in your face, Boston

Greg and Susan tried to go to Boston this weekend, but a suicide on the train tracks (unforeseen, the conductor kept stressing), followed by a malfunctioning engine on the replacement train convinced them that Boston was not in the cards.

Instead they came to visit me!

Greg shows me (us, readers!) a copy of a picture he bought at a street fair near Washington Square Park. It is the most colorful picture I have ever seen.

Actually, I only saw Greg for half an hour, because Rochelle, Brittanie, Talitha, Jiejing, Mitasha and I are playing in the NY State Women's Championship at the Marshall. We have 2, 1, 0.5, 1.5, 1, and 2, respectively. Rochelle and I are the top two seeds and the only ones with two, so she has white against me tomorrow.

Mitasha and Brittanie

Talitha and Jiejing

by the way, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is my favorite movie.

It's finally here: the computer program that knows everything. You ask it any question and, instead of searching the internet for the answer, it figures it out. try here

It's inventor and namesake, Stephen Wolfram, "raised eyebrows when he proposed, in a self-published tome in 2002, that the entire universe is but a giant calculator that has been running for billions of years."

And for your viewing amusement: a catalog of galaxies!

funnier than Sarah Palin?!

I love comical Republican politicians. My new favorite: Michael Steele!

In a recent speech, he argues that legalizing gay marriage will hurt small businesses. (it's a good exercise to pause for a moment here and try to imagine what form this argument could possibly take.)

"Now all of a sudden I've got someone who wasn't a spouse before, that I had no responsibility for, who is now getting claimed as a spouse that I now have financial responsibility for," Steele told Republicans at the state convention in traditionally conservative Georgia. "So how do I pay for that? Who pays for that? You just cost me money."

From this I concluded

a) He's really, hilariously stupid.

b) He's a total prick.

c) I am enormously looking forward to reading more about him.

So I come across this GQ interview with glee. Mr. Steele begins with an anecdote I can only describe as a creation myth:

Let’s talk about your background. You have a fascinating background. You were adopted

—Mm-hmm.

Tell me how it happened.

Well, from what I’ve been told, it’s really kind of a touching story. My mother, when we finally talked about it—it wasn’t until I was much older that she shared with me the story of my arriving in our home. And she said that she was unable to conceive children, and decided, you know, with her husband, that they wanted to have a family. So she went to Catholic charities here, St. Ann’s infant home in Maryland. And she said it was funny, she was walking through the nursery and she got to this one crib, and there was this baby there, and the baby stood up and reached out and said, “Mom.” And that was me.

How old would you have been?

Oh, 7, 8 months old.

And you said, “Mom”?

And reached for her. When she walked by, I reached for her. And even the nuns were, like, floored by that moment. It was very powerful when she told me that. I was a sobbing wreck when she told me that story.

what does it mean to tell such a story to GQ?

But you also decide, after graduating Johns Hopkins, to go into the priesthood? What a decision.

It’s a huge decision. And of course my friends were like, “You’re going to be a what?” You know, because I had a small reputation at Hopkins, you know—

As what?

I loved to party—still do—and have a good time

Then he tells a bitchy story about Barack Obama:

Have you had any dealings with Barack Obama?

Nooo. I tried, I tried. When he first came to Washington, I was two years into my term. At that time, I was the only African-American lieutenant governor in the country. And when Obama became senator, my office called his office several—no, more than several—times, to invite…for the two of us to sit down and get to know each other. I was gonna welcome him to my hometown, Washington, D.C. I figured, you know, take him out and get to know each other. And his office told my staff they didn’t see any need for the two of us to meet. So I’m like, “Oh-kay. All right. I don’t know what that’s all about, but that’s fine.”

And did you do that with everyone who was newly elected in the Senate?

No. I reached out to him brother to brother.

Brother to brother?

Yeah, you know: “There are only two of us, Barack, just you and me. You’re the senator, I’m the lieutenant governor.” ’Cause you didn’t have, you know, the black governors in New York and Massachusetts. It was just us.

then:

Well, would you have this job if you were white?

Would I have this job? Now, that’s the reverse of the question I typically get. I usually get, would I have this job if the president were white? And my answer to that is yes. But would I have this job if I were white? [long pause] The answer to that is I don’t know. I don’t know. That’s a very good question. And it says a lot about, I think, where the party is right now that I can’t answer it.

Nice that he's at least thoughtful, but cmon, obviously he would not, right?

And finally, he makes avoiding/totally reframing questions look easy:

What specifically do you blame Bush for, economywise?

Oh, my goodness. The massive bailout at the end of his term? I mean, I don’t even want to use—I don’t even want to get into a blame game, ’cause that’s typical Washington stuff.

Do you have any criticism of how Dick Cheney played his role?

Oh gosh, yes. But I think, at the end of the day, the American people are a little bit better off, a little bit safer, because of what he did. Now, we can make the argument about the style of it, we can make the argument about some of the details of it, but it was effective.

it's really a political golden age

terrorism can be funny too

Explosion Rocks a Starbucks on the Upper East Side

Jo Parr, 42, who lives two blocks east of the coffee shop, said that the blast had woken her up.
“It was really loud,” she said, describing the sound as a “concussion.”

'Stupidest man on the planet', says sister of James Cromitie, alleged would-be Bronx terrorist

When U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa M. Smith asked James Cromitie if his judgment was impaired during his appearance in federal court in White Plains, the 55-year-old confessed: “No. I smoke it regularly…I understand everything you are saying.”

