Linares Round 8

Official site here….The annual Linares chess tournament, usually played around the end of February, takes its name from the city of Linares in the Jaén province of Andalusia, Spain, in which it is held. It is sometimes described as the Wimbledon of chess. It is one of the strongest annual tournaments held on the chess tour, along with the Corus chess tournament and Dortmund chess tournament.
Read more about LINARES here on Wikipedia…Anand outplays Shirov in Linares chess

LINARES, February 29:   

Viswanathan Anand once again showed excellent technique to outplay Alexei Shirov in the eighth round of the Morelia-Linares chess as the second leg got underway in Linares.Anand’s fourth win in eight rounds took his tally to 5.5 points and extended his lead to a full point. Anand is now one point clear of his nearest rivals Lev Aronian and Magnus Carslen, who have 4.5 points each. Anand also benefited from the win against Shirov as Magnus Carlsen lost a seemingly winning game against Vassily Ivanchuk.In his game against Shirov, whom he beat for the FIDE World title back in 2000, Anand made the Latvian-born Spaniard pay for not being able to get adequate counter play. In Sveshnikov Sicilian, Shirov’s pawn weaknesses ultimately cost him the game. It took Anand 57 moves and some fine technique to bring in the full point.Vaselin Topalov, trying to press too hard for a win, saw the effort backfire as he lost to Aronian. The game was balanced for a long time, but Topalov overpressed and Aronian responded with a defensive exchange sacrifice. That ultimately resulted in a superior endgame for Aronian, who converted it in 65 moves.Ivanchuk squandered a winning chance against Carlsen and made a wrong choice of move on the 20th turn, which ran him into serious time trouble. Carlsen soon won the race between the opposing sides’ passed pawns and grabbed a full point.The game between Teimour Radjabov and Peter Leko was drawn, but it was as exciting as any of the decisive games.Anand finished the first leg in Morelia, Mexico with 4.5 points from seven rounds. The players had four days rest but traveled more than 24 hours and the time difference between Mexico and Spain is seven hours, resulting in considerable jet lag.  
 

Original Report can be read here ….

Read on the US-chess site HERE more about the standings after round 7! There are also games to play through of the Grandmasters participating in this tournament. More chess news…..

Aronyan resumes in Spain from fourth position Morelia/Linares resumed in Spain on Thursday (February 28), with Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronyan (with white) beating Bulgaria’s Veselin Topalov in the opening game.Aronyan finished the Mexican part of the super chess tournament in the fourth position (with 3.5 points in seven games) among eight grandmasters. The 2006 Morelia/Linares winner let Spain’s Alexey Shirov and Bulgaria’s Veselin Topalov (4 points) outstrip him after losing to Norway’s Magnus Carlsen in the last round on Sunday. India’s Vishy Anand, the reigning world champion who is defending his last year’s tournament win, was a clear leader with 4.5 points.On Friday, February 29, Aronyan, with white pieces, was due to play Anand.The Linares part of the tournament is due to end on March 7.Meanwhile, Armenian chess-player Movses Movsisyan, representing the United States, scored 5.5 points out of 7 and took the first prize in the Winter Open held in Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA. Forty chess-players participated in the tournament, according to http://www.armchess.am.And Armenian GM Varuzhan Hakobyan (also from the USA) scored 5.5 points out of 7 and shared the 2nd-6th places in the 3rd Open held in Morelia, Mexico. Hakobyan was behind the winner GM Ramirez (Costa Rica) with only half a point. Ninety-five chess players participated.

The “Magnicificent Eight” lined up in Spain, the players in this chess tournament.

On THIS LINK you can follow some of the results of round 10.

Peter Leko and his wife….

Vishy Anand and his wife…

Levon Aronian

More pictures/images : ….chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4450
Game…round 1……Topalov against…Aronian……

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Leap Year

Jump into Fun with a Leap Day Party

Leap Year only comes around every four years so why not make the most of it. This year start a Leap Year tradition that can play out for years to come. Treat Leap Day like a Snow Day. After all, it is sort of like a gift of a day that has been given to us. Whether you’re single, a couple, or part of a family, take advantage of the extra time. For starters, treat the day like a holiday. If you can, take the day off of work or school or simply leave the office early.For Singles:
Treat yourself to a day of pampering. Go out to a day spa alone or with friends and have the works done. If you don’t have the resources, turn your home into a spa. Light candles, soak in the tub, give yourself a facial, and curl up with a good book.Take off on a day of adventure and pretend to be a tourist in your own hometown. Go places you usually just pass by. Pretend you are on a special vacation that you are only allowed to take once every four years.

Call up four friends and spend four hours playing cards, watching old movies or exercising.

For Couples:
Start a special tradition on each leap year, to have one spouse be king/queen for the day. Each Leap Year the honor changes. Start with a Crown or Tiara and let the royal pronouncements begin.

Invite another couple over for a day of fun and games. Get out the old Monopoly board, Twister and other fun games. Order in pizza and relax.

For Families:
Make it a party day. For kids and parents alike, the daily routine can sometimes become monotonous. Stave off the winter-time blues by throwing a Leap Year bash. Plan it for just the family or invite other friends and families to join you.
Select a slogan/theme to wrap your celebration around.

The following list will start you off.
• Leaping into Spring
• Stealing a Leap
• Takin’ Advantage of the Day

Use your slogan throughout your party on banners, personalized napkins, personalized glassware or stadium cups as well as personalized favors such as frames, bubbles and photo albums. These cheerful reminders of a fantastic event will bring back memories long after the last hurrah has been heard.

Decorate your event to coordinate with your slogan/theme. The frog is a natural tie to Leap Year celebrations. Our friend the frog brings with it the color green. Starting with green add a second and/or third color to complete your color theme. We recommend yellow and blue. Use these three colors to decorate the table, walls, doors, and ceilings.
Add a jovial 3-D Hanging Frog to your decor.

Next, add balloons, balloons and more balloons. Decorating with balloons is an easy and affordable way to transform a room into a magical partyland. Create towering balloon archways, glorious balloon columns and funfilled balloon garlands. Weave the three colors together (green, yellow and blue) to work with your color theme. If you are low on time and air, inflate a few dozen balloons and dangle them from the ceiling (upside-down) using curling ribbon. It’s a simple way to create with balloons without the use of helium.

If you haven’t decorated with gossamer, you’re missing the lily pad. Use gossamer streamers to create curtains in doorways, tent-like ceilings and swags around the windows. Large sections of gossamer can be used to create your leap year pond, marsh, and bank.

Don’t underestimate the importance of your head table. Decorate the table with brightly colored table skirting, confetti, metallic shred, green candles, and toy frogs.

Every party needs a game or activity to get the crowd going. Start with some Leap Year trivia. Famous events that happened on a leap year, name of the individual who came up with the leap year idea and celebrities with a leap year birthday are all fun ideas. Or, ask your guests to write down what else they wished they could do only once every four years and share it with the other guests. Give out awards for the most unique answers. Hang a large piece of flat paper on the wall and ask guests to write their predictions for what may happen in the next four years. Roll up the paper at the end of the party and save it for the next leap year. Or, using the large paper, make a number of lists/comments of what happened during the last 100 years only on every leap year. Ask guests to identify what leap year each set of comments relates to.

For added fun, set up your party in fours. Table of fours, four layer cake, four course meal, four candles on the cake, a friendly game of quarters or serve food that can easily be “quartered.”

Remember to have plenty of film on hand. These Leap Year Celebrations don’t come around too often!

If you have the time, plan special activities for your party that coincide with Leap Year. If you live in a warm climate, plan an outdoor “summer” leap year Olympics. Create events that include jumping like obstacle courses around the house for track, leaping into the pool for swimming, leaping and twirling for gymnastics. Be sure to have plenty of awards on hand to present to the winners. Make sure you have at least one award for each contestant. For those of us in cooler climates, have a winter leap year Olympics. Keep with the leaping theme. Create snow mounds to jump, ski or sled over. Create a special ice skating event with or without skates danced to music. It isn’t important what you do, but more important that everyone participate and have fun.

Keep the food tied to the events by starting the day with the breakfast of champions Wheaties  and serving plenty of carbohydrates for the Olympic athletes.

