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Chess in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed greatly, but in Dulles, Virginia, last month, they took precautions and played the old-school way.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began in the U.S., some of the earliest high-profile changes in American life came in the realm of sports: In quick succession in March, the NBA and NHL suspended their seasons, while MLB delayed the start of their year, eventually playing a severely truncated season.

Though chess isnt as high in the American consciousness as those sports, the pandemic shut the game down even more completely. With rooms full of people sitting and playing, opponents and neighboring games a couple feet from each other, for hours, it was obvious that tournament chess couldnt continue.

It still mostly doesnt, but last month, in Dulles, Virginia, the first face-to-face tournament in the D.C. area since March was played, as about 130 players competed in the U.S. Class Championship.

Organizer Anand Dommalpati told WTOP that the field was about half what the U.S. Class generally draws, but that I didnt even expect this much, considering the scary situation. But I think all the players are very cooperative, and theyre all following the protocols.

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Dommalpati considered the risks each player had to sign a waiver. But the appeal of the game outweighed the other factors, including for his teenage daughter, a tournament player whose interest in chess got him into organizing tournaments in the first place.

He said his daughter was getting tired of playing online, just because they sit at the computer screen for a long time. And she was OK during the summer, but once school started, theyre already on the screen for six hours, seven hours.

Then comes homework, which is several more hours. Then she gets tired of screen time. She said, No; I dont want to play online chess its just so boring. I think that made me think, OK, now its an opportunity.

Masks were required; spectators were banned. Boards were placed much farther apart than usual. After each game, players paused to wipe off the pieces.

Dommalpati and his staff sprayed each board and set, and the hotel staff came through and cleaned the room after all games were finished in each round.

Players had to leave the hotel after their games, unless they were guests of the hotel, in which case they had to go to their rooms.

At one point, a rules dispute broke out, and chief tournament director Rudy Abate, of Henderson, North Carolina, had to break up a group of players who had gravitated toward the argument. Still, he agreed, the players are very cooperative.

When traditional activities had to shut down in person, many of them moved online. In some ways, chess was perfectly suited for that transition. Many people play online already, and the game doesnt lose much in translation: You cant face a split-fingered fastball online, but a virtual Knight moving from c6 to d4 makes you think as hard as a wooden one.

Indeed, online-only enterprises such as the PRO Chess League and the Magnus Grand Prix (organized by Norwegian world champion Magnus Carlsen) have stepped into the gap. The U.S. Championship, as well as the Olympiad (the world team championship), were played online.

Chess-related livestreams on platforms such as Twitch have garnered millions of fans, and made substantial money for talented streamers, such as former U.S. Champion Hikaru Nakamura.

It raises the question: The longer the pandemic goes on, and the more players get used to playing online, will they come back to over-the-board chess? Will chess become a video game, albeit a high-class one?

Its possible, Abate said. Dommalpati added that he knows of players who have only played online.

But for most of the players and officials at the U.S. Class, the real-world game was here to stay.

Michael Hoffpauir, the president of the U.S. Chess Federation and the executive secretary and treasurer of the Virginia Chess Federation, said the pandemic, and the move online, has definitely changed the nature of the game.

Hes not worried that online chess will supplant the old-school game. For one thing, while technological vigilance is better than ever, it cant be known for sure whether your opponent on the other end of the internet is consulting with a world-class computer program to come up with their moves.

You have a camp who enjoy the online chess because they can continue to compete, Hoffpauir said. But theres another segment who just have gotten some sour taste because of cheating incidents in online tournaments. Those types of incidents definitely spoil the reputation of online play.

Hoffpauir added that live chess has an element the virtual game cant touch: The social interaction its just not the same as playing over the board.

He added, Its just a different experience over the board. When youre sweating because you just [lost] a piece, or youre in a bad position, or your Kings defense is compromised, you sweat, and your opponent can see it and feel it.

Chess is, in its own quiet, possibly weird way, a very social game, but at the U.S. Class, so much of that social quality seemed lost to the safety measures. All that was left was the game itself.

Still, the question arises: Given the risks of the coronavirus, is chess that important?

Yeah, Abate said, it is.

The players surely agreed. Virginias Jennifer Yu, 18, won the 2019 U.S. Womens Championship and played in the U.S. Class the day after finishing fourth in this years online womens event.

