The Kitten Theme

I'm not sure when the evolution took place, but here on Top eBay Chess Items by Price, live auctions have become the standard method of selling artwork on eBay. The latest example, pictured below, was titled 'GÉRARD JOZEF PORTIELJE, (BELGIAN 1856-1929), CHESS MATCH Lot 185', and subtitled, 'Part of a live auction event on Tuesday, Jan 26'.

The title of the live auction was 'European Art & Old Masters offered by Freeman's, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA'. This chess painting sold for US $7500 after 15 bids, attracting more interest than some of the works by better known artists.

The description said,

Seller's Estimate: USD 2,000 - 4,000 • GÉRARD JOZEF PORTIELJE (Belgian 1856-1929); CHESS MATCH; Signed and located 'Gerard Portielje Antwerp' bottom right, oil on canvas; 18 1/4 x 23 in. (46.4 x 58.4cm); Provenance: Private Collection, New Jersey.

Condition Report: The relined canvas with visible surface craquelure; in fair overall condition with some areas that are difficult to accurately 'read' under u.v. light due to pigments used and varnish inconsistencies. There are some restored areas, including in background at left, center left, center and center right, and to parts of tablecloth.

A few common devices appear in the painting. The fellow on the left is sleeping, presumably after a few drinks from the bottle on the table; the fellow on the right, deep in concentration, is oblivious to his partner's condition; and kittens are playing with chess pieces on the floor. A search on 'chess Portielje' brings up two other works by the same artist.

In contrast to the live auction in the previous 'Top eBay Chess Items' post, Something Smells Fishy, this one looks normal.

Tata 2016 in Pictures

For the third year running, a January Flickr Friday features the annual Tata tournament, held at Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. Two years ago we had Knights of the Rijks (Museum), and last year saw 'Nice Jacket!'. This year I couldn't find any single photo that I preferred over the others, so I decided on a composite.

Center photo: Magnus Carlsen v Shakhryar Mamedyarov © Flickr user Frans Peeters under Creative Commons.

For the complete set of all photos, see Search: tatasteel chess tournament 2016. Note that many (all?) of the photos can be reused for noncommercial purposes. Thanks, Frans Peeters!

Thousands of Comments

Even before the most recent Video Friday post, No Comment -- about a video titled 'Saudi Arabia king (sic) Grand Mufti bans chess, says forbidden in Islam' -- I had already spotted a related Yahoo article. Its introduction is shown below.

Twitter erupts after Saudi cleric says chess is forbidden

The Grand Mufti and the Saudi cleric are one-and-the-same, but what exactly is a Grand Mufti?

The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia is the most senior and most influential Muslim religious and legal authority in Saudi Arabia. The holder of the position is appointed by the King. The Grand Mufti is the head of the Permanent Committee for Islamic Research and Issuing Fatwas. • Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia [Wikipedia]

One reason I like Yahoo articles (last seen earlier this month in Hunk-o'-Junk Chess) is their comment section. A few years ago we had Mainstream Comments on Magnus and The Graffiti Wall - Is Chess a Sport? (both December 2013), and the 'Chess Is Forbidden' theme promised to be another trove of mainstream wisdom. Indeed, the number of comments swelled from around 500 when I first noted the Yahoo article to over 2300 when I started preparing this post.

Unfortunately, most of the comments that I read showed the same sort of intolerance for Islam that the Grand Mufti showed for chess. I'll continue to scroll through them as I watch the final rounds of the 2016 Tata tournament, but don't expect a follow-up on this subject.

FIDE's 'Not Rated' Players

Two weeks ago, when I first looked at the FIDE Rating List - January 2016, I noted,

The main download page, FIDE Download Rating List, offers six different lists:-
* Full list of players (not rated included)
* STANDARD rating list
[...]
Last year I decided to stick with the 'STANDARD rating list' and this year I'm doing the same. Some day I might look at the 'full list', but I don't have the time or the interest for that now.

I haven't found the time to take a proper look at the full list, but I have found the interest, so I downloaded it (Thanks again, FIDE!) into a database. The first thing I noticed was the size of the list. It has 560.640 players, while the STANDARD rating list has 231.238 players. How do those >300.000 unrated players break down by federation? The following table shows the federations with the largest number of 'not rated' players.

Count by federation of players with:
'S' = standard rating
'R' = rapid rating
'B' = blitz rating
'<>' = no rating

The counts of standard rating don't quite match the counts in the previous post -- they are a generally a little higher -- but I didn't download the lists at the same time. The difference isn't enough to bother me.

To double-check my results, I looked at the USA players with 'no rating'. None of the 8336 players were marked inactive and a few of them had CM/WCM titles. About 30 had FIDE Online Arena (FOA) titles. Many of the players had FIDE IDs that looked unusual to me.

Why is FIDE interested in keeping track of so many additional players? That is a question for which I have no answer unless it's something to do with FOA.

Instructional Videos : Aronian

In last week's Instructional Videos : Anand, I decided to take the eight participants in the 2016 Candidates Tournament in alphabetical order, so after GM Anand we have GM Aronian. It's a happy coincidence that the 2016 Tata Steel tournament is being played as I write this.

Tata Steel Chess 2012 - Analysis - Levon Aronian shows his win against Giri round 10 (17:10) • 'Uploaded on Jan 25, 2012'

The wooden demo board isn't as convenient as an electronic demo board, but I can live with its deficiencies. To follow the complete game, see Anish Giri vs Levon Aronian; Tata Steel 2012 (chessgames.com).

FIDE's CIS Chairman O'Connell

Earlier this month Chessdom.com posted an Interview with CIS Commission Chairman Kevin O'Connell, a good read for anyone interested in the Chess in School movement. It lists O'Connell's accomplishments, then opens with some historical background.

I was one of the founders of the Commission in 1984. Despite the hard work and financial support of founding chairman Nicola Palladino, few of the initial goals were achieved. It seems that the time was not quite right, with too much emphasis on chess development and not enough on using chess to help children develop educational and life skills.

Since 2010 we have refocused on using chess for education, for absolute beginners, mainly in the age range 4-12. The appearance of chess players from these programs (about 5% of those in CiS programs go on to play some sort of competitive chess, joining chess clubs and their national federation) is a happy by-product, but not the principal objective. This is in contrast to the previous focus (and current TRG – Trainers’ Commission – focus) on developing chess players, coaches and trainers.

There's much more, including a discussion of the materials I included in Chess Curriculum - Summary (December 2015).

No Comment

Saudi Arabia king Grand Mufti bans chess, says forbidden in Islam (1:14) • 'The highest official of Saudi Arabia, Grand Mufti, has banned chess in the country, quoting that playing chess is forbidden in Islam. He said it is a waste of time, promotes gambling and causes hatred among players. Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz bin-Abdullah issued the fatwa ahead of a major chess tournament in Mecca tomorrow.'