Checkmate

Click on the images for a clear view – this game was a different game than the next game. In this game I played white.

In this game – I wonder if you can guess what my final move will be – playing black. -I couldn’t make my final move as my opponent has resigned, here’s the game. A couple of times I’ve thought my opponent was in control and the game was his, my King was in danger…but with the pin in move 42 -Bb6, I started to take control and I knew he wasn’t going to beat me up. Several times I said to him he was beating me up and I almost thought I was going to have to resign.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4 Bg4 4.c3 Bxf3 5.Qxf3 Qd7 6.d4 h6 7.O-O Nf6 8.Be3 a6 9.Nd2 Nc6 10.Nb3 O-O-O 11.Rfd1 Qe7 12.Rd2 b5 13.Qh3+ Kb8 14.Be2 Nxe4 15.Rc2 b4 16.a3 a5 17.cxb4 axb4 18.axb4 Nxb4 19.Rc4 d5 20.Rcc1 Rd7
 21.dxe5 c6 22.Ba7+ Kb7 23.Bc5 Qd8 24.e6 fxe6 25.Bxb4 Bxb4 26.Na5+ Bxa5 27.Qb3+ Kc8 28.Rxc6+ Rc7 29.Rac1 Rf8 30.Qa4 Rxc6 31.Rxc6+ Bc7 32.Qa8+ Kd7 33.Qa6 Rf7 34.f3 Nd6 35.b4 e5 36.Rc5 Ke6 37.Qc6 Qd7 38.Qxd5+ Ke7 39.Qxe5+ Kf8 40.g4 Rf6 41.h4 Re6 42.Qb2 Bb6 43.f4 Ne4 44.Qc2 Ng3 45.Bc4 Re1+ 46.Kg2 Qxg4 47.Ba6 Ne4+ 0-1

This chessgame was played on chess.com – my first game to finish in my first tourney on the site after 2 years of playing only friendly games. Please click here to play through the game. You can also on the link read what I say about the game.

Kleurespel

My creation of fireworks with the software: Fireworks

Ek wonder hoeveel – hoeveel geld hier [en in ander stede] verbrand is, geld wat ten bate van liefdadigheidsorganisasies wêreldwyd geskenk kon word. Wat van VIGS- hoeveel geld kon nie aan VIGS geskenk word om lewens te red of om die lewensstandaard van VIGS-leiers te verbeter nie. Wat van die bevegtig van allerlei praktyke wat deur die wêreld plaasvind, waarom nie geld aan organisasies skenk om daardie praktyke van die onderwêreld te beveg nie? Die kleure is mooi, ons almal hou seker daarvan om dit te aanskou, maar ter wille van wat? ‘n Paar syfertjies? Ek-wonder-maar-net.

Me just wondering..how much money was burnt throughout the world last night…why not donating it to charity? I know these colours are beautiful, but what takes priority in the world? Fireworks or people’s lives?

Luddite 2 923 of 25 400

I’m not much of a drinker, but when it comes to red wine and liqueur, I will never say no, but now I have another problem. The English is much more into drinking than we are used to and every thank you, congratulations, good luck,  Merry Christmas or Happy New Year, etc.  ends up with bottle of wine! Being part of a family where I’m the only one that drinks…one or two glasses in about 6 months! [to give you an idea of how much I drink, but will drink a beer shandy in the Pub now and then] - this is quite a problem. I was wondering if there are more people with this problem. I don’t mind  a bottle of wine, but hey, if I’m the only person to finish it,  it can be quite a bit of a waste…do people always assume everyone drinks…on the other hand, I have now a growing cellar – for friends! [haha] In South Africa people will make sure you’re not a teetotaler before a bottle is given as a pressie, but nobody has asked any of us …just a thought to ponder about… I won’t mind if it is Elderflower! This liqueur  is really nice, but if you really want to spoil me, I would appreciate our very own Cape Velvet [from SA shops only] or Amarula – which you can buy from Tesco’s and if all fails, I will say thank you to Baileys too.  The bottle of red South African Shiraz is still waiting for me…tomorrow of course!…only a certain number of bottles of Luddite’s wine  get exported each year. My bottle number is 2 923 of the 25 400 for 2005.  According to my blogger-friend – and sommelier -[Gerrie] is Luddite an outstanding and classy wine.

