want to see more pictures of my kids?

I know that's your favorite part of my blog.

Emmanual Ogunremi: very sad that his opponent has not played ...d5
Joel Ogunremi: fianchettoing the c1 bishop runs in their family (also striped sweaters)Shawn: about to checkmate that white king you see on f4. There's a black rook on g1 and black can win immediately with g5+
Gio

Hector and Gio: rapidly improving

Cesar

Orlando. big genius.

David H.

my former student Darrian (almost 2000!), who is doing some community service by going over games for me

Darrian working with Matthew, a new sixth grader

Leon and Christian, former students who regularly look at games with me on Saturday as a part time job.

.

Today I got into a fight with a parent from another school. The short version is that the CIS tournament was at 318 today, and I was left in charge because my assistant principal took the top kids to the city championships. So I told this woman she couldn't do something that she was doing in the school building and she started calling me racist and followed me to my classroom and refused to leave. So I called security, and they came and escorted her downstairs, but weirdly, they escorted her to the tournament director.

.

and you know what my first thought was? It was wow, there is so much chess culture in my school building that even the school safety officers (real police!) feel that the TD is the ultimate authority.

.

(later I had other thoughts about their motivations, but I like my first one best.)

.

update from Cities: Rochelle drew Andrew Ng (2197); Ezequiel (Gio's older brother) beat Joshua Colas (1936) and drew Alexander Ostrovskiy (2108)! We're tied for first with a super strong Hunter (Ostrovskiy, Getz (2250), Landesmann(2034) and a 1200) going into the last round.

I can't wait for the Bobby Fischer Symposium!

It's being held at the Marshall Chess Club March 6 and 7. Nice to see the good Dr. Frank Brady bringing some culture to chess. A symposium! how civilized!

I'm going to go dressed as Bobby Fischer.

Here's the sentence from the flyer that grabbed me:

Two philosophers, a Grandmaster, a biographer, and a player who once beat Fischer, will be among many of those who will present papers, or share reminiscences of Fischer, possibly the greatest chess player who ever lived.

And what I like even more is that the sentence is hilarious whether or not you realize who the person in question is (anyone from New York will recognize that particular claim immediately). Because it's pretty obvious what the guy who once beat Fischer is going to reminisce about, right?

thoughts about writing

two kinds:

1. My job tonight is to compile the 318 Secret Openings Book for 2008-2009. Every year I leave this task inexplicably late. The 318 Secret Openings Book is a collection of all my opening handouts (or at least the ones currently in circulation). Because I know my students can realistically learn about 2-3 pages of information, I condense each opening (that they are allowed to play) into what I consider the fundamental important stuff to know. Depending on the opening, that might be variations, lists of ideas, model games, or rules to follow. (really, the format depends mostly on my mood at the time I wrote it.) Then the copy lady (who hates me and for some reason thinks I steal tape) makes them into spiral bound books. They are about 100 pages long and she makes about 70 books.

It's half an enjoyable, self-congratulatory, memory lane stroll through the teaching materials I've produced in the last year, half insanely boring, cutting, pasting and reformatting drudgery.

But it's very important and so I'm doing it.
I'm just writing to you as a break.

2. honestly, I wasn't a big fan of the first part of my recent US chess school article on chess life online. I thought I made one decent point that Yury was good at making comparisons to classic games, but the rest of the article was superficial, flat and mostly worthless.

The second part I haven't reread online at all. I'm really nervous to do so-- I feel like I started on this resolutely human interest angle with the grade nationals/bird story (which I thought honestly was quite good) and then it grew into some weird obsession with people's inner thoughts. I started asking questions like 'how has chess changed you?' 'compare playing basketball/cello/judo to playing chess?!' and I'm scared I will feel creeped out that the article seems so centered around showcasing the inner thoughts of 13 year olds.

And, please don't get me wrong, I'm actually never really scared that I'm a creepy person, it's just that I get so bored writing chess articles, the genre is so unbearably narrow, the range of things you can say is so miniscule. it's very frustrating. add to that the fact that people seem to praise what I write no matter what, and I actually don't get paid for the USCS articles, so I feel no obligation. but maybe I'm getting a little too creative with genre-invention.

also, can I say that I feel like a lot of people do a very bad job of tournament reporting? It's one thing if you are asked to write a blog, but it's annoying when people are supposed to write about a tournament and the winner of the tournament and they write about themselves instead. it's not even annoying because I don't care about the person, it's annoying that the person is so lazy.

really I'm just sick of writing about chess, especially scholastics. When I write scholastic articles, I just feel such temptation to go off about some ridiculous theory. (I do this in april's article about grade nationals.) I think it's because I think adults are all 100% bored by scholastic chess and so I overcompensate. but no more. I'm just saying no next time.

sorry if this post seems absolutely self obsessed. I feel like it's my blog, sometimes I can do that.

ps I wouldn't normally pick such an easy target, but I have to draw your attention to the news item Disgraced pastor Haggard admits second relationship with man, just because I find the beginning of the second sentence utterly hilarious.

