Missing Yahoos

In last month's Yahoos post, Money Makes the Yahoos Go Round (June 2024), I noted,

This month there was no single story that Google News flagged as dominant.

Copy that for the month of July. Of the 99 stories returned by Google News, four were about chess960, but I've already covered that story on my chess960 blog in the post The Magnus Merry-Go-Round (July 2024), e.g.

• 2024-07-25: $12 Million Raised For 'Revolutionary' Freestyle Series Of Tournaments (chess.com; PeterDoggers)

Instead of going there again, let's look instead at a couple of Chess.com stories on a much darker theme by another top chess writer. I doubt that the Google News AI bots would make the connection, but both stories go a long way to explain why there aren't more women in chess.

• 2024-07-18: Top International Arbiter Banned For Sexual Harassment During Major Tournaments (chess.com; TarjeiJS) • 'International chess arbiter Arild Rimestad from Denmark has been given a two-year ban by the FIDE Ethics and Disciplinary Commission (EDC) following multiple reports of sexual harassment against a female FIDE employee. In its decision dated July 13, the EDC has ruled that Rimestad cannot act as an arbiter or participate in any FIDE events for two years, with one year suspended for three years, contingent on no further violations. It's a significant ruling by the EDC, as it seems to be the first time the panel has decided on a sexual harassment-related case.'
  
  
• 2024-07-20: Jennifer Shahade Files Lawsuit Against US Chess For Misconduct And Retaliation (ditto) • 'Two-time U.S. Women's Chess Champion WGM Jennifer Shahade has filed a major lawsuit against US Chess, its president Randy Bauer, and chess writer Peter Tamburro, alleging defamation, retaliation, and discrimination after her public allegations of sexual misconduct.'

That second story takes us back to a previous post on this blog, The Dark Side of Women's Chess (March 2023; 'GM Nakamura reads the Wall Street Journal article, How Sexual Assault Allegations Against a U.S. Chess Grandmaster Went Unaddressed for Years (wsj.com)', i.e. GM Alejandro Ramirez). For more about WGM Shahade's complaint, see Jennifer Shahade Files Complaint Against US Chess (jenshahade.substack.com). It starts,

As a victim and whistleblower, I am fighting back against campaigns to silence me and retaliate against me for speaking up about sexual violence in chess.

Tamburro's contribution to the dark side was his article Due Process, Part II (uschess.org; PDF) in the American Chess Magazine, February 2024. Shortly thereafter, US Chess promoted the article with US Chess Executive Board Statement about American Chess Magazine Article "Due Process, Part II" (uschess.org). Its statement started,

The previously undisclosed details that Pete Tamburro’s new American Chess Magazine piece presents are accurate; we affirm that the facts relative to US Chess are supported by the record of written evidence.

The last time we saw Tamburro on this blog, we didn't actually see him. The follow-up to 2023 CJA Awards - Part 2 (August 2023), should have been 'Part 3', where I would have listed the winners in my favorite categories. When Tamburro won the 'Chess Journalist of the Year' for the second time, it brought back unpleasant memories of the first time, some 20 years earlier. Rather than relive those memories, I decided to drop coverage of the CJA.

The CJA's pay-to-play business model guarantees that first-string journalists who decline to pay invariably lose out to second-stringers. Both Chess.com journalists mentioned above, PeterDoggers and TarjeiJS, neither of whom has ever won a journalist of the year award, are far more deserving than Tamburro.

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

July 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover'

Last month's 'On the Cover' post, June 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover' (June 2024) had news about the World Championship (50 years ago) on the left and the National Open (25 years ago) on the right. This month the roles are switched.

Left: '?'
Right: 'FIDE World Championship Begins July 30th in Las Vegas • NxP?! (c) Jose Angel Pardo'

Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)

On the left is GM Arthur Bisguier, winner of the 8th National Open in Las Vegas. Story [inside]. Photo by Galati. On the right is GM Walter Browne, winner of the 4th Statham Tournament in Lone Pine, Cal. Story [inside]. Photo by Nigel Eddis.

GM Bisguier was last seen in June 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover' (June 2023). GM Browne was last seen in April 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover' (April 2024). Both of those stories '[inside]' began with complications arising from contemporary global affairs. U.S. chess was grappling with troubled times.

Let's start with 'National Open: No Shortages' by Ed Edmondson. First, some bad news:-

No Gas Shortage • Three months before the 8th National Open, the nation was caught up in the Arab Oil Embargo and experiencing very serious gas and oil shortages. We in the North were faced with the possibility of an inadequate supply of fuel oil for heating purposes, and it looked as though -- even if we could pull up roots -- we might not be able to find enough gasoline to drive south and avoid freezing to death.