Painting of a young drinker by GERRIT VAN HONTHORST

 

Happy New Year to all reading here…and don’t drink till you drop!Enjoy the Drinking song from the Student Prince.

Blues and the moon

I’ve blogged twice before about the colour blue. I do like blue as a colour, but it depends on the shade of course. With one previous entry I’ve also blogged these blue songs in this entry, Afrikaans and English. I haven’t upgraded my blog as yet, I’m not sure if I still want to stick with WordPress as there are lots of blogging-issues with WP which one doesn’t have with Blogger and I consider moving back to my old Blogger-blog! About two months ago I’ve bought the music of Nanci Griffith - her CD called From a Distance and there’s a track on this album called Once in a very blue moon, which I wanted to upload, but due to upgrading-issues…I can’t do so now, so jump on to Amazon’s site and do take a listen to it. I hope your New Year isn’t too blue! Enjoy this blue poem…I think you’ve noticed Samuel Bak’s art – again –  in this collage-image – or is it more Surreal-art – as my chess-friend Dan calls it.

Blue Winter by Robert Francis

Winter uses all the blues there are.
One shade of blue for water, one for ice,
Another blue for shadows over snow.
The clear or cloudy sky uses blue twice-
Both different blues. And hills row after row
Are colored blue according to how for.
You know the bluejay’s double-blur device
Shows best when there are no green leaves to show.
And Sirius is a winterbluegreen star.

Soms …
voel ek blou
en ek gee voor
om nie raak te sien
die gevoelens in jou oë
ek ignoreer jou
vergrote pupille en jou
stem se sagte toon

of verbeel ek my
dat ek dit ignoreer
probeer ek die verlede
net dalk maar… begrawe
dit sou nie die eerste keer
wees…
‘n siklus van ebb en vloed

‘n lang tyd het verby
gegaan sedert
ek jou naam weer neergeskryf het
ek sal geduldig wag
totdat die aarde oopskeur
31/12/2009

This first track is the same as the second, I was a bit silly with Audacity… Also, the first four tracks are only tasters, but Juanita’s track is full length. I recently blogged about Bloubergstrand which links, of course, also to the colour blue!

Blou….by Laurika Rauch

Neil Diamond’s song…

Vicky Leandros…

Juanita du Plessis…

Image: Nasa Science 2009
This next article is of Nasa. I blogged the 1st  July 2007 about Blue Moons and this link is to be found in my blog-entry of 2007 where Nasa tells us about the Blue Moons.

Dec. 29, 2009: Party planners take note. For the first time in almost twenty years, there’s going to be a Blue Moon on New Year’s Eve.

“I remember the last time this happened,” says professor Philip Hiscock of the Dept. of Folklore at the Memorial University of Newfoundland. “December 1990 ended with a Blue Moon, and many New Year’s Eve parties were themed by the event. It was a lot of fun.”

Don’t expect the Moon to actually turn blue, though. “The ‘Blue Moon’ is a creature of folklore,” he explains. “It’s the second full Moon in a calendar month.”

Top image: The full moon of Dec. 2, 2009, over Turan, Italy. Photographer Stefano De Rosa notes that the blue colors are cast by Christmas lights surrounding the pictured church.

Most months have only one full Moon. The 29.5-day cadence of the lunar cycle matches up almost perfectly with the 28- to 31-day length of calendar months. Indeed, the word “month” comes from “Moon.” Occasionally, however, the one-to-one correspondence breaks down when two full Moons squeeze into a single month. Dec. 2009 is such a month. The first full Moon appeared on Dec. 2nd; the second, a “Blue Moon,” will come on Dec. 31st.

This definition of Blue Moon is relatively new.

If you told a person in Shakespeare’s day that something happens “once in a Blue Moon” they would attach no astronomical meaning to the statement. Blue moon simply meant rare or absurd, like making a date for the Twelfth of Never. “But meaning is a slippery substance,” says Hiscock. “The phrase ‘Blue Moon’ has been around for more than 400 years, and during that time its meaning has shifted.”

