Four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán)’s greetings on Chinese New Year’s Eve. |
Monday, January 31, 2022
On the Eve
Sunday, January 30, 2022
Trictrac
The 2022 深圳 (Shēnzhèn) Lunar New Year Cup World Chess Stars Invitational Tournament, which was being held online 29–30 January, finally crowned its champions: four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) and 赵雪 (Zhào Xuě) won the four-game rapid double match against 居文君 (Jū Wénjūn) and 谭中怡 (Tán Zhōngyí) 2½ – 1½ (+2 =1 –1), while the six-game rapid & blitz match between 丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén) and 余泱漪 (Yú Yāngyī) was won by the latter 4½ – 1½ (+3 =3). |
Evidence of Love
To Vera Please come, she said, And stay, she said, And smile, she said, And die, she said. I came, I stayed, I smiled, I died. Nâzım Hikmet, 1963 English translation by Alex Miller |
Kara de Dios, Dead Sea, 2018. Courtesy of the artist.
Saturday, January 29, 2022
Conspiracy Theories
- Daniel Boffey, EU executive rebuked for not disclosing Von der Leyen–Pfizer texts, The Guardian, January 28, 2022
Pfizer has signed multiple contracts with the European Commission for its vaccine. The most recent reserved an additional 1.8bn doses, at a higher price than previously set, to be delivered between the end of 2021 to 2023 among the 27 EU member states. [Read more]. |
Helena Almeida, Corte Secreto, 1981. Courtesy of WikiArt.
Friday, January 28, 2022
数字艺术 (Digital art)
Substantial further details were given about the “Battle of Grandmasters”, a two days’ gender clash between four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) of China and American wunderkind Abhimanyu Mishra, which will put on the map the NFT conference NFT South to be held at Irving Convention Centre in the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex, Texas, United States from July 28–30, 2022. Thousands people are expected to attend, while millions more will enjoy the live broadcast. Programs schedule subject to change:
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Thursday, January 27, 2022
The High Cost of Living
Public-health officials ruined many lives by insisting that workers with natural immunity to COVID-19 be fired if they weren’t fully vaccinated. But after two years of accruing data, the superiority of natural immunity over vaccinated immunity is clear. By firing staff with natural immunity, employers got rid of those least likely to infect others. It’s time to reinstate those employees with an apology. [Read more]. |
Conrad Marca-Relli, Trial, 1956. Courtesy of WikiArt.
Cast a Diva
Four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) will be one of the stars at 2022 深圳 (Shēnzhèn) Lunar New Year Cup World Chess Stars Invitational Tournament January 29, an online show challenge featuring a lively series of rapid (25 minutes plus 10 seconds per move) & blitz (5 minutes plus 3 seconds per move) games among two men, 丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén) and 余泱漪 (Yú Yāngyī), and four women, 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán), 居文君 (Jū Wénjūn), 谭中怡 (Tán Zhōngyí) and 赵雪 (Zhào Xuě). Yet the women’s tournament features a novel format for online chess as the four girls are divided by drawing into two opposing pairs to play a rapid double match. |
Summer Is Coming
The “Battle of Grandmasters”, a two days’ match between four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) of China and American wunderkind Abhimanyu Mishra, will be the featured attraction at the NFT conference NFT South which will be taking place at Irving Convention Centre in the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex, Texas, United States from July 28–30, 2022. For further details, click here. |
Wednesday, January 26, 2022
炒冰 (Rolled Ice Cream)
Girls line up in a “snow train” ready to slide down an icy bank at 柳湖公园 (Liǔhú Park) in 平凉 (Píngliáng), 甘肃省 (Gānsù province), China. Photo: Sipa Asia/Rex/Shutterstock. |
