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What do the period marks mean in the table?

The End to Racism and Discrimination on the Playing Field By Tim Noe This is happen with Online Chess Player’s ! Racism is part of almost every aspect of our lives. Whether it is on the news or through personal experience, we see racism all around us. It seems like we have simply accepted racism as part of our lives. It does not look like people really want to put forth the effort that will change it once and for all. However, there is one aspect of almost every American’s life where racism could be eliminated easily while still making a huge impact on the overall fight. This aspect is professional sports. Sports are unarguably an integral part of our society today. Millions tune in every day to follow their hometown team or one of their favorite players, games are allotted primetime spots on the most popular networks, sports news can be seen all over the regular nightly news, many colleges around the country are better known for their sports than their academics, and the list goes on. The one problem with sports being as popular as they are in our society is that basically everyone is always watching. No action, especially in the negative sense, goes unnoticed in sports. When there are incidents of racism or discrimination against players, it is big news and the whole country sees it. Recently, there have been a multitude of incidents of racism and discrimination in the professional sports world. The most controversial of these incidents came not in an American sport but rather in European soccer, which many Americans (including myself) love to watch. As a fan of Chelsea I honestly despise Manchester United, but even I can admit that the actions of Luis Suarez of Liverpool were unacceptable. He racially abused Patrice Evra of Manchester United during a match between the two teams in October. Suarez was given an eight game suspension as well as a fine for his actions. Although leagues and even countries have tried to eliminate racism in sports, their efforts have come up short. One lawmaker even said, “people have started to ask about institutional racism and, you know, whether or not the sort of improvements that we’d all hoped have happened over the past 20 years are actually embedded.” People are noticing the racism and discrimination that is going on in the sports they love to watch; however, these high-profile acts are a bigger problem than some may think because of the impact sports have on people, especially kids. Although leagues and even countries have tried to eliminate racism in sports, their efforts have come up short. Growing up, kids have role models that they look up to for things such as how to act. Kids in America also love to watch sports, so they will naturally have role models who are professional athletes. When a kid sees his/her role model in sports committing an act of racism or discriminating against another race he/she will think it is something that is acceptable. Children do not know any better than to follow the actions of what they see other people doing. This is a major reason why discrimination against other races is still as prevalent as it is today. Once racism is ingrained in a person’s brain, it is a challenge for them to remove it. If we were to eliminate the racism and discrimination in professional sports, we would be taking away the opportunity for young people to see these things as acceptable. Once it is eliminated in one generation, I would hope it would continue to be a nonfactor in the generations thereafter. An example of sports fans seeing racism as acceptable is the recent incident with Joel Ward. Ward scored the game-winning goal in overtime of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup series between his team, the Washington Capitals, and the Boston Bruins. Almost immediately after the goal, a barrage of racist tweets directed at him surfaced on Twitter. Ward did not seem fazed by the tweets and responded, “I think it is just kids. It has no effect on me whatsoever.” The problem is that the people sending these tweets are just kids. They are kids that have it in their mind that saying racist things or discriminating against a different race of people is all right. Tolerance, or lack of punishment depending on the situation, of racism in professional sports has lead directly to these attitudes. Discrimination is not only seen on the field but off the field in management as well. There has been a history of minority coaches not having a chance at jobs because of their race. The NFL implemented a rule named The Rooney Rule in which teams have to interview at least one minority coach when there is a job opening available. Former NFL coach Tony Dungy had this to say about the rule: “I would hope we’re at the point where the Rooney Rule is not necessary.” He is right. Why should we have to have a rule in place that forces teams to interview minority coaches? The simple answer is that we should not. However, the discrimination against minority races in the NFL has become so bad that the rule is necessary. In fact, prior to the rule only 6% of coaches in the NFL were African-Americans. The Rooney Rule is a large step backward for the fight against racism and discrimination in our society. The statistic above shows that the rule is necessary, but we as a society should be past the time where there have to be rules in place to give minorities an equal chance at a job. It reflects poorly on our society because it shows that we have not progressed nearly as far as we would like to think. Rules to prevent discrimination in America should be extinct by now and we should instead be looking at racism and discrimination through our rear view mirror. The only way the racism and discrimination in sports is going to end is if there are severe punishments for these actions. A message needs to be sent in every sport that racism is not acceptable and discrimination will not be tolerated. If a player racially abuses another player, he needs to be suspended for the year and fined heavily. If an organization discriminates against another race during its interview process, they need to be severely reprimanded with punishments such as hefty fines, post season bans, and even firings. Once the message is sent that discriminatory actions are not acceptable in our society, the long-lived aspect of racism in sports will be eliminated. In turn, these acts will begin to fade in America as a whole. We will be able to live in a society that can honestly say it is winning the fight against racism and discrimination.

