Monthly Archives: May 2021

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How Netflix hit ‘the Queen’s Gambit’ helps inspire Lanarkshire chess players

It was one of Netflix’s biggest achievements over the past year – and now a group of Lanarkshire chess players are hoping “The Queen’s Gambit” can help inspire a new generation of gamers.

Based at the Nurture Center on Glasgow Road, the Cambuslang Chess Club is now up and running, with ‘upbeat’ club organizers the Netflix show can ensure a healthy flow of interested players.

Janice Ross told Lanarkshire Live that she hopes the club can continue to grow, helped by the popularity of the show, which stars Anya Taylor-Joy as a chess prodigy.



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Janice added: “The Queen’s Gambit got a lot of people excited and got them talking about chess.

“There are Scottish ties there because with the producer, Allan Scott, who had been trying to do it for years.



Anya Taylor-Joy as Beth Harmon in The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix

“There is also the film “Queen of Katwe” about Phiona Mutesi, who grew up in Uganda and represented her country in chess – I think these things show people that chess is a hobby for everyone.

“They show how chess can help you develop other skills as well.”

Janice started playing chess in her late teens and quickly became addicted, which led to her playing for the University of Strathclyde team.

She helped start the Cambuslang Chess Club after the first lockdown ended last year, with meetings taking place in coffee shops and cafes.

Now they have settled into a permanent home at the Nurture Center, where they will meet on Saturday afternoon.



The group wants to add new members

She added: “We want to encourage all ages and abilities to get involved, and it doesn’t matter if you have no experience.

“We want to establish ourselves and end up playing against other clubs like East Kilbride, but at the same time it’s about having social interaction and a little bit of discussion as well.

“Chess can be such a rewarding experience. It’s not something that is just for men, or only young people, there are no barriers.

“It can be great for older communities, for example, because it really makes the brain work.



Chess
Some Cambuslang Chess Club members are ready to play

“Having the Nurture Center is great too, because it’s a place we can settle down. They’ve been very helpful and some of them at the center play themselves.”

The group already has several chess sets, but if anyone has spare parts or unused sets, the group will welcome them.

They can be dropped off during the club meeting, which is every Saturday for two hours, starting at 1:30 p.m.

Everyone is welcome.

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Saturday Night Live: Anya Taylor-Joy pokes fun at chess craze sparked by The Queen’s Gambit

Anya Taylor-Joy hosted the season finale of Saturday Night Live Tonight (May 22), joking in his opening monologue about fans of his Netflix chess drama The Queen’s Gambit who continued to take the game for themselves.

“I’m happy to say that after watching the show, millions of people bought chess sets, and dozens of them actually learned to play,” the actor joked.

She also asked how anyone in the audience could not have seen the hit Netflix series, asking, “For those of you who haven’t seen it: what were you doing in quarantine? It was King tiger and Queen’s Gambit, it was the only new TV for, like, months.

Earlier in the monologue, Taylor-Joy pointed out that the Saturday Night Live The crowd was the first of the year to be: “a completely complete audience, completely vaccinated”.

“If you’re feeling nervous sitting so close to another person, just imagine them naked,” she suggested. “Just kidding, we’ve all been inside for a year, everyone already imagines everyone naked.”

Referring to her distinct British accent, Taylor-Joy said: “Now that you hear my accent, you might be surprised to know that I was born in Miami, raised between Argentina and London, and that my mother tongue is spanish so legally my ethnicity is ‘fashion week’.

Taylor-Joy concluded the monologue by introducing the show, including musical performer Lil Nas X, in Spanish.

She then returned to play various characters, including Emma ‘Baby Spice’ Bunton in a Hollywood Squares-themed sketch.

Earlier in the show, Chris Rock had joined the cast as they offered their memories of making Saturday Night Live during a year of restrictions related to the pandemic.


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Pacheco hits back at Dem’s criticism

In the mid-1990s, Leo Pacheco was chairman of the Bexar County Democratic Party.

Last week, the organization formerly led by Pacheco officially censored him for a vote he cast on the floor of Texas House.

