Artwork © Hannah Thom Fine Art (@hannahthomart)
Thursday, February 29, 2024
Back to Ithaca
Wadim Alexandrowitsch Rosenstein, deus ex machina of the team which last year brought to the WR Group the world title of the inaugural FIDE World Rapid Team Chess Championship, announced today that the team will defend its title next August, featuring the same lineup except for Wesley So, who will be substituted by five-time World Champion Magnus Carlsen.
The team which will defend the WR’s honour are listed as pictured above, top to bottom, left to right: Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Vincent Keymer, 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán), Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Alexandra Konstantinovna Kosteniuk, Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi, Jan Gustafsson (Trainer), Magnus Carlsen, Wadim Alexandrowitsch Rosenstein, and Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Playbill: Wadim Alexandrowitsch Rosenstein. |
A Teacher’s Treasures
Lecture by four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) at 2024 Chinese New Year Carnival in 盐城 (Yánchéng), 江苏省 (Jiāngsū province), China, February 3, 2024. Video: 娟子a (Juānzi a). My thanks to Ulises for the information. |
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Walls and Windows
常惠珍 (Cháng Huìzhēn) (a.k.a. Nancy Sheung), Shadows, 1970s. Photo © Estate of Nancy Sheung. |
Tuesday, February 27, 2024
Lake of the Long Sun
洪澤湖 (Hóngzé Lake), encompassed by the counties of 泗洪 (Sìhóng) and 泗阳 (Sìyáng) in 宿迁 (Sùqiān) and 盱眙 (Xūyí) and 洪泽 (Hóngzé) in 淮安 (Huái’ān), is the fifth-largest freshwater lake in China, and a scenic spot in 江苏省 (Jiāngsū province).
Photo: Costfoto/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock. |
Monday, February 26, 2024
A Prayer on the Wind
Survivors and relatives of victims pray near the site where a migrant boat capsized a year ago. At least 94 people died in the incident a short distance from the shore in Steccato di Cutro, on the southern tip of Italy. Photo: Valeria Ferraro/AP. |
Sunday, February 25, 2024
From Dawn to Noon
World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen’s imperious victory last week in the first-ever Fischerandom chess (chess960) super-tournament at classical time control has put Fischer’s chess into the spotlight and its billionaire sponsor, Jan Henric Buettner, is more than ever inclined to export the revolution all over the five continents next year. As Leonard Barden wrote in his column in The Guardian of February 23, 2024, “Buettner’s plan is a Freestyle elite eight-GM invitation in India late in 2024, followed by a five-continent global Tour in 2025, and including a new four-player women’s tournament. Weissenhaus had a $200,000 (£158,000) prize fund, but even that may be just the start, as Buettner has stated that his ambition is for $1m for each of the continental knockouts”.
Outlook On Life
常惠珍 (Cháng Huìzhēn) (a.k.a. Nancy Sheung), Gaze, 1970s. Photo © Estate of Nancy Sheung. |
Saturday, February 24, 2024
Breaking the Spell
Eleonora Pucci, a restorer, cleans dust and debris off Michelangelo’s statue of David at the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, Italy. Photo: Yara Nardi/Reuters. |
Friday, February 23, 2024
Holiday Sweets Without Sugar
Interviewed in the backstage of Longchamp’s “Back To School Party” for its spring/summer collection 2024 “Longchamp University”, held February 23, 2024 in Taipei, Taiwan, jazz-R&B-pop artist 9m88 confessed that she gained weight over the Lunar New Year and spoke about her experience as an actress in Chen Yu-hsun’s upcoming epic film 《大濛》 (Dà Méng). |
The Broken Bridge
People inspect the broken 沥心沙大桥 (Lìxīnshā Bridge) after it was hit by a container ship in the 南沙区 (Nánshā District) of 广州 (Guǎngzhōu), 广东省 (Guǎngdōng province), China. Photo: AP. |
Thursday, February 22, 2024
A Witchy New Year
2024 Chinese New Year Carnival you’ve never seen before! Four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) and 韦奕 (Wéi Yì) performing a joint simultaneous exhibition in 盐城 (Yánchéng), 江苏省 (Jiāngsū province), China, February 3, 2024. Photos: 重回幼儿园 (Back to kindergarten). |
此處有龍 (Here be dragons)
Four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) (pictured above, centre) and 韦奕 (Wéi Yì) (pictured below, left) celebrated the Chinese New Year with meetings and simultaneous exhibitions up and down the 江苏 (Jiāngsū). Photos: 董小姐 (Miss Dǒng). My thanks to Ulises for the information. |
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
The Sword in the Stone
The sword of Damocles
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, February 21, 2024
It is good not to forget the legend of Damocles, which Cicero recounts in his Tusculanae Disputationes. One day, Damocles, a courtier of Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, praised him “for his wealth, the majesty of his dominion, the splendour of his royal palace”. “Damocles — the tyrant replied — since this life pleases you so much, I want you to taste it yourself and make trial of my fortune”. He made him sit on a couch covered with a finely embroidered drape, placed precious pottery before him, and ordered youths of extraordinary beauty to fulfil any of his commands. Damocles believed himself he was happy, until he noticed that a sharp sword was hanging over his head from the ceiling, suspended by a single horse-hair. At that point, the unwary eulogist renounced riches and power and begged Dionysius to let him go away, because he no longer wanted to be happy in that way.