The Liturgy of the Hours
One should read at least four hours out of twenty-four when one had been watching too many trains go by. |
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Back to the Future
After being banned from the Australian Open due to COVID-19 vaccination status, Serbian tennis star Novak Đoković (pictured above) is set to comeback in Dubai for the ATP 500, where neither vaccination passports nor certificates are mandatory, with visitors being asked to provide the results of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 96 hours of arrival or undergo a PCR test at Dubai airports. Photo: AP. |
Nemo propheta in patria
Today’s Google Doodle celebrates the 83rd birthday of Italian singer-songwriter, playwright, and performer Giorgio Gaber. He is best known and remembered as a pioneer of teatro canzone (theatre song), a reflection of Milanese society captured through the fusion of music, poetry, and theatre. |
Monday, January 24, 2022
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
A French-Italian congress will be held in Paris, France on January 29, 2022 to discuss and explore the best strategies to resist the authoritarian drift of most European countries — with Italy über alles — and work out a competing narrative to the mainstream’s operetta mercenary storytelling. Twenty prominent intellectuals, jurists and scientists (equally split between French and Italy) will confer on site and online, including four of the founders of the “Commissione Du.Pre (Dubbio e Precauzione)” (“Doubt and Precaution Commission”), namely (in alphabetical order), Giorgio Agamben, Mariano Bizzarri, Massimo Cacciari and Ugo Mattei. The congress will be broadcasted live on the Studenti Contro il Green Pass YouTube Channel. For further details and program, click here. |
Sunday, January 23, 2022
When The Saints
The question arises spontaneously: “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”. |
No Way Out But Through
Institutions in civil society no longer exist after a banana republic has sunk to its lowest point in its path of bigoted discrimination and serial abuses. So maybe “taking it slow” is wise advice in hard times. |
Saturday, January 22, 2022
The Man Who Fell to Earth
As Bobby Fischer said in one of his interviews, “They [the media] constantly use the words eccentric, eccentric, eccentric, weird. I am boring, I am boring!”. Photo courtesy of 视觉中国 (Visual China Group). |
Once Upon a Saturday
Evgeny Georgievich Tsygankov – Leonid Korogodski
7th Chess 960 World Cup Final; ICCF, September 9, 2020 – December 12, 2020
rknrbbqn/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RKNRBBQN w DAda - 0 1
7th Chess 960 World Cup Final; ICCF, September 9, 2020 – December 12, 2020
rknrbbqn/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RKNRBBQN w DAda - 0 1
Position #842
1. d4 d5 2. Ng3 Ng6 3. f3 f6 4. e4 dxe4. Breaking the symmetry. 5. fxe4 e5 6. d5 Nf4 7. Nb3 Bg6 8. a3 c6 9. Qf2 cxd5
10. Nf5. Of course there could have been danger in opening the diagonal b1-h7. 10. ... b6 11. Ba6 Ne6 12. exd5 Nc7 13. Bxc8 Kxc8 14. d6 Rd7 15. Rd2 Qe6. Basically a playable move but with the wrong aim in mind. There were probably other good replies he would rather have been playing. 16. g4
16. ... Bxd6?? Here comes the disaster — Black snatches the Pawn, but it’s a poisoned one. Comparatively best was 16. ... Ne8 in order to reply to 17. 0-0-0 by 17. ... Rb8 18. Rd3 (18. Rc3+ Kd8 19. Nbd4!? leaves White with nothing better than a draw by perpetual check after 19. ... exd4 20. Nxd4 Qxd6 21. Nc6+) 18. ... Rbb7! 19. Bb4 Kb8 with an apparently tenable game. 17. 0-0-0! 1 : 0. Black’s house falls apart like a card castle: if 17. ... Bxf5 18. gxf5 Qe7 then simply 19. Qg2 with decisive effect (19. ... e4 20. Bg3+−). Likewise after 17. ... Ne8 18. Qg2 Kb8 19. Rd3! (Δ Be1-b4) 19. ... Bxf5 (19. ... a5 20. Qc6+−) 20. gxf5 Qxf5 21. Nc5!+− Black cannot avoid the worst outcome.
