Category Archives: Chess

June Blitz and Memes – Chess.com

The letter W starts with a D.

~ Unknown Malcontent.

Welcome, everyone to another exhilarating edition of Blitz and Memes.If you're a fan of puzzles taken from amateur online blitz tournaments, then you have come to the right place, because that is what I do.

As always, the tactics have been selected from the Japan Chess Federation's monthly blitz tournament: TGIF Blitz. The tourney takes place on the 3rd Friday of every month, 21:00 JST, right here on chess.com. It consists of seven rounds of blitz, with a time control of 3+2; and is open to all JCF club members.

The memes on the other hand, have been divined from the infinite corners of the InterWebs...

This month's edition is coming to you a little late, as we had an issue with the tournament notification, meaning that some regular players were unaware of the start of the tournament. Nonetheless, we have five tactics which might prove a little easier to solve than our usual offerings. Good luck trying to solve all of them on the first try.

So, without further ado, let's get to the Blitz and Memes.

A Free Meal

Our first tactic is taken from the fourt-round encounter between Canping and packurkings. Canping, playing White, sees and opportunity that looks too good to be passed up, but perhaps the piece is poisoned?

You be the judge.

Get While the Getting is Good

This next tactic is a great example of taking what is offered, until something better is offered. In the third round mutaito-st, playing Black, captures free material until a shot at the killer blow appears.

Hint: If it's free to be taken, take it.

Using the F-word

Another tactic from mutaito-st, this time in the sixth round, here, playing White, he can take advantage of Black's last move to win material.

Do you understand how to properly use the F-word?

The Man in the Middle

In the sixth round IM rnanjo, playing Black, was able to take advantage of the poorly positioned White king.

Can you put an end to the man in the middle?

At the End of the Night

And at last, we come to the end of the night. Canping, playing White, is able to pull off something brilliant against none other than IM rnanjo.

Good luck with this one.

And that was it, that was June blitz and memes. Congratulations to IM rnanjo for winning with a 6/7 score despite not playing the first round.

Hopefully you found this edition a little easier and were able to get all five puzzles on the first attempt, congrats if you did, you are an excellent solver of puzzles taken from amateur blitz tournaments.

As always thanks for reading, and feel free to share these puzzles with your friends down at the bar or chess club.

Cheers, SheldonOfOsaka.

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June Blitz and Memes - Chess.com

Singapore Edges Out Delhi, Chennai, Will Host World Chess Championship Featuring Gukesh – Benzinga India

Singapore has been chosen as the host for the 2024 World Chess Championship. The championship will see the participation of the defending champion, Ding Liren from China, and the challenger, Indias Gukesh D.

What Happened: The Singapore Chess Federation, with the backing of the Singapore government, has won the bid to host the esteemed FIDE World Championship Match 2024, as per a FIDE announcement. The championship, which is slated to take place between November 20 and December 15, 2024, saw competitive bids from New Delhi, Chennai, and Singapore.

See Also: Check Out Anand Mahindra's Salary As Tech Mahindra's Chairman

Following a comprehensive review of the bids and an inspection of the potential host cities, FIDE chose Singapore for its venues, amenities, event programs, and opportunities. This selection marks a first in FIDE history, with Singapore hosting a World Championship match.

FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich expressed his pleasure at Singapores selection, lauding the city-state as a global tourist and business hub, as well as a thriving chess center. The exact location within Singapore for the championship will be announced at a later date. The championship carries a whopping prize fund of $2.5 million (around 20.7 crore).

Read Next: Uday Kotak Pays Tribute To Childhood Coach, Who Also Trained Sachin Tendulkar, After Indias Historic T20 World Cup Win

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Singapore Edges Out Delhi, Chennai, Will Host World Chess Championship Featuring Gukesh - Benzinga India

The Week contest: Chess team – The Week

This week's question: Employees of Silicon Valley and Wall Street giants, including Google and Goldman Sachs, recently faced off at a chess match, with teams aiming to prove their employer's intellectual superiority. If you could name the chess team for a major corporation, what would you call it?

Click here to see the results of last week's contest: Hot dog memoir

How to enter: Submissions should be emailed to contest@theweek.com. Please include your name, address and daytime telephone number for verification; this week, please type "Chess team" in the subject line. Entries are due by noon, Eastern Time, Tuesday, July 9. Winners will appear on the Puzzle Page of the July 19 issue and at theweek.com/puzzles on July 12. In the case of identical or similar entries, the first one received gets credit. All entries become property of The Week.