Is the Bronx Terror Plot Good for Stoners?

Just imagine, for a moment, how lethal and effective these potential terrorists could have been if they weren't getting high. Maybe, with a clear head and increased awareness of their surroundings, they would have noticed they were being constantly surveilled. Perhaps they would have figured out that the explosives the FBI provided to them were duds. And most important, had their capacity for reason been uncontaminated, they might have recognized that the mysterious new stranger in their mosque was working for the government, as everyone else was apparently able to deduce quite easily. As the Post reports:

[Head imam Salahuddin Mustafa] Mohammad said members of the mosque had detected a man they believe was the government's informant, trying to get people to talk about jihad and radical Islam. The man would take people out for expensive meals to win them over, Mohammad said. "Anyone with any smarts knew to stay away from this guy," he said.

Anyone with smarts? Or anyone who wasn't easily swayed by the prospect of free food?

(click on the headline above for more clear-headed reasoning by New York Magazine)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Bronx Bombers
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

not related to terrorists, but great:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=224259&title=clusterf#@k-to-the-poor-house
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

from the obituary of Velupillai Prabhakaran

Velupillai Prabhakaran, former leader of the Tamil Tigers

"He stayed mostly underground where, like some large grub, he was oiled twice a day by his bodyguards and fed on curry and Clint Eastwood movies, in which cops and cowboys shot themselves out of trouble. He had an escape plan, or several. His cadres would kill him, and burn the body; he would squeeze himself into a submarine; he would bite on the cyanide capsule that hung on a black string round his neck."

more

sorry to ruin your day

The Gambian President (absolute dictator), His Excellency President Professor Dr. Al-Haji Yahya Jammeh, was only a little weird at first : he invented a banana-and-herb-based cure for AIDS, he forbade anyone from passing under his special enormous commemorative arch, etc.

But recently he became afraid the country had been invaded by witches. So he kidnapped hundred of citizens from their villages at night, took them to secret locations, and forced them to drink a "foul-smelling potion," which caused hallucinations, immense pain, convulsions. people are really crazy, huh?

nine things I'm definitely going to do in Thailand

I'm very excited about my upcoming (August!) trip to Thailand. I'm planning to spend a week in Phuket, and 6-8 days traveling before and after that. If you've been there, please make suggestions.

scuba diving in Phuket

Monk Chat (I have a lot of questions) at Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Mai

thai massage

kayaking in Ao Phang Nga

staying at this mushroom farm in Pha Deng

Wat Phra That Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai

renting a motorbike in Chiang Mai and driving to the hot springs at San Kamphaeng

hiking in the north

lying on the beach

I fail to win a knight ending

Chandran,Kapil 19??- Vicary, Elizabeth 2100
Marshall rd 2, 20.05.2009
1.e4 c6
I just switched to the Caro Kann, starting, I guess, with this game, and I was relatively happy to be trying it out against a kid rated 100 points lower than me. I know it a little already because many of my students play it.

2.d4 d5
3.exd5 cxd5
4.c4 Nf6
5.Nc3 e6 I'm actually intending to play the endgame with 5...Nc6, but I haven't gotten to look at that properly yet, and I figured I knew more about the main 5... e6 line.
6.Bg5 Be7
7.Nf3 0–0
8.c5

I had some idea that c5 is supposed to be good only when black has put the knight on c6 already, reason being that after white inevitably plays b4 in response to ...b6, (s)he will be threatening a quick b5, which will hit the knight, and then c6, and it gets nasty. But ok, nothing is obviously wrong with c5 here, except it gives up pressure on my center.
8...b6

9.b4 a5 I wasn't sure about this. I could open the b file and leave the a file closed. Who wants what? I will have to ask Dave.

10.a3 axb4 I did think about playing Ne4 at several points around here. I wasn't sure if changing the pawn straucture was really in my favor-- d4 is exposed but maybe my new e4 pawn is weak and will I have to play f5? Here's a rybka line: 10...Ne4 11.Nxe4 dxe4 12.Bxe7 Qxe7 13.Ne5 axb4 14.axb4 Rxa1 15.Qxa1 bxc5

now 16.dxc5 loses a pawn to 16...Qf6 17.Qb2 Nc6 18.Nc4 Qxb2 19.Nxb2 Nxb4, but 16. bxc5 is possible. I don't know, do I like that? Readers: thoughts?

11.axb4 Rxa1

12.Qxa1 bxc5

13.bxc5 Nc6

14.Bb5

Does my bishop belong on d7 or b7? I couldn't decide

14....Qc7 So I moved my queen

15.0–0 Bb7

16.Rb1 Ra8

17.Qb2

17...Ba6 It's my bad bishop? I should trade it?

18.Bxa6 Rxa6

19.Ra1 Qa7

20.Rxa6 Qxa6

21.h3 h6

22.Bf4

22...Nd7 I figured I would start attacking his weaknesses: B-->f6, maybe I break things open with ...e5?

23.Nb5 Qb7 [23...e5! 24.Nxe5 Ndxe5 25.Bxe5 Nxe5 26.dxe5 Bxc5 27.Nd4 Qd3]

24.Qe2 Bf6

25.Kh2 Qa6 You know why I played this? I had a strong sense he might blunder as he did.

what's the worst way out of the pin?