If you’re more the political type, set up a leap year election. Let the entire family cast their votes and predictions for the upcoming election. Decorate in red, white, and blue. Serve only red, white, and blue foods. Save your predictions and award prizes in November. This will result in the need for a second party in November to present prizes. Of course, one party that leads naturally to another is the best kind!

If you don’t have the time or energy to go all out this year, start small. Plan a special dinner with a simple frog theme. Set up a few decorations and cut everything in the meal in fourths. Treat the day as a found day to re-proclaim your love for yourself, your family and your friends.

I like this whole Idea of Shindigzparty!  

Original post HERE on Shindigzparty’s site!

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Fiela’s Child and other books

Read here about the book :”Circles in the Forest” and about “Big Foot”…

Afrikaans…scroll down….
Dalene Matthee was one of South Africa’s most talented authors, the best popular novelist that I know….. She wrote mainly in Afrikaans, but many of her books were translated into 14 other lanuages, such as Italian, Hebrew, Spanish, German, French, English, Icelandic, etc. Two of her books were filmed, “Fiela’s Child” and “Circles in the forest”…  Her first children’s novel…”Die Twaalfuur stokkie”… “The Twelve o’clock stick” was written in 1970. I LOVE this story and used to read the story to children in London-schools! They loved to listen to the Afrikaans Language and I explained the story via the pictures to them. It’s the best children’s story I’ve come across to explain to little children – age about 5-8 – the concept about time and the earth spinning around the sun… by using a stick in the sun. Read also about the memorial that was unveiled in Feb 2008 in honour of her!
Click HERE to read about Fiela’s Child, the movie.

Please click HERE to read about Dalene Matthee.

SA writers mourn Dalene Matthee
20/02/2005 21:20 – (SA)

Dalene Matthee – 1938-2005

Dalene Matthee dies 

Laetitia Pople , Die Burger

Cape Town – “Maybe she just held out until her new book, Die Uitgespoeldes, and its translation was done,” Dalene Matthee’s daughter Amanda said on Sunday after the author died in her sleep. The 66-year-old Matthee died in the Bayview clinic, Mossel Bay, early on Sunday morning. She was admitted to the clinic for heart failure on Thursday.

The death of Matthee – who was especially well known for her forest trilogy, of which the first, Kringe in ‘n Bos (Circles in a Forest, first appeared in 1984 and was reprinted 22 times – is being described as a huge loss for the Afrikaans reading public. “She was one of the most well-loved popular novelists in Afrikaans. “With her books such as Kringe, Fiela se Kind (Fiela’s Child), Pieternella van die Kaap and, more recently, Toorbos, she got the general Afrikaans public reading again, and she successfully bridged the gap between quality and popular literature,” said Eloise Wessels, chief executive of NB Publishers, on Sunday.

Novelist Elsa Joubert agrees. “She succeeded in getting people who never read Afrikaans to read in the language, and that’s been a wonderful contribution,” she says. The literary expert Wium van Zyl believes she was like Langenhoven.

“Like him, she had something to offer the intellectual reader and for the everyday reader. “She exposed the reader to various challenges. She was an ecologist and a mild feminist who considered the poor with attention and respect.”

If there’s someone whom the entire South African writers’ community mourns today, it would be Matthee, said Abraham H de Vries. “The voice of one of the best storytellers has fallen silent.“Only she could have written those forest stories – no one else could.”

Film-maker Katinka Heyns, who directed the movie based on the book Fiela se Kind, remembers how she spent two hours with Matthee in the Knysna forest. “The forest would tell Dalene if I may make the movie. She did not say a word and only sat listening. “And then I had to wait an enitre night before she gave the answer.”

Matthee was famous for the rigorous research she did for her books. She researched only her forest trilogy (Kringe, Fiela and Moerbeibos) for seven years, and Pieternella took three years’ research.

Matthee’s books were translated into 14 languages, including French, German, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew and Icelandic. She won the ATKV prize for good popular fiction four times and was honoured with a Swiss literature prize for her “energetic literary work and her passionate interest in nature conservation” in Zurich in 1993. Die Uitgespoeldes is the story of Moses Swart, a foundling raised by an Afrikaans family after being found under a jacket on the beach. Matthee is survived by her three daughters, Amanda and Hilary Matthee and Toni van der Walt. Her husband, Larius, died two years ago.
Origninal news article HERE as it was reported in 2005.
The forest novels
Kringe in ‘n bos (Circles in a forest) (1984)
Fiela se Kind (Fiela’s Child) (1985)
Moerbeibos (The Mulberry Forest) (1987)
Toorbos (Dream Forest) (2003)

Other published works
Die twaalfuurstokkie (The twelve-o’-clock stick) (1970)
’n Huis vir Nadia (A House for Nadia) (1982)
Petronella van Aarde, burgemeester (Petronella van Aarde,Mayor) (1983)
Brug van die esels (The Day The Swallows Spoke) (1993)
Susters van Eva (Sisters of Eve) (1995)
Pieternella van die Kaap (Pieternella from the Cape) (2000)
Die Uitgespoeldes (Driftwood) (2005)

 Dalene Matthee Memorial

Wow! I was sent SANPARKS-link by a blogger-friend, Chris after he’s read my post about Dalene Matthee and I want to thank him as this is really fantastic!
Dalene Matthee Memorial Unveiled at Wilderness National Park
On Saturday, 23 February 2008, close family, a few selected SANParks officials and the press witnessed the unveiling of a memorial in honour of the late writer, Dalene Matthee. It was Matthee ’s fervent wish to have her ashes scattered in the Knysna Forest and her three daughters saw it as a fitting remembrance to their mom, to have a special memorial erected in the place Matthee so loved.

“After three years this project has fallen into place and the family will be eternally grateful to the Wilderness National Park staff for making it all happen”, says Hillary Matthee, the writer’s youngest daughter.

SANParks contribution included the building of a boardwalk around the memorial, the renaming the big tree to the Dalene Matthee Big Tree and the marking of a circular hiking trail to the “Circles in a Forest” trail. The memorial, tree and trail will now form part of the park’s cultural heritage programme.

Matthee based many of her books, especially Fiela’s Child, Circles in a Forest and Moerbeibos on the life and people of the forest. Her books have been translated into 14 languages.

Dignitaries at the unveiling ceremony included Mvusy Songelwa (Regional Manager of the Garden Route National Parks) who unveiled the memorial, Edgar Nevuvhalani (People and Conservation Cultural Heritage Manager) and Dr. Razeena Omar (Executive Director: People and Conservation), who befittingly mentioned what an honour it is for SANParks to house a memorial for a woman who has done so much to bring nature and the forests to the hearts of all people who read her books.

The memorial, Big Tree and the Circles in a Forest Trail is situated at the Krisjan se Nek picnic site in the Goudveld Forest (close to Knysna), which now forms part of the Wilderness National Park. Jill Gordon, Park Manager, encourages all and especially school groups to come and pay homage to Matthee and explore the beauty of the forests

(Circles in the forest)

(Pieternella from the Cape)

(The Mulberry forest)

Nou wil ek meer oor van haar boeke – en ander skrywers se boeke –  in Afrikaans se… omdat ek van dit self gelees het en self ook ‘n blibioteek-onderwyseres is – Ja, ek het vir 9 jaar uit 2 skole se mediasentrums klas gegee. Honderde boeke is aangekoop – wat ‘n voorreg om die skole se mediasentrum-begroting by Uitgewers te gaan spandeer! Dit was gewoonlik ‘n daguitstappie! 