The South Side State Representative was one of seven House Democrats to vote in favor of HB 1927, a highly controversial Republican-led bill that would allow Texas residents to carry handguns without allowed.

The Bexar County Democratic Party’s censorship decree of May 11 pointed out that “thousands of Texans (are) killed each year by gun violence” and denounced the 1927 HB as a bill “that would legalize the wearing of ‘practically unrestricted firearms’.

In an interview on Thursday, Pacheco couldn’t hide his resentment on both the substance and the style of the party’s decision against him.

“When I was president, we would never have done something like this, especially not in the middle of a session,” Pacheco said of censorship.

“And if we thought we were doing something like that, we would have given the individual the opportunity to address the executive committee, which he didn’t. It was clearly something that had an ulterior motive against me.

He said members of the party’s county executive committee misunderstood his legislative strategy.

“It’s not a tic-tac-toe on the floor of the House,” he said. “It’s chess. And we are not the majority party.

Pacheco said that during his first three years in the legislature, he worked to build relationships with House Republicans; be seen by GOP lawmakers as someone they can work with.

He added that he used that goodwill during the voting process for HB 1927 to improve a bill that was going to be passed in the House, with or without the backing of the Democrats.

“We have members like me who work totally behind the scenes,” he said. “We’re trying to make amendments to it, trying to work with them to make a horrible and ugly bill less horrible and ugly.

“If they think you are a no (vote) to begin with, then they don’t negotiate with you. Why would they do it? “

Pacheco pointed out that when his fellow Democrats introduced amendments to the bill, he voted in favor of those amendments.

“Even then, that raised eyebrows among Republican leaders: they say, ‘Hey, why are you voting for all these Democratic amendments?

Pacheco said he was trying to negotiate the inclusion of an amendment that would at least require people to take an online safety course to legally carry a handgun.

“But they (Republicans) wouldn’t even go for that,” he said.

The state representative insists that when HB 1927 came to the House for a final vote, he turned around and voted against. The House Journal, however, lists it as a yes vote (the only yes vote of the Bexar County Democratic delegation) when the unlicensed postponement won House approval on April 16 by a margin of 87-58.

Monica Alcántara, chairwoman of the Bexar County Democratic Party, said the party’s constituency presidents paid special attention to the legislature’s deliberations this year, as lawmakers in San Antonio encouraged them to make their voices heard on a legislation that divides.

“It was on the day of the vote for unlicensed porterage that we had our steering committee meeting,” Alcántara said. “Many CEC members were a little disappointed with the way Representative Pacheco voted.”

Pacheco also parted ways with the overwhelming majority of House Democrats on HB 19, a bill championed by both the trucking industry and the conservative tort reform organization Texans for Lawsuit Reform. . HB 19, co-authored by Pacheco, would restrict prosecutions targeting commercial vehicles in Texas.

Only seven House Democrats voted for HB 19.

As for the Bexar County delegation, however, the bill enjoyed significant democratic support. Pacheco was one of four San Antonio House Democrats to vote for the commercial vehicle bill, while the other four local Democrats were absent for the vote.

He defended his HB 19 vote as an expression of support for business and a statement against the interests of wealthy trial lawyers.

Pacheco worked as a Human Resources Specialist at Palo Alto College and Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio and San Antonio College. He sees higher education as his main goal in the Legislative Assembly.

He said “there is not a lot of communication” between him and the rest of the Bexar County delegation.

“I don’t interfere in their business, in the way they negotiate, and vice versa,” he said.

Rumors have circulated in Democratic circles that Pacheco may not run for another term next year. He refused to confirm or deny these rumors. But he said he was not sweating it.

“If people don’t want to re-elect me,” he said, “that’s fine with me. “

[email protected] | Twitter: @ gilgamesh470


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The best chess players will compete for 100,000 USD worth of Bitcoin

The upcoming FTX Crypto Cup online chess tournament is set to pit the top ten players in the world against each other, allowing the global chess elite to compete for USD 100,000 worth of bitcoin (BTC), provided by the event sponsor and the exchange of cryptographic derivatives FTX, and $ 220,000 in cash.