The modern definition sprang up in the 1940s. In those days, the Farmer’s Almanac of Maine offered a definition of Blue Moon so convoluted that even professional astronomers struggled to understand it. It involved factors such as the ecclesiastical dates of Easter and Lent, and the timing of seasons according to the dynamical mean sun. Aiming to explain blue moons to the layman, Sky & Telescope published an article in 1946 entitled “Once in a Blue Moon.” The author James Hugh Pruett cited the 1937 Maine almanac and opined that the “second [full moon] in a month, so I interpret it, is called Blue Moon.”
 
That was not correct, but at least it could be understood. And thus the modern Blue Moon was born.

Blue moon has other connotations, too. In music, it’s often a symbol of melancholy. According to one Elvis tune, it means “without a love of my own.” On the bright side, he croons in another song, a simple kiss can turn a Blue Moon pure gold.

Source Nasa Science. The link will open in a new window.

Here are a few pics I’ve taken from the blue moon of 31/12/09.

 

Read All About It

If you have ADHD – you will find it hard to look at this image, but it might be a good exercise for you to find all the hidden images in this image! If you look at my old blogger-blog you will see some of the hidden images are from the banner-image….click on this image for a larger view and to appreciate what is in the image…original image: courtenaysfineart….and if you go to FaceBook…search for Someone’s Daughter - and read all about it!!

 

Read all about it! Read all about it…Magnus Carlsen…
Norwegian 19-year-old crowned world chess champ

Click on this link and it will open in a new window Magnus Carlsen

Patches

Like my previous entry of yesterday, I was again playing around with [Adobe]Fireworks and used quite a few images from the web to put this one together, that’s why I call it Patches. You will see again I’ve used Samuel Bak’s art in this creation, but also another classic piece of art [in this post at the bottom]. Also, I’ve found Mark Twain’s letters online and if you are ready with your magnifying glass, you can even see a tiny piece from one of his letters in this image. In the next image, I’ve put together bits and pieces from a few of his letters. You can download his lettes in PDF.

Ek sit heerlik en speel met Fireworks, maar eintlik moet ek deur Dreamweaver-tutorials werk, want volgende week begin ons met ons Y8-kinders websites in ICT. Ek begin al klaar weer die weke aftel vir die Paasvakansie![haha]

Mark Twain-patches

Grimm-patches -You can download Grimm’s Fairy tales here on the site of Cincinnati-library in PDF-format.

Chess-love – see the original next

 

Monday’s [chess] child

I’ve been playing around with [adobe]Fireworks and edited/created this top image…I deleted the woman’s corset in the image, replaced it with these chess pieces from the chess art of Samuel Bak – [see more of his art on my Chess Humour-page] and I added the sort-of-border.
Original image here …the link will open in a new window.

Churchill makes me smile

Boer Scouts in Natal

Father and son go to war – image: diggershistory.info

 How I love thee…to read these quotes – you can read similar quotes on my other link in this post.[The Boer War link on my blog]

When the world loved the Boers…

 WHEN IN OCTOBER 1899 the British Empire went to war against the Boers or Afrikaners of the Transvaal (South African Republic) and the Orange Free State, it was widely believed that the conflict would be brief. It became, however, the largest war waged by Britain since the Napoleonic Wars, even including the Crimea, involving the strongest forces sent from English shores since Henry V’s army departed for Agincourt. It was the first of the modern media wars, waged for the hearts and minds of both metropolitan and global opinion, in which military officers and civilian politicians on all sides had to pay acute attention to the coverage provided by the press. Fought at a time when the telegraph and syndicated news agencies had begun to globalise information, it became the most publicised war waged outside Europe between the American Civil War and the First World War. Indeed, in the minds of contemporaries, the South African War shared certain similarities with the American conflict, not least the widespread perception that it involved universal issues and principles which extended far beyond the borders of southern Africa.