So is die volgende  boeke dan van my  gunstelinge vir kinders ouderdom 11-15/16…dalk ouer ook! Die Sakmense – Deur Maretha Maartens.  Wat ‘n fantastiese boek. Miriam was ‘n meisie  met’n donker gelaatskleur wie se familie onder “sakke” agter die landdroskantoor gebly het en hulle het groente en vrugte verkoop het om aan die lewe te bly. Thea was ‘n meisie met slegs een nier. Sy moet leer om met haar dialise-sakkie te leef, maar dis nog moeiliker om met haar skuldgevoel oor die weg te kom: sy weet sy is self daarvoor verantwoordelik dat haar ma se nier, wat kleintyd in haar oorgeplant is, heeltemal opgehou funksioneer het. Tog kan sy dit nie sê nie en intussen hou haar ma haar oupa daarvoor verantwoordelik.
Miriam is minderjarig en het nie die waarheid gepraat oor haar ouderdom nie. Dit was omdat sy haar familie wou help om onder die ‘sakke’ uit te kom en ‘n goeie lewe te he. Hulle het nie geld gehad vir skoolgaan nie en haar pa was slegs ‘n leegle-er en het niks gedoen om die familie te ondersteun nie.
Uiteindelik sou Thea en Miriam mekaar help, sodat elkeen kon leer hoe om haar sak weg te leef. Die boek is ‘n boek wat selfs die volwasse leser sal waardeer en geniet.

Sommige ander baie gewilde boeke onder die kinders: Die Boemelaars, Plek van die dolfyne,   ‘n Pakkie mieliepitte, Die Inkvoel en Geagte mej Snob.

Marilee McCallighan se boek- Wedloop teen die wind” – is ‘n boek vir kinders so 12-15 jaar. Arno is die seun-karakter in die storie  en sy pa was ‘n prokureur. Hy was ‘n puik atleet en toe skielik begin hy toe epileptiese aanvalle kry en moes hy na ‘n spesiale skool gaan, wat ‘n groot vernedering vir die pa en ma was – veral die ma! Hulle was gesiene mense in die omgewing en sy kon nie verwerk of aanvaar dat haar talentvolle seun dit moes oorkom en na so ‘n skool moes gaan nie.  

 

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Karpov in South Africa

This was really a fascinating story…. and I’ve copied part of the post here and also some comments…you can follow the link and read the entire post and more comments …also from Mark Bushwell….

I’m reading his auto-biography titled “Chess is my life”, its an awesome story. Full of character, and at times raw emotion. Its the kind of book that draws you in, Like an annotated chess game, Korchnoi still reviews and dissects his past, finding new threads and new meaning.

It was fantastic to meet a living legend in person. Twelve years ago I met Karpov in South Africa. Six years ago I was in the audience during the first game of the Kasparov versus Kramnik match. And now I’ve talked with an inspirational fighter and legend. The chess world, for me, is leaping off the printed pages into my world.

comments from here:

Karpov was in South Africa in 1993, but his schedule was not public knowledge. That was the year he lost horribly on the White side of a King’s Indian Samisch against Kasparov in Linares. Definitely before Kasparov-Short World Championship.It was during the Roosevelt Park Open in Johannesburg, around February – the tournament that used performance rating rather than score to pair players for each round – my memory fails me of the name of the Roosevelt Park player that devised the system.The rumour was that Karpov would play a simultaneous exhibition during the tournament, so I went along just for that. I wasn’t playing the tournament itself, just wanted to play the simul.The simul didn’t take place. But I was invited along to Eddie Price’s house. Eddie, at that time, was a lecturer at Wits University. I was studying for a BComm there at the time, and was part of the Wits Chess Club (I wrote the Wits Chess Club newsletter at that time).One of my friends is Mark Buswell, who knows Eddie. Mark is one of Eddie’s students. We both went over to Eddies house, and its only on the way did Mark mention that that’s where Karpov would be.Eddie had invited Karpov over, and try, amongst other things, boerewors. While Karpov was having his lunch we had a conversation on various chess topics, including how to prepare for the middle game, Short’s chances against Kasparov.Had a few photos taken, including members of the Soviet embassy. But, I don’t think I’ve ever seen those pictures. All I have of proof is Karpov’s autograph in my copy of Informator number 32 (red cover) – the one covering the 1981 World Championship, Karpov-Korchnoi, as well as the Category 16 tournament held in Johannesburg 1981.

The next edition of Wits Chess I wrote about the discussion we had, as well as annotated Karpov’s smooth Sicilian Dragon win over Korchnoi from the 1974 Candidates tournament (it was all probably home preparation).

It was said that Karpov wasn’t playing any chess in South Africa, but a few months later, one of the newspapers published a game Karpov played against Paul McAvoy, which was part of a simultaneous display against a number of top South African juniors.

Read the entire post HERE …. on ChessVault.

 

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Chess game 21

 I’ve thought to blog a few games which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and not necessarily because I think my play was good/fantastic/brilliant… in each game I will highlight what I like about the game. I will soon start to blog some Master’s games too… so keep watching… at the moment I am blogging them on my blogger-site (link on my blogroll), as the i-frame does work in the Blogger-platform.

In this game – a rated game – I played white and both our ratings were very close. My rating is like a yo-yo literally… but I do play many friendlies too against players with higher ratings to keep improving my play.

If you play through the game, you might also wonder why my Rook wasn’t taken with move 27, but the Pawn instead….perhaps he wanted to save his Knight…like I sometimes like to do…or he had something else in mind… With move 49 I offered my Knight…something I do not like to do most of the time! …but I saw an opportunity…. see move 52…I like move 55…my Knight was really save…can you see why I sacrificed my Rook with move 56?… the “girls” rule in this game… like one player said to me…see the end of the game to see why he said that… 😉

Click on the link to play through the game…Nikita1 vs. Papakudos

The next game was really a tough one. My opponent was a 350+ stronger than I am…and I played black. Early in this game my King was in trouble and later in the game we  swapped Queens.  For quite a time from move 32 on…. it was a matter of who’s going to give in first… lol! With move 54 my Knight was saved…. Move 58…. I offered my Rook… can you see why….look at move…. 59…. my opponent resigned the game when he realised there was no way he could win the game…- more games to follow –

Click the link to play through the gameab33 vs. Nikita1 

In the next game, which was a friendly, I played  against a player with a rating with 300+ higher than mine.. I played black….I still have to comment more about this game as we’re still busy with another game nearing its end and I will add it to this post with comments in the next couple of days… I used my Knight to support my Queen in the checkmate position, plus a Pawn I was lucky to have to complete the game checkmate. Click on the link to play through the game:chowds vs. Nikita1

I promise to have some comments on this game too later on this week…this was a rated game – I played black – and my opponent’s rating was about 250 higher than mine… he resigned the game… Click on the link to play through the game:WOZ619 vs. Nikita1

Die woord ‘skaak’ kom van die Persiese woord ‘sjah’, wat koning beteken. Ook die woord ‘mat’ is Persies en beteken ‘dood’.

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

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Always on my mind

Picture: nationalgeographic.com/adventure/travel/south_africa.html

Image: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/8b6c8/fac/
 A piece of humour….

South Africa

In the beginning God created day and night. He created day for rugby matches, going to the beach and braais. He created night for going jolling, sleeping and braais. God saw that it was good. Evening came and morning came and it was the Second Day.

On the Second Day God created water – for surfing, fishing, swimming and braais on the beach. God saw that it was good. Evening came and morning came and it was the Third Day.

On the Third Day God created the Earth to bring forth plants – to provide food, malt and yeast for beer and wood for braais. God saw that it was good. Evening came and morning came and it was the Fourth Day.

On the Fourth Day God created animals and crustaceans for chops,
boerewors, steak and prawns for braais. God saw that it was good.
Evening came and morning came and it was the Fifth Day.

On the Fifth day God created an oke – to go to the rugby, enjoy the beach, drink the beer and eat the meat and prawns at braais. God saw that it was good. Evening came and morning came and it was the Sixth Day.

On the Sixth Day God saw that this oke was lonely and needed someone to go to the rugby, surf, drink beer, eat and stand around the braai with. So God created buddies, and God saw that they were good okes. God saw that it was good. Evening came and morning came and it was the Seventh Day.

On the Seventh Day God saw that the okes were tired and needed a rest. So God created Chicks – to clean the house, bear children, wash, cook and clean the braai. Evening came and it was the end of the Seventh day. God sighed, looked around at the twinkling braais, heard the hiss of opening beer cans and the raucous laughter of all the okes and chicks, smelled the aroma of grilled chops and sizzling prawns, and God saw that it was not just good, it was very good, He created a great place and HE called it SOUTH AFRICA.

Amen Brother!

