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From the weirdos who brought you the Ped Egg foot filer, the Brass Bullet indestructible pocket hose, and the Egg Sitter support cushion comes another bonkers product: the 2020 Battle for the White House Collectors Edition Chess Set. Its a keepsake youll cherish for generations and proudly display in your home, the commercial promises. And for just $99 (plus $9.99 shipping and handling), you, too, can turn family political squabbles into riveting games of chess with the Presidential Edition of the game. Or, you can choose the Standard or Deluxe versions for $39.99 and $59.98, respectively.

Republicans and Democrats face off against each other in this chess set, with each sides party leaders represented and the parties animal mascots, the elephant and donkey, serving as pawns. The products website claims that each chess piece is handsomely designed with incredible detail. And lest you think theyre lying, right there in the commercial and on the website is a person painstakingly hand-painting a piece.

There are so many oddities to choose from with this product, but weve narrowed it down to our top five:

According to iSpot.tv, an analytics company that tracks commercial ad buys, Telebrands Corp., the company that makes the chess set, has spent an estimated $153,000 to run these ads between December 23 and today, generating approximately 17.6 million impressions. Since June 2019, the ad has run 292 times.

The commercial goes on to depict smiling families, happily playing chess. A grandparent playing the Republican side high-fives his grandson seated next to him as a college-age young man contemplates the Democrats next move. Interestingly, and perhaps reflecting the American electorate, in the commercial its always an older white man playing the Republican side against a younger Democratic opponent. We reached out to Telebrands Corp. to ask about sales numbers and will update this story if we hear back.

So if youre still recovering from family political fights over Christmas, you could always order this chess set to escalate the tension at your next family gathering. You can yell at your grandfather about Medicare for All as your Sotomayor bishop takes his Mike Pence queen!

Link:
Our 5 Favorite Parts of This Bonkers 2020 Election Chess Set - Rolling Stone

Renew Democracy Initiative chairman, chess grandmaster and political activist Garry Kasparov discusses losing a chess match to a computer and the implications AI has for the future.

The man widely considered to be one of the greatest chess players of all time said humans shouldnt fear artificial intelligence.

Garry Kasparov told FOX Business' Gerry Baker on "WSJ at Large," those who are warning AI will replace us are just wrong.

CHESS GRANDMASTER BECOMES NO. 1 FANTASY SOCCER PLAYER OUT OF MILLIONS

Im really concerned aboutthe doomsayers, all these doomsayers that are trying to terrorize our minds, he said. And maybe we should stop watching too many Hollywood movies because the future is for our making.

"Im arguing that we have to work with machines, and theres the endless opportunities that will actually bring more benefits than problems, as its happened many times before.

Kasparov should know about the power of AI.His defeat in 1997 by the IBM computer, Deep Blue, is considered the major turning point in the argument over whether machines could ever outthink humans.

My experience [is]fighting machines, he said.But now, Im arguing that we have to work with machines, and theres the endless opportunities that will actually bring more benefits than problems, as its happened many times before.

Kasparov is author of the book, Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins, based on what he learned from his battle with Deep Blue. And he believes that while AI will be disruptive to the workforce, that wont spell gloom and doom for employees.

Grandmaster chess player Garry Kasparov taps the clock after a move in a match against grandmaster Fabiano Caruana on Aug. 18, 2017. (BILL GREENBLATT/AFP via Getty Images)

The machines always helped us, he points out. Yes, they always create problems. Obviously many industries are just, you know, facing their end, but jobs do not disappear. They evolve.

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But to what level of purely human achievement can computers actually reach? Kasparov isnt sure, but even so, hes betting on mankind to come out on top.

The Russian essayist and activist Garry Kasparov at the Excelsior Hotel in Rome. Rome, May 20, 2016 (Photo by Mondadori via Getty Images)

"Maybe we should stop watching too many Hollywood movies because the future is for our making.

Machines could do many, many, many things, he admits. We dont know their limits, but I think its what we should, you know, consider that our imagination, our dreams will not be limited.

