MeMoRies are made of this

Love this music – great for a Saturday evening. The Springboks lost against Ireland! And.. Anand vs Carlsen = 1/2

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Battle on Ice

Indeed the name Prokofiev needs little introduction, as one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century. However his connection to chess might be a little less obvious, even to the musically enlightened. As to David Oistrakh, he was one of the very greatest violinists, whose virtuosity ranked alongside Fritz Kreisler and Jasha Heifetz. Both of them were passionate chess players, though Prokofiev more than one would believe.
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev, born April 23, 1891, died March 5, 1953 was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century, which include Igor Stravinsky, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. Among his best-known works are the 3rd Piano Concerto, the third and fifth symphonies, as well as composed family favourites, such as the ballet Romeo and Juliet – from which “Dance of the Knights” is taken – and Peter and the Wolf. Sergei Prokofiev fell in love with chess at an early age, and during his lifetime never lost his passion for the royal game, befriending chess greats such as Capablanca and Alekhine.The composer met Alekhine in his native Russia in 1900 during an international tournament held there. Alekhine was a member of the organizing committee and Prokofiev had volunteered to accommodate the guests and the players. As the years passed, their friendship solidified. He met Capablanca in January 1914 in Petersburg where the Cuban champion was playing a series of simultaneous games. Prokofiev tried his luck and even managed to win a game!

The game:
[Event “1914 Tournament”]
[Site “St. Petersburg, Russia”]
[Date “1914.05.16”]
[EventDate “?”]
[Round “3”]
[Result “0-1”]
[White “Jose Raul Capablanca”]
[Black “Sergei Prokofiev”]
[ECO “D02”]
[WhiteElo “?”]
[BlackElo “?”]
[PlyCount “86”]

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 Bf5 4.Qb3 Nc6 5.Qxb7 Na5 6.Qa6 Nxc4
7.Nc3 e6 8.e4 dxe4 9.Bxc4 exf3 10.Qc6+ Nd7 11.g4 Bg6 12.Bg5
Be7 13.Bxe7 Kxe7 14.O-O-O Re8 15.h4 h5 16.gxh5 Bxh5 17.Nb5 Kf8
18.d5 Qf6 19.dxe6 Ne5 20.Qc5+ Kg8 21.exf7+ Bxf7 22.Bxf7+ Qxf7
23.Kb1 Rab8 24.Nxc7 Rbc8 25.Rc1 Re7 26.Qd6 Rexc7 27.Rxc7 Qxc7
28.Qe6+ Kh8 29.a3 Qc2+ 30.Ka1 Nd3 31.Rb1 Nxf2 32.h5 Qc6 33.Qf5
Ne4 34.Qxf3 Nd2 35.Qxc6 Rxc6 36.Rd1 Rc2 37.Rg1 Rc5 38.Rg6 Rxh5
39.Ra6 Nb3+ 40.Ka2 Ra5 41.Rxa5 Nxa5 42.b4 g5 43.Kb2 g4 0-1
Another great combination: Chess and music! What’s missing is the poetry! The closest I could get was the poem by Robert Frost.  Please click HERE to read the entire article on Chessbase.

Fire and Ice – Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

You can read my entry on Dance of the knights  on this link. The music is also the theme music to The Apprentice.

A young Sergey Prokofiev with his inseparable board
and chess books. [Image: chessbase]

Prokofiev in his later years remained faithful to his true love [Image: chessbase]

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Peaceful and relaxing

It’s Saturday morning, it’s snowing outside, quite heavily. The snow is settling and I love this music.

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Moods…before the storm

Sunday afternoon mood

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Fine Art

The pianist in this youtube video is brilliant. Enjoy one of my favourite pieces of music: Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto no 1. The Chess art is by:
redbubble.com/people/plunder/

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Knights at the Opera

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1233404

On one of the chess sites, I’m busy playing a tournament and this particular player sent me the above link on chessgames, to highlight a ‘better’ move for one of the moves I’ve made. When looking at the game, I realised that our game was almost this game, in particular the first few moves. I felt sort of ‘thrilled’ by the idea of playing the start of Morphy’s famous game called: ‘Night at the Opera’. The moves in blue are the first moves of our game -I played white- and you can compare it with Morphy’s game in this entry.[maybe, if I didn’t castle, I could have had move 9 with move 7 – which was Morphy’s move – he castled move 12.] I hope you like Dolannes Melody by Jean-Claude Borelly, you can listen to it at the bottom of this post.

1. e4 e 5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Bg4 4. dxe5 Bxf3 5. Qxf3 dxe5 6. Bc4 f6 7. 0-0 Ne7
8. Rd1 Qc8 9. Qb3 c6

In 1858 the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard invited the American master Paul Morphy to the Paris Opera to watch The Barber of Serville, then asked their guest to play chess with them. Morphy was more interested in watching the opera, but could not courteously refuse.

Morphy played white, while Brunswick and Isouard consulted on black. He took his opponents apart in 17 moves, enabling him to watch the rest of the show without distraction, and incidentally proving that teaming two mediocre players does not double their talents.

This game is one of the best known in chess, exemplifying as it does the advantages of quick development over the pursuit of minor advantages. The game features a queen sacrifice that leads directly to mate.

The score of the game follows:

Paul Morphy vs Duke of Brunswick & Count Isouard, Paris Opera House, 1858. Philidor’s Defense.

Paul Morphy “The Pride and Sorrow of Chess,” was an American chess player. He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his era and an unofficial World Chess Champion. He was also one of the first chess prodigies in the modern rules of chess era.

The “Opera game” – a casual game against inexperienced opponents, but at the same time one of the clearest and most beautiful attacking games ever. Often used by chess teachers to demonstrate how to use time, develop pieces and generate threats.

While most of the audience was following the performance of The Barber of Seville, Paul Morphy was busy at the chessboard, facing noble opposition. His opponents, working together, played well enough for a while, but they allowed Morphy to set two deadly pins.

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Bg4 4. d x e5 B x f3 5. Q x f3 d x e5 6. Bc4 Nf6
7. Qb3 Qe7 8. Nc3 c6 9. Bg5 b5 10. N x b5 c x b5 11. B x b5 + Nbd7
12. O-O-O Rd8 13. R x d7 R x d7 14. Rd1 Qe6 15. B x d7 + N x d7
16. Qb8 + N x b8 17. Rd8 mate

These two images found on google and edited it slightly – beautiful poster – the second image.

I spoilt myself the last few days with a few chess games and even a few tournaments, but work is calling again! The following two games were played against the same opponent – you will notice in both games, my Knights were used – in conjunction with the Queen – to checkmate my opponent. I always prefer to save my Knights – I will even sacrifice my Bishops in order to keep my Knights for the reason as in these games and also for their tricky moves.

1. e4 e5 2. d4 Bd6 3. d5 h6 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Nc3 Bb4 6. a3 Bxc3+ 7. bxc3 d6 8. Be3 Bg4 9. h3 Bxf3 10. gxf3 a6 11. f4 Nxe4 12. c4 f5 13. Rb1 Nc3 14. Qh5+ Ke7 15. Rxb7 Qc8 16. Rb3 Ne4 17. Qh4+ Nf6 18. Rg1 Rg8 19. f3 Kf8 20. fxe5 dxe5 21. Bc5+ Kf7 22. Bd3 Nbd7 23. Bb4 c5 24. Bxf5 cxb4 25. Bg6+ Kf8 26. Rxb4 a5 27. Rb3 Nc5 28. Re3 Qb8 29. Kf2 Ra7 30. f4 e4 31. Kg2 Qb2 32. Qf2 Qa2 33. d6 Qxc4 34. c3 Rb7 35. f5 Nd3 36. Qe2 Rb2 37. Kf1 Rxe2 38. Kxe2 Nf4+ 39. Kf2 Nd3+ 40. Ke2 Qxc3 41. Rxe4 Nxe4 42. d7 Qd2+ 43. Kf3 Ng5+ 44. Kg3 Qe3+ 45. Kg2 Ke7 46. Rb1 Qxh3+ 47. Kg1 Nf3+

1. d4 d5 2. Nc3 Nf6  3. Bf4 Na6  4. Be5 Bf5  5. Bxf6 exf6  6. e3 Qd7  7. Bxa6 b6
8. Bb7 Rb8  9. Ba6 Bd6  10. a3 O-O  11. h3 h6  12. Nge2 Rfe8  13. Bd3 g6  14. Bxf5 Qxf5  15. O-O Rxe3  16. fxe3 Qe6  17. Qd2 Re8  18. Rf3 c6  19. Raf1 c5 20. Rxf6 Qd7  21. Rxf7 Qxf7  22. Rxf7 Kxf7  23. e4 dxe4  24. d5 e3  25. Qe1 a6 26. Qh4 h5  27. Qg5 Re5  28. Qh6 b5  29. Qh7+ Kf8  30. Qxg6 Be7  31. d6 Bd8 32. d7 Bc7  33. Qf6+ Kg8  34. d8=Q+ Bxd8  35. Qxd8+ Kg7  36. Qc7+ Kf6
37. Qd6+ Kf5  38. Qxa6 b4  39. axb4 cxb4  40. Nb5 Ke4  41. Nd6+ Kd5                42. b3 Re6  43. Qd3+ Ke5  44. Qd4+
Dolannes Melody by Jean-Claude Borelly

And for the record: It was Republic Day

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Anand-Topalov fighting it out

Anand in Sofia – Anand and Topalov are going to fight the mother battle of all battles. [chess of course!] I hope [if you’re a chess player] that you’re going to follow their games with me. Anand is my favourite and my money is on him. Those of you who don’t know anything about these players…they are THE big chess-engines of the world of chess…and they’re playing in Sofia[Bulgaria]. Anand is from India and Topalov from Bulgaria. Anand is the current World Champion and Topalov the challenger.

What is said about Anand- ‘….extreme efficiency, his splendid personality…’ -watch the videos about Anand and Topalov on the official site…

Anand is the fastest thinking chess player

Ah…they look so handsome… – is that what he’s thinking [haha]

Enjoy the music of the Hungarian Rhapsody no2 [unfortunately not the Bulgarian Rhapsody…but let’s pretend lol -also not the complete music file]

Topalov…hmmm…wonder if he’s going to beat me up!..

Press Conference – Sofia

Postal Items devoted to the Anand-Topalov Chess tournament in Sofia [Bulgaria]

Please click HERE to visit the official site of Anand-Topalov to read more or to play through their games. The first game starts on the 24th April. [see the playing schedule] You will also find this link on the sidebar of my blog.[top] Images in this post are all from the Official site of Anand/Topalov. 
 

Click on the image for a larger view…This is the schedule of Anand’s and Topalov’s games.

Map of Bulgaria / Sofia – image: Topnews

The History of Chess…only a few images from the video on the Official site.

See the video on the Official site – link in this post [and on the sidebar of my blog] about the History of Chess. These images are from the video.

40-hour ride to defend the title
New Delhi: World champion Viswanathan Anand Tuesday reached Sofia, Bulgaria, after a strenuous 40-hour road journey from Germany as all flights were cancelled due to the volcanic ash floating across European airspace.

The 40-year old world champion had requested a postponement of the World chess championship match against Veselin Topalov, by three days, but his appeal was rejected by the organising committee.

Not used to travelling such long distances on road along with the refusal to grant a three-day postponement could give Anand’s challenger, Topalov, a significant advantage.

Anand had planned to reach the venue on April 16, which is one week before the first game on April 23. But he arrived four days behind schedule due to factors beyond his control.

Anand might miss the press conference but will attend the opening ceremony according to his wife Aruna Anand. Not rescheduling the games will mean Topalov could have the same advantage that Anatoly Karpov enjoyed in the world title match, in Lausanne, in 1998.

“The news from us is that we reached here safely,” said Aruna Anand.

Had Alexander Alekhine been in Anand’s place, he would have sought a postponement of at least a week as world champions ruled and challengers were at the mercy of champions. Sometimes a handicap is a better way to start a match and Anand can turn the disadvantage into a driving force in the 12-game series.

Earlier, the organising committee had received an e-mailed request for a postponement from Anand and also a word from Fide about the situation.

However, the committee said that the press conference could be postponed but not the opening ceremony scheduled on April 21 because invitations to all official guests, sponsors, politicians, television stations and the media was already sent. Also since many commercial contracts have been signed, there would be serious penalties if any changes were made.

The championship is to be formally inaugurated on April 21 with the first of the 14 games to begin on April 23.

Source:

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100421/jsp/sports/story_12362406.jsp

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Shakespeare, Chess and dance

 

The Chess players: Shakespeare and Ben Johnson playing chess-

Image: Wikipedia
The Chess Players attributed to Karel van Mander. This was identified in 1916 as an image of Ben Jonson and Shakespeare playing chess. Most scholars consider this to be pure speculation, but the claim was revived in 2004 by Jeffrey Netto, who argued that the chess game symbolises “the well known professional rivalry between these figures in terms of a battle of wits”.

Read more HERE about Shakespeare and chess.

Even Shakespeare (1564-1616) incorporated a well known, though minor, chess scene in The Tempest.

Image: http://sbchess.sinfree.net

The Tempest: Act Five, Scene One  (Ferdinand and Miranda)
The entrance of the Cell opens, and discovers Ferdinand and Miranda playing at chess.
Miranda: Sweet lord, you play me false.
Ferdinand: No, my dearest love, I would not for the world.
Miranda: Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should wrangle, And I would call it fair play

Miranda and Ferdinand are lovers whose fathers are sworn enemies. Their love, represented in a devious game of chess in the final scene,  restores harmony between the two families.[Source:sbchess.sinfree.net]

Sports and pastimes of the English:[see the next paragraph and the source link] – I think it is even today the case… – due to the weather…chess is a favourite indoor game, that’s why so many people in the UK play chess online. Comparing to our counterparts in the Southern hemisphere, you would get the opposite.