(anon)

 

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Chess with the Grandmasters in South Africa

Picture: Johan Steenkamp – facing the camera.
 Note: Centurion is near Pretoria, about 10-15 min drive from Pretoria on your way to Jo’burg. (Johannesburg). Centurion is this year 100 years old!

Chess players about to make their move
LISA DEWBERRY

Februarie 2008

The Centurion Chess Club will soon be presenting one of the biggest chess tournaments of its kind in Gauteng and the only South African tournament listed on the international Fidé Calendar.
The 16th Annual Centurion Chess Open Tournament will be presented at the Kleinkaap Conference Centre in Clubview from 30 April to 4 May.

Johan Steenkamp, of the Centurion Chess Club, says the various sections of the event will open doors for all chess players regardless of their playing strength.

The section for players of 13 years and younger will be played on 1 and 2 May only, while the more experienced players can participate in either an A or B section from 1 until 4 May.

“Seven rounds will be played during the tournament and players can compete in four divisions including an elite division which displays the ability of some of the best players in Southern Africa,” says Steenkamp.

According to him, this tournament attracts more than 250 players each year and boasts as being the tournament with the most prize money in Gauteng.

“For the first time ever, the club will present an internationally recognised section to start on 30 April.

“Some grandmaster and international master players from countries as far as the Ukraine have already indicated they wish to participate,” says Steenkamp.

He says that he and other members of the Centurion Chess Club are planning to take part in the tournament and says that the Centurion Chess Club is arguably the best chess club in South Africa.

“The club prides itself on developing high calibre chess players through rigorous competitive programmes. Last year for the seventh time in a row, the Centurion Chess Club’s A-team won the Gauteng Premier League,” says Steenkamp.

He says that this is a record number of wins and a record number of consecutive wins since the start of the league in the Seventies.The club has also won the South African inter-club tournament and been host to the prestigious BIS Open Chess Tournament.

The Annual Centurion Chess Open Tournament is open to all chess players. For more information visit http://www.centurionchessclub. co.za.
Read the news article in it’s original form HERE …

Read HERE what I’ve said this morning about Elise Steenkamp- in the comments…
Click HERE to see a map of Centurion.

Need a place to stay?

Image: Centurion Lake Hotel…Click HERE for details and more places.

Image: Stefan Du Toit, Grade 7, the new SA o/14 Chess Champion. He’s from Tygerpoort Primary School, Pretoria.


 

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Chess pie

Ever heard of a chess pie? No, neither me…but here it is!…and there’s a love cake with a chess sponge to order…!

On a cold, dreary day, Tangerine Chess Pie offers sweet sunshine by the slice. All of your favorite citrus fruits are in great supply right now. Mounds of ruby red grapefruit, juicy oranges, sweet tangerines, and tart lemons and limes dominate the produce section. Give them a squeeze, and turn the refreshing essence into this terrific dessert. When you need a shortcut, you can use cartons of fresh-squeezed juice. Some markets even carry fresh-squeezed tangerine juice. If tangerines aren’t your favorite citrus fruit, then try a lemon-lime, orange, or grapefruit pie.

Prep: 12 minutes
Bake: 53 minutes
Yield: 1 (9-inch) pie

1 (15-ounce) package refrigerated piecrusts

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon yellow cornmeal

1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

1/4 cup milk

2 teaspoons grated tangerine rind

1/3 cup fresh tangerine juice

1 tablespoon lemon juice

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

Garnishes: sweetened whipped cream, tangerine slices

Unfold piecrusts; stack piecrusts on a lightly floured surface. Roll into 1 (12-inch) circle.

Fit piecrust into a 9-inch pie plate according to package directions; fold edges under, and crimp.

Bake piecrust at 450 degrees for 8 minutes; cool on a wire rack.

Whisk together sugar and next 9 ingredients until blended. Pour into piecrust.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes or until center is set, shielding edges of crust with aluminum foil after 20 minutes to prevent excessive browning. Cool on a wire rack. Garnish with whipped cream and tangerine slices, if desired.

Grapefruit Chess Pie:
Substitute fresh grapefruit juice and rind for tangerine juice and rind. Garnish with sweetened whipped cream and grapefruit rind or lime rind and lime slices, if desired.

Lemon-Lime Chess Pie:
Substitute fresh lime juice for tangerine juice and 1 teaspoon grated lime rind and 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind for tangerine rind. Garnish pie with sweetened whipped cream, lime and lemon wedges, and grated lime and lemon rind, if desired.

Orange Chess Pie:
Substitute fresh orange juice and rind for tangerine juice and rind. Garnish with sweetened whipped cream, orange slices, and orange rind, if desired.

Source of RECIPE here.

To order this love cake with a chess sponge…click HERE …..

Yummy!
Picture: celebratecakes.com/mysite/grooms_cakes.htm

I copied the following recipe/post as it is from The Kenilworthchessclub … enjoy!

The Kenilworthian’s Apple Chess Tarts

Ingredients:

• 12 ready made mini pie shells (I used two packages of Keebler® Ready Crust® Mini Graham Cracker Pie Crust)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups peeled and grated Granny Smith apples (about 3-4 regular sized apples)
• 1 tsp. lemon juice (optional)
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

Directions:

• Cream butter and sugar using a hand-mixer.
• Add eggs and flour and mix until well-blended, but do not over-mix.
• Grate apples using a standard cheese grater, trying to avoid getting too much apple juice into the mix. You want nice shreds of apple, loosely measured at about 2 cups. I recommend Granny Smith apples, but any relatively firm and tart apple will do.
• Mix in lemon juice (for added tartness) and cinnamon. Both are optional. Some people prefer the taste of the apple to come through. I like most of all to accentuate the tartness of the apples. The cinnamon just makes it seem more like good old apple pie.
• Fold grated apple mixture into the batter. Don’t worry if it gets a little runny with the lemon and apple liquid.
• Divide mixture equally among 12 mini pie shells.
• Bake on a cookie sheet (or foil) for 8 min. at 400 degrees, then 35-40 minutes at 325 degrees or until lightly browned on top.

I made these for our Annual Holiday Party on Thursday and they were a big hit. I adapted the recipe from one for chess pie that I have seen posted several places on the internet. There actually is no connection between “chess pie” and the game of chess, by the way: likely the name derives from a corruption of the word “cheese,” either because cheese was often added to the recipe (it was popular among Southern farmers) or because the solids tend to “cheese up” at the surface of the pie, no one really knows. Even if the name has no real connection to the game, though, it is fun to make for a chess-related function.

I’ve been playing around with apple “chess” recipes of late (see here and here, here and here). I decided to go with apple chess tarts over chess pie because the pie gets rather gooey and is not easy to slice up without making a mess. I definitely do not recommend the pie version if you are going to share it at a social function. But the tarts or mini-pies are really perfect for parties. The only tricky part is figuring out how best to eat them…. Likely I should have removed them from the foil before serving, since people ended up either using a spoon on them (not the best solution) or plopping them out onto a plate (hardly very elegant).

Here’s a recipe for “chess cake” that I’ve been meaning to try.


http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

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Men better at chess and music?

Read this article in PDF format by Tim Harding about the “Queens of chess”…kibitz109.pdf

 You might find this article interesting… it’s not about chess/music and if men are better… or not… what is your opinion when it comes to chess…why do you think  men are better at playing the game? Is it because you agree what they’ve “discovered” according to this article? or do you think differently?

Chess players on the chess site always ask me…how long have you been playing chess? Then my reaction is always a kind of lengthy reply… When I was 11, I learnt how to play the game…my first chess book…about Bobby Fischer/Boris Spassky and their games…was given to me as a birthday present at age 12. – see image here:

 

 I was the only one in the family to play it and played through their games to learn a bit more.. and I think that’s why I like Bobby Fischer till today…for his chess. When at secondary school, one teacher called all children interested in playing chess to his class. I turned up too…. very enthusiastic…of course the only girl too….but, only to be greeted  with a sea of boys’ faces…sending me different messages…..”wow, a girl to play chess!”…or…. “gee…you wanna play chess? and you’re a girl…don’t tell me you know anything about chess!”…or… “hey! chess is for boys..what are you doing here!”… or…”are you sure you got the correct message?”… anyway.. a lot went through my mind, but those expressions were a bit intimidated and I didn’t even enter the room, as those boys were all about 3 years older than me! I was first year in secondary and they looked like 20 yr-olds!  It was really scary looking at them and you felt so “small”… so, never played at secondary school! Take it from me today.. if you’re a girl..and your dream is to play chess and to be good at it……don’t even let these lovely humans, we call “men” stand in your way! Live your dream and play chess! It is cool/kewl for girls to play chess! and not if boys play it…there are too many of them…boring! 🙂
At my first school where I taught  my colleague-friend was the chess teacher and I used to help her and also taught some of the kids whenever she asked me…I sometimes spent the afternoon with her chess kids for the fun. At my second school my headteacher asked me to start a chess club almost immediately after I started teaching there and I was on cloud 9 as I was about to tell him that I want to start a chess club and from there on…it was non-stop. We always tried to get more girls into chess and I think it was easier for the girls to come and play because of me being a female and they could easily relate to me too.

