My round four game: Thursday Knighter IX

I'm posting this game, certainly not because it included perfect play by either of us--we both had some positional errors--but those positional errors led to some exciting tactical play. Roger and I talked about the game afterwards. Any comments from you the reader?

Round 13 today: World Chess Championship

Today could be the decisive round in the World Chess Championship. With just two rounds remaining, only three players are in contention for first place:

Vishy Anand with 8.0 (4-0-8)
Boris Gelfand with 7.0 (3-1-8)
Vladimir Kramnik with 6.5 (2-1-9)

Gelfand is White against Kramnik, while Anand is Black against Grischuk. The action starts at 2 p.m. CST. Games can be viewed at the ChessMexico site.

Update: As of a little after 4 p.m. today, Gelfand and Kramnik drew after 26 moves.

Gelfand now has 7.5 (3-1-9)
Kramnik has 7.0 (2-1-10)

Grischuk and Anand are in the endgame at their thirty third move.

Two options for casual chess

Some of you may have seen Dan's posting on the Chess Castle site for casual chess on Tuesday's at Redeemer Lutheran Church.

Starting September 18^th, there will be a new location in Minneapolis where you can drop in to play chess on Tuesday nights. Whether you want a slow game, some blitz chess, or just finding someone to analysis your games with, stop in. All skill levels welcomed. The pastors of the Redeemer Lutheran Church on 1800 Glenwood Ave, and Jack Mangan, a scholastic chess organizer, have set this up. There is no charge and no memberships are required. It will run from six to nine in the evening. You can park for free behind Milda’s Restaurant at Logan and Glewood, and just cross Logan and enter the church through the front door. The #9 bus goes by every thirty minutes.

I am very happy to see this, as a casual chess night was one of the services offered at our old site in the Nordeast. That always gave me someplace to send beginners, who would contact me looking for places to explore chess, without making the large jump to rated tournament chess immediately. If you yourself know such people, point out this new opportunity. (Also along those lines, the chess league is another excellent starting point.)

I would like to let you also know about another group that I found through meetup.com, The Twin Cities uber-casual Chess Meetup Group. If you don't know about meetup.com, it is a website dedicated to creating gatherings of people with similar interests throughout many different cities through the States. The chess group started in the last couple of days, so please visit and join if you are interested in some casual chess!

Holy crap! The Meat Puppets are touring again!!!

Although I got to see but one show of theirs--that was in '87--the Meat Puppets were one of my favorite bands during that time of my life. (The Dead, of course, with Mike Watt's fIREHOSE, The Butthole Surfers, and Rollins Band also had my respect.)

I just found out today that the Meat Puppets will be touring again, including a show in Minneapolis, November 10, at the Varsity Theater!

World Chess Championship: Anand has a half point lead

After his defeat of Alexander Grischuk today in an exciting game, Vishy Anand holds a half point lead, with 5.0 points, in the World Chess Championship over Boris Gelfand. The official crosstable and pairings are at the Chess Mexico site. All the players have one more game tomorrow, kicking off the second half of the tournament, before a rest day on Saturday.

The live and replayable games are here.

Enjoy!

Edit: Susan Polgar reported that "the energy level here is quite high."

Excellent article on the link between morality and genetics

Yesterday I was reading the paper copy of the New York Times, and I found this excellent article about the research of Dr. Jonathan Haidt.

It starts off:

"Where do moral rules come from? From reason, some philosophers say. From God, say believers. Seldom considered is a source now being advocated by some biologists, that of evolution.

At first glance, natural selection and the survival of the fittest may seem to reward only the most selfish values. But for animals that live in groups, selfishness must be strictly curbed or there will be no advantage to social living. Could the behaviors evolved by social animals to make societies work be the foundation from which human morality evolved?"

Read the entire article here: Is 'Do Unto Others' Written Into Our Genes?

Prison Break

Since nothing happened on Friday night except my choking my first round game at the TCCL...

I think I'll mention the season premier of Prison Break tonight. I don't know how many regular readers of my blog or those who have found it randomly have watched it, but it is one of my favorite shows on television right now.

Just a few hours to go!

World Chess Championship, Round One, is just kicking off.

The matchups for round one are:

GM Kramnik Vladimir - GM Svidler Peter
GM Morozevich Alexander - GM Aronian Levon
GM Anand Viswanathan - GM Gelfand Boris
GM Grischuk Alexander - GM Leko Peter

A live link to the games is here.

Henry Rollins starts his spoken word tour on Friday!

Henry Rollins starts the Provoked spoken word tour in Flagstaff, Arizona this Friday. He'll be on the road for nearly two months, including a stop in the Twin Cities on Monday, October 15.

He is one of my favorite performers. I've seen Rollins Band perform numerous times, as well as see him speak a few times as well. His stories range from the deadly serious to uproariously funny.

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Lately I've been appreciating his serious tact on issues and stories affecting America. On his IFC show this season, he had two Iraqi vets. One, Lieutenant Paul Rieckhoff, wrote an amazing book on his experiences fighting in Iraq called Chasing Ghosts, Failures and Facades in Iraq: A Soldier's Perspective.

I picked this book up at the library this summer and read through it slowly. I could have read faster, but Rieckhoff's description of some of the horrors of war churned my stomach. I know his job is one I could not handle.

I was amazed by his leadership in getting his troops through some extremely difficult situations. He kept his humanity intact while deciphering who was good versus who was bad in the streets of Iraq.

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Regardless of what Henry discusses during this tour, it will be worth the time to sit and listen!

Al Franken on Renewable Energy

I found this article via Digg.

Go Al!

Countdown to Twin Cities Chess League: T-4 days!

A mere four days remain until the Twin Cities Chess League begins this Friday at the Roseville Skating Oval. I encourage those of you who are interested but do not yet have a team to visit this link on the MSCA website to discuss your needs, or simply show up Friday to join a team.