DANCING AND CHESS PLAY.–Dancing was certainly an ancient and favourite pastime with the women of this country: the maidens even in a state of servitude claimed, as it were by established privilege, the license to indulge themselves in this exercise on holidays and public festivals; when it was usually performed in the presence of their masters and mistresses.

In the middle ages, dice, chess, and afterwards tables, and cards, with other sedentary games of chance and skill, were reckoned among the female amusements; and the ladies also frequently joined with the men in such pastimes, as we find it expressly declared in the metrical romance of Ipomydom. The passage alluded to runs thus:
“When they had dyned, as I you saye,
Lordes and ladyes yede to to playe;
Some to tables, and some to chesse,
With other gamys more or lesse.”

In another poem, by Gower,  a lover asks his mistress, when she is tired of “dancing and caroling,” if she was willing to “play at chesse, or on the dyes to cast a chaunce.” Forrest, speaking in praise of Catharine of Arragon, first wife of Henry VIII., says, that when she was young,
“With stoole and with needyl she was not to seeke,
And other practiseings for ladyes meete;
To pastyme at tables, tick tack or gleeke,
Cardis and dyce”–etc.
Source

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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]
Enjoy the music of the Hungarian Rhapsody

Update: A great entry to read:

Rothschild’s British Concentration Camps: Way Back When, It Was A Means To Usurp/Destroy The Gold/Silver Standard ~ Only Then To Be Replaced By Rothschild’s Keynesian Economics ‘Derivative Fiat Paper’

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 …

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

The Guinness Book of Records lists the Anglo-Boer War as Britain’s most costly war outside of the two World Wars.

Camouflage was first used in battle by the Boers, who used camouflaged trenches and adapted battledress to blend into treeless landscapes.

The Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) was the first war of the 20th century and saw the introduction of trench warfare, the first large-scale use of concentration camps for non-combatants, and the most prolonged period of guerrilla warfare by a conquered nation’s military against a victorious army.

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

This next book is a must read – [I said to myself]

Sarah Raal, deserves to have had a film made of her life. Born into a prosperous farm family in the Southern Free State outside Jagersfontein, with the outbreak of war her father and four brothers immediately enlisted leaving Sarah, her mother and two small children alone on the farm. On one occasion, when the latter were shopping in Jagersfontein, her mother was denounced for feeding passing Boers and, together with her children, placed in a concentration camp. This left Sarah alone on the farm with her farm workers. After seven months of this, her brothers suddenly appeared seeking sanctuary. Word of this got out, but they all got away before their arrest could be carried out. For a few months Sarah moved from farm to farm but inevitably her luck ran out and she was incarcerated at Springfontein. There she had a run-in with the Camp Commandant that resulted in her being placed in a punishment detail from which she escaped to rejoin her brothers. As the countryside was palpably unsafe for a woman alone, she was allowed to enlist with the commando under command of a Commandant Nieuwoudt. There she took part in a number of guerrilla engagements, coming under both rifle and shell fire several times and displaying considerable bravery during the course of these actions. On more than one occasion she was in actual physical combat with the enemy, narrowly escaping injury, death or capture. She was eventually captured in an ambush and placed in a camp until the end of the war. She later wrote a book entitled Met Die Boere In Die Veld, which was published in 1936 and re-published in English in 2000.

Source: http://rapidttp.co.za/milhist/8/08sepnl.html

September 19, 1899, Wednesday

LONDON, The special dispatches from South Africa confirm the report that the Boers are massing artillery in positions commanding Laing’s Nek. Small Boer detachments occupy positions above Buffalo River.
The members of the Afrikander Bund in Cape Town intend to convene the Bund in Congress to consider the situation.
A Bloemfontein paper reports the dismissal of several Englishman from the Bloemfontein Police Force because of their refusal to promise to serve on the Commando.

Mr. Chamberlain came to London from Birmingham yesterday afternoon and spent the evening at the Colonial Office. While there he received a dispatch from Lord Salisbury, who is at Hatfield House, and sent a special messenger to the Premier.
There has been lively interchange of dispatches between the Foreign, War, and Colonial Offices, but no summons has yet been issue for a Cabinet Counsel.

Long dispatches were sent last evening to the Viceroy of India, Lord Gurzon of Kedleston, and to the British High Commissioner in South Africa, Sir Alfred Milner.
General Lord Garnet Wolseley, Field Marshal and Commander in Chief, returned to London yesterday and immediately repaired to the War Office, where he remained busily employed the greater part of the day.

The Daily Chronicle points out this morning that “the Orange Free State would probably better serve the Transvaal by remaining neutral than by active assistance, because the easiest route for marching troops to Johannesburg and Pretoria lies between Orange River and Vaal River.”

The Cape Town correspondent of the paper says: “It is reported here that Conyngham Greene (British Diplomatic Agent at Pretoria) fears that an attempt will be made to dynamite the British Agency.”

The second edition of The Times yesterday contained a dispatch from Johannesburg, which says: “There is, I am informed, some early coup in contemplation. The quantities of compressed forage forwarded in the direction of Natal border indicate some move on the part of the troops in that quarter. The Government is buying horses freely today.”

Source here:Source

London Oct 21,1901 – a Dispatch from Brussels to the Daily Mail says:

“Mr Kruger has received a report from Mr. Schalk Burger that the greater part of Cape Colony is in open rebellion and that the Boers have armed 15,000 Afrikanders within the last three months.”
Source here: Source
[Schalk Burger is my great grandad]
Images from this brutal war where many South Africans and animals died brutally…animals in the scorched earth policy by the British. Farms were destroyed and set on fire, houses burnt down and sheep butchered like at a butchery.

Rugby 1891 – “The best teams were undoubtedly the Western Provinces, played at Cape Town ; the Griqualand West (to whom the “Currie” Cup was given) at Kimberley” …source:
rugby-pioneers.blogs.com/rugby/2008/09/touring-to-sout.html

Boer Women – image: nzhistory.net.nz

Boer Soldiers -image:nzhistory.net.nz

Boer Women:Image:ictnetwork.co.uk
The Scandal of the Black Camps

A South African visitor to this site has raised the controversy about the imprisonment of Black South Africans in conditions much worse than those for Boer prisoners. Removed from farms or other areas, at least 14 000 Black people are believed to have died in these concentration camps–but for nearly a century the ordinary South African was completely unaware of their existence.

Unlike the Boer prison camps, the Black prisoners were mostly left to fend for themselves, and were not given any rations at all. They were expected to grow food or find work. In a few instances this actually improved their chances of survival because they were able to get out of the camps which were hellholes of infection and disease.
Source:http://users.westconnect.com.au/~ianmac5/exhibit8.html

Image: ToGoTo.co.za

Almost Forgotten Victims – The Anglo-Boer War Camps of Aliwal North

Southbound out of the Free State’s grassy plains, the Friendly N6 Route carries travellers across the great Senqu/Orange River into Aliwal North, gateway to the Eastern Cape.This quietly bustling provincial town was formally founded in 1850 by Sir Harry Smith, then governor of the Cape Colony, who named it in tribute to his 1846 victory over the Indian Sikhs at the Battle of Aliwal. “North” was added to differentiate it from Aliwal South, the old name for Mossel Bay. Fifty years later this hamlet would become the chosen site for two of the many horrific concentration camps of the Anglo-Boer War. Aliwal North’s Northern Post and Border News reported in January 1901 that a native refugee camp had been established at the confluence of the Orange and Kraai rivers for blacks impoverished by the war. The term “refugee” was bolstered by the fact that, initially, blacks entered the camp voluntarily, and also willingly supplied a virtually endless source of manpower for the “labour-strapped” colonial government. Towards the end of January the camp contained just over 200 refugees. At that stage the Aliwal North town council advised the Rouxville Commandant that the council could no longer cope with the Free State refugees – since the camp was a military undertaking, the council would help but would not take responsibility. In February, the council exhorted the authorities to give urgent attention to the poor sanitary conditions in the camp.According to Rev. Kessler, an American researcher on concentration camps, in August 1900 a British Intelligence officer, HR Abercrombie, recommended that defeated Boers, their families and servants should be sent to concentration camps similar to those used by General Weyler in Cuba in 1896/1897. Lord Roberts, the Supreme Commander, did not approve. However, when Lord Kitchener assumed this position, he incorporated the recommendation into his “scorched-earth policy” to end the guerrilla war. He planned to make it impossible for Boer commandos to receive any assistance from their families or the land by burning all their homes, razing crops, slaughtering all the animals and driving all black servants, Boer women and children into concentration camps.Kitchener initiated his campaign in mid-March. Within one month the black inmates had increased to over 2000 and a separate camp was established for them approximately 5 km lower down along the Orange. By May, the arrival of white women and children from the Free State villages of Rouxville, Zastron and Smithfield swelled the white camp population to over 2500; by October, when others were brought from Bloemfontein, the camp reached its maximum of almost 5000.In 1986, a local farmer, Mr Abrie Oosthuizen, suffered a severe heart attack and was given a year to live. Releasing the farm to his son, he retired to Aliwal North where he underwent a heart bypass operation. During his recovery, he found time hung heavy on his hands and he became bored. Then, Abrie enthusiastically started researching the Anglo-Boer War. The result was the publication of his first book, Rebelle van die Stormberge, six years later in 1992. After completing a second book, he turned to the military blockhouses and forts along the Orange River. In all his research, there had always been a gap – the history of the black war refugees: it seemed as if they had simply disappeared off the face of the earth. Until he came across an interesting and illuminating article in a copy of the Northern Post of 1902. It stated that the municipality had planned to construct a turbine pump station but was divided over a suitable site. One group suggested building it below Aliwal North beside the Orange River. The other preferred a higher position beside the Kraai River, since they feared contamination from the graves along these rivers. Eventually the camp superintendent provided proof that the graves were so deep that there was no likelihood of pollution. This controversy indicated that camp graves existed not only in the bend of the Kraai River above the confluence but also along the Orange River right up to Greathead’s Mill, where the pump station stands today. Abrie obtained further proof of a second camp while reading the research of Dr Jan Ploeger, the government archivist, wherein he noted that the black camp at Aliwal North had been moved five miles west of the white camp.Abrie Oosthuizen then heard of a Mr Michael Magetse who helped him identify the place through the fireside stories he had heard from his grandfather, a camp survivor. Abrie found the first camp and the remains of many black graves beside the Kraai River, which were confirmed by the land surveyor of Aliwal North, Mr N van Deventer. After a futile attempt to find the second camp, Abrie located an old map indicating a “native cemetery” five miles west of the first. It was described as Crown Land, ceded to the mayor and town council of Aliwal North in 1912 “on condition that the land hereby granted shall be used as a place of interment for Natives”. The title deed subsequently obtained from the office of the surveyor-general in Cape Town provided irrefutable proof that the one morgen terrain situated in the current township of Dukathole was the oldest formal graveyard for black people. Mr van Deventer had no trouble finding the anchor stones with rusted wire attached to them, indicating the corners of the fence surrounding the “native cemetery”. It is believed to be the first cemetery of its kind in South Africa which could be accurately located.Although a careful record was kept of white deaths, Emily Hobhouse, in her book The Brunt of the War, admits that statistics of black mortalities were scanty. Calculations based on the known number of black mortalities in Free State camps from July to October 1901, indicate that there were at least 250 to 270 black South Africans who died in the Aliwal North camp during those four months alone, mostly from pneumonia, enteric fever and diarrhoea. Conditions in the overpopulated camps had quickly deteriorated, since the little town of Aliwal North with only 800 inhabitants did not have adequate infrastructure to support the sudden influx of camp inhabitants.Two separate and magnificent monuments commemorate Aliwal North’s white victims of war; on one hilltop lies the Garden of Remembrance for 134 British and Colonial soldiers, on the other hilltop, the Concentration Camp Memorial Garden for the 720 Boer women and children who succumbed to the appalling conditions in the camps.A monument has been erected on the picturesque site of the original “Native Cemetery”, along the bank of a river that on its 2000 km long journey brings life and sustenance to vast tracts of our country and many of our people, irrespective of colour or circumstances. The original cemetery is surrounded by thousands of more recent graves extending over an area of at least five morgen. The respect with which this piece of land has been treated for over a century makes it a fitting memorial to those almost forgotten victims.Read the complete story in the June/July issue of ToGOTo

Source: http://www.togoto.co.za/?PID=2&fu=ReadArticle&gid=38&Issue=4

Johanna Brandt, one of four children, was born in 1876. Her Dutch father and Afrikaner pioneer mother greatly influenced her worldview, which eventually made Johanna Brandt a household name. Following the Anglo-Boer War, Johanna emerged as a prolific author, focussing mainly on the Boer War. In later life, however, her eccentric character came to the fore as she explored aspects of natural healing, mysticism and feminism.

Johanna died in 1964.

I am anxious to get this book filled and out of the way … our friend the enemy will come and search our house for documents and then they will carry away this chronicle of my griefs and woes and – joys, lately. What agonies I would endure if this book were to fall into strange hands ! Johanna van Warmelo, 9 February 1902.

When Johanna wrote these words, she was 24 years old and had already experienced helpless anger at the horrors of a concentration camp, the anxiety of working undercover for the Boer Secret Service and the excitement of falling in love. Her diary, secret diary and love diary, combined in this publication, weaves her remarkable experiences during the war together with her everyday life as an ordinary young woman living in an extraordinary time.

The War Diary of Johanna Brandt is an accurate reproduction of Johanna’s three diaries, two of which, the secret diary and the love diary, was originally written using lemon juice. Through these diaries, and with extensive research by Jackie Grobler, we are offered a unique insight into the war that did not allow indecision or disloyalty.