Article:

Men and women are clearly different species. And this is more than just physical: it goes in all inner organs, including the brain, explaining behavioral differences but also the opposite desires, sensitivities, preferences…

The brain is masculinized from the womb by testosterone (its lack determines the feminization of the brain), generating anatomical differences that explain why the males find it harder to read facial expressions than women do, but explain their higher ability to visualize objects in three dimensions or read maps, labyrinths and diagrams.
When it comes to women – the corpus callosum, the major white matter tract, connecting the two brain hemispheres, allowing their intercommunication – is much wider. That’s why women have their brain functions more finely distributed, while men have a more “asymmetrical” brain, with more specialized areas and, for example, a lesion on the left hemisphere, which can induce speech loss, is more devastating for men. If the stroke is only on one side of the brain, a woman can rehabilitate, while the man may have more trouble with it, because the woman may be able to perform tasks using the other side of her brain. This also mean that men are more prone to senile dementia and the age-related decline is much steeper than in women. But this also explains why women have better concrete thinking while men have a better abstract one (and are better at chess and composing music) and why women prefer to repeat loudly what they are learning while men must learn in silence.

The female brain is 11 % lighter than the male brain, still IQ coefficients of the women are similar to those of the men. That’s because men have less gray matter (that processes information) and more white matter (that transmits information). This explains why the female brain learns easier and men have more motor ability. Women also express their emotions better, because their emotional thinking centers are close to the speech centers, so they can verbalize their emotions better. Men have a simpler limbic system, and their emotions are bound to action. The rest of the article can be read HERE ….

 

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Hartbeespoortdam

I came across this song about the Hartbeespoortdam on youtube… I don’t know the artist… but it’s a funny song… if you listen to the artist, you will hear a very distinct “accent” which is very typical of some Capetonians… he sings a mix of Afrikaans and English and it’s an accent which you get in Cape Town from the Cape Coloureds ( a mixed race)….. it’s beautiful. The Hartbeespoortdam is near Pretoria and if you travel from Johannesburg…(also Jo’burg/Johies/Jozi)… it’s about 30 min travel… When I was a student, we used to go for a day to this dam to try catch some fish… not that we were lucky though…it was more for the fun of it… Once a friend  also scared me with all kinds of tricks in his helicopter! We flew over the dam and he perhaps tried to impress me with all his tricks, but I felt sick most of the time and sat with a paper back on my lap! LOL! There is a little zoo at the dam which you can visit. If you want to do some hang gliding….then this place is just the place to do it, you have to go up the mountain with the cable car! If you watch the video, you will see some great pictures of the tunnel and the road across the dam…. be prepared for weekends…this place is PACKED!! with visitors and travelling through the tunnel can be a nightmare…don’t say I didn’t warn you…there are all kinds of curious shops to visit too….places to have some scones and tea!! Yummy!

Play golf!

Click HERE to book your holiday at Hartbeespoortdam or surrounding areas…The link will open in a new window.

 

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Chess Tactics

 I do like this picture!
“Whenever anyone rated between 1000 and 1800 asks me how to improve in chess, I always say, study more tactics!” Read more on Jennifer Shahade’s blog here. She’s  a Grandmaster  from the USA.

I’ve come across a very good site which has fantastic explanations…you can read on this site about the pin and the skewer and there are some good mating positions too!

 In this first diagram you can see the Knight-fork… I value Knights more than Bishops, I know other players value Bishops more, I think it’s more my opinion as I have used my Knights so many times to launch attacks that wouldn’t be possible with Bishops. I always try to save them, I will even offer my Bishops in order to save my Knights! With your Knight you can sometimes launch a surprise attack on your opponent like in one of my games earlier yesterday… my opponent won’t feel happy when he returns to his board today, just to find that he’s in check and  the same time loses his Queen! In this image, you can clearly see the “fork”, black needs to move and he’s about to lose his Rook!

On the next image you can see the Rook-fork. The Rook attacks the King and the same time threatens the Bishop!

Ouch! A position I hate to be in with! King in check whilst Rook in danger!

Please click HERE to see more forks and complete explanations!
On this next image, you can see my game I was referring to…I’m playing white in this game and my Knight has made a move…King in check and Queen in danger!

Hey! Where are those people saying Bishops are more valuable than Knights…LOL! This is another game of mine..and I love my Knights…look at this position…same as the previous one….

On this next image, I played black and you can see how close I was to checkmate my opponent.. I was getting tired of moving up and down, so I move in such a way for him to checkmate me in his next move. By the time I copied the pic, his final move wasn’t made yet, ( I moved his Queen by using the “play through” option)… but I do expect it to be made by tomorrow… so, that’s another tactic! This game wasn’t a rated game so I wasn’t that much bothered… lol!

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Madness Visible…123

Please don’t miss the author of this book HERE where you can view a video by her about the book! Janine di Giovanni is a journalist and she was a war reporter during this war.
“This riveting, enlightening and passionate book tells the story of the descent into madness that afflicted the land that used to be Yugoslavia at the end of the 20th century.”

I was tagged by Kop-op-‘n-blog  to do a 123-Story… so here’s mine today!
This tag works like this..you take the nearest book- which has to have at least 123 pages or more…and then you open your book on page 123 and count 6 lines from the top and copy down lines 6, 7 and 8.

I’ve chosen Madness Visible, as it was the fattest book near me! Also,  the book brings back memories when you follow the news about the independence of Kosovo! I’m still busy reading this book though! I do love reading books when I have time and like to read books about wars too… WWI/WWII …. the war in Combodia/Kosovo…etc…
On THIS LINK you can read what I said about the Khmer Rouge and  books I’ve read about the war in Combodia…. “First they killed my father”… and “Lucky Child”… fantastic writing by Loung Ung!

Here’s my tag….lines 6,7 and 8 on page 123!
“The Americans, who had been unable to control the situation and had been caught in a skirmish along with Russian KFOR troops a few days earlier, were deeply embarrassed.
The front line, a village called Lucane, had the two sides, Albanians and Serbs, separated by sandbagged positions only 100 yards apart.

I have to tag another blogger or two! So, I want the following bloggers to do their 123-Story!
First blogger… Bookstoysgames!  a newly discovered blogger whose blog I find very interesting and stimulating, Meghna because I know she loves books and she’s got some great talent when it comes to stories/poetry! and lastly… Jasper a very talented Afrikaans blogger…he’s a great song writer/poet/story writer..but unfortunately for the English readers…he’s blogging only in Afrikaans, which is a wonderful language I love too!!

Overview of the book… ….here on this link.
The Balkan crises of the 1990’s with its “ethnic cleansings,” have become ancient history or worse. In the aftermath of 9/11 the sin of historical amnesia has blotted out the travails of the Bosnians, the Serbs, the Croats, and the Kosovars who killed and died, perhaps 200,000 of them, during the last decade of the twentieth century. In Madness Visible: A Memoir of War, Janine di Giovanni, a journalist for The Times of London and the author of other books on the Balkans, relates in horrific detail her reportorial experiences. Di Giovanni writes mainly of the several weeks in early 1999 when the province of Kosovo was the site of conflict. Mostly Muslim and Albanian speaking, the Kosovars were the victims of the last attempt by Serbian nationalists to maintain control over Kosovo, a place sacred to Serbs ever since the fourteenth century. During those weeks, NATO was engaged in a bombing campaign to force the Serbs and their president, Slobodan Milosevic, to end their decade- long aggression. Di Giovanni admits her sympathies lay with the Kosovars, although she is not unsympathetic to the plight of the Serbs and Croats. From her personal experiences, she also incorporates other vignettes from the early 1990’s to 2002, including reflections upon the fall of Milosevic and his subsequent trial in The Hague. Particularly appalling is the story of Serbian middle-class academics caught up in the passions of ethno-religious nationalism and who readily abandoned their rationalism and their humanity, devoting themselves to the brutal destruction of former colleagues and neighbors. Madness Visible is a difficult book to read because of the detailed portrayal of such inhumanity but it is an important book, a reminder that terror and genocide fueled by religious convictions and historical memories are not restricted to today’s Middle East.