From a planning standpoint, we were much afraid that drastic cutbacks in driving and curtailed airline schedules would mean not many people could make the trip to Las Vegas for our tournament. As it turned out, the problem had eased considerably in mid-March; by then, however, we had already changed playing rooms at the Stardust Hotel in anticipation of a turnout no greater than 1973's (246 players).

Then some good news, tempered by a bit more bad news:-

No Player Shortage • We changed our reservation from a playing room which could have held more than 400 players in great comfort to one which would hold 250 quite adequately. With fuel restrictions eased, the 1974 National Open set a new attendance record with 296 players. As a result. we did have a Playing Room Shortage. To those who (like me) played and felt a bit crowded at times. I apologize. For 1975. we have already reserved a much larger, better lighted and air-conditioned room which will accommodate 500 players in luxury.

As for the tournament itself, it was covered in two more sections, No Thrill Shortage (the results) and No Fun Shortage (after all, we're talking Las Vegas). The other cover story was 'Louis D. Statham Masters-Plus Tournament' by Isaac Kashdan, Tournament Director. It started,

The fourth annual Louis D. Statham Tournament was again held in Lone Pine, California. We expected it to be the strongest, but not the best attended of the series. As it happened, it excelled on both counts.

First the results. Walter Browne of Berkeley was the highest rated player, and justified that status by winning with the fine score of 6-1. He won his first two games, lost to Ruben Rodriguez of the Philippines, then took his last four games in a row. The streak included former U.S. champion Larry Evans of Reno, and present co-holder of the title, John Grefe of Berkeley.

Grefe finished with 5 1/2, points, tied with Pal Benko of New York, who beat Florin Gheorghiu of Rumania [sic] in the final round to make it. Evans, Julio Kaplan of Puerto Rico, Kim Commons of Los Angeles and Andrew Karklins of Chicago all tied at 5 points For the other prize winners and details of the play read the round by round summary which follows.

Skipping ahead 25 years, we're approaching the end of the millennium.

Chess Life (25 Years Ago)

Maybe this artistic cover is what things looked like up close in the Nunn - Nataf game from the French Team Championship (Letter from Europe, [inside], Move 14). Jose Angel Pardo put together the artwork for Chess Life in Adobe Photoshop. He holds a BA in Fine Arts from Jersey State College.

At that time in its evolution, CL had been featuring regularly artwork on its cover for several years. The previous such cover was March 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover' (March 2024).

The 'On the Cover' write-up continued,

World Championship • FIDE is holding the second World Championship Knockout tournament in Las Vegas July 30-August 29 at Caesar's Palace. Invited are 100 of the top players in the world. Accepting invitations are all eight invited Americans -- including Gata Kamsky! The other U.S. players are U.S. Champion Nick de Firmian, Joel Benjamin, Dmitry Gurevich, Tal Shaked, Boris Gulko, Sergey Kudrin, and Alexander Ivanov.

Kasparov and Anand (who recently won the Chess Oscar for the second time) aren't playing in the FIDE Knockout World Championship because they are piay1ng each other for the Ultimate World Championship and a $3,000,000 prize fund some time during the last quarter of the year. We don't know as we go to press where they are going to play, but it will be a 16-game match, with Kasparov maintaining his title in case of a drawn match.

Alexei Shirov, who qualified as Kasparov's challenger by defeating Vladimir Kramnik in a match late last year, is not involved in this Ultimate World Championship, despite being ranked number two just ahead of Anand and Kramnik, on the World Chess Ranking that Kasparov has set up in competition with FIDE.

Other forthcoming events mentioned in the long preview of the issue were the 1999 U.S. Open, the Interplay U.S. Championship, and Kasparov vs. the World, plus a call to help cover the costs of IM John Watson's medical urgency.

'Interspecies Friendships' and Chess

A good subtitle to that title would be 'Don't play chess with a monkey'. This month's Flickr favorite doesn't really have much to do with chess, but the board in the left photo looks indeed to be that of our favorite board game.

Left: The wounded monkey bites the hand of the prince... © Flickr user museado under Creative Commons.

The full title of the left photo said,

The wounded monkey bites the hand of the prince, his chessmate, in the presence of guests, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Fifth Night c. 1560

The description continued,

This painting depicts a scene from the cautionary tale the mother parrot tells her young to warn them that interspecies friendships, like theirs with the fox cubs, are a bad idea. She tells them that there once was a monkey who could play chess, and he enjoyed many games with a prince. When the prince invited dignitaries for a party, the monkey made a bad joke, the prince slapped him, and the monkey bit him in return.