Evangelical pastor Ted Haggard described Thursday as "fundamentally true" an assertion that he engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a 20-year-old male volunteer in 2006.

The incident occurred when the two men were in bed together, Grant Haas said in a videotaped interview played on CNN's "Larry King Live."

Is this a trick?

Stimulus Plan Would Provide Flood of Aid to Education

WASHINGTON — The economic stimulus plan that Congress has scheduled for a vote on Wednesday would shower the nation’s school districts, child care centers and university campuses with $150 billion in new federal spending, a vast two-year investment that would more than double the Department of Education’s current budget.

The proposed emergency expenditures on nearly every realm of education, including school renovation, special education, Head Start and grants to needy college students, would amount to the largest increase in federal aid since Washington began to spend significantly on education after World War II.

Critics and supporters alike said that by its sheer scope, the measure could profoundly change the federal government’s role in education, which has traditionally been the responsibility of state and local government.

pinch me.

69 Love Songs

Do you know this beautiful, brilliant album, or should I say 3 volume concept album, by the magnetic fields? from wikipedia:

The album was originally conceived as a grandiose musical revue. Stephin Merritt was sitting in a gay piano bar in Manhattan, listening to the pianist's interpretations of Stephen Sondheim songs, when he decided he ought to get into theatre music because he felt he had an aptitude for it. "I decided I'd write one hundred love songs as a way of introducing myself to the world. Then I realized how long that would be. So I settled on sixty-nine. I'd have a theatrical revue with four drag queens. And whoever the audience liked best at the end of the night would get paid."

I was going to work this morning and "trying on" this song-- do you know what I mean, you listen to the song and see if you can pretend to be one of the characters? I do the overwhelming majority of my "trying on" during my morning walk to work. So today I was trying on the magnetic fields song 'absolutely cuckoo':

Don't fall in love with me yet
We only recently met
True I'm in love with you but
you might decide I'm a nut
Give me a week or two to
go absolutely cuckoo
then, when you see your error,
then, you can flee in terror
like everybody else does
I only tell you this cause
I'm easy to get rid of
But not if you fall in love
Know now that I'm on the make
and if you make a mistake
my heart will certainly break
I'll have to jump in a lake
and all my friends will blame you
There's no telling what they'll do
It's only fair to tell you
I'm absolutely cuckoo

and I was thinking, pretty much. I felt happy this morning, which surprised me, because I've been pretty down for the last couple weeks, really for the last year or so. enough at least so that I thought "huh. I feel happy and relaxed. that's weird." And then I thought "people look at me and think I'm dynamic and interesting, but really I'm just animated by near-constant anxiety."

Here's another great song:

There are two kinds of people:
a) my love and I
b) other

Two kinds of people:
1) the gray and
2) me and my love

All people fall into two camps
that ever twain shall be:
those lost in darkness without lamps,
and then,
my love and me...

maybe it's better when you hear it, but i like it at least.
And then I got to work and looked at kids' games all day. Overall, I thought the beginners had come a long way.

orlando
jie-jing

evelyn

joel

carlos, jie-jing (notice that she hasn't moved in any way since the first photo), azeez

d'andrea, shawn, myles

Then I heard this news about some of the family stuff one of my kids is dealing with, and I thought, wow, I need to stop feeling sorry for myself right away. I do not have any problems at all.

Although I will mention that I'm now single, just in time for valentines day, and so if you've been waiting for just the right time to send me boxes of chocolates or anonymously ask me out, wait no longer.

autism + granny's lawn ballet

my late grandmother with my half brother Adam. (he is now 14).

more hilarious photos of granny in 1934 lawn ballet are at bottom!!

Is anybody else interested in autism? I have a half brother who is quite severely autistic, so I have some personal interest. Plus I suspect there is some connection between autism and chess: the lack of interest in people, the fondness for repetition, the dislike of over-stimulation.