Theatres of Pardoning
Checkmate to the Empire
Former World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer is free again
The comeback after eight months in Japanese prisons, Bobby Fischer escapes U.S. “vengeance” obtaining Icelandic citizenship
Pio d’Emilia, il manifesto, March 24, 2005
TOKYO — Free. He took eight months, this time, to deliver checkmate. But in the end he did it. And with his last move he beat United States and Japan in one fell swoop. Thanks to the help of a brave Parliament (the Icelandic one, which granted him citizenship) and a fistful of supporters who have married his cause since day one, helping him even against his will, and although, with his behaviour and his provocations urbi et orbi, he made things more and more difficult, Robert James “Bobby” Fischer, the chess genius, is free again and will arrive tonight, except for twists during the stopover in Copenhagen, to Reykjavík, in Iceland. Where he will be welcomed with all honours, like a hero. It was since last July 13 that Fischer was held, against his will and in flagrant infringement of any laws, in a deportation centre nearby Tokyo. Together with the “clandestine migrants” accused of illegally entering Japan or caught without a residence permit. In this centre, isolated and located near the Tokaimura Nuclear Plant (fact that has further stressed the former World Chess Champion, terrified of being contaminated), Fischer was held in absolute isolation, with only fifteen minutes of fresh air a day and the light turned on 24 hours a day, for almost 8 months. On a couple of occasions, following his protests for the food scarce and of poor quality, he was beaten by the guards. But he also received hundreds of visits from old friends who had purposely come from all over the world (it seems that even his everlasting frenemy Spassky got him on the phone, to arrange a visit, however refused by Fischer: “I don’t wanna see him again: then maybe he asks me to redo a match and frankly I’m just not in the mood”), e by Japanese ordinary people attracted by his fame.
“The most moving visit was that of an old chess player”, Fischer told us. “In the form distributed at the entrance, he indicated the desire to play a game as a reason for his visit. I haven’t played chess in years, but I would have done it for him. It is just that those jerks didn’t give me a board...”. On the other hand it seems that a guard, out of order, even dared to ask him for an autograph!
Eight months. Then, after a sparkling series of moves, partly conceived — often unbeknownst to him — by the committee for his liberation (chaired by a Serbian journalist based in Tokyo, John Bosnitch), partly dictated directly to his lawyers, the solution. Legally unexceptionable (unlike his detention, blatantly illegal). Fischer, to whom the U.S. authorities revoked and physically destroyed the passport (an unprecedented act: an official of the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, allegedly named “Peter”, entered the room where Fischer was being held, asked for his passport and, in front of everyone, tore it up), is a foreign citizen without a travel document and as such he must be deported.
The law provides that he gets deported to his country of origin, unless the subject gives serious reasons and indicates another country, which gives its prior consent to his welcome. This country, which until a few weeks ago might have been Germany (Fischer’s father is German), has become Iceland. The Ambassador himself, two days ago, handed into the hands of Fischer’s lawyers his brand new passport. The pressure on the Japanese government became unsustainable, especially after that even the local press began (after eight months!!!) to deal with the case and some opposition MPs carried out parliamentary investigations.
A final check with the United States, to verify if an arrest warrant for tax evasion could be issued within a few hours and then, finally, the surrender. Bobby will not end his days in an American jail, but among the “hot ices” of Iceland, as a radiant John Bosnitch commented yesterday. Reached by telephone last night, in the prison where we had met him a few weeks ago, Fischer commented on the news as follows: “Finally. Honour to Vikings, and shame on Japaneses. I thought they were braver... instead they are nothing but yellow Jews”. The usual, paradoxical, anti-Semitic refrain which, by now, Fischer, a Jew by birth, repeats maniacally, and that — according to many — may be at the root of the fury with which the United States hunted him for over ten years all around the world.
Not so much, perhaps, for violating the embargo and playing the famous rematch against Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia, in 1992, at the invitation of Milošević, but for his persistent, frenzied attitude of challenge and contempt for the homeland. In order to satisfy the United States’ desire for revenge, the Empire of the Rising Sun has slipped into an increasingly narrow corridor, to the point of becoming impassable, of abstruse and illegal moves, where Knights, Rooks and Pawns were no longer subject to any rules, but they moved in a disordered way, without any certainty. Anyone else would have got his fingers burnt. Fischer no. In the end, he won again.