26.Qb2?? Nxc5

27.Qb1 Ne4

28.Kg1 Qa4

29.Be5 Bxe5

30.dxe5 Qb4

31.Qxb4 Nxb4

32.Nfd4 Kf8 [32...Nd3 33.f3 Nec5 34.Nc6 Nd7]

33.f3 Nc5

34.g3 Ke7

35.Kg2 　

1/2-1/2

So I'm under 5 minutes here and I failed to win this (many more moves were played, of course). Pretty awful. What's funny was after the game, the kid (who has shown remarkably good board manners all game, really exquisite, hardly fidgeting at all, only offering two draws down material and adjusting his pieces once on my time in time pressure, which for a kid is really great and I almost said something nice to his mother) says to me "I think the knight endgame is already a draw."

I was stunned by this comment. What kind of nonsense is this? A knight endgame up a passed protected d pawn is not winning? How can he think that and be over 1000? I replied "No, it's winning," which came out sounding pretty arrogant, obviously if I'm going to talk I should be able to demonstrate it, and I did want to be nice to the kid, but really. The kid looked uncomfortable and said "I will check it with fritz."

I need to play more blitz.

Best Visual Illusion of the Year 2009

Third Prize: The Illusion of Sex

"In the Illusion of Sex, two faces are perceived as male and female. However, both faces are actually versions of the same androgynous face. One face was created by increasing the contrast of the androgynous face, while the other face was created by decreasing the contrast. The face with more contrast is perceived as female, while the face with less contrast is perceived as male. The Illusion of Sex demonstrates that contrast is an important cue for perceiving the sex of a face, with greater contrast appearing feminine, and lesser contrast appearing masculine."

more fun stuff

Vicary - Kelleher Marshall Thursday Rd 1

Elizabeth Vicary (2100) - Kelleher,Jeff (1999) [B31]
Marshall Thursday over 1600 tournament rd 1 17.05.2009
1.e4 c5
2.Nf3 Nc6
3.Bb5 g6
4.Bxc6 bxc6

5.d3

4... bxc6 is pretty rare. I'm supposed to castle, then play Re1: 5.0–0 Bg7 6.Re1. Playing 6.c3? doesn't make so much sense, because it reduces white's options after 6... Nf6: 7.e5 Nd5 8.c4 is stupid if you've already played c3.

After 6. Re1. black has three main choices: 6... e5, 6... Nh6 (with the idea of ...f6 and ...Nf7), or 6... Nf6 (daring white to play e5 and c4) . 6... d6 isn't good because of 7. e5.

Against 6...e5, there is a fun-looking pawn sac, and I love fun-looking pawn sacs, especially, for some reason, when they start with b4: 7.b4 cxb4 8.a3 bxa3 9.Bxa3 Ne7 (9...d6 10.d4 exd4 11.e5) 10.Bd6 f6 11.c3 0–0 12.Qb3+ Rf7 13.Na3 compensation for the pawn (Timman)

6...Nh6 is ok but passive and white can just develop and attack the weakness on c5: 7.c3 0–0 8.h3 d5?! 9.d3 f6 10.Be3 c4 11.exd5 cxd5 (11...cxd3 12.Qxd3 cxd5 13.Bc5 +/= S.Rublevsky-Z.Hracek, Polanica Zdroj 1996.) 12.dxc4 dxc4 13.Na3 +/=

6...Nf6 is much more confrontational: 7.e5 Nd5 8.c4 Nc7 9.d4 cxd4 10.Qxd4 Ne6 11.Qh4 and now two lines:

b1) 11...d6 12.Bh6 Bxe5 13.Nxe5 dxe5 14.Nc3 f6 15.Rad1 Qc7 16.f4 exf4

Palliser calls this quite reasonable for black, although I like playing pawn-down-with-initiative positions, so I'm into it. He now gives the weird-looking 17.Re4? from the game E.Miroshnichenko-Bu Xiangzhi, Bled 2000 without comment, but doesn't this lose to 17...Qb6+ 18.Kh1 Qxb2? (white can't block/defend with 18. Qf2 because black trades queens and plays ... g5 to trap the Bh6) In the game, Bu Xiangzhi played 17... Rb8 and then white secured the pawn with 18. b3. Rybka (and I) prefer 17.Ne2 Qb6+ 18.Kh1 Qxb2 19.Nxf4 Nxf4? (19...Kf7! 20.Re2) 20.Qxf4 big threat: Qc7 +-

b2) Black can also prevent Bh6 with 11... h6, but doesn't this look like white is having all the fun: 12.Nc3 d6 13.Rd1 Bb7 14.Be3 c5 15.exd6 exd6 16.Qg3 Bxf3 17.Rxd6 Qb8 18.Rxe6+?

back to reality....
5...Bg7
6.0–0 I was wondering if I should play 6. c4 to stop a later ...Ba6 and ...c4. It seemed too far away to deal with now.
6...d6
7.h3 Rb8
8.Nc3 Qa5
I couldn't think of a good way to deal with black's threat to take a pawn: 9.Qe1 felt lame, and 9.Qe2? just sucks: 9...Bxc3 10.bxc3 Qxc3 11.Bd2 (11.Bg5 Rb2) 11...Qxc2. So I decided to solve my problem with some "positional imagination," which turned out surprisingly well:

9.e5! dxe5

10.Qe2 f6

Here, I played 11. Nd2 because I'm greedy, and was still thinking that maybe I wanted to play f4. (Later, it occurs to me that I'm playing against 2 bishops, and consequently shouldn't be trying to open the position, but common sense hasn't kicked in yet.) Rybka has a couple suggestions: 11. a3 (can someone tell me why?) and the excellent 11. Re1. I hadn't realized that this prevents black from developing the knight, but it does: 11.Re1! Nh6? (11...e6 12.Ne4 Ne7 13.Nd6+ Kf8 14.Be3 Nd5 15.Nc4 Qa4 16.Bxc5+) 12.Bxh6! Bxh6 13.Nxe5! fxe5 14.Qxe5 winning stuff.