Imperialists in Britain and its colonies of settlement believed the very essence of British strength to be at stake. Thousands of volunteers from Canada, Australia and New Zealand flocked to the imperial colours in South Africa. Britain, however, was made to appear both militarily and physically degenerate by the three years and almost half-a-million men it took to defeat the Boers, whose forces never numbered more than 88,000. During the guerrilla phase of the war, between June 1900 and the Boer surrender in May 1902, the tactics of farm burning and concentration camps employed by the British added further charges of brutality and moral corruption before the bar of world opinion. The significance of the Transvaal goldfields and the political prominence of leading magnates, often caricatured as a bloated Cecil Rhodes, gave the war a whiff of the sordid, which opponents of the conflict were all too ready to exploit (even if the actual influence of capitalists in the outbreak of hostilities was and remains controversial). Meanwhile, the unexpected protraction of the struggle intensified calls for a complete reorganisation of British educational and industrial life and gave rise to that peculiar Edwardian imperialist soul-searching encapsulated under the catchphrase National Efficiency. The war polarised political opinion in Britain, where David Lloyd George, Emily Hobhouse and James Ramsay MacDonald were among its leading opponents. The war even affected the young Clement Attlee, then a schoolboy at Haileybury, who, along with the entire middle school, was beaten by his pro-Boer headmaster for taking part in a celebration of the relief of Ladysmith that he had banned. In Ireland, the war greatly deepened the alienation of unionists, whose imperialism was invigorated by the war from nationalists who were enthusiastically pro-Boer. In Canada, too, the conflict widened the gulf between French Canadian nationalists and their English-speaking countrymen and set the pattern of their future relationship. It intensified the imperialism of Australia where it appeared to herald the arrival of The Coming Man, that healthy Independent Australian Briton who represented an almost evolutionary improvement on his metropolitan ancestors, ensuring that the new federation was born with a conservative emblem of imperial sacrifice. Nevertheless, it also provided, in the form of `Breaker’ Morant, executed for shooting prisoners, yet another Australian anti-hero. In India, the unwillingness of the British to employ Indian troops in a `Sahib’s War’, together with imperial failure to ensure Indian rights, further alienated moderate nationalists, while Indian advocates of physical force, like their Irish counterparts, came to admire Boer armed resistance. More generally, at the dawn of the twentieth century the war drew on a widespread, almost millenarian sense of angst about the future, manifested in such events as the Dreyfus Affair, the Fashoda Crisis, the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the Chinese Boxer Uprising in 1900.

In Europe and America, where there was enormous interest in the war, and in the United Kingdom itself, there emerged vociferous movements loosely regarded as pro-Boer. These varied greatly in outlook, however, from those who favoured an immediate end to the war and conciliation with the Boers, to those, often represented by the Irish nationalists and continental movements generally, which looked forward to a British defeat. There were also pacifist …

Imperialists in Britain and its colonies of settlement believed the very essence of British strength to be at stake. Thousands of volunteers from Canada, Australia and New Zealand flocked to the imperial colours in South Africa. Britain, however, was made to appear both militarily and physically degenerate by the three years and almost half-a-million men it took to defeat the Boers, whose forces never numbered more than 88,000. During the guerrilla phase of the war, between June 1900 and the Boer surrender in May 1902, the tactics of farm burning and concentration camps employed by the British added further charges of brutality and moral corruption before the bar of world opinion. The significance of the Transvaal goldfields and the political prominence of leading magnates, often caricatured as a bloated Cecil Rhodes, gave the war a whiff of the sordid, which opponents of the conflict were all too ready to exploit (even if the actual influence of capitalists in the outbreak of hostilities was and remains controversial). Meanwhile, the unexpected protraction of the struggle intensified calls for a complete reorganisation of British educational and industrial life and gave rise to that peculiar Edwardian imperialist soul-searching encapsulated under the catchphrase National Efficiency. The war polarised political opinion in Britain, where David Lloyd George, Emily Hobhouse and James Ramsay MacDonald were among its leading opponents. The war even affected the young Clement Attlee, then a schoolboy at Haileybury, who, along with the entire middle school, was beaten by his pro-Boer headmaster for taking part in a celebration of the relief of Ladysmith that he had banned. In Ireland, the war greatly deepened the alienation of unionists, whose imperialism was invigorated by the war from nationalists who were enthusiastically pro-Boer. In Canada, too, the conflict widened the gulf between French Canadian nationalists and their English-speaking countrymen and set the pattern of their future relationship. It intensified the imperialism of Australia where it appeared to herald the arrival of The Coming Man, that healthy Independent Australian Briton who represented an almost evolutionary improvement on his metropolitan ancestors, ensuring that the new federation was born with a conservative emblem of imperial sacrifice. Nevertheless, it also provided, in the form of `Breaker’ Morant, executed for shooting prisoners, yet another Australian anti-hero. In India, the unwillingness of the British to employ Indian troops in a `Sahib’s War’, together with imperial failure to ensure Indian rights, further alienated moderate nationalists, while Indian advocates of physical force, like their Irish counterparts, came to admire Boer armed resistance. More generally, at the dawn of the twentieth century the war drew on a widespread, almost millenarian sense of angst about the future, manifested in such events as the Dreyfus Affair, the Fashoda Crisis, the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the Chinese Boxer Uprising in 1900.

