If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
Policy / Politique
The fee for tournament organizers advertising on ChessTalk is $20/event or $100/yearly unlimited for the year.
Les frais d'inscription des organisateurs de tournoi sur ChessTalk sont de 20 $/événement ou de 100 $/année illimitée.
You can etransfer to Henry Lam at chesstalkforum at gmail dot com
Transfér à Henry Lam à chesstalkforum@gmail.com
Dark Knight / Le Chevalier Noir
General Guidelines
---- Nous avons besoin d'un traduction français!
Some Basics
1. Under Board "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQs) there are 3 sections dealing with General Forum Usage, User Profile Features, and Reading and Posting Messages. These deal with everything from Avatars to Your Notifications. Most general technical questions are covered there. Here is a link to the FAQs. https://forum.chesstalk.com/help
2. Consider using the SEARCH button if you are looking for information. You may find your question has already been answered in a previous thread.
3. If you've looked for an answer to a question, and not found one, then you should consider asking your question in a new thread. For example, there have already been questions and discussion regarding: how to do chess diagrams (FENs); crosstables that line up properly; and the numerous little “glitches” that every new site will have.
4. Read pinned or sticky threads, like this one, if they look important. This applies especially to newcomers.
5. Read the thread you're posting in before you post. There are a variety of ways to look at a thread. These are covered under “Display Modes”.
6. Thread titles: please provide some details in your thread title. This is useful for a number of reasons. It helps ChessTalk members to quickly skim the threads. It prevents duplication of threads. And so on.
7. Unnecessary thread proliferation (e.g., deliberately creating a new thread that duplicates existing discussion) is discouraged. Look to see if a thread on your topic may have already been started and, if so, consider adding your contribution to the pre-existing thread. However, starting new threads to explore side-issues that are not relevant to the original subject is strongly encouraged. A single thread on the Canadian Open, with hundreds of posts on multiple sub-topics, is no better than a dozen threads on the Open covering only a few topics. Use your good judgment when starting a new thread.
8. If and/or when sub-forums are created, please make sure to create threads in the proper place.
Debate
9. Give an opinion and back it up with a reason. Throwaway comments such as "Game X pwnz because my friend and I think so!" could be considered pointless at best, and inflammatory at worst.
10. Try to give your own opinions, not simply those copied and pasted from reviews or opinions of your friends.
Unacceptable behavior and warnings
11. In registering here at ChessTalk please note that the same or similar rules apply here as applied at the previous Boardhost message board. In particular, the following content is not permitted to appear in any messages:
* Racism
* Hatred
* Harassment
* Adult content
* Obscene material
* Nudity or pornography
* Material that infringes intellectual property or other proprietary rights of any party
* Material the posting of which is tortious or violates a contractual or fiduciary obligation you or we owe to another party
* Piracy, hacking, viruses, worms, or warez
* Spam
* Any illegal content
* unapproved Commercial banner advertisements or revenue-generating links
* Any link to or any images from a site containing any material outlined in these restrictions
* Any material deemed offensive or inappropriate by the Board staff
12. Users are welcome to challenge other points of view and opinions, but should do so respectfully. Personal attacks on others will not be tolerated. Posts and threads with unacceptable content can be closed or deleted altogether. Furthermore, a range of sanctions are possible - from a simple warning to a temporary or even a permanent banning from ChessTalk.
Helping to Moderate
13. 'Report' links (an exclamation mark inside a triangle) can be found in many places throughout the board. These links allow users to alert the board staff to anything which is offensive, objectionable or illegal. Please consider using this feature if the need arises.
Advice for free
14. You should exercise the same caution with Private Messages as you would with any public posting.
Nope, not this time Nigel. Your original post clearly states: "The four USAF military drone operators who recently blew the whistle and exposed the callousness and complete lack of concern for civilian casualties of the US drone assassination programme, (and received very little mainstream media exposure), yesterday found their bank accounts and credit cards all blocked by the US government. The effects of that on daily life are devastating." Bold face print is your emphasis. It's very clear what you were emphasizing.
So you are of the opinion that someone else, other than the drone operators reporting the civilian atrocities, should be reporting that their accounts were frozen? Really? Who? The US State Department perhaps?
I'm not disputing that there are drone operators describing their guilt over what they have done under orders. But I will dispute this specific claim that you gave above, and now you are back pedaling ...