11.Nd2 Nh6

12.Nb3 Qc7

13.Nxc5 Nf5

14.N3e4?! Nd4

15.Qd1 Ne6 [15...f5! 16.Ng5 h6 (16...Qa5) 17.Nf3]

16.b3 Nxc5

17.Nxc5 0–0

18.Qe2 Rd8

19.Bb2 The bishop doesn't have much to do here. I thought I was restraining ...f5 by putting pressure on e5.
19...Qd6
20.Ne4 Qd5
21.Rae1 This is a stupid move, because why do I think I'm going to play f4? I'm not, I'M TRYING TO KEEP THE POSITION CLOSED. It's very hard for me to sit and do nothing, my natural instinct is to open every position, but I clearly need to get a hold of myself here and not do anything stupid and irreversible.

21...c5

oh look, a target! I love you, little target!

22.f3 Bb7

23.Qf2 Rbc8

24.Ba3 Ba8

big dilemna: take with the bishop or knight?

I saw this in the game: 25.Bxc5 f5 26.Bxe7 fxe4 27.fxe4 Qd4 28.Bxd8 Rxd8 29.Qxd4 exd4

this, or what's behind door A?

I figured this was good for me, but I thought Nxc5 was too. I sat there, frozen, thinking blank, terrified thoughts for a while, but then I wasn't any closer to making a decision, so I went for the simpler move.

25. Nxc5 Qd6
26 .b4 Bd5

27.c3 Ba8

28.Rd1 f5
29.Qe3 This is me, trying not to ruin my position before time control (move 30).

29....e4 At the time I was cursing myself for allowing this, but it turns out to be bad. (hurray me for allowing it?!) The rest of the game is mostly played by my opponent, I just made the obvious responses.

30.dxe4 Qxd1

31.Rxd1 Rxd1+
32.Kh2 fxe4
33.Nxe4 Bxe4
34.Qxe4 Kf7
35.b5 Bf6
36. Bb4 Rd7

37.Qe3 Rc4

38.a4 Rdc7

worried about the c pawn?

don't be

39. a5 Bxc3

40.Bxc3 Rxc3

41.Qf4+ Ke8

42 .b6 axb6

43.axb6 Rb7

find the cutest win!

44.Qa4+! Kf7

45.Qd4! Rxb6

46.Qxc3 h5

47.Qc4+ Kg7

48.g4 hxg4

49.hxg4 Rf6

50.Kg3 Rf7

51.g5 Rf5

52.Qh4 Rf8

53.Qh6+ Kf7

54.Qh7+ 1–0

Darth Vader rakes leaves, No Pants Day, helpfulness

Darth Vader rakes leaves

New York’s 8th Annual No Pants! Subway Ride

twin day on the subway

Slow motion shopping at Home Depot

hundreds of volunteer comedians dress in blue shirts and khaki pants and assist customers at Best Buy


Fun pranks by Improv Everywhere. Read about all of it in their new book: causing a scene. Join the fun on Roosevelt Island this Saturday

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE NEW US CHAMPION, GM* ORLANDO GONZALEZ

Winner of the 2009 US Chess Championship Fantasy Contest!

Your score is 66.0. Your current ranking is #1!
Here are your predictions! Your confidence levels are shown at the right.
GM Gata Kamsky (2798, 2720) <> GM Hikaru Nakamura (2757, 2701) 11

GM Alex Onischuk (2736, 2684) > GM Yury Shulman (2697, 2632) 6
GM Varuzhan Akobian (2664, 2612) <> GM Julio Becerra (2672, 2609) 5

GM Larry Christiansen (2681, 2588) > GM Alex Shabalov (2620, 2569) 12
GM Joel Benjamin (2650, 2583) > GM Gregory Kaidanov (2662, 2595) 5
GM Jaan Ehlvest (2649, 2606) > GM Ildar Ibragimov (2628, 2586) 2
GM Boris Gulko (2631, 2561) > GM Melikset Khachiyan (2632, 2546) 7
GM Josh Friedel (2568, 2516) > GM-elect Robert Hess (2545, 2485) 3
IM Irina Krush (2496, 2452) > IM Anna Zatonskih (2503, 2461) 1
IM Ray Robson (2542, 2465) > IM Sam Shankland (2464, 2446) 9
IM Michael Brooks (2419, 2463) * > IM Enrico Sevillano (2549, 2520) 4
NM Tyler Hughes (2293, 2230) > NM Charles Lawton (2350, None) 10

You have selected GM Hikaru Nakamura to be the 2009 U.S. Champion.

Other top scores from IS 318 included:

10. Ezequiel Quinones (56)

12. JP Garcia (55)

13. (tied) Jakob Kobaljo (54)

16. Carlos Alverez (53)

23. LoveDeep Singh (51)

I scored a miserable 34 points and placed 182-192. Many thanks to Arun Sharma for running such a fun contest.

