Historic Olympiad Yahoos

In last month's Yahoos post -- see the footnote for a definition of Yahoos -- titled DNA Yahoos (August 2024), the stats revealed a possible new trend:-

This month had 99 stories returned by Google News. Of those, 25 were old stories from previous months, compared to 10 old stories returned for the July post. Is Google struggling to find chess stories?

The September stats were 100 stories total including 14 stories from previous months. Later in the August post I noted,

The 2024 Olympiad also had four stories, two of which were the same. Since the event didn't finish in August, I'll save any discussion for next month.

The 100 stories total for September had the first nine under a heading that proclaimed, 'India win historic double gold at Chess Olympiad'. I counted another 18 stories about the Olympiad for a total of 27, plus a few more stories lacking the word 'Olympiad' in the title.

I would like to use the FIDE story to represent the Yahoos, but it's structured oddly so I need a different FIDE report to set the stage. Here are both reports:-

• 2024-09-22: India triumphs at 45th Chess Olympiad, winning both Open and Women’s competitions (fide.com)
• 2024-09-23: Triumphant moments: Celebrating the winners of 45th Chess Olympiad (ditto) • 'In the open section, the bronze medal went to Uzbekistan, and the silver medals were awarded to team USA. The winners of the 45th Chess Olympiad, Team India, received the gold medals and the Hamilton-Russell Cup, the original Olympiad trophy created in 1927 and named after its donor, British attorney and chess sponsor Frederick Gustavus Hamilton-Russell. [...] In the women’s section, the bronze medal was awarded to team USA, while the silver medal went to team Kazakhstan.'

That wasn't the only important news to emerge from the Olympiad. Consider the latest fallout from the war in Ukraine:-

• 2024-09-23: World Chess Body Upholds Ban On Players From Russia, Belarus • 'The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has upheld a ban on Russian and Belarusian players imposed over Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, prompting an angry response from the Kremlin chiding FIDE for bowing to Western pressure.'

Close to the center of the story was/is a Russian national doing a high-wire political balancing act:-

FIDE President and former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, who has sought to avoid criticism in both Russia and the West.

Of the other chess stories from Google News, none were particularly compelling, so I'll close this month's post with a reference to the previous Olympiad Yahoo, Olympiad, Business, and Political Yahoos (August 2022). The main event, 'Open' is the current jargon, was won by Uzbekistan.

[Yahoos (mainstream news stories about chess) are derived from Google News top-100 (or so) stories from the past month.]

A Knight and Two Berserkers

The missing subtitle 'Everybody Loves the Lewis Pieces' recalls the recent post Everybody Loves Morphy (June 2024). Our previous Flickr post featuring the dour little warriors was The Lewis Pieces at Church (May 2023; 'Christ Church Cathedral, Waterford, Ireland').

Lewis Chessmen © Flickr user Hornbeam Arts under Creative Commons.

The Flickr description said only,

In the early Welsh story "The Dream of Rhonabwy", Arthur is seen playing a game similar to chess.

The famous pieces even have their own Wikipedia page, Game pieces of the Lewis chessmen hoard (wikipedia.org). The page informs,

The style of carving, particularly that on the thrones of the seated figures, suggests they are Scandinavian in origin, most likely from Trondheim, the medieval capital of Norway until 1217. The types of piece are similar to those in modern chess -- the chessmen are the earliest found that have figures in clerical dress (bishops).

The Rooks are represented as warriors which came to be called "warders" at an early stage after they were discovered. Four of the warders are shown biting their shields -- these have been identified as the berserkers of the Norse sagas. Christian and pagan influences are both present in the designs.

So technically speaking, the two pieces behind the Knight in our Flickr photo aren't berserkers, because they're not biting their shields. Maybe their teeth fell out during previous bites.