She wrote for Chess Life that playing in a mask made only an insignificant difference. After years of leaning on my hand, however, I was more worried about touching my face. But I broke the habit early by sitting on my hands!

The big adjustment, she wrote, was playing with three-dimensional pieces again, and simply being around so many people at once both completely commonplace happenings that had become strange very quickly.

Shelev Oberoi, 14, of Texas, came to Dulles for the chance to play stronger players than hes used to, and told WTOP that he hoped the people who were introduced to chess online will return to go to a tournament in person.

He added that the appeal was hard to explain, but its just the feeling of the board versus the screen.

And while 6-year-old Tariq Yue, of Pennsylvania, started playing online, and has played about 30 online tournaments, he was hooked on the face-to-face game in only his second over-the-board tournament.

You look at the pieces differently, Yue said. You see them differently.

Originally posted here:
For the love of the game: Tournament chess returns to Virginia, pandemic or not - WTOP

Pat Musitano was a brash, loud mob boss, but his funeral was so low key it went almost entirely unnoticed after he was murdered by a gunman in a Burlington parking lot this summer in the midst of the global pandemic.

When his associate, Joseph Catroppa, was shot dead outside a hotel in Cancun, Mexico, in September, his funeral service in Woodbridge was also a private, quiet affair, marked publicly by only an online announcement.

Such discreet online mourning is part of the new realities of life and death for local and international organized criminals during the COVID-19 crisis.

Meanwhile, experts say the smartest organized criminals are now rebounding and even expanding after their initial pandemic scare.

Crime tends to be a first-mover, sussing out new opportunities whenever a crisis like COVID-19 arises, Misha Glenny, a fellow at the Berggruen Institute think tank, writes on his blog. They are very entrepreneurial.

The bad news is the surge of online activity during lockdown has multiplied the opportunities for the ever-growing cyber criminal fraternity, he continues.

For some, the new opportunities lie in a new division of police resources, weakened enemies, legitimate business failures and sloppy online security.

For Mississauga mobster Vincenzo (Jimmy) De Maria, 66, the global pandemic meant he could present a viable argument to immigration authorities that he is too frail to be deported to Italy. De Maria, who was convicted of a 1981 second-degree murder over a drug debt, has had his deportation hearing indefinitely postponed after he argued he wasnt well enough for pandemic travel.

Experts agree the COVID-19 crisis has hit different facets of underworld life at varying degrees of intensity. Heres how:

Drugs

Immediately after the pandemic hit last March, illegal drugs became the toilet paper of the underworld meaning cocaine, heroin and other narcotics were the target of panic buying and hoarding.

Then things calmed down.

Luis Horacio Najera, a GTA academic who covered the cocaine trade as a reporter in Ciudad de Juarez, Mexico, said the pandemic hasnt hit all drug cartels equally.

Some are struggling to survive while others have sniffed out chances to finally overtake their rivals and diversify their interests.

There could be some visionaries among the cartels that could try to take advantage of the pandemic and its effects to push for new markets, Najera said in an online interview.

Investing money on legitimate business as medical supplies may be a good opportunity to clean some cash, Najera said.

As the pandemic pressed on, local criminals realized that addicts and more casual users werent going anywhere and that fentanyl, marijuana and methamphetamine can be produced locally while cocaine could still be smuggled into the country. They just had to do a little better job improving their supply chains and delivery, just like legions of legitimate businesses.

Internationally, drones, submersibles and tunnels became increasingly popular for smuggling during the pandemic.

Canadians were sometimes on the producing end in the illegal drug business in the pandemic underworld.

Investigators with the York Regional Police announced that a three-month operation this summer by its Organized Crime Bureau Guns, Gangs and Drug Enforcement Unit netted approximately $150 million dollars worth of illegal cannabis.

The pot haul was made after officers executed 15 search warrants throughout York Region, including Markham, King, Stouffville and East Gwillimbury, resulting in 37 arrests and 67 charges.

Much of that pot was destined for the American market, police said.

Gambling

There has been plenty of wagering on high-level chess, but its not because gamblers are worked up by the Netflix hit The Queens Gambit, a professor who studies sports gambling said.

If youre addicted to sports gambling, youll bet on anything, Declan Hill, an associate professor at the Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Science, University of New Haven, Conn., said in an interview.