It's interesting how you have changed the claims from atrocities against civilians to some vague "guilt" over actions "under orders".
Both claims are significant. The Independent verified/confirmed the main one and the other story the second one.
Dogs will bark, but the caravan of chess moves on.
Kirsan did not go to the US on Sunday. Instead, on Sunday night he was interviewed on Moscow's (somewhat independent) TVRain. He denied any ownership stake of the bank in question, and said he would be going to the US next week sometime. More details can be found at chess-news.ru. He is pretty much blithely going on as usual.
The interview in question, unfiltered by the above editorializing ...
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov had promised to be in the US on Sunday, but instead he appeared in one of the TV programs aired on the Russian channel Dozhd (Russian word for "rain" - CN). Let us remind you that several days ago the US Department of the Treasury added the reigning FIDE president to the list of sanctioned officials.
"I don't sell any ISIL (this organization is banned by the Russian law - CN) oil to Syria, - Ilyumzhinov assured. - Also, I am not having any connections with any of the organisations of banks mentioned in the accusations published by the US. Perhaps, they didn't like that I've visited the place several times recently. That's true, we've been supplying Syria. So what? Last time we supplied them with a thousand chess sets and three thousand chess books for children. [...] Last time I was there - it was two years ago - Bashar Al-Assad and I had to open a new chess center, but because of the terror attack threat he couldn't take part in this event. We opened chess clubs in Aleppo and Damascus. By the way, the terrorists have already destroyed by bombing the club we had opened in Aleppo."
- Did you really have only chess interests in Syria? - one of the journalists, Ksenia Sobchak, asked Ilyumzhinov.
- Nothing at all. Neither companies nor businesses - nothing. My visits were related only to chess.
- Wouldn't you agree it could be hard to believe for any government, and especially for the US government, that chess is the only thing connecting you to Syria and Al-Assad?
- Not only. I was in the US literally two weeks ago, so if the ministry had any questions they could ask me. We're going to have the World Championship there next year and now we are deciding which city would host it - New York city, Los Angeles or San Francisco.
- How are you going to talk to your partners in these circumstances? Via Skype? - another journalist, Pavel Lobkov, wondered.
- Well, I am going to visit the US next week. Besides the aforementioned cities, I've asked my assistant to add Washington D.C. to my schedule, because I would like to be received by the Department of the Treasury.
Ilyumzhinov also commented on the recent tensions between Russia and Turkey. He mentioned that he has a company in Turkey which is called Kirsan - Ankara:
"We created it several years ago in Ankara, in Istanbul [sic - CN]. The company provides consultations in communications and real estate. Through this company, I got to know the owners of the Renaissance and other Turkish companies actively operating on the Russian market. Russia's sanctions will of course seriously affect our relations. We are talking about the turnovers in milliards of dollars."
A better way to put this is to say that Kirsan is basically laughing at them. And it's interesting that the whole Treasury Department angle really is starting to look like the Bobby Fischer case. It's transparent to anyone not brainwashed by neo-con propaganda that the whole thing revolves around the US foreign policy regarding Syria and that everything else is simply fabrication, unsubstantiated claims, and so on. Pathetic.
I mean, come on. He was in the US two weeks ago and SUDDENLY they discovered this terrible (alleged) connection to Syrian banks which are also alleged to have connections to the very terrorists they have been fighting for over four years? What turnip truck do they think people fell off? Why would Kirsan trade with ISIL (i.e., Daesh) when they're banned under Russian law? If the Treasury Department nonsense held any water they they could simply inform the Russian authorities that Kirsan was breaking domestic (Russian) law. It's all a steaming pile of animal droppings.
The US Treasury Department is getting into a habit of harassing chess people. What next? Uncollected taxes on the miniscule prizes at chess tournaments? What a farce.
Once the situation changes in Syria - and the US either gets its wishes or has to face up to changes they don't like - then their whole interest in Kirsan will vaporize into thin air. By then the whole gaggle of usual suspects here will have "no interest" in the story. The way the Russians are pounding Daesh, and sending the terrorists scurrying to their Turkish skirts of protection, those unpleasant changes are going to be sooner rather than later.