Something about the author:

Jackie Grobler is senior lecturer at the University of Pretoria, Department of Historical and Heritage Studies. He holds a Doctor Philosophiae in History and is the author of three books, co-author of a further ten chapters in books; co-editor of one book; author of 31 biographies in biographical dictionaries and author of many academic journal articles.
He lives in Pretoria with his wife Elize.
Source: http://www.ais.up.ac.za/newsletter/libnewsmay1_08/index2.htm

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Have a ball

Alexandra Kosteniuk: The current Woman’s World Chess Champion – see her blog-link on my blog’s sidebar.

 

A nurse playing chess with a patient – WWI

Women at Chess in London
London, June 24 – The fourth round of the International Women’s Chess Tournament, played in this city this evening, was finished with the following results:
Stevenson beat Thomas in a Giuoco Piano after twenty-nine moves. Gooding beat Muller-Hartung in a French defense after fifty-three moves. Bonnefin beat Hooke in a Ruy Lopez after forty-eight moves. Fagan beat Watson in a French defense after seventy-four moves. Finn beat Forbes-Sharpe in a two-knight defense after forty-three moves. Rudge beat Field in a Giuoco Piano after twenty-nine moves. Fox beat De La Vigne in an irregular opening after thirty-one moves.
Appended are the scores up to date: 1897

*Games left unfinished
The New York Times
Published June 25, 1897
Click HERE to read the news article in PDF-format. Links will open in a new window.

Giuoco Piano – Chess Opening – image: Wikipedia

I’m not familiar with this name as a chess opening, I’ve heard/read about many chess openings, but this one was new to me.

The Giuoco Piano is a chess opening characterized by the moves

1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bc4 Bc5
Instead of 3. … Bc5 it is possible for Black to play 3… Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Nxd5 ( Two knights defence ) or 3. … Ne7 4.d4 d6 5. h3 Nf6 6.Nc3 0-0 7.0-0 exd4 ( Hungarian defence )

The Giuoco Piano (Italian: “quiet game”) is the oldest recorded opening. The Portuguese Damiano played it at the beginning of the 16th century and the Italian Greco played it at the beginning of the 17th century. The opening is also known as the Italian Game, although that term is sometimes used more generally to describe the position after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4. The Giuoco Piano was popular through the 19th century, but modern refinements in defensive play have led most chess masters towards openings like the Ruy Lopez that offer White greater chances for long term initiative.

White’s “Italian bishop” at c4 prevents Black from advancing in the center with …d5 and attacks the vulnerable f7 square. White plans to dominate the center with d2-d4 and to attack the Black king. Black aims to free his game by exchanging pieces and playing the pawn break …d5, or to hold his center pawn at e5.

Source: Wikipedia

Another champ…

MRS. HARRISON TRIUMPHS

February 27, 1938, Sunday

 Defeats Miss Lesley in Women’s Title Chess Tourney.  Mrs. Edna Harrison continued her winning streak in the preliminaries for the Hazel Allen championship trophy at the Marshall Chess Club yesterday, defeating Miss Dora Lesley in the seventh round. Mrs. Harrison now has scored 6 1/2 points.

Click here to view the source.

Mar 5, 1986 – Lyudmila Rudenko, the first women’s world chess champion, has died at age 81, the official Soviet news agency Tass reported Tuesday. The news agency said she died Sunday in Leningrad. A native of the Ukraine, she won the first world chess competition for women in 1950, …

was a Soviet chess player and the second Women’s World Chess Champion from 1950 until 1953. Rudenko held the FIDE International Master and Woman International Master titles.

Born in Lubny in the Poltava region of Ukraine, in the Russian Empire, her father taught her to play chess at age 10 although at first she was more serious about swimming. After grammar school, she moved to Odessa and took a degree in economics. Rudenko became the Odessa swimming champion in the 400m breaststroke. Her professional career would be as an economic planner for the Soviet Union, and chess would remain a hobby.

She began playing tournament chess in 1925 after a move to Moscow. She then moved to Leningrad where she met and married scientist Lev Davidovich Goldstein; in 1931 they had a son. In Leningrad in 1929 she began training with chess master Peter Romanowski. She would not reach the peak of international women’s chess until she was about 40 years old.

Source: Wikipedia – Vera Menchik died during a German air raid in Kent.

Lasker and Women …

Among the women fond of chess of this country, mrs J W Showalter has long been considered the champion chess player. At present she is engaged in a little match with Lasker who has to concede to her the odds of a knight. Mrs Showalter has so far won two games, while her opponent has registered an equal number of wins.

Read the NYTimes-article dated 1890’s here.

On this Google-link you will find more links about the history of women in chess to follow up.

 
To explore some chess openings, click on this link from the site of chessgames. To enjoy your chess openings, I have three music files to share with you which you might want to listen while exploring some chess openings. Choose the music to open your chess dance floor and have a ball! The first song is a famous song – Zorba’s Dance. The second, a South African golden oldie – Helloh-A  and Strauss – The Skaters Waltz. I will of course choose the music of Strauss to open my chess dance floor. On rainy days like today, Amazon can be sure of making their money out of me when it comes to music!

Image:chess.com

Zorba’s Dance by Mikis Theodorakis
from the CD: Memories from Greece  – see the youtube-link for the dance.

I once tried to teach this dance to 10 year old kiddies for our class assembly – see this video….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkHfKjwPHXo

Sharon Tany and Billy Forest – Helloh-A

The Skaters Waltz – Mantovani and his orchestra. If you prefer a different Waltz to open your chess ball, enjoy this link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJNcomorvjg

The Sicilian Defence: Eduard Gufeld – a book I found on Amazon about openings.

Click here to take a look inside  Modern Chess Openings or to order it from Amazon. The Giuoco Piano (“quiet game”) is even chapter 2 in this book!

Something to do on a rainy day!

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Romancing the Knight!

James Last: Tenderly

Sweet People: Summer Dream

It’s Saturday night…that time of the weekend and guess what…no, you can look at this entry and I don’t have to ask you to guess! Classical music and all the other ingredients!… how romantic to have a game of chess with your “knight” and the music is playing, chocolates nearby, glass of South African red wine…hmm… I always say chess, chocolates and classical music go together, but don’t forget the red rose too! I was given Pinotage Cinsault as a present a few weeks ago and it’s quite nice red wine!

 Have you tried to play chess with classical music on your ears and you have your partner opposite you staring in your eyes..hmmm… I forgot! It’s Saturday (k)night…wonder if the moon is out there, suddenly I have to go!

James Last: Elizabethan Serenade

James Last: Lara’s theme from Dr Zhivago

Sweet People: Barcarolle

Image:www.redwine.co.uk

SA red wine

Red wine increases the female sex drive
March 24, 2009
Lucy Shaw

Red wine increases the female libido, research has found. According to a study carried out by the Santa Maria Nuova Hospital in Florence, drinking one to two glasses of red wine a day increases female sexual desire.

The study investigated 789 Italian women aged between 18 and 50. Drinking red wine not only helps to release inhibitions, but also has a direct effect on sexual activity.

Women who drink one to two glasses of wine a day were found to be more sexually active than those who abstain. Dark chocolate, which is rich in antioxidants, has a similarly positive effect on the female libido.

Whoops! I found this article link on douglasgreen.wordpress.com’s blog

These chess graphics are from games I finished quite awhile ago. Sometimes I  save a certain chess position with the intention to blog about the game, but for the past 8 months my time was very little to blog chess games in detail. If you’re a chess player, I’m quite certain you will be able to “read” these graphics. The last image is from a tourney I finished in April. I played white in the game and thought it was a good win. Actually, in all the games, I played the colour nearest to you when you look at the games.

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Caïssa

Image: caissa.com

Image: Chessville

Caissa is the “patron goddess” of chess players.

She was created in a poem called Caïssa written in 1763 by English poet and philologist Sir William Jones.

Scacchia ludus was the basis for the poem written by William Jones in 1763.  While Scacchis may have been the first Goddess of Chess, Caïssa is certainly the most famous and sustaining. In the poem Caïssa, Mars becomes infatuated with a nymph named Caïssa but she does not return the favor and is in fact a bit repulsed by the God of War. Not one to give up the fight, Mars enlists the aid of an ally, Euphron, the God of Sports and Games. Euphon creates the game of chess and designs a beautiful and elaborate board and chess set for Mars to give to Caïssa. In the poem, Mars gains Caïssa’s attention this way and teaches her how to play. As the game progresses, Caïssa’s resistance wears down and in the end, Mars wins more than just the game. But Caïssa wins eternal fame.

…fram’d a tablet of celestial mold,
Inlay’d with squares of silver and of gold;
Then of two metals form’d the warlike band,
That here compact in show of battle stand;
He taught the rules that guide the pensive game,
And call’d it Caissa from the dryad’s name:
(Whence Albion’s sons, who most its praise confess,
Approv’d the play, and nam’d it thoughtful Chess.)
Mars then presents the game of chess to Caissa in an attempt to win her affection.

For chess players, Caissa is often invoked as a source of inspiration or luck, e.g. “Caissa was with me in that game.”

Image: sbchess.sinfree.net

Caissa is also spelled Caïssa.

Caïssa is quite frequently referred to in chess commentary. Garry Kasparov uses this reference now and again, especially in his epic volume My Great Predecessors. It is used as a substitute for being lucky – “Caïssa was with me” – especially in unclear situations, for example in sacrifices. Caïssa as a concept has also been explored by some who seek the evidence of the sacred feminine in chess. The first (Russian) computer program that won the World Computer Chess Championship (in 1974) was also named Caïssa.

On this next link – which will open in a new window – you will also find a bit of info about Caïssa and a link to mythology-images.

http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/Caissa.html

Source of the poem: click HERE to view the site.

The poem is based on Scacchia ludus (‘The Game of Chess’) written in 1510 by Marco Girolamo Vida– an Italian poet and later Bishop of Alba – where the nymph is called Scacchis. Jones also published an English language version of the poem.

CAISSA
or
The Game at Chess- a Poem.
(written in the year 1763, by Sir William Jones)

(pronounced ky-eé-sah)

Of armies on the chequer’d field array’d,

And guiltless war in pleasing form display’d;

When two bold kings contend with vain alarms,

In ivory this, and that in ebon arms;

Sing, sportive maids, that haunt the sacred hill

Of Pindus, and the fam’d Pierian rill.

Thou, joy of all below, and all above,

Mild Venus, queen of laughter, queen of love;

Leave thy bright island, where on many a rose

And many a pink thy blooming train repose:

Assist me, goddess! since a lovely pair

Command my song, like thee devinely fair.

Near yon cool stream, whose living waters play,

And rise translucent in the solar ray;

Beneath the covert of a fragrant bower,

Where spring’s nymphs reclin’d in calm retreat,

And envying blossoms crouded round their seat;

Here Delia was enthron’d, and by her side

The sweet Sirena, both in beauty’s pride:

Thus shine two roses, fresh with early bloom,

That from their native stalk dispense perfume;

Their leaves unfolding to the dawning day

Gems of the glowing mead, and eyes of May.

A band of youths and damsels sat around,

Their flowing locks with braided myrtle bound;

Agatis, in the graceful dance admir’d,

And gentle Thyrsis, by the muse inspir’d;

With Sylvia, fairest of the mirthful train;

And Daphnis, doom’d to love, yet love in vain.

Now, whilst a purer blush o’erspreads her cheeks,

With soothing accents thus Sirena speaks:

“The meads and lawns are ting’d with beamy light,

And wakeful larks begin their vocal flight;

Whilst on each bank the dewdrops sweetly smile;

What sport, my Delia, shall the hours beguile?

Whall heavenly notes, prolong’d with various art,

Charm the fond ear, and warm the rapturous heart?

At distance shall we view the sylvan chace?

Or catch with silken lines the finny race?”

Then Delia thus: “Or rather, since we meet

By chance assembled in this cool retreat,

In artful contest let our warlike train

Move well-directed o’er the field preside:

No prize we need, our ardour to inflame;

We fight with pleasure, if we fight for fame.”

The nymph consents: the maids and youths prepare

To view the combat, and the sport to share:

But Daphnis most approv’d the bold design,

Whom Love instructed, and the tuneful Nine.

He rose, and on the cedar table plac’d

A polish’d board, with differing colours grac’d;

Squares eight times eight in equal order lie;

These bright as snow, those dark with sable dye;

Like the broad target by the tortoise born,

Or like the hide by spotted panthers worn.

Then from a chest, with harmless heroes stor’d,

O’er the smooth plain two well-wrought hosts he pour’d;

The champions burn’d their rivals to assail,

Twice eight in black, twice eight in milkwhite mail;

In shape and station different, as in name,

Their motions various, not their power the same.

Say, muse! (for Jove has nought from thee conceal’d)

Who form’d the legions on the level field?

High in the midst the reverend kings appear,

And o’er the rest their pearly scepters rear:

One solemn step, majestically slow,

They gravely move, and shun the dangerous foe;

If e’er they call, the watchful subjects spring,

And die with rapture if they save their king;

On him the glory of the day depends,

He once imprison’d, all the conflict ends.

The queens exulting near their consorts stand;

Each bears a deadly falchion in her hand;

Now here, now there, they bound with furious pride,

And thin the trmbling ranks from side to side;

Swift as Camilla flying o’er the main,

Or lightly skimming o’er the dewy plain:

Fierce as they seem, some bold Plebeian spear

May pierce their shield, or stop their full career.

The valiant guards, their minds on havock bent,

Fill the next squares, and watch the royal tent;

Tho’ weak their spears, tho’ dwarfish be their height,

Compact they move, the bulwark of the fight,

To right and left the martial wings display

Their shining arms, and stand in close array.

