Artwork © zack223z
Friday, January 31, 2025
Thursday, January 30, 2025
Not all years begin on January 1
Four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) wishes “Happy Chinese New Year” to all of her friends many time zones near and away. |
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Random Passage
Pictured above is Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov, likely in the summer of 1974 in connection with the 21st Chess Olympiad in Nice, France, intent on reading the issue No. 32 (July 1, 1971) of Grands Musées, entitled and dedicated to the National Museum of Capodimonte / Naples. Photo: Старая Москва (Old Moscow). |
Tuesday, January 28, 2025
-The-Powerpuff-Girls-Cartoon-Network-%D0%9C%D1%83%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%82%D1%84%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BC%D1%8B-8768346.jpeg)
Rainin’ in the Wind
Early in the morning on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, a cloudburst fell over Florence, causing floods and damages to roads and bunds. By early afternoon, sun finally came out from behind the clouds, but rivers and streams were still swollen and brown. |
Monday, January 27, 2025
Between the Stripes
Evgeny Zanan – Matan Poleg
38th Israeli Chess Championship; Eilat, January 27, 2025
Sicilian Defence B47
38th Israeli Chess Championship; Eilat, January 27, 2025
Sicilian Defence B47
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Qc7 6. Be2 Nf6 7. Ndb5 Qb8 8. f4 d6 9. Be3 Be7 10. g4 a6 11. Nd4 Nd7 12. g5 Qc7 13. Qd2 b5
14. Nf5!? A thematic Knight sacrifice and... nothing new under the sun.
14. ... Bf8? The critical line seems to be 14. ... exf5 15. Nd5 Qd8 16. Qc3 0-0 17. Qxc6 Rb8 followed by ... Bc8-b7 with a complex but roughly balanced play.
15. 0-0-0 exf5 16. Nd5 Qb8? Theoretically speaking, this is a novelty, but not an improvement on 16. ... Qa5 15. Qxa5 Nxa5 16. Nc7+ Kd8 17. Nxa8 Bb7 18. Nb6 Bxe4 19. Rhg1 which left Black with insufficient compensation for the Exchange in Romanov – Begmuratov, 17th Georgy Tadzhikhanovich Agzamov Memorial, Tashkent 2024.
17. exf5 Bb7 18. Rhe1 Ne7 19. Bf3 f6 20. Bh5+ Kd8 21. Qa5+ Kc8
14. ... Bf8? The critical line seems to be 14. ... exf5 15. Nd5 Qd8 16. Qc3 0-0 17. Qxc6 Rb8 followed by ... Bc8-b7 with a complex but roughly balanced play.
15. 0-0-0 exf5 16. Nd5 Qb8? Theoretically speaking, this is a novelty, but not an improvement on 16. ... Qa5 15. Qxa5 Nxa5 16. Nc7+ Kd8 17. Nxa8 Bb7 18. Nb6 Bxe4 19. Rhg1 which left Black with insufficient compensation for the Exchange in Romanov – Begmuratov, 17th Georgy Tadzhikhanovich Agzamov Memorial, Tashkent 2024.
17. exf5 Bb7 18. Rhe1 Ne7 19. Bf3 f6 20. Bh5+ Kd8 21. Qa5+ Kc8
White to move and win:
22. Ba7! Bxd5. Black cannot take the Bishop with either Queen (22. ... Qxa7 23. Qc7#) or Rook (22. ... Rxa7 23. Rxe7! Bxe7? 24. Nxe7#) without being mated, and he finds nothing better than to give up his Queen just to play on a few more moves.
23. Bxb8 Nxb8 24. Rxd5 Nxd5 25. Re8+ Kb7 26. Qd8 Nc7 27. Rxf8 Nc6 28. Qxa8+ Nxa8 29. Rxh8 fxg5 30. Bf3 Nc7 31. Bxc6+ Kxc6 32. fxg5 1–0.
22. Ba7! Bxd5. Black cannot take the Bishop with either Queen (22. ... Qxa7 23. Qc7#) or Rook (22. ... Rxa7 23. Rxe7! Bxe7? 24. Nxe7#) without being mated, and he finds nothing better than to give up his Queen just to play on a few more moves.