Match-fixing and gambling is exploding during this time, Hill said.

After shutdowns and schedule shrinking hit many major sports leagues, gamblers showed they were eager to drop bets on virtually anything, including chess, Hill said.

The closure of government-run casinos also created an opening for lavish, spa-like illegal betting palaces to thrive.

One of those new venues in Markham a gated, guarded 20,000-square-foot Markham mansion on Decourcy Court near Warden Avenue and Major MacKenzie Drive, according to York Regional Police, who shut it down last month.

Its invitation-only policy meant criminals could mingle and conduct business without the interference of undercover police agents.

Loansharking

Pope Francis announced in July he was praying for people who during this time of the pandemic, trade at the expense of the needy and profit from the needs of others, like the Mafia, usurers and others.

May the Lord touch their hearts and convert them, the Pope said.

The Pontiffs comments came as small businesses throughout the world are suffering from the pandemic.

Many criminals who had invested heavily in businesses like restaurants and property-rental saw their customers stay home and their tenants suddenly become unable to pay their rents.

After an initial scare, opportunities presented themselves for organized criminals with deep pockets and plenty of liquid cash to become hidden partners in previously legitimate businesses.

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Things are particularly promising for organized criminals with plenty of liquid cash and connections to lawyers, accountants and financial advisers, professor Anna Sergi of the University of Essex said in an email interview.

Even without the business advice, some (organized crime groups) can approach certain businesses directly, but this tends to happen where places are smaller and communities tighter, Sergi said.

Businesses that are smaller (like cash businesses, restaurants, industry-specific businesses affected by the pandemic, such as hospitality and the like) are more at risk, but bigger industries might also be needing influx of cash to get back on their feet, Sergi said, pointing to construction businesses whose work decreases because real estate might be in distress.

Italian anti-Mafia magistrate Nicola Gratteri told the Global Initiative against Organized Crime in October that the pandemic creates an opportunity for organized crime because the usurers from the Ndrangheta initially come in with offers of low interest rates, because their end goal is to take over the business, via usury, and use it to launder their illicit proceeds.

Gratteri grimly added that the Ndrangheta lenders arent as worried about collateral as legitimate financial institutions because: Their collateral is the borrowers life.

Fraud

Criminals quickly cashed in on fact that cyberspace was suddenly central to work, education, health and entertainment after the COVID-19 outbreak.

Due to the pandemic, many Canadians are spending more time at home, Lisanne Roy Beauchamp of the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre said in an email. As a result, fraudsters have upped their attempts to contact potential victims by phone and online.

By the end of March, there were already reports of bogus medicines and hand gels on the market. There have recently been reports of a flood of fake COVID-19 negative test results, allowing tourists to travel without receiving proper medical clearances. Some of those falsified results were downloadable for storage on mobile phones.

Hacking is also up exponentially. Experts urge people to keep their operating systems up to date, install anti-virus and anti-malware programs, avoid using the same password twice, use password generators and refrain from keeping sensitive data on the internet.

The public is also urged to avoid clicking links or opening attachments if anything seems unusual.

Working from home means leaving secure office networks to sharing home servers with children and teenagers, who werent always so security conscious.

The lesson from all this is crystal clear, Glenny says. If youve never taken computer security seriously, make time during the lockdown to get up to speed and quickly.

Human trafficking

The pandemic has made it even tougher to fight human trafficking globally and in Canada, experts say.

Sexual exploitation including webcam sex trafficking has shot up during the pandemic, feeding off poverty, isolation and desperation, Valiant Richey of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe said in an email.

COVID has exacerbated trends we were already seeing before the pandemic, and made them even more urgent, said Richey, the OSCE Special Representative for Combating and Trafficking in Human Beings.

It is harder to cross borders now, as many are in fact closed or carefully monitored, but trafficking and exploitation do not need to cross a border to take place, said Richey, whose organization fights human trafficking in 57 nations, from Vancouver to Vladivostok.

Canada isnt immune to this global phenomenon, Richey said, as most human trafficking is domestic.

Canada, like many countries in the OSCE region, has domestic human trafficking, Richey said.

Lockdown measures and movement restrictions have also contributed to a surge in online child exploitation through webcams, Richey said.

Richey said the number of reports of online child sexual exploitation have tripled globally since the pandemic began.