Today we see that the sword hanging over the heads of the tyrants is about to fall. The horse-hair that holds the sword hanging over Zelenskyy’s head is now frayed and worn and perhaps, tomorrow, even the sword hanging over others, whether accomplices or enemies of him, may fall. But, for us, the lesson of the legend is not just this. It is not enough to abstain from the praise that everyone fearfully lavishes on tyrants, we must also remember that it is up to us, to the extent of our strengths, if not to sever, at least to scratch and erode the horse-hair which still holds the sword hanging over their heads. The thread that holds it up — we must not tire to show it, if the tyrant is the first to know it — is thin, and only the consensus and fear of the many prevents it from breaking.
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, February 21, 2024
It is good not to forget the legend of Damocles, which Cicero recounts in his Tusculanae Disputationes. One day, Damocles, a courtier of Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, praised him “for his wealth, the majesty of his dominion, the splendour of his royal palace”. “Damocles — the tyrant replied — since this life pleases you so much, I want you to taste it yourself and make trial of my fortune”. He made him sit on a couch covered with a finely embroidered drape, placed precious pottery before him, and ordered youths of extraordinary beauty to fulfil any of his commands. Damocles believed himself he was happy, until he noticed that a sharp sword was hanging over his head from the ceiling, suspended by a single horse-hair. At that point, the unwary eulogist renounced riches and power and begged Dionysius to let him go away, because he no longer wanted to be happy in that way.
Today we see that the sword hanging over the heads of the tyrants is about to fall. The horse-hair that holds the sword hanging over Zelenskyy’s head is now frayed and worn and perhaps, tomorrow, even the sword hanging over others, whether accomplices or enemies of him, may fall. But, for us, the lesson of the legend is not just this. It is not enough to abstain from the praise that everyone fearfully lavishes on tyrants, we must also remember that it is up to us, to the extent of our strengths, if not to sever, at least to scratch and erode the horse-hair which still holds the sword hanging over their heads. The thread that holds it up — we must not tire to show it, if the tyrant is the first to know it — is thin, and only the consensus and fear of the many prevents it from breaking.
(English translation by I, Robot)
Sin Yun-bok, Dance with two swords, presumably after 1805. Courtesy of WikiArt. |
Dashing Through the Snow
Motorists on a street of 西安 (Xī’ān) after heavy snow blanketed parts of northern and central China, disrupting traffic and school classes. Photo: Chinatopix/AP. |
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Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Once Upon a Time in the West
Sunset of the West?
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, February 19, 2024
The question of the end of the West is often discussed in the texts published in this column. It’s good not to misunderstand here. It’s not about the resigned — even if lucid and bitter — contemplation of the last act of a decline that Spengler and other pseudo-prophets announced even too long ago. They were not interested in anything other than that decline; after all, they were complicit and even pleased with it, because in the haversacks and safes of their spirit there was just nothing left; that was, so to say, their only richness, from which they did not want at any cost to be defrauded. This is why Spengler could write in 1917: “I only wish to add the desire that this book might not be entirely unworthy alongside Germany’s military achievements”.
