Not sure how drugs can help you play chess. And neither did this judge.

The Shasta Union High School District presented no evidence that drug use was more likely or more dangerous for those students than for others, said Judge Monica Marlow of Shasta County Superior Court.

She drew a distinction between students in the band or the chess club and student athletes. The state Supreme Court upheld the NCAA’s urine testing of college athletes in postseason championship events and bowl games in 1994, saying athletic competitors are accustomed to being monitored and have little expectation of privacy.

Although drug testing has become both expected and accepted in sports, particularly at the college and professional level, Marlow said, “it is not a reasonably expected part of the life of a member of the choir or math club.”

She issued an injunction halting a drug-testing program that the district, with headquarters in Redding, started last fall. The urine samples were screened for various illegal drugs as well as tranquilizers, alcohol and tobacco, said Michael Risher, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer representing students who challenged the program.

I find this all rather hiliarious.

Thoughts on the Middle East Chess Game

Roger L. Simon says the following at Pajamas Media.

Now it may be that Obama Administration doesn’t realize or want to hear this obvious truth - that the Palestinians aren’t interested in a two-state solution - but it still doesn’t change it. So where does this leave the Israelis? By far their primary concern at the moment is Iran. And for good reason. The Obama administration appears to be offering them a quid pro quo - try to make a deal with Palestinians and we will help you with Iran. If I were the Israelis I would be thinking, depending on the definition of “help,” this is not necessarily a bad thing - especially since the Arab world isn’t especially keen on the mullahs getting the bomb either.

Nothing like a story about a 10 year old to make you reconsider the time you wasted as a youth. But seriously, this kid’s gotta be pretty good. From DeseretNews.com:

Kayden began playing chess at age 3 after he learned the skills of the game by observing his father and two older brothers. All four play in championships across the state, as well as teach younger players, but it wasn’t until the young chess prodigy from West Jordan began winning that his parents believed “there’s something going on here,” Kim Troff said. “He doesn’t ever stop amazing me.”

I think this is one of the dumber things I’ve read about in a while. I’ve seen a reference to this topic in a few places but I really can’t take it too seriously. But from the Toronto Star:

But the broader assertion that the moves themselves could become the exclusive intellectual property of their creators has nothing to do with the Internet era. Bond recalls such debates having been on the chess agenda “for a couple of decades, at least.”

Susan Polgar, a former women’s world chess champion and tireless advocate of the game, says that the reasonable request of the Bulgarian Federation has ended up being conflated with the copyright issue.

“I wouldn’t mind getting paid every time my moves are used,” she laughs. “But I have a hard time envisioning how it would be enforced.”

Exactly. If chess moves were copyrighted that would probably be the end of the game.

From SindhToday.net

Chennai, March 14 (IANS) After a good outing in three international meets in Sri Lanka, India’s teenage chess prodigy N. Srinath is aiming to become a Grandmaster (GM) by the end of the year.

The 14-year-old Srinath, who is one of the youngest International Masters in the country, is a former under-12 world champion. He was also the youngest to win the World Youth Chess Championship in France in 2005 and went on to win the Asian Youth Chess Championship the same year. In his recent tour of Sri Lanka, he was declared joint winner in two meets and second in a third.

I’m trying to get better at this game. I’d love to be able to remember an entire game like this kid. I’m barely able to remember the past five moves.

Teen wins division at state tournament

Chandler Monelli can play back an entire game of chess from memory. The junior at Carlisle Christian Academy can show you where each piece was moved on every turn in a game.

He’s pretty good at playing, too. Last weekend Monelli, 18, placed first in his division at the 2009 Pennsylvania State Scholastic Championships, which were held at the Hotel Carlisle in Middlesex Twp.

Although the article does suggest that he’s a pretty good player you’ll notice from reading the article that he’s playing in the under-1000 chess rating category. But that aside …. he plays chess and he enjoys it. So more power to him.

Obama’s opening moves in Russian chess match

Describing something as a “chess match” is often meant to convey that you are clever to the point that only really smart people can understand what you are doing. Or in the case of certain politicians it’s a way for the press to convince themselves that said politicians know what they are doing.

Is the anti-missile shield merely a pawn to end the diplomatic stalemate between the US and Russia?

Obama’s gambit

Rzeczpospolita writes that, during his election campaign, Barack Obama tried to distance himself from George W. Bush as much as possible and the first moves of his presidency have been to set a pull-out date for troops in Iraq and plan the closure of the prison in Guantanamo Bay – exactly the things his supporters have been waiting for.