We are talking about hundreds of millions of pictures and videos exchanged on common social media platforms, Richey said. Much more robust efforts need to be taken to prevent this criminal conduct which can have cause long-term trauma to victims.

Read the original:
Loansharking, fake test results and betting on chess: How organized crime has learned to thrive in the COVID-19 pandemic - Toronto Star

Darien native Jasmine Su has been finding her joy in the game of chess ever since she was seven years old.

My dad introduced this game to me and Ive been hooked since, said Jasmine Su. And now at the age of 10, shes not only making moves on the board but in the rankings, as shes been named one of the top players in her age bracket in the country by the U.S. Chess Federation.

I feel really happy and I did a lot of training at home and played in a lot of tournaments to get it, Su said. I think its really fun because it doesnt matter about your age or gender or heritage or what language you speak. One time I was playing a 78-year-old gentlemen.

But although many in-person tournaments have been canceled due to the coronavirus, it hasnt stopped the 10-year-old from advancing her game.

I have chess coaches and they teach me how to improve my chess and I also learn from books. I do training and problems to train my brain and thats how I work my skills, Su said.

Jan van de Mortel is the president of the Connecticut State Chess Association and he said the online chess community has actually been booming as a result of the pandemic. He said he's excited for so many to experience the benefits that come from the game.

Chess is extremely good for childrens development. You learn to play with a strict set of rules which you have to stick by, said the 40-year chess veteran.

He goes on to explain the unique bond that comes from playing the game.

Chess immediately breaks down barriers, breaks the ice, and two people of completely different cultures, ages backgrounds can sit down and play a game of chess. They may not even speak the same language, but they can play chess and they start to create a bond and these relationships can last for a long time," van de Mortel said.

Originally posted here:
10-Year-Old Darien Native Becomes Nationally Recognized Chess Player - NBC Connecticut

Express News Service

CHENNAI: The Chess Players Forum (CPF), an association of chess players in India, will write to the Andhra Pradesh government seeking removal of the ban on the website Chess.com. In a recent amendment of the AP Gaming Act, the Andhra government banned 132 websites to prevent online gaming, gambling and betting. Chess.com is among those.

Officials of CPF are of the opinion that Chess.com is not a gambling site. According to them, it is a useful platform for upcoming and seasoned chess players, where they can play, learn and improve their game by various means. Their letter to the Andhra government is expected to be sent on Wednesday. Some prominent players from the state are likely to endorse it.

Describing Chess.com as a beneficial medium for players, CPF secretary V Saravanan said: "It's good for training, playing and overall understanding of chess. For example, during the lockdown when no tournaments are held, one can stay in touch using this platform. Players can organise their own tournaments. Also, an upcoming player seldom gets the opportunity to play against strong players over the board. Using these platforms, one can play against players like Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura or Maxime Vachier-Lagrave."

Chess.com offers free registration and has some 40 million users. Some of its features are available for free, some require subscriptions. Users can play rapid and blitz time controls. Analysis, puzzles and teaching materials are also offered. It has hosted tournaments including this year's Online Chess Olympiad and Online Nations Cup.

In a letter to Ravi Shankar Prasad (union minister for communications, electronics and information technology) dated October 27, chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy wrote: "We have amended the AP Gaming Act, 1974 to include online gaming, online gambling and online betting as an offence through Andhra Pradesh (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 which was notified on 25th September 2020."

The chief minister's letter added: "I would request you to direct all the Internet Service Providers to block all the gaming, gambling and betting websites and apps from access in Andhra Pradesh. A list of websites identified to be involved in online gaming, gambling and betting is being attached." Chess.com is 128th in that list.

Original post:
Chess Players Forum urges Andhra govt to exclude Chess.com from banned betting sites - The New Indian Express

I was seven years old when I first started playing chess. My parents didn't know too much about the game because chess doesn't have a long history in China. Most people got to know more about it because of the 1991 Women's Chess World Championships when China's Xie Jun defeated Georgia's Maia Chiburdanidze. That just happened to be the year I was born.

When I was in elementary school there were various options for interesting after school lessons and I chose chess. At first I found I played well against students in my area of the same age, and then went on to achieve excellent results in under-8s and under-10s national competitions. At that stage I began to think I could become a professional chess player. My home in Shanghai at the time was very close to where I studied chess, so I'd play chess almost every day for a few hours. Chess was perhaps the most significant aspect of my childhood.