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The Week contest: Chess team - The Week

Polish success in chess and bridge as Entebbe 2024 FISU Championship Mind Sports wraps up – FISU

The Entebbe 2024 FISU World University Championship Mind Sports has concluded in central Uganda. The event, which included competition in both chess and bridge, welcomed participants from 16 countries. This was Entebbes second time hosting a FISU event, having held the FISU Championship Cross Country in 2014.

In bridge competition, France, by way of their defeat of Chinese Taipei in the semi-final, took on Poland, which beat Germany in its semi-final. In the final, with a score of 15.30, Poland took the gold medal over France. This gave the country back-to-back gold medals, having prevailed in Antwerp in 2022, and its third in the last five FISU Championships as it won on home soil in 2016 in Lodz. The 3rd place playoff saw Germany take bronze with a score of 42.28.

Poland also had a strong chess tournament taking three out of four individual titles. In the womens blitz event it was a clean sweep for Poland. Julia Antolak took the gold medal with 7.5 points, and fellow countrywomen Liwia Jarocka and Anna Kubicka claimed silver and bronze respectively. For Kubicka, this bronze medal matches hers from the classic tournament two years ago in Antwerp, Belgium.

Aakanksha Hagawane of India won the womens classic gold medal in a very tight competition. A four-way tie materialized with Hagawane coming out on top due to tie breaks. Fellow Indian Saina Salonika finished in second place, while Polands Alicja Sliwicka won bronze. Sliwicka was the defending champion in blitz chess from the FISU Championship in 2022.

On the mens side, Milosz Szpar of Poland held off two Frenchmen to win the gold medal in the classic tournament. His score of 7.5 was enough to give him top spot, while Yovann Gatineau and Benjamin Defromont ended up second and third respectively.

Poland rounded out their stellar week in Entebbe with Igor Janiks win in the mens blitz chess event, with a score of 7.5. Hes a veteran in FISU podium finishes having taken silver in Antwerp in 2022 in both the classic and blitz events. Just behind Janik, tied at 7 points each, were Richard Mladek of Czechia and Richard Turcan of Slovakia, with Mladek claiming silver on the tie break.

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Polish success in chess and bridge as Entebbe 2024 FISU Championship Mind Sports wraps up - FISU

ASX Now Aims To Deliver 1st Phase Of CHESS Replacement By 2026 – FinanceFeeds

The Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) is progressing with the targeted delivery of the first phase of the CHESS replacement project in 2026, the exchange group announced.

According to feedback received on the proposed two-stage approach to implementation, the majority of respondents support a staged implementation of the CHESS replacement system.

ASX intends to proceed with its overarching approach of implementing CHESS replacement across two main releases, with Release 1 delivering the clearing services and Release 2 focused on settlement and subregister functionality.

Clive Triance, Group Executive at ASX for Securities and Payments, said: The completion of the first of two key industry consultations on CHESS replacement is a notable milestone and the strong support we received for our initial proposals reflect the detailed engagement and consultation undertaken in the reassessment of the solution design. This delivers a level of certainty over the first phase of the timeline of the project. We are pleased at the engagement from the industry on this consultation and would like to thank stakeholders for providing their feedback.

Last year, ASX abandoned a blockchain-based CHESS core system replacement, ending a partnership of eight years with Digital Asset after many delays and no final product in sight.

The exchange has since acknowledged further transparency will be needed to regain stakeholder trust in the technology direction of the program. It has since gone back to basics with its replacement strategy, under the watchful eye of the Reserve Bank of Australia and ASIC, and partnered with TATA Consulting Services.

ASX also invited feedback from stakeholders on the proposed criteria ahead of making the first development incentive payment under the $70 million program, CHESS Replacement Partnership Program.The Partnership Program is designed to recognize the important work that will be undertaken on a go-forward basis as ASX, together with industry, work together toward the successful progress and completion of the CHESS replacement project.

The purpose of the Partnership Program is to establish a framework to provide a financial contribution toward stakeholder participation with respect to the successful progress and completion of the CHESS replacement project. This includes any technological and other development activities necessary to successfully interface and interoperate with the CHESS replacement solution that ASX is developing.

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ASX Now Aims To Deliver 1st Phase Of CHESS Replacement By 2026 - FinanceFeeds

A Music of Shadows: Sheida Gharachedaghi Soundtrack to The Chess of the Wind – The Quietus

At a film festival in 1970s Iran, after the screening of The Chess of the Wind, a critic brutally asked the director Mohammad Reza Aslani, Who has permitted you to be a director? Later, another critic wrote What have the people done wrong that he wants to be a filmmaker?