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Chess grandmaster: AI wont cause the downfall of mankind - Fox Business

A lifetime spent poring over chess and the football of Johan Cruyff has prepared the new Barcelona boss for the job at hand at Camp Nou

It's all a game of chess to new Barcelona boss Quique Setien, and Lionel Messi will be his queen at Camp Nou.

The veteran coach, who has previously worked at Real Betis and Las Palmas, loves the board game more than football and has learned from various aspects of the strategic battle, using them to shape his coaching.

[Chess teaches you] patience, the capacity for analysis, control of your emotions, Setien said in an interview with El Periodico in 2018.

Article continues below

He has even faced former world champions Anatoli Karpov and Garry Kasparov.

It was an incredible experience, and in an era in which I was totally hooked on chess, he explained. Did he win? Get out of here! They play against 30 people at once and beat them all.

Perhaps one day he will play Magnus Carlsen, the Norwegian grandmaster whose interest in football saw him rise to the top of the Fantasy Premier League rankings earlier this season.

But, for now, Setiens chequered battlefield is Camp Nou and his pieces are some of the most expensive players on the planet.

Yesterday, I was walking around my home town with cows around me and now Im here at Barcelona managing the best players in the world, explained Setien at his presentation, surprised himself that he got the call from Barcelona.

He is delighted to have the opportunity to work with six-time Ballon dOr winner Messi, a player he has repeatedly stated his admiration for. He is the queen; he does it all well, Setien told El Periodico.

Nothing on the 61-year-olds CV suggests he should have been a candidate for an elite club, given he has no honours to his name.

Instead, he has been called to Camp Nou because of something intangible, a feeling that hes right for Barcelona aesthetically and tactically, after the colourless Valverde years in which the club lost their identity as a team that loves the ball.

Setien has signed on until 2022 but there are concerns that he will not be able to handle a dressing room full of big names and egos.

I do not agree that the coach has to adapt to the players, said Setien previously. There was a time when I thought it, but that was because I did not understand football.

On one hand, Barcelona could benefit from a shake-up. On the other, he may upset some players, although the heavyweights appear to be on his side.

Messi has previously given Setien a signed shirt, while Sergio Busquets did the same after his Betis side beat Barcelona 4-3 at Camp Nou in November 2018.

To Quique, with appreciation and admiration for the way you see football, wrote the midfielder.

That dramatic victory was the last time any visiting team has triumphed at Barcelonas home stadium Setien passed his audition with flying colours; he just had to wait a year or so to get the job.

He had long been linked with Barcelona, primarily because he is such an avid follower of Blaugrana legend Johan Cruyff, although he would have liked to get to know the Dutchman better.

I told Cruyff Id have given my little finger to have played for his team, but not just to play at Barcelona but for how they played, because I saw how the players enjoyed themselves, Setien previously admitted.

Bringing delight back to Barcelonas stars will be crucial in getting the best of a bunch who have practically won it all.

With rivals Real Madrid reinvigorated, Barcelona desperately hope Setiens arrival will give their team the impulse they need to hit top form and kickstart their bid for the treble.

After finishing sixth in his first campaign in Andalusia, things began to sour in the second and Real Betis fans turned on Setien, turned off by his tactics and ideals, but Barcelona supporters are expected to warm quickly to him for his Cruyffian ways.

As a player, Setien made his name with hometown side Racing Santander, helping them get promoted to La Liga in 1992 during his second stint at the club.

He toughened up at Atletico and in the late 80s he faced Cruyffs Barcelona and that was a formative experience, which shaped the rest of his career to date.

From then on, I started to make sense of what I had felt throughout life, through my career, Setien told The Coachs Voice.

"I started to really watch football. To analyse it. To understand what I felt, and what I wanted to put into practice when I became a coach.

Setien admitted he hasnt decided whether Barcelona will play in 4-3-3, 4-4-2 or another formation, but was visibly thrilled as he faced the media with president Josep Maria Bartomeu and sporting director Eric Abidal.

This is the opportunity of a lifetime for him and finding out whether a diet of Cruyff and chess is enough to succeed at a club like Barcelona will make for a fascinating second half of the season.