Politicizing chess for block-headed foreign policy goals is really a mark of great stupidity. And it hurts chess. Better check the water floridation at the Treasury Department. I think it's sapping their vital bodily fluids.
Last edited by Nigel Hanrahan; Monday, 30th November, 2015, 07:42 PM.
Reason: a steaming pile of animal droppings
Dogs will bark, but the caravan of chess moves on.
What is the source of the interview transcription/translation you've provided?
"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office." - Aesop
"Only the dead have seen the end of war." - Plato
"If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination." - Thomas De Quincey
Re: Did Kirsan fall off a turnip truck? "Yes," says Treasury.
OK, so it's a Russian source of undetermined credibility.
"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office." - Aesop
"Only the dead have seen the end of war." - Plato
"If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination." - Thomas De Quincey
OK, so it's a Russian source of undetermined credibility.
DOZHD is really independent source, perhaps the last one which still remains in Russia.
If EU and Canada will not duplicate US sanctions, the effect of US sanctions might become quite ironic: US players will be forced to skip all FIDE tournaments for a while.
FIDE will have more to say after their extraordinary Presidential Board meeting this weekend. I have not been able to extract more than that so far, apart from the denials by the FIDE President.
OK, so it's a Russian source of undetermined credibility.
In this Internet age, I have serious doubts about all sources of 'news'. All classic artifacts: recordings, videos, notes, transcripts etc. can be edited or altered. There likely are no pure sources of news anymore (if there ever was). Sorry for the injection of pessimism - perhaps this post will be edited to remove that?
In this Internet age, I have no serious doubts about any sources of 'news'. All classic artifacts: recordings, videos, notes, transcripts etc. cannot be edited or altered. Likely all sources of news are as pure as the driven snow. Sorry for the injection of optimism - perhaps this post will be moved to the pantheon of great posts
I agree. :)
"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office." - Aesop
"Only the dead have seen the end of war." - Plato
"If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination." - Thomas De Quincey
A better way to put this is to say that Kirsan is basically laughing at them. And it's interesting that the whole Treasury Department angle really is starting to look like the Bobby Fischer case. It's transparent to anyone not brainwashed by neo-con propaganda that the whole thing revolves around the US foreign policy regarding Syria and that everything else is simply fabrication, unsubstantiated claims, and so on. Pathetic.
I mean, come on. He was in the US two weeks ago and SUDDENLY they discovered this terrible (alleged) connection to Syrian banks which are also alleged to have connections to the very terrorists they have been fighting for over four years? What turnip truck do they think people fell off? Why would Kirsan trade with ISIL (i.e., Daesh) when they're banned under Russian law? If the Treasury Department nonsense held any water they they could simply inform the Russian authorities that Kirsan was breaking domestic (Russian) law. It's all a steaming pile of animal droppings.
The US Treasury Department is getting into a habit of harassing chess people. What next? Uncollected taxes on the miniscule prizes at chess tournaments? What a farce.
Once the situation changes in Syria - and the US either gets its wishes or has to face up to changes they don't like - then their whole interest in Kirsan will vaporize into thin air. By then the whole gaggle of usual suspects here will have "no interest" in the story. The way the Russians are pounding Daesh, and sending the terrorists scurrying to their Turkish skirts of protection, those unpleasant changes are going to be sooner rather than later.
Politicizing chess for block-headed foreign policy goals is really a mark of great stupidity. And it hurts chess. Better check the water floridation at the Treasury Department. I think it's sapping their vital bodily fluids.
The latest is that the Russian MoD has published, on their website, evidence that Daesh petroleum is travelling through Turkey, a US NATO ally, and the the President's own family is implicated. The whole fabrication is coming apart and even the Americans are scrambling to "sternly caution" their vassal in Ankara to close the border.
In such a context, idiotic claims that the Syrian regime would trade with people trying to kill them, that the Treasury Department could not simply publish the "evidence" that Kirsan is benefitting from this fictitious trade and have him prosecuted under Russian law (or embarrass the Russians to do so - a very juicy prospect for pathological Russophobes), that the Department "didn't know" two weeks ago when Kirsan was in the USA, etc., etc., etc., - it's all so idiotic that even Jack D. Ripper and his claims about water floridation and vital bodily fluids seems tame in comparison. [ETA: or the claims about space aliens by Kirsan himself! Perhaps another look is in order!?]