*Guessing Master

the "love theory," zombie ants, swine flu

Natalia Pogonina's webmaster/ boyfriend wrote me a letter! In a previous post, I had called his Chess Kamasutra a (probably) sexless flashcard training program. It seems I was quite wrong. He left this comment:

Dear Elizabeth,

I have stubmled upon your post by chance and was very surprised and amused by it. Thanks for spreading the news about Natalia's website, it's very much appreciated.

However, Chess Kamasutra is in no way a dull chess training program. It's a book that teaches chess using analogies from sex, and vice versa.

E.g. links openings and middlegame positions and the way you should play them to positions from Kamasutra, offers unique training exercises for boosting both your chess and sexual powers, promotes "the love theory" which is an innovative approach to beating your opponents, etc. It's a very interesting project indeed.

Best wishes,
Peter Zhdanov
Co-author of Chess Kamasutra

I'm so excited! How hilarious is this going to be? I hope it's not all in Russian. Do you think the chess training can be done alone, or do you need a "study partner"?

In other news, I just started playing in the Marshall Thursday-over-1600-one-slow-game-a-week tournament. I won my first game. hurray! (it's coming soon).

also...

Pest control: Ants become headless zombies
Flies used to lay eggs on invasive fire ants, maggots then eat brains

FORT WORTH, Texas - Researchers are trying an unusual approach to combat fire ants — deploying parasitic flies that turn the pesky and economically costly invasive insects into zombies whose heads fall off....

The ant will get up and wander for about two weeks while the maggot feeds, said Rob Plowes, a research associate at the University of Texas at Austin.
"There is no brain left in the ant, and the ant just starts wandering aimlessly," he said.

I know all about that.

Flu Outbreak At School!!

Two days ago, kids in one seventh grade class at IS 318 started feeling sick. Yesterday a lot of kids were out; by today, 350 out of 1500 were absent. They all have high fevers: one or two were so bad that they were sent to the ER. Three schools in Queens were closed after many kids became ill and several cases of swine flu were confirmed. One assistant principal (from Queens) is in critical condition and on a ventilator. Freaky, right? I'm staying home tonight as a public service.

UPDATE: At the recommendation of the health commissioner and the chancellor, IS 318 will be closed for the next five days: 5/18 to 5/22. Students and staff report back 5/26.

wow, I have a whole week off.

I'm the Champion!!

Of yesterday's US Championship trivia contest (Which US Championship player gained the most points in the last year? Sam Shankland!). I win a year's subscription to New In Chess. Hurray!

How am I feeling?

I don't know what happened exactly, but I went from crying several times a day, every day, to being inexplicably cheerful and optimistic all the time. Also I now only need 5-6 hours of sleep, am never hungry, and suddenly love going to the gym, where I run faster and faster all the time. also, I can feel my blood tingling.

Along these lines, yesterday while watching the US championship on ICC, I semi-randomly invited a friend of mine to go to Thailand with me in August (I have a free week in a resort there-- long story), and he agreed pretty much immediately, so five minutes later I'm booked on a vacation to Phuket! It's been years since I traveled (after a somewhat bad experience going to Egypt for a week by myself. They don't like the 'unchaperoned' women there at all-- I swear I was dressed super-modestly: long skirts, scarf on my head, etc. but in this world, 3/4 length shirt sleeves makes you a dirty whore. Someone actually threw stones, ok pebbles, at me one evening. I spent 4 days in Cairo--a disgusting ashtray of a city, but then took the train to Alexandria, which was breathtaking. A room with a sea view and balcony was $15 a night (ok, no private toilet, but large balcony and free breakfast). I went scuba-diving (first time!) in the harbor and saw the underwater remnants of the lighthouse that fell in the 14th century. But I wouldn't go back by myself, that's for sure. I hardly spoke to anyone all week and no one spoke to me (except for men in the street who would call out "gazelle, gazelle!" -- at first I was looking around, like "where's the gazelle, I want to see the gazelle too!" but hilariously, it's a common pick-up line there, as in "baby, you are as beautiful as a gazelle"). the whole thing turned me off traveling until now.)

Also, on Friday, I took the girls on my chess team to see Obsessed. Terrible movie, but they all loved it (big Beyonce fans!), and I pretended to. Ostensibly, the trip was a "reward" for winning Girls Nationals, but in fact it was the suggestion of my assistant principal, Galvin, who thinks I need relate to the children better on non-chess levels. I don't really want to watch bad movies with teenage girls, but I thought the evening was a success and will do it again at the beginning of next year, only because the girls seemed to really enjoy it and bond with each other. It's important that they bond.

Burcad Badeed (sea bandit) lunches with New York Times reporter. Hilarity ensues.

Abshir Boyah, one of Somalia's best-known pirates

“Man, these Islamic guys want to cut my hands off,” he grumbled over a plate of camel meat and spaghetti. “Maybe it’s time for a change.”

“It’s like hunting out there,” Mr. Boyah said through an interpreter. “Sometimes you get a deer, sometimes you get a dik-dik,” a runty antelope common in Somalia.

“Ha!” he said, through a mouthful of spaghetti. “Me eating with white men. This is like the cat eating with the mice!”

Hawo, left, with a friend, is the wife of the pirate Abshir Boyah, who says that he is thinking of giving up pirating.

very funny

best ad ever

I like the Chinese dude at the end.

Natalia Pogonina

WGM Natalia Pogonina

At first, when I saw the lede photo of her*, I completely thought she was wearing a long hippie skirt, which would be an amazingly unRussian thing to do. But really it's just the rocks and she's wearing a sexy black skirt.