For us, on the contrary, the death of the West is the happy utopia, something like the stirred-up earth and the desert of sand, which our hope needs not to find in it some nourishment, but to rest our feet on it, waiting for the first chance to throw it into the eyes of our adversaries. The death of the West has not deprived us of anything alive and essential, and nostalgia is therefore out of question. And hope interests us only as the way that takes us towards something that we already know, because we have always had it and we are not willing to give it up. It is the vertical ray of light, rising from the flat, dark horizon of the West. He only who has already died can die here; he only who is already always alive can live.
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, February 19, 2024
The question of the end of the West is often discussed in the texts published in this column. It’s good not to misunderstand here. It’s not about the resigned — even if lucid and bitter — contemplation of the last act of a decline that Spengler and other pseudo-prophets announced even too long ago. They were not interested in anything other than that decline; after all, they were complicit and even pleased with it, because in the haversacks and safes of their spirit there was just nothing left; that was, so to say, their only richness, from which they did not want at any cost to be defrauded. This is why Spengler could write in 1917: “I only wish to add the desire that this book might not be entirely unworthy alongside Germany’s military achievements”.
For us, on the contrary, the death of the West is the happy utopia, something like the stirred-up earth and the desert of sand, which our hope needs not to find in it some nourishment, but to rest our feet on it, waiting for the first chance to throw it into the eyes of our adversaries. The death of the West has not deprived us of anything alive and essential, and nostalgia is therefore out of question. And hope interests us only as the way that takes us towards something that we already know, because we have always had it and we are not willing to give it up. It is the vertical ray of light, rising from the flat, dark horizon of the West. He only who has already died can die here; he only who is already always alive can live.
Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire, 1817. Courtesy of WikiArt. |
A Year of Monday Evenings
Like every Monday evening, Jīva Yoga Studio was taken over by the dancers of the Associazione Culturale “Il Delta della Luna” who rehearsed their lines and movements in view of their next summer season. |
Monday, February 19, 2024
And what Alice Found There
Sharni Spencer performs the role of Alice during a dress rehearsal for the Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland ballet at the Capitol Theatre in Sidney, Australia. Photo: Don Arnold/WireImage. |
Sunday, February 18, 2024
All in a Cat’s Day
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Sunday, February 18, 2024. A beautiful sunny winter’s day spent at Villa Vogel in Florence, where Mado Flynn volunteered her time and art to the charity fundraiser for the A.M.A. (Friends of Animal World) Cat Pound of Bagno a Ripoli, Metropolitan City of Florence, Italy. |
Saturday, February 17, 2024
Not Only with Words
The experience of language is a political experience
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, February 16, 2024
How would it be possible to truly change the society and culture in which we live? Reforms and even revolutions, while still transforming institutions and laws, production relations and objects, do not call into question those deeper layers that shape our vision of the world and which would need to be reached for the change to be really radical. Yet we have daily experience of something that exists in a different way from all things and institutions that surround us and that conditions and determines them all: language. We are first and foremost dealing with named things, yet we continue to talk nonsense so as it comes out, without ever asking ourselves what we are doing when we speak. In this way it is just our original experience of language that remains stubbornly hidden from us and, without us realising it, it is this opaque area inside and outside us that determines our way of thinking and acting.
Western philosophy and knowledge, confronted with this problem, believed to solve it by supposing that what we do when we speak is to put a language into action, that the way in which language exists is, i.e., a grammar, a lexicon, and a set of rules for composing names and words in a discourse. It goes without saying that each one knows that, if every time we had to consciously choose words from a dictionary and just as conscientiously to put them together in a sentence, we would not be able to speak at all. Yet, in the course of a centuries-old process of elaboration and teaching, language-grammar penetrated inside us and became the powerful device through which the West imposed its knowledge and science on the whole planet. A great linguist once wrote that every century has the grammar of its philosophy: the opposite would be equally and perhaps more true, that is, that every century has the philosophy of its grammar, that the way in which we articulated our experience of language in a language and a grammar fatally deternines also the structure of our thinking. It is no coincidence that grammar is taught in primary school: the first thing a child must learn is is that what he does when he speaks has a certain structure and that his reasoning must conform to that order.