I say Maurice Ashley is the best ambassador for chess. Check out this article: @https://www.chess.com/news/view/nbc-sports-world-chess-championship-ashley

So what's everyone been listening to lately ? Discovered a new artist ? Got a song stuck in your head ? Recently discovered an album that you love to death ? Share ! ! ! 😸

Here's the avatar that I created for this page

Our stats to monitor of progress:

https://www.chess.com/club/matches/chess-players-of-african-descent/1138692

Okay let me be brief and also suggest what works really well in my other group, with Vote Chess. Essentially, we all sign up and play as a team. I'd like to get some really great players and also some learners on the board. The more players the merrier. The idea is to have higher rated players, suggest their best ideas for moves to make and they should be open to explaining the logic, so our learners start to think like better rated players. We have the option do research, so reviewing master games is not out of the question. I'm not sure if it's frowned upon, or discouraged (seems a bit like cheating for me). It was addressed by Chess.com and we CAN do research for the match.The match is set-up for 1 move every 3 days. On the first 2 days, we should consider how we want our game to proceed. This is the conversation and/or argument phase. On the last day, we should, ideally, have exhausted our situation and agree upon a given move. AFTER THAT, I will make the best move, the move supported on by the team basically, in bold. T'is as simple as that.

Ok, I'm 57 and don't have all day! Oh yeah, that's right, I run a full time chess company! I do have all day?! It's time to pick openings! Remember that match and vote chess are supposed to be theoretical works! What we suggest, recommend, and play is meant to be seen by every person of African Descent that plays chess! If we are to make a name for ourselves in Match. Vote, and Real World play, we have to let everyone know what we play. Then, we make sure we are invincible or play something else! After we have learned 4 or 5 openings for each response, no one will be able to adequately prepare for us, and we have a record for new members to learn from. This means being at our best! After a while, we could just beat people with our own notes!!! My expertise, (lines in which I have unpublished, "Theoretical Novelties") are; The Philidor, Old Indian, Philidor in Reverse, Pirc, Benko, Kings Gambit Declined (2...Bc5!?), and The Petroff! I also take interest gambits of any kind, The Queens Gambit Exchange, Queens Gambit Accepted, The London, The Trompowski Attack, and the Alekhine. We need to pick 2 responses to 1.) e2-e4, 1.) d2-d4, and 1.) g1-f3. Black 1st then White. What will we play as White? You'll have to tell me. We can pick 2 of the 3. all of them would be too much work as I expect you would want me in the games. I also hate the Sicilian I think the proper order is vote chess and matches. Once we become good as a group at any opening, we can handle and make favorable transpositions from our thoughts and our notes! match play without vote chess would be a lot slower. I'm going to have us in a match or vote chess game within the next 7 days. Please tell me your preferences asap! Thanks, Coach Mike C

What are you . . reading, want to read, or would recommend reading ?

You are invited at this club: Koalas ClubWe have live tournaments, daily matches and puzzles.https://www.chess.com/club/koalas-club

I've been doing creative writing for over a decade now. I mostly do science fiction and horror. I just started a short story in which I'll try to use a voice similar to Douglas Adam's. Here's the beginning. What do you think? Police car lights flashed on his wall. A bit of broken glass remained on the floor by the window from when the window had been broken by a beer bottle a few nights ago. The smell of marijuana came from Theo’s apartment in which Theo commonly held apocalypse parties. The sound of someone slowly walking down the stairwell were made. Whoever was walking down the steps was walking quite slowly. Andelo slowly opened his eyes. He stared straight up at the ceiling and took in his surroundings. Andelo had gotten used to the sirens and the flashing of the police cars. He was also used to the smell of marijuana which came from Theo’s apartment four floors above but Andelo did wish Theo would put an end to his partying which occurred an average of once in every 2.87 days, simplified to the nearest hundredth. Every morning before Andelo got up out of his bed, he lay and thought for a few minutes. Eventually, nothing special came to mind and he decided he would settle on calculating how many seconds on average it took for the man who was most likely leaving Theo’s to go down one step. About three minutes later, one clunk on the stairs every 3.55 seconds became several clunks per second and then the clunking ceased. Adelo decided to make sure the person most likely leaving Theo’s was alright, rather than adding the several clunks he had just heard to his calculation. Andelo looked at his digital clock and saw it was five minutes past nine in the morning. He lifted his blankets, got out of bed, and walked on the wooden floor to open his door. He twisted the brass doorknob, and pulled open his door. On the floor at the bottom of the stairs just a few feet from Andelo, a scrawny Caucasian man with shaggy, long blond hair and a beard down to his neck was standing up.

