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Historians say chess likely started in India all the way back in the 7th century. And while it's never really been absent over those hundreds of years since, it's certainly experienced waxes and wanes in its public acclaim over the centuries.

Even among all those ebbs and flows of history, chess is having a bit of a moment these days. What started as an uptick in popularity during COVID-infused quarantine exploded last November with Netflix's The Queen Gambit miniseries. Sales of chess sets rose 87 percent in the U.S., while chess book sales skyrocketed by over 600 percent.

But while learning to play is one thing, the set you actually play with is another story entirely. Your chess set makes a statement about you, so whether you choose marble or wood pieces,the right chess set is no small decision.For a modern, yet elegant approach, take a look at this gorgeous Crystal Chess Set that would definitely carve out a distinctive play on your coffee table or bar top.

Crafted from 100 percent crystal, and with each piece standing up to 3 inches high, this set offers a weighty, impressionistic representation of each of the game's iconic pieces. Whether you choose the clear purity of the white crystal side or the smoky darkness of the grey side, you control a classical composed assemblage ready for battle.

The 15-inch square gameboard is crystal as well, featuring a matte white grid game surface to serve as a suitable home for all your clashes to come.

While cheap plastic sets might do in a pinch is you're out and about or in a hurry, this regal set announces its importance. For experts or those just learning the game, it's a statement set that will cut a dashing profile in your home.

This Crystal Chess Set from ChessPro retails for $300, but if you want to get in on the savings, this offer now cuts the total price down to almost half that total, only $159.99.

Prices subject to change.

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This crystal chess set adds an exquisite touch to your game and is on sale for over 40% off - Boing Boing

MOSCOW, March 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Arkady Dvorkovich, President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), presented Andrey Guryev, Vice-President of the Russian Chess Federation, with a gold medal for the significant contribution he has made to the development of the chess movement in Russia and abroad. The award marked the Russian National Team's victory in FIDE's first ever online chess olympiad.

The FIDE Online Olympiad held last summer was the largest tournament consisting of national teams ever held in a pandemic. It was a truly global competition, with 163 teams and over 1,500 chess players taking part.

Presenting the medal, FIDE President and Chairman of the Skolkovo Foundation Arkady Dvorkovich, said that PhosAgro's support as a permanent general partner of the Chess Federation of Russia helped the Russian national team to put on an excellent game and secure a well-deserved victory.

"The Russian national team demonstrated maximum dedication and an unwavering desire to win in each game. Yet what is more important to us still is seeing the great and constantly growing interest in chess in Russia and around the world. We take great pride, therefore, in sharing this latest medal with those who have played a part in developing domestic chess and contributing to Russia's success.

"The greater than ten-year partnership between the Russian Chess Federation and PhosAgro has been as an excellent example of the Federation's strong working relationship with its business partners. The Federation's approach to developing chess needs to be as comprehensive as possible in order to popularise chess not only in Russia but also abroad and PhosAgro has helped with this effort by opening chess classes in company-sponsored schools and kindergartens, creating the necessary infrastructure to conduct chess classes in Russia's regions and supporting leading Russian grandmasters. PhosAgro has also supported a number of major international tournaments through sponsorship, including the World Chess Championship matches in Sochi, New York and London," said Arkady Dvorkovich.

Andrey Guryev, Vice-President of the Chess Federation of Russia and CEO of PhosAgro, thanked Arkady Dvorkovich for his continued trust and noted how highly professional the FIDE team's work has been in organising international tournaments and promoting chess around the world.

"Another golden page in the history of Russian chess has just been written. For the first time, the Russian national team has held the winning spot in the World Championship, the European Championship, and the Olympic Games simultaneously. This is a fantastic result!

"I would like to take this opportunity to note the great coordination between the Chess Federation of Russia and FIDE. The COVID-19 pandemic has prevented the normal functioning of many areas in society, but the world of chess has not stopped for a second. The industry has found new formats and been able to significantly expand the audience of the most intelligent sport on the planet. I would like to wish the Russian chess industry continued success in 2021. On our side, we will do everything we can to help our grandmasters bring the world chess crown home," declared Andrey Guryev.

