Archive for April 1st, 2010

With Europe’s super-collider going online, a number of chess playing physicists tried to calm GMs worried about a potential black hole being created, including the World Champion Vishy Anand who seemed to fear that it might destroy the earth before he has a chance to defend his title.

Two weeks ago we published an interview by the German magazine Der Spiegel with Magnus Carlsen, with a picture that one of our readers found familiar. “He looks remarkably like my son,” thought Professor Nancy Carlsson-Paige of Lesley University of Cambridge, Massachusetts. After a little research we discovered that the two are second cousins. Guess who the American relative is.

After his death on January 17, 2008 an Icelandic court awarded Bobby Fischer’s estate to his wife Miyoko Watai. Then Marilyn Young, Fischer’s “Filipina live-in partner”, filed a claim on behalf of her eight-year-old daughter Jinky, who she says was fathered by the former World Champion. Now it appears the case will be settled by the disinterment of Fischer’s remains for DNA testing. Press release.

On Tuesday, at 13:06h CEST, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland/France achieved the world’s first seven tera electron volt collisions. It was a great moment in physics, but also a topic of discussion in GM circles for some years now. There is reason for their concern: could the LHC generate micro black holes that destroy the earth? Theories and explanations.