Behold, four archers, eager to advance,

Send the light reed, and rush with sidelong glance;

Through angles ever they assault the foes,

True to the colour, which at first they chose.

Then four bold knights for courage-fam’d and speed,

Each knight exalted on a prancing steed:

Their arching course no vulgar limit knows,

Tranverse they leap, and aim insidious blows:

Nor friends, nor foes, their rapid force restrain,

By on quick bound two changing squares they gain;

From varing hues renew the fierce attack,

And rush from black to white, from white to black.

Four solemn elephants the sides defend;

Benearth the load of ponderous towers they bend:

In on unalter’d line they tempt the fight;

Now crush the left, and now o’erwhelm the right.

Bright in the front the dauntless soldiers raise

Their polish’d spears; their steely helmets blaze:

Prepar’d they stand the daring foe to strike,

Direct their progress, but their wounds oblique.

Now swell th’ embattled troups with hostile rage,

And clang their shields, impatient to engage;

When Daphnis thus: A varied plain behold,

Where fairy kings their mimick tents unfold,

As Oberon, and Mab, his wayward queen,

Lead forth their armies on the daisied green.

No mortal hand the wond’rous sport contriv’d,

By gods invents, and from gods deriv’d;

From them the British nymphs receiv’d the game,

And play ech morn beneath the crystal Thame;

Hear then the tale, which they to Colin sung,

As idling o’er the lucid wave he hung.

A lovely dryad rang’d the Thracian wild,

Her air enchanting, and her aspect mild:

To chase the bounding hart was all her joy,

Averse from Hymen, and the Cyprian boy;

O’er hills an valleys was her beauty fam’d,

And fair Caissa was the damsel nam’d.

Mars saw the maid; with deep surprize he gaz’d,

Admir’d her shape, and every gesture prais’d:

His golden bow the child of Venus bent,

And through his breast a piecing arrow sent.

The reed was hope; the feathers, keen desire;

The point, her eyes; the barbs, ethereal fire.

Soon to the nymph he pour’d his tender strain;

The haughtly dryad scorn’d his amorous pain:

He told his woes, where’er the maid he found,

And still he press’d, yet still Caissa frown’d;

But ev’n her frowns (ah, what might smiles have done!)

Fir’d all his soul, and all his senses won.

He left his car, by raging tigers drawn,

And lonely wander’d o’er the dusky lawn;

Then lay desponding near a murmuring stream,

And fair Caissa was his plaintive theme.

A naiad heard him from her mossy bed,

And through the crystal rais’d her placid head;

Then mildly spake: “O thou, whom love inspires,

Thy tears will nourish, not allay thy fires.

The smiling blossoms drink the pearly dew;

And ripening fruit the feather’d race pursue;

The scaly shoals devour the silken weeds;

Love on our sighs, and on our sorrow feeds.

Then weep no more; but, ere thou canst obtain

Balm to thy wounds, and solace to thy pain,

With gentle art thy martial look beguile;

Be mild, and teach thy rugged brow to smile.

Canst thou no play, no soothing game devise;

To make thee lovely in the damsel’s eyes?

So may thy prayers assuage the scornful dame,

And ev’n Caissa own a mutual frame.”

Kind nymph, said Mars, thy counsel I approve;

Art, only art, her ruthless breast can move.

but when? or how? They dark discourse explain:

So may thy stream ne’er swell with gushing rain;

So may thy waves in one pure current flow,

And flowers eternal on thy border blow!”

To whom the maid replied with smiling mien:

“Above the palace of the Paphian queen

Love’s brother dwells, a boy of graceful port,

By gods nam’d Euphron, and by mortals Sport:

Seek him; to faithful ears unfold thy grief,

And hope, ere morn return, a sweet relief.

His temple hangs below the azure skies;

Seest thou yon argent cloud? ‘Tis there it lies.”

This said, she sunk beneath the liquid plain,

And sought the mansion of her blue-hair’d train.

Meantime the god, elate with heart-felt joy,

Had reach’d the temple of the sportful boy;

He told Caissa’s charms, his kindled fire,

The naiad’s counsel, and his warm desire.

“Be swift, he added, give my passion aid;

A god requests.” – He spake, and Sport obey’d.

He fram’d a tablet of celestial mold,

Inlay’d with squares of silver and of gold;

Then of two metals form’d the warlike band,

That here compact in show of battle stand;

He taught the rules that guide the pensive game,

And call’d it Cassa from the dryad’s name:

(Whence Albion’s sons, who most its praise confess,

Approv’d the play, and nam’d it thoughtful Chess.)

The god delighted thank’d indulgent Sport;

Then grasp’d the board, and left his airy court.

With radiant feet he pierc’d the clouds; nor stay’d,

Till in the woods he saw the beauteous maid:

Tir’d with the chase the damsel set reclin’d,

Her girdle loose, her bosom unconfin’d.

He took the figure of a wanton faun,

And stood before her on the flowery lawn;

Then show’d his tablet: pleas’d the nymph survey’d

The lifeless troops in glittering ranks display’d;

She ask’d the wily sylvan to explain

The various motions of the splendid train;

With eager heart she caught the winning lore,

And thought ev’n Mars less hateful than before;

“What spell,” said she, “deceiv’d my careless mind?

The god was fair, and I was most unkind.”

She spoke, and saw the changing faun assume

A milder aspect, and a fairer bloom;

His wreathing horns, that from his temples grew,

Flow’d down in curls of bright celestial hue;

The dappled hairs, that veil’d his loveless face,

Blaz’d into beams, and show’d a heavenly grace;

The shaggy hide, that mantled o’er his breast,

Was soften’d to a smooth transparent vest,

That through its folds his vigorous bosom show’d,

And nervous limbs, where youthful ardour glow’d:

(Had Venus view’d him in those blooming charms,

Not Vulcan’s net had forc’d her from his arms.)

With goatlike feet no more he mark’d the ground,

But braided flowers his silken sandals bound.

The dryad blush’d; and, as he press’d her, smil’d,

Whilst all his cares one tender glance beguil’d.

He ends: To arms, the maids and striplings cry;

To arms, the groves and sounding vales reply.

Sirena led to war the swarthy crew,

And Delia those that bore the lily’s hue.

Who first, O muse, began the bold attack;

The white refulgent, or the mournful black?

Fair Delia first, as favoring lots ordain,

Moves her pale legions tow’rd the sable train:

From thought to thought her lively fancy flies,

Whilst o’er the board she darts her sparkling eyes.

At length the warrior moves with haughty strides;

Who from the plain the snowy king divides:

With equal haste his swarthy rival bounds;

His quiver rattles, and his buckler sounds:

Ah! hapless youths, with fatal warmth you burn;

Laws, ever fix’d, forbid you to return.

then from the wing a short-liv’d spearman flies,

Unsafely bold, and see! he dies, he dies:

The dark-brow’d hero, with one vengeful blow

Of life and place deprives his ivory foe.

Now rush both armies o’er the burnish’d field,

Hurl the swift dart, and rend the bursting shield.

Here furious knights on fiery coursers prance,

but see! the white-rob’d Amazon beholds

Where the dark host its opening van unfolds:

Soon as her eye discerns the hostile maid,

By ebon shield, and ebon helm betray’d;

Seven squares she passed with majestic mien,

And stands triumphant o’er the falling queen.

Perplex’d, and sorrowing at his consort’s fate,

The monarch burn’d with rage, despair, and hate:

Swift from his zone th’ avenging blade he drew,

And, mad with ire, the proud virago slew.

Meanwhile sweet smiling Delia’s wary king

Retir’d from fight behind the circling wing.

Long time the war in equal balance hung;

Till, unforseen, an ivory courser sprung,

And, wildly prancing in an evil hour,

Attack’d at once the monarch and the tower:

Sirena blush’d; for, as the rules requir’d,

Her injur’d sovereign to his tent retir’d;

Whilst her lost castle leaves his threatening height,

And adds new glory to th’ exulting knight.

At this, pale fear oppress’d the drooping maid,

And on her cheek the rose began to fade:

A crystal tear, that stood prepar’d to fall,

She wip’d in silence, and conceal’d from all;

From all but Daphnis; He remark’d her pain,

And saw the weakness of her ebon train;

Then gently spoke: “Let me your loss supply,

And either nobly win, or nobly dir;

Me oft has fortune crown’d with fair success,

And led to triumph in the fields of Chess.”

He said: the willing nymph her place resign’d,

And sat at distance on the bank reclin’d.

Thus when Minerva call’d her chief to arms,

And Troy’s high turret shook with dire alarms,

The Cyprian goddess wounded left the plain,

And Mars engag’d a mightier force in vain.

Strait Daphnis leads his squadron to the field;

(To Delia’s arms ’tis ev’n a joy to yield.)

Each guileful snare, and subtle art he tries,

But finds his heart less powerful than her eyes:

Wisdom and strength superior charms obey;

And beauty, beauty, wins the long-fought day.

By this a hoary chief, on slaughter bent,

Approach’d the gloomy king’s unguarded tent;

Where, late, his consort spread dismay around,

Now her dark corse lies bleeding on the ground.

Hail, happy youth! they glories not unsung

Shall live eternal on the poet’s tongue;

For thou shalt soon receive a splendid change,

And o’er the plain with nobler fury range.

The swarthy leaders saw the storm impend,

And strove in vain their sovereign to defend:

Th’ invader wav’d his silver lance in air,

And flew like lightning to the fatal square;

His limbs dilated in a moment grew

To stately height, and widen’d to the view;

More fierce his look, more lion-like his mien,

Sublime he mov’d, and seem’d a warrior queen.

As when the sage on some unfolding plant

Has caught a wandering fly, or frugal ant,

His hand the microscopic frame applies,

And lo! a bright hair’d monster meets his eyes;

He sees new plumes in slender cases roll’d;

Here stain’d with azure, there bedropp’d with gold;

Thus, on the alter’d chief both armies gaze,

And both the kings are fix’d with deep amaze.

The sword, which arm’d the snow-white maid before,

He noew assumes, and hurls the spear no more;

The springs indignant on the dark-rob’d band,

And knights and archers feel his deadly hand.

Now flies the monarch of the sable shield,

His legions vanquish’d, o’er the lonely field:

So when the morn, by rosy coursers drawn,

With pearls and rubies sows the verdant lawn,

Whilst each pale star from heaven’s blue vault retires,

Still Venus gleams, and last of all expires.

He hears, where’er he moves, the dreadful sound;

Check the deep vales, and Check the woods rebound.

No place remains: he sees the certain fate,

And yields his throne to ruin, and Checkmate.

A brighter blush o’erspreads the damsel’s cheeks,

And mildly thus the conquer’d stripling speaks:

“A double triumph, Delia, hast thou won,

By Mars protected, and by Venus’ son;

The first with conquest crowns thy matchless art,

The second points those eyes at Daphnis’ heart.”

She smil’d; the nymphs and amorous youths arise,

And own that beauty gain’d the nobler prize.

Low in their chest the mimic troops were lay’d,

And peaceful slept the sable hero’s shade

I think Caïssa was with me in this game…haha.. I played against one of my all time favourite players. We always have five games going at any one time and I always try to save my Knights. In this end position, you can see why I do save them whenever I can. I know most players prefer Bishops, but I always prefer my Knights! See the pgn-file which I’ve copied here to look at.

Now, for another all-time-favourite…the music of Ravel…the ostinato from Bolero, though I do apologise for the funny sound you will hear.

Boléro became Ravel’s most famous composition, much to the surprise of the composer, who had predicted that most orchestras would refuse to play it. It is usually played as a purely orchestral work, only rarely being staged as a ballet.

The Chess game.

1.e4 e5 2.Qh5 d6 3.Bc4 Qe7 4.Nc3 Be6 5.Nd5 Qd7 6.Nxc7  Qxc7 7.Bxe6 Nf6 8.Qf5 fxe6 9.Qxe6  Be7 10.Nf3 Nbd7 11.Ng5 O-O-O 12.Nf7 Rhe8 13.Nxd8 Kxd8 14.d3 h6 15.Qf7 Rg8 16.O-O g5 17.Qb3 Nc5 18.Qc3 b6 19.b4 Na4 20.Qxc7  Kxc7 21.c4 Nc3 22.Re1 Kd7 23.Bb2 Na4 24.Ba3 a6 25.Rab1 Nc3 26.Rb2 b5 27.c5 Na4 28.Rc2 Rc8 29.Re3 dxc5 30.bxc5 Bxc5 31.d4 exd4 32.Rh3 h5 33.Bxc5 Nxc5 34.e5 g4 35.Rg3 Nfe4 36.Ra3 h4 37.f3 gxf3 38.gxf3 Ng5 39.f4 Nf7 40.Rh3 Nh6 41.Rxh4 Nf5 42.Rh7  Kc6 43.Rh5 Ne3 44.Rd2 Rg8  45.Rg5 Rxg5  46.Kf2 Rg2  47.Ke1 Kd5 48.Rxg2 Nxg2  49.Kf1 Nxf4 50.Kf2 Kxe5 51.h4 Ne4  52.Kf3 d3

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Melodies of love

Classical music and chess are two of my “melodies of love”..if you know what I mean..and today I want to share Dolannes Melody, by the master himself, the French artist, Jean-Claude Borelly! If you’re a chess player, try playing a game while listening to this music, you surely will have a good game. Wasn’t it Philidor that was a composer too…and a world chess champion! Today’s chess game, which I played on  Chesscube, was really one of  “those” games – for me…a plain silly start. No excuses. Sometimes you play (well me, not you) and you make certain moves and you don’t know what on earth caused you those moves. If you look at these images, you will see what I mean. You see, this is “typical-me”..Frailty, thy name is woman!) not thinking about the game, but just playing for the fun of it..and then, suddenly, the tables get turned…and your opponent refused to move as he knows he’s in trouble…and..”The rest is silence.” I wonder if you will identify some quotes I’ve used here and know from which play? You can now play through two games interactively. Down in this post you will find the links to play through it. Game 2 is a game I’ve played earlier tonight on Chesscube. My opponent is a 1708 strong player. I beat him in our first round and in the second I lost due to a silly Knight-move! If it wasn’t for my Knight-move, I could have beaten him, but that shows you again.. absent-minded-me! Please click on the images for a larger view.

