Mediaboss Marketing

The Week

Confidence in the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine seems to be growing. New analysis released this week suggests that not only does the vaccine protect against symptomatic COVID-19 infections, it could also significantly curb transmission, making it a potentially very effective tool for bringing the virus to heel. The vaccine is affordable, easy to produce and store, and has been approved by health regulators in the United Kingdom, India, and Europe, as well as several other countries. But it has not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States, where it's still undergoing late-stage trials. That's led to some harsh criticism. The Mayo Clinic's Vincent Rajkumar called the delay a "huge blunder," while The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf described it as "the most profound impingement on my liberty I've faced." Writer Matthew Yglesias lamented a lack of pressure from lawmakers and the U.S. media for speedy approval. For starters, AstraZeneca hasn't submitted any paperwork to the FDA, so, in short, it can't grant approval for what hasn't been requested, notes Axios' Sam Baker: AstraZeneca has not submitted this product for FDA authorization. The FDA cannot authorize products whose manufacturers arent asking for authorization. Political pressure on the FDA, in addition to being a thing that everyone rightly opposed when Trump did it, cannot change this https://t.co/LnsZPGz4ZG Sam Baker (@sam_baker) February 3, 2021 But there are more complex reasons behind the holdup. In the U.K., Business Insider notes, health regulators "rely more heavily on a company's data to make conclusions," whereas in the U.S., an independent advisory committee takes a look at data sets from both the FDA and drug companies before the FDA can make its final decision. In this case, the FDA was concerned following a series of missteps by AstraZeneca, including the company's failure to alert the agency about a decision to halt trials after a U.K. participant fell ill in September, and a strange discrepancy and incomplete testing of promising but mistakenly-administered half-strength doses. There's speculation submission and approval will come in April, but until the U.S. gets clearer data, the vaccine will remain in regulatory limbo. More stories from theweek.comMarjorie Taylor Greene is getting exactly what she wantsDemocrats may only have one chance to stop America from becoming a one-party stateStephen Bannon, pardoned by Trump, may now be charged over the same scheme in New York

View original post here:
Local woman shines in world of chess - Yahoo News

Local chess enthusiasts including Kentuckys only chess grandmaster react to the successful chess-oriented Netflix series The Queens Gambit

Also in this issue:

When the miniseries The Queens Gambit hit Netflix last year, it served as a bright and welcome distraction during a time when many were feeling bleak and stir-crazy. Based on the 1983 novel of the same name by late Kentucky author Walter Tevis, the show captivated its record-setting 62-million-household audience with its complicated and compelling heroine, its smart and witty writing, and its striking visual design. Centering on the journey of a troubled orphan chess prodigy, both the show and the novel have been lauded for their success in creating an intriguing and relatable storyline around a game that is often seen at least, to those not on the board as relatively slow and tedious.

For viewers in Lexington, that captivation was elevated by the fact that much of the story takes place in our city. Regular references to the Lexington Herald-Leader and to local waypoints such as New Circle Road, Henry Clay High School and Ben Snyder department store an actual Lexington shop that existed on Main Street for many years added layers of delight and novelty for local audiences.

Its safe to say Gregory Kaidanov, an accomplished professional chess player living in Lexington, felt an even deeper kinship with the show than most. Born in Ukraine in 1959 and raised in the Soviet town of Kaliningrad, Kaidanov moved to Lexington in 1991 to further his career as a competitive chess player. Outside the underpinnings of the oppressive Soviet regime, Kaidanov said, the opportunities that opened up when he moved to Kentucky were immense. At the time he moved here, he was ranked as one of the top 200 players in the world; within his first year living in America, he moved up in rank to 16th player in the world. In 1992, he claims to have had the most successful year any chess player had in America. And in 1993, he joined the U.S. Chess National Team, with the team winning the World Team Chess Championship that year for the first time in history a feat that helped fast-track his U.S. citizenship. Today, Kaidanov, who earns the majority of his income by teaching chess lessons (primarily online), enjoys the status of being Kentuckys only chess grandmaster, the highest ranking a competitive chess player can attain aside from world champion.