PhosAgro seeks to promote sport among young people and professionals, develop sport culturally, and promote the importance of building a healthy and active lifestyle among its workforce as well as in the cities where it works. In addition to chess, PhosAgro is a long-standing partner of the Russian Olympians Support Fund, the Russian Federation of Rhythmic Gymnastics, the Moscow Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation, the Russian Swimming Federation, the Russian Ski Racing Federation, the Regional Judo Federation of St Petersburg, and is a sponsor of the Severyanka volleyball club (in the Vologda region), the Avtodor basketball club, as well as the Balakovo Turbina speedway team. Through supporting initiatives like these, PhosAgro has helped contribute to the development and international success of Russian sports.

About Phosagro

PhosAgro (www.phosagro.ru) is one of the world's leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers in terms of production volumes of phosphate-based fertilizers and high-grade phosphate rock with aP2O5 contentof 39% and higher. PhosAgro's environmentally friendly fertilizers stand out for their high efficiency, and they do not lead to the contamination of soils with heavy metals.

The Company is the largest phosphate-based fertilizer producer in Europe (by total combined capacity for DAP/MAP/NP/NPK/NPS), the largest producer of high-grade phosphate rock with a P2O5 content of 39%, a top-three producer of MAP/DAP globally, one of the leading producers of feed phosphates (MCP) in Europe, and the only producer in Russia, and Russia's only producer of nepheline concentrate (according to the RAFP).

PhosAgro's main products include phosphate rock, more than 50 grades of fertilizers, feed phosphates, ammonia, and sodium tripolyphosphate, which are used by customers in over 100 countries spanning all of the world's inhabited continents. The Company's priority markets outside of Russia and the CIS are Latin America, Europe and Asia.

PhosAgro's shares are traded on the Moscow Exchange, and global depositary receipts (GDRs) for shares trade on the London Stock Exchange (under the ticker PHOR). Since 1 June 2016, the Company's GDRs have been included in the MSCI Russia and MSCI Emerging Markets indexes.

More information about PhosAgro can be found on the website: http://www.phosagro.ru

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fide-president-arkady-dvorkovich-presented-andrey-guryev-vice-president-of-the-russian-chess-federation-and-ceo-of-phosagro-with-a-gold-medal-for-his-significant-contribution-to-the-development-of-the-chess-movement-in-russia-an-301243660.html

SOURCE PhosAgro

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FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich presented Andrey Guryev, Vice-President of the Russian Chess Federation and CEO of PhosAgro, with a gold medal for...

The recent Dr. Seuss kerfuffle is a valuable case study in the classic four-step method by which the left conducts itself in the American culture wars. It goes like this:

First, someone on the left stages a provocative assault on a cultural artifact or cultural norm, usually as an outgrowth of a fashionable idea from within the leftist coalition.

The move then generates a shocked reaction from the right, which had nothing to do with the initial promulgation of the controversy.

At this point, the left uses the counter-reaction it provoked to accuse the right of pursuing a culture war against the left.

Finally, the right finds itself accused not only of trying to divide us and polarize the country and the culture but of being crazy for taking the initial provocation seriously.

Consider how the Dr. Seuss kulturkampf came to be. In late February, Loudon County Public Schools, the third-largest system in Virginia, announced it would no longer include Dr. Seuss and his works among those it celebrated on Read Across America Day this month.

Some of his books were said to contain strong racial overtones, according to recent research.

This was notable for many reasons. For one thing, Read Across America Day was conceived two decades ago as a kind of birthday celebration of Dr. Seuss who was considered the gateway druggist for American literacy and therefore a vital force in promoting one of the great common goods of a democratic society.

For another, Dr. Seuss was an icon of leftist values and ideas. A cartoonist for a radical New York City daily called PM in his younger days, Theodor Geisel later published paeans to environmentalism (The Lorax) and anti-nuclear propaganda that drew a then-fashionable-on-the-left moral equivalence between America and the Soviet Union (The Butter Battle Book).