You will see how he used his Knight (my favourite piece – see how I used my Knights later on!) to “spoil” it for me! –“O! what a rogue and peasant slave am I!”

–“Let me be cruel, not unnatural; I will speak daggers to her, but use none.”

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

..hmmm…first Knight to move in with a Knight-fork…”Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me. You would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery.”

..and my second ready to slay his King..another Knight-fork…gmf! that will teach him to chase my Dame around and slaughter my men! –“The rest is silence..

And my dearest opponent begged me to stop..and on his knees he prayed his last prayers…his poor King in rags! –“The play’s the thing, wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King!”  –“Now cracks a noble heart. Good-night, sweet prince; And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”

Do you think it’s true what Kasparov said?

Game 1: Please click HERE to play through the game. The game will open in a new window.

1. d4 d5 2. Bf4 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nb5 Kd7 5. Nxc7 Rb8 6. Nb5 Ra8 7. Bc7 Qe8 8. Be5 Ne4 9. Nc7 Qd8 10. Nxa8 f6 11. Bc7 Qe8 12. Bf4 e6 13. Nc7 Qe7 14. Nb5 Qf7 15. Nd6 Bxd6 16. Bxd6 Nxd6 17. e3 a6 18. Nf3 Rd8 19. Qd2 Ne4 20. Qd3 g6 21. h3 f5 22. a4 Nb4 23. Qb3 Qe7 24. c3 Nc6 25. c4 Na5 26. Qb6 Nc6 27. b4 Nxb4 28. cxd5 Nc2+ 29. Kd1 Nxa1 30. Ne5+ Ke8 31. f3 Nf2+ 32. Kc1 Nxh1 33. Bb5+ axb5 34. Qxb5+ Bd7 35. Qxb7 Qa3+ 36. Kd2 Nb3+ 37. Kc2 Na5 0-1

Game 2: Please click HERE to play through the game.

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Bg4 4. d5 Bxf3 5. Qxf3 a6 6. Nc3 h6 7. Bd3 Nf6 8. O-O Nbd7 9. Re1 Qe7 10. Qd1 Nb6 11. b3 Qd7 12. a4 Be7 13. a5 Nc8 14. b4 O-O 15. Ne2 Nh7 16. Ng3 Bg5 17. Bxg5 Nxg5 18. Qh5 Ne7 19. Be2 Ng6 20. Bg4 Qd8 21. Nf5 Nf4 22. Qh4 Qf6 23. Qg3 Rab8 24. h4 Nh7 25. Bd1 Ng6 26. Nxh6+ gxh6 27. h5 Kh8 28. hxg6 Qxg6 29. Qh3 Rg8 30. Bf3 Ng5 31. Qg3 Nxf3+ 32. Qxf3 Rg7 33. Re3 Rbg8 34. g3 Rh7 35. Qe2 h5 36. Rd1 h4 37. Rdd3 h3 38. Kh2 Qg4 39. Qxg4 Rxg4 40. Rc3 f6 41. Re2 Rgg7 42. Rf3 Rf7 43. Rf5 Rh6 44. g4 Kg7 45. Rh5 Rxh5 46. gxh5 Kh6 47. Kxh3 Kxh5 48. Kg2 Rg7+ 49. Kf1 Rg5 50. Re3 f5 51. Rh3+ Kg4 52. Rg3+ Kf4 53. Rxg5 Kxg5 54. exf5 Kxf5 55. Ke2 Ke4 56. Kd2 Kxd5 57. Kd3 e4+ 58. Ke3 Ke5 59. c3 d5 60. f4+ Kf5 61. Kd4 c6 62. Ke3 Ke6 63. Ke2 Kf5 64. Ke3 Kf6 65. Ke2 Ke6 66. Ke3 Kf5 67. Kd4 Kg4 68. Ke5 e3 69. f5 e2 70. f6 e1=Q+ 71. Kd6 Qg3+ 72. Kc5 Qc7 0-1

Update: Game 3…Another game I played on Chess cube….my opponent’s time ran out…although he was about to lose the game too…please click HERE to play through the game where I played white. Out of desperation he forced me to capture his Queen in order to have a lost myself, but I didn’t mind that much as I knew I had a Pawn-advantage. I loved the position of my Knights during the middle-game as I could use them effectively.

1. d4 h5 2. e4 e6 3. e5 f5 4. Bf4 Ne7 5. Bg5 h4 6. Bb5 b6 7. Bxe7 Bxe7 8. h3 Bb7 9. f3 Bb4+ 10. c3 Be7 11. Nd2 a6 12. Ba4 b5 13. Bc2 Nc6 14. Nb3 b4 15. c4 d5 16. c5 Bg5 17. Bd3 Be3 18. Be2 Bxd4 19. Nxd4 Nxe5 20. Nxe6 Qd7 21. Nd4 Rh5 22. Qd2 Rg5 23. Qxg5 Qe7 24. Qxf5 Rd8 25. Kf2 Bc8 26. Qc2 c6 27. Re1 Qg5 28. b3 Qg3+ 29. Kf1 Kf7 30. Bd3 Re8 31. Re2 Qg5 32. Bf5 Bxf5 33. Nxf5 Re6 34. Nd4 Nd3 35. Nxe6 Qc1+ 36. Qxc1 Nxc1 37. Nd8+ 1-0

Now, for the climax! Do enjoy Dolannes Melody and if you like it, I’ve got a link – Grumpy Boss’s blog – where you can download it from rapidshare. But you also have to download the Rar-software to unzip it…good luck, it’s worth doing it for a wonderful piece of music like this, and you not only get the one track, but the complete album! Follow the link.
Dolannes Melody
Jean-Claude Borelly

http://grumpyscorner.blogspot.com/2007/08/jean-claude-borelly-dolannes-melody.html

This is the Youtube-movie with Dolannes Melody.

The Piano version

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Chess, poetry art and music

Image: Chesscentral.com

I believe this is a good combination: chess, poetry, art and music! I’ve started recently reading Dean’s poetry blog and glad that I’ve discovered his blog. This poem in this post, is today’s entry on his blog and I’ve really enjoyed it and thought to share it with you. If you’re a lover of poetry, make sure to visit his blog, if you don’t, you will regret it! If you don’t like poetry, then you still should visit his blog and you will immediately fall in love with his poems! I have a present for you today too, let’s call it an early Christmas present if you like, a composition by Jim Brickman. Finally, for my chess-lovers (and those who think they might become chess-lovers!) I’ve got a few games here (do check back as I have about ten more to blog in this entry!) played a few days ago in the Dresden Olympiad. This post is almost as good as “wine women and song!”:) All links will open in a new window.

Remember me to the world
And all the beautiful girls
I never kissed; if there’s one regret
That is it: that I left any lovelies’
Lips unblessed, her heart repressed

Remember me to the wind, which
Blows wherever it goes; still, or not
Any feeling does not cost, but what you
Do with it: recall I am that
Innocent, awake to only wonder told

Remember me to the sun; the heat,
The blaze, worries public or hidden,
I have had them all, unbidden: most
Of all when you see that woman or girl,
Remember me, my dear, to the blessed world

©Dean J. Baker
To read more wonderful poetry, please click HERE to read on Dean Baker’s blog! Chess=love+poetry+music+art=chess!

Read more about Dean on his biography-link on his blog!

Over 500 poems and prose poems published since 1972 in over 130 literary publications in Canada, the USA, England, Australia, New Zealand, etc., such as Descant, Carleton Literary Review, Poetry WLU, The Prairie Journal, Freelance, Nexus, Bitterroot, Oxalis, Bogg, Aileron, RE:AL, Art Times, Pegasus, Impetus, On The Bus, and many others. More have been published in newspapers, magazines, online and in anthologies, recorded and paper.

Music: Jim Brickman: Dream comes true

Please click HERE to play through the game of Nyback from Finland vs Carlsen played in round 6, Dresden 2008.

Carlsen

Please click HERE to play through the game of Dominguez from Cuba vs Gata Kamsky in round 6, Dresden 2008.

This game of Etienne Bacrot was played in round 7 against Sasikiran from India.

Click HERE to play through the game of Boris Gelfand from Israel vs Elexei Shirov of Spain in round 7.

Please click HERE to play through the game of one of my favourite players, Ivanchuk vs Wang of China.

Ivanchuk

Click HERE to play through Kamsky’s game played in round 7 against Peter Leko.

Play through the game of Michael Adams against Radjabov played in round 7, Dresden.

Please click HERE to play through the game of Yelena Dembo, from Greece,  played in round 7 at the Olympiad.

Yelena Dembo

Please click HERE to play through the game of Cheparinov in round 8, Dresden.

To play through a game of Topalov played in round 8, click on the link!
Please click HERE to play through the game of David Howell from England played in round 9.

image: Greekchess.com..David Navara

Please click here to play through the game of David Navara played in round 9.

To play through the game of NIGEL SHORT, played in round 9, click on the link!

Image: chessbase..Nigel Short

Please click HERE to play through the game of Peter Svidler played in round 9 at the Dresden Olympiad in Germany.

Samuel Bak Chess Art. See my “chess humour”- page for more chess art from Samuel and his link.

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Make a joyful sound

The Dancer: Image: noise.net/featured-work.asp?artist_id=8618&category_id=4

This entry is quite an odd entry. I have a few snippets of music files which I truly enjoy and they are some of the about 2GB music files on my MP3-player. The first file is the Elizabeth Serenade, then you can listen to “The mouth organ boy” – by Vicky Leandros. The 3rd song is by Laurika Rauch..”The song of the trains” and then you can enjoy Jackson Browne’s “For a dancer”- a bit down in this entry!

I also have a poem! “The Night Mail”. I had to teach this poem to Y4’s a few years ago and when I searched for the poem, I found it on a website which was about the Night Mail…Royal Mail! It was such interesting reading – the history of the night mail, but what was sad, was the fact that the services of the Night Mail train were terminated. The same time it was about to be terminated,  I came across the site and the poem. There was an abundance of info on that site, but it seems to me that the site, where I found the poem, doesn’t exist anymore! What a shame! I could find you a newspaper article about this train- at least! The poem by Auden is about this train! The Royal Night Mail was about the train from London to Scotland/Wales…see the youtube movie-links at the bottom of this post… and there are even more movies on youtube to be seen! Do enjoy it! Enjoy the music here too! Wherever you go this week, make sure you “make a joyful sound”! – see the lyrics of “For a Dancer”.

 

Night Train
(Commentary for a G.P.O. Film, July 1935)

by W.H. Auden (1907 – 1973)

This is the Night Mail crossing the border,Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner and the girl next door.

Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb:
The gradient’s against her, but she’s on time.

Past cotton-grass and moorland boulder
Shovelling white steam over her shoulder,

Snorting noisily as she passes
Silent miles of wind-bent grasses.

Birds turn their heads as she approaches,
Stare from the bushes at her blank-faced coaches.

Sheep-dogs cannot turn her course;
They slumber on with paws across.

In the farm she passes no one wakes,
But a jug in the bedroom gently shakes.

Dawn freshens. Her climb is done.
Down towards Glasgow she descends
Towards the steam tugs yelping down the glade of cranes,
Towards the fields of apparatus, the furnaces
Set on the dark plain like gigantic chessmen.
All Scotland waits for her:
In the dark glens, beside the pale-green sea lochs
Men long for news.

Letters of thanks, letters from banks,
Letters of joy from the girl and the boy,
Receipted bills and invitations
To inspect new stock or visit relations,
And applications for situations
And timid lovers’ declarations
And gossip, gossip from all the nations,
News circumstantial, news financial,
Letters with holiday snaps to enlarge in,
Letters with faces scrawled in the margin,
Letters from uncles, cousins, and aunts,
Letters to Scotland from the South of France,
Letters of condolence to Highlands and Lowlands
Notes from overseas to Hebrides
Written on paper of every hue,
The pink, the violet, the white and the blue,
The chatty, the catty, the boring, adoring,
The cold and official and the heart’s outpouring,
Clever, stupid, short and long,
The typed and the printed and the spelt all wrong.

Thousands are still asleep
Dreaming of terrifying monsters,
Or of friendly tea beside the band at Cranston’s or Crawford’s:
Asleep in working Glasgow, asleep in well-set Edinburgh,
Asleep in granite Aberdeen,
They continue their dreams,
And shall wake soon and long for letters,
And none will hear the postman’s knock
Without a quickening of the heart,
For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?

It was one of the world’s great railway journeys, but you could not book a seat on it. It inspired two of Britain’s greatest 20th-century poets, and Britain’s most infamous bunch of 20th-century villains. It rushed through the darkness, utterly reliable, while the rest of us slept. But last night it ran for the last time.

Please click HERE to read more about the last Night Mail train from London. The link will open in a new window.

