LABIRINTI E CASEMATTE: June 2016

Thursday, June 30, 2016

A Rising Star

Bangkok, Thailand: A one-year-old poodle from China is groomed during the Thailand International Dog Show. Photo: Vicky Ge Huang/AP.

The Girls in the Queue

Mumbai, India: Aspiring models wait for their turn to be judged during auditions for an upcoming fashion week. Photo: Shailesh Andrade/Reuters.

Rich Lilac

“Gemma di Tehran” ™ © Mado Flynn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Made_in_Italy

Handmade in Italy by Mado Flynn

New York, United States: A Harry Winston-designed 7.5 carat engagement ring given to Marla Maples by Donald Trump in 1993 was sold on Thursday at auction for $300,000 dollars. Photo: Joseph DuMouchelle/AP.

Merciless Queen

“逸凡 (Yìfán) Dominant” — Ian Rogers’ reportage of the Women’s World Chess Championship 2016, Chess Life, June 2016, pp. 30-33.

The Importance of Not Being Arcovazzi

Nesrine Malik, Racism is not only the preserve of the dispossessed, The Guardian, June 30, 2016

Sadiq Khan, a leader of Labour Party, was elected Mayor of London in the 2016 mayoral election, succeeding Conservative Party Mayor Boris Johnson. Born in London to a working-class British Pakistani family, Khan held the largest personal mandate of any politician in the history of the United Kingdom. Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA.

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

The NeverEnding Story

The annual Associazione Culturale “Il Delta della Luna” end-of-year dinner and dance party will be held at school on Thursday, June 30, 2016, starting at 20,00. All our associates are welcome to join us.

Ballerina centrepiece
Photo: etsy.com

Number One

Muhammad Ali playing Monopoly in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, 1963. Photo by Steve Schapiro.

There are no pleasures in a fight, but some of my fights have been a pleasure to win.

Muhammad Ali

Moonstruck

By now a superstar, Chinese crested dog named Rascal Deux of Sunnyvale, California, poses during the World’s Ugliest Dog contest. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

Ironing

Ivan Bocharov – Aleksandra Yuryevna Goryachkina
69th All-Russian Higher League; Kolomna, June 29, 2016
8/4k1p1/3N1pb1/2P1n2p/8/4P1P1/4BK1P/8 w - - 1 45

Aleksandra Yuryevna Goryachkina, at her first experience in a men’s high contest, has already fulfilled the expectations of those who trusted her skill enough to know that she could have done it. Today, however, after entering a Bishop and Knight endgame down a Pawn, was not able to put up the toughest resistance – that’s quite strange for her! 45. Nc4 Nd3+? This, in fact, is a serious mistake, which clears the way for an easy win for White. It would seem that 45. ... Nd7! 46. c6 Ne5 47. Nxe5 fxe5 would have led her a bit closer to the possibility of a draw – even though drawing would have been all but easy. 46. Bxd3 Bxd3 47. Nd6 f5. Prevents e3-e4 followed by Kf2-e3-d4. 48. Kf3. Now White keeps both the passer and the free entrance on the Kingside. 48. ... Ke6 49. Kf4 g6 50. h4 Bc2 51. Nb5 Kd5 52. c6! 1 : 0. For if 52. ... Kxc6 then 53. Nd4+ finis.

Aleksandra Yuryevna Goryachkina
Photo: chtn.ru

Pink Amber

“Gemma di Tehran” ™ © Mado Flynn

Handmade in Italy by Mado Flynn

The Importance of Not Being Arcovazzi

Sincerely speaking, I’m not too worried about the English vote to leave the European Union, because I know that England will never leave Europe.
England heroically fought against nazifascism almost alone in Europe during the World War II, and was able to put together both the Soviet Union and the United States under the sky of Europe. Therefore, no Europe can exist without England; we and they cannot but be united together in the same family, though sometimes unwillingly.
Instead, as usual I’m much more worried about Arcovazzi who firmly wants to plant roots in Europe, aiming to degrade our beloved continent to the level of his thirld world banana republic. Arcovazzi, in fact, wants to apply the Constitution of his own republic to any “uncooperative” country he is interested in, aiming to simplify his powers worldwide. And he will never hesitate to invent dangers and emergency issues just to pass “Big Brother” paramilitary censorship outlaw laws. Like all his great (immortal) predecessors he exalts “autobiographical values” such as fascism, apoliticism, patriarchal authoritarianism, familism, cult of personality, gender and social inequality, feudalism, formalism, ritualism, cheatism, thievism, and so on – surely I’m forgetting something!
Anyone who lives in his “divine farce” is doomed to fall ill, or even to die of shame.
Arcovazzi’s world is beyond any horrific nightmare you can imagine.
So you’d better reset your Mitteleuropean sense of humor and just say welcome back to England!