The critics posed this question to a director whose film is now recognized as one of the best Iranian movies in history even within the flourishing context of 1970s Iranian cinema. The experience of watching The Chess of the Wind, especially considering the realistic and poetic context of Iranian cinema and the technological restrictions of the time, is stunning. The painterly cinematography and compositions, the meticulous decoupage and mise-en-scne, the camera movement, all of which become part of the narrative. The implicit references to both Iranian and European art, and the shockingly anachronistic zoom-out after the final scene, all make this film stand out. However, the movie was bashed by both the critics and the audience at the time of its screening and ignored in the histories of Iranian cinema, only to be rediscovered decades later.

The movies plot is full of intentional ambiguities and paradoxes, as if it is an expressionist effort to transmit the sense of fear and conspiracy felt by the main character rather than a well-crafted sensible story. In the 1920s, in an aristocratic family from the 19th century, following the death of the family matriarch, the paraplegic daughter, aided by her maid, fights to maintain control over her inheritance amidst greed and betrayal from the other family members, including her stepfather and his nephews. The story revolves around the conspiracies, ploys, and multi-faceted struggles to erase the potential heirs. It is metaphorical, symbolic, and open to interpretation. Some even suggest it foresees later events in the country.

The story, with its paradoxes, ambiguities, and intentionally disrupted and inaudible dialogues, in a way becomes a source of fear and anxiety in itself. Considering Aslani is known more as a documentary filmmaker than a director of fiction, this makes even more sense. He was one of the main figures of a poetic movement in 1970s Iran whose emphasis was on form rather than meaning, sense rather than ideology, and image rather than word.

Almost half a century after its limited screening and a few exclusive showings in the 2000s, the negatives of the film were accidentally found in a second-hand shop by Aslanis son. By restoring these negatives, Martin Scorseses World Cinema Project made it possible for the film to be internationally screened in high quality. Soon after, it gained attention both inside and outside Iran, and a rich volume was published in Iran in 2021 about the movie, shortly after its rediscovery.

Amongst many meticulously implemented ideas of the film, which have been explored by critics, one of the recurring themes is shadow. Several scenes and the dark yet rich palette of the film imply this, including the famous scene of forging deeds at the beginning. Even in her dream, the main character has experienced a world where there were no shadows. The characters in the film are shadow-like presences, plotting conspiracies, and neither the main character nor us, the viewers, will ever get through the obscurity of who is doing what. Also, just like shadows, one can see their traces, but cannot see them themselves. The shadows are not only expressed visually, dialogically, or narratively; music and sound also play a crucial role in conveying the eerie traces of the unseen.

Composed by Sheida Gharachehdaghi, the score fits perfectly into the dark, mysterious, and poetic ethos of the film. Gharachehdaghi, one of the few prominent female composers of the time, studied composition in Vienna and returned to Iran in 1969. Before composing music for The Chess of the Wind, she composed music for several short and feature films, including movies directed by the likes of Bahram Beyzaei. After returning, she established the music centre in the Centre for the Intellectual Development of Child and Adolescent in Iran (CIDC), and systematically implemented the Orff method in music education for the first time. She is known as a contemporary composer, with experiences ranging from operatic works (Fairies, 1989) to pieces for piano solo (The Window to the Garden, 1990), and music for children, composed during her years at CIDC.

In her music, there are occasional direct or subtle references to different Iranian music genres. In Fairies, for example, Iranian music is applied as a narrative tool, directly used yet decontextualized and accompanied by an English translation of a famous contemporary Persian poem, an approach repeated in The Chess of the Wind by the blind musicians who play Iranian classical music out of its context, in a grotesque backdrop. In Chahargah, another piece of hers, an Iranian classical mode is reinterpreted with a contemporary touch. The Chess of the Wind, though, offers a different reading of Iranian musical elements.

Of all the sources of inspiration for her composition, Gharachehdaghi chose one of the most unexpected ones. The film starts with the atonal and unmetered sounds of wind instruments on a background of a metric pattern played by percussion. This combination is very similar to what is known as the music of naghreh-khneh (naghreh-room) in Iran. Naghreh-khnehs were open rooms usually situated on the top of the gates of certain buildings of significance, hosting a group of musicians, playing wind instruments such as sorn and karen, and the percussive naghreh. None of these instruments are typically used in Iranian classical music but are mostly used in certain folklore genres. These musical rooms have existed since at least the 16th century, and European travelers have described its music as chaotic and unpleasant. Musicians in these rooms had to play before dawn and after sunset, in royal ceremonies, in wars, and on special occasions, such as Islamic holidays or the start of the Iranian New Year. There are few active naghreh-khnehs in Iran in religious buildings, such as the holy shrines in Qom and Mashhad; therefore, the contemporary connotations of this type of music are more religious than before.