NewYork Times, Article MARCH 13, 2015 In the rear of a Harlem chess club last Sunday night, amid the hubbub of trash-talking players, a group of polite schoolchildren took turns playing speed chess against a large man whose dreadlocks were mostly covered with a wool hat. They were students from the elite Dalton School on the Upper East Side, and they were playing “like scared rabbits,” observed their coach, Jerald Times. “I need to turn them into wolves,” said Mr. Times, 48, who had taken them to St. Nicholas Chess and Backgammon, on Edgecombe Avenue, to toughen them up with cutthroat games of speed chess. “Attack, attack,” urged Mr. Times, whose upbringing around this kind of chess helped him become the champion of Harlem at age 14, and one of the best black players in the world when he was in his 30s. “We call this place the gangster chess club,” he said, with a laugh. “My kids need to learn the animal school of chess.” Dalton, which is preparing for the National Junior High Championship next month in Louisville, Ky., has one of the top chess programs in New York. Its players enjoy private lessons and a long-game format in competition that is far from the type of chess played in the city’s parks, the kind that emphasizes put-downs and audacious, unorthodox moves. “These kids are protected — they grew up in a very nice environment,” said Mr. Times, a self-taught master who grew up poor in Harlem playing street chess legends like the Washington Square Park hustler Vincent Livermore and Jerry “Poe” McClinton, who was, on that Sunday night, across the room at the club. To ratchet up the pressure, Mr. Times had staked his students for $5 games against the large man, Ian Wiggins, 38. Known as Boka, he is one of the club’s better players, and even with a considerable time handicap, he was making light work of the students. “He definitely isn’t playing by the book,” said Mr. Times, who then urged his players to capture Mr. Wiggins’s pieces. “Anything that’s not nailed down, take it.” In speed chess, players have only several minutes to complete a game. They punch a running game clock after every move, and the crackling pace tests a player’s reflexes, nerves and confidence. “Hustlers go for the kill,” Mr. Times said. “If my kids can learn in that environment, it will give them a certain mental toughness they can’t get from a scholastic opponent or playing online.” Mr. Times also respects a deep study of the game and played many grandmasters, once lasting an hour against the great Garry Kasparov. “Kasparov’s a tiger, man,” he recalled. “You could almost feel him suggesting moves to you.” In 2000, Mr. Kasparov had visited the Mott Hall School in Harlem where Mr. Times was coaching the school’s Dark Knights. They were players mostly from low-income families who had no previous chess experience. Mr. Times helped them beat well-funded private schools downtown and led them to seven national championships. Mr. Times said that as a child he moved from one apartment to another in Harlem. He learned chess by reading books, entering free tournaments and playing the hustlers in St. Nicholas Park. “When you lost there, you took a double beating,” he recalled. “You got a verbal lashing and lost your money.” He played basketball at Rice High School, and with the help of $40,000 from a winning Lotto ticket his mother bought, he was able to attend St. John’s University in Queens. Mr. Times, who is a bachelor, became a designated chess master and one of the top five black chess players in the world, before a lucrative position running the chess program for the Harlem Children’s Zone effectively ended his competitive playing career, he said. He can recite Shakespeare sonnets upon request, as well as the poetry of Robert Frost and of Langston Hughes, in whose old Harlem brownstone Mr. Times lived for nine years, while writing poetry and teaching writing to at-risk students and in homeless shelters and drug rehabilitation programs in the 1990s. At a recent Dalton practice, he wore shabby-chic jeans with no belt, and unlaced Timberland work boots. While analyzing a game by the Latvian grandmaster Mikhail Tal, Mr. Times reminded his players of the importance of seizing “Seventh Avenue,” the seventh rank on the board. While teaching chess in South Africa for three years, Mr. Times said, he helped bring gated white communities and poor black townships together in tournaments. Similarly, he hopes to form a group in New York to set up tournaments, clinics and camps that would bring together children from lower-income neighborhoods with those from privileged backgrounds. At the club last Sunday, his players began mimicking Mr. Wiggins’s unorthodox attacks, and seizing pieces street-style, by clapping the board and talking trash. “Look, they’re slamming pieces,” Mr. Times marveled. “Chess is the great equalizer.” Email: character@nytimes.com The Particulars Name Jerald Times Age 48 Where He’s From Harlem What He Is Chess teacher Telling Detail Mr. Times played street chess growing up. “Drug dealers would sponsor me,” he said. “They’d bet $300 a game.”

