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.
Good links. And contributing to a weakening of the underlying condition is breathing pollution, whether from smoking tobacco or living next to a factory.
Pollution is way down especially in China because all the factories and industries are closed.
In Windsor, the air is noticeably cleaner because of the reduction in driving and also some of the big polluters across the border are shut down.
I've only seen Seventh Seal, Pawn Sacrifice, Bobby Fischer Against the World, Game Over: Kasparov Against the Machine, and Searching for Bobby Fischer, but I've also read Chess Story, and as they say, a book is worth 36 movies, so I've essentially seen all 41.
I would add two Russian-language movies that are not well known in the West (unlike Chess Fever which is mute ).
Grossmeyster (The Grandmaster, 1972) has Tal, Averbakh, Korchnoi, Taimanov and Kotov playing themselves, which is already a great treat. After Korchnoi's 1976 defection, this movie was no longer allowed to be played in theatres or on TV in the USSR; it reappeared only after the regime change, in 1990-s. Here's a (barebones) IMDB description.
Belyi sneg Rossii (White Snows of Russia, 1980) is a biopic on Alexander Alekhine based on Kotov's book and screenplay. IMDB again.
And speaking of IMDB ... congrats (somewhat belated, ha!, I've only recently returned, still playing catchup) to Tom O'Donnell for getting some street cred for is EPIC work on X-MEN
Here's the scene... Magneto & Xavier playing chess
This just in today, but i have to wonder.... when they passed these social distancing restrictions, did they not think people would violate them in the parks and beaches as soon as the good weather got here? So the authorities have made themselves look bad, and now they have to "respond' with more enforcement officers. How silly they didn't just do that at the first appearance of good weather. I guess some people just don't know human nature. Anyway, here's today's story:
"Many Canadians have been taking advantage of warmer weather to venture outside after spending weeks in lockdown because of COVID-19, but the easing of restrictions has sparked a backlash in Toronto.
A statement from the city said thousands of people packed Trinity Bellwoods Park in the downtown area on Saturday and some were flouting physical distancing regulations.
The city called the crowds "unacceptable" and that they threatened to undo the work done over the last 10 weeks to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Mayor John Tory said bylaw officers and police would be out in force Sunday to ensure the rules on distancing are followed.
The city has made it illegal to come within two metres of someone from a different household in parks and public squares. Those who break the bylaw could be handed a $1,000 ticket on the spot, though officers can also issue higher tickets -- subject to the court system -- in which fines go up to $5,000 on conviction.
The city's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Eileen de Villa, condemned the "selfish and dangerous behaviour" of people flocking to parks. She noted the city has seen an uptick in cases of COVID-19, reporting 258 new cases on Friday alone."
And not only did the authorities make themselves look bad, they may have allowed further spread of the virus. They say "the crowds" threatened to undo the work of the past 10 weeks... no, THE AUTHORITIES did that by not enforcing the restrictions. Laws are only as good as their enforcement. People have to learn in a pandemic that old behaviors are no longer acceptable.
Last edited by Pargat Perrer; Sunday, 24th May, 2020, 02:59 PM.
This just in today, but i have to wonder.... when they passed these social distancing restrictions, did they not think people would violate them in the parks and beaches as soon as the good weather got here? So the authorities have made themselves look bad, and now they have to "respond' with more enforcement officers. How silly they didn't just do that at the first appearance of good weather. I guess some people just don't know human nature. Anyway, here's today's story:
"Many Canadians have been taking advantage of warmer weather to venture outside after spending weeks in lockdown because of COVID-19, but the easing of restrictions has sparked a backlash in Toronto.
A statement from the city said thousands of people packed Trinity Bellwoods Park in the downtown area on Saturday and some were flouting physical distancing regulations.
The city called the crowds "unacceptable" and that they threatened to undo the work done over the last 10 weeks to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Mayor John Tory said bylaw officers and police would be out in force Sunday to ensure the rules on distancing are followed.
The city has made it illegal to come within two metres of someone from a different household in parks and public squares. Those who break the bylaw could be handed a $1,000 ticket on the spot, though officers can also issue higher tickets -- subject to the court system -- in which fines go up to $5,000 on conviction.
The city's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Eileen de Villa, condemned the "selfish and dangerous behaviour" of people flocking to parks. She noted the city has seen an uptick in cases of COVID-19, reporting 258 new cases on Friday alone."