In this context, the composers choice of this spatio-musical tradition makes more sense. Apart from its historical character, which suits the setting of the story, the amelodic (or even atonal), chaotic, yet polyphonic nature of naghreh-khnehs music fits the multi-layered interplay of conspiracies within the house. Its religious and apocalyptic connotations, reminiscent of the Islamic musical idea of The Trumpet of Israfil, which also heralds the resurrection of the dead, serve the end-of-an-era narrative of the film. Its intertwining with themes of war and terror further emphasizes the violent fate of the characters.

What makes this choice more meaningful is its capacity to be re-framed through an atonal reading, which makes it both contemporary and mysterious. Apart from the opening credits, the composed music score is used in only three other scenes, all of which are murder scenes. In these scenes, the music remains arhythmic and atonal, with occasional vague references to Iranian intervals and melodic figures. Similar to the directors gothic reading of Iranian architecture, the composer offers an unconventional interpretation of Iranian musical elements, which is not lyrical or nostalgic, but rather grotesque, mysterious, and terrifying.

The sounds used in the movie, as heard in the record, also play an important role in emphasizing the gothic ethos of the movie. The shadows are heard in the sounds and voices with invisible sources, such as the coughs and laughter of a supposedly dead character apparently coming from nowhere. Other musical elements fill the silence in the eeriest way, such as the sounds made by the main characters wooden wheelchair, or the ticking sound of the clock and the clinks of the metal flail which, in the murder scene, are dissolved into the music.

These elements represent gaps, silences, or absences: the wheelchairs sound represents the main characters pain, and the constant ticking and clinking are shadows of their fear of the supposedly murdered man even after his death. The sounds, just like the visual elements of the film, are the sonic shadows of the characters, who remain inaccessible throughout the entire film. Aslanis movie and Gharachedaghis score mirror the story and its characters: after decades of dwelling in shadows, they rose from the dead and emerged into the light.

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A Music of Shadows: Sheida Gharachedaghi Soundtrack to The Chess of the Wind - The Quietus

How Chess Records and Muddy Waters invented psychedelic blues with Electric Mud – Louder

Its May 1968 and a turbulent age, with the life-changing political events of half a century still unfolding. Riots and revolution circle this third stone from the sun as war, terrorism and civil rights angst boil over. In the US, black activist Martin Luther King has been assassinated; the nations democracy will take another blow when popular senator Robert F. Kennedy follows him.

In the Ter-Mar Studio at 2120 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, a hand-picked group of hip young musicians from the interracial, avant-garde rock collective Rotary Connection are midway through a three-week recording session, running through a contorted electric groove called Tom Cat. The sound is a prowling, prickly, funk-blues shuffle with wild tenor sax and mewling acid guitar licks laced throughout. Behind glass, at the mixing desk, is the young man driving the idea forward, 26-year-old Marshall Chess, with creative arranger Charles Stepney at his side. At the centre of the ululating jam is Chess records fading folk hero and master of the blues, Muddy Waters. A year later, and in light of the storm that will follow these sessions, Waters will rant to the press: Every time I go into Chess they put some un-blues players with me and if you change my sound, then you gonna change the whole man. But for now, Waters seems more than content, raucously throwing his lot in with the rag-tag unit that is about to tip electric blues and its native identity on its head.

But the story starts in the 1930s, with Marshalls forefathers, the Jewish Cycz family arriving in Chicago from a poverty-stricken Poland on the cusp of WWII. The Windy City is a town of industry and opportunity pretty much the Cyczs whole village has relocated here, alongside a vast black community travelling north to the prosperous hub, all the way from the destitution of Mississippi and Memphis via the Rock Island Line.

Swiftly, the family surname is Americanised to Chess, and two young brothers Lejzor and Fizsel become Leonard and Philip. Their father sets about a scrap metal business; the integration into their new neighbourhood is complete.

Its a happy home, with Mom and sister Malka too, and the lively brothers are often distracted by the sights and sounds of their new environment and its darker-skinned denizens, particularly the local gospel church with its stomping, hand-clapping, tambourine-and-piano theatre. Consequently Leonard and Phil often get the strap from Pop for missing dinner. But soon the time comes for boys to become men, and for men to make some bucks.

