Journey to Nowhere

In an interview with the Sport-Express correspondent Timur Ganeev, three-time Russian Women’s Chess Champion and women’s world No. 2 Aleksandra Yuryevna Goryachkina (pictured above) voiced her apprehensions for the future, due to the geopoltical crisis that is causing Russia to be blacklisted by most Western countries. She also feels in doubt about her continuing her commitment to FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2022–23. “Honestly, I do not know what will be of me. I don’t have visas. Therefore, the stages of Grand Prix can go on without me. Let’s see how the situation develops”, said Goryachkina. More particularly, the issue concerns the third and fourth stages of Grand Prix, in India and Poland respectively. There should not be any problem for her to travel to India, “but”, she says, “there are still no dates” (nor place indeed). Nevertheless, the intransigence of Poland over any Russian presence in their stage is apparently insurmountable, “And, as far as I know, FIDE does not want to move it to somewhere else”. The fate wanted that the next Women’s World Chess Championship match will be an all-Chinese affair and, happen what may, she can only be a spectator. Will 居文君 (Jū Wénjūn) succeed in defending her title? “No comment”. Goryachkina, however, has one last card to play before making herself invisible: that is, to apply for a Schengen visa. “I’ll try, but the probability of getting it is deemed minimal. In general, this year I will play for myself, for my own pleasure”, she said. “I have invitations to some tournaments, but again, a lot depends on getting a visa”. Photo: Fedor Uspensky/Sport-Express.

Thrilla in Manila

Manila, Philippines, early October 1976. Pictured in the photo above (top left) are Bobby Fischer, Imelda Marcos, Van Cliburn and Margot Fonteyn. Photo: Dagblaðið, January 4, 1977, p. 14.

A Year Without a Name

Searching for an Alternative Past

12th World Chess Champion Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov has arrived in the Philippines from Egypt, where he’s been attending the yearly Assembly of the Peoples of Eurasia. Already today (January 31) Karpov, escorted by Filipino Grandmaster Eugene Torre, conceded himself to giving a public lecture for the sake of his many admirers, which took place at Rizal Memorial Coliseum in Manila. Photos: Niño Manalo, Enrique Diagro/CNN Philippines.

You’re joking, Edna, they don’t even know the difference between Madame Bovary and Lady Chatterley

Artwork © SoPablo

Twice Upon a Time

Of course, Edna, there are days and days, just as there are humans and humans

Artwork © Presque3D

Angle trisection

A King’s Lesson

The triumph of Serbian tennis star Novak Đoković at this year’s Australian Open in Melbourne is a sort of sweet vengeance for an offended gentleman. “I have to say this has been one of the most challenging tournaments I have ever played in my life considering the circumstances, not playing last year, coming back this year”, said Đoković. “I try to pinch myself and really live through these moments. It’s a long journey. Only the team and the family knows what we have been through in the last four or five weeks. I would say this is probably the biggest victory of my life, considering those circumstances”. Photo: Manan Vatsyayana/AFP via Getty Images.

Well, Edna, one may just wonder what he would do if he found Bobby there

Artwork © mc90604

In Search of Lost Time

When 12th World Chess Champion Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is up in Manila, it will be Filipino Grandmaster Eugene Torre, one of the longtime friends of 11th World Champion Bobby Fischer, who will personally welcome him coming to Philippines. According to The Philippine Star correspondents, Artemio Dumlao and Joey Villar, Torre is “helping the Russian embassy and the Philippine Sports Commission coordinate some of Karpov’s activities”, which should include a simultaneous exhibition at Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila Tuesday, followed by a screening of Aleksey Leonidovich Sidorov’s film Champion of the World, fresh winner of the Golden Eagle Award for Best Motion Picture, dedicated to the 1978 World Chess Championship match between Karpov and Viktor Lvovich Kortschnoi. Then on Wednesday Karpov will pay a pilgrimage to the Baguio Convention Centre, which 45 years ago was theatre of that epic match.

Goodbye Beautiful

Pray, Edna, distrust people with short memory who rewrite history years later to pursue their warmongering aims

Artwork © KINGMILYLOCKS (@kingmilylocks)

A-K

A View to 1970s

12th World Chess Champion Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov has neither confirmed nor denied the rumours with regard to a proposal made to him by Philippines Secretary of Education Sara Duterte to coach and train the young Filipino players. “I do not know about this initiative, but I was in a meeting at the Philippine Embassy. A delegation from Moscow, of which I am a member, plans to leave for the Philippines the day after tomorrow, and the State Duma, at the request of the Government of Moscow, approved this trip”, Karpov told TASS. “This is the first time ever that such a trip will be made. I’ll tell you what I will do after the visit”. Photo: Vyacheslav Prokofiev/TASS.