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How do I mate thee…let me count the ways…

Checkmate…or in short..mate… means…the game is over! You don’t capture the King… the King is in such a position that he can’t move… like some children would say…”he’s stuck”…. The ultimate goal in chess is to checkmate the King…Read HERE more about checkmate!

 

See MORE WAYS here…

And… HERE’S even more checkmate positions!

Enjoy this poem! one of my favourites since High School!

 “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…”
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, — I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! — and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

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Dragon variation

 In chess you have to think about a good opening when you start your game…I don’t know many openings…and know that’s one weak point which I have to work on seriously…most of the time I like to play how I feel! but will always start with my Knights/King-Queen-pawns… and if I can play the Dragon…I’m happy…..and you don’t know about the Dragon?….you can look at the image below and follow THIS LINK too!

Click on THIS LINK and it will take you to Wikichess…you can play through different openings and see what percentage of players playing white/black plays a specific opening…interesting…
More HERE on chess openings….really a good site to visit!

On the image you can see the Dragon-Variation…of the Sicilian opening….
On this link HERE you can read more about the Sicilian/Dragon, which is one of my favourites…

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War on ice!

 Jan. 11, 2007

LONDON – Russia and Britain clashed Thursday in a cold war with a difference — a chess game played on ice, simultaneously, in Moscow and London.

Former world champion Anatoly Karpov and British grandmaster Nigel Short battled it out using giant chess pieces carved from ice, some of them sculpted to represent famous landmarks in the two cities.

The game took place on chessboards measuring 64 square yards in Moscow’s Pushkin Square and London’s Trafalgar Square.

Live satellite links and big screens enabled each team to see and hear what the other was doing.

Karpov’s team included eight-year-old chess prodigy Kostya Savenkov while Short was assisted by a British eight-year-old, Darius Parvizi-Wayne.

Organized to mark the launch of the annual Russian Winter Festival in London, the event was billed as the world’s first international ice chess game.

Nigel Short, bounding enthusiastically around the board in Trafalgar Square, described it as a new experience.

“I’ve played chess with all kinds of pieces, including human pieces, but this is the first time on ice,” he said.

The game lasted about an hour and ended in a draw. Anatoly Karpov in Moscow said it was a good result – and a very exciting and interesting contest.

Click HERE to view the article and to see the video!
Click HERE to see this link on Nigel Short’s Face Book! “War on ice”….

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Bobby Fischer 60

Bobby Fischer is my favourite chess player and you will find many links on my site to his games etc. Today I have his 60 memorable games for you to enjoy! ..and of course for myself!

Click HEREto play through his 60 memorable games.
And…on THIS LINK you can read more about him and play through more games…
On THIS LINK you can read how he was almost killed in Japan…how BAD can people be in this world just because you have a passion for chess? or for what you like! Shame on the American Government…he was good enough when he defeated  the Russians after the cold war! and then…. you used him as a pawn! in his own  “game”…
If you want to read a poem which I wrote about him, you can click HERE ….

 

Not Black and White: In her painting, ‘The King is Down,’ the author seeks to capture the two sides of Fischer’s complex personality.

Remembering Bobby Fischer
Reminiscence

By Sofia Polgar
Wed. Feb 13, 2008

Unquestionably the most famous chess player in the history of the royal game, Bobby Fischer died last month at the age of 64 — the exact number of squares on the chessboard. His lively games will be remembered for as long as the game is played. “Chess is life,” Fischer used to say. But, alas, after he became world champion, his life and his chess diverged. And while his games were beautiful, his life away from the chessboard was often ugly. The chess genius harbored a delusional side whose antisemitic and anti-American rants brought shame on not only the speaker but also the game.Many of today’s players — from amateurs to grandmasters — call Fischer a factor in their decision to take up the game. His triumphs even inspired some outside the chess realm. Fischer was the first modern chess player to break down the wall of Soviet chess domination. During the Cold War, as the Iron Curtain divided Europe, he became a hero.“A man without frontiers,” grandmaster Ljubomir Ljubojevic said of Fischer. “He didn’t divide the East and the West, he brought them together in their admiration for him.”In the 1960s, as he headed toward his 1972 world championship, he demolished some of the best players in the game. His road to the top was brutal; he didn’t allow his opponents the mercy of even a single draw. Never before or since were such defeats handed to world-champion-caliber players

Read HERE the rest of the article…

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Lift your spirits!

I’ve said before that I love the story about JLS….well, today I want to blog this book because I’ve found this self-explained video on You Tube… there are others about JLS too, (Part I, II and the End), which I blogged before, but this one has got some text to support the pictures/music which I like. I’ve read this book a couple of years ago in South Africa. I googled for the cover of my first book, but couldn’t find it. It is a hard cover, peach colour and the pictures of Jonathan Seagull are printed on some tracing paper, so if you turn the pages, the seagull is “flying” in the opposite direction than the previous page…beautiful! I came across the book again – in London- bought it to read….again! I feel this is really an inspiring book to read…! Richard Bach has written many books, he was a USAF Fighter Pilot and I can truely recommend his books if you’re a book-lover like me!  “This is a story for people who follow their dreams and make their own rules: a story that has inspired people for decades”….

This book inspired me even more to be the person I am, not to be a sheep and follow others…. on page 5 … 2nd paragraph… “Jonathan nodded obediently. For the next few days he tried to behave like the other gulls; he really tried, screeching and fighting with the flock around the piers and fishing boats, diving on scraps of fish and bread. But he couldn’t make it work. It’s pointless, he thought, deliberately dropping a hard won anchovy to a hungry old gull chasing him.”…. Well, that’s one message I want to send to anyone reading here… do what you want to do, don’t follow others, you have a dream and live your dream… don’t be a sheep, be an individual and reach for your dreams! Be like Jonathan, try your best and don’t be satisfied with the second best! — well, that’s me… you might have a different view…
On THIS LINK you can see all the books he’s written … in the “Novel” section, you can see all his books which I’ve read, the most recent book was “Illusions….”! and…on THIS link you can read more about him…

 

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Huistoe — Going home

Friday night’s song! A beautiful song in Afrikaans…..enjoy the views around Cape Town! This song is about this guy saying his going home, she was alone long enough and he wants to be with her… worth listening for the rhythm too!

CD available HERE on Kalahari.net
Track Listing
Factory
Wanneer Kom Die Reen
Huis Toe
Everybody
Siel Van ‘n Swerwer
Chain Around My Heart
Michelle
Tyd Om Dankie Te Se
Break My Heart
Drome Van Gister
Elke Liewe Ding
Perfect In Your Eyes
‘N Lewe Saam Met My

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First Official World Chess Champion

 Wilhem Steinitz (1836-1900) from Prague, Czech Republic, was the first official World Champion of chess. He was recognized as the world’s number one player in 1866, after he defeated Adolf Anderssen in a match, but it was not until he defeated his most powerful rival, Johannes Zukertort in their historic match of 1886 that he was recognized as the official champion. He defended his title twice against Mikhail Tchigorin and once against Isidor Gunsberg. He lost his title to Emanuel Lasker in 1894.

Steinitz lived in New York for several years, he changed his first name to “William” after he became an American citizen in 1888.

In the game below, Steinitz outplays his oponent Augustus Mongredien with high class style.

Wilhem Steinitz vs. Augustus Mongredien

London

1862

1-0

Click HERE to see the article and to play through the game of Steinitz and Mongredien.