Then I noticed on the "Our Team" page, the description:

Zhdanov Peter

Co-author of the book "Chess Kamasutra", Pogonina.com admin, the soul of the team

Chess Kamasutra? really, I thought? So I googled chess kama sutra, which led me to

The sensual world of `Kama Sutra' The Boston Globe (Boston, MA) March 7, 1997 Jay Carr, Globe Staff Copyright 1997 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

KAMA SUTRA Directed by: Mira Nair Screenplay by: Nair, Helena Kriel Starring: Indira Varma, Sarita Choudhury, Ramon Tikaram, Naveen Andrews Playing at: Nickelodeon, W. Newton Rated: Not rated

What's been missing from most films about sexual politics, you can't help reflecting as you watch Mira Nair's "Kama Sutra," is sensuality. Drawn from several historical sources, including those that set women against one another in the arena of sexual chess, "Kama Sutra" is immersed in a softly tactile world, where cloth and interiors are as golden and as color-saturated as the flesh of its characters. ...

huh? The arena of sexual chess?? That's like a common idea the Boston Globe can casually refer to without explanation? What kind of a newspaper is the Boston Globe? The movie turns out to be an R rated Bollywood production that was banned in India and Pakistan for being too racy. There does not seem to be any chess in it at all. On the other hand, the KamaSutra chess book seems to be a flashcard chess training program, so probably it doesn't have too much sex. I guess that's cross marketing for you?!

almost as beautiful, twice the soul:

Josh Friedel has a website too

And Alexandra Kosteniuk has a new blog for women's chess. Can you believe no one had taken the name chessblog.com?

* go to her website to see it.

I can't believe I touched my king

Alexis Paredes

Here's a game I played today in afterschool:


Alexis Paredes (1900) - Elizabeth Vicary (2100)

G/30

1. e4 c5

2. Nf3 Nc6

3. Bb5 e6

4. O-O Nge7

5. Re1 a6

6. Bf1


6...b5

6... d5 is the right move; during the game I remembered the idea was d5 and recapturing with the queen, followed by Nf5, which makes it very hard/impossible for white to play d4, but I thought I should wait for c3, that I didn't want to deal with ...Qxd5 8. Nc3. This is just wrong, on 8. Nc3 I play 8...Qd8 and it's nice because black keeps pressure on d4. but delaying ...d5 makes the whole idea stupid, because once I give white the extra tempo for c3, he now can play d4.


The correct line continues:
7. exd5 Qxd5 8. Bd3

The idea is to prevent 8... Nf5 (because of 9. Nc3 Qd6 10. Bxf5) The knight wants to come to f5 to unblock the Bf8 and control d4 more.

And now there are two games, one inside the other, in Richard's Palliser well titled book: The Bb5 Sicilian. The first is Joel Benjamin -- Anna Hahn, US Championship Jan 2002:

8...Ng6 9. Be4 Qd6 10. c3 Be7 11. d4 O-O 12. Be3 cxd4 13. cxd4


13...Bd7
Because black's kingside knight is on g6 rather than f6, black doesn't have as much control of d5 as she normally would in a IQP position. Palliser suggests 13...Nb4 here, and maybe on 14.Nc3, black gets play with ..f5? He goes on to say Hahn is doing badly after
14. Nc3 Rad8 15. Rc1 f5 16. Bc2 f4


(maybe 16... Nb4 again is better?), but rybka and fritz seem to think it's alright for black.

The second game happened 4 months later:
Joel Benjamin -- Alex Shabalov Foxwoods 2002
8... g6 preparing ...Nf5
9. Be4 Qd6 Palliser suggests 9... Qd8 is better, since the queen won't get hit by b4xc5, but maybe black is woefully underdeveloped? 10. h4?
10. b4!?

10...Bg7 11. bxc5 Qxc5 12. Ba3 Qa5 13. c3 Qc7 14. d4 +/=

So, these are two interesting games to compare. Palliser says the knight is awkward on g6 and Shabalov's choice makes more sense, but he also makes it sound like Hahn was worse out of the opening, and I don't know if that's really true after 13... Nb4. I have a suspicion that Palliser might think this way because Shabalov is the stronger player and his game is later, so the natural expectation would be that he played an improvement. But it's possible 8... g6 is more just a stylistic choice, since Alex doesn't usually play isolated queen pawn positions.

Anyway, I was having those thoughts, wondering what move I would play if I got the position again, so I checked for other games, you know, see what's fashionable, get a third, fourth opinion. And it turns out white scores 92% after 8. Bd3. But I like Ng6.

7. c3 7. a4 is also interesting, provoking ...b4.
7... d5
8. exd5 Qxd5


8... Nxd5 was better
9. c4

I realized at this point that 9. d4 was very likely, and I had intended to reply 9...Nf5, but white can then go 10. g4! Ne7 11. Bg2

analysis diagram

and it's suddenly not my diagonal any more. The problem is that if I trade instead, 9.. cxd4 10. cxd4, then my queen is ridiculous on d5 and I'm in a IQP position several tempi down, which should and does spell disaster: 10... Bb7 11. Nc3 Qd7 12. d5! exd5 13. a4! b4 14. Nxd5

like a bad, bad dream

I can try to be fancy and stop 11. Nc3 with 10...b4, but then I have to deal with 11. a3.

After the game, I told Alexis that 9. c4 was bad and I shook my head disapprovingly at him, but I guess I will have to eat mywords tomorrow.