It is therefore only to the extent we succeed at questioning this fundamental assumption, that a true transformation of our culture will become possible. We must try to think again, from scratch, what we do when we speak, immerse ourselves in that opaque area and question ourselves not about grammar and lexicon, but about the use we make of our body and our voice while the words seem to come out of our lips almost by themselves. We would then see that in this experience the opening of a world and our relations with our fellow beings are at stake, and that, therefore, the experience of language is, in this sense, the most radical political experience.
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, February 16, 2024
How would it be possible to truly change the society and culture in which we live? Reforms and even revolutions, while still transforming institutions and laws, production relations and objects, do not call into question those deeper layers that shape our vision of the world and which would need to be reached for the change to be really radical. Yet we have daily experience of something that exists in a different way from all things and institutions that surround us and that conditions and determines them all: language. We are first and foremost dealing with named things, yet we continue to talk nonsense so as it comes out, without ever asking ourselves what we are doing when we speak. In this way it is just our original experience of language that remains stubbornly hidden from us and, without us realising it, it is this opaque area inside and outside us that determines our way of thinking and acting.
Western philosophy and knowledge, confronted with this problem, believed to solve it by supposing that what we do when we speak is to put a language into action, that the way in which language exists is, i.e., a grammar, a lexicon, and a set of rules for composing names and words in a discourse. It goes without saying that each one knows that, if every time we had to consciously choose words from a dictionary and just as conscientiously to put them together in a sentence, we would not be able to speak at all. Yet, in the course of a centuries-old process of elaboration and teaching, language-grammar penetrated inside us and became the powerful device through which the West imposed its knowledge and science on the whole planet. A great linguist once wrote that every century has the grammar of its philosophy: the opposite would be equally and perhaps more true, that is, that every century has the philosophy of its grammar, that the way in which we articulated our experience of language in a language and a grammar fatally deternines also the structure of our thinking. It is no coincidence that grammar is taught in primary school: the first thing a child must learn is is that what he does when he speaks has a certain structure and that his reasoning must conform to that order.
It is therefore only to the extent we succeed at questioning this fundamental assumption, that a true transformation of our culture will become possible. We must try to think again, from scratch, what we do when we speak, immerse ourselves in that opaque area and question ourselves not about grammar and lexicon, but about the use we make of our body and our voice while the words seem to come out of our lips almost by themselves. We would then see that in this experience the opening of a world and our relations with our fellow beings are at stake, and that, therefore, the experience of language is, in this sense, the most radical political experience.
(English translation by I, Robot)
Lazar Markovich (El) Lissitzky, Cover to “For the voice” by Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky, 1920. Courtesy of WikiArt. |
Friday, February 16, 2024
Round the World
Magnus Carlsen, the Unchallenged G.O.A.T., sees a bright future for Fischer’s chess: “I feel like the format really works. We’re basically thrown into an unfamiliar middlegame on move 1, where the price of a mistake is really high... It’s a refreshing change of pace!”, he said.
On his part, the sponsor of the inaugural Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge, Jan Henric Buettner, has great ideas on how to market the revolutionary brand of Fischerandom chess. As Leonard Barden wrote in his The Guardian column of today, German entrepreneur “said that the event would return to Germany in February 2025, when there could also be a Freestyle Tour, with events in the U.S. in May, India in August, and Cape Town, South Africa, in November”.
On his part, the sponsor of the inaugural Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge, Jan Henric Buettner, has great ideas on how to market the revolutionary brand of Fischerandom chess. As Leonard Barden wrote in his The Guardian column of today, German entrepreneur “said that the event would return to Germany in February 2025, when there could also be a Freestyle Tour, with events in the U.S. in May, India in August, and Cape Town, South Africa, in November”.
Twice Upon a Time
Magnus Carlsen – Fabiano Caruana
Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge; Final match game 2; time control: 90 minutes per 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game plus 30 seconds per move starting on move 41; Wangels, February 16, 2024
nnrkbbrq/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NNRKBBRQ w GCgc - 0 1
Position #90
1. g4 c6?! A half reply which may interfere with a harmonious development.