As for the dream referenced in the photo description, Wikipedia offers another page, The Dream of Rhonabwy (wikipedia.org; Welsh). Here the 'chess' game is identified as gwyddbwyll, a name that could easily be extraterrestrial in origin, but is in fact 'a Celtic board game similar to Roman ludus latrunculorum'. That reminds me of The Circular Chess Boards of the Druids (April 2024). There we learned,

(Q:) What exactly is a Druid? (A:) 'A druid was a member of the high-ranking priestly class in ancient Celtic cultures.'

So Druids played gwyddbwyll and were probably experts at it.

***

Later: A few weeks after the date on the post, I noticed in Key decisions from the 2024 FIDE General Assembly (chessbase.com) another Lewis reference:-

Gunnar Bjornsson, president of the Icelandic Chess Federation, presented the application from the Greenlandic Chess Federation, which applied to become an Affiliated Member of FIDE. "Chess, while very new in its organized form, has a surprisingly long connection to Greenland. The famous Lewis chessmen, a collection of medieval chess pieces, have been definitively proven to be crafted from walrus tusks of Greenlandic origin," read in the application.

This squares with the Wikipedia page on the Lewis pieces, which says, 'Material: Walrus ivory and whale tooth'.

US Chess on Video

With less than 100 views and zero comments after three weeks on Youtube, this video might be the least popular chess clip that I've ever selected for a monthly featured video post. So why feature it? Because I liked the inside look at the US Chess federation.

US Chess Federation Staff Forum Friday August 2 2024 (5:57) • '[Published on] Aug 19, 2024'

The description said,

US Chess is the official, not-for-profit US membership organization for chess players and chess supporters of all ages and strengths, from beginners to Grandmasters. Find out more at uschess.org

That was followed by around a dozen links to various aspects of US Chess, four of which were under the header 'Women in Chess'. At the end of the video, the staff forum morphs into a membership meeeting which has also been recorded for posterity:-

• 2024-08-14: Membership Meeeting August 2, 2024

If you like this sort of thing -- I appreciate that it's not for everyone -- don't miss:-

• 2024-08-19: 2024 US Chess Delegates Meeting [undated]

Nearly nine hours long, it even has a transcript. For more about the venue, see What to Expect at the 124th Annual U.S. Open (uschess.org; JJ Lang). It starts,

The 124th Annual U.S. Open Chess Championship begins Saturday, July 27 at the Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel in Norfolk, Virginia. Here is a primer of what to expect and how to follow all the action!

For more about the meetings, scroll to the bottom of that page to find 'Meet, Mingle, Delegate'. Even though online chess gets most of the attention and the players, US Chess is alive and well.

September 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover'

This month's 'On the Cover' features two unique, historical chess events in the USA. Fifty years ago, four up and coming American players received the IM title at the 1974 FIDE Congress. Twenty-five years ago, a controversial World Championship tournament was held at Las Vegas, aka 'Sin City'. For last month's 'On the Cover', see August 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover' (August 2024).

Left: 'Mednis/Soltis/Rogoff/Tarjan'
Right: 'FIDE World Championship; Caesar's hosts the BEST!'

Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)

Our four new International Masters: Edmar Mednis (top left); Andrew Soltis (top right); Kenneth Rogoff (bottom left); James Tarjan (bottom right). Photos by Burt Hochberg.

A story inside, 'FIDE Titles' by Arpad E. Elo, Secretary, [FIDE] Qualification Committee, started,

After a drought of several years, four U.S. players were awarded the International Master title by the FIDE Congress at Nice: Edmar Mednis, Kenneth Rogoff, Andrew Soltis and James Tarjan. These, plus a Cuban IM and a Correspondence Master, were all the Western Hemisphere could claim of the 63 titles approved by the Qualification Committee.