His contributions to leftist cant availed his legacy naught. A few days later, the Biden White House dropped all mention of Dr. Seuss from its commemoration of Read Across America Day as well.

This was followed in short order by the public announcement by the business that manages Dr. Seuss literary works that a decision had been made the previous year to cease sales of six of his writings because these books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.

Geisel has left no heirs, and so there is no one to defend his name or reputation from whatever commercial forces are seeking to profit from his work by erasing creations that no longer pass muster with the cultural commissars of our moment.

Note that there wasnt a single Republican or conservative voice involved here. This was entirely taking place as an action item among the woke, who were seeking to advance the cause of diversity through the retroactive finding of political and racial incorrectness.

Despite the fact that Dr. Seuss was no friend of the right, shocked articles began to appear in conservative quarters about the cancellation of his work. Thats when the gaslighting began.

No, said Reuters in a fact check, Dr. Seuss wasnt being banned by Loudon County! Any such claim was missing context! But cancellation and banning are not the same thing and in any case, while Loudon County might not have banned the books, Dr. Seuss Enterprises itself certainly was doing exactly that.

Right-wing critics are already whining that the company caved to the woke mob, wrote Washington Post book critic Ron Charles, who scoffed at this conservative whining, even as he oozed his lubricious pleasure at the wonders of censorship. We will have to get rid of other things, too, he wrote ominously, in a manner that suggests he would have made a wonderful ideological functionary in Stalins Kremlin.

When Fox News and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy tried to make hay out of the matter, they came under withering assault from fellow voices in the media and politics about how they were focusing on silliness rather than the real problems afflicting America.

Liberals were outraged by former President Donald Trumps tall tales about crowd size and fake news, but when it comes to controlling the culture, Trump is an amateur in the gaslighting business compared with them.

jpodhoretz@gmail.com

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The left has perfected the art of gaslighting in the culture wars - New York Post

To the question of why Wayne Rooney eschewed an easy retirement away from footballs sharp end for the spotlight of management at Derby, Sven-Gran Eriksson has a simple answer.

The Swede, who gave Rooney his England debut in 2003 as a 17-year-old prodigy, says: He could play golf, but that would be boring. So Im not surprised. Im surprised every time a big player decides to not go to management. Like [David] Beckham, I thought he might do but he has a lot of other things to do.

A man like Wayne Rooney, he should go to management. Its great to be a player, but its even better and more interesting sometimes to be a manager.

In January, Rooney called time on a career as his generations finest English footballer. His CV shows him as Manchester Uniteds and Englands record goalscorer with a clean sweep of domestic and continental club honours whose outstanding displays at Euro 2004 came at only 18 and who was the PFA and FWA player of the year for 2009-10.

These are highlights in a vault of memories that can warm Rooney into his dotage. Now he hopes to add more from the dugout. So far, the move is a success and suggests he may possess the managerial X factor.

He became permanent Derby manager on 15 January, having been appointed as one of a four-strong interim coaching staff in November before taking sole charge on a temporary basis after the 1-0 defeat against Bristol City a week later.

Before that defeat the Rams were bottom of the Championship with six points from 12 games, six from safety with a goal difference of -12. Rooneys record is nine wins and five draws from 22 league matches. Derby stand 19th, three places and six points above the drop zone but have lost their past two games and face high-flying Barnsley on Wednesday.

If there is surprise at his opting for managements relentless churn and a question remains regarding whether his genius football brain can adapt long term to coaching and motivating players, this was no snap decision according to Ben Olsen, Rooneys DC United coach from 2018-20.

For the last few years he really started to change his focus and think about being a manager, how hes going to formulate his own team, says Olsen. What I would say about Wayne is hes football mad. Hes authentic. He was a great leader in the locker room and from my dealings with him he loves the chess aspect of the game.

Those principles made him so successful throughout his career and give him a very good foundation. I look fondly on the time we had at DC United. In some ways, he pushed me as a manager challenging me. He had a nice balance of asking questions and being inquisitive about the way I go about things or the league as a whole.

He seemed to absolutely love the game thats a good place to start. He was always evaluating: This is maybe what I would be doing in this scenario. He probably disagreed with a lot of what we did, but he always came in and trained at a very high level.