I was struck by this recent NY Times article:

Their idea is, in broad outline, straightforward. Dr. Crespi and Dr. Badcock propose that an evolutionary tug of war between genes from the father’s sperm and the mother’s egg can, in effect, tip brain development in one of two ways. A strong bias toward the father pushes a developing brain along the autistic spectrum, toward a fascination with objects, patterns, mechanical systems, at the expense of social development. A bias toward the mother moves the growing brain along what the researchers call the psychotic spectrum, toward hypersensitivity to mood, their own and others’. This, according to the theory, increases a child’s risk of developing schizophrenia later on, as well as mood problems like bipolar disorder and depression.
In short: autism and schizophrenia represent opposite ends of a spectrum that includes most, if not all, psychiatric and developmental brain disorders. The theory has no use for psychiatry’s many separate categories for disorders, and it would give genetic findings an entirely new dimension.

Hilarious 1934 Lawn Ballet Featuring My Grandmother

sorry, I don't know which one she is.

Look what Blogger did to my photo the first time I tried to upload it. weird, right?

Oh, I forgot to mention, here is a picture of my hand.

inauguration

Was anybody else shocked that Rick Warren recited the Lord's Prayer at the inauguration? Can he do that?? What happened to separation of church and state??

As a pleasant contrast, here's Sunday's opening invocation from the Right Reverend Gene V. Robinson, who "is best-known for being the first openly gay, non-celibate priest to be ordained a bishop in a major Christian denomination believing in the historic episcopate." (Wikipedia)

can anybody else figure out what is going on in the backdrop of this photo?

Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God's blessing upon our nation and our next president.

O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…

Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people existon less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands arebeaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian,bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic "answers" we've preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to riseto the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be "fixed" anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion's God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Amazing update (thanks to Jonathan Rowson for pointing this out): Robinson is on the Daily Show and they make a chess joke!!!

Stewart: Washington was so crowded today; you as a bishop are sort of doubly-handicapped in that situation -- only being able to move diagonally. How is that with negotiating the crowds?

Robinson: Jon, you have to understand, there is a queen on the board as well.

my Palestinian solution and the Incredible Rochelle Ballantyne

Alright, so I apologize in advance for the way this post is going to turn out. I know that people who think they have the simple solution to complex historical/social/political/religious problems are-- pretty much by definition-- stupid assholes. But here's my take anyway:

1. Invading Gaza is not much more useful than the US invasion of Afghanistan after/ because of 9/11. As satisfying as it is to get revenge, attacking places you think the enemy once hung out is not the same as attacking the enemy. And attacking people who will be your neighbors forever is just not sensible. They will hate you and their children's children will hate you. And their children's children's children.

2. A large part of the problem is the severe economic hardship in Palestine. This gets translated into violent political action for two separate reasons:
a. Poverty makes people angry and desparate.
b. Hamas does a huge amount of social outreach and charity work; it basically is Social Services in Palestine, and this work is where a large part of their popular support comes from (In a country which has been historically relatively secular, as far as the Middle East goes). If you feed starving people, they're going to like you, join you, vote for you, and possibly wire themselves with explosives.

3. The easiest, nicest, and cheapest way to end the attacks on Israel is to invest heavily in the economy of Palestine. Raise the standard of living, and people will be too happy and busy at work to fire missiles at Israelis. Plus they won't desparately need Hamas, so its social and political support will erode.

Also, I know it seems like a little money won't heal a 1000 year old conflict, but think about the major violent cultural feuds in history that have blown over... Europe. They used to fight all the time, look at them now. All economically integrated and lovey dovey.

Okay, that's my 2 cents. Feel free to comment.


How awesome are you if you've won your last seventeen rated games of chess? Five in club, plus she's won the last 3 Chess in the Schools tournaments. and these are not easy tournaments. She was 1717 at the beginning of December; her rating after today should be over 1900.

awesome chess clothes

GM Var Akobian wearing Endgame

Jeremy Popoff, guitar player from the platinum selling rock band, Lit ( www.myspace.com/litlounge ), wearing Endgame.

Blog reader John O'Brien has some fantastic chess designs for sale here.

He also has a corresponding blog that centers around chess and its current place in pop culture. I don't know him personally, but he donated money for my kid who couldn't pay for Nationals, so I figure he's a good guy who deserves your business. Plus his shirts are hot.

Checkmates and USCF Politics

hilarious.
A good-girl chess player falls for a bad-boy checkers player from the streets.
Thanks to Joel Salman and Greg Shahade for the link.

Also, coming up soon.... interviews with Brian Mottershead. Feel free to leave question-suggestions in the comments!