All four American players went on to become grandmasters -- Mednis (b.1937; GM 1980), Rogoff (b.1953; GM 1978), Soltis (b.1947; GM 1980), Tarjan (b.1952; GM 1976) -- and all but Soltis played in World Championship Interzonals: Rogoff in the 1976-78 cycle, Mednis and Tarjan in the 1979-81 cycle; see FIDE Events 1948-1990 (m-w.com) for links. Coincidentally, all four had six-letter family names. The Arpad Elo article continued,

Among the interesting new title holders is a Woman Master of whom the USSR players are exceptionally proud, Maya Chiburdanidze, just thirteen years old!

Four years later Chiburdanidze won a match against the reigning Women's World Champion -- see 1978 Chiburdanidze - Gaprindashvili Title Match (m-w.com) -- who had held the title since 1962. When Chiburdanidze lost the title in 1991, it would mark nearly 30 years of an uninterrupted reign by Georgian women players.

Chess Life (25 Years Ago)

By the time you receive this issue, the Second FIDE Knockout World Championship will be history. We were able to report the results of the first two rounds. Unfortunately, that was all that was needed to determine the fates of our nine participants. [...] Jose Angel Pardo put together the artwork for Chess Life in Adobe Photoshop. He holds a BA in Fine Arts from Jersey State College.

For more about the cover teaser, 'Caesar's hosts the BEST!', see two previous posts on my World Chess Championship blog:-

• Who Goes to Caesars Palace to Play Chess? (April 2009)
• Playing Chess at Caesars Palace (ditto)

A few months ago we saw the same paragraph about cover artist Pardo in July 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover' (July 2024). An article inside the September issue, 'Americans at Las Vegas' by Brian Killigrew, started,

The FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament has given chess fans a great deal to be excited about. One month of top-level chess, one hundred players, and speed games where one mistake can cost you a match. The format is exciting, if not controversial.

Do the short matches really prove who is the best? Should speed chess determine the winner of the world championship? And is the winner really the world champ if he hasn't beaten Kasparov -- or, for that matter, Karpov?

These are a few of the questions I posed to the players representing the United States at the tournament. While they were all excited to be part of it, their feelings about the format were mixed. But they all agreed on some points. The players said that it wasn't fair when Karpov was seeded directly into the finals last year, and they also showed a great deal of respect for their first round opponents.

The first (Groningen / Lausanne) and second (Las Vegas) FIDE World Championship Knockout events are documented on my index page for the World Chess Championship (m-w.com). There would be a total of five title events using the knockout format, which never escaped the 'exciting, if not controversial' criticism.

Ugly Chess Jacket

And I mean that in the kindest way, like 'Ugly Christmas Sweater'. English speaking visitors to this blog might be surprised to know that the famous sweaters are known and sought after internationally. Will chess jackets also catch on?

This latest post for Top eBay Chess Items by Price (March 2010), features an item titled, 'Kidsuper Chess Not Checkers Corduroy Blazer - Size Large - Brown - NEW'. It sold for US$ 335.00, 'Buy It Now'.

The description said,

Condition:

New with tags: A brand-new, unused, and unworn item (including handmade items) in the original ...

Brand:

Kidsuper

Type:

Blazer

Size Type:

Regular

Size:

L

Style:

Pea Coat

Outer Shell Material:

Cotton

Department:

Men

Color:

Brown

Fabric Type:

Corduroy

For previous top eBay items in the clothing category, see:-

• Not to Be Confused with Hermes (December 2021; a scarf)
• Endorsements for Asuncion (January 2020; a nice Magnus jacket, not at all ugly)

By coincidence, a used ('Pre-owned' in eBay jargon) jacket of exactly the same type was being offered on eBay for US$ 365.99. Are ugly Christmas sweaters also worth more used?

DNA Yahoos

Just like last month's Yahoos post, Missing Yahoos (July 2024; see the footnote for an explanation of Yahoos), this month had 99 stories returned by Google News. Of those, 25 were old stories from previous months, compared to 10 old stories returned for the July post. Is Google struggling to find chess stories?