9... bxc4
10. Nc3 Qd7
11. Bxc4 Nf5



12. Bd5 This seemed artificial to me at the time, and it is. But 12. Nd5 is interesting and very tricky: 12... Rb8 13. Ng5 with a big threat of 14. Qh5 and/or the bishop pair after the natural (and best) 13...Be7.

12...Bb7
13. Qa4 Bd6 White was threatening Ne5, and this seems like the natural way to prevent it. I lose a pawn after 13... Rc8 14. Ne5 Nxe5 15. Qxd7+ Nxd7 16. Bxb7 Rb8 17. Bxa6. Notice that after 13...Bd6,I don't have to worry about 14. Ne4 because of 14...Bxh2+ and 15... Qxd5.

14. Ng5

14... Nfd4

I was thinking maybe I could castle here instead: 14... O-O 15. Nxf7? Kxf7?? (15... exd5! is completely winning) 16. Bxe6+ Qxe6 17. Rxe6 Kxe6

analysis diagram

and just be up lots of material, but I didn't really want to get involved, risk losing to a kid in front of everyone, which turned out to be good judgment on my part, because white has 18. Qb3+ at the end, winning my bishop and being much better.

15. Qc4

back to the game!

15...O-O? This is not good. I am very short of defenders on the kingside.

The best move is 15... Be7, when white has two pieces hanging and has to sack one: 16. Nxe6 fxe6 17. Bxe6 Nxe6 18. Rxe6 Nd4 19. Rb6 and black's just up a piece. It's true that it looks like my king is weak, but white is not developed enough to take advantage.

A not-quite-as-good-but-safer-looking line is 15... Na5, trying to exchange some minor pieces: 16. Qd3 Bxd5 17. Nxd5 Bxh2+ 18. Kxh2 Qxd5

16. Qd3 g6

Instead, 16... Nf5 risks some kind of sack on e6: 17. Nxe6 Rfe8 (pinning the knight against the Re1) 18. Qxf5 Nd4 and I just couldn't tell how messy this was going to be, or 17. Rxe6 fxe6 18. Bxe6 also looked very complicated-- it turns out to be ok for me after 18... Qxe6 19. Nxe6 Rae8 20. Nxf8 Re1+ 21. Qf1

quick, black's best move?

21...Rxf1 22. Kxf1 Bxf8, but completely winning after 21... Bxh2! 22. Kxh2 Rxf1 23. Nd7 Ncd4!

forced mate!

which threatens 24...Nf3! with mate in five! 25. gxf3 Bxf3 and 26...Rh1, or 25. Kh3 h5! and mate is coming on h1.

17. Qh3 h5
18. Nce4 This threatens 19. Nf6+ and seems attractive because it brings another piece into the attack, but it also lessens the pressure on e6. 18. d3, involving the bishop was better.
18....Be7
19. Bc4

back to a frightening reality

19...Kg7 I knew I was being a big chicken here, and that 19... Nc2 was probably the best move by far, but I was low on time and afraid of missing something. I think I mistrusted myself because I'm not playing often.

20. Re3

I can win a piece here! Guess how?

20... Na5 21. Bf1 f5 and if the Ne4 moves, the Ng5 hangs. oh well.

21. Rd3 Ncd4
22. g4

There's a small moment of panic for me, before I find 22...Bxe4, but 22...Bxg5 23. Nxg5 Qc6 is even better, since 24. f3 is forced and then I win the exchange with Ne2-f4.

22...Bxe4
23. Nxe4 hxg4
24. Qxg4 Rh8
Now things are good.
25. Ng3


25...Qc7 25... Qb7, with the idea of Nh4, hitting g2 and f3, was better.
26. f4? Rh4
27. Nxf5+ Nxf5
28. Qe2 Qxf4
29. Rf3

Nd4
This is ridiculous-- 29... Qxc4 is much better.
30. Rxf4 Nxe2+
31. Bxe2 Rxf4
32. d3 Rh4
33. Be3 Rah8
34. Bf3 Rxh2
35. Bf2

Here we each had a couple minutes. I was panicking, which I like to do in time trouble. I played with the absolute minimum amount of technique possible, but managaed to reach this position with 22 seconds (and time delay):

and I just touched my king, and then stared at my hand in horror and disbelief. I can simply play Ra4 and it's over, but now I lose my pawn and
1/2 - 1/2

Obama Interview in NY Times, Azeez Alade

How great that
a) He gives thoughtful interviews frequently to the mainstream press so that we can feel like we have some understanding of the thought processes of those in office. It makes me feel positive about America and politics in a way I never previously considered possible.

b) He doesn't dumb thoughts down, avoid complexity, or hedge on hard questions. You get the sense that he is actually trying to answer questions honestly.

c) He's not afraid to be ambitious ("But part of my job I think is to bridge that gap between the status quo and what we know we have to do for our future.")