My father was into making money, Marshall Chess reflects today from his LA home. He came from a poor peasant village without a toilet or electricity. He saw his first toilet when they got off the boat at Southampton, England! So the Cyczs, along with the millions of black people, came to Chicago for one reason only. To make a living, buy a house, buy a car.

Leonards early endeavours included shoe salesman, milkman, and liquor store owner in a very bad black neighbourhood where the rent was cheapest, also working in his fathers scrap yard, in the heart of another black community. By the mid-1940s, the music bug-bitten brothers were proud owners of the Macomba Lounge club, providing a rough-and-ready outlet for black performers when few venues would accept their custom or talent.

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Leonard now had a family of his own, but the brothers conviction for their ever-burgeoning businesses left little time for anything else. To the young Marshall, all he wanted to do was hang out with his dad.

At the beginning, Dad worked two jobs. Then the Macomba was open all night and he would come home at five, six in the morning. Hed bring the money home from the club, and I remember hed always wear this big chrome gun, which hed put on top of the cabinet. I used to ask him, Why do you have a gun? He told me, Because when I take the money out I want everyone to see it.

Expanding the exposure of black artists they were rubbing shoulders with in this fertile setting, the brothers formed Chess Records in the early 50s, at a time when major record companies were oblivious to or fearful of promoting the sounds of the Deep South and black American dance music.

Initially selling records from the back of a Cadillac, and building up to a self-contained multiplex of an office, studios, record pressing plant and distribution warehouse all on South Michigan Avenue, Chess Records and spin-offs Checker, Argo and Cadet would put the Chicago music scene on the map as the US pop charts soon filled with the grit and groove of Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Ramsey Lewis and Etta James.

As the empire grew, Leonard would take Marshall fishing in the early mornings I think he felt so guilty about working all the time and then, aged ten, Marshall got his first big road trip, down to the Deep South to look for talent, just him and his dad. He was a workaholic and I was the oldest, the only son. The only way to be around him was to go where he went.

Before long, Marshall was using his free time to work at the Chess office. My first job was getting coffee for everyone. Then I started packing boxes for shipping records, sweeping, I learned all the jobs from the ground up. They treated me like a slave, you know (laughs). I would go there in the summers, I just loved hanging around. I knew all the artists, but they treated me like the little kid I was. People often asked what were they talking to me about? Well, I was 12 or 13 and they were always just asking me about sex, they were curious, cos the blues singers coming from the Deep South, Mississippi, Kentucky and Arkansas, they were having sex at ten years old. I liked it, you know, it wasnt a record company, it was the family business, and the artists were my friends.

Turn the clock to 1967. Marshall has spent his life exploring every nuance of running Americas foremost jazz and blues black music label, and the times they are a-changing. A shift in focus is needed to satisfy the record-buying public, who are veering away from Chess and into Motown, flower-power pop and blue-eyed soul and rock. Marshall affirms, I was definitely part of that whole psychedelic generation I grew up at the end of beatniks and the beginning of hippie. Now I wanted Chess Records to get into that white market. In 1966 I convinced my family to let me start my own label, Cadet Concept.

The family were right by his side, and they knew they could make money too.

My father and Uncle Phil were behind me. By then Id produced a lot of Chess output, I knew my way in the studio and my father always said to me, Do anything you want, dont let people tell you, just go with what you believe or youll never do anything special. Also I had the keys to the office and the studio, and in that era we werent recording a lot at night.

Cadet Concept was to be a fresh take on the Chess spec: a melting pot of new rock influences with the emotion and soul of their signature sound. Marshalls first recruits were a young arranger hed been recommended, Charles Stepney, plus Chess vocalist Minnie Ripperton, house producer and saxophonist Gene Barge and house songwriter Sidney Barnes. Three members of rock band The Proper Strangers were poached guitarist Bobby Simms, bassist Mitch Aliotta and drummer Ken Venegas. The final additions to the dream line-up were guitarist Phil Upchurch and drummer Morris Jennings. Rotary Connection were ready to plug in.

The band quickly started reworking Marshalls favourite songs by artists like Cream, Dylan, the Stones and Hendrix in a soulful, celestial and symphonic way, but still with an acid-fuzz edge for the freaks.

It translated brilliantly on their self-titled debut of 1967, and Cadet Concepts direction seemed sure to tap into the new pop consciousness seamlessly.

Marshall had assembled the best modern musicians collective around, with the talent to reinvent well-loved standards and deliver exciting new compositions. What if that band could breathe life into the old Chess catalogue, and bring a new generation of music lovers back to the blues?

