, 1 October 2022

Another Anti-Vaccine Radio Host Bites The Dust

Another Anti-Vaccine Radio Host Is Killed By Covid—Adding To A Growing List

Tommy Beer Forbes Staff

Bob Enyart, a conservative radio talk show host in Denver who urged listeners to boycott Covid-19 vaccines and vowed never to get a shot, has lost his life after contracting the virus, one of his co-hosts announced earlier this week, in what is but the latest instance of a right-wing radio pundit succumbing to the coronavirus.

Bob Enyart reportedly used to “gleefully read obituaries of AIDS sufferers while cranking ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ by Queen,” and called for women who received an abortion to be sentenced to death. DP

Key Facts

On his show, entitled Real Science Radio, Enyart falsely claimed the vaccines were developed using aborted fetal cells and wrote on the show’s website blog in August advising “everyone to boycott Pfizer, Moderna and the Johnson to further increase social tension and put pressure on the child killers.”

According to a Washington Post report, Enyart “used to gleefully read obituaries of AIDS sufferers while cranking ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ by Queen,” and repeatedly called for women who received an abortion to be sentenced to death.

At least four other right-wing radio hosts have died of Covid-19 since early August after each previously cast doubt on the safety of vaccines or fought against mask mandates and other public health initiatives.

Dick Farrel, a Florida-based conservative radio host and anchor on Newsmax TV who had called vaccines “bogus bullsh*t” and characterized Dr. Anthony Fauci as a “lying freak,” died on August 4 due to complications from Covid-19.

In late August, Marc Bernier, who spoke out against Covid-19 vaccines and even called himself “Mr. Anti-Vax” on his radio show from Daytona Beach, died after battling the virus for weeks.

Jimmy DeYoung Sr., a religious radio broadcaster from Tennessee who published an interview advancing a conspiracy theory that the Pfizer vaccine would make women sterile and asked if the virus and vaccines were forms of governmental control, died on August 18 after contracting Covid.

Phil Valentine, a popular conservative talk radio host in Nashville who voiced vaccine skepticism and mocked Democrats’ efforts to encourage people to get the jab, was killed by the virus in mid-August after reportedly telling his brother he regretted not being a “more vocal advocate” of getting inoculated.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2021/09/16/another-anti-vaccine-radio-host-is-killed-by-covid-adding-to-a-growing-list/?sh=1ad61a343105

Another Chess Website Bites The Dust

Chesshere.com will not be here, or there, or anywhere after August 15, 2019. The statement from Chesshere, or should that be ChessThere…?

We regret to inform you that Chesshere.com will be closing its doors on August 15, 2019.
This decision was a hard one, and it’s been a great run for many years. Thank all of you for sticking with us through all the issues and updates over the past 18 months. You will continue to have access until the closing date. We wish you the very best in your Chess playing for years to come on other sites.
Thank you for being a member at Chesshere.com.
Note to premium members: Your subscriptions have been cancelled for you.
https://www.chesshere.com/

The Shank is The CHAMPION!

Samuel L Shankland

v Awonder Liang

U.S. Championship 2018 round 11

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Bd3 Nc6 5. c3 Nf6 6. Bf4 Bg4 7. Qb3 e5 8. h3 exf4 9. hxg4 Qe7+ 10. Kf1 O-O-O 11. Nd2 g6 12. Re1 Qc7 13. g5 Nh5 14. Be2 Ng7 15. Ngf3 Ne6 16. Bb5 Bg7 17. Qa4 Rd6 18. Nb3 b6 19. Nc1 Nb8 20. Nd3 Kb7 21. Nb4 Qd8 22. Ne5 Qc7 23. Qb3 Rhd8 24. Rxh7 a6 25. Bd3 Ka7 26. Qa4 a5 27. Bb5 Kb7 28. Nbd3 Rg8 29. Nf3 Rh8 30. Rxh8 Bxh8 31. a3 Nc6 32. Bxc6+ Rxc6 33. Nde5 Bxe5 34. Nxe5 Rd6 35. Qe8 Rd8 36. Qxf7 Nxg5 37. Qxc7+ Kxc7 38. Nxg6 f3 39. Nf4 Kc6 40. gxf3 Nxf3 41. Re6+ Kb5 42. Ke2 Ng1+ 43. Kd3 1-0

While watching this game I tuned it out to concentrate on the position after Awonder played 27…Kb7.

My initial thoughts concerning Sam playing 28 Nbc6, but after black plays 28…Rh8 it seemed there must be more to the position than offered by the move 28 Nbc6. I wanted to move the knight attacked by the pawn, but digging deeper I saw another line. 28 Nbc6 need not be played because of the devastating move, after 28 Nec6 axb4, of 29 Qa7+! Kc8 30 Ne7+, winning the Queen…

28 Nec6 is the most FORCING MOVE. Black MUST take the Knight. After 28…Nxc6 29 Bxc6+ Rxc6 30 Qxc6 Qxc6 31 Nxc6 Kxc6 32 Rxe6 fxe6 33 Rxg7 it’s “Turn out the lights, the party’s over.”