We need all of you to read you messages and accept the challenge we have made against the Pinoy Philippine Chess Group. Everybody always talking about how they want a match and more group cohesion, well if you don't sign up for this one, you are a talker not an actor. No disrespect, but we need to fill 50 boards, and now we only have 11. PLEASE SUPPORT THIS CHALLENGE by participating in it. Check it out. Please and thank you!

A little about the Alekhine's Defense (wikipedia) Alekhine's Defence is a chess opening beginning with the moves 1. e4 Nf6It is named after Alexander Alekhine, who introduced it in the 1921 Budapest tournament in games against Endre Steiner[1] and Fritz Sämisch.[2] Four years later, the editors of the Fourth Edition of Modern Chess Openings (MCO-4) wrote, "Nothing is more indicative of the iconoclastic conceptions of the 'hypermodern school' than the bizarre defence introduced by Alekhine ... . Although opposing to all tenets of the classical school, Black allows his King's Knight to be driven about the board in the early stages of the game, in the expectation of provoking a weakness in White's centre pawns."[3] White's imposing mass of pawns in the centre often includes pawns on c4, d4, e5, and f4. Grandmaster Nick de Firmian observes of Alekhine's in MCO-15 (2008), "The game immediately loses any sense of symmetry or balance, which makes the opening a good choice for aggressive fighting players."[4] In addition to Alekhine, another early exponent of the defence was Ernst Grünfeld. Its popularity waxes and wanes; currently it is not very common. De Firmian observes, "The fashion could quickly change if some champion of the opening takes up the cause, as the results Black has obtained in practice are good."[4] The opening's current highest-rated proponent is Grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk, although Grandmaster Lev Alburt has done much to promote it. De Firmian writes, "Currently Grandmasters Shabalov and Minasian use the opening with regularity, while Aronian, Adams, and Nakamura will use it on occasion. In the past, great players such as Fischer and Korchnoi included the defense in their repertoire, leading to its respectable reputation."[4] The main responses can be categorized in six areas The Four Pawn Attack The Exchange Variation The Modern Variation Two Pawns Attack Two Knights Variation Offbeat Lines This week, I will cover the Four Pawns Attack. The analysis of this line comes from my over the board games, GM Boris Alterman's Gambit Guide, IM Jeremy Silman's Blog, Fritz 11, and looking over GM games. Let the discussion begin. I hope you like it. Please be sure to look over the variations, ask questions, and make comments. Key Silman = Jeremy Silman B.A. = Boris Alterman Politicalmusic = Me

The 36th Official Chess.com (Daily) Tournament starts on September 1st "NOTE: If you register now and your rating changes before the start date, you will be AUTOMATICALLY moved to the correct group when the tournament starts. You will play up to 10 games at a time in this event." 36th Chess.com Tournament (>2200) 36th Chess.com Tournament (2001-2200) 36th Chess.com Tournament (1801-2000) 36th Chess.com Tournament (1601-1800) 36th Chess.com Tournament (1404-1600) 36th Chess.com Tournament (1303-1403) 36th Chess.com Tournament (1102-1202) 36th Chess.com Tournament (1001-1101) 36th Chess.com Tournament (<1000)

https://www.chess.com/tournament/chess-allstars

How to defend against the central pawns on the 7 rank. Siegbert Tarrasch (1862–1934) stated the "rule" that rooks should be placed behind passed pawns – either yours or your opponent's. However, he's later quoted as saying, "Always put the rook behind the pawn.... Except when it is incorrect to do so." This is one of those expections. .

https://www.chess.com/tournament/politics