~~~~~~~~~~
Distraction?
Alexandra Kosteniuk
~~~~~~~~~~
...what chess game...?
Posted on 07/18/2016 12:40:08 PM PDT by jazusamo
If there were a contest for the most stupid idea in politics, my choice would be the assumption that people would be evenly or randomly distributed in incomes, institutions, occupations or awards, in the absence of somebody doing somebody wrong.
Political crusades, bureaucratic empires and lucrative personal careers as grievance mongers have been built on the foundation of that assumption, which is almost never tested against any facts.
A recent article in the New York Times saw as a problem the fact that females are greatly under-represented among the highest rated chess players. Innumerable articles, TV stories and political outcries have been based on an "under-representation" of women in Silicon Valley, seen as a problem that needs to be solved.
Are there girls out there dying to play chess, who find the doors slammed shut in their faces? Are there women with Ph.D.s in computer science from M.I.T. and Cal Tech who get turned away when they apply for jobs in Silicon Valley?
Are girls and boys not allowed to have different interests? If girls had the same interest in chess as boys had, but were banned from chess clubs, that would be something very different from their not choosing to play chess as often as boys do. As for chess ratings, that is not subjective. It is based on which players, with which ratings, you have won against and lost to.
Are women and men not to be allowed to make different decisions as to how they choose to spend their time and live their lives?
(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...
Are we talking Bobby Fischer and Boris Spatsky (sp?) good? I can beat the computer about 80% of the time on level 3, but I think it is only because I can somewhat predict their moves. People aren't as logical.
Yup. You have to be insanely good.
And with many of them at that level, “insanely good” also includes actually insane.
Ummm, no. Used to be, though, when I was in my early 20s.
BTW, I’m not a pro. None of those women would waste their time playing against me. It would be a joke. I’d get crushed.
I can only see 6 to 7 moves ahead. At that rating, they see 9+. Squish.
That's something I could only dream about!
My blonde, cheerleader sister was the first woman in her BSEE class, way back in the late sixties. It was considered a big deal back then. Maybe it still is?
Here's an obit on Calvin that further details his accomplishments, as of the time he died in 1982 at the age of 32 while guest conducting the New York City Opera. People think of him as a distinguished orchestra conductor, but I remember him as a guy full of humor (think of Eddie Murphy at his best). He was always spouting jokes on the buses the band took to perform at other schools for football games (our football team was also number one in San Francisco, winning 11-0 against the other schools, our quarterback ended up with the Denver Broncos). Good times in high school.
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/08/24/obituaries/calvin-simmons-oakland-symphony-leader.html
Our football quarterback, Calvin Jones is a whole different story with a different outcome. Our two Calvins were both black, taking different paths. Whereas Calvin Simmons blended into white society, Calvin Jones claimed discrimination while at the University of Washington along with two other black players. Made a lot of press at the time. He became a cornerback for the Denver Broncos, played with them for four years and then became disenchanted with football and quit to become a preacher. Here's a recent article about him.
http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/at-long-last-peace-for-three-uw-players/
~~~~~~~~~~
Distraction?
Alexandra Kosteniuk
~~~~~~~~~~
...what chess game...?
Affirmative action made sense years ago because of the great injustice done to black citizens. It should have been a temporary 50 year plan...
Choice is GOOD only if you want to kill an unborn child; of which; about 3,300 will die today.
Three Thousand three hundred Future American citizens.
and we worry about Muslim terrorists?
The country has gone MAD!
I take it that he hasn't met my EX!
Thank you for your service. Welcome home.
They shut down the ski area the year I started. It was to save money. Bummer. I still managed to ski free at Sugarbush, though.
True story: she soon beat me so consistently that it ceased to be fun...
That was about 54 years ago -- and we remain happily married... (But, we don't play chess...) '-)
I’ve often stated that basically liberals want to put a gun to everyone’s head to push them into things they have no interest in. That is the only way there might be “parity” amongst groupings. Force. Which is what communism is.
I’m a woman, was an engineer. Fewer women than men in school and the field. Some women hate it when I answer that I don’t feel discriminated against as female (90% of the time, with some possible exceptions). I happen to love machinery, but I have no delusions that most women are like me.
Now I’ve been a housewife since bearing my child. The discrimination trying to be a professional again comes from the big gap on my resume. If I was a man who’d raised a child I’d also have trouble getting back in. My risk.
Last official ELO, long time ago, is 2537, racked up in just a few relatively high level tournaments. Record against two ex-WC is +1.5/2 (1 win, 1 draw). To get higher (over 2600) the curve gets much steeper and requires a lot of time, energy, travel, sense of financial stability and unconditional support.
Like you said, there were several other, potentially much more interesting and lucrative challenges and opportunities, with much less family-related stress and sacrifices.
But the intensive training, at young age, in logic (and by extention, STEM+ and other disciplines), strategy and tactics is invaluable and serves well for the rest of the life.
“Affirmative action made sense years ago because of the great injustice done to black citizens.”
Thomas Sowell disagrees.
Sowell’s right (IMHO) about 99% of the time - - on ‘everything’ - - he's that good. I don't agree with him on this - and I don't agree with him on Trump. I attribute it to Sowell being an elite. Not a bad ‘elite’ or an insensitive elite - but still ‘elite’.(or it's possible I'm wrong...)
“I don’t agree with him on this”
Affirmative action is a gross injustice that has done more to move us toward lead-in-the-air race war than any other single factor.
We have wasted three generations of white men who could have done a great deal to help the country, if the opportunities they worked for had not been wrested from their hands and handed to other people on the basis of skin color or genitalia.
Affirmative action has not only harmed the country by placing incompetents in positions of authority and responsibility, it has turned uncounted millions from supporters of MLK to supporters of Nathan Bedford Forrest.
I’m baffled that anyone could think that stealing from those who deserve to give to those who do not could possibly be a good idea.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.