Rooney arrived in Washington after a second spell at Everton, which was a single season back at his boyhood team. Nick Chadwick, who is three years older, witnessed Rooney coming through the ranks as a junior at the club and says he had a vision that marked him out and can aid his new career.

Its going to be really interesting because the better footballers make the better decisions, says Chadwick, AFC Fyldes assistant coach. Even at a young age he made good decisions on the pitch, which was why he was a sensational player.

Coaching and management is about being able to transfer ideas to a group. Theres some extremely talented footballers who didnt do this and that can lead to a sense of frustration. With Wayne and the people hes got round him, certainly at Derby, his success will depend on how he implements and gets across the undoubted football brain hes got. If he can translate this into the team hes leading, Im sure hell be a success.

Rooney left Everton for United in August 2004. He was 18 and already Englands most valuable player, his storming of the summers European Championship in Portugal one of the stories of the tournament.

Eriksson stated he was the best teenage talent since Pel. When Rooney injured a metatarsal against the hosts in the quarter-finals Englands tournament was in effect over, going on to lose on penalties.

His United debut came on a memorable September evening at Old Trafford against Fenerbahe: Rooney scored a hat-trick and 13 success-laden years at the club began.

Chris Eagles was at United when Rooney arrived and agrees with Chadwicks point that great footballers are not always suited for management but he gives his former teammate every chance.

Wayne understood the game, Eagles says. If you watched him when he was at United, he was learning different positions. People will listen, respect him and [remember] how and where he played: centre-forward, No 10, midfield. He just knows what is happening. Waynes done everything in the game.

Eagles identifies another prerequisite for any manager to succeed: Rooneys ease with differing personalities, in the dressing room and elsewhere. He was very good at organising, things like that. You could always see it in him to become a manager because hes good with people. A lot of management is about managing the players and Waynes definitely got that in him.

Eriksson, who has managed 16 clubs or national teams, including Benfica, Lazio and Ivory Coast, concurs. He was very mature and understood football well when just 17 years old, the 73-year-old says. When he came for his England debut and we spoke tactics positions, defending, things like that he understood everything. You didnt need to put him in any football school at all.

I had a similar situation in Italy at Fiorentina when we bought Roberto Baggio. He was maybe 18, 19 and very clever. They were both mature, had intelligent football brains at a very early stage.

Eriksson, who won league and cup doubles in Sweden, Portugal and Italy, says: Wayne has a lot to be a big manager. First of all, he understands football he did when 17 and Im quite sure his understanding is even better today. He has huge experience on a great level.

Then, he has learned how to treat people, players, how to be a leader. Hes been a captain for many years in different situations. He has everything to become a big manager, absolutely. You say Rooney and that means respect. Hes a big gun.

Every manager has their own way to do things. Ferguson is one thing, Arsne Wenger another, Guardiola and Mourinho today. Wayne Rooney: Im sure he will have his own way to be a manager.

He is making a promising start.

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He loves the chess aspect: is Rooney made to measure as a manager? - The Guardian

When Lotte de Beers new production of Verdis Aida recently premiered at the Paris Opera not to a full house, but to an audience online she was just relieved it was happening.

This might have been my hardest project ever, de Beer said in a video interview. We had crisis after crisis after crisis.

The development of her staging, which is streaming on Arte.tv through Aug. 20, came amid a labor dispute at the Paris Opera that was quickly followed by a full pandemic shutdown and an earlier than expected transfer of power in the companys leadership. She was working with multiple casts at once, including star singers like the tenor Jonas Kaufmann, whose busy schedules made them less than ideally available for rehearsals. And the production had to be continually adapted to coronavirus restrictions.

And then there is the ideological quagmire into which this Aida was born. The Paris Opera, like many other institutions, has during the past year been forced, even by its own employees, to come to terms with its poor track record of racial representation, as well as practices like blackface and Orientalist caricature.