2. 0-0-0 g5 3. h4 h6?! 3. ... h5!? had its points.
4. d4 d5 5. e4! “I’m a little bit confused — it seems to me my position is already significantly better!”, Carlsen said in the confessional.
5. ... 0-0-0 6. Nb3 Nc7 7. Nc3 e6 8. Bd2 Be7
2. 0-0-0 g5 3. h4 h6?! 3. ... h5!? had its points.
4. d4 d5 5. e4! “I’m a little bit confused — it seems to me my position is already significantly better!”, Carlsen said in the confessional.
5. ... 0-0-0 6. Nb3 Nc7 7. Nc3 e6 8. Bd2 Be7
9. f4! A five-Pawn attack!
9. ... Nd7. If 9. ... gxh4 then 10. e5 with manifest advantage.
10. exd5 cxd5 11. fxg5 hxg5 12. h5. A long-run atout for White.
12. ... Nb6. Black has a cramped position with no easy way to maneuver around. According to the engines, 12. ... Nb8 followed by ... Nb8-c6 would now have been Black’s best policy.
13. Bd3 Qh6 14. Rgf1 Rf8 15. Qg1 Bc6
9. ... Nd7. If 9. ... gxh4 then 10. e5 with manifest advantage.
10. exd5 cxd5 11. fxg5 hxg5 12. h5. A long-run atout for White.
12. ... Nb6. Black has a cramped position with no easy way to maneuver around. According to the engines, 12. ... Nb8 followed by ... Nb8-c6 would now have been Black’s best policy.
13. Bd3 Qh6 14. Rgf1 Rf8 15. Qg1 Bc6
16. Be1! Bd6 17. Bg3 Bxg3 18. Qxg3 Nc4 19. Rde1 Nd6 20. Nc5 f5 21. Qe5 Ne4 22. a4 Nxc3? Consistent and bad. However, also after 22. ... Nxc5 23. dxc5 d4 24. Nb5 Bxb5 25. axb5 Rd5 26. Qh2 Rxc5 27. Re5! Rxe5 28. Qxe5 fxg4 29. Rxf8+ Qxf8 30. Be2! White stands much better due to his passed h-Pawn, while more than half of Black’s Pawns are to fall like ripe fruits.
23. bxc3 fxg4 24. Rxf8 Qxf8. If 24. ... Rxf8 then 25. Bg6! locking up the Black Queen and preparing for an invasion. The text move, however, allows White to liquidate to a winning endgame:
23. bxc3 fxg4 24. Rxf8 Qxf8. If 24. ... Rxf8 then 25. Bg6! locking up the Black Queen and preparing for an invasion. The text move, however, allows White to liquidate to a winning endgame:
25. Qxc7+! Kxc7 26. Nxe6+ Kd6 27. Nxf8 Rxf8 28. h6. Quod erat demonstrandum, the passed h-Pawn will eventually tell.
28. ... Bxa4 29. Re5! a6 30. Rxg5 Bb5 31. Rg6+ Kd7 32. Bxb5+ axb5 33. Rxg4 Rf1+ 34. Kd2 Rf2+ 35. Kd1 Rh2 36. Rg7+ Kc6 37. h7 b6 38. Ke1 b4 39. cxb4 Kb5 40. c3 Kc4 41. Rc7+ Kd3 42. Kf1 Ke3 43. Kg1 Rh6 44. Kg2 1–0.
28. ... Bxa4 29. Re5! a6 30. Rxg5 Bb5 31. Rg6+ Kd7 32. Bxb5+ axb5 33. Rxg4 Rf1+ 34. Kd2 Rf2+ 35. Kd1 Rh2 36. Rg7+ Kc6 37. h7 b6 38. Ke1 b4 39. cxb4 Kb5 40. c3 Kc4 41. Rc7+ Kd3 42. Kf1 Ke3 43. Kg1 Rh6 44. Kg2 1–0.
Today there was nothing to do against Carlsen, but Caruana can blame himself for not being able to do something more yesterday. Photo: Maria Alekseevna Emelianova/chess.com.
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