Muddy Waters Marshalls friend, and Chess Records major staple for 20 years would be the first experiment with Rotarys backing, on an album titled Electric Mud.

The blues was a part of me, Id heard it my whole life, Marshall explains. When I thought up Electric Mud, it wasnt to change Muddy Waters sound. I approached it like it was a concept of making this kind of psychedelic blues album. It had never been done before, and thats what my label was all about. Muddy trusted me, so I said, I have this experiment, lets do it. It was a one-time thing, you know? Like an actor in a film.

Muddy agreed to the idea. The studio was booked and some of the young bloods from Rotary Connection augmented by session aces Pete Cosey and Roland Faulkener on guitar and Louis Satterfield on bass blended with Waters and his boogie-woogie piano sideman Otis Spann. The track-listing was drawn from Muddys best-known back catalogue, with numbers such as Mannish Boy and Im Your Hoochie Coochie Man alongside two new songs and a cover of the Rolling Stones Lets Spend The Night Together, suggested by Marshall, as Waters fans the Stones had covered I Cant Be Satisfied a couple of years earlier.

Marshall: The band all got along great and Muddy gave it his go. Some things were difficult for him, just because he wasnt used to playing with a band that he wasnt in control of. Having Otis Spann there helped a lot as they were so used to playing together. But we were all tremendously into it and thats why it came out great. Marshall laughs: Whether people liked it or not, its a great-sounding record.

And when it hit record shop shelves in October 1968, the results were instantaneous.

The album took off like a rocket ship, because by then Rotary Connection had a name, and because of the label. It sold 100,000 right away, it was the biggest Muddy Waters album to date. He was happy, we were all happy.

But it wasnt to stay that way. Unfortunately about six or eight weeks later, Rolling Stone magazine the bible of that whole movement wrote a horrible review and called it the worst blues album ever made. The radio play stopped virtually overnight, then all these blues purists got on the bandwagon. The criticism was that it wasnt a pure blues record but it was never meant to be. I was hurt, Marshall continues. I was young, I had a really big ego, and I had my label and I had my hit. Then someone calls it the worst blues album ever made. It didnt feel good.

Electric Mud was popular with new fans nevertheless, but there were mixed reports as to how the blues legend truly felt about it. Marshall is positive: He seemed to be real happy around me. We never had that conversation were he said its a piece of shit, although I heard he may have said that somewhere. But a year later we recorded the second psychedelic album, After The Rain, so why would he do that if he hated it so much?

Still, the wheels were already in motion to update the imposing catalogue of Howlin Wolf in the same way. In November 1968, the entire crew reconvened to sprinkle a gritty treasury of Wolf and Willie Dixon originals with some acid blues magic. Coaxed by the fact that Electric Mud had sold well, Wolf knuckled down but, according to Marshall: He sang it but he didnt like it It was a rough time for Wolf and he needed the money.

There were numerous problems during recording. Marshall elaborates: Wolf wasnt healthy. He did the whole album sitting down. He just wasnt into it 100 per cent either, so there were a lot of takes and a lot of overdubs. Wolf would argue at times. He didnt walk out on it, though. But you must remember that these guys were band leaders and they wanted to be in control of their whole sound, especially Wolf.

Wolfs reaction to his band mates had not been as positive as Muddys. Guitarist Pete Cosey the jazz freak with enormous hair and a navel-length beard in a plait remembers Wolf gesturing to his effects pedals and gadget boards in outrage. He said to me, Why dont you take them wah-wahs and all that other shit and go throw it in the lake on your way to the barber shop? He wiped me out with one stroke! And the mastered playback didnt go well, either. Marshall recalls, bluntly: He didnt like it. He said it was dogshit.

Wolfs low opinion was further compounded by Marshalls cover art concept which read: This is Howlin Wolfs new album. He doesnt like it. He didnt like his electric guitar at first either.

Wolf had happily played electric guitar for years, so smarted at the reference. It was marketing, says Marshall, and in that era I had to do all of that, and press, everything. I thought I was being clever. I thought he would eventually like it and he didnt.

Instead, the art seemed to put the general public off from purchasing it, too. It was a bad idea for the cover, Marshall admits, but it was a good lesson. Dont put something negative on something to try and sell it.

The people that had turned away from Electric Mud stayed away from The Howlin Wolf Album in similar numbers. But Marshall was still able to gather some national press support. I was good friends with Jann Wenner who founded Rolling Stone, with Billboard, with Creem magazine It wasnt like, We hate it and were not gonna do it, but in general the reviewers didnt like it. The blues people didnt like playing with these guys classic sounds. And I can understand that to a certain degree.