23. Bxb8 Nxb8 24. Rxd5 Nxd5 25. Re8+ Kb7 26. Qd8 Nc7 27. Rxf8 Nc6 28. Qxa8+ Nxa8 29. Rxh8 fxg5 30. Bf3 Nc7 31. Bxc6+ Kxc6 32. fxg5 1–0.
Sunday, January 26, 2025
Dragonfly
Folk dancers perform a dragon dance before the Lunar New Year celebrations in 太仓 (Tàicāng), 江苏省 (Jiāngsū province), China. Photo: AFP/Getty Images. |
Saturday, January 25, 2025
Dinner with the King
Serbian newspaper Politika has posthumously published an “exclusive” by Miro Radojčić, who interviewed Bobby Fischer, the mighty king of chess, at renowned Dan Tana’s restaurant in West Hollywood, Los Angeles County, California, United States, at a time (1982) when Fischer was disappeared from any public view for a decade or so. Present at the dinner — apart from Fischer and Radojčić — were Dan Tana himself and, incidentally, Carl Foreman, one of the screenwriters who in the 1950s had been blacklisted by Hollywood communist witch-hunts, and for whom, instead, Fischer had the utmost esteem and admiration for his courage in defying the system.
After dinner, the four men ended up at Foreman’s home, where there was a giant chess set. And Foreman, a fond enthusiast of chess, did not fail to ask Fischer what his most celebrated move was like, worthy of going down in the chess annals. Quite curiously, Fischer replied that it was his worst move: “I don’t know what happened to me. My opponent could have easily checkmated me, but this unexpected move threw him into confusion...”.
Radojčić was also among those who helped persuade Fischer to resurface to claim his title in 1992, after twenty years of oblivion.
After dinner, the four men ended up at Foreman’s home, where there was a giant chess set. And Foreman, a fond enthusiast of chess, did not fail to ask Fischer what his most celebrated move was like, worthy of going down in the chess annals. Quite curiously, Fischer replied that it was his worst move: “I don’t know what happened to me. My opponent could have easily checkmated me, but this unexpected move threw him into confusion...”.
Radojčić was also among those who helped persuade Fischer to resurface to claim his title in 1992, after twenty years of oblivion.
The king’s recrowning ceremony in Belgrade, Yugoslavia,
Thursday, November 5, 1992. Pictured from left are: János Kubát, Lothar Schmid, Boris Vasilievich Spassky, Fischer, and Jezdimir Vasiljević. Photo: Anđelko Vasiljević. |
Friday, January 24, 2025
Thursday, January 23, 2025
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Books and Beyond
A customer reads one of the more than 30,000 books crammed into a secondhand store in an underground shopping centre in Seoul, South Korea. Photo: Daniel Ceng/Anadolu/Getty Images. |
The Apple in the Garden
With less than a month left to the start of the Fischerandom/Freestyle chess Grand Slam season, the International Chess Federation (FIDE), that is, the ruling body of classical chess, shows its teeth, warning the new community that nothing and no one but them can claim authority or other rights over chess. Reading between lines, however,
there still seems to be a little room for avoiding a religious war and, at least so far, FIDE is still limiting itself to a “carrot and stick” approach; they “are open to dialogue”, but yet... they “will not hesitate to use all legal means against those who violate its rights [on the institution of a World Fischerandom/Freestyle Championship title] — be it initiators, organizers and/or investors of the project”. Besides its bullying executives, FIDE has a problem, though. World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen is one of the grey eminences of the new Freestyle Grand Slam, and that’s enough to give anyone a jolt to join him in such a revolutionary adventure. On the other hand, new forms call for new definitions of gens una sumus, and the only sponsor of the Freestyle alternative, German entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner, will necessarily have to make a better and more open world order than the one implied by the closed elite Grand Chess Tour, which has no cultural significance apart from lining the pockets of the few rich professionals. Since this is the Year of the Snake, one may urge König Midas to take a bit of Abrahamic advice from the creation myth and contemplate, in his new reign, a Fischerandom/Freestyle Grand Slam women’s season as well.
And the titles of Open and Women’s World Non-Champions at stake.
And the titles of Open and Women’s World Non-Champions at stake.