World War II. Future Queen of England Princess Elizabeth and future Countess of Snowdon Princess Margaret, serving in the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service, ca. early 1940s. Photo: fineartamerica.com.

Administrative Bilingualism

Never Underestimate a Clown

Brussels, Belgium: A scary clown exhibit at the launch of a Harry Potter exhibition at Palais 2 of the Brussels Expo. Photo: Rex/Shutterstock.

Sunrays for Wednesday

Malang, Indonesia: A three-month-old Bengal tiger cub plays with its mother at a zoo. Photo: Aman Rochman/AFP/Getty Images.

A Superman in the Family

Quod nulli calicem tuum propinas,
humane facis, Horme, non superbe.

To no one do you pass your cup to pledge you.
This is human feeling, Hormus, not pride.

A nessuno dài bere nel tuo calice.
È umanità, e non superbia, Ormo.

Martial, Epigrams, Book 2, XV
English translation by Walter C. A. Ker
Italian translation by Giuseppe Lipparini

Photo © ahermin

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

The Wind Is Never Gone

将得到的总会比失去的好。
Jiāng dédào de zǒng huì bǐ shīqù de hǎo.
What is coming is better than what is gone.

阿拉伯谚语 (Arabic proverb)

Photo © KrisVlad

Arcovazzi Grain Coffee

Jonathan David Tisdall (‏@GMjtis)

Bevo il caffè preparato con il “Maltoriso” Arrigoni. Succedaneo al caffè coloniale. In L’Illustrazione italiana, 17 maggio 1936, n. 20 | I drink the coffee made with rice malt Arrigoni. Colonial coffee substitute. From L’Illustrazione Italiana, May 17, 1936, No. 20. Image courtesy of guerrainfame.it.

Sunny Wind

A mass gymnastics and artistic performance in Pyongyang, North Korea. Photo: Alamy.

If it was a secret they’d tell you

Georgia Scott-Hunter from the Australian Ballet recreates Edgar Degas’ Dancer With Bouquets. Photo: Wayne Taylor.

Evie Ferris of the Australian Ballet poses with Edgar Degas’ Dancers on the Stage. Photo: Wayne Taylor.

Evie Ferris recreates the pose of Marie Geneviève van Goethem at the National Gallery of Victoria. Photo: Wayne Taylor.

Steph Harmon, The Australian Ballet takes on Degas’ dancers — in pictures, The Guardian, June 28, 2016

Southampton’s Pelé

https://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2016/jun/27/italy-v-spain-euro-2016-live

Rob Smyth, Italy 2–0 Spain: Euro 2016 – as it happened, The Guardian, June 27, 2016

A superbly organised Italy deserved dethroned Spain with goals from Giorgio Chiellini and Graziano Pellè in a compelling, dramatic match. [Read more].

Graziano Pellè completes a wonderful victory for Italy. With all the players attracted to the left side, Insigne drilled a majestic crossfield pass to Darmian on the right. He moved into the area and stabbed a low cross that was deflected up to Pellè, and he volleyed it in from a few yards. Photo: Ian Langsdon/EPA.

The Strength of the Strong

一颗喜悦的心，就是最好的良药。
Yī kē xǐyuè de xīn, jiùshì zuì hǎo de liángyào.
A cheerful heart is a good medicine.

Muhammad Ali plays and jokes with Roland Ward, 8-year-old, a patient at the Crippled Children’s Hospital of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, on Tuesday, August 1, 1978. Photo: AP.

Monday, June 27, 2016

Fatal Attraction

California, United States: A Chinese crested dog named Rascal Deux takes part in the World’s Ugliest Dog contest. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

Light It Up

Daniil Dimitriyevich Dubov – Daniil Aleksandrovich Yuffa
69th All-Russian Higher League; Kolomna, June 27, 2016
Alekhine Defence B02

1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. Nc3 c6 4. d4 d6 5. f4 Bf5 6. Bd3. For 6. Nxd5 cxd5 7. Nf3 Nc6 8. Bd3 Bxd3 9. Qxd3 g6 10. 0-0 Bg7 11. Bd2 Qd7 12. Rae1 see I. A. Zaitsev – Vesterinen, Moscow 1982. 6. ... Qd7. Also 6. ... Nxc3 7. bxc3 Bxd3 8. Qxd3 e6 9. Nf3 d5 10. f5 seems to give White a very powerful attack, Glinert – McLaren, 76th Canadian Chess Championship, Richmond 2002. 7. a3 Nxc3 8. bxc3 Bxd3 9. Qxd3 Qg4