In Europe and America, where there was enormous interest in the war, and in the United Kingdom itself, there emerged vociferous movements loosely regarded as pro-Boer. These varied greatly in outlook, however, from those who favoured an immediate end to the war and conciliation with the Boers, to those, often represented by the Irish nationalists and continental movements generally, which looked forward to a British defeat. There were also …

Source: Questia HERE. It will open in a new window.

Young Boer soldier with the name of Conrad…

I’ve decided it was time for a new post on the Boer War as this link on my blog is now stuffed with too much info on the South African/British War. I will now add new info and links to this new entry as I lost myself amongst concentration camps and battles and thought to find myself again, this time on board with Churchill! Yes, Churchill even made me ordering this book. I like his way of playing with words and he had a humorous way of putting his hand on paper. He made me smile a few times and I’ve quoted some bits here…he even dreamt about South Africa as the country where he saw his great-grandchildren could grow up…er..South Africa is the most beautiful country in the world..no wonder he thought so too…even Ian in Hamburg thinks so too [see his comments on my About-page]. Churchill also made me smile where he writes about the soldiers and the casualties…and them thinking the Boers were defeated. Ha! England, together with Irish soldiers/Scots/ Welsh/Indian+Australian/NewZealand-soldiers+Canadian soldiers…and they fought this War over three years against an army the size of the population of Brighton, that makes you think! I also have with me another interestesting book…Battles of the Boer War – written by W B Pemberton...an English writer. A great book to read. This book is not written one-sided – as you will find most books written by English writers are, as they see it only from their perspective and colour it the way they want. One must also bear in mind, the Boers had no training in fighting wars, no orderly system was in place, whilst the British had the experience and the advantage of fighting battles was on their side! According to this  Gutenberg-link, about 15000 Boers were actively taking part in the War as soldiers. Enjoy bits from Churchill’s book..click on images to see a larger view. I must also add, this is the first book ever where I read the offensive word which we don’t use in our country – for years now – to refer to a non-white person. It was quite weird reading it – especially in this book. Where Churchill refers to the Karoo, I was really smiling…could picture him thinking what he was thinking. I’ve quoted it here too. On the above link you will find images, poetry and art about the Boer War and thousands of links to other historical sites/links linking to the War. On this link you can read about my great grandad and the role he played during the war and the peace process. His grandad was also on the most wanted-list of the British and there was a price tag of £300 on his head! [cool!] Read on the link more…
On this link you will find more history about the War on the site of Ladysmith-history, also eyewitness-accounts.[I've now received my book - see the cover in the next image - which I've ordered]
From the book:

The Boer War: Londton to Ladysmith Via Pretoria and Ian Hamilton’s March by Winston Churchill

Churchill’s adventures of the first five months of the War. Churchill was eager for news…At last news came through…Boers defeated, three battles, Penn Symonds killed…
Cape Town – 1 November 1899
We caught the Man Who Knew …setting him halfway up a ladder on the hurricane deck…the man told his story quickly, with an odd quiver of excitement in his voice… then for the first time we heard of Elandslaagte, of Glencoe, of Rietfontein…Tell us about Mafeking…someone else said…It’s a long list of casualties…the best officers in the world…Colonel Chisholme…Sherstone…Haldane…Barnes…and many more…
East London 5th November.

The train, which is built on the corridor system, runs smoothly over the rails, so smoothly, indeed, that I found no difficulty in writing. The sun is warm, the air keen and delicious. But the scenery would depress the most buoyant spirit. We climbed up the mountains during the night, and with the daylight we were in the middle of the Great Karroo, Wherefore was this miserable land of stone and scrub created? Huge mounds of crumbling rock, fashioned by the rains in the most curious and unexpected shapes, rise from the gloomy desert of the plain.
At Beaufort Wes grave news awaiting the Mail and we learnt about the capitulation of twelve hundred soldiers near Ladysmith.

