Coffee, chess, love & war
A coffee shop is more than just about social rituals. Experiencing the smells of grounded coffee; the anticipation of that first sip of coffee on your lips; the sounds of others conversing…
The coronavirus has robbed most of us of our daily coffee routines. We have had to adapt, but we know that once we can return to our coffee shops — even with some safety guidelines — then LIFE will be that much closer to returning to normal.
Aronian finds love, again…
Being a big public star certainly has its responsibilities, Levon Aronian’s decision yesterday to go public with news of his relationship with Ani certainly fits into this category.
When Aronian’s wife Arianne Caoili died tragically on March 30 of this year (as a result of a car accident in Armenia) many feared that Levon would withdraw and suffer silently for years to come.
“After going through hell, I understood myself and analyzed my life, – Ariana always wanted me to be honest, true to myself and open to people, because I am. Therefore, I want to honestly tell you what has happened in my life lately and I promise to continue to be honest in the future… The main thing I want to share with you is that I now have a person who makes me want to live again.”
You can read more about this HERE
Polish Championship defies Covid-19
The round-robin event is taking place in Ostrów Wielkopolski between August 4-12. It brings together 9 out of top-10 Polish female players!
As we can see from the above photos, minimum safety regulations are in effect. Masks are optional for the players, but the tournament ‘staff’ must use them. There are no spectators, and the players are not prohibited from shaking hands or touching their faces.
Of course, not all countries can organize OTB (over the board) tournaments with such minimum safety regulations, but most of Europe has dealt with the first wave of the virus with great discipline and sacrifice. Now it is time for life to return to normal, and chess activities are doing so!
Tomorrow the Summer Prague Open begins in the Czech capital and has hundreds of participants already inscribed.
Another Friendly Interview for Dvorkovich
FIDE president Arkhady Dvorkovich today passed by the studio of the new Moscow Online Chess and gave an interview with none other than host Daniil Dubov(!). If you understand Russian, the YouTube link is HERE
The long interview gave the impression of being carefully scripted beforehand. No tough questions, standard answers, friendly atmosphere. Typical good preparation by chess players..
However, there were some interesting revelations (taken from the first link above):
At the moment, the majority of FIDE sponsors are Russian companies. Dvorkovich hopes to reverse this situation and considers this one of the main priorities in his work. The state of affairs in marketing, including working with the official website and social networks, is gradually improving, but still does not meet world standards, Dvorkovich said. In the near future FIDE plans to reach the level of 3 million dollars a year in sponsorship from large Western companies.”
Large Western companies? Sounds a lot like the 2018 election promises that Dvorkovich used to seduce FIDE voters! And just to make the point, 2-years into Dvorkovich’s term, complete absence of details, names or dates…
“It was noted that in the near future some traditional FIDE tournaments may be reformatted, but only if these changes are supported by the Council and other FIDE bodies.
Dvorkovich explained the procedure for making a decision in FIDE, which is largely based on the new charter of the organization, adopted in February this year.
Separately, the topic of cooperation with Vladimir Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand, Judit Polgar and other outstanding chess players, who are currently advisers to the FIDE President and provide substantial assistance in their work, was touched upon.”
Once more, no details or dates. Nothing concrete, and much is just a copy-and-paste of previous Dvorkovich interviews.
The FIDE president has been criticized sharply recently for being out of touch with the chess world. Besides never being a tournament player, Dvorkovich has spent his entire adult life living in a bubble. He just loves to drop names (Anand, Kramnik, etc) of the elite, and all of his plans seem to center on how to both use and serve their interests.