Source: Adobe / bizoo_n

Among the grandmasters who will take part in the cup, described as the world’s first bitcoin-priced chess tournament, are Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, the world’s highest-ranked chess player, and Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi, number four. global. The event will precede their 14-game world title match scheduled to take place in November-December in Dubai.

The event, which is part of this year’s Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, will be held May 23-31, allowing fans to follow the pot value of the prize in real time and its fluctuations, organizers said in a statement.

FTX has also entered into a long-term agreement with Play Magnus group, who is the organizer of the cup, to become its official crypto exchange partner.

“Online chess and digital finance are growing rapidly,” said Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO and Founder of FTX.

If Carlsen got the crypto bonus, it would allow the player to further diversify their budding investment portfolio. In a tweet on April 29, the Grandmaster admitted to having gone online six months earlier.

“Strategic planning and research are also essential here. No shortcuts! Carlsen noted.

Trade publication Chess24.com claims the next cup “could be the strongest chess tournament ever, with a 16-player field including the full Top 10 from the May 2021 FIDE Classic Ranking List “, referring to International Federation of Chessworld ranking of (FIDE).

The event, which will air on television and online streaming platforms Twitch and YouTube, will secure its winner a spot in the tour finale in San Francisco in September.

In another example of how the worlds of crypto and chess intersect, last November Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin participated in a live showdown against Alexandra Botez, a female FIDE Master. recognized by FIDE and five times Canadian Women’s National Champion. Buterin, who is an amateur chess player, was checked and mate in over a minute.
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Learn more:
– UFC battles NFTs and plans their own cryptoasset
– The Complete Sequel To MLB’s Oakland Season A For Bitcoin

– Spanish football club claims to have made the world’s first Crypto Pro transfer
– Bitcoin finally enters NASCAR, 6 years after Dogecoin



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Ballarat Scrabble Club goes up on the tiles in its new home | The mail

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Scrabble isn’t quite 100 years old, but it’s one of those games that seems to have been around forever. It’s both accessible and intimidating, and as Ballarat Scrabble Club President Marjorie Clark points out, every game will always be different. From schoolchildren (and barflies) spelling out creative curse words to grandmasters racking up over 800 points in a game – the world record is currently 850 points, held by Toh Weibin of Singapore – this is the kind of board game that makes a lot of people instantly competitive. The Ballarat club, affiliated with Scrabble Victoria, is much more accessible. Every Tuesday around 10 a.m., the members get together for a cup of tea and some games – this will keep you alert, but not to the point of overturning the board. Equipped with Lazy Susans and custom tile bags, this is more of a social outing over lunch. The club recently made the Russell Square club rooms its new home, and now the hope is to attract new members. “The more we get, the more fun we can have,” Ms. Clark said with a smile. “Over the last few years we’ve had to move around a bit, trying to find a good place, and it’s one of the best we’ve found, we’re very happy to be here.” There are around 18 members in the club at the moment, although not everyone is there every week. Scrabble dictionaries are allowed, just to check the spelling of words, never to look for a better word. The pandemic has shut down in-person games for a while, but it’s slowly bouncing back. READ MORE: Ballarat Chess Club’s Begonia Open features biggest field in 55th consecutive year “We like to play the best we can, we have a small prize every week, but it’s more friendly than competitive,” said Mrs. Clark. “I think the attraction is it’s just to see how much you can do.” It’s really good to come back – it’s empowering, it gets your brain working and it gets you out of the house. “Overall it’s a good thing. Ms Clark said she got into the board game about 20 years ago. “My husband and I moved to Bairnsdale, someone named Sylvia lived on Raymond Island and she regularly hosted Scrabble games, and she taught me a lot,” she said. “Pretty early on I remember playing with Sylvia, when I was learning I wrote a seven letter word on a three word score and she was just stunned, especially since she was in the advanced class. ” IN THE NEWS For more information call Val at 5342 9517, or just show up to watch a game starting at 10am Tuesday at Russell Square – all gear will be ready to go. “We mostly have newbies here,” Ms. Clark said. “We are happy to help anyone who wishes.” Have you signed up for the Courier’s variety of news emails? You can sign up below and make sure you’re up to date with everything that’s going on at Ballarat.

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