Kerstboodschap voor de familie Schavemaker

Songs don't lie: White Christmas!

Evidence:

My beard

If you work at a public access television station, you need to look a little more artistic than normal. That's why I'm growing a solid beard. 

Just so you guys know.

Iowa vs Tex: 1,5-1,5

This weekend I played the chess match. It was an interesting and fun experience. Ames is a nice and small collegetown. My match ended tied. 

The first game was a decent victory from my side. We were out of book pretty fast. 1.Nf3 Nc6 2.d4 d5 3.Bf4 Bf5 4.e3 e6 5.Nc3 Bb4 6.a3 Bxc3 7.bxc3 Na5 8.Nd2 Qd7 9.Qb1......

After a few more moves I won the exchange:

20.. Qf5 21.Bd6 Qg5 22.Bxf8

And the mating attack was rather easy:

32.. Qd5 33.Qxh6+ Kg8 34.Rg6+ fxg6 35.Rf8 mate.

The second game started of very well, I overplayed him in a Pirc Defense. Martijn, watch:

1.d4 d6 2.e4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f4 Bg7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Bd3 Na6 7.0-0 c5 8.d5 Bg4 9.Bxa6 bxa6 10.h3 Bxf3 11.Qxf3 Rb8 12.Nd1 e6 13.c4 exd5 14.cxd5... 

Then I won the pawn on d5 and had a better position:

21.. Qb5 22.Qc2 Nxd5. But after 5 bad moves he took over and mated me...

The third game was a boring Reti that I tried to make fun by sacrificing a knight. 

18.Nxf7 Kxf7 19.Ng5+ Kg8 20.Nxe6. The idea was for instance 20.. Rd7 21.e5! And if the knight moves I play 22.Nxg7. However, Pete found but a way to neutralize my attack and to reach a very pleasant position. I managed to hold it. 

Game four never happened. The weather was very bad in Iowa that weekend. There was so much snow, that he couldn't get his car out of his street. So we decided that 1,5-1,5 was a nice end result. The crazy thing about our games is that it felt like I was playing myself since our style is very similar. We agreed to play some practice games again when he comes to Iowa City soon.

Bye!

Tex

Objectivity in the news..

Dear world,

In one of the classes I attented last year at the University of Amsterdam, the topic of objectivity related to journalism was addressed. A well known conclusion is that objectivity doesn't exist. Every person, every journalist has her/his own frame of reference and reports (and 'facts') will be influenced, will be framed.  

In The Netherlands most television news reports try to be objective. In the USA there are channels that try this as well, but some openly don't. They promote one of the political parties (Democrats or Republicans) and trash talk about the other. 

The most obvious example is FoxNews, owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch. On this channel, George W. Bush is the biggest hero of all times and everyone involved with the Democrats is a traitor of God's Own Country. 

Have a look at a recent news report about Amsterdam: 

Bill O'Reilly over Amsterdam

This is a funny video of course. How can someone be so stupid, right?! But unfortunately this channel, Rupert Murdoch and this host, Bill O'Reilly have a lot of influence...

For people interested in the methods of Foxnews I highly recommend the movie Outfoxed, that can be watched online:

Outfoxed

Chess match

Hi everybody!

Chess is one of my favorite things to do. In Holland there is a large chess-scene with many strong players and the possibility of playing tournaments every weekend. Here in Iowa, there is less chess going on. Some tuesdays I visit the local Iowa City Hawkeye Chessclub. The club meets at a downtown pizzaplace. Good combination, chess and pizza. 

One of the players there is part of the Iowa Chess Board, and he asked me if I wanted to play a match against Pete Karagianis, one of the Iowa-chesscracks. He won the Iowa state championship two times and has about the same rating as I have, so it will probably be a close match. This match will be the main attraction of the 'Ames Fide Festival, isn't that an honour! 

See link for more information.