It was a hard knock, but it made the praise that the artists and that Marshall Chess himself received later for these pioneering recordings all the sweeter, with these two unique benchmarks influencing rock and pop culture to come from Captain Beefheart, Cream, Led Zep and The Faces, to the Black Keys, Dangermouse and Jay-Z.

Electric Mud and The Howlin Wolf Album are still out there, with covers bands in different countries, and they eventually became a big influence on the hip-hop and new RnB community.

One of the best feelings I had was 30 years later, Marshall gushes, when Chuck D from Public Enemy emailed me and he said, I want you to know that Electric Mud was an amazing thing and it turned me and a lot of hip-hop people on to these great artists like Muddy Waters. Those records really did do their job after all.

Originally published in Classic Rock issue 149

Link:
How Chess Records and Muddy Waters invented psychedelic blues with Electric Mud - Louder

The story behind the picture – Kartus – 7 – Chess.com

Hey everyone! My summer vacation is quickly approaching so perhaps there will be more stories coming soon. I hope you enjoy this one!

(small sidenote, there is no picture for this one. Yea I know it violates the literal name of this post but the pictures take a bit too much time sometimes and ehh idk if I wanna keep going with them)

I walked off, there was no need to wait for a response. I cant trust someone like that, I cant trust someone who thinks that its fine to play with my life. How will I make it to Ironforge city though? All I know is that it is quite far north, just on the edge of the mountains. Very few people have gone beyond the mountains from what Ive heard, its simply too dangerous. My best bet is probably to find a group of travellers who I can come along with. I look for some inns, thats the first place a traveller would go to. I find one that isnt just crowded with folks having a good night, and there are a few people there who look like travellers. I sit down at a table next to two gentleman who are most definitely not from this area, and order a meal. So, what now? We just need to go to the City of Colour to buy some goods, and then we can return to Ilran. Itll be dangerous to just travel with the two of us though, there will be even more bandits than usual. Yes, I want to see if we can maybe get a few folks as an escort, or at least someone who knows how to fight off some bandits. They dont need to be a seasoned warrior, even the impression of knowing how to fight will scare of most folks with bad intents. The two ate the rest of their meal in silence, as I considered my options. I could ask if perhaps they would like me to be their guard, but I dont have a physical weapon. Judging from their looks, these are two humans and from what they said I can assume that they come from some small city or castle of which from what Ive been told there are a lot around in the plains and hills around the City of Colour. Those are generally the type of folks who dont like anything that has to do with magic, and hence they could very well reject my offer. Then again, I have something to offer that they need, and this is not their home. I havent gone much farther north than this before, but I know how to fight.

Excuse me gentlemen, I have an offer you might be interested in. The two look up at me, and the first man responds with a simple Go on. I heard you were looking for someone to protect you from bandits. Im headed for Ironforge city, and I know how to fight. All I ask in return is food and water. I can promise you that no harm will come your way. I can clearly see the two hesitate. Do you have a weapon of choice? Id been expecting that question. I dont need a weapon. I would give you a demonstration, but this is not the right place for that. Not what they wanted to hear, but its the truth. Sometimes thats more important. Id like to see that demonstration. Mind coming along with us? That went surprisingly easy. I finish my meal and follow them outside, and we walk together to the outskirts of Moraese. In a quiet corner I show them some simple magic, very basic things. No Dark magic, if there is anything Ive learned its that there are quite a lot of prejudices against it. They probably suspect Im holding something back, but thats inevitable. When Im done they walk away to be able to discuss without me hearing what theyre saying. I patiently wait for them to return, and when they do I get the response I was hoping for: You only wanted food and water in return, correct? Yes. Weve got a deal. Were leaving tomorrow morning, I expect you to be back at the inn we were at so we can leave as soon as possible. My name is Niko, and my companion here is Bagor. Ill be there, you can call me Kartus. I sleep outside the city, I cant afford anything better right now. It doesnt bother me, it feels good to have a plan again. Im not sure what I want to do when I reach Ironforge city, but Ill figure that out when I get there.

The next morning we leave. Niko and Bagor both have a donkey that carries their bags, the few things that I have I just carry myself. It feels tense, and I can see why they dont fully trust me yet. I just hope that if we encounter bandits I can prove my worth, preferably without having to use any Dark magic.