Night Mail Image: See more images on this link….http://flickr.com/photos/scardy/421208053/in/set-72157594588477493/

Image: buckinghamcovers.com

Jackson Browne

For a Dancer..by Jackson Browne

Keep a fire burning in your eye
Pay attention to the open sky
You never know what will be coming down
I dont remember losing track of you
You were always dancing in and out of view
I must have thought you’d always be around
Always keeping things real by playing the clown
Now you’re nowhere to be found

I dont know what happens when people die
Can’t seem to grasp it as hard as I try
It’s like a song I can hear playing right in my ear
That I can’t sing
I can’t help listening
And I can’t help feeling stupid standing round
Crying as they ease you down
cause I know that youd rather we were dancing
Dancing our sorrow away
(right on dancing)
No matter what fate chooses to play
(theres nothing you can do about it anyway)

Just do the steps that youve been shown
By everyone you’ve ever known
Until the dance becomes your very own
No matter how close to yours
Anothers steps have grown
In the end there is one dance you’ll do alone

Keep a fire for the human race
Let your prayers go drifting into space
You never know what will be coming down
Perhaps a better world is drawing near
And just as easily it could all disappear
Along with whatever meaning you might have found
Don’t let the uncertainty turn you around
(the world keeps turning around and around)
Go on and make a joyful sound

Into a dancer you have grown
From a seed somebody else has thrown
Go on ahead and throw some seeds of your own
And somewhere between the time you arrive
And the time you go
May lie a reason you were alive
But you’ll never know.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zmciuKsBOi0
The poem on this link on youtube.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AlG4dLxHjCY
The Royal Mail on this youtube-link.

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Pure Nature

 

wikimusicguide.com/images

I got this cd of Jim Brickman from an American chess player-friend about a year ago. I’ve rediscovered the music and want to share a few tracks (some tasters) with you. The music is beautiful, relaxing, soothing…. Enjoy!

Amazing Grace

You never know

 All I ever wanted

 Please click here to visit his site…the link will open in a new window.

“In you I see the beauty of nature and the love of God” …beauty is in your heart and not in the mirror.

Tracks on the cd:
1. If you believe
2. Journey
3. Amazing Grace
4. All I ever wanted
5. Crossroads
6. You never know
7. By Chance
8. Angel Eyes
9. Bittersweet
10. Dream come true
11. Joyful
12. Picture this
13. By heart
14. Shades of white
15. Another Tuesday morning
16. Devotion
17. Glory (Duet with David Benoit)
18. We exalt Thee

Image: farm3.static.flickr.com/2207/2286429154_f9c9f2dd5a_b

Thousands of years ago the Celtic ancestors placed great value on spiritual friendships. The Gaelic word for this was…Anam Cara. The link will open in a new window.

Anam Cara Blessing

May the light of your soul guide you.
May the light of your soul bless the work you do with the secret love and warmth in your heart.
May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul.
May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light, and renewal to those who work with you and to those who see and receive your work.
May your work never weary you.
May it release within you wellsprings of refreshment, inspiration, and excitement.
May you be present in what you do.
May you never become lost in the bland absences.
May the day never burden.
May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams, possibilities, and promises.
May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.
May you go into the night blessed, sheltered, and protected.
May your soul calm, console, and renew you.

John O’Donohue

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Sea of Dreams

Sleep and His Half Brother Death
John William Waterhouse
http://www.illusionsgallery.com/sleep.html

Image: dreams.co.uk
 How do you feel about sleep? Sometimes I can go a whole night without sleep, but I will surely feel knackered two days later! I love being in bed at night when the rain is tapping on the roof. Weekends I like to lie in…and then get a nice breakfast in bed! …now to the music!  I’ve these wonderful music, two tracks from a chess friend and he also sent me the third track by Hennie Bekker and suddenly! I found myself busy with an entry on sleep!! I even found you an interesting link about the stages of sleep and one about sleep deprivation…that’s for me, actually…lol! It was truly not my intention to blog about sleep when I uploaded these snippets of music, but at the end, after  searching for some images, I came across these interesting info and sites and thought to share it with you as it was interesting to me.  I  blog about stuff which I enjoy/find interesting…apart from chess…my blog is sort of a “gathering space” for info I want to refer back to, but also in the hope that other people will find it useful too or will enjoy it at least. In the same process, I also found music for children with Aspergers! I’ve worked with children with Aspergers syndrome, Down Syndrome and also Autistic children and they are all a pleasure to work with!

I’ve come across music for  ASD– the link will open in a new window – which you will find in this post. You can read more  about ASD on the link and there’s another link in this post for you to follow up too, if you are more interested in Autistic children.
Seven hours sleep a night helps reduce heart problems. Read the article…the link will open in a new window.

Image…see more fantastic images here..http://photo.net/photodb/member-photos?user_id=941594

Firstly, enjoy “Sea of Dreams”…this track is about 5 min, but you get to listen to only a taster of it, as well as the other tracks. Tranquil Realms is about 11 min but the taster only about 2 min. For Afrikaans speaking people, I wonder if you can remember the Afrikaans poem about sleep! Please find it at the bottom of my post, a wonderful poem by DF Malherbe! In this poem he asks God to shut his eyes one day like the little girl’s when she falls asleep…
On my blog on this link you can read about dreams…the link will open in a new window.

Sea of Dreams..by Angelle

Sleepy Time…by Angelle

Hennie Bekker…Tranquil Realms

Read on this link about sleep cycles. The link will open in a new window. Read on this pdf-link on wiki about dreaming.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikibooks/en/e/ef/Lucid_Dreaming.pdf

The Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Brain and Behavior
Sarah Ledoux
Sleep deprivation is a commonplace occurrence in modern culture. Every day there seems to be twice as much work and half as much time to complete it in. This results in either extended periods of wakefulness or a decrease in sleep over an extended period of time. While some people may like to believe that they can train their bodies to not require as much sleep as they once did this belief is false . Sleep is needed to regenerate certain parts of the body, especially the brain, so that it may continue to function optimally. After periods of extended wakefulness or reduced sleep neurons may begin to malfunction, visibly effecting a person’s behavior. Some organs, such as muscles, are able to regenerate even when a person is not sleeping so long as they are resting. This could involve lying awake but relaxed within a quite environment. Even though cognitive functions might not seem necessary in this scenario the brain, especially the cerebral cortex, is not able to rest but rather remains semi-alert in a state of “quiet readiness” . Certain stages of sleep are needed for the regeneration of neurons within the cerebral cortex while other stages of sleep seem to be used for forming new memories and generating new synaptic connections. The effects of sleep deprivation on behavior have been tested with relation to the presence of activity in different sections of the cerebral cortex.
The temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex is associated with the processing of language. During verbal learning tests on subjects who are fully rested functional magnetic resonance imaging scans show that this area of the brain is very active. However, in sleep deprived subjects there is no activity within this region. The effects of this inactivity can be observed by the slurred speech in subjects who have gone for prolonged periods with no sleep .
Please click HERE more about sleep deprivation and brain behaviour…the link will open in a new window.

The music in ‘Sleep’ has been designed to be physically relaxing – the program features no distracting surprises and feels like slow, steady breathing, to help transport the listener away from the stresses of the day towards restful sleep.

This CD, with music composed by Hennie Bekker, incorporates scientific principles of sonic response, and is designed to nudge your mind toward deep and refreshing sleep.

On this link you can listen to more snippets of his music. The link will open in a new window.

Hennie Bekker

African Roots
Bekker was raised in Mufulira, a Zambian copper mining town 10 miles south of the Congo border. In those early years, he was captivated by the symphonic sounds of the African wilderness, the haunting harmonies of tribal chanting and the rhythmic dialogue of drummers communicating between camps at sundown. He is a self-taught pianist who had his professional debut at age 15, spending the next decade performing with various bands throughout Zambia, Zaire, Zimbabwe and Kenya. His success as a fusion-jazz musician and band leader elevated him to become the musical director for one of South Africa’s largest record companies. Here, he added scores of film, television, radio and commercial music to his list of career accomplishments.
Read more about Hennie Bekker here, the link will open in a new window. If you click on “home”, you will find youtube-videos of him to watch.

On the “music” link you will find more albums, even some Africa-music and snippets to listen to.

Asperger’s Syndrome is a condition that was initially described by Dr. Hans Asperger’s 1944 doctoral thesis. It was not until 37 years later, in 1981, however, that Dr. Lorna Wing used the term “Asperger’s Syndrome” in a paper that helped to introduce this condition to the English-speaking world.

As described by Dr. Wing, the primary clinical features of Asperger’s Syndrome include:
naïve, inappropriate, one-sided social interactions
limited ability to establish relationships
poor non-verbal communication
a lack of emotional empathy
pedantic, repetitive speech
intense absorption in certain subjects
clumsy, un-coordinated movements
odd postures

Currently, the prevailing view is that Asperger’s Syndrome is a Pervasive Developmental Disorder which falls at the high end of the Autism Spectrum continuum.

BEHAVIORAL DEFINITION

The autism spectrum extends from “classic autism” — which lies at the lower end of the spectrum– through ASPERGER’S SYNDROME, which is characterized as being at the mildest and highest functioning end of the spectrum –or Pervasive Developmental Disorder–Continuum

The major source of stress in life for the person with Asperger’s Syndrome is social contact, and increased stress generally leads to anxiety disorders and depression Attwood, T. Asperger’s Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals, 1998, p. 148.
AS represents a neurologically-based disorder of development

AS reflects deviations or abnormalities in four aspects of development:

(1) Social relatedness and social skills
(2) The use of language for purposes of communication
(3) Certain behavioral and stylistic characteristics such as repetitive or persevering features
(4) Limited, but intense, range of interests

These dysfunctional features can range from mild to severe

“The Epidemiology of Asperger Syndrome: A Total Population Study” by Ehlers and Gillberg (retrieve citation) 2001), it is estimated that the prevalence of Asperger is 2.6 per 1,000 individuals. With the population of the U.S. currently estimated at 275 million (July 2000), this would mean an estimated 715,000 people are affected by Asperger’s syndrome in the U.S. alone”
Stewart, K. (2002). Helping a Child with Nonverbal Learning Disorder or Asperger’s Syndrome, p. 148

AS is characterized by:

high cognitive abilities — or, at least, “normal” IQ level
extending into the very superior range of cognitive ability
normal language function when compared to other autistic disorders
difficulties with pragmatic, or social language
a better prognosis than other Autism spectrum disorders
Please read on THIS LINK more…the link will open in a new window. Click on “products” and it will take you to the music page.

Image: babyzone.com

DF Malherbe (1881-1969)

Slaap

Wat is die slaap ‘n wondersoete ding!
Sag op haar bloue oë daal die vaak
soos maneskyn diep waterkuile raak
om daar te droom in silwer skemering.

Vir laas beef oor haar lippe ‘n fluistering:
“Nag, Pappie.” Ek merk hoe langsaam hy genaak,
wat drome soet tot werklikhede maak:
in vaderarms rus my lieweling.
Sluit so my oë, God, wanneer vir my
u Engel wenk ter laaste, lange rus
en ek van wilde woeling hier moet skei;
dat my dan stille drome huis toe sus
en sterke Hand deur duisternisse lei.
Sluit so my oë, God, as ek gaan rus.

To Sleep
by John Keats.
O soft embalmer of the still midnight!
Shutting, with careful fingers and benign,
Our gloom-pleas’d eyes, embower’d from the light,
Enshaded in forgetfulness divine;
O soothest Sleep! if so it please thee, close,
In midst of this thine hymn, my willing eyes.
Or wait the Amen, ere thy poppy throws
Around my bed its lulling charities;
Then save me, or the passed day will shine
Upon my pillow, breeding many woes;
Save me from curious conscience, that still hoards
Its strength for darkness, burrowing like a mole;
Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards,
And seal the hushed casket of my soul.

Sea of Dreams…Kelly King …I’ve found this book on google-books whilst searching for images and thought it might be on my list to read when I have more time…I’ve read a couple of books about wars…and for some reason I like to read about it…all part of history.

Sea of dreams by Martin Sramek

Dreams
by Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

My Piano….by… artistnina.com

 

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If music be the food of love, play on

Image: allposters.com

From Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, 1601:

DUKE ORSINO:
If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more:
‘Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou,
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch soe’er,
But falls into abatement and low price,
Even in a minute: so full of shapes is fancy
That it alone is high fantastical.

Swallows in Durban – see the news article in this entry from ENS news

Enjoy “Village Swallows” by  Mantovani and his orchestra. It is a composition by Josef Strauss, one of the Strauss-brothers.

 

hmmm…just what I need…flowers and chocolates!! and on this video…the music of Strauss…”Roses from the South”

Swallow Flocks and World Cup Airport Try Coexistence

DURBAN, South Africa, November 12, 2007 (ENS) – This year, as five million barn swallows migrate from across Europe to roost in South Africa’s Mt. Moreland Reedbed, they will be greeted by air traffic controllers. The controllers will be waiting to warn pilots of the swallow flocks coming in to land so that bird-plane collisions can be avoided.

The plan to protect the birds was announced Monday at a ceremony at the reedbed, attended by the nonprofit conservation group BirdLife South Africa.

The decision to protect the swallows was made in response to global outcry last November, when BirdLife outlined its concern about the expansion of La Mercy Airport at Durban, in preparation for South Africa’s hosting of World Cup 2010.

The airport is being expanded to handle traffic expected for the soccer event and the KwaZulu Natal government wants to see the project completed by 2009.

The Airports Company of South Africa, which administers the existing Durban International Airport, owns the La Mercy land where the $8 billion King Shaka International Airport is under construction, 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Durban.

The new airport is expected to replace Durban International, which will be decommissioned. But for the swallows at the Mt. Moreland Reedbed, without special planning and accomodation, the airport would have been deadly.

Both the reed bed and Mount Moreland are situated South West of the proposed development are aligned exactly with the proposed runway and so are in the flight patch of aircraft leaving or arriving the airport.