The most frequent topic was the Sinquefield Cup with 11 stories. For example, the last story was:-

• 2024-08-29: Undefeated Firouzja Wins Sinquefield Cup And $100k Prize (chess.com; JackRodgers) • 'GM Alireza Firouzja was crowned as the winner of the 2024 Sinquefield Cup and the Grand Chess Tour on Wednesday after securing a draw with GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and finishing on 6/9.'

The Tbilisi FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2024 (theweekinchess.com; 14 Aug - 25 Aug) had four stories. None of them were about the final results, which is why I used that TWIC link.

The 2024 Olympiad also had four stories, two of which were the same. Since the event didn't finish in August, I'll save any discussion for next month.

The opponents in the forthcoming match for the World Championship, Ding Liren vs. Gukesh, and the opponents in the most reported game of all time, Carlsen vs. Niemann also received mentions. The most reported of the more colorful stories was:-

• 2024-08-17: Chess Player Suspended After Allegedly Poisoning Her Rival (chess.com; TarjeiJS) • 'A chess player has been suspended by the Russian Chess Federation and is reportedly facing time in jail after she allegedly tried to poison her rival at the chessboard during a tournament. Amina Abakarova, a 40-year-old chess coach from Makhachkala in the Russian Republic of Dagestan, is accused of trying to poison her rival, 30-year-old Umayganat Osmanova.'
  
  
• 2024-08-24: The cheaters, geniuses and creeps of the world of chess (thespectator.com; Luke McShane; 'Nothing says you’re a criminal mastermind like knowing the King’s Indian Attack') • 'Amina Abakarova, a forty-year-old chess player from Russia, supposedly tried to poison a younger rival at the Dagestan Chess Championship this month. Camera footage seems to show her furtively applying a substance to one side of a chess board before the start of the game. Her opponent later became unwell and a Russian news agency claimed that the substance contained mercury.'

Since I dislike closing this post with such a dismal chess story, let's have something more upbeat. This story is behind a paywall, but is intriguing enough to mention it:-

• 2024-08-23: DNA computer can play chess and solve sudoku puzzles (newscientist.com) • 'Computers made from DNA have previously only been able to store information or perform computations on it - now a new device can do both'

Aren't we all 'computers made from DNA'? More research needed...

[Yahoos (mainstream news stories about chess) are derived from Google News top-100 (or so) stories from the past month.]

A Perspective on Chess

One of the best known chess paintings reveals some of its technical secrets. I had to brighten both images, but the results were worth it.

Top: The Chess Players | Thomas Eakins
Bottom: Perspective Drawing for the 'Chess Players'
Both: © Flickr user museado under Creative Commons.

The links for the corresponding museum pages were:-

Top: The Chess Players, 1876 (metmuseum.org)
Bottom: Perspective Drawing for the 'Chess Players' (ditto)

The description for the top portion said,

Thomas Eakins, American, 1844–1916, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • 11 3/4 x 16 3/4 in. (29.8 x 42.6 cm) • Medium: Oil on wood • Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY • Gift of the artist, 1881

The description for the bottom said,

[Ditto] • 24 x 19 in. (61 x 48.3 cm) • Medium: Graphite and ink on cardboard • Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY • Fletcher Fund, 1942

The metmuseum.org page for the painting said,

In this painting, the artist’s father watches a chess game between two friends in a Renaissance Revival parlor of a Philadelphia home. Eakins honored his father with a Latin inscription on the drawer of the chess table, which translates as "Benjamin Eakins’s son painted this in '76." A reproduction of a painting by Eakins’s principal French teacher, Jean-Léon Gérôme, hangs over the mantel.

Eakins adhered to Gérôme’s academic lessons in his careful spatial construction and meticulous detail. In 1881 The Chess Players became the first work to be accepted by the Metropolitan Museum as a gift from a living artist.

I cropped out the top half of the 'Perspective Drawing'. It showed sketches of the table with the wine decanter & glasses and of the two players' chairs.