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2007

May 27, 2007

British Rock Art Collection
This is fascinating - and huge! There are about 10,000 pictures of rock art (petroglyphs, cup marks, spirals, swirls and everything in between, including a few items that are suggestive of game boards) from the British Isles at this website, all collected by "amateurs". There are also related blogs old and new.

Another Riverside Cradle of Civilization?
Greek-Russian archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi claims that a complex Bronze Age society he has been excavating sicne 1972 was so sophisticated that it should be considered the world's fifth center of ancient civilization. This would add Turkmenistan's Murgab River society, officially known as the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, to a more familiar list of cultural cradles of antiquity: Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and China. CAIS has some good photos with captions.

Blast from the Past
One Bridge Too Far, by IM Dr. Ricardo Calvo (d. 2002). The article was originally published in New in Chess magazine, 1986, No. 8. It became an issue in the 1996 election campaign for United States Chess Federation President, as Donald D. Schultz, a candidate, had voted to have International Master Ricardo Calvo declared "persona non-grata" by the World Chess Federation for writing this article. Eleven years later, Mr. Schultz is again running for a seat on the Executive Board of the USCF.

Distinguished Women of Past and Present
A website devoted to distinguished women, this particular page is devoted to women in the Military and Warfare.

Dissertations Express
If you're looking for an otherwise unpublished thesis, this is the place to go. Great resource.

Looking for the perfect quote?
Check out Bartleby's Quotations, which consists of four separate sources, all word searchable.

Alexander's Lost Tomb
A new book has been released. Nicholas Saunders, British archaeologist, social anthropologist and the author of Alexander's Tomb: The Two Thousand Year Obsession to Find the Lost Conqueror, has endeavoured to unlock one of the mysteries of the ancient world — what happened to the body and where it was buried.

Chess Princess
Nine-year old Hannah Thomas (Hampshire, England) has qualified for the southern regional finals in the British Land Chess Challenge to be held in July. Hannah, who played 6 games and was tired by the end of the event (she said it was from using her brain power), is now preparing for the upcoming challenge.

May 20, 2007

Archaeologist Dr. Martin Runkkvist (Sweden) helped excavate a Viking "boat burial" in 2005 in which some amber gaming pieces were recovered. He has a couple of posts (with photos) about the excavation at his blog: Post 1; Post 2. For a fuller treatment of the excavation, here's a very readable article on the discovery of these gaming pieces in the boat burial with lots of photographs illustrating the text.

There Be Dragons... The American Museum of Natural History (New York) begins a new exhibit on May 26, 2007: Mythic Creatures - Dragons, Unicorns and Mermaids - an enchanting exhibition that traces the cultural and natural history roots of some of the world's most enduring mythological creatures for the first time, is scheduled to open on May 26, 2007. Legendary beasts of land, sea, and air such as dragons, griffins, mermaids, sea serpents, and unicorns are highlighted in this major exhibition scheduled to remain on view through January 6, 2008, after which it will travel to other venues.

Goddess Power: Hathor-Sekhmet... Originally a powerful goddess of war worshipped in Upper Egypt, Hathor the cow-horned goddess and Sekhmet the lion-headed goddess took on separate persona sometime after the Upper and Lower Kingdoms of Egypt were unified; later still, many of Hathor's attributes (including her identity as a solar goddess, Ra's daughter, who's sun symbol rested atop her head held safely between two upturned cow's horns) were assumed by Isis, the magician-priestess wife of Osiris, the god of the underworld. Among her many titles was "Lady of the West," the land of the dead. She may have been associated with divination - examples of ancient mirrors have survived, encircled by Hathor's horns, and have been depicted in tomb paintings - that may have been used in scrying techniques. The image is Hathor guiding Queen Nefertari on her voyage through the underworld (second chamber of Nefertari's tomb). Hathor-Sekhmet's horns symbolize the power of the Sun God.

Echoes of Thera Eruption Lava find suggests ancient Egyptian cities in northern Sinai area were leveled by massive volcanic eruption.

Works of Art in Amber If you're in the market for an expensive hand-carved chess set, perhaps the Amber Workshop has just the thing!

Take a virtual tour of some of the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology online exhibits - fabulous!

Jon's Chess Page... Jon is a collector. He has several pieces he identifies as "ancient game pieces" in his collection, such as the "4,000 year old metal pieces from Mesopotamia." Where on earth did he get them - wouldn't you think such pieces would be in a museum???

Lord of the Rings? Who is the king who held the five rings of power? A fabulous treasure trove of gold artifacts was discovered at the end of April in R?mhormoz, Khuzestan Province, Iran by a water-works crew doing bulldozing in the area! An intriguing "fish" goddess was among the remarkable treasure. Is there any wonder why there are archaeological looters out there? More information here.

May 13, 2007

Emily Teeter (Assistant Curator at the Oriental Museum, University of Chicago) has written a new book:  "Ancient Egypt: Treasurers from the Collection of the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago," Oriental Institute Museum Publications, vol. 23.  Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 2003.  Pp. xiv + 146 + 108 figs.  $22.95.  Don McLean and Jan Newton spent several happy hours pouring over this collection during a visit to the Oriental Institute in 2005.  They have also had the pleasure of attending a talk given by Emily Teeter at the Milwaukee Public Museum in connection with that institution's exhibit "The Quest for Immortality: Treasures From Ancient Egypt", in 2003.