Weve been travelling for two days now, we should be almost halfway there. Weve just entered a large forest, and I need to pay attention to our surroundings. If there is going to be a trap set somewhere by bandits this would be the place for it. We keep going, slower than I would like. The air feels heavy, Im not used to this kind of weather. We get even deeper into the forest, and it starts raining softly through the leaves. Then, I hear a sound. I continue walking, but I listen even more carefully. There, I hear it again. The sound of leaves, something walking through the foliage perhaps. Or someone. Wait. Stop here for a momen- Before I can finish my sentence, people jump out of the bushes on the sides of the path. When I look back I see that theyve surrounded us. There are two armed bandits ahead of us and two behind. Each of them is holding either a sword or a knife, and the weapons look sharp. Niko has seen it too, and says: Kartus, if you wanted to prove something now is the time! Im uncertain. I think I can take them, but not without using Dark magic. Its a risk Ill have to take, the alternative seems worse. One of the bandits tells us to give all of our money, or else. I take this moment to turn around and try to deal with the two bandits behind us. I use a spell to quickly throw one of them into the air, and throw some concentrated Dark magic at the other one. Its not the best option, but its the easiest. The bandit who got throw into the air gets the same treatment, and I take their swords and hand them to Niko and Bagor, who stayed just in front of me. It all happens so quickly that the first two bandits havent reacted yet, but now they come charging at us. Not much of a problem, I simply create an invisible wall like I did against the Darklings to temporarily shield us from their attacks, and then use the same spell with Dark magic to knock them unconscious. The Dark magic might leave some more damage than just knocking them unconscious, but thatll be their problem. Thatll do. They will lay here for some time, and they probably wont even remember how it got to this. We better get going again. Niko and Bagor seem somewhat perplexed, and Niko responds pretty much how I expected him to. That was Dark magic! How- Yes, thats a very good observation. You should be glad that Im on your side and that I dont require much. But- No, I dont want to hear it. We made an agreement, and if youre looking to break that agreement you could very well end like them. I say, pointing at the folks laying on the ground.

To be continued

Follow this link:
The story behind the picture - Kartus - 7 - Chess.com

Madrid: Surez wins main event, Oro’s IM title hunt falls just short – Chess News | ChessBase

Surez outscores Rozman

The Closed A tournament in Madrid saw famed streamer Levy Rozman becoming the sole leader at the halfway mark after kicking off the event with 3 wins and 2 draws. Also known as Gotham Chess, the US representative ended the tournament with 3 draws and a critical loss against eventual champion Julio Surez. It was still a remarkable showing by Rozman, who had not played a single official tournament in 2 years.

As reported by Federico Marn, tournament winner Julio Surez is not a professional chess player, since he is now focused on studying Mathematics.

Third place went to Spanish FM Dani Tabuenca, who collected 5 points and finished the event with a better tiebreak score than his compatriot IM Diego Macas, who also scored 5/9.

Julio Surez defeated Levy Rozman with the white pieces in the penultimate round | Photo: chess.com / Federico Marn

The Closed B tournament featured 3 GMs, 4 IMs and 3 FMs, with 10-year-old Faustino Oro from Argentina a special guest in Spains capital. The prodigious boy from Buenos Aires needed to score 5/9 points (or +2) to become the youngest International Master in history. The youngster collected 8 draws and 1 win for a final 5/9 score, falling just short of breaking the record for now, Abhimanyu Mishra continues to be the youngest IM in history.

Oros performance was nonetheless outstanding, as he entered the event as the 8th seed, and showed great maturity throughout the nine rounds. As reported by Infobae, the Messi of chess will get a last chance of getting the record at the Cerrado IM Barcelona, set to take place on June 25-30. Oro will be the third seed in a 10-player round-robin.

Navigating the Ruy Lopez Vol.1-3

The Ruy Lopez is one of the oldest openings which continues to enjoy high popularity from club level to the absolute world top. In this video series, American super GM Fabiano Caruana, talking to IM Oliver Reeh, presents a complete repertoire for White.

Only a half point above Oro, Venezuelan FM Pedro Martnez and US IM Eric Rosen tied for first place with 5 points each. Martnez was declared the tournament winner on tiebreak criteria. Perhaps more importantly, the 5/9 performance granted Martnez his final IM norm, six years after he had obtained his previous norm. Living in Spain, the tournament winner teaches chess to blind players for ONCE (Spanish National Organization for the Blind).

Pedro Martnez playing white against Faustino Oro (draw) | Photo: chess.com / Federico Marn

More here:
Madrid: Surez wins main event, Oro's IM title hunt falls just short - Chess News | ChessBase

Brain power: Alston teaches chess to help seniors stay mentally active – The Daily Advance

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Brain power: Alston teaches chess to help seniors stay mentally active - The Daily Advance