As Valverde found out, with two La Liga titles in the bank and the team top of the table once more in his third season, it only takes a few wrong moves at Barcelona and its checkmate.

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Messi will be the 'queen' for chess-obsessive Quique Setien - Goal.com

A female Iranian chess referee has said she fears returning to her country after a picture of her was published which appeared to show her not wearing a headscarf at the World Championships in Shanghai.

Shohreh Bayat, 32, who is chief arbiter for the 2020 Women's World Chess Championships being shared between China and Russia, fears returning to Iran as she believes she could be imprisoned for flouting Islamic law.

An image of her overseeing a match in Shanghai, which appears to show her not wearing her scarf, has been circulated by Iranian state media after it was published online.

Ms Bayat insists she was wearing the hijab, as she always does while overseeing international competitions, but that it can't be seen because of the camera angle.

'I turned on my mobile and saw that my picture was everywhere [in Iranian media]. They were claiming I was not wearing a headscarf and that I wanted to protest against the hijab,' Ms Bayat said.

'There are many people in prison in Iran because of the headscarf. It's a very serious issue. Maybe they'd want to make an example of me.'

While fulfilling her high-ranking sports role abroad, which is similar to a senior referee, Iranian law dictates that Ms Bayat must continue to don the headdress in public.

In an interview with Iranian state media, Ms Bayat's father was quoted as saying the headscarf had dropped accidentally.

Despite her insistence that it was the angle of the photograph, the 32-year-old, who is one of only a few female chief arbiters in the world, said women should have the right to choose how to dress and that the headscarf 'should not be forced on them'.

She has refused to apologise to Iranian officials after the Iranian Chess Federation advised her to do so, according to the BBC.

Figuring that she is unable to return to her country, Ms Bayat has now decided to remove the hijab altogether and is refereeing matches unveiled for the rest of the tournament in Vladivostock.

Ms Bayat's father told the Iranian Students News Agency earlier this month (ISNA): 'Me, her mother and even the head of the Iranian Chess Federation tried hard to convince her to come back to Iran but she says she will not because she is worried about going on with her activities in Iran and wants to continue in another country with the help of the International Chess Federation.'

According to Ms Bayat, she asked the Iranian Chess Federation to appeal to the government on her behalf but they refused.

Vice-President of the International Chess Federation (Fide) Nigel Short, praised Ms Bayat, tweeting that she is 'the first woman ever to be General Secretary of a sport federation in #Iran. The only female Category-A International Arbiter in Asia. A great ambassador for her country.'

Ms Bayat is one of a select few top-level arbiters in the world and the only one in Asia.

Iran's first female Olympic-medal winner Kimia Alizadeh defected from Iran to the Netherlands earlier this month citing the country's strict dress code as a reason.

In a blistering online letter she called herself 'one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran'.

'Whatever they said, I wore,' Taekwondo athlete Alizadeh wrote in the letter posted on Instagram last week. 'Every sentence they ordered, I repeated.'

Ms Alizadeh, who won a bronze medal in taekwondo at the 2016 Rio Olympics, cited oppression by authorities in the Islamic republic.

The semi-official ISNA news agency carried a report on Thursday saying: 'Shock for Iran's taekwondo. Kimia Alizadeh has emigrated to The Netherlands.'

ISNA wrote that it believed that Alizadeh, who is reportedly training in The Netherlands, is hoping to compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but not under the Iranian flag.

Without saying anything of her plans, Alizadeh assured the 'dear Iranian people' that she would remain 'a child of Iran wherever' she is.

This article has been adapted from its original source.

Originally posted here:
Iranian Chess Referee Fears of Returning Home After Removing Her Hijab - Al-Bawaba

The 2020 PRO Chess League is back, ending a 247-day drought since the end of last season. With the new improvements to the league format, fans watched the most competitive week in PRO Chess League history. The stronger competition brought debuts forAlexander Grischuk,Wei Yi,David NavaraandEvgeny Tomashevsky, but also showcased PRO Chess League stars likeFabiano Caruana,Wesley So, Hikaru NakamuraandMaxime Vachier-Lagrave.