The controllers at La Mercy Airport have been among those watching the millions of birds come in this year from all over eastern and western Europe. They will leave again at the onset of winter.
The threat that planes at an expanded La Mercy Airport would pose to the swallows roosting at the reedbed, among Africa’s largest roosts, was put across by conservationists and BirdLife partner organizations throughout Europe.The barn swallow, Hirundo rustica, undertakes one of the world’s most remarkable migrations. The birds fly thousands of miles from southern Africa in spring to breed in Europe and then repeat the feat in reverse in the autumn, to winter back in Africa.

“This has been a fantastic result, and we’re delighted to report on this outcome after a year of negotiations and meetings. The support of so many people via letters and petitions has played an important part.” said Neil Smith, conservation manager at BirdLife South Africa, which led the campaign.

The Airports Company of South Africa has been supportive of making accommodations for the birds.

“Since our campaign started, the Airports Company of South Africa has really come on board, quickly realizing the importance of this site as a reedbed of international significance,” said Smith.

Following BirdLife’s complaint, consultants were brought in to examine the roosting and flocking behavior of the swallows, using advanced radar imagery. They confirmed that constant monitoring of the swallow movements during take-off and landing of aircraft would be required.

The Airports Company of South Africa now says it will install in the airport control tower the same advanced radar technology that the consultants used to study the movement of the swallows.

This will mean that planes can take the option of circling or approaching from another angle when large flocks of swallows form over the reedbed site in the late evening.

Environmental management staff will be employed to make sure that suitable management of the reedbed continues, the airports company said.

Bird conservationists feel somewhat reassured about the swallows’ future. “Losing such a valuable site could have affected breeding swallow populations across Europe,” said Dr. Ian Burfield, Birdlife’s European research and database manager.

“Conserving migratory birds is about more than ensuring one site is protected or well managed,” said Burfield. “It takes global effort: at breeding sites, at stopover sites during migration, and at important non-breeding sites like this, where large numbers of birds roost.

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Villa Rides

It was Monday when the music of Villa Rides suddenly – without a warning! – entered my thoughts and managed to settle there and it hasn’t left me since! When I got home, I couldn’t wait to search the internet to see if there’s somewhere a downloadable file, but to no avail! All I could do, was to order this cd to satisfy my Villa Rides-thirst! When I was at secondary school, I used to do my homework on Saturdays outside with classical music playing…picture this…a farm, huge oak trees – five of them – in front of the house, about 20m away from the house, birds chirping around you…..and you…doing homework! (I loved school homework and wished always for more! haha do you think I’m insane/crazy!?) with the music playing loudly — Villa Rides was definitely on my music-menu during homework time! Even the pesty baboons in the mountain opposite the house had come closer to take a listen! wow! hehehe…I’ve decided to be generous again and to share some tasters with you. The first one is the theme music from the movie with the same title…Villa Rides! And, best of all, I didn’t even know about this movie! I was so surprised when I discovered that it was actually from a movie with even the same title! Why am I the last person to know this! The second and third also only “tasters” from this cd.  I like Mantovani’s music and would like  to put him in the same class/category as Waldo de los Rios. This is what I call music if I have to define music! I also have more info on Fierro and Pancho Villa…very interesting – the Mexican Revolution – on which the movie was based. Do enjoy!
Enjoy the music of Mantovani and his orchestra with…Villa Rides, the theme music from the movie with the same title, Hora Staccato and the third track…Hungarian Rhapsody no2.

Rodolfo Fierro

Villa in grey suit in center. General Rodolfo Fierro at far right.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodolfo_Fierro
Rodolfo Fierro (b. 1880 d. October 14, 1915) was a railway worker, railway superintendent, federal soldier and lieutenant in the army of Pancho Villa during the Mexican Revolution in the Division del Norte. Fierro and his counter part and fellow lieutenant, Tomas Urbina, have been cited as the two halves of Pancho Villa, Fierrorepresenting his malicious side. It is believed Fierro met Pancho Villa in 1913 following the Madero revolution. Originating from Sonora, Fierro was a former federal officer having taken part in fighting against the Yaqui Indians. Following his role as a federal officer, Fierro went on to work as a railway man, eventually being absorbed into Villa’s ranks.

Soldier
Fierro’s prominence is often cited back to the Battle of Tierra Blanca on November 23, 1913. The battle included 5,500 of Villa’s soldiers, against an estimated 7,000 federal soldiers. Before the battle began Fierro had been sent South to destroy the railroad tracks, forcing the federal soldiers to halt. As Villa flanked the well armed federal soldiers with cavalry, a locomotive filled with dynamite and percussion caps was rammed into the federal soldiers train cars, the resulting explosion caused the federal soldiers to flee to nearby undamaged train cars in retreat. Fierro is then noted as riding on horseback after the escaping locomotive, climbing on to the locomotive, running across the roofs of the train cars, and shooting dead the boilerman and conductor, pulling the train to a complete stop. All federal soldiers captured were executed and in the battle Villa captured 4 locomotives, 7 machine guns, horses, rifles and 400,000 rounds of small arms ammunition. The death toll during the battle stood around 1,000 federal soldiers killed and 300 of Villa’s.

Fierro is most known as Villa’s executioner, known as el carnicero (English the butcher).Fierro’s nom de guerra originates from a story documented by Martín Luis Guzmán. Guzmán describes events following the capture of over 300 soldiers known as Orozquistas. The captured soldiers were led into a large field with Fierro on one end, and a wall on the other. They were informed, if they were to reach the opposite end and climb over the wall they would be allowed to continue on free. In groups of ten the captured men were set out to run, Fierro alone firing his pistol at them as they ran, his soldiers handing him fresh pistols to continue firing without delay. One captive is noted as making it over the wall and to freedom, only after Fierro stopped to massage an achy trigger finger.The shooting went on for two hours. It is said that Fierro would ask each prisoner if they would rather return to their family, or join the army of Pancho Villa. Those deciding to return to their family were seem as men who would head back to their old regiment and were executed. Those choosing to join Pancho Villa were provided with a horse, a gun, and three bullets.

Other stories exist of Fierro shooting a man dead in public in the state of Chihuahua. The person, sitting across from Fierro, argued that a man shot would fall backwards, Fierro disagreed. To settle the bet Fierro shot the man, and watched as he fell forward, confirming to Fierro that he was correct.

While working as Villa’s railway superintendent, Fierro was publicly reprimanded by Villa for a train of supply water running 35 minutes late. Villa, when the train arrived is said to have shot the conductor dead as an act of vengeance for his humiliation. This incident sparked strife amongst the railway workers, who primarily supported Villa. In another incident, a drunken Fierro killed a railway worker for bumping into him, this final incident caused Villa to act. Villa permitted a judge to begin collecting evidence against Fierro into his actions, a judge who begged to be removed from the case for fear of repercussion. The case never went to trial but Fierro was removed from the position of railway superintendent. It is often stated the case was a sham, simply to continue to retain support from the much needed railway workers.

Fierro is also known for the murder of William S. Benton on February 17, 1914, an Englishman and land owner in Mexico who had his land confiscated by Villa’s forces. Numerous stories exist around what happened. Benton is cited as having stormed into Villa’s headquarters in Ciudad Juárez, demanding his land back from Villa, in which Villa refused. Following his refusal, Villa maintains Benton unsuccessfully attempted to draw a six-shooter pistol, he was wrestled to the floor and given a formal court martial and found guilty of attempted assassination, he was then executed and buried. A conflicting story exists in which Benton drew his pistol but was detained and removed from the town at night. He taken to the desert, where a hole was dug and Fierrois believed to have struck Benton in the head with a shovel, dumping into the grave without checking to see if Benton was still alive.

On October 14, 1915, Fierro died after being thrown from his horse and landing in quicksand. At the time, Fierro was marching toward Sonora when he encountered the quicksand at the Casas Grandes Lagoon. The weight of his belt, loaded with gold is said to have prevented him from being able to escape.

 Doroteo Arango Arámbula  also known as Pancho Villa

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancho_Villa

Image:tcm.com

 

Charles Bronson as Villa and Yul Brynner as Fierro

The Texas Revolution or Texas War of Independence was fought from October 2, 1835 to April 21, 1836 between Mexico and the Texas (Tejas) portion of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas
Please click ON THIS LINK to read more about it. The link will open in a new window.

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Dance of the Knights

I’ve seen Romeo and Juliet ages ago, I can only recall certain parts of it, think I need to go and see it again. The Dance of the Knights is quite fresh in my mind…I’ve found the music for you to download too if you want to! Take a listen and enjoy the youtube movie. You can also read about the “Knight’s tour” in chess…almost like the “Dance of the Knights”;) The music was composed by Prokofiev and was also the theme music of the tv program  “The Apprentice”. If you click on links, it will open in a new window.

Download the music here.

Images: Wikipedia
….

History..links open in a new window.
The pattern of a Knight’s Tour on a half-board has been presented in verse form (as a literary constraint) in the highly stylized Sanskrit  poem Kavyalankara written by the 9th century Kashmiri poet Rudrata, which discusses the art of poetry, especially with relation to theater (Natyashastra). As was often the practice in ornate Sanskrit poetry, the syllabic patterns of this poem elucidate a completely different motif, in this case an open knight’s tour on a half-chessboard.

The first algorithm for completing the Knight’s Tour was Warnsdorff’s algorithm, first described in 1823 by H. C. Warnsdorff. Read more on this link.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight’s_tour

 

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Classic you rock!!

I found this newspaper article on yahoo…very interersting what they say about people’s personality. I myself is a great lover of classical music in particular and I’ve blogged some classical music before…here’s two entries to follow and I have 3 tracks for you to enjoy.Please click HERE to read my entry about Waldo de los Rios and I personally think my Symphony of Toys-entry is really one of my best entries so far. Don’t miss it if you haven’t read it..

The first track is called…Symphony No. 101 in D..”The Clock” part 3 “Rondo” and it is actually a four min piece of music. You really have to turn your sound up with the start of this track, otherwise you’re going to miss the clock!! The clock can be heard throughout the music, but the music starts with only the clock playing… The second track is of course the Toy Symphony…Minuetto…but I’ve discovered it was composed by Mozart’s dad..Leopold and not by Haydn. This cd indicates it was composed by Haydn. The 3rd track is Beethoven’s Symphony no 6 in F opus 68 ‘Pastorale’ part 5! This is such wonderful music, but sadly, this is only almost half of the track, think you know why I can’t upload the whole track, although I would love to! but since I’ve discovered how to go about to upload only a “taster”, I will stick to the rules! Make sure the volume is turned up!

Image: sybervision.com

A study by a psychology professor has found links between personality and music taste.

The Heriot-Watt university professor Adrian North said: “We have always suspected a link between music taste and personality. This is the first time that we’ve been able to look at it in real detail. No-one has ever done this on this scale before.

“People do actually define themselves through music and relate to other people through it but we haven’t known in detail how music is connected to identity.”

According to the study heavy metal fans are gentle, indie music listeners lack self-esteem and lovers of pop music are uncreative.

He found that country and western fans are hard-working, rap fans outgoing and jazz and classical music supporters are innovative and bursting with self-confidence.

Contrary to the stereotype, heavy metal fans are gentle and at ease with themselves but they tend not to be hardworking.

Those who listen to heavy metal and classical music share character traits of being creative, at ease and introverted.

But classical music fans have high self-esteem while heavy rock fans lack self-belief.

More than 36,000 people around the globe took part in the survey, the biggest of its type ever conducted.

They were asked to rate 104 musical styles in the study and were also questioned on aspects of their personality.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/itn/20080907/ten-music-taste-linked-to-personality-ea4616c.html

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Waldo de los Rios

Some of you will remember the post entry about the Symphony of Toys by Mozart — and not Haydn, as many people think. I’ve also blogged the Toy Symphony music, but in the same breath I said I’ve ordered the CD, which has now arrived!

Waldo de los Ríos (7 September 1934 – 28 March 1977) was an Argentinian composer, conductor and arranger.

De los Rios was born as Osvaldo Nicholas Ferrara in Buenos Aires into a musical family; his father was a musician and his mother a well known folk singer; he studied composition and arranging at the National Conservatory of Music under Alberto Ginastera and Teodoro Fuchs. He was inspired by an eclectic range of music and formed a musical group called “The Waldos” which crossed folk music with electronic sounds. De los Rios turned to work in cinema and film sound tracks where his compositions were heard in the 1967 film Pampa Salvaje, for which he received a prestigious award from the Argentine Cinemagraphic Association. He relocated to the USA in 1958 and then to Spain in 1962.
Please read HERE more about him.

Unfortunately, I have to be a bit “nasty” and I’ve uploaded only 1min+ of each of the 2 audio files from this CD. 

The first track is called…Symphony No. 101 in D..”The Clock” part 3 “Rondo” and it is actually a four min piece of music. You really have to turn your sound up with the start of this track, otherwise you’re going to miss the clock!! The clock can be heard throughout the music, but  the music starts with only the clock playing. The second track is of course the Toy Symphony -Minuetto -but I’ve discovered it was composed by Mozart’s dad, Leopold, and not by Haydn. This cd indicates it was composed by Haydn. Do enjoy and if you compare the music here with my post about the Toy music and the audio files on that post. This second track was also the theme song of a program I used to listen when I was a child, it was called “Jongspan Atteljee”…”Children’s Studio” and I think I loved the program more for the music! 
And now, I’ve decided to spoil you with a third track! Beethoven’s Symphony no 6 in F opus 68 ‘Pastorale’ part 5! This is such wonderful music, but sadly, this is only almost half of the track, think you know why I can’t upload the whole track, although I would love to! but since I’ve discovered how to go about to upload only a “taster”, I will stick to the rules! Make sure the volume is turned on full volume! 