It was inspirational and exhilarating, Kaidanov said, looking back at that time in his career.

When he and his wife sat down to watch The Queens Gambit last year, after seeing lots of buzz about the show on Facebook, Kaidanov found many correlations between lead character Beth Harmons life and his own. Like Harmon, he fell into a passion for chess I would even use the word obsession, he said as a child and spent much of his early adulthood traveling domestically and internationally for tournaments. He also related with the storylines central focus on both Russia and Kentucky, and could identify with the series depictions of both the pressures and the satisfactions of competing in the game at such a high level.

Overall, Kaidanov describes watching the show as a very emotional experience that led him to relive many of his childhood memories.

I couldnt watch more than one episode at a time, because of the emotional connection, he said. There have been many movies made about chess, but this was by far the best, at all levels.

Fellow Lexington chess enthusiast Jerry Baker, organizer of weekly meetings and monthly tournaments for Lexingtons Bluegrass Chess Club for more than 30 years, agreed that The Queens Gambit was an incredible show, even for people who do not understand chess.

Being an avid chess player, though, that series goes to the next level, he said. More than once during the show, I got out of my seat to cheer.

While the recent popularity of The Queens Gambit led to a massive uptick in interest in chess across the world, its unfortunate, Baker said, that the shows release coincided with what he called the worst time in history for the game, due to the limitations on in-person play caused by the pandemic. In many ways, online chess playing has been a boon for competitive players over the past several decades, in that it has opened up opportunities to play against high-level players from across the world one of the most effective methods for improving your game. But despite the continuation of online chess games throughout the pandemic, Baker said the overall effect of halting in-person games has been detrimental to the game especially for beginners.

Chess is hard, and the difference between a beginner and a tournament player is massive, he explained. In-person, at our club, we could give every beginner a mini-lesson after every game we could explain the differences between beginner and experienced players.

Being a one-on-one battle, its easy for players to take defeat personally, especially when they are first starting out, he continued. During in-person games and tournaments, mentors can often help temper this defeat by letting new players know even the best players were in their shoes at one time and are only better now for having persisted and continuing to learn new tricks.

Originally posted here:
On Top of the Game - http://www.smileypete.com

Hello everyone!

These words, spoken in a bright Croatian accent, herald the start of every video by the YouTube chess guru Agadmator. If youre one of the worlds hardcore chess neophytes who fell hard in the aftermath of The Queens Gambit (looking at myself here), the words are instantly recognizable. For me, today, hearing these words is akin to the mice who heard Pavlovs bell, except that I know Im going to get that sweet chess cheese every single time, because the Mator (as I refer to him in my head) always delivers the goods. As a human being, he represents the first time I have been grateful for YouTubes algorithm, and the chess videos that flood my homepage are a welcome refrain from the Smirking Fascist OWNS Uppity Woman genre that is usually so inescapable.

His real name is Antonio Radic, hes got his own Wikipedia page, and his channel is closing in on a million subscribers and 400 million views. Even before the Queens Gambit boom, he was a celebrity in the chess world who was regularly mobbed by his admirers at events, and as the son of a FIDE Master, hes a strong player in his own right. Its not his play that distinguishes him, though; its the videos. The format is incredibly simple: he reviews one game per video. It can be current or historical, and the brown wood-colored board enjoys pride of place on the screen, with pictures of each player (or of a faceless hooded man, when no pictures are available) denoting the sides. Radics box is smaller, and he commentates from his living room, with a brown couch and often his dog in the background. The average video seems to run around 15 minutes, and hes a marvel at releasing analysis of important games minutes after they conclude.