Churchill dreams about South Africa…

Boer soldiers ready for War - click for a larger view

“The war declared by the Boers on 11 October 1899 gave the British, as Kipling said, no end of a lesson’. The public expected it to be over by Christmas. It proved to be the longest (two and three-quarters years), the costliest (over two hundred million pounds), the bloodiest (at least 22,000 British, 25,000 Boer and 12,000 African lives) and the most humiliating war Britain fought between 1815 and 1914.”  – Thomas Pakenham:  The Boer War

 

Image: Life – Women also took part in the war. In this post you will find the Gutenberg-link with photos from Women that played important roles during the war.

The young Winston Churchill

The news article about Churchill’s captivity – in the Telegraph…image: genealogyworld.net – click on the image for a larger view.

 

A lovely chess set! I would love to have this one…

A French Hero…

Image: Wikipedia – Villebois-Mareuil
My blogger-friend, Brandnetel,  blogged today about Villebois-Mareuil and she had us all googled for Private E Brooks in her previous entry -  as a secret mission! haha

From Wikipedia:[link at the bottom of this entry]

George Henri Anne-Marie Victor de Villebois-Mareuil (22 March 1847, Montaigu, Brittany, France – 6 April 1900, Boshof, Orange Free State, South Africa) was a Colonel in the French Infantry, and French Nationalist who fought and died on the side of the Boers during the Second Anglo-Boer War. He was the first of only two Boer foreign volunteers to be handed the grade of Major-General in the Boer Army. The second being his second in command Evgeni Maximov (1849-1904) after the death of Villebois-Mareuil. He took part in Franco-Prussian War – 1871 and drove back the Prussians from Blois.

George Henri Anne-Marie Victor de Villebois-Mareuil was born approximately 30 km South East of Nantes. He was a soldier and author. He started his military education at the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr where he graduated as a Second Lieutenant in 1867. He loved sport and excelled in gymnastics. Shortly after his graduation he left for Cochinchina where he joined the Marine Infantry serving under his uncle Admiral de Cornulier who was Governor of the Colony. He was promoted to full Lieutenant in 1870.

He saw in the Anglo-Boer War the chance to avenge the French humiliation at Fashoda in the Sudan in 1898.
“But she (England) can be sure that this tricolour flag, grabbed from Fachoda and ripped to shreds in London, was brought to Pretoria by French Volunteers, and has taken its place next to those of the Southern Boer Republics to support their independence against the oppressors. She gave us a Hundred Years’ War, and for a hundred years she has robbed the farmers from the Cape. Since then she has violated every peace treaty. Her hatred being even fiercer against the Boer, for there is French blood flowing through their veins.” – F. Chinier.
He arrived in Lourenço Marques on the 22 November 1899. In December 1899 he was appointed to the rank of Major by General Joubert, and fought in the Battle of Colenso. Due to his leadership capabilities he was given the rank of Major-General and commander of all Foreign Volunteers on 17 March 1900.

The average age of his troops was thirty with the youngest being Private Boiserolle who was only 17. He had a lot of respect for the fighting ability of the Germans under his command despite the lack of unity between the different German troops and commanders. He did not have the same convictions towards the Dutch under his command due to their apparent lack of courage and eagerness for battle. They were often referred to by the Boers themselves as lowly drunkards. – B. Lugan.

About the Boers he said:

He summed his thoughts about the Boer as follows: “Noble and of good race for the most, they live on their farm like in the castles of old, free and isolated… These people are standing up in the face of the whole world defying the decline of our too advanced civilizations.” – La Liberté.

Read Here more about the hero – Villebois-Mareuil.

The Gravestone of Villebois-Mareuil. He was reintered at Magersfontein – Photo: Brandnetel

“When is a war not a war?” with “When it is carried on by methods of barbarism in South Africa,” referring to those same camps and the policies that created them.
Read more  here.

image: stanford university

Fantastic Chess

Image here on Etsy.The link will open in a new window. Click on the image for a clearer view.

Sneeu Snow Sneeu Snow Sneeu Snow!

17th December about 14:30-ish

18th December about 11am-ish – my car!

I think these images are enough to tell the story…