Equal opportunity

Sentilj, Slovenia: A boy waits to cross the border between Slovenia and Austria. Photo: Ronald Zak/AP.

Out of Season

“Madreperla di Tangeri” ™ © Mado Flynn

Autumn at the Beach

13th Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) takes a break from the 19th Corsican Circuit, and, gallantly escorted by the President of the Lega Corsa di Scacchi (Ligue Corse d’Échecs), Léo Battesti, enjoys a sunny autumn day on one of the famed beaches of Corsica. Photo: liguecorseechecs (@legacorsascacchi).

Last Supper

The 78th edition of the famous Wijk aan Zee festival will be held from January 15-31. The organisers have published the list of participants yesterday. At the moment twelve players of the Masters tournament are known: Magnus Carlsen Fabiano Caruana Anish Giri 丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén) Wesley So Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin Michael Adams Shakhriyar Mamedyarov David Navara 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) 韦奕 (Wéi Yì) Loek van Wely. As the total number of participants is 14, two remaining players are likely to be named in December. One of them will be nominated by the ACP. Curiously enough, three out of 12 known players represent China. [Read more].

• Carlsen to Play in Tata Steel Masters 2016. 12 Out of 14 Participants Announced, Chess-News.ru, November 4, 2015

Not (Always) the Girl Next Door

After missing almost a week of dance classes due to a mysterious illness (very much like Soviet-style), Miss Silvia Bertini finally came back to us – the mythical Associazione Culturale “Il Delta della Luna” – just in time to join the organizational goals of our impending exhibit “One Hundred Flowers by Mado Flynn”. We of course exorted her to go forward in that constancy and moral hazard that always have characterized her high status and position within the cultural perspectives of “Il Delta della Luna”.

I sincerely pity the widow who never marry

IN GALLAM In tenebris luges amissum, Galla, maritum.     Iam plorare te, puto, Galla, virum. A GALLA Solo al buio tu piangi, o Galla, il marito perduto,     perché penso che a piangerlo senti vergogna, o Galla.

Marco Valerio Marziale, Epigrammi, Lib. IV, 58

Artwork © Arnaud de Vallois

The Man Behind The Myth

• Frederic Friedel, Bobby Fischer’s final years, ChessBase GmbH, November 3, 2015

Garðar Sverrisson, “Yfir farinn veg með Bobby Fischer”, Reykjavík, Skrudda, 2015

Bread and Roses

A young girl carries buns for her family in an emergency centre for refugees in Hanging, western Austria. Photo: Peter Kneffel/EPA.

La Foule

• Oksana Panchyshyn, У Львові створили дирекцію з підготовки матчу за світову шахову корону серед жінок (An organizational management was established in Lviv to prepare for the Women’s World Chess Championship match), zaxid.net, November 2, 2015

Yesterday, November 2, 2015, an organizational management was established in Lviv to prepare for the Women’s World Chess Championship match. It will deal directly in any aspect of the organization, such as, among others, the choice of venue, the seeking of sponsors, logistics, health care, and public security. As maybe you already know, the Women’s World Championship match between Mariya Muzychuk and 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) will be held from March 1 to March 18 2016 in Lviv, Ukraine. So far, Lviv City Council has allocated ₴750,000 hryvnja (circa €29,556 Euro) to host the match.

Mariya Muzychuk and 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán)
Photo © FIDE Grand Prix 2015

Édith PIAF
November 4, 2015
Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet

Lilium Sumatra

“Lilium di Sumatra” ™ © Mado Flynn

Lumpia

Wesley So – 丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén)
8th Grand Slam Masters Final; Bilbao, October 26, 2015
King’s Indian Defence E99

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 0-0 6. Be2 e5 7. 0-0 Nc6 8. d5 Ne7 9. Ne1 Nd7 10. Be3 f5 11. f3 f4 12. Bf2 g5 13. Rc1. Wesley improves on 13. Nd3 Ng6 14. c5 Nf6 15. Rc1 Rf7 16. Kh1 h5 17. cxd6 cxd6 18. Nb5 a6! as occurred in the game So – Nakamura, 3rd Sinquefield Cup; Saint Louis 2015. 13. ... Ng6 14. c5!? A very interesting Pawn positional sacrifice just to break through on the Queenside. 14. ... Nxc5 15. b4 Na6 16. Nd3 h5 17. Nb5 b6. For 17. ... Bd7 18. a4 Bh6 see Piket – Kasparov, 14th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez Ciudad de Linares, Linares 1997. 18. Be1 Rf7 19. Bd2 Bf6 20. Nf2 Qe8 21. Qa4 Bd8 22. Qa3 g4 23. fxg4 hxg4 24. Nc3! Nxb4!? A speculative Knight sacrifice and probably Black’s best chance. After 24. ... Nb8 25. Nxg4 Rg7 26. Nd1 White would inexorably tighten his stranglehold on the Queenside. 25. Qxb4 f3 26. Bb5 Qe7 27. g3 Rh7 28. Qc4 Rh8. Well, Black’s goal is to checkmate Wesley! 29. Qc6! Qh7 30. h3 Rb8 31. Ncd1! a6