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Apples and Peaches
Good and evil
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, January 21, 2024
The ancient doctrine according to which evil is nothing but the privation of good and hence in itself non-existing, must be corrected and integrated in the sense that it is not so much the privation, but rather the perversion of good (with the codicil, formulated da Ivan Illich, corruptio optimi pexima, “the corruption of the best is the worst”). The ontological nexus with good thus remains, but still one has to think about how, and in what sense, a good can corrupt and pervert itself. If evil is a perverted good, if we still recognise in it a flawed and distorted figure of good, how can we fight it when now we find it in front of us in all spheres of human living?
A corruption of good was familiar to classical thought in the political doctrine according to which each of the three upright forms of ruling — monarchy, aristocracy and democracy (the rule of one, the few or the many) — inevitably degenerated into tyranny, oligarchy and ochlocracy. Aristotle (who regards democracy itself as a corruption of the rule of the many) adopts the term parékbasis, digression (da parabaino, go aside, parà). If we now ask towards where they went aside, we discover that they, so to say, went aside towards themselves. The corrupt forms of constitution resemble, indeed, the sound ones, but the good that was present in them (the common interest, koinon) has now turned to its own annd particular (idion). Evil is, i.e., a certain use of the good and the possibility of this perverted use is inscribed in the very same good, which, in this way, comes out of itself; it goes, so to say, aside itself.
It is in such a perspective that we must read the theorem corruptio optimi pexima which defines modernity. The gesture of the Samaritan, who immediately rescues his suffering neighbour, comes out of itself and turns itself into the organisation of hospitals and assistance services, which, although aimed at what is deemed to be good, eventually end up turning into an evil. The evil we face results, that is, from the attempt to raise the good into an objective social system. Hospitality, which each one can, and must, give to his neighbour, thus turns itself into hospitalisation managed by state bureaucracy.
Evil is, i.e., a sort of parody (here, too, there is a parà, a going aside) of good, a hypertrophic objectification that moves it out of us forever. And is it not just such a deadly parody that progressivisms of any kind impose on us now and everywhere as the only possible mode of human living together? The “administrative state” and the “security state”, as political scientists call them, claim to rule the good, taking it out of our hands and objectifying it in a separate sphere. And is the so-called artificial intelligence perhaps nothing more than a moving out of us of the “good of the intellect”, almost as if, in a sort of exasperated Averroism, thought might exist without a relation with a thinking subject?
Faced with these perversions, one has every time to recognise the tiny good which has been torn from our hands in order to free it from the lethal machine in which, “for a good reason”, it gets captured.
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, January 21, 2024
The ancient doctrine according to which evil is nothing but the privation of good and hence in itself non-existing, must be corrected and integrated in the sense that it is not so much the privation, but rather the perversion of good (with the codicil, formulated da Ivan Illich, corruptio optimi pexima, “the corruption of the best is the worst”). The ontological nexus with good thus remains, but still one has to think about how, and in what sense, a good can corrupt and pervert itself. If evil is a perverted good, if we still recognise in it a flawed and distorted figure of good, how can we fight it when now we find it in front of us in all spheres of human living?
A corruption of good was familiar to classical thought in the political doctrine according to which each of the three upright forms of ruling — monarchy, aristocracy and democracy (the rule of one, the few or the many) — inevitably degenerated into tyranny, oligarchy and ochlocracy. Aristotle (who regards democracy itself as a corruption of the rule of the many) adopts the term parékbasis, digression (da parabaino, go aside, parà). If we now ask towards where they went aside, we discover that they, so to say, went aside towards themselves. The corrupt forms of constitution resemble, indeed, the sound ones, but the good that was present in them (the common interest, koinon) has now turned to its own annd particular (idion). Evil is, i.e., a certain use of the good and the possibility of this perverted use is inscribed in the very same good, which, in this way, comes out of itself; it goes, so to say, aside itself.
It is in such a perspective that we must read the theorem corruptio optimi pexima which defines modernity. The gesture of the Samaritan, who immediately rescues his suffering neighbour, comes out of itself and turns itself into the organisation of hospitals and assistance services, which, although aimed at what is deemed to be good, eventually end up turning into an evil. The evil we face results, that is, from the attempt to raise the good into an objective social system. Hospitality, which each one can, and must, give to his neighbour, thus turns itself into hospitalisation managed by state bureaucracy.