The comeback after eight months in Japanese prisons, Bobby Fischer escapes U.S. “vengeance” obtaining Icelandic citizenship
Pio d’Emilia, il manifesto, March 24, 2005
TOKYO — Free. He took eight months, this time, to deliver checkmate. But in the end he did it. And with his last move he beat United States and Japan in one fell swoop. Thanks to the help of a brave Parliament (the Icelandic one, which granted him citizenship) and a fistful of supporters who have married his cause since day one, helping him even against his will, and although, with his behaviour and his provocations urbi et orbi, he made things more and more difficult, Robert James “Bobby” Fischer, the chess genius, is free again and will arrive tonight, except for twists during the stopover in Copenhagen, to Reykjavík, in Iceland. Where he will be welcomed with all honours, like a hero. It was since last July 13 that Fischer was held, against his will and in flagrant infringement of any laws, in a deportation centre nearby Tokyo. Together with the “clandestine migrants” accused of illegally entering Japan or caught without a residence permit. In this centre, isolated and located near the Tokaimura Nuclear Plant (fact that has further stressed the former World Chess Champion, terrified of being contaminated), Fischer was held in absolute isolation, with only fifteen minutes of fresh air a day and the light turned on 24 hours a day, for almost 8 months. On a couple of occasions, following his protests for the food scarce and of poor quality, he was beaten by the guards. But he also received hundreds of visits from old friends who had purposely come from all over the world (it seems that even his everlasting frenemy Spassky got him on the phone, to arrange a visit, however refused by Fischer: “I don’t wanna see him again: then maybe he asks me to redo a match and frankly I’m just not in the mood”), e by Japanese ordinary people attracted by his fame.
“The most moving visit was that of an old chess player”, Fischer told us. “In the form distributed at the entrance, he indicated the desire to play a game as a reason for his visit. I haven’t played chess in years, but I would have done it for him. It is just that those jerks didn’t give me a board...”. On the other hand it seems that a guard, out of order, even dared to ask him for an autograph!
Eight months. Then, after a sparkling series of moves, partly conceived — often unbeknownst to him — by the committee for his liberation (chaired by a Serbian journalist based in Tokyo, John Bosnitch), partly dictated directly to his lawyers, the solution. Legally unexceptionable (unlike his detention, blatantly illegal). Fischer, to whom the U.S. authorities revoked and physically destroyed the passport (an unprecedented act: an official of the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, allegedly named “Peter”, entered the room where Fischer was being held, asked for his passport and, in front of everyone, tore it up), is a foreign citizen without a travel document and as such he must be deported.
The law provides that he gets deported to his country of origin, unless the subject gives serious reasons and indicates another country, which gives its prior consent to his welcome. This country, which until a few weeks ago might have been Germany (Fischer’s father is German), has become Iceland. The Ambassador himself, two days ago, handed into the hands of Fischer’s lawyers his brand new passport. The pressure on the Japanese government became unsustainable, especially after that even the local press began (after eight months!!!) to deal with the case and some opposition MPs carried out parliamentary investigations.
A final check with the United States, to verify if an arrest warrant for tax evasion could be issued within a few hours and then, finally, the surrender. Bobby will not end his days in an American jail, but among the “hot ices” of Iceland, as a radiant John Bosnitch commented yesterday. Reached by telephone last night, in the prison where we had met him a few weeks ago, Fischer commented on the news as follows: “Finally. Honour to Vikings, and shame on Japaneses. I thought they were braver... instead they are nothing but yellow Jews”. The usual, paradoxical, anti-Semitic refrain which, by now, Fischer, a Jew by birth, repeats maniacally, and that — according to many — may be at the root of the fury with which the United States hunted him for over ten years all around the world.
Not so much, perhaps, for violating the embargo and playing the famous rematch against Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia, in 1992, at the invitation of Milošević, but for his persistent, frenzied attitude of challenge and contempt for the homeland. In order to satisfy the United States’ desire for revenge, the Empire of the Rising Sun has slipped into an increasingly narrow corridor, to the point of becoming impassable, of abstruse and illegal moves, where Knights, Rooks and Pawns were no longer subject to any rules, but they moved in a disordered way, without any certainty. Anyone else would have got his fingers burnt. Fischer no. In the end, he won again.