Planning for the new Aida predated Neefs tenure, but it fits squarely in this moment of the Paris Operas history. Verdis 1871 tragedy, a love story set in a time of war between ancient Egypt and Ethiopia, is often given the treatment of a Cleopatra-like costume drama. But de Beer, who will become the director of the Vienna Volksoper next year, has offered a version so unusual that its Aida, the soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, pleaded on Instagram before opening night for her fans to open your minds to something completely different.

De Beers production is set in the 19th century, around the time of the operas premiere. Yet that sounds more specific than it comes across in practice. Her staging exists in a flexible, metaphor-heavy space that acts, by turns, as a colonial museum of ancient artifacts and natural history, including a prominently displayed skull that recalls pseudoscientific justifications of white supremacy; a frantic stage of tableaux vivants inspired by double-edged images of Western superiority, like Americans raising the flag on Iwo Jima; and the chilling depths of the Suez Canal, which opened two years before Aida.

With an occasionally chaotic blend of aesthetics a winking embrace of kitsch, Bunraku-style puppetry, and designs by the artist Virginia Chihota, who is based in Ethiopia de Beer examines the works Orientalist undertones and legacy in a world of changing sensibilities.

Acknowledging that her approach eschews literal interpretation at almost every turn, de Beer said: I do understand that if youre expecting a one-to-one Aida, where she is an Ethiopian slave and he is an Egyptian army leader, youre not getting exactly what you expected. And yeah, what can I say about that?

In fact, she had plenty to say about the ideas behind her production and what it means to love an art form with a problematic past. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.

How was your production influenced by its casting of mostly white singers?

I think they first did the casting, and then they asked a couple of directors, who all said no. So in a late phase for a house like this, I was asked.

Its a challenge. Its a piece that I love, but also a piece that Im critical of. It was clear that race needed to be discussed, but couldnt be discussed by way of casting. I also knew that I wanted a non-Western and preferably African view, which is why I asked Virginia Chihota to be, as a visual artist, my partner in making this show. I didnt just want to use her visuals; I wanted her take on the piece.

And what did you come up with?

I wanted to portray the piece on two levels. I wanted to give the story inside the piece, which is a very strong story: It has a political line; its about war; its about patriotism; its about loyalty; its about status and the loss of status. But its also a love story.

I also knew I wanted to portray the story of the piece itself. The music is beautiful; I love it. But it has borrowed a lot of other culturess musics and turned them into Orientalist clichs in brilliant ways, but its problematic seen from our times. And its premiere coincided with the opening of the Suez Canal, which itself was a colonial tool.

I thought it would be interesting to create the metaphor of the colonial art museum where looted art objects are being exhibited, because right now in France, thats a big discussion going on: Do we give these artifacts back? Who do they belong to?

Your ambivalence about Aida could apply to a lot of operas.

You fall in love with these characters feel with them, cry with them, die with them. But on a certain level, you can detach from that and think about these pieces and the representation of the characters. What I hope is that its like reading your own diary 10 years after youve written it, and you can look at yourself and go: My God, what a crazy teenager I was, but of course this turned me into who I am.

These operas are part of our history, part of what makes us who we are both in the completely positive and the completely negative senses. I think if we can embrace both and acknowledge both, that might actually teach us something about our future.

How would you feel as an audience member at a more traditional Aida?

For me its boring, but its also offensive. I think if we continue in that way, we give people such good ammunition to say: Why are we sponsoring these big opera houses?

The irony, of course, is that a production like yours makes some people ask that same question.

Quite a lot, Ive noticed. I have to say that the negative reviews didnt affect me as much as some negative reviews have affected me in the past, because its been almost an ideological argument. Those are also people who really love this art form. And I will soon be leading my own opera house, where Im sure a large part of the audience might think that way. Its my job to reach out to them and take their worries seriously.

Its a matter of mind-set, because opera is music theater. Music, you dont need to update; it is an abstract language. If you hear music that was composed 400 years ago, it communicates in the same way to your soul. But theater is about ideas, texts, jokes. Its about interpersonal relationships. And those change. Thats why the spoken theater tradition is very different from the music tradition. And in opera, those will always rub up against each other. Thats why I love it.

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A New Aida Lands in the Middle of Frances Culture Wars - The New York Times