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Teacher Chalkboard

from Professional Educators of Tennessee

By JC Bowman,

Executive Director

In chess, each player begins the game with the same 16 pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns. The most powerful chess piece is the queen, and the least powerful piece is the pawn. The object is to capture your opponents king. To reach this objective, a players pieces are used to attack and capture your opponents pieces, while at the same time supporting your own pieces and protecting your king.

Politics and public policy are like chess. Unlike chess, politics is not a polite and gentle game. In fact, politics is a blood sport in many circles, where victors vanquish their foes. It isnt as if this is some current phenomena either; Yale University historian Joanne B. Freeman writes in her book, The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War, that 19th-century House and Senate members were a rough crowd. Freeman states they were frequently drunk, often armed, and quick to take offense and political disagreements regularly turned physical.

It could be reasoned that today is mild in comparison, but I am also not certain we are far from the actions of our ancestors; we have simply traded weapons for keyboards. It is worth remembering that you cannot make friends of your enemies by making enemies of your friends. Too often politicians do not understand their own base of support and lose their followers. It may be from clinging too long to wrong ideas, or not engaging directly with people who may share similar ideas but offer differing approaches to solutions.

Morton Blackwell summarizes political conflict this way: To succeed inside a political party, one must cultivate an ability to sit still and remain polite while foolish people speak nonsense.

That is probably easier said than done.

Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius had two rules in dealing with differing opinions: The first rule was to keep an untroubled spirit. The second was to look things in the face and know them for what they are. In other words, dont be bothered by opposing ideas and keep to your principles. We are all shaken by circumstances and frightened by challenges. No person, no organization, nor any political party has all the answers.

I would argue that civility actually matters in politics.

Ravi Zacharias nailed this issue when he said: respect for the right of another to be wrong does not mean that the wrong is right.

We need more statesmanship in our world. Statesmanship is not just playing the game of politics well, but making that very game possible.

Wendell Coats describes statesmanship as an activity directed toward securing the conditions for politics to occur, as the basis for agreement about general courses of action, and for moderate reconciliation of differences among fellow citizens.

The same is true in public policy we must account for differing opinions.

Good policy is intertwined with good politics. Never personalize the issue. Instead of screaming at each other from opposite sides of the political spectrum, imagine policies focused on helping those it is designed to help. When it comes to dealing with COVID-19 Pandemic issues, taking a long-range view, as we have on other policy issues, will require years of fiscal discipline, policy prudence, and deep community engagement. In education policy, we have to maintain funding for public education, which gives impetus to our economy. It is good policy, as well as good politics.

Choose your battles carefully in politics, and fight for what really matters. Not every issue or personnel matter is important; however, it is true personnel is policy, because the people you place in leadership roles make decisions that either support or hurt your agenda. While we should strive to have a diversified group of people to help build consensus, it does not serve the public to have a contentious leader in charge of an area that makes you lose ground in policy areas, or with your political base. Every problem in politics or public policy requires your time, energy, and political capital.

Sally Percy, writing in Forbes Magazine, asks a very thoughtful question leaders must always ask: Is this your battle to fight?

In discussing chess, Rudolph Spielmann writes about the goal: Play the opening like a book, the middlegame like a magician, and the endgame like a machine.

Chess is a journey of pain, sacrifices, determination, and triumph. It can be argued that it mirrors the public policy process. Just like politics, you may learn much more from a game you lose than from a game you win.

JC Bowman is executive director of Professional Educators of Tennessee, a non-partisan teacher association headquartered in Nashville.

Original post:
Playing chess with public policy | Schools - Overton County News

The prodigy, whose family fled Boko Haram, is climbing the ranks amid an internet chess boom

Jun 5th 2020

THERE ARE plenty of reasons why Tanitoluwa Adewumi captured the worlds attention in March 2019 after winning the New York State chess championship in his age group. Nine-year-old Tani was living in a Manhattan homeless shelter. And he was a refugee. Tanis family had fled northern Nigeria and sought asylum in America in 2017 after being threatened by Boko Haram, a jihadist group. Oh, one more thing: when Tani took home the state championship trophy, he had been playing for only a year. It is little wonder his inspiring story is already the subject of three books (the first was published on April 14th) and a film.

But the story doesnt end there. Tani is getting better. Chess players are ranked by the United States Chess Federation and the World Chess Federation using the Elo system. Named after Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor and chess enthusiast, Elo ratings are based on a players performance in matches, and the skill level of their opponents, according to a mathematical formula. A beginner typically scores 800, an average player 1500 and a professional 2200. Grandmasters score above 2500. After his win a year ago, Tani was rated at 1587, or 20th among eight-year-olds in America. Today he is rated at 2059, number three among players his age, and on track to be number one. In the past year, his rating has increased twice as fast as that of the two peers above him (see chart).