Lest we forget

It’s been 78 years ago since the Soviet Red Army entered Auschwitz in the afternoon of January 27, 1945, freeing the survivors of the complex of concentration and extermination camps — and finally revealing to the world the depth of atrocities perpetrated there. Photo: Sovfoto/Universal Images Group/Getty Images.

On the other hand, Edna, it’s well known that misfortune favours the nerds

Artwork © BABY ♡ K (@babyk.bykaveri)

Sara at the Palace

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez welcomed Iranian Woman Grandmaster Sarasadat Khademalsharieh with all honours at Moncloa Palace in Madrid on Wednesday, January 25, 2023. Quite inevitably, a chess class followed, as a matter of course. “How much I have learned today from a woman who inspires me”, Sánchez tweeted.

A Year and a Day

A person poses next to a light sculpture ahead of Lunar New Year celebrations in Bangkok’s Chinatown, Thailand. Photo: Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters.

Well, Edna, do not take this as an indictment of your warmongering councillors, but just give a thought to King Solomon, who could have asked God for anything, and yet asked only for wisdom

Artwork © Katiefan2002

That Is to Say

All the Lonely People

A worker uses a crane to lift a statue of Eleanor Rigby, a character immortalised in a Beatles song of the same name after it was damaged in recent cold weather in Liverpool, Britain. Photo: Phil Noble/Reuters.

If nothing else, Edna, at least in TV, they win all their wars, whether against both alien viruses or against Jurassic monsters

Artwork © The-Tinidril

Dear Shame

The truth and the shame

Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, January 24, 2023

After what has happened in the last two years, it is difficult not to feel somehow diminished, not to feel — whether one wants it or not — a kind of shame. It is not the shame that Marx defined as “a sort of anger that turned inward”, in which he glimpsed a possibility of revolution. Rather, it is a question of that “shame of being a man”, of which Primo Levi spoke with regard to the camps, the shame of one who has seen happen what should not have happened. It is a shame of this type — as it has been rightly said — that, with all due proportion, we feel when faced by too great a vulgarity, when watching certain TV programmes, when confronted with the faces of their hosts and with the self-assured smiles of experts, journalists and politicians who have consciously sanctioned and spread lies, falsehood and abuse — and continue to do so with impunity.
Anyone who has felt this shame knows that he did not become better because of it. Rather, he knows, as Saba used to repeat, that he is “much less than he was before” — more alone, even if he has sought friends and associates; more silent, even if he has tried to bear witness; more helpless, even if someone listened to his word. One thing, however, he has not lost, but indeed has somehow unexpectedly gained: that is a certain closeness to something for which he can find no other name than “truth”, the ability to distinguish the sound of that word, which, if you listen to, you can only believe it’s true. That is why, and because, he may bear witness. It is possible — but it is not certain — that time, as the saying goes, ends up revealing the truth and proving — who knows when — him right. But that is not what he put into account with his bearing witness. What obliges him not to stop bearing witness is, rather, just that special shame of being, despite everything, a man — just as, despite everything, men are also those who, with their words and their actions, have forced him to feel shame.

(English translation by I, Robot)

Auguste Rodin, Ève au rocher (Eve at the rock), 1907. Photo © Didier Descouens.

Indeed, Edna, there is no hurry to grow older when you are young

Artwork © Bianca C. (@b.coelhoart)

The Catcher in the Rye

And now this evening at Jīva Yoga Studio, through the looking-glass of the Associazione Culturale “Il Delta della Luna”, Holden Caulfield took his place on the shelves of Claudia’s library: “I’m quite illiterate, but I read a lot”.

Dancing Barefoot

Esselunga advertising campaign for Sambonet cutlery collections.

Be indulgent, Edna, for they feel like overwhelmed by your ethereal glow, and if only they could speak, they would have been saying it with Salinger, “She wasn’t doing a thing that I could see, except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together”

Artwork © Shadowofjustice123

Searching for Holden

Yeah, Edna, to quote William Page, “Art begins where geometry ends”

Artwork © mage_in_training

Rabbit & Dragon

Yes, Edna, approximately speaking, the circumference of a circle is like the perimeter of a tiramisu

Artwork © Muhammed Faruk Yılmaz (@m.faruk.ylmaz)

Down the Line

The mascots for the 19th Asian Games — rescheduled to be held from September 23 to October 8, 2023, after one year’s postponement due to COVID-19 — take the subway in 杭州 (Hángzhōu), 浙江省 (Zhèjiāng province), China. Photo: Rex/Shutterstock.