1. Saint Louis is still really good.

The Arch Bishops are a favorite to win this year's PRO Chess League, and after dispatching the New York Marshalls last Monday, cemented their status. Even with bothNakamuraandGadir Guseinov headlining the New York lineup, the defending league champions proved too much to handle.

The match started to slip out of reach whenSo beat Nakamura in the second round. Nakamura needed to take some risks to keep the match close, but So's solid play gave Black the endgame advantage:

Saint Louis took the match 10.5-5.5, thanks to strong performances from both So andCaruana. New York faces the Brazil Capybaras on Monday, and the Arch Bishops will take on the UK Lions.

2. Russia stuns China in season opener.

China looked like a serious competitor to Saint Louis in the preseason, butVlad Dobrov's perfect 4/4 will leave the Pandas scrambling for a better strategy next week. A last-minute substitution for Russia, Dobrov opened his day with a strong defensive win againstWen Yang:

In the third round,Weiseemed to have built an edge, but a quick blunder gave Dobrov the point:

Dobrov's performance was crucial to Russia's 9.5-6.5 win, as no other Russian players scored over 2/4. China now enters a must-win match against Armenia next week, while Russia will take on the Turkey Knights.

3. Sweden has the best fans.

After falling short of qualification in past seasons, the Wasabis finally made their PRO Chess League debut against their Scandinavian rival, the Norway Gnomes. Determined to win, the Wasabis putJon Ludvig Hammeron notice a few days before the match:

The Stockholm-based club started slowly and quickly fell behind 3-1 after the first round.Sweden slowly worked their way back into the match, and with the score locked at 7.5-7.5,Bassem Aminbroke the tie, beating Hammer with the black pieces to clinch the match:

Watching from the Wasa SK in Stockholm, Sweden's fans were pumped to see the Wasabis win in their debut. In his interview,GM Erik Blomqvist said that at least 50 fans came to watch him play live.

Sweden will face Spain next week in a match they should be favored to win. If they do, the fan-favorite could face Vachier-Lagrave's Roosters in a clash of unbeaten teams in week three.

With the higher level of competition, this week's Game Of The Week was especially hard to pick, but none is more deserving than the fighting draw betweenYannick Gozzoli andKacper Piorun. While it's rare for a draw to be selected, this game brought a complex endgame where both sides had winning chances. For most of the game, both players were under one minute on the clock, making this draw an exciting affair:

The France Roosters went on to win the match after sweeping the Poland Hussars in the final round. This week's honorable mention goes toSam Sevianof theNew York Marshalls for his win with the black pieces againstCaruana:

Sevian played incredibly well, posting a 98.1 CAPS score against the 2018 world championship challenger.

During this week's Eastern Division broadcast, a fan asked which game deserved Blunder Of The Week. With several strong contenders, the PRO Chess League has decided to select theHungary Hunters' Gergely Antal. After holding a worse position for much of the game, Antal erred with five seconds left on the clock:

Hungary could not quite recover, and theArmenia Eagleswent on to win the match, 11-5. The Hunters play the Croatia Bulldogs next week, a match they should be favored to win.

Stats matter in the PRO Chess League. Here are three stats you may have missed in the season's opening week.

1. The Bird's Opening (1.f4) scored 100% in the opening week. Sure, it was only one game, but Italy'sLorenzo Lodici,well-prepared for his game againstWouter Spoelman, developed quickly and sacrificed pieces as early as move 15. The Bird's Opening is not a likely candidate to get more screen time this season, and new openings are always welcome:

2. Speaking of Lodici, he and just four other players scored a perfect 4/4.Ray Robson (Chicago), Anton Korobov (Germany), Dobrov (Russia) and Shant Sargsyan (Armenia) also completed a perfect day. Of the five players, only twoDobrov and Sargsyannotched performance ratings over 3000. Nearly making the list, Bassem Amin (Sweden) scored three out of three, as his first-round opponent had to forfeit.