Speaking of "The Quest for Immortality" exhibit, it recently concluded a stay at the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Oregon, and will next be at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, September 2-December 31, 2007.  We highly recommend this beautiful and informative exhibit.  We think it was much better than the updated Treasures of Tut exhibit also currently touring the United States, which we saw at the Field Museum in August, 2006. 

Ancient Board Games and the Nabataeans 
This is a very informative site with lots of photos and graphics.  A lot of the information came from papers presented at the Second Annual Conference for Nabataean Studies.

Left Behind Games Begins Executive Purge 
Goodness - a company formed to create and market board games based on the "Left Behind" series of books about the "time of the end."  They're having some financial troubles - evidently some stores, including giant retailer Wal-Mart, don't want to carry their products.  Guess playing games about the end of the world, death by horrid plagues, the Devil's followers ripping hearts, etc. etc. aren't going over too well...

Why buy used & out-of-print books @ Biblio?
When you buy books at Biblio, you support literacy and education! Since 2004, Biblio has used a portion of its profits to help build 7 community libraries in South America.

Susan Polgar's latest column is now available at The Chess Cafe.  

There's a new website in town - Chessdom.  Will it give older, established chess sites such as Chessville, Chess Cafe and The Week in Chess a run for their money?  Right now whoever is doing the news updates at Chessdom is a bit behind the times, but they do have a short "fluff" interview with IM Martha Fierro (ECU 2330) and the obligatory photos of the lovely Martha in swim suit and shorts - bound to be a hit with the male chess fans :)

Mrs. Ritchie Dresses as Chess 
Interesting what some society dammes in the 19th century did to amuse themselves...

Chess Princess
Justine Brown, age 10, of Laconia, New Hampshire, is Laconia School District's new chess champion. She uses her Queen to set up her opponents for the big fall. Read Justine's story.

May 6, 2007

India's 19-year old chess star GM Koneru Humpy opines in a recent interview that women play chess differently than men. Here is a collection of opinions on that subject!

Susan Polgar says - watch GM Humpy Koneru (IND 2575) and Yifan Hou (CHN 2513).

Linguistics is a fascinating field; it may be through linguistics that some of the puzzles surrounding the origins of chess are solved. The first North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad has been organized and four cities are hosting the event this year - Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Ithaca, N.Y. - and students in other parts of the country who can find a teacher to serve as a proctor can compete on the Internet. The event is expected to draw several hundred students.

Online Etymology Dictionary (English only). check out the etymology for "chess" - it is the standard etymology. But is it really correct?

Amir Mohtashemi Gallery, London dealers in Islamic, Indian and ancient works of art, has some beautiful pieces, including some beautiful chess pieces. Check back from time to time, as the merchandise available for purchase changes.

The Romans Were Square Roman towns were constructed using orthogonal measurements based on Etruscan divination practices. Yeah baby!

A Chinese archaeologist wonders - can we learn from the mistakes of the past? A research team from the University of British Columbia will conduct a comprehensive study and analysis of Yellow River Valley sites, primarily Shang Dynasty, using an interdisciplinary approach employing archaeology, geology, paleography, isotope chemistry and palynology (the study of pollen and spores). Tools such as high-resolution pollen analysis of lake sediments and paleobotanical study of plant remains will augment an archaeological survey of prehistoric settlements. The focus of the study is what social and ecological forces led to the collapse of the Shang and what modern China might learn from these findings today.

Mining of obsidian in Japan may have taken place as long as 35,000 years ago, much earlier than previously thought (by about 20,000 years!)

Space Data Unveils Evidence Of Ancient Mega-lake
in Northern Darfur, evidence of the past rainy conditions in the eastern Sahara. This technology can help dry countries tap hidden underground aquifers, the contents of ancient lakes that has seeped beneath the surface over the millennia.

Chess Queen
GM Judit Polgar (HUN 2727), is the number 13 player in the world and the number 1 female player in the world, per FIDE April, 2007 ratings list. To give you an idea of her strength, the next highest female player in the world is GM Koneru Humpy (IND 2575). A male player with a rating of 2575 doesn't make the top 100 players in the world, which cuts off currently at 2622. GM Alexander Khalifman is #99 on the April list. Khalifman won the FIDE World Chess Championship in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1999.

This is a recent photo of Judit and Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic, taken by Judit's husband, Gustav Fons. From Susan Polgar's Blogspot. Judit is one of 16 Grandmasters who will be competing in May, 2007 in the Candidates' Matches, the best players of which will compete for the world chess championship in Mexico, 11 September - 1 October. Judit, who will turn 31 this year, is - according to the pundits - entering her prime chess-playing years (the 30's). She beat #1 rated Topalov (FIDE January, 2007 ratings list) TWICE in October, 2006's Essent Tournament. May she have equal success in the Candidates Matches and advance to the finals in Mexico! Viva Judit!

Blast From the Past: Check out Jan Newton's posts written while she was in Las Vegas in August, 1999 to observe the quarter- and semi-finals of the knock-out event that saw GM Alexander Khalifman (RUS 2624) crowned World Chess Champion. Scroll to the heading Tournament Chess for links to those posts as well as links to several articles written by chess luminaries about the championship at the time.