Then, in 2004 at the age of 13, I travelled to Beijing for professional chess training at the National Chess Center there. Sometimes you're going to a tournament or event but the average time we trained was about six hours a day.

Becoming a grandmaster is the highest title in chess, and to achieve it you have to reach a rating of 2500 and three "norms"in general, a norm is a strong performance with a rating of 2600 in select international chess events. When I received the title of grandmaster in 2014 I was 23 and had six norms. It's still fairly rare for a woman to become a grandmaster, but I believed I was good enough. So I was happy, but it wasn't necessarily surprising!

I first realized I could become Women's Chess World Champion in 2016. That year, I competed in the International Chess Federation (FIDE) Women's Grand Prix 2015-16; a series of five chess tournaments where the winning player qualifies as a challenger to play in the next FIDE Women's World Chess Championships. I won that Grand Prix.Chess is a male-dominated sport, so keeping the championships separate gives a chance for more female players to join and achieve. They've also been separated since the women's championships started in 1927, and there are open tournaments where male and female players can play against one another.

The Women's World Chess Championship Match in May of 2018 was a 10 match tournament between myself and another Chinese player, Tan Zhongyi. We've known each other since childhood, and I knew for at least a year she would be my opponent, so I had plenty of time to prepare. I won three matches, drew five and lost two. So although it wasn't easy, I was leading throughout. Winning was a dream come true. I was the 17th female world champion, the sixth Chinese woman to win and the first woman from my home city of Shanghai.

I also won the Women's World Chess Championship Tournament of November 2018, but the Women's Chess World Championships 2020 in January this year was the toughest chess championship I've played. My opponent Aleksandra Goryachkina was from Russia, and she was only 21 at the timeseven years younger than I was. Russia is traditionally a chess playing country and Goryachkina is very talented.

We played first in Shanghai and then in Vladivostok and during the time we were in Vladivostok for the second half of the tournament in 2020, my coach, Ni Hua's grandmother passed away. He was supposed to go back for the funeral, but instead he stayed with me in Vladivostok until the final, and didn't tell me about his loss so that I could concentrate on playing and winning.

During a tournament it's often late in the evening when we finish games, so my priority is to rest well and have energy for the next day, rather than socialising or partying. But also, while playing chess isn't a physical game, it takes up a lot of mental energy. So for me, it's better not to go out afterwards.

In the tournament against Goryachkina, we drew the first three matches and then it was very up and down with both of us winning matches. The tournament was actually very unclear until the final, when we played four rounds of rapid tie-break games and I won.

I know how popular the Netflix show The Queen's Gambit is and it's great to see a show about chess, especially female players. I've watched a few episodes and I think the character of Beth Harmon is smart and an intelligent player. She's charming to watch when she's on the board.

I believe many chess players have actually watched the show and I personally like how the name of the show speaks to the famous chess opening and the fact that it's about a female player. Beth and I both studied chess when we were very young and playing was our own choicewe played because we wanted to. And, of course, we both want to win. There is a sense from the show that Beth is a passionate woman, with a passion for chess.

Right now, there are many more male chess players than females, so it's good to have something that can encourage women into playing chessBeth could be a good idol for women. But whether you're male or female, young or old, you can play chessit's not limiting.

I would love to think that I could encourage even more young female chess players, and I hope that many more young people begin to play and love the game.

In the future, I'd just like to play better. I prefer to play strong chess players, because after the game no matter whether you win or lose you learn something. Like Beth, I read many books by chess world champions, I tend to admire playing styles more than the individual. And of course, my coach Ni Hua has really helped me over the years, I truly appreciate him.

Although the date is not yet confirmed, I will certainly try to do my best in the next Women's Chess World Championship match.

I really enjoyed playing chess when I first started and now I love it even more.

Ju Wenjun is the FIDE 2020 Women's Chess World Champion. She also won the FIDE Women's World Chess Championship Match 2018 and the Women's World Chess Championship Tournament of November 2018. In 2014 she became a grandmaster at the age of 23. She currently lives in Shanghai, China.

All views expressed in this piece are the writer's own.

As told to Jenny Haward.

View post:
'I'm The 2020 Women's Chess World Champion' - Newsweek