Read HERE more about him on Wikipedia.

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

 
“To be in love is to love an ideal within yourself. To love is to love no ideal but love within itself.” James Stephen Cathcart
“Real love is a pilgrimage. It happens when there is no strategy, but it is very rare because most people are strategists”. Anita Brookner
All goodness in the world comes from love. Simon Soloveychik
“A happy man marries the girl he loves; a happier man loves the girl he marries.” Anonymous
“Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it”. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don’t, they never were.” Kahlil Gibran
“When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing, then we truly live life.” Greg Anderson
“Long after moments of closeness have passed, a part of you remains with me and warms the places your hands have touched and hastens my heart for your return.” Robert Sexton

“It is the passion that is in a kiss that gives to it its sweetness; it is the affection in a kiss that sanctifies it.” Christian Nestell Bovee

History of Valentine’s Day ….
Click HERE to read more about Valentine’s Day!
Enjoy this song, the link was sent to me – to enjoy the day! – by one of my chess friends on the chess site…..hgrattan… so, hi Harvey! Thank you!! That’s so sweet of you!!

Please click on images for a larger view

Image: rosesbydesign.co.uk

A beautiful dress for a beautiful day!

And…enjoy my favourite poem since Secondary School!

”How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…”
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, — I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! — and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Looking for more poems about love…in English/Afrikaans…see this link..on my blog – it will open in a new window. You will also be able to listen to a couple of love songs…on MP3-files and..read about Chess and romance!  Do enjoy!

http://chessaleeinlondon.wordpress.com/2008/03/15/love-poems/

Click on the image for a larger view

A Love Song

What have I to say to you
When we shall meet?
Yet—
I lie here thinking of you.

The stain of love
Is upon the world.
Yellow, yellow, yellow,
It eats into the leaves,
Smears with saffron
The horned branches that lean
Heavily
Against a smooth purple sky.

There is no light—
Only a honey-thick stain
That drips from leaf to leaf
And limb to limb
Spoiling the colours
Of the whole world.

I am alone.
The weight of love
Has buoyed me up
Till my head
Knocks against the sky.

See me!
My hair is dripping with nectar—
Starlings carry it
On their black wings.
See, at last
My arms and my hands
Are lying idle.

How can I tell
If I shall ever love you again
As I do now?

— William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)

Bear Hugs! This card was sent to me by a friend…nice card from 123Greetings

Hmmmm…a romantic dinner can do!

….or a romantic dance!

 

Image: Wikimedia-commons – Nevit Dilmen

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Ex Unitate Vires

On THIS LINK and on THIS link you can read more about the British/Boer-War. You can also view some War-Art… and HERE you can also read  about the War.
On THIS LINK you can read more about General De La Rey….

Words of the second song in English….

I’ve asked Jasper to translate the song in English…so, enjoy his translation!

On the hill tops at night
In shadows and darkness we wait
The night chills te mud and the guts for my bed
While the rain and old rags sleeps with me

With the life that they burned
from my farm to take pride
in capturing me
They opened my soul to the flames
That fans the dark furnace in me

De La Rey, De La Rey
We need you to show us the way
De La Rey, De La Rey
General De La Rey
United we’ll fight till we fall
General De La Rey

You could hear the Queens force
mocking an end
to this brotherhood of men
Cornered by cliffs they did think
For us it’s the end

How they failed to conceive
The heart of a man
That they came to call Boer
Beware the pale horse from the west
The Lion that comes for his kin

De La Rey, De La Rey
We need you to show us the way
De La Rey, De La Rey
General De La Rey
United we’ll fight till we fall
General De La Rey

In the dark camps of death
My wife and my child pays the bill
For in the footprint of Khaki’s
This nation will rise once again

De La Rey, De La Rey
We need you to show us the way
De La Rey, De La Rey
General De La Rey
United we’ll fight till we fall
General De La Rey
(c) Jandre Neethling

Discrimination!! this song is forbidden to be sung on Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria!! oh my DEAR!!! can you believe it!! South Africa, wake up!!! It’s a SONG about HISTORY!!!!!!!

http://www.news24.com/Rapport/Nuus/0,,752-795_2070988,00.html

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Daily Chess Puzzle

Please click HERE to solve this  Knight/Rook/Queen-chess puzzle! – and wait a few seconds for the puzzle to load.

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Weekend songs

I always used to love the Greek singers’ music….Nana mouskouri, Vicky Leandros and Demmis Rossos…. I’ve chosen the music of Demmis for this weekend…so, enjoy with me….ok, I couldn’t resist Vicky’s songs too…so enjoy her songs too! “Verloren zijn we niet” was a hit in South Africa…she sings in Dutch!

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Hunt for success on Oslo

 

Hunt for success on Oslo
By Malcolm Pein
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 08/02/2008

England has accepted a Nordic Challenge and will send a representative team to Oslo next week to take on teams from Norway, Sweden and Latvia. The matches will take place over ten boards, five men and five women.

The England men’s team will consist of four of the younger generation of GMs plus the experienced Peter Wells.

Men: GM Gawain Jones 2562; GM David Howell 2528; GM Peter Wells 2520; IM Stephen Gordon 2501; GM Stewart Haslinger 2495.

Women: IM Harriet Hunt 2457; Sabrina Chevannes 2074; Kanwal Bhatia 2054; Sarah Hegarty 1974; Amisha Parmar 1995.

It is heartening to see Harriet Hunt playing for England again and it is your correspondent’s fervent hope that England are able to field Harriet plus Jovanka Houska and Dagne Ciuksyte at the next Chess Olympiad and challenge for medals.

H Hunt – M Bezuch
4NCL Div1
Betsson.com v Slough Sharks
Ruy Lopez

Bezuch

Hunt

Position after 24.Nh5!

24…g5 (24…g6 25.Nxh6 Bxh6 26.Bxh6 Nxb2 27.Bg7+ Kg8 28.Bf6 and a quick mate)

25.Be3 f6 26.Bd4 Re5 (Forced )

27.f4! gxf4 28.Qg6 (The entry of the queen decides)

28…Qe8 29.Qxf6+ Kh7 30.Nxf4 Rc7 31.Nxd6 Bxd6 32.Qxd6 Rce7 33.Bxe5 Rxe5 34.Ne6 1–0

Bezuch

 Hunt

Final position after 34.Ne6

From the opening into the pub

FK Volkmann – R Frosch
Austrian Bundesliga

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Bf4 0–0 6.Qd2 a6 7.Bd3 b5 8.e5 b4 9.exf6 bxc3 10.Bxh7+! Kxh7 (10…Kh8 11.Qxc3 Bxf6 12.Be4 Ra7 struggles on)

11.Qd3+ 1–0

Source CLICK HERE ….

 

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Chess game 20

Please click mkwpompeyfc vs. Nikita1 HERE to play through game 1.

I haven’t blogged any games for a while and thought to blog some games again…after the games of the African Juniors in Malawi and the Corus games….

In this first game I played black. My opponent resigned very early in the game when I used my Queen and Knight to check him. I would probably also resign in a game like this, but, I do tend to play till the end, because players  do make sometimes silly moves (that’s me) or  miss an opportunity and the game is yours….

Please click mkwpompeyfc vs. Nikita1 HERE to play through game 2.

In this game I played again black….the same player as in game 1 and 3… and he resigned in this game when he realised he’s going to lose his Queen. I love my Knights…- said that so many times before – and really enjoyed the way I used them in this game….

Please click Nikita1 vs. mkwpompeyfc HERE to play through game 3.

In this game I played white…a lot of “weaving” was going on in this game…. my Queen had a “royal time” just before my opponent  resigned…

Please click SNARF17WD vs. Nikita1 HERE to play through game 4.

In this game….- I played black -I think the end was really a surprise to my opponent..he didn’t expect the checkmate with my Rook and Bishop… and he was a real fighter and that’s what I like about most players….We both offered our Queens in this game too.

Please click TomSolo vs. Nikita1 HERE to play through game 5… a game which I lost! Well, that says it all…I played black…and it was a fantastic checkmate position for my King there! We both lost our Queens, but my opponent  got a pawn promoted.