None of this, of course, quite gets at why hes so good, and thats a little harder to explain. Theres a glut of chess analysis on the internet, which is a treasure trove for new zealots like me, but Radic has mastered the art of explaining why each tactic is played, why certain lines werent pursued, and how the momentum of a good move can tilt an entire game. When it comes to the play of grandmasters, this is essentially explaining the inexplicable, since their play exists on another plane for beginners like me. Many is the analyst who will say something like, obviously the pawn capturing the queen here would be a disaster, when in fact its not obvious to many. Radic will spend minutes in a given video tracing hypothetical lines to show exactly why certain maneuvers were avoided. Whats really remarkable is that it all makes sense, and he does it fast. The concept of a 20-minute chess video seems oppressive, but here, theres never a dull moment. His videos carry you along on a pleasing current, and if youre not careful its easy to sacrifice two hours of your life on his channel. After all, who can resist knowing how Edmund Von Schlachterskeend humiliated Gunt Knurst with the Barristers Gambit in 1904? (Those details are made up, I think, but you get the point.)

Along with his rapid, pinpoint analysis, Radic has an appreciation both for the game and its history, and an allusive, almost literary sense of description. Each video comes with a quote (a recent example, from Siegbert Tarrasch: Some part of every chess game is played blindfolded. The sight of the chessman frequently upsets ones calculations), and a title along the lines of Dubov Takes Carlsen into a DEEP DARK FOREST or Staring Death in the Face or The Only Man Kasparov Ever Feared. Armed with an incredible bank of knowledge and a personal style with just the right mix of seriousness and humor (he can be hilariously dry, as in his description of making a tactical blunder against an international master: my plan was to resign), the videos take on a dramatic narrative of their own, and transform a complicated game into an irresistible story, set to the pleasing wooden plonking sounds that punctuate each move.

That, I think, is what makes Radic so special. Hes a writer, really, or at least a translatorhe takes the stories that are inherent to each game and draws them out in ways that might have been inscrutable to someone like me. He not only sees the hidden theater in how these pieces conspire to defeat each other, but hes a master at teasing it out into a compelling story. In doing so, he not only elucidates whats happening in each match, but deepens his viewers appreciation for the genius of the top masters and the beauty of chess itself. Whether you consider the game art or war or competition, Radic makes the allegories bloom.

To step back from the romantic heights for a moment, its worth saying that his videos are also just really fun. If The Queens Gambit was the reason I made an account at chess.com and started learning about the game in greater depth than mastering which square the queen starts on, Agadmator is the reason I continued. Hes also a big part of the reason Im taking lessons on the London System and the Caro-Kann on chess.com, the reason Im following the Tata Steel Masters in the Netherlands, and the reason the game has assumed what my wife would argue is too prominent a place in my life. But if a side effect of Radics work is to foster an burgeoning addiction, he can be forgiven; insofar as the job of any content creator is to entertain and inform, hes a massive success on both fronts, and he does it all with an artistry that might escape your attention at first glance. In that sense, his channel is a perfect reflection of chess itself, in all its poetic multitudes.

Shane Ryan is a writer and editor. You can find more of his writing and podcasting at Apocalypse Sports, and follow him on Twitter here .

See original here:
In Praise of Agadmator, the Best Chess Youtuber in the World - Paste Magazine

Building on fond memories from playing chess as a child, a burgeoning local woodworker has found a new way to connect with the game

Stephanie Fan and her brother learned chess from their grandfather at a very young age, with an eye not just on the game but also on the prize.

He promised to give us a pony if we could beat him, so we tried really hard to learn the game, she recalled.

They never got a pony, but those special times, and a love of games in general, helped inspire Fan to return to the game as an adult in a new way crafting her own chess sets.

Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Fan worked in the food and beverage industry for nearly a decade before moving to Lexington in 2015. Ive always loved working with my hands, she said. After we moved and I stopped working, I needed something to fill that creative void. After watching a video on YouTube, she decided to give woodworking a go.

I bought a table saw specifically to make a chess set, said Fan, who had always wanted one of her own after growing up with the game. My early attempts were terrible, she admitted, but after several redesigns, and some help from her fellow creators at Kre8Now Makerspace, where she rents studio space, she landed on the winning design: a solid wood chess board with resin inlay and storage for the pieces underneath.