3. All four of Argentina's players had performance ratings of 2690 and higher. In their thrashing of the U.K. Lions, each of the Krakens' players scored at least 2.5/4. Considering the performance ratings, the Krakens outperformed the Saint Louis Arch Bishops, asLeinier DominguezandLe Quang Liem both managed a 2666 performance rating. Argentina's best game came fromAlan Pichot, who beatGawain Jonesafter making a long-term sacrifice in the endgame:

This week's power rankings were compiled by Isaac Steincamp (@IsaacSteincamp), who served as a general manager for the Pittsburgh Pawngrabbers for three seasons before working with Chess.com.

Opening week in the PRO Chess League tells us which teams were prepared to play. Managers are still trying to determine their best lineups and adjust to the new format of the league. However, losses are expensive this year. With only seven weeks of regular season to play, each match is critical, and managers need to be smart moving forward.

It's easy to overreact given the small sample size of games, but here are this week's power rankings:

No surprises here. After a dominating performance against the New York Marshalls, the defending PRO Chess League champion looked the part withCaruanaandSo combining for 6.5/8. Except for Canada, it's quite difficult to see another Western Division team beating the Missouri-based squad. Its regular season losses generally stem from significant upsets: Minnesota and Pittsburgh in 2018, and Miami in 2019.

General ManagerArtak Manukyan will tell you his team is not a title contender in 2020, but his team is fun to watch.Sargsyanwas just one of two Eastern Division players to score a perfect 4/4, and Armenia beat a talented Hungary team.Zaven Andriasianis particularly impressive, notching 3.5/4. This team will need to get through Russia, India, and China to win the Eastern Division, but the race to first place just got even more interesting.

While it was not the biggest story in this week's opener, Argentina's crushing upset over the U.K. Lions is one of the big surprises in the season's opening week, although it's hard to read too much into this one result. Argentina has just one player rated over 2600, and while Pichot looks to be a star player for the Krakens, the schedule now gets tougher. For Argentina to make a significant jump in the power rankings, they'll need to upset Canada next week.

Still one of the favorites to win the title this year, China will have to grow quickly from their loss to Russia. Other than conceding a perfect score against Vlad Dobrov, China did everything else right by holding the other three boards to a combined 5.5/12. Based on this week's result, don't be surprised ifLi Di becomes a featured player in the Pandas' lineup. The 20-year old is a proven force in the PRO Chess League with victories over So,Eltaj SafarliandTigran Petrosian in 2019.

Truly impressive opening-week performance, even with a loss to the France Roosters. WithoutJan-Krzysztof DudaandRadoslav Wojtaszek, the Hussars still nearly upset the Central Division favorite last Thursday. While they will need some help to win the division, second place is easily within reach for them. With so many other strong players on the roster, Poland is officially a dark horse to win the PRO Chess League.

This year the PRO Chess League is raising the stakes with its Fantasy Contest that offers weekly cash prizes and even more opportunities to win. Every week will have three contests, one for each division. The first-place finisher in each contest will wina three-month diamond Chess.com membership, and a perfect submissionin any contest will win up to $100, so make sure to complete your three submissions every week.

This past week's winners are:

Make sure to submit your Fantasy lineup for every division each week to win prizes! You can reach the Fantasy portal on the PRO Chess League website by clicking the button below:

Next week the PRO Chess League will bring a critical prime-time match between the California Unicorns and the Chicago Wind. California will be looking to rebound from last week's loss to Canada, while the Wind have a chance to win two straight after beating Brazil. California needs a win to stay in the playoff race, as a second loss before facing Saint Louis and New York can put its postseason hopes in serious jeopardy.

Wednesday will bring the first division doubleheader of the season. The China Pandas face the red-hot Armenia Eagles in a 2018 PRO Chess League Final rematch. China avenged their 2018 defeat by winning in last year's third-place match, so next week's match will be the third edition of the rivalry. TheNorway Gnomeswill face the France Roosters in the Central Division's prime-time match, a key test for both sides.

Have a burning question about next week's matches? Starting Sunday, every weekly preview will answer at least one question from a fan. To submit your question, you can tweet using #prochess or leave a question in the comments of this article. You can ask about your favorite team, player, or anything related to the PRO Chess League!

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PRO Chess League Week In Review: Season Starts With Surprises And Upsets - Chess.com