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Chesstories

2007

February 24, 2008

It is written - but is it understood?

Exciting discovery: 38-pound stone holds an ancient alphabet: On the last day of his 2005 archaeological dig in Israel, Ronald Tappy was up in a cherry picker, photographing his site, when a supervisor asked him to look at "some scratches" a college volunteer had found on a stone.

London, (CAIS) Two Sasanian inscriptions written in Sasanid-Pahlavi (Middle Persian) language have been discovered in Kohan-Dedz historical site in northeastern Iran. An Irano-French archeology team has discovered two inscriptions written in Sasanid-Pahlavi language during the third phase of excavations in Kohan-Dedz.

Archaeology: Ancient Writing or Modern Fakery? Ravenna, Italy Yousef Madjidzadeh, chief of excavations at Jiroft in southeastern Iran, has found tablets that he believes display a hitherto unknown writing system. But the circumstances surrounding their excavation have raised doubts about the tablets' authenticity.

Are there similarities between the "Jiroft script" and the "Indus script?" Like a number of other ancient Indus "decipherments" in the past century, the work of Dr. Asko Parpola (University of Helsinki, website) has concluded that the Indus sign system represented an ancient Dravidian language.

Want to translate English into Egyptian hieroglyphics? Or into Assyrian, Babylonian, Sumerian cuneiform? There is a online translation tool created by a University of Advancing Technology instructor to do it for you!

The moving finger writes - and having written,
moves on...

Is Salvador Dali giving us the finger?

Auction Watch: Dali "Finger" Set sold for $23,400 at Gallery of the Palm Beaches auction on January 7, 2008.

A close up look at the details of the digits of renowned artist Salvador Dali (Spanish 1904-1989) could be found in the figures of a chess set designed by Dali at the request of his friend Marcel Duchamp in 1964 for the American Chess Federation. All of the pieces of the set were modeled after Dali’s fingers except the two Queens which used one of Dali’s wife’s fingers crowned with a tooth and the rooks which were modeled after the salt cellars of the Hotel Saint Regis in New York. Of the thirty two pieces sixteen are sterling silver and sixteen are silver gilt. The set was cast by F. J. Cooper of Philadelphia and was signed and numbered “AE 45.”

But! But! But!
This auctioned set is actually a remake of the original Dali set, which, in my opinion, is more aesthetically pleasing. I am not sure if it is a reproduction of an original or not, but a version of the Dali chess set resides in the Contemporary Works section of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and many of the works on display there are the Real McCoy. (DMc)

"I don't want to claim that Fischer was afraid of me. Most probably he was afraid of himself. He believed that the world champion has no right to make mistakes. But with such a belief you can't play chess, because you can't avoid mistakes." Anatoly Karpov

"Chess is war over the board. The object is to crush the opponent’s mind.” Robert J. Fischer

"Nobody taught Bobby. Geniuses, like Beethoven, Shakespeare and Fischer come out of the head of Zeus. They seem to be genetically programmed, know before instructed." John Collins

"Perhaps the biggest surprise is that Fischer lasted as long as he did. The only other American chess genius, Paul Morphy, was found dead in a bathtub in 1884 at the age of 47, surrounded by women's shoes." Will Buckley (The Guardian, January 19, 2008)

Ancient Chinese Astronomy: New insights from old information China has the world’s longest-running observations of the sky: though based in astrology, they are of unique importance to astronomy today.

Pair of Indian Hardstone-Inlaid Marble Games TABLE-TOP 20TH CENTURY Each of square outshape with moulded edge and frieze variously inlaid with foliate arabesques around a specimen marble chess-board

24½ in. (62.5 cm.) square (2)
On auction at Christie's (Lot 0187, estimated 4,000-6,000 GBP) on March 19, 2008 at the London, King Street location (Sale Number 7569)

A rare edition of MANDRAGORIAS, SEU HISTORIA SHAHILUDII, VIZ. EJUSDEM ORIGO, ANTIQUITAS, USUSQUE PER TOTUM ORIENTEM CELEBERRIMUS (HISTORIA NERDILUDII). OXFORD: SHELDONIAN THEATRE, 1694, by Thomas Hyde (1636-1703), from the library of the Earls of Macclesfield (Shirburn Castle) is going on auction at Sotheby's

(Lot 4070, estimated 800—1,000 GBP) Sale: L08400
Location: London, New Bond Street
Auction Dates: Session 1: Thu, 13 Mar 08 10:3

The latest on the ongoing controversy about repatriation of the Lewis Chess Pieces. "UK CULTURE minister Margaret Hodge has dismissed Alex Salmond's demand for the Lewis Chessmen to be returned to Scotland as "nonsense

Women in Black

A quad of chess queens this month. 

The recently concluded 2008 Gibtelecom (Gibraltar) international tournament, in its 6th year, attracted chess stars from all around the world to compete in beautiful surroundings and for generous prize money. 

A separate Women's Event hosted some of the best female chessplayers in the world. Here are the top four finishers, all with 6.5/9 (they split the top 4 prize money of £9,000): (1st place) IM Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan (GEO 2457),  (2nd place) IM Victoria Cimilyte (LTU 2475) (Cimilyte is married to super GM Alexi Shirov and has two children); (4th place) GM Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL 2464) (Stefanova, who earned her GM title in 2003 with a peak rating of 2560, was 2004 Women's World Chess Champion) and (3rd place) 16-year old IM Dronavalli Harika (IND 2455). 

These beautiful women from around the world amply demonstrate that chess ain't just for geeks! (or Muggles)...

February 10, 2008
a Special Focus on
Deterioration/Destruction of Ancient Sites

An Iranian-Italian archaeological team has started an emergency operation to restore one of the damaged bastions of Bam Citadel, severely damaged in an earthquake in 2003

Islamic Republic in Iran destroyed 60% of the architectural and archeological remains of Pol-Borideh in Chahar-Mahal Bakhtiari province overnight for road construction. The ancient site was registered on the National Heritage List.

CAIS reports that the Iranian Islamic regime destroyed the 2200-year-old Khoda-Afarid bridge also known as Negin, in Shiniyar district of Masjed-Soleyman in Khuzestan province

Swat Valley Buddha (Pakistan) defaced with dynamite by Islamic radicals

Silk Road art at Dunhuang Oasis in danger from shifting desert

Egypt's ancient rock art endangered by tourists who leave behind their filth and grafitti

Historians hustle as flood from dam project threatens ancient Alans town discovered in the Russian Republic of North Ossetia

Senet:
"His face in back - his face in front"
Still kicking after 5000 Years!
"I am yesterday and today - I know tomorrow"

"Located in the garden of the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum & Planetarium in San Jose is a large version of the Egyption board game called Senet."

What was senet? More than some chess historians would ever want to know, it seems. The game is described as being similar to backgammon. Obviously there was more to it than meets the eye. Ancient Egyptians considered it sublime.