The move Sam played was good enough to win, but it is a shame Sam did not play the Knight to c6 variation in lieu of backing down at the critical moment. One can do that with a completely won game I suppose, but other completely won games in this championship were not won. Sam had worked on that c6 square and though it looked as though Awonder had it covered, he did not have it covered sufficiently. I am not criticizing the new United States Chess Champion as this is only a slight blemish on his overall splendid, and strong, play in this tournament. What seemed to concern Sam most was making the Olympiad squad. Now Sam makes the US “big three” the US “BIG FOUR!”

What makes this so amazing is that in his previous tournament, China vs The World, Sam had lost FIVE games, while winning only one, for a performance rating of only 2597. Do you think Sam had something to prove after that debacle? Prove it he did!

A gambling man could have obtained great odds wagering on Sam Shankland, who would, no doubt, be stuck with the moniker, “The Shank” with the gamblers. All, or at least most, of the “smart money” would have gone to the Big Three. Considering the fact that tournaments like this with an even number of players are unfair, because have the field must play with the black pieces an extra time, which is obviously inherently unfair. How many “smart” gamblers would wager on any of the unfortunate players at a serious disadvantage? Sam was given lemons, which he turned into lemonade. He won four games with the black pieces while drawing two, for a performance rating with black of an astounding 2927! This was higher than his PR with white of “only” 2849. His combined PR was 2892.

I intentionally eschewed watching the coverage provided by the usual suspects this year in order to “watch” the old fashioned way, using a real board with pieces while watching the games provided at TWIC, without computer aided analysis. Copious notes were taken, along with comments, which were later checked over at the ChessBomb. Until the last round…when I brought up Yaz, Maurice, and Jennifer, just in time to watch Sam give his now famous fist pump. Every picture tells a story, don’t it?

I have been involved with the Royal game since 1970 and this is the most remarkable performance I can recall. David Spinks was famous for saying, “You gotta PULL for SOMEBODY, man!” As the tournament progressed I could not help but “pull” for The Shank. Congratulations to Sam Shankland for a brilliant tournament performance, which was a thing of beauty. I recall a time when The Shank was in some kind of crisis, talking of giving up the Royal game. Fortunately for we Chess fans, Sam did not quit. I can think of no more deserving Champion than Sam Shankland. This was his tenth appearance at the US Chess Championship. Sam has paid his dues, in full. If lack of confidence has held The Shank back until now, it is no longer a factor in the equation. Samuel L. Shankland has earned his place on the podium along with all of the great former US Chess Champions of history! Long live the Champion!

Another GCA Board Member Resignation

Although there has been no ‘official’ announcement announcing the latest resignation of a GCA board member-and why should one be expected when there has still been no ‘official’ announcement of the resignations of former board members Tim Payne and Frank Johnson-former POTGCA Scott Parker has written, “In an earlier post you mentioned that two GCA Executive Board members, Tim Payne and Frank Johnson, have recently resigned. You can add Treasurer Pam Little to that list. As per an email from Katie Hartley, Pam has changed jobs, doesn’t feel she’ll have enough free time to devote to the position, and so resigned a week or two ago. FYI – three GCA Executive Board positions – President (Fun Fong), Secretary (vacant – was Frank), and 2nd Member-at-Large (vacant – was Tim) are up for election in 2015.”

2015 cannot come soon enough.

Queen – Another One Bites The Dust (Live at Wembley 11.07.1986)

No Stress Chess

The Legendary Georgia Ironman mentioned “No stress chess” recently. Curious, I asked him to elaborate. Tim said no stress chess is being taught at some schools. The young children do not actually play chess, but move the pieces around as if they were playing chess. It is popular because there are no losers, and therefore no winners. The thing is that the people who advocate “no stress chess” think it a good thing because since there are no losers everyone is a winner. They stand around smiling while their little Spud, and Spudette, “play chess,” saying things like, “Aren’t they cute?” When told that evening that little Spud played chess today the first question a father will ask is, “Did you win?”

Mr. Six-Time, GM Walter Browne has published an excellent book, “The Stress of Chess…and its Infinite Finesse.” In the 2014/3 issue of the best chess magazine in the universe, New in Chess, GM Helgi Olafsson writes about Walter, “Great games that show that he always lived up to his motto and the battle cry he proposed in the book: ‘By competing you are a winner-no matter the result.'” One does not compete when playing “no stress chess.” Without stress there is no chess.

Queen & David Bowie – Under Pressure (Classic Queen Mix)

GCA Board Resignations

Upon learning Expert Frank Johnson had tendered his resignation from the board of the GCA I reached out to him and was shocked to read, “Perhaps you might want to reach out to Tim Payne first, who led the way by two days. The Board has not officially recognized or acknowledged my resignation yet and I would like for them to say something before I speak publicly.”

Mr. Payne, also an Expert, had also been a member of the GCA board. This lowers the average rating of those left on the board, often called “Fun & the Girls,” somewhere between four and five hundred. It is so high because Fun Fong, the POTGCA, gained 160 rating points at the recent US Open after finishing a creditable -1 in played games.

My mother gave me some advice decades ago saying, “Listen to what a man says, but watch what he does.” In this case these actions are louder than words.

Queen – Another One Bites the Dust (Official Video)