Please click Nikita1 vs. Luc the Duke HERE to play through game 6…another lost! A fantastic end in this game. In all the games in this post, my opponents’ rating was slightly higher, but in this last game, it was about 300 more than mine… I do like to play players with a high rating, as that’s the way you learn more than players on your own level/strength or lower.

Kliek on boergt vs. Nikita1 hierdie link  om deur my en boertjie se game te speel! En hier kan julle ander bloggers sien hoe daardie boertjie in Korea my vertrap! Geniet dit! Die volgende spel is ook ons s’n, weereens ly ek in ons game! Geen genade word betoon, al is jy ‘n vrou!! lol! In albei games het ek swart gespeel…. en in die eerte game het ek so gesels dat ek nie eers gesien het dat daar ‘n mat aan die kom was nie!! hehehe…lekker kry hy nou natuurlik! Kliek op boergt vs. Nikita1 HIERDIE LINK om deur die game te speel tussen my en boertjie in Korea! Hy wil nie ons games blog nie, se dit lyk vir hom te veel na “brag”…wel, ek moet dan maar die “brag” hier namens hom doen! Hy hou hom verniet so “nederig”… ek kan net se hy is dit nie… hy sal jou in ‘n game vermorsel as hy kan…kyk net hier! lol!
As jy op Jasper_1 vs. Nikita1 HIERDIE LINK kliek, kan jy deur ‘n game speel van my en Jasper! waar ek ook swart gespeel het en deur hom vertrap is! (sug) hierdie manne wat se hulle kan nie skaak speel nie…of wat kom met verskonings soos “lank laas gespeel!”

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From Germany…with Love…

I think this is really cool! My next hiking trip won’t be without one of these cheese burgers! 

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Chess the musical in London

Read on THIS LINK on my blog about the musical “Chess”…in South Africa.
Tim Rice brings back musical Chess for a Royal Albert Hall concert starring Idina Menzel

 

Tim Rice has been busy plotting all the right moves to bring his musical Chess back to London.

 The lyricist wrote Chess with Abba’s Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson 25 years ago and it spawned a hit album, featuring Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson, before it began its troubled stage history.

 

 

Two of the numbers from Chess – I Know Him So Well and One Night In Bangkok – became international hits.

Now Rice is producing a concert version of Chess, to run at the Royal Albert Hall on May 12 and 13.

The director Hugh Wooldridge has persuaded American lyrical baritone Josh Groban and award-winning Broadway star Idina Menzel – she was in the original London company of Wicked and is also in the movie Enchanted – to perform as the musical’s two lovers.

The show explores a romantic triangle involving two chess champions – Russian and American – plus the American’s lover, set against a backdrop of KGB intrigue.

Tim said one of the problems with the show’s earlier productions was that it was changed too much. Now, he intends to use the original album as a template for the concert in May.

“Rather than set up a £20million production, we want to see how it holds up at the Albert Hall before we move ahead for an incredibly expensive production in a theatre,” the Oscar-winning songwriter told me.

Any such West End show would be cast traditionally, and not on a TV talent show.

“If it was cast on television it would be called I Want To Know Him So Well or One Night In Shepherds Bush,” Rice joked. “I don’t think so!”

He has just finished writing nine songs, set to music by Tchaikovsky, for an epic film called The Nutcracker: The Untold Story.

He joked: “Ideal, really – dead composers don’t answer back.”
Source…click HERE to read.
Click HERE for the London Theatre-guide.

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Electric band

On the chess site I was sent this link with a goodie when I finished a game against a player. I like these two songs on this video! Golden Oldie memories. Enjoy it with me!

While we are on the word “electric”… South Africans will know why I’m posting the next line…. 🙂

IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM THE GOVERNMENT:  “Will the last person leaving the country, please blow out the candle”  Thank You………….

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Drakensberg Mountains

Click to access drakensberg.pdf

The pdf has loads about the mountain.

Drakensberg Map

On this link, you will find two map links – very detailed and beautiful.

Click HERE to visit different places of the Drakensberg mountain and you can also make bookings from this link. This mountain range stretches from the Northern part of South Africa to the Southern part of the country. The highest peak is Mount Aux Sources, about 4300 m. I was on Mount Aux Sources when I was 15 with a school hiking trip! Two of our teachers went with us. We were about 20-30 students, 15 and 16 years old. I can remember we travelled through Qwa-Qwa –Eastern Free State -and we parked the coaches at Witsieshoek. From there you are sort of already at the foothills of the mountain and it wouldn’t take you that long to the summit. Just a few hours. But hey, be prepared for two chain ladders and strong winds. You have your kit on your back: tent, rucksack, sleeping bag, whatever you take with you – and you go up the ladder with everything. Some of the students were scared and our teacher used a rope to tie around one another to make them feel more safe. I think I just prayed all the way up! There is a hut on Mount Aux Sources, but when we arrived there, the roof was down! So, we just slept wherever we felt safe – away from trees because of the possibility of thunder and lightning.

There are many caves in “The Berg” where you can sleep when going on a hiking trip. Click HERE to see the caves and links, they tell you also about CAVE ETIQUETTE on the cave-index page! You can also read on the “hut” link where to find huts to stay on your trip! And on THIS LINK you can see a gallery of the peaks in “The Berg” and their names. This is really a MUST go place to go on holiday, make sure you don’t miss out!

 The flower is South Africa’s National Flower, the King Protea.

The Springbok – South Africa’s National antelope – also the Rugby team of our country called the Springboks.

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Tour the Lowveld!

All links in this post will open in a new window. Read on THIS LINK more about Pilgrim’s Rest with beautiful pictures and links to other posts on my blog. It was our second time in the Royal Hotel although we’ve been to Pilgrim’s Rest a zillion times. As a child I grew up on a farm just about 30 minutes’ drive from Pilgrim’s Rest and I don’t think I have to say more!
And of course…if you are in this area, you can’t go wrong by MOUNT SHEBA which is a resort situated in the northern part of the Drakensberg mountains near Pilgrim’s Rest. On the link you can see this map enlarged.

By looking at these pictures, you can see how beautifully this old Hotel has been decorated and I love this bath tub! You feel like spending hours in a bath like this! Everything in the rooms was really very neat and tidy and we couldn’t complain about anything. The service was outstanding and the cleaners very friendly and helpful. They were ready at hand to carry any luggage from the car and it was such a relief to find some fresh tea ready after a long way of travel from Blyde River!

 

 

These are the rest rooms of the Hotel it self. I found it very clean and tidy.

And, very odd, still in August – which winter in SA, but this plant was in bloom, so beautiful

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Pilgrim’s Rest

I’ve posted before about before about Pilgrims Rest and don’t want to bore you again with the history of the town. In short – for those “lazy” readers… – oh yes, HERE is a link! – this is a historical town in the Eastern part of the country… Mpumalanga. Mpumalanga means… place where the sun rises..so, it’s the East! Previously, it was called Eastern Transvaal and you were lucky (like me!) if you grew up in this part of the country as it is one of the most beautiful places in the country. This historical town – Pilgrims Rest – was founded during the Gold Rush in South Africa and the town is now a tourist attraction and really a “must go” when you go to South Africa. I’ve got some fantastic pictures that will get posted tomorrow about views of the town and more about museums in the town and from the displays in the musems and also from the Hotel itself. So…keep watching this space!

The Royal Hotel was THE place to be – I guess for those miners after a hard day’s work! If you walk into the Royal Hotel, you can “hear” them talking “gold”!  The atmosphere is really a relaxing atmosphere. The main road doesn’t go through the town anymore like before and that makes wondering/lingering through the town quite safe and less stressful!

These two pictures are some old posters and it grabbed my attention immediately!

I got permission from this art shop to take some pics inside and they sell the most wonderful art/pottery! Just have a look at all the designs, rich in colour and rich in Africa! I love these designs!

These menus can’t be ignored! You have to sit down and have something to eat, my favourite of course…scones and jam+cream! and those Koeksisters!! how can you resist it!

On these pics you can see evidence of the mining that was going on. There’s museums in the town that is very informative about the area and the “Gold Rush”.Read HERE MORE about the Gold Rush in Pilgrims Rest.

Click ON THIS LINK to see more beautiful pictures of Pilgrim’s Rest and take a tour through the eastern part of the country!

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