Over the past five years, she has crafted wall clocks, cutting boards and other wooden games, like peg solitaire and topographic puzzles, selling the handmade pieces in her Etsy shop, Atlas & Lily, which is named after her son and daughter. The chess sets, however, are the bread-and-butter of her business, especially since the surge in popularity of The Queens Gambit on Netflix last fall.

I definitely think the show bringing chess to the forefront and the media saying good luck finding chess sets this Christmas has helped my business, she said. I sold out before Thanksgiving and Black Friday, and again before Christmas.

Her geometric chess pieces fit together perfectly in a nesting design inspired by a similar set crafted by designer and modern art aficionado Lanier Graham in the 1960s.

The design and function of the pieces are very much tied together, Fan explained. The rook has straight edges because it moves in a straight line; the bishop has diagonal walls because it moves diagonally; and the knight is L-shaped because it makes L-shaped movements.

The boards themselves are made from regional hardwoods, like walnut, cherry and maple, with Fan sourcing the lumber from a sawmill in Indiana.

I have no interest in using exotic wood because I dont want to ship a piece across the country or the ocean, she explained. There are such beautiful things to use here.

She has even salvaged wood around town from fallen trees that would have otherwise gone into a chipper.

In addition to sourcing her materials in a sustainable way, Fan is committed to offsetting her usage of them. As a small-business partner with the National Forest Foundation, she donates a tree for every sale she makes, and shes currently looking for a charitable partner to help balance out her resin usage.

New chess sets and other wood goods get listed in her Etsy shop, but since she can do a lot of different colors with the resin, Fan likes to work directly with her local customers to bring their custom visions to life. She encourages people to message her on Instagram (@atlas.lily), send her an email or request a custom order through Etsy if they have something particular in mind.

Read more:
Out of the Woodwork - http://www.smileypete.com

I dont really like Chess, but I WANT to like Chess. I think the rules and strategies are interesting, and can fully appreciate why its such a highly regarded and enduring game. I just dont have the brain capacity for it. But like I said, I WANT to like it, and the new mobile game Lazy Chess also wants me to like it and is able to do that with some very clever design decisions. There are more variations and unique takes on Chess than you can shake one of those horsey pieces at, but Lazy Chess doesnt really fall into those categories.

This is a straight-up version of Chess, but the crucial change is that the game uses AI to offer you the two best moves each time its your turn to play. It doesnt tell you which move is the BEST move given the situation, but youve got a 50/50 shot at it.

And thats it. Thats the game. It utilizes the highly rated Stockfish Chess engine to determine what to moves to show you, and if you pick the better of the two moves it will let you know, and if you pick the worst of the two moves it will also let you know. Its like having an expert Chess player sitting over your shoulder during a game, telling you what to do, but also letting you make your own decisions and mistakes.

The kicker is that just by observing the two moves offered each turn, and then taking note of when you pick the best or the worst option, you find yourself slowly learning the game at a deeper level and actually improving your own game. And apparently that was the intention of the developers, too. Lazy Chess is actually making me like Chess.

The binary nature of choosing a move each turn makes this feel like if Reigns and Chess had a baby. I only wish Lazy Chess utilized the same Tinder-like swiping gestures that Reigns uses to make it even more natural to play. If youre on the other end of the spectrum from me, and consider yourself a Chess hotshot, I still think youll find plenty to enjoy in Lazy Chess. Theres a bunch of unlockable stuff like new board and piece designs, unlockable difficulty levels so you can ramp things up to your liking, and even the ability to play against other players online.

Lazy Chess is also totally free to download and play with ads and a one-time IAP to unlock an ad-free version of the game. Even if you think you dont like Chess its worth checking out Lazy Chess for free, as not only is it a very good teaching tool, but if you disregard that its a Chess game at all its basically just a really good puzzle game.

Go here to see the original:
TouchArcade Game of the Week: 'Lazy Chess' - Touch Arcade - Touch Arcade