Other composers’ music on this cd… Mozart (also Eine Kleine Nachtmusik), Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Dvorak, Mendelssohn, Verdi, Donizetti and Rossinni.

My favourite – Haydn’s clock movement!

 

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Symphony of Toys

Image: http://www.hbf.lv/index.php?&366&view=concert&concert_id=94
Please click here to enjoy the music of Waldo de los Rios and his interpretation of the Toy Symphony! The link is on my blog and will open in a new window. You surely don’t want to miss out on his fantastic music!
Wow! This entry took me really hours to put together! But I really enjoyed it…I never do anything that I don’t enjoy…. but if it’s something I have to do and it’s not enjoyable…well, that’s a different case…as I always tell children, some people have to do the boring work too and if it’s you then it needs to be done! That’s life. Back to my entry! I LOVE  the Toy Symphony and as a child, I used to listen to a program on the radio, only for children, called “Jongspan Atteljee“…in English..”Children’s studio”… and the theme song for that program was….the Toy Symphony! — Meneutto— I sometimes turned the radio on for that program just to listen to it ..again… hehe… I spent literally hours on the Internet to find these audio files too! But lucky you, now you can listen to my favourite composition by….NOT Haydn…as I’ve thought too! but by Mozart’s dad! Leopold… and I’ve found websites where more people think the composer was Haydn.

 As a child I had a few toys which I really liked or should I say …enjoyed. One was a doll, she almost looked like the one from the museum on the image, but I wasn’t really a dolly-person when I was a child…there was so much to do on the farm…..only later with the Barbies! but my favourite toys were the little toy cars! I grew up on a farm and we used to have these huge acorn trees near the house, they were really old… when I was little, my mum told us they were more than 70 years old! We had an open space near these trees which was a bit sandy and where we could “build” some “roads” for our cars! wow…that was really great and I can recall an orange tractor too…Massey Ferguson… I used to drive a tractor myself on the farm when I was about 15. My sister’s boyfriend loved to take me on the tractor and the combine harvester! I loved it too…although the combine harvester was a bit tricky to drive…guess what..I was 12 when I drove on the dusty farm roads like I was an expert on driving! It’s easy on those roads as the traffic inspectors don’t go there! ..back to music! 

Little children need to be introduced to music at a very young age, as with books and art. There are many ways you can do that with music and one way is to get them to draw images or patterns if they listen to music. To compose their own music they can use a pattern structure. On one image you will see patterns drawn and coloured. That’s  my Y5 children that listened to different types of music and they’ve decided which patterns  and  colours to use to express the mood/type of the music.

Toy Symphony:

The composition, originally called in German “Kinder Sinfonie” (“Children’s Symphony”), and known in America under the title “Toy Symphony” goes back to the 18^thcentury.   It was created to entertain everyone on the stage and in the audience.  The score of this humoresque piece of music calls for two violins, bass, and a small battalion of toy instruments – cuckoo, nightingale, toy drum, toy trumpet, rattle, and triangle.

Please click HERE for the International music performance and educational project that empowers children and adults alike, giving realization of modes of musical creativity and expression through the use of new concepts and technologies.

Image: Sibeliusmusic.com

 

Mozart… image: Classicsonline.com
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791)http://www.classicsonline.com/composerbio/Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart/

Leopold Mozart …Image: classicsonline.com
Leopold Mozart (1719 – 1787)
The father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Leopold Mozart, distinguished as a violin teacher, sacrificed his own career as a composer to foster that of his son. He was a man of wide interests, the son of an Augsburg bookseller, and left university to join the musical establishment of the Archbishop of Salzburg, a prelate in whose service he rose to become court composer and deputy Kapellmeister, a position he maintained, without further advancement, until his death in 1787. See more of his music on this link: http://www.classicsonline.com/composerbio/Leopold_Mozart/
 

 Please click HERE to listen or to order this cd.

Toy Symphony : Allegro

Toy Symphony : Menuetto–my favourite!!

Toy Symphony : Finale

Art…different moods according to different types/pieces of music…

Image: Liverpool museum…

Together with the piano, I played the recorder too when I was at school, but would really love to play the violin and flute!

Little chidren can listen to music and draw images of what they “see” while listening to the music.

I’ve only ordered this morning this cd of Waldo de los Rios. His music is just fantastic and the Toy Symphony is on this cd and…Haydn’s  Symphony No. 101 in D Major..”the Clock”…!!
Click here to listen to the music of Waldo de los Rios on classicfm. This youtube video is the Symphony of Haydn, but not the same as being played by Waldo de los Rios!!

Youtube video: Toy Symphony: Allegro…Menuetto…and then the Finale…enjoy!

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My Vuurtjie

English readers: you can find my translation of this first poem on “My Poems-gedigte” page on top of my blog. I hope you will enjoy it.

EENSAAMHEID – JAN F.E. CELLIERS
My vuurtjie en ek is op wag –
my vuurtjie en ek alleen;
die awend-ster
wink al van ver,
en die velde slaap omheen.

En stadigies sterwe die dag,
soos een in sy armoed verlaat,
ongesien, ongeag,
sonder suggie of lag,
waar niemand van weet of van praat.

Nou bly die lug alom
in stil aanbidding staan –
geen tampende bel
wat die ure tel:
net die sterre wat kom en gaan.

Die osse, met koppe gebuie,
herkoue nog stil in die nag,
tot één vir één buk
en gaan lê by sy juk,
met `n sug, ná die trek van die dag.

My vuurtjie is al wat nog leef
in die eindeloos ruim met my,
en sy stemmetjie dwaal
soos `n deuntjie wat draal
om dae lank verby,

om jonkheids blye môre
en laggies lank verlewe.
Dan voel ek `n traan
in my oë staan
en ek fluister: “Heer, vergewe!”

Die slapende velde lê wyd,
en wyer die donker see,
wat my vuurtjie en my
vanawend skei
van die wêreld se vreug en wee;

ek weet daar`s fees vanaand
in menig verligte saal,
maar geeneen wat my mis
by die dans en die dis –
`n balling vergeet en verdwaal.

Maar al is ek, ver van die skaar,
in eensaamheids wonings getrede,
ek voel my soos een
met die Heer alleen –
`n kind aan Sy boesem tevrede.

image: digitalcameraclub.co.za

I’ve read something this morning on Zee’s blog that reminded me about this poem : “Eensaamheid” by Jan F E Celliers I also came accross this poem on a  website and it also reminded me about this very same poem! “Eensaamheid” means…”loneliness…or…solitude…”

Ver op hoë berge
Pagina: 431/431

Ver op hoë berge, o-o-o…
Sit ek eensaam in die nag,
by my vuurtjie stil op wag,
ver op hoë berge.

‘k Denk nou kom my liefste, o-o-o…
k’ Sie van verre kom die wa,
die my liefste skat daar dra,
ver op hoë berge.

Droom is weer voorbij nou, o-o-o…
‘k Sit weer eensaam in die nag,
by my vuurtjie stil op wag,
ver op hoë berge.
http://www.carpegeel.be/lied.aspx?id=857

Read on WIKIPEDIA more about him.
Kliek HIER vir meer gedigte deur Celliers…
Enjoy the music of Sweet People …terwyl jy  “Eensaamheid” lees

On THIS LINK –on my blog- you can read two poems of Jan FE Celliers.

Afrikaanse kindergedig!
Digter? Wie kan help?  Titel?
Daar stap ‘n klein mannetjie
In die rigting van die klotsende waterstroompie
Hy het ‘n emmer in sy handjie
En jy hoor net:die suisende windjie!

Hy stap, voete slepend
Hy stap, tande knersend
Hy draf, voete knarsend
Hy draf, hande swaaiend

Oppad hoor hy ‘n kwetterende voëltjie
Hy val skielik: kaplaks!
Daar lê hy onderstebo op die bruggie
“Ai”, sê hy, “dis seer”, vervlaks!

Nou loop ons klein ou mannetjie
Baie stadig, hy sien hy ‘n bobbejaan
Wat al blaffend en al strompelend
KADOEF! en PARDOEF!
Teen ‘n boomstomp kom gejaa’n

Die kabbellende rivierstroompie
Stroom al jubelend oor die klippies
Daarnaas is ‘n verdwaalde lam
Hy blêr! Ai tog! Dis ‘n ram!

Oppad terug stap die mannetjie
Met sy kleine, swaaiende kannetjie
Geluidloos deur die woud heen en weer
Wat het geword van die brullende
En krakende donderweer?

Ek weet! Die sissende slange
En kwakende padda
Het almal op skrik gejaag
KABOEM! Daar blits hy
SJADOEF! Daar flits hy

~~~~~~

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Die strelende skemer van my gemoed

 

Image: by Julie Rogers…Woven thoughts

Die strelende skemer van my gemoed

Vanselfsprekend dartel
jou skadu’tjie
langsaam, ritsellend
soos ‘n vlokkie
eind’lose skaterlag
vibrerend in my gemoed
en die weerspieëling
is onvermydelik verstrengel
tussen Haydn en Wagner
en die draaikolk
van my gryse gedagtes
wat in die
strelende skemer
van my gemoed bly vloei
©Nikita
29 Junie 2008

The soothing twilight of my mind
Self-evidently frolic and sprightly
Your little shadow
gradually quivering
– as a flakelet –
endless peals of laughter
vibrating in my mind
and the reflection
is inevitably intertwined
between Haydn and Wagner
and the whirlpool
of my ancient thoughts
flowing
through the soothing twilight
of my mind
–Translated: Nikita – 16/2/2012

[For a friend to understand the Afrikaans]

This poem is just a poem about my thoughts going back to South Africa and my childhood days – also on the farm where I grew up. My country and its people will always be in my thoughts!

Please click HERE to read the book Thought-Forms by: Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater on the site of the Gutenberg-project. In this book you will read about colour and thoughts.

Enjoy the music of Haydn…Piano concerto in D major – one of my favourites!


Haydn by Thomas Hardy
Source: wikimedia
Franz Joseph Haydn ==March 31, 1732 – May 31, 1809== was one of the most prominent composers of the classical period, and is called by some the “Father of the Symphony” and “Father of the String Quartet”.

A life-long resident of Austria, Haydn spent most of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Hungarian Esterházy family on their remote estate. Isolated from other composers and trends in music until the later part of his long life, he was, as he put it, “forced to become original”.

Joseph Haydn was the brother of Michael Haydn, himself a highly regarded composer, and Johann Evangelist Haydn, a tenor.

Gedigte
Afrikaans
Afrikaanse Gedigte
Afrikaans poems

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Suid-Afrika my skaduwee

I’ve got this CD of Hilary Stagg…beautiful music…enjoy this track and do get yourself this CD!!

This is an Afrikaans poem, just my thoughts about life as a child…

Indien jy ooit by die Opelug Museum in Pretoria ‘n draai maak, maak gerus ‘n draai by die Watermeule. Hierdie watermeule het op ons plaas gestaan en is hy klip-vir-klip gemerk en net so herbou in Pretoria. As kind van ongeveer 7/8 jaar oud, het ons gedurig op die wiel gespeel en was dit ‘n heerlike wegkruipplek vir die kat om haar kleintjies te kry!! Daarom dat my gedagtes ook in hierdie gegriffel ‘n draai gaan maak het op die watermeul se wiel! Ek kon vir ure die miskuiers volg wat in veld hulle bolletjies gerol het…wanneer ek gaan stap het om verdroogde stukkies takkies te versamel en grassade vir my versameling wat ek gedurig in my kamer uitgestal het…die gedrooge takkies…spesiale mooi uitgesoektes natuurlik, het ek in gebruik in rangskikkings en was my kamer omtrent ‘n “nes” van alles wat ek van die veld aangedra het. Selfs verdwaalde tarentaal-vere het hul ere-plekkie gehad…en hoe kon ek die karretjies uitlaat, dit het ek meer gespeel as met my poppe wat altyd net op my bed gelê vir die mooiheid…

Baie dankie aan Francois vdM wat vandag [18/6/2011] hierdie pragtige foto van my geliefde waterval op ons familieplaas – waar ek ure kon sit en ontspan, rondklouter en saam met familie/vriende geniet het, aangestuur het. Francois bly ook in die omgewing en ken dit ook alte goed. In die volgende gedig lees jy juis van die waterval!

Suid-Afrika – my skaduwee

In die skadu’s
van die groot ou Eik
stoot ek weer in die sand
Boeta se karretjies een-vir-een
‘is verstommend hoe die mierleeus uit hul tonnels
krioel met kierang-hier en kierang-daar

Langs die waterval
sit ek, halfbewus
my gedagtes vind perspektiwiteit
en rol ragfyn ligstraaltjies voor my uit
op die kabbellende water

Op die meulwiel van vervloë
versamel ek babakatjies
pas gebo’, versteek
teen elemente daar buit’
en ek streel die sagtheid
wat ek koester
verder op my reis

Ek verdwaal tussen rante
soekend na onweerstaanbare
toktokkies en miskruiers
‘k neem ‘n honger teug
uit die kom van fluisteringe
“ons-vir-jou-ons-vir-jou”

Hoe sal ek jou kan vergeet
jou alledaagse ontwykende
en eindlose horison
onwetend
bly jy daar vir my
en ek vir jou
Hoe kán ek dan
Vergeet van: “ons-vir-jou”…?

©Nikita 17 Junie 2008

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Hilary Stagg

Hilary Stagg’s music is really beautiful….harp music!

Clickhere to see more of his albums. There are 30 sec bits of tracks to listen to! Enjoy! but, I would suggest you get yours as it is really worth it!  I have The edge of Forever….beautiful!

 

Although you might not understand the words here on the Youtube video, you can still enjoy his music! Don’t fall asleep!

On the link here and this link HERE you can listen to tracks from his album in this post. The links will open in a new window.

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