Archive for October 11th, 2009

You can get an impressive King Kong Deluxe Chess Set for $129.99 from Toynk. Based on the classic 1933 film, it contrasts an art deco city with a savage island (ruled by Kong as its King.) Daryl has great pictures from his collection (hope he didn’t buy it at $475.) I’d be tempted to invent a special chess variation to match the set (along the lines of Dracula Chess), in which the object of the game is for black to capture Ann Darrow and white to rescue her. Oh, wait, isn’t that Donkey Kong?

In 2006 she won the Women’s World Championship in Ekaterinburg, three months pregnant at the time. Now GM Xu Yuhua has won the FIDE Women Grand Prix in Nanjing, with 8.0/11 points and a 2619 performance. The final round leading to this victory was especially dramatic in a tournament that produced a sensationally low 33.3% draw average. Big final pictorial report.