Evil is, i.e., a sort of parody (here, too, there is a parà, a going aside) of good, a hypertrophic objectification that moves it out of us forever. And is it not just such a deadly parody that progressivisms of any kind impose on us now and everywhere as the only possible mode of human living together? The “administrative state” and the “security state”, as political scientists call them, claim to rule the good, taking it out of our hands and objectifying it in a separate sphere. And is the so-called artificial intelligence perhaps nothing more than a moving out of us of the “good of the intellect”, almost as if, in a sort of exasperated Averroism, thought might exist without a relation with a thinking subject?
Faced with these perversions, one has every time to recognise the tiny good which has been torn from our hands in order to free it from the lethal machine in which, “for a good reason”, it gets captured.
(English translation by I, Robot)
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Hilma af Klint, The Swan (No. 1), 1914–1915. Courtesy of WikiArt.
An Afternoon in August
[Event "1st FIDE World Blitz Team Championship — Pool A"]
[Site "Astana KAZ"]
[Date "2024.08.05"]
[White "Samaganova, Aleksandra KGZ"]
[Black "侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) CHN"]
[Round "1.5"]
[ECO "A13"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteTeam "Kyrgyz Chess Academy"]
[BlackTeam "WR Chess Team"]
[TimeControl "180+2"]
[PlyCount "110"]
1.c4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.e3 Nf6 4.Nf3 b6 5.b3 Bb7 6.Bb2 a6 7.Be2 Bd6 8.O-O O-O 9.Qc2 Nbd7 10.Rac1 Qe7 11.d4 Rac8 12.Qb1 Ne4 13.Nxe4 dxe4 14.Ne5 Nb8 15.f4 exf3 16.Nxf3 c5 17.Bd3 h6 18.Be4 f5 19.Bxb7 Qxb7 20.Rcd1 Nd7 21.Qc2 Nf6 22.h3 Rce8 23.dxc5 Bxc5 24.Bd4 Ne4 25.Rfe1 Bd6 26.Be5 Bxe5 27.Nxe5 Qc7 28. Qb2 Rd8 29.Nf3 Qc5 30.Nd4 e5 31.Nc2 Rxd1 32.Rxd1 Nf6 33.Qc3 Qe7 34.b4 Rc8 35.a3 Qc7 36.Qb3 Qxc4 37.Qxc4+ Rxc4 38.Ne1 Rc3 39.Rd6 Rxe3 40.Kf2 Ne4+ 41. Kxe3 Nxd6 42.Nd3 Nc4+ 43.Ke2 Kf7 44.a4 Ke6 45.g3 Kd5 46.Kf2 Kd4 47.Ne1 e4 48.Nc2+ Kc3 49.Ne1 Kxb4 50.g4 g6 51.Ng2 fxg4 52.hxg4 g5 53.Ne1 Kxa4 54.Ke2 Kb3 55.Kd1 a5 0-1Monday, January 20, 2025
Another long march
Regina Wender Fischer (mother of 11th World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer) knockin’ on heaven’s door on the Red Square in Moscow, Soviet Union, October 3, 1961, where she and all other marchers concluded their San Francisco to Moscow Walk for Peace (1960–61) with a non-violent, silent mob. Photo: David N. Rich. |
Sunday, January 19, 2025
In the Blink of an Eye
[Event "3rd «Zakovat-Gambit» Blitz Tournament"]
[Site "Tashkent UZB"]
[Date "2023.11.19"]
[Round "12"]
[White "Sindarov, Javokhir UZB"]
[Black "侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) CHN"]
[ECO "B90"]
[Result "1-0"]
[TimeControl "180+2"]
[PlyCount "71"]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Nc3 a6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Nf6 6.Bd3 g6 7.f3 Bg7 8.Be3 b5 9.Qd2 Bb7 10.Bh6 Bxh6 11.Qxh6 b4 12.Nce2 Qa5 13.Nb3 Qc7 14.a3 Nc6 15.O-O bxa3 16.Rxa3 Nb4 17.Na5 Rg8 18.Qd2 Nxd3 19.cxd3 g5 20.Rc1 Qb6+ 21.d4 Bc8 22.Rb3 Qd8 23.Nc6 Qd7 24.Ng3 g4 25.f4 Bb7 26.d5 Kf8 27.e5 dxe5 28.fxe5 Bxc6 29.exf6 Bxd5 30.Rd3 Qa7+ 31.Kh1 e6 32.Rxd5 exd5 33.Qb4+ Ke8 34.Qd6 Qd7 35.Qb4 Kd8 36.Qb6+ 1-0
Saturday, January 18, 2025
A Kangaroo Mob
Fans cool down at a water mister machine at Melbourne Park venue for the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia. Photo: Manish Swarup/AP. |
Friday, January 17, 2025
Thursday, January 16, 2025
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Chronicles of the Galaxy
Conjuncture and revolution
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, January 15, 2025
It is a fact we should never tire of meditating upon that one of the key terms of our political vocabulary — revolution — was taken from astronomy, where it designates the motion of a planet around its orbit. But also another term which, in the general tendency characteristic of our time to replace political categories with economic ones, has taken the place of revolution, comes from the astronomical lexicon. We mean to refer to the term “conjuncture”, to which Davide Stimilli called attention in an exemplary study of his.