At the left, food is prepared as the guests look on in astonishment. An inscription at the bottom of the page names the artist, who went on to become one of the most celebrated Indian masters at the Mughal court. • Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)

The title of the middle photo said,

The monkey slain, his blood to be used as medicine for the ailing prince he has bitten, from a Tuti-nama [etc. etc.]

The description said,

Wounded by the chess-playing monkey’s bite, the prince’s hand became increasingly infected. The only cure, his doctors said, was to apply the blood of the monkey to the wound and let it dry. Reluctantly, the prince allowed the monkey to be killed. Two men accomplish this serious work at the left.

In the right margin is written the name of the artist, the celebrated Basavana. The Tuti-nama contains the earliest known paintings by the prolific master who was instrumental in shaping the Mughal painting style over subsequent decades.

The title of the photo on the right said,

The hunter throws away the baby parrots, who pretend to be dead, and captures the mother, from a Tuti-nama [etc. etc.]

The description said,

Despite the chess-playing monkey’s grim end, the baby parrots continued to cavort with the fox cubs. One day the mother fox discovered that her cubs had been eaten by a panther. Blaming the parrots, she lured a hunter to their tree. The hunter climbed the tree and ensnared the mother parrot and her babies. The mother instructed her young to play dead, then pleaded with the hunter to take her alone, saying that since she knew the art of healing she would fetch a high price.

Lush vegetation and a stream of water painted with a soft brush indicate a fresh new stylistic vision that represents a departure from Indian and Persian styles that came before.

All three Flickr pages mention, 'This photo is in 1 album: Cleveland Museum of Art'.

Gotham Talks at Google

The title of the post for this month's featured video echoes the title of a previous featured video, Kasparov Talks at Google (June 2017). There I noted,

As for 'Talks at Google', I featured another episode a few years back in a Video Friday post titled Computer Chess 'Comedy' (July 2013), about the movie 'Computer Chess'.

Early in the clip the moderator says, 'Our guest is returning to Google today to discuss his new book...'. I couldn't locate the previous talk; maybe some helpful blog visitor can show the way.

Levy Rozman | GothamChess: The Internet's Chess Teacher | Talks at Google (57:03) • '[Published on] Jun 19, 2024'

The description starts,

The creator behind the most subscribed-to chess channel on YouTube, Levy Rozman aka GothamChess, discusses his New York Times bestseller “How to Win at Chess: The Ultimate Guide for Beginners and Beyond.” Brimming with practical and easy-to-follow tips for improving your game, the book includes over 500 instructional gameplay illustrations to help you better visualize the board.

It continues,

Levy Rozman, more popularly known as GothamChess, is an online chess streamer who earned the International Master title in 2018. A former scholastic chess coach, he is passionate about chess accessibility, and has donated $100,000 in scholarship funds for chess programs in education. He currently boasts the biggest chess channel on YouTube, where he focuses on creating fun and educational content. His channel has nearly 5M subscribers and 85M total monthly views. This phenomenal growth aided in Levy's transition from making straightforward tactics videos in his apartment to running live commentary at chess and chess-boxing events. • Moderated by Brandon Li.

All of IM Rozman's mentions on this blog have been related to a YouTube video. For the previous mention, see Gotham Gets Gaga (July 2023).

Incarcerated, Self-taught, and Legally Blind

When there are several choices on the short list for a new month's edition of Top eBay Chess Items by Price (March 2010), I almost always go for any artwork. Looking at recent posts I was surprised to discover that the last featured artwork was over a year ago in Baffling eBay (April 2023).

The artwork pictured below was titled, 'Original Painting African American Children Oil Pastels Unframed Signed' The price was given as 'US $825.00; Best offer accepted or Best Offer' (whatever that all means). Judging by its position in the list of sold items, it appears to have sold for $750.

The description said,

This is a one of a kind original painting. Johnnie, an African American artist is incarcerated, has been painting about five years and is self taught. He has donated many of his paintings to support a program that allows men to earn their college degrees while behind bars and has also donated paintings to the American Glaucoma Foundation. He has a rare eye disorder and is diagnosed as legally blind but still manages to create beautiful works of art.

This is titled "We Are Resilient, Make Your Move", hand painted in oil and oil pastels on canvas. It is unframed and signed, H24" X W18".

The artist is incarcerated, self taught, and legally blind. The title of the work ('We Are Resilient...') was written its back.