Nobody cares even a bit about them, Edna. Everyone only hopes for you to be involved in a 3D modeling performance

Artwork © whoslepe

A belt in a hand

The International Chess Federation (FIDE) announced today — anything but coincidentally — the venue for the World Chess Championship to be held in Astana, Kazakhstan from April 7 to May 1, 2023. As a consequence of Magnus Carlsen’s abdication, two challengers, 丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén) from China and Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi from Russia, will play for the title in a 14-game classical match with a $2,000,000 purse.

You know, Edna, mascarpone-based tiramisus won’t be good the next day, so you better eat them all now

Artwork © Monica Rosehill (@monicarosehill)

Backstage Rehearsal Room

蜜罐 (Honeypot)

Four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) shines out in all her splendour as she attends the presentation of a Kazakh IT startup named Chess Legends Ltd., CHK — of which she is both an icon and a co-founder — held on the occasion of the 16th Asian Financial Forum in 香港 (Hong Kong), China on January 11, 2023. Kazakhstani Grandmaster Darmen Kanatovich Sadvakasov is also recognisable in both pictures. Photos: 香港 (Hong Kong) — Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

A Night at the Movies

This was an off-schedule Tuesday evening at the movies for teachers, dancers, students (and parents alike!) of the Associazione Culturale “Il Delta della Luna”.

Hey, Edna, guess what movie is playing, or no tiramisu!

Artwork © Chartist22

沙尘暴 (The Sand Storm)

Well, Edna, it will be at least half a month of wild and burning expectation

Artwork © WandererRiha

The Spring Rabbit

The knockout final of 17th Chinese Chess League “泰来杯” (“Tàilái Cup”), initially scheduled for October of last year, will kick off on Sunday, February 5, 2023 at 聊城 (Liáochéng), 山东省 (Shāndōng province), China, featuring the top eight teams that had qualified from the preliminary stage. Needless to say it will be most enjoyable to see four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) taking back her place as the spearhead of the 杭州银行队 (Hángzhōu Bank Team) and riding the board again. Photo: 刘毅 (Liú Yì).

The thing is simple, Edna; whatever their managers may say, however they may boast themselves — they do not have the physique du rôle

Artwork © Randomosity4256

Kaleidoscopes

Aerial view of buildings surrounded by advection fog in 厦门 (Xiàmén), 福建省 (Fújiàn province). Photo: VCG/Getty Images.

To be sure, Edna, it’s not easy to live in the present after travelling to the future

Artwork © Salla’art — Ilustrador (@_sallaart)

The Handmade Alphabet

Well, Edna, as the old Chinese proverb says: a sly rabbit has three burrows

Credit: Mon (@_monse.ash)

卯 (Rabbit)

A lantern featuring a fairy is illuminated during a lantern show at 大唐芙蓉园 (Dàtáng Fúróng Yuán) in 西安 (Xī’ān) before Chinese New Year, the year of the rabbit. Photo: VCG/Getty Images.

Just so, Edna; things continually start over where they aren’t finished yet

Artwork © ♛𝓂𝒶𝓇𝓎𝒶𝓃𝒶♛

Allegory

李旻旭 (Lǐ Mínxù), Dreamscape (British Journal of Photography’s Female in Focus 2022 award winner). Photo © 李旻旭 (Lǐ Mínxù).

Well, Edna, paraphrasing Archimedes, one can say, “Give me a blue pen (but not just any pen!) and I shall turn a desert into an ocean!”

Artwork © Ramon Batista (@rbs.arts)

The Dragon in the Room

Serpent d’océan (Ocean Serpent) by Chinese-French contemporary artist 黄永砯 (Huáng Yǒng Pīng) is a 100 m long skeletal sea serpent made of aluminum, installed on the west coast of France, at the limit where the Loire meets the Atlantic. Photo: Pierre Mathieu/Flickr.

Metaphoria

• Jordan Potter, How Stanley Kubrick used chess to sculpt his career, Far Out Magazine, January 11, 2023

Beyond film, Kubrick had a healthy obsession with chess from a young age, and he used it as a tool throughout his career. First of all, Kubrick’s chess mastery helped him to finance his early career endeavours. [Read more].

Kubrick and George C. Scott playing chess in the War Room, in a break during filming of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, directed by Kubrick (1963–1964; Great Britain/United States). Photo © Sony/Columbia Pictures.