This term, which designates “the phase of the economic cycle which economic activity goes through in a given period of short duration”, is in reality a modification of the term “conjunction”, which means the coincidence of the positions of several stars at a certain time.
Stimilli cites the passage from Warburg’s eassay on Pagan Antique Prophecy in Words and Images in the Age of Luther, in which conjunction and revolution are juxtaposed: “Only at long intervals, known as revolutions, were such conjunctions to be expected. Great and greatest conjunctions were systematically distinguished: the latter, stellia of all three superior planets, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, were the most perilous of all, but were very infrequent. The more planets there were in the conjunction, the more alarming it was, although those known as benefics might exert a moderating influence on the malefics”. And it is significant that a revolutionary just like Auguste Blanqui, disappointed in his expectations, at the end of his life, got to conceive human history as something that, like the motion of the stars, repeats itself infinitely and eternally recites the same representations.
What is now happening before our eyes is just such a phenomenon, in which an economic conjuncture that by its nature is contingent and arbitrary seeks to impose its terrifying dominion over the whole social life. It would be well, then, to drop, without reservations, the nexus between politics and stars and sever all bonds which claim to bind together astronomical destiny and revolution, necessity and economic conjuncture, natural sciences and politics. Politics is not inscribed in the celestial spheres or in the laws of economics: it is in our weak hands and in the lucidity with which we deny any claim to imprison them in conjunctures and revolutions.
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, January 15, 2025
It is a fact we should never tire of meditating upon that one of the key terms of our political vocabulary — revolution — was taken from astronomy, where it designates the motion of a planet around its orbit. But also another term which, in the general tendency characteristic of our time to replace political categories with economic ones, has taken the place of revolution, comes from the astronomical lexicon. We mean to refer to the term “conjuncture”, to which Davide Stimilli called attention in an exemplary study of his.
This term, which designates “the phase of the economic cycle which economic activity goes through in a given period of short duration”, is in reality a modification of the term “conjunction”, which means the coincidence of the positions of several stars at a certain time.
Stimilli cites the passage from Warburg’s eassay on Pagan Antique Prophecy in Words and Images in the Age of Luther, in which conjunction and revolution are juxtaposed: “Only at long intervals, known as revolutions, were such conjunctions to be expected. Great and greatest conjunctions were systematically distinguished: the latter, stellia of all three superior planets, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, were the most perilous of all, but were very infrequent. The more planets there were in the conjunction, the more alarming it was, although those known as benefics might exert a moderating influence on the malefics”. And it is significant that a revolutionary just like Auguste Blanqui, disappointed in his expectations, at the end of his life, got to conceive human history as something that, like the motion of the stars, repeats itself infinitely and eternally recites the same representations.
What is now happening before our eyes is just such a phenomenon, in which an economic conjuncture that by its nature is contingent and arbitrary seeks to impose its terrifying dominion over the whole social life. It would be well, then, to drop, without reservations, the nexus between politics and stars and sever all bonds which claim to bind together astronomical destiny and revolution, necessity and economic conjuncture, natural sciences and politics. Politics is not inscribed in the celestial spheres or in the laws of economics: it is in our weak hands and in the lucidity with which we deny any claim to imprison them in conjunctures and revolutions.
(English translation by I, Robot)
Jane Fonda in Roger Vadim’s 1968 science fiction cult film Barbarella. Photo: Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images. |
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Basically
9m88, a queen of soul with a pose à la Sharon Stone, with her enchanted, solemn cadences knows how to make winter a springful of blossoms. Photo: KKLIVE x 爵士寶貝提供 (Jazz Baby Co.). |
Monday, January 13, 2025
Sunday, January 12, 2025
Saturday, January 11, 2025
Diorama
China’s first-ever (and only) Olympic gold medalist in tennis, 郑钦文 (Zhèng Qīnwén), dubbed “Queen Wén” by admirers and fans, was announced last Thursday, January 9, 2025, as new global brand ambassador for Dior. Video: 时尚编辑Mars (Fashion Editor Mars). |
Friday, January 10, 2025
Hit a Grand Slam
居文君 (Jū Wénjūn), the first Chinese woman to win all three World Chess Championship titles in classical, rapid and blitz time controls, enjoyed a triumphant homecoming by 上海 (Shànghǎi)’s highest authorities on Thursday, January 9, 2025. Such a celebration must be regarded as a reassuring signal for her, in view of the next Women’s World Chess Championship which will kick off at April in 上海 (Shànghǎi), when she will have to defend her title against 谭中怡 (Tán Zhōngyí).
In the pictures above 居文君 (Jū Wénjūn)’s being warmly welcomed in her native 普陀区 (Pǔtuó District) by her fellow citizens. Photos: 佳斌 (Jiā Bīn). |
Thursday, January 9, 2025
Wednesday, January 8, 2025
Spring Rain
「9m88 2025 春季巡迴：我只想唱歌給你聽 ☂︎ 」
|
Tuesday, January 7, 2025
Numbers and Stories
The number of the slain
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, January 7, 2025
Again, and always, we should meditate on the passage from the Apocalypse (6, 9–11) which reads: “And when (the lamb) had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?’. And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants and also their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled”.
History will not end and the final judgment will not be pronounced until the number of the righteous killed is fulfilled. Is this perhaps what is happening around us? And how many more righteous must be killed before we see them dying every day? To be sure, history is story of wars, deaths and killings. But the meaning of the opening of the fifth seal is not that, in the time we are living in, we have to wait inertly for the number of the killed to be fulfilled. Even if the newspapers do nothing but count them every day, we do not know what the number is, just as we do not know when the judgment will take place and if it will ever take place. We live in an intermediate time and, like those who were slaughtered, we must testify to what we see and what we believe. Before the number of the slain is fulfilled, this and nothing else is our task.
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, January 7, 2025
Again, and always, we should meditate on the passage from the Apocalypse (6, 9–11) which reads: “And when (the lamb) had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?’. And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants and also their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled”.
History will not end and the final judgment will not be pronounced until the number of the righteous killed is fulfilled. Is this perhaps what is happening around us? And how many more righteous must be killed before we see them dying every day? To be sure, history is story of wars, deaths and killings. But the meaning of the opening of the fifth seal is not that, in the time we are living in, we have to wait inertly for the number of the killed to be fulfilled. Even if the newspapers do nothing but count them every day, we do not know what the number is, just as we do not know when the judgment will take place and if it will ever take place. We live in an intermediate time and, like those who were slaughtered, we must testify to what we see and what we believe. Before the number of the slain is fulfilled, this and nothing else is our task.
(English translation by I, Robot)
Enrico Baj, Vieni qua biondina, 1959. Courtesy of Artuu.
Stripped Bare
Sergio Mariotti – Genrikh Mikhailovich Chepukaitis
October Revolution 60th Anniversary International Blitz Tournament; Leningrad, July 1977
Modern Defence B06
1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. h4!? A specialty by Mariotti, who had been initiated to such a bayonet’s push by one of his early mentors, Nikolay Alekseyevich Obolensky, a noble exile from Russia.
3. ... h6!? 3. ... h5 is perhaps a more scientific reply, although it did not change Mariotti’s approach to things in one of his most remarkable games: 4. Nc3 d6 5. f3 c6 6. Be3 Qb6 7. Rb1 a5 8. Bc4 Na6 9. Nge2 Bd7 10. Qd2 Qc7 11. a4 Nb4 12. Nf4 Nf6 13. Kf2 Rd8 14. Bb3 e5 15. Nh3 0-0 16. dxe5! dxe5 17. Qe2 Bxh3 18. Rxh3 Kh7 19. g4! Rd7 20. Rg1 Rfd8 21. Ke1 b5 22. Rhg3 Qd6 23. Qg2 hxg4!? 24. fxg4 bxa4 25. Bc4! Qb8? (25. ... Nbd5!) 26. h5!+− g5 27. Bxg5 Rd4 28. Bxf7 Na6 29. Qf3 Rf8 30. Qf5+ Kh8 31. h6! Rxf7 32. hxg7+ Kxg7 33. Bh6+! Kh8 34. Rh1 Qe8 35. Bf4+ 1–0 Mariotti – U. Andersson, 4th Memorial Ivan Parčetić, Sombor 1970.
4. Nc3 e6? A gross strategic error. If anything, 4. ... d6 would lead to a typical Pirc formation.
5. Be3 Ne7 6. Qd2 f5 7. f3 d6 8. 0-0-0 Nd7
3. ... h6!? 3. ... h5 is perhaps a more scientific reply, although it did not change Mariotti’s approach to things in one of his most remarkable games: 4. Nc3 d6 5. f3 c6 6. Be3 Qb6 7. Rb1 a5 8. Bc4 Na6 9. Nge2 Bd7 10. Qd2 Qc7 11. a4 Nb4 12. Nf4 Nf6 13. Kf2 Rd8 14. Bb3 e5 15. Nh3 0-0 16. dxe5! dxe5 17. Qe2 Bxh3 18. Rxh3 Kh7 19. g4! Rd7 20. Rg1 Rfd8 21. Ke1 b5 22. Rhg3 Qd6 23. Qg2 hxg4!? 24. fxg4 bxa4 25. Bc4! Qb8? (25. ... Nbd5!) 26. h5!+− g5 27. Bxg5 Rd4 28. Bxf7 Na6 29. Qf3 Rf8 30. Qf5+ Kh8 31. h6! Rxf7 32. hxg7+ Kxg7 33. Bh6+! Kh8 34. Rh1 Qe8 35. Bf4+ 1–0 Mariotti – U. Andersson, 4th Memorial Ivan Parčetić, Sombor 1970.
4. Nc3 e6? A gross strategic error. If anything, 4. ... d6 would lead to a typical Pirc formation.
5. Be3 Ne7 6. Qd2 f5 7. f3 d6 8. 0-0-0 Nd7
For what is worth, Mariotti has already achieved an overwhelming hold over his opponent, who will soon have to worry about his King’s safety.
9. g4! fxg4 10. fxg4 Nf6 11. g5 Ng4 12. Bf4 e5 13. dxe5 hxg5 14. Bxg5 Bxe5 15. Nf3 Bf6
9. g4! fxg4 10. fxg4 Nf6 11. g5 Ng4 12. Bf4 e5 13. dxe5 hxg5 14. Bxg5 Bxe5 15. Nf3 Bf6
16. Bc4! 16. Bxf6 Nxf6 17. e5 was a more prosaic, but not less effective way. Mariotti, however, aims higher at the checkmate triumph.
16. .. Rf8 17. Rhf1 Bd7 18. Nd4 Nc6 19. Ne6 Bxe6 20. Bxe6 Nge5 21. Nd5 Bxg5 22. Rxf8+ Kxf8 23. hxg5 Kg7 24. Rf1 Ne7 25. Qh2. Threatening mate in one.
25. ... Qh8. If 25. ... Ng8 then 26. Nf6! with mate in a few moves.
16. .. Rf8 17. Rhf1 Bd7 18. Nd4 Nc6 19. Ne6 Bxe6 20. Bxe6 Nge5 21. Nd5 Bxg5 22. Rxf8+ Kxf8 23. hxg5 Kg7 24. Rf1 Ne7 25. Qh2. Threatening mate in one.
25. ... Qh8. If 25. ... Ng8 then 26. Nf6! with mate in a few moves.
Now a Queen sacrifice strips Black’s King bare:
26. Qxe5+! dxe5 27. Rf7+ Kg8 28. Nxe7# 1–0.
26. Qxe5+! dxe5 27. Rf7+ Kg8 28. Nxe7# 1–0.
Monday, January 6, 2025
Fabric for Fashion
- Louisa Thomas, “What Magnus Carlsen’s Jeans Have to Do with Chess”, The New Yorker, January 5, 2025
The fuss around the grand master’s wearing of denim pants to a tournament is a reflection of tensions within the game. [Read more]. |
Holy spirit: torn jeans show you’re too cool to care. Photo: Mike Egerton/EMPICS Sports Photo Agency. |
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