10. Nh3! Dubov is a very creative player and you can be sure that he is always ready to invent something dangerous. Here he sacrifices a Pawn for a powerful initiative. 10. ... Qxg2 11. Rg1 Qd5. Not 11. ... Qxh2? 12. Bd2! followed by long castling, with very sad consequences for Black. 12. c4 Qa5+ 13. Bd2 Qc7 14. Ng5 e6 15. f5 h6 16. exd6! There were many interesting possibilities, but Dubov chooses the soundest and probably the best one. 16. ... Qxd6? Probably 16. ... Bxd6 was a little better, although after 17. Ne4 Nd7 (17. ... Bxh2 18. Rxg7 is decidedly bad, while after 17. ... exf5 18. Nxd6+ Qxd6 19. 0-0-0 White totally dominates the board, in spite of his two Pawns minus) 18. 0-0-0 White still has powerful compensation for the Pawn. 17. Ne4 Qxh2 18. 0-0-0 Nd7 19. fxe6 fxe6 20. Rh1. Now White easily demolishes any resistance. 20. ... Qc7 21. Ng5 0-0-0 22. Nxe6 Qd6 23. Nxd8 Qxa3+ 24. Qxa3 Bxa3+ 25. Kb1 Rxd8 26. c5. That’s the point! The Black Bishop is in trouble. 26. ... b5 27. Ba5 Re8 28. Rhe1 Nf6 29. Rxe8+ Nxe8 30. Ka2 1 : 0. For if 30. ... b4 then 31. c3.

Daniil Dimitriyevich Dubov. Photo: chesspro.ru.

Sons and Daughters

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, Family rifts over Brexit: “I can barely look at my parents”, The Guardian, June 27, 2016

“I’m ashamed of my own mother”: many “millennials” feel that the older generation has selfishly voted against the interests of subsequent ones. Photo: Isabel Infantes/PA.

It’s Not the End of the World, It’s Just the End of the School

Ballet sugar cookies: tutus and pointe shoes
Photo: etsy.com

The Poppy Field

Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England: A poppy field at sunset. Photo: Matthew Pinner/Rex/Shutterstock.

If it was a secret they’d tell you

This morning, while I was walking a long way under a very burning sun, I suddenly stopped right in front of an art gallery’s window at the corner of Via degli Orti and Via Chiarugi in Empoli, Italy, to take a look at a painting on a chess theme. It was a serigraph with collage, signed in pencil, by Paolo Fresu, and particularly interesting is the artist’s caption (which is also the title of the artwork): “The White King and the Black Queen were meeting on the evening off the board” (“Il Re bianco e la Regina nera s’incontravano di sera fuori dalla scacchiera”). If it was a secret they’d tell you.

龍門 (Dragon Gate)

The 1st Silk Road Women’s International Tournament to be held on 17-21 July 2016 in 韩城 (Hánchéng), 陕西省 (Shǎnxī province), China. It was reported by sinochess (@sinachess) that 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán), Humpy Koneru, Alexandra Konstantinovna Kosteniuk, Mariya Muzychuk, Antoaneta Stefanova, and Anna Ushenina will enter the lists.

韩城 (Hánchéng), 陕西省 (Shǎnxī province)
Photo: TripAdvisor

This Is What You Came For

Rock Around the Clock

亳州 (Bózhōu), 安徽省 (Ānhuī province), China: Young girls practise at a children’s dance centre. Photo: VCG/via Getty Images.

Sunday, June 26, 2016

The Edge of Not-Knowing

Il dolore non è altro che la sorpresa di non conoscerci.

Pain is only the surprise not to know each other.

Alda Merini

World War III

If at first all the States of Europe are not willing or able to join the Union, we must nevertheless proceed to assemble and combine those who will and those who can.

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill speaking at the University of Zürich on September 19, 1946

A demonstrator holds a placard during a protest against the outcome of the EU referendum. Photo: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images.

The Boy Who Danced

The death of a Palestinian talent show winner highlights the fate of millions fleeing war

It was, according to all who saw it, an inspired performance by a talented contemporary dance company. Afterwards the star of the show, Hassan Rabeh, a long-haired, handsome young dancer and teacher, returned to the seventh-floor apartment he was staying in, went out on to the crumbling balcony and jumped to his death. [Read more].