Sit back, get your popcorn, and watch obscene hubris get its (likely) just deserts.
Why, it's almost like Lasker's famous description of chess. lol.
"On the Chess-board lies and hypocrisy do not survive long. The creative combination lays bare the presumption of a lie; the merciless fact, culminating in a checkmate, contradicts the hypocrite." [Emmanuel Lasker]
Last edited by Nigel Hanrahan; Wednesday, 2nd December, 2015, 02:38 PM.
Reason: Lasker, with a quote, of course!
Dogs will bark, but the caravan of chess moves on.
Ilyumzhinov take legal action against the US regime
Kirsan will fight the fraudulent claims in court in the US. In the meantime,
Originally posted by FIDE
Athens, 6 December 2015
Following the announcement by the US Department of the Treasury that the US levied sanctions against Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, Russian citizen and FIDE President, Mr. Ilyumzhinov has informed the Presidential Board that he will withdraw from any legal, financial and business operations of FIDE until such time as Mr. Ilyumzhinov is removed from the Office of Foreign Assets Control sanction list.
Mr. Ilyumzhinov advised that he has initiated legal procedures in the US aiming to request additional information and reverse restrictive measures put by the US Department of the Treasury. During the next Presidential Board meeting, Mr. Ilyumzhinov will update the Board as to the progress of the legal procedures.
Mr. Ilyumzhinov’s decision to withdraw from any legal, financial and business operations of FIDE is to enable him to concentrate on clearing the situation with the US Department of the Treasury.
Until further notice, under section A.9.5 of the FIDE Statutes, if the President: “duly authorises, then he can be represented by the Deputy President who shall exercise the powers of the President. The Deputy President can thus represent FIDE officially and can solely sign for FIDE.” Therefore Mr. Makropoulos will now be exercising these powers and representing FIDE officially.
Nigel Freeman
FIDE Executive Director
So the US regime can't do any more damage to FIDE using this approach. Maybe they will attack Makropoulos for being Greek. In the case of the politically-motivated prosecution of Julian Assange, the Swedish authorities simply refused to accept the invitation by the accused to interview him, and thereby kept the whole thing in a kind of spiteful limbo... and Assange stuck in the London Ecuadorian Embassy. With Ilyumzhinov’s legal actions, it will be interesting to see whether the US takes the Swedish approach (keep the pot boiling without any intention of resolving the issue) or whether Ilyumzhinov’s court action will proceed. I guess the American idea is to make an expense for FIDE when they could be spending the $ on chess. Cue G. Kasparov for a press conference in which he "denounces" FIDE for "wasting money". We live in interesting times.
I think the US Treasury Department is going to find that Ilyumzhinov has more going for him than Fischer did, and will fight back more successfully. Are the World Championship events in the US now in question?
Re: Ilyumzhinov take legal action against the US regime
I just got off phone with a FIDE colleague who told me as much. This is very encouraging news. Apparently the PB meeting was very civilized and Kirsan's decision to step aside was his own. There were some rally cries to support the President but it was unlikely that Ilumzhinov would have survived a vote if it came to that.
Re: Ilyumzhinov take legal action against the US regime
It is interesting to note that Russian media provide slightly different wording for Ilyumzinov's announcement. They state that he will withdraw from any legal, financial and business operations of FIDE in the US and with US citizens. He also states that remains FIDE President.
Re: Ilyumzhinov take legal action against the US regime
From XSoviet News.
"I remain president of FIDE. But at my request presidential board restricted my powers in financial sphere on territory of US" - Ilyumzhinov
"If I go to Washington now I can't even call a taxi from the airport," Ilyumzhinov complains.
Kirsan finally figured out why he can't go to the USA. Maybe FIDE will also soon figure out that their organization remains toxic as long as Kirsan remains president ....doubtful. Kirsan thought he could get the Treasury dept to drop an executive order against him by simply proclaiming his innocence? Now he thinks that FIDE wil no longer be toxic or hindered if he remains president and has a sham puppet executive underneath him signing off on everything? The news is not encouraging at all. FIDE is funded by Kirsan's blood money and until Kirsan is completely removed from this organization entirely, it is crippled.
Last edited by Sid Belzberg; Sunday, 6th December, 2015, 12:44 PM.
Tweet
Comment