My other hero of today is Azeez Alade (pictured, right), who has gained 200 points in one week, going from 1530 to 1742! Rock on, Azeez!

seeing, prison/summer

hello! I thought you might enjoy a sentence from a book I'm reading : Seeing by Jose Saramago. I enjoyed his earlier work, Blindness, a lot. Seeing is about an election day where torrential rain discourages people from voting in the morning, but then they all suddenly queue up at polling stations that afternoon, when the downpour abates. Later, when the votes are counted, 75% of them are simply blank. No one knows why. (at least, not yet; I'm only 50 pages in) The government is infuriated and declares a state of siege on the citizens of the capital (the only area affected by the "blank voting" phenomenon). Here's the sentence:

The commentators, who were following the electoral process on the various television programmes and, for lack of any firm facts on which to base their analyses, were busy making educated guesses, inferring the will of the gods from the flight and the song of birds, regretting that animal sacrifice was not longer legal and that they were thus prevented from poring over some creature's still twitching viscera to decipher the secrets of chronos and of fate, these commentators woke suddenly from the torpor in which they had been plunged by the gloomy prospects of the count and, doubtless because it seemed unworthy of their educational mission to waste time discussing coincidences, hurled themselves like wolves upon the fine example of good citizenship that the population of the capital were, at that moment, setting the rest of the country by showing up en masse at polling stations just when the specter of an abstention on a scale unparalleled in the history of our democracy had seemed to be posing a grave threat to the stability, not just of the regime, but, even more seriously, of the system itself.

It's a very funny book.


In other news, I'm trying to volunteer to teach chess at Rikers Island (a local prison) this summer. I bet it's rewarding to teach people who have that much time to study and so little else to do.

US Championship Fantasy Picks

I love the US Championship-- I like watching chess when I know some of the people playing, plus the fantasy contests are awesome and I can't wait for Greg's video coverage. Every year, I get my students to enter the fantasy contest, and then for the week or so when the games are played, we watch the games live in chess club. They aren't interested in watching the games for 1.5 hours, of course, so we play a blitz tournament everyday and take a break every 2 rounds to see updates and make predictions in the 3-4 games we're following. Entering the fantasy contest gives them some reason to care. Also, because there are so many of them, I figure the kids have a decent chance to win a prize.

Want to hear my picks?

GM Gata Kamsky (2798, 2720) GM Hikaru Nakamura (2757, 2701)
I'm not so sure, but I'm going with Kamsky because Nakamura had some not so great recent results (Foxwoods, Toronto), and I think Kamsky is more of a professional. Also, he's significantly higher rated and has been playing super-strong opposition lately. certainty: 4

GM Alex Onischuk (2736, 2684) GM Yury Shulman (2697, 2632)
Who knows? I have them tied, but ranked it 1.

GM Varuzhan Akobian (2664, 2612) GM Julio Becerra (2672, 2609)
I think it's a big mistake to underestimate Becerra; he is strong, fearless, and tricky. On the other hand, he does seem to underperform in big tournaments. Also, Akobian had a great match result against Shulman recently, so he's in good form and confident. certainty= 5

GM Larry Christiansen (2681, 2588) GM Alex Shabalov (2620, 2569)
I'm picking Christiansen here because of Shabalov's poor recent results (Foxwoods, Toronto). certainty =7

GM Joel Benjamin (2650, 2583) Gregory Kaidanov (2662, 2595)
I'm choosing Kaidanov because a) I want to root for him and b) Joel is inactive. certainty = 10

GM Jaan Ehlvest (2649, 2606) GM Ildar Ibragimov (2628, 2586)
Didn't Ibragimov quit chess to become a travel agent? Or was that Novikov? Or both? Regardless, he's lower rated and inactive, so I'm going with Jaan, and I'm relatively confident (11).

GM Boris Gulko (2631, 2561) GM Melikset Khachiyan (2632, 2546)
I called this a tie, I have no real idea, but I think ties are a good idea because you'll have much better chances to win the early book prizes. After all, most people of similar rating will be tied after rounds 1 and 2, right? (confidence: 3)

GM Josh Friedel (2568, 2516) GM-elect Robert Hess (2545, 2485)
Yeah, ok, Robert is coming off some great results, but winning Supernationals isn't quite the same thing as winning the US Championship. Foxwoods and the Spice Cup are more comparable, but Friedel won Toronto, has more experience, and is higher rated. certainty= 8

IM Irina Krush (2496, 2452) IM Anna Zatonskih (2503, 2461)
I called this a tie (again, I want the book prize!). The only logical thought I could come up with was that they both will want to beat each other pretty badly, so let's say someone is half a point behind going into the last round. The person trailing will have an easier pairing and also a huge motivation to try to catch the leader. I think that will propell the underdog to superhuman feats. I know this doesn't make sense. I just want to win a book. certainty 2

IM Ray Robson (2542, 2465) IM Sam Shankland (2464, 2446)
Robson is a lot higher rated, and I'm assuming he's been doing nothing but preparing for this tournament for the last few months. Shankland has (presumably) been going to school. Still, Sam is talented and motivated, so I gave this a moderately low certainty of 6.

IM Michael Brooks (2419, 2463) IM Enrico Sevillano (2549, 2520)
I argued with Greg here about the amount of the handicap. My theory was that half a point is ridiculous; a point or point and a half would be fair. Why? 130 points. can't argue with numbers. Plus my personal sense is that Sevillano is very strong, plus Brooks has silly time pressure habits. I played Brooks a few years ago and he had something like 10 minutes left after 15 moves in a theoretical Sveshnikov that I'm sure he knew. I asked him afterwards what he was thinking about, doing that, and he said "I like to make sure I didn't miss anything." This reasoning is too weird for me. (of course he won our game) certainty =12

NM Tyler Hughes (2293, 2230) NM Charles Lawton (2350, None)
Being the US Junior Champion is a better qualification for playing the US Championship than living in St. Louis, don't you think? certainty= 9


I have selected GM Gata Kamsky to be the 2009 U.S. Champion. I'm not saying it won't be a tie, but this seems like the obvious pick, especially because I know everyone is taking Nakamura, and less popular but reasonable selections should help your chances, right?