Tanis following could grow in the coming months. With conventional sport cancelled, chess, which can be played online, has enjoyed a boost in popularity. Chess.com, a website devoted to the sport, has seen its traffic more than double in the past few months. On Twitch, a video-streaming platform where users watch each other play video games, Hikaru Nakamura, an American super-grandmaster with a rating of 2,827, regularly draws audiences in the tens of thousands. His channel, where he competes against other grandmasters, has seen a 900% increase in viewers since February.

Whether Tani will one day join the ranks of the chess elite is hard to say. His dream is to become the worlds youngest grandmaster. But to achieve that status he must score three strong finishes in ultra-competitive tournaments, which were limited even before the pandemic. The current record-holder, Sergey Karjakin, a super-grandmaster widely considered among the best in the world, reached the milestone at 12 years and 7 months. To compete with the best, players need grit as well as talent; they study intensely, memorising opening-move orders and end-game sequences. But one year after his tournament win, Tani has not strayed from his path: from homeless refugee to master of the game of kings.

The rest is here:
A nine-year-old aims to be the youngest chess grandmaster ever - The Economist

New England Patriots, Devin McCourty, Patrick Chung (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)

The New England Patriots experienced a good amount of loss on the defensive side of the ball during 2020 free agency. The turnover in personnel combined with limited salary cap space to sign replacements has many wondering how the team will move forward for the upcoming season.

In particular, the team lost two starting linebackers in Kyle Van Noy and Jamie Collins and has yet to replace them. However, if you look closer at the teams roster and the moves they have made, their path forward seems clear. The Patriots are planning to utilize their safeties as their new chess pieces on defense.

The Patriots core group of safeties begins with Devin McCourty and Patrick Chung. Both are experienced veterans who have been with the team for ten seasons and have won three Super Bowl championships. They both often serve as additional coaches on the field due to their years of experience in the Patriots defensive system.

The team also is bringing back Terrence Brooks, who mainly appeared on special teams but played in spots during the 2019 regular season. His added familiarity with the system should help provide depth at safety.

McCourty plays a deep free safety role for the team and Chung often plays a hybrid safety linebacker role. Chungs role, in particular, is how the team can overcome the loss of their linebackers during the offseason.

He often plays closer to the line of scrimmage and can hold up against the run while also covering running backs and tight ends in pass coverage. He was injured quite a bit last season and Brooks often played in his place to mixed reviews. Chung was recently given an extension so his roster spot should be secure, but the team brought in some reinforcements in case he struggles with injuries again in 2020.

Adrian Phillips was signed after eight seasons with the Los Angeles Chargers. Like Chung, he has shown the versatility in his career to play the hybrid linebacker/safety role while also playing up on the line of scrimmage in his career. He provides insurance for Chung while also potentially providing an added wrinkle of both being on the field at the same time against some of the mobile quarterbacks the team will be facing during the season.

The team also drafted Kyle Dugger in the second round of the 2020 NFL draft. Dugger was the teams first pick of the draft and he is the future of the safety position for the Patriots.

Even as a rookie, Dugger offers more size than both Chung and Phillips and, depending on his understanding of the defense, he could become the true wildcard of the defense. He could truly be the hybrid linebacker the team utilizes at all times with his size while also having the speed to play the deep field if necessary.

The team will still utilize McCourty in the deep half of the field for coverage and he has the ability to play receivers one-on-one when called upon due to his experience as a cornerback. Similar to this, the team has asked second-year corner Joejuan Williams to learn the safety position and concepts this offseason in an effort to get him on the field more.

Williams is the tallest secondary player on the team, and his length could be helpful against taller receivers and even tight ends. If he can show an ability to adapt to safety and play the run, he could be utilized as an added weapon against teams who prefer to use spread formations to create offensive mismatches.

The Patriots will be playing multiple mobile quarterbacks this season including Deshaun Watson, Lamar Jackson, Russell Wilsonand Kyler Murray. They also will see Patrick Mahomes during the season. Jackson and Watson in particular offered questions the team could not answer during matchups last season.

It is possible Bill Belichick will utilize his safeties to provide the answers during this seasons matchups. Wilson and Murray are similar and if you have players capable of chasing them down while also able to cover their quicker and faster players down the field, you may have the answers to this test.

All of these teams like to utilize their quarterbacks ability to break the pocket and make big plays down the field. The team may be able to help contain receivers and quarterbacks with this group of extra defensive backs while also still holding up against the running game.

Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots have always looked for an edge with personnel other teams may be missing. They have long valued positional versatility so teams are unsure of what they are going to do on any given play. This season with the linebacker situation unsettled it appears the value will be at the safety position.

It also seems like this is a response to all of the mobile quarterbacks they will be facing during the upcoming season. Belichick often makes some of his personnel decisions with the upcoming schedule in mind. This may not be the plan forever, but he will use it to counteract the freelancing he will see during 2020. It will be exciting to see how it works out.

See the original post:
New England Patriots: Safeties will be chess pieces in 2020 - NFL Spin Zone

Image via ESL

The playoffs for Auto Chess at the ESL Mobile Open season five wrapped up yesterday with Vincent Viince Truong coming out on top. Twenty-four players played 12 matches across three days to decide the top eight who will be moving on to the finals.

Related: Wildcard Gaming win ESL Mobile Open PUBG Mobile playoffs

Here are the leaderboards of the playoffs:

There was a three-way tie between Zath Zath Zen, Betyow, and Dawgbun for the eighth and last available position to the finals. Ultimately, Zath came out on top due to better average placements in the playoffs.

Theres a lot of really good players that made it, second-placed Chokegod said on being asked about the top eight players in a post-match interview. I am really glad that Joseph and Betyow didnt make it. They are obviously really good people who I would have loved to meet in the finals. They are also extremely good players but I dont think the lobby is a lot weaker without them.

The 24 qualified players for the playoffs were divided into three groups of eight players each. All players played 12 matches in their own group to earn points. In the end, the points from all groups were tallied to decide the top eight players.

Here are the group-wise results of the playoffs:

The ESL Mobile Open season five features PUBG Mobile, Asphalt 9: Legends, Auto Chess, and Clash of Clans. Top teams and players will make their way through the qualifiers and the playoffs to compete in the finals. The season five finals will likely be an offline event if the coronavirus pandemic allows that to happen. Details about the finals still havent been revealed.

Read the original here:
Viince wins the ESL Mobile Open Auto Chess playoffs for season five - Dot Esports

While the country is battling with coronavirus and almost every other sport has taken a hit, online chess thrives despite the hurdles as LetsUp brings a unique five-day Blitz Grand Prix tournament that commenced on June 3 and hosted by the Maharashtra Chess Association.

The Blitz tournaments will take place every Wednesday with a total prize fund of INR 155000each having the total prize fund of INR 25000 and top five GP finishers will get a total of INR 30000. Each of the tournament which will be hosted every Wednesday from June 3 to July 1 will be sponsored by Nasik District and Novel, Ahmednagar District and Narendra Firodia Unicorp, Pune District and Amanora, Jalgaon District and Jain Irrigation and h2e, and lastly, the Sangali District and Chitale Bandhu.

Entry is free for GMs, IMs, WGMs and WIMs. Entry fee for others is 250 for each tournament and 1,000 for registering all five events of the GP. The event is open to players all over the world. Registration for each event will close on the previous day of event i.e. Tuesday at 8 p.m. IST.

A player would get GP Points for finishing in the top 10 of every event. At the end of five events, all the points will be added. However, only the score of the best four events will be considered for the Grand Prix Prize money. For eg. If a player finishes first, second, third, fourth, and fifth in the five events, then his/her score of only the first four events will be counted.

GM Vaibhav Suri

The five-day event will see popular names from India and abroad taking part, which includes Grandmasters R Praggnanandhaa, D Gukesh, P Iniyan, Andres Carlos Obregon, Bilel Bellahcene, among others.

Grand Prix points will be earned after participation in every tournament. The individual with the maximum points will be awarded the prize money. In case of a tie, the prize money will be shared. The entry fee can be paid at mcgrandprix.chessbase.in.

On June 3, GM Vugar Rasulov of Azerbaijan won LetsUp MCA GP Blitz 1. Vugar scored an unbeaten 8.5/10 to win the tournament. Four players Vaibhav Suri, Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara of Peru, Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa finished a half-point behind the champion at 8.0/10 and were placed second, third, fourth and fifth respectively.

On June 3, GM Vugar Rasulov of Azerbaijan won LetsUp MCA GP Blitz 1

The Azerbaijani GM currently leads the GP standings and he will receive 6500 for winning Blitz 1. Vaibhav will get 4000 and Martinez won 2500 cash respectively.

Total 132 players including 28 GMs, 26 IMs and 10 WIMs from India, Algeria, Argentina, Chile, Egypt, Indonesia, Peru, Russia, Serbia, USA, Uzbekistan took part in this 10 Round event.

See the original post here:
Maharashtra Chess Association hosts grand five-day Blitz Grand Prix - The Bridge