Friday, January 21, 2022
Beyond the Sky Limits
- Ian Neil and Nicholas Saady, The Đoković shambles highlights what refugees have long known — Australia’s ‘God powers’ are dangerously broad, The Guardian, January 21, 2022
As the President of Liberty Victoria, Julia Kretzenbacher, observed in the wake of Đoković’s expulsion: “One danger of largely unfettered discretions, or ‘God powers’, is that decision making just becomes political and populist... eroding the integrity of the executive and the rule of law”. Photo: Tess Derry/PA. |
A Random Interlude
Stockfish – Ethereal
Top Chess Engine Championship Season 21 — FRC4 League C; tcec-chess.com, December 26, 2021
nrnkbbqr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NRNKBBQR w HBhb - 0 1
Position #170
1. e4 Nab6 2. Nab3 f6 3. d4 d5 4. exd5 Nd6 5. Nd3 Nxd5 6. 0-0-0 b6 7. h4 a5 8. Kb1 h5 9. g3 Bd7 10. f3 Bf5 11. Rh2 a4
12. Nbc5 Nc4 13. g4 bxc5 14. gxf5 Nce3
15. dxc5 Nxd1 16. Nb4 Nxb4 17. Bxb4 0-0-0 18. Ba6+ Kb8
19. c6 Nc3+ 20. Bxc3 e5
21. Qf1 Bc5 22. a3 Qd5 23. Qb5+ Bb6 24. Qxa4 Qxf3 25. Ka2 Qxf5 26. Bb4 e4 27. Bb7 Ba7 28. Rh3 Rd1 29. Rb3 Qf1 30. Rc3 Ra1+ 31. Kb3 Qb1 32. Qa6 Ra2 33. Ka4 Rxb2 34. Rc4 Qg1
35. Bc5 Rb6 36. Qxa7+ Kxa7 37. Bxg1 Re8 38. Be3 f5 39. Rc5 Kb8 40. Rxf5 Rxb7
41. cxb7 Kxb7 42. Kb4 g6 43. Rf6 Rd8 44. a4 Rd1 45. a5 Rb1+ 46. Kc4 Kc8 47. a6 Kd7 48. a7 Ra1 49. Rxg6 c6 50. Rg8 Ra4+ 51. Kb3
Ra5 52. a8=Q Rxa8 53. Rxa8 Ke7
54. Ra5 Kf6 55. Rxh5 Kg7 56. Rg5+ Kf7 57. h5 c5 58. h6 Ke6 59. h7 Kd6 60. h8=Q Kd7 61. Qh7+ 62. Rg6+ Kb5 63. Qb7+ Ka5 64. Qb6# 1 : 0.
Thursday, January 20, 2022
Parallel Lines
There is nothing so spectrally deserted and mystically still as Piazza della Repubblica (Republic Square) in downtown Florence when the Palazzo delle Poste is crowded and packed with hundreds of people queueing for basics. Something must have gone terribly wrong. |
The Call of Earth
Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić said on Thursday Serbia has revoked all licences related to Rio Tinto Group for lithium exploration due to environmental concerns. Photo: BBC News. |
Wednesday, January 19, 2022
Lose to Win
The detention of Serbian tennis star Novak Đoković at Melbourne’s infamous Park Hotel has powerfully highlighted the plight of refugees and asylum seekers that have been locked away for up to nine years with no end in sight. Photo: James Ross/AAP. |
Radio London
- Peter Walker, Sally Weale and Andrew Gregory, All plan B COVID restrictions, including mask wearing, to end in England, The Guardian, January 19, 2022
Boris Johnson has announced the end of all COVID measures introduced to combat the Omicron variant — compulsory mask-wearing on public transport and in shops, guidance to work from home and vaccine certificates — from next week. [Read more]. |
Tuesday, January 18, 2022
Lonely But Not Alone
Tommy Fung, That uncomfortable moment when a stranger sits next to you when there are plenty seats, 2018. Photomontage © Tommy Fung/My Surreal Life in 香港 (Hong Kong). |
Monday, January 17, 2022
Wuthering Heights
Tommy Fung, Hard to Get, 2020. Photomontage © Tommy Fung/My Surreal Life in 香港 (Hong Kong). |
Sunday, January 16, 2022
Catch-22
Milan, Jan 16 (Reuters) — Human rights group Amnesty International urged Italy to change tough anti-COVID restrictions to avoid discrimination against unvaccinated people. [Read more]. |