And not only did the authorities make themselves look bad, they may have allowed further spread of the virus. They say "the crowds" threatened to undo the work of the past 10 weeks... no, THE AUTHORITIES did that by not enforcing the restrictions. Laws are only as good as their enforcement. People have to learn in a pandemic that old behaviors are no longer acceptable.
I'm not sure I get your position: are you blaming "the masses" and/or "the authorities", how much each?
I'm not sure I get your position: are you blaming "the masses" and/or "the authorities", how much each?
Ok, the last paragraph I posted were my comments, not part of the article. I should have put that paragraph before the article, sorry.
So one thing we can say is that the crowds did not gather outside the park and agree en masse not to do social distancing. Each of them made their own individual decisions. So its hard to blame the masses, they are just doing what comes naturally and they might have each been thinking maybe I should wear a mask and keep my distance, but once they got there it all went out the window.
I blame the authorities almost 100%. They simply didn't understand what people are going to do in nice weather, especially when 90%+ of those people have not YET been affected by covid. It's not just Toronto, it's happening everywhere now that nice weather is here. Happening even more in the U.S.
And I doubt that masses of people thought, "What can they do, arrest us all?" as someone else posted here, since that is a flawed way to look at it. As I posted, we don't have tax revolts because the authorities DO have ways to cope with it, they get down to the individual level, attack the individuals. There are more threats besides arrest.
So when the authorities passed the law, they should have immediately planned to put extra (many extra) enforcement officers out there on the first nice weekend, into the parks and beaches. Instead they relied on people to do the right thing, and that just made them look stupid. So NOW they have to send those enforcement officers out, and the authorities point the finger at "the crowd" as if they are to blame. No, just stupid authorities.
Someone posted on Twitter:
"I don’t think it’s that fair blame Toronto police and bylaw officers for the mess at Trinity Bellwoods. Let’s be very clear: police are not your parents. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. As adults we should be able exhibit control and informed decision making."
The last sentence isn't quite right. Even as adults we have to LEARN to exhibit control and informed decision making. In this case, we only learn by seeing visible threat in the form of enforcement officers. Then maybe by mid-summer we are all getting the picture.
Well, I guess I agree more with that tweet than with your post. Over the decades of my life, it somehow became more common to blame others (and especially authority figures, which includes parents, teachers, politicians, etc.) for inferior personal decisions (inferior is inferior, no matter what the authority figure said/did) - please note the following two points before my grand finale lol:
1) I am IN NO WAY defending how the Governments of Ontario, Toronto, Canada, etc. have managed the pandemic. But then everyone is responsible for their own decisions after that.
2) I in NO WAY AGREE with conflating the genuine need to work, with personal decisions to engage in "rock concert seating" socializing. I support the former, but I cringe over the latter.
In my humble opinion, the best approach would be:
a) balance WORK Distancing vs. Social Distancing (working is more important than socializing)
b) widespread immunity/antibody testing (if taking too long, only working gets priority over that)
c) if/when positive, fast-track back to work (else accept that deaths will continue until vaccines)
Ouch, that's a lot of work Aris. I was hoping for something really easy like your probability of getting the virus goes up x% for each visit to the grocery store.
But of course, life is more complicated than that.
But the good news is it appears the Ontario daily numbers are starting to decline. Painfully slow, but finally some progress.
I have been tracking the daily reports for 5 specific data points.
The average daily numbers for the peak period of April 21 to May 14 (24 days):
New cases per day - 433
New deaths per day - 51
Hospitalized patients - 979
Patients in Intensive Care - 225
ICU patients on Ventilators - 170
The numbers for the last 4 days ( May 23 -26)
New cases - 412, 460, 404, 287
New deaths - 28, 25, 29, 21
Hospitalized - 912, 878, 859, 848
Intensive Care - 147, 148, 148, 143
ICU on ventilator - 119, 104, 114, 113
Ouch, that's a lot of work Aris. I was hoping for something really easy like your probability of getting the virus goes up x% for each visit to the grocery store.
But of course, life is more complicated than that.
But the good news is it appears the Ontario daily numbers are starting to decline. Painfully slow, but finally some progress.
Yeah, I agree that's way too many numbers. But I think there's some very handy simplified extractions (such as, it's REALLY WORTH IT to have a bubble of 2 full metres vs. less than that)
Then I just don't know about those declining numbers, they just might be the calm before the next storm (after re-opening)?
Last edited by Aris Marghetis; Tuesday, 26th May, 2020, 07:49 PM.
Reason: added content towards Bob's post
Comment