32. Qe8+ Kg7 33. Qxd8!! A deeply meditated Queen sacrifice through which Wesley completely neutralizes all Black’s threats. 33. ... Rxd8 34. Rxc7+ Bd7 35. Rxd7+ Rxd7 36. Bxd7 gxh3 37. Kh2 Rb7 38. Be6. Her Majesty is overwhelmed by the three White minor pieces. 38. ... Nf8 39. Bf5 Qh5 40. Ng4 Nd7 41. Bh6+ Kh8 42. Nde3 Rc7 43. Bxd7! Rxd7 44. Rxf3 Rf7 45. Rf5! Rxf5 46. exf5 Qf7 47. Bg5 b5 48. Nh6 Qf8 49. f6 Kh7 50. Nef5 Kg6 51. Bh4 e4 52. f7 e3 53. Be7 e2. 53. ... Qxf7 54. Nxf7 e2 55. Ne5+! dxe5 56. Bb4 doesn’t work anyway. 54. Nh4+ Kh7 55. Bxf8 e1=Q 56. Bxd6 Qf2+ 57. Kxh3 Qf1+ 58. Kg4 Qc4+ 59. Bf4 Qe2+ 60. Nf3 1 : 0. An impressive game by Wesley So, who finally seems to have recovered his old shape.

Wesley So vs. 丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén)
Photo: David Llada (‏@lladini)

Quand c’est?

冰晶

新疆 (Xīnjiāng), China: Frosted flowers on the wetland of snow-covered 天山 (Tiānshān) mountain. Photo: 李华 (Lǐ Huá)/新华社 (Xīnhuá News Agency)/Corbis.

Right to education

On September 28, 2015, Women’s World Chess Champion Mariya Muzychuk opened a free chess club in Lviv secondary School No. 28. On occasion the chess Queen remarked that the right time to start taking part in tournaments is when a child starts going to school.

Women’s World Champion Mariya Muzychuk inaugurating the chess club of Lviv secondary School No. 28. Photos: Lviv secondary School No. 28. For more images, go to school28.edukit.lviv.ua.

VI Fischerandom Kaos

ABSTRACT FLOWERS EXHIBIT

ONE HUNDRED FLOWERS

by

Mado Flynn

EXHIBIT OF ONE HUNDRED ARTIFACTS WITH ORIGINAL DESIGNS

“Fiori per Algernon” ™ © Mado Flynn

Saturday, November 14, 2015 15,30 – 18,30 Sunday, November 15, 2015 10,00 – 12,00 15,30 – 18,30

c/o
Associazione Culturale “Il Delta della Luna”
Viale Edmondo de Amicis, 99/A
50137 Florence, Italy

See further details at http://madoflynn.blogspot.com

Public good

Communities “reclaim” the streets in Bangalore, India, on Cycle Day for fun and games – with chalk. Photo: Esaf Bangalore/GuardianWitness.

Life Cycle

• На 95-м году ушёл из жизни известный шахматный историк Исаак Линдер (Isaac Linder, the renowned chess historian dies, nearly 95 years old), Chess-News.ru, November 1, 2015 (Russian)

• Chess Historian Isaac Linder Died Aged 94, Chess-News.ru, November 1, 2015 (English)

Isaac Maksovich Linder died on the last day of October, twenty days before his 95th birthday.

Isaac Maksovich Linder
Photo: Chess-News.ru

À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs

Closing ceremony of the 13èmes Rencontres d’Échecs du Cap d’Agde. All the participants were on stage, including the four flowering girls. Photo: CapÉchecs (Facebook).

Dear Prudence

13th Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) held a conversation and Q&A with the journalist Dominic Lawson about her plan to combine her chess career with her studies in international relations, the current state of the competitive chess scene, and whether the gender split in chess is a necessary one. The talk was hosted by Sir David Tang and recorded at China Exchange in Chinatown, London, United Kingdom on October 26, 2015.

La pazza della porta accanto

Photo © Marina Ćorić

Vorrei morire come donna ma non rinascerei come un uomo. Alda Merini

Back to the Future

The organisers of the Zürich Chess Challenge Oleg Skvortsov and Christian Issler prepared a letter for the FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. It mentions the time control novelty that will be tested at the next year competition. [Read more].

• Zürich Chess Challenge Organisers Ask Ilyumzhinov For “Changes In The Rules of Calculating Ratings In Classical Chess”, Chess-News.ru, October 30, 2015

Photo © corentosx

The White Flower

Sofia Nutini performing in the Associazione Culturale “Il Delta della Luna”’s final dance showdown on Saturday, June 20, 2015. Photo: Stefano Marmino.

The Importance of Not Being Arcovazzi

• Stelious Bouras and Nektaria Stamouli, Tsipras Accuses European Nations of Hypocrisy Over Migrant Crisis, The Wall Street Journal, October 30, 2015

• Greece’s Tsipras says he feels “ashamed” amid migrant border chaos and deaths at sea, Ukraine Today, October 30, 2015

Lesbos, Greece: Locals help refugees and migrants out of the sea as they arrive on the island... Photo: Kostis Ntantamis/AP.

... and a young child is passed to a volunteer lifeguard as another half-sunken catamaran carrying around 150 refugees, mostly Syrians, arrives at the island. Greek authorities say a number of people have died after two boats sank near other islands in the eastern Aegean Sea. Photo: Giorgos Moutafis/Reuters.

Alexīs Tsipras (‏@tsipras_eu)

Les Fleurs Animées

Europe Échecs (@EuropeEchecs)

Le dernier métro

Kiyevskaya metro station (east), Moscow, Russia
Photo © David Burdeny

Taganskaya metro station, Moscow, Russia
Photo © David Burdeny

• Hannah Twiggs, Moscow’